Su Mu rested at home for 2 hours before she headed to the Wen Family. Before leaving, she called Fu Shinian to inform him about her whereabouts. He did not stop her, but his words were still full of sarcasm:
"Since Mrs. Fu doesn’t even care about her own health and wants to contribute to the Fu family, I see no reason to refuse. I only hope that you can succeed soon so that I can stay at home and comfortably be a ’kept man’."
Su Mu: "..."
Fu Shinian being a ’kept man’ and relying on himself? Su Mu could not imagine that scene at all.
Wen Shaoyuan was alone at home, sitting in the living room doing a puzzle. When he saw Su Mu enter, he got up excitedly and ran over:
"Sister Su, you arrived an hour early today."
Today was a weekend, and tutoring was supposed to be from 10 am to 9 pm, but since Wen Shaoyuan’s grandmother was home today, she only needed to come over at 4 pm, and then go back after Wen Shaoyuan went to sleep. Coming early was because since Su Mu started tutoring Wen Shaoyuan, she had not yet greeted his grandmother. Taking advantage of her day off, she should have met her, but she still ended up coming late.
"Is your grandma not at home?"
"My grandma left after getting a call at noon."
Su Mu smiled at him: "Then why didn’t you give me a call? That way I could have come earlier."
Wen Shaoyuan shook his head with a smile:
"Sister, you are with me every day. You should also enjoy your own life sometimes."
Su Mu looked at him affectionately. She always thought that sensible children are endearing, but when someone is as sensible as Wen Shaoyuan, what has he gone through?
She spent some time doing puzzles with Wen Shaoyuan and also worked on some homework. Unnoticed, it was soon dinner time. However, compared to before, Wen Shaoyuan seemed somewhat listless while eating and apparently had no appetite.
A child’s spirit is the best reflection of their health. Su Mu reached out to touch his forehead, which felt a bit too warm:
"Shaoyuan, are you feeling unwell anywhere?"
"No." Wen Shaoyuan looked at Su Mu: "Sister, don’t worry about me. Let’s eat quickly before the food gets cold."
Su Mu, however, could not put her mind at ease. She called Auntie Li to bring a thermometer, which confirmed Su Mu’s suspicion after testing – 38.4°C, he had a fever.
Auntie Li said anxiously, "I’ll call the doctor right away."
Su Mu, having never encountered such a situation before, did not know what to do when such a young child had a fever. For the first time, she felt helpless facing a child. Wen Shaoyuan sensed her emotions, put down his utensils, and stopped insisting on eating:
"Sister, I don’t want to eat anymore."
"Okay, I’ll go upstairs and rest with you for a while."
In Su Mu’s memory, Wen Shaoyuan had always been a vibrant being, like a little sun, constantly radiating positive energy. It was her first time seeing him looking so listless.
At that moment, he lay on his small bed, holding Su Mu’s hand:
"Sister, can you not tell my dad about my illness?"
"Why?"
"If he has a vacation, he will come back. If he doesn’t have a vacation, telling him will only make him worry."
Su Mu stroked his head: "Then you need to get well soon. If you are still not healthy tomorrow, I will have to tell your dad."
Wen Shaoyuan smiled faintly:
"It’s a deal."
The doctor arrived quickly, and after examining Wen Shaoyuan, confirmed that his fever was just caused by the flu and was nothing serious. He prescribed some medicine but advised physical cooling first, and if there was not any improvement within 2 hours, then to use the medication.
Auntie Li went to see the doctor out. Su Mu then went to the bathroom to fetch some water, took a towel, and started to perform physical cooling on Wen Shaoyuan. Although she had no experience in taking care of kids, she had often done physical cooling for her mother in the past two years because her body wasn’t suited for a lot of medication. So whenever there were symptoms like a fever, the first thing to do was physical cooling.
When Auntie Li returned after seeing the doctor out, she found Su Mu already doing the physical cooling for Wen Shaoyuan and wanted to take over, but was refused by Su Mu, "Auntie Li, if you trust me, please let me do it."
"There’s nothing I don’t trust, just worried it might tire you out."
After standing quietly by the side for a while and seeing that Su Mu was indeed doing a great job, Auntie Li was no longer worried and went downstairs to attend to other matters.
Wen Shaoyuan was very quiet, simply watching her, his little face red from the fever.
"Why are you staring at me like that?" Su Mu asked with a smile as she changed his towel.
"Sister Su, the moms on TV also take care of their sick children like you do."
Su Mu paused, unsure if Wen Shaoyuan was thinking of his mother, but she dared not to ask, as the topic was too sensitive. Although Wen Shaoyuan liked and relied on her, at the end of the day, their relationship wasn’t even that of student and teacher. She had no right or qualification to inquire about Wen Shaoyuan’s family matters. That was not her place.
She smiled faintly:
"What you need now is to take a nap, rest well, and not think too much."
Wen Shaoyuan was likely tired too. He reluctantly looked at Su Mu and then quietly closed his eyes. Within a short while, his breathing became even.
Su Mu stayed quietly by Wen Shaoyuan’s side. An hour later, his body temperature slowly dropped, and her hanging heart finally returned to its place. She gently removed the towel from his forehead, placed his hand, which had been holding hers, back under the covers, and was just about to go to the restroom to dispose of the water when suddenly, it began to rain outside, pattering against the window like beans in a hot pan.
Ensuring Wen Shaoyuan wasn’t awakened by the noise, Su Mu stood up and went to the restroom. However, in less than a minute, another person unexpectedly appeared in the room, making Su Mu nearly scream in surprise.
He must have just returned, still dressed in his military uniform, emanating both authority and dominance—this was the first time Su Mu saw Wen Han in his military attire.
Wen Han looked at Su Mu:
"Did I scare you?"
Su Mu regulated her breathing, "It’s okay."
Wen Han walked to the bedside, touched Wen Shaoyuan’s forehead, which was almost back to normal, then turned to Su Mu, sincerely saying thank you:
"Thank you. You’ve taken good care of Shaoyuan."
"I actually didn’t do much, just followed the doctor’s instructions," Su Mu looked at him. "Did you come back because you knew Shaoyuan was sick?"
"No," Wen Han denied. "There’s a meeting in the city tomorrow. I just came earlier, and after I got home, Auntie Li told me Shaoyuan was sick and that you’ve been upstairs taking care of him."
Su Mu looked at the sleeping figure on the bed and smiled faintly:
"Shaoyuan will be very happy to see you when he wakes up tomorrow."
Wen Han smiled slightly, looked up at the heavy rain outside the window, then glanced at his watch:
"It’s raining heavily outside; I’ll drive you."