Seeing her pitiful state, Zhan Yichen truly wanted to agree to her request. But the massage was for her own good, so his heartache had to be endured.
He patted Mu Linjing's head in a comforting manner, "If it hurts too much, you can bite me, but the massage must be done."
Mu Linjing felt despair. Before she could even cry out, the doctor's hands were already on her feet. The sound that immediately followed was her whimpering cry.
By the time this round was finished, she was crying so hard that her makeup had run, black mascara smearing all over her face. Just when she should have felt sympathetic, Zhan Yichen actually laughed inappropriately.
Mu Linjing immediately felt she had been self-indulgent. How could a man like this like her? She was in so much pain, yet he still had the heart to mock her?
Leaving the hospital with the topical medicine, Zhan Yichen told her to bury her head in his chest, "You'd better hide that cat-faced look of yours."
She gritted her teeth angrily. If she weren't so useless, she would have jumped down and walked on one leg now, saving herself from being ridiculed.
Once in the car, she sulkily looked out the window, completely indifferent to Zhan Yichen's attempts to appease her, letting him wipe away the discordant black elements on her face with his wet wipes.
"Now you know how to flatter me. When you were laughing at me just now, I thought we had some deep-seated feud."
Zhan Yichen felt guilty. He had tried to hold back, but he failed.
Mu Linjing, in a foul mood, stared out the window. Coincidentally, she spotted Jiang Siyu. What a narrow encounter. She wondered if her luck was too good or too bad for going out today.
"Who is that person being pushed in the wheelchair by her?"
Seeing Jiang Siyu and the man in the wheelchair behaving intimately, Mu Linjing almost thought she was seeing things. Forgetting her sulking with Zhan Yichen, she quickly pointed him to look.
Zhan Yichen followed her gaze and glanced over. "Isn't that Jing Yan? They had a car accident a while ago. I heard my eldest brother say a few days ago that Jing Yan was about to be discharged. Perhaps Jiang Siyu is here to handle his discharge procedures."
Mu Linjing looked closely and realized that the person in the wheelchair did indeed seem to be Jing Yan. But wasn't Jiang Siyu persistently chasing after President Zhan? How could she have turned around and gotten involved with President Zhan's friend?
What new scheme was this woman planning?
Seeing her craning her neck to look, Zhan Yichen pushed her back into the seat. "You're injured like this, yet you still have the energy to mind other people's business. It seems the massage just now wasn't painful enough."
Upon hearing this, Mu Linjing immediately retracted her neck. "Please spare me. I won't look anymore, alright?"
Rarely seeing her yield, Zhan Yichen nodded with satisfaction. "Just focus on recovering from your injuries during this period. If you want to know anything, I'll help you inquire."
This was certainly the best outcome. Mu Linjing consciously forgave his previous offense.
With a sprained ankle, she couldn't go anywhere. She had to go home. Zhan Yichen drove her home and, like a host, settled comfortably on the sofa.
It was his first time in Mu Linjing's home, and he couldn't help but examine the overall style. It was simple yet elegant, indicating that Mu Linjing was definitely a girl with orderly habits and self-discipline.
However, his scrutiny displeased Mu Linjing. "Are you a pervert? Can your gaze be any more brazen?"
Sensing his lapse in demeanor, Zhan Yichen quickly changed the subject. "The hospital also gave us some topical medicine. Shall I apply it to your wound for you?"
As he spoke, he had already taken out the medicine, but Mu Linjing was somewhat skeptical of him.
Could the pampered Young Master Zhan, who had never done manual labor, really take care of someone? What if he was tricking her?
Feeling her distrust, Zhan Yichen was determined to prove himself. "What's so difficult about this? Watch closely."
She watched as he poured the medicine onto his hand, rubbed it warm in his palm, and then applied it to her ankle, massaging gently. His technique was very professional.
Mu Linjing realized she had indeed underestimated this pampered man.
Especially when she saw his earnest expression, she couldn't help but think that perhaps he was also a gentle man, but unfortunately, the gap between them was too large, and she could only admire him from afar.
Compared to her reservations, Zhan Yichen didn't think that far ahead. He only knew that if he liked someone, he had to pursue them.
Even though the disparity in their family backgrounds was vast, hadn't Zhan Mohan and Wei Yumeng endured so much and persisted until they were recognized by their grandfather?
Each of them had their own thoughts, yet Mu Linjing had already given herself a mental suggestion of "impossibility" before their feelings had even begun.
Fortunately, this veil had not yet been lifted, so their interaction remained relatively at ease.
After the medicine was fully absorbed, Zhan Yichen stood up and looked around. "Where is your kitchen?"
With high suspicion about him cooking, Mu Linjing pointed towards the kitchen.
A moment later, a voice came from the kitchen, "Why is there so little stuff in your refrigerator? Not even a pig's trotter."
Pig's trotter? It seemed he was going to nourish her with something similar in shape.
She immediately replied loudly, "There's a supermarket downstairs. Help me restock."
Zhan Yichen emerged with a look of exasperation. "You're truly not being polite."
While he said those words of disdain, his body was honest. He took the keys and went downstairs. When he came back up, both his hands were full.
Mu Linjing estimated that she wouldn't need to spend on daily necessities for a long time.
The sound of washing pig's trotters came from the kitchen, so she lay on the sofa to rest.
She woke up in the evening to find Zhan Yichen sitting beside her, propping his head on one hand, his other hand wrapped around his own feet, tucked into the hem of his clothes, as if afraid she would catch a chill.
To say she wasn't moved would be self-deception. Looking at Zhan Yichen's sleeping face, an idea to take a gamble popped into her mind. What if she won?
Zhan Yichen was no worse than President Zhan. If Yumeng could win, why was she afraid before she had even started?
Perhaps sensing something, Zhan Yichen slowly opened his eyes.
His first thought upon waking was to check on her condition. Seeing her staring at him with her big, round eyes, his first reaction was to ask, "Are you hungry?"
Mu Linjing felt it ruined the mood, but the smell of pig's trotter soup wafting from the kitchen made her stomach rumble uncontrollably.
Zhan Yichen couldn't help but chuckle. "I'll go get it for you."
Looking at the pig's trotter soup he brought over, Mu Linjing's appetite soared. She didn't doubt his cooking skills anymore and picked up a spoon to take a small sip.
"The taste is so good, did you really make it?"
It wasn't that she didn't know how to speak; it was just that Zhan Yichen's image was completely incompatible with a kitchen.
Zhan Yichen also frankly admitted, "It's my first time making it. I learned from my phone. Is it good?"
Mu Linjing quickly took a few more sips and nodded repeatedly. "You're a master chef."
"If you like it, I'll make it for you often in the future."