Chapter 243: Three for Ten Dollars

When Xia Ling woke up, she felt that her entire body was in pain. Only when she lightly moved did she realize that her whole body was covered with gauze. The unique disinfectant smell of the hospital filled her nose. Beside the bed, there was a bottle hanging from the high metal stand. Liquid glucose was flowing into her body drop by drop via the transparent tube.

She had a hard time turning her head.

She saw that a man was lying beside the bed. His handsome eyes were quietly closed, his nose was straight, and his attractive lips were softly curved. It was Li Lei. He looked very gentle like he had been waiting for her for thousands of years.

Xia Ling’s heart started to beat faster, and she remembered that the light and warmth that felt close to her in her dream was like him.

How long had he been waiting for her?

After asking herself that question, she saw him move and open his eyes.

She finally saw his face clearly. His eyes were bloodshot and his face was unshaven. She had never seen him this haggard before.

Seeing that she had woken up, there was an immediate flash of joy in Li Lei’s eyes. He immediately pressed the button to call for a doctor. They were in the VVIP room of the intensive care unit, and soon, a specialist doctor arrived to give her a check to ensure that her vital signs were stable. After prescribing new medicine for her, he left.

She tossed and turned after she woke up. Feeling groggy and tired, she hoarsely asked Li Lei, “What happened?” As soon as she spoke, there was a strange sweet taste in her throat as blood rushed up.

Li Lei’s expression was complicated. “You fractured your right shoulder and a bone in your rib cage. One of your lungs was punctured as well, so you must stay in bed to rest. You must be careful. If you develop emphysema or have water in your lungs, it may be fatal.”

Xia Ling did not have much energy, so she closed her eyes in a daze.

In her dreams, she only felt that her hand was being held by a dry and warm hand that never let go.

She slept and woke up in intervals for half a month before she became more alert and could adjust the hospital bed to sit upright and use her healed hand to eat something. In contrast, Li Lei had lost weight at a speed visible to the naked eye. His originally glamorous and impeccable face was replaced with bleakness.

He did not return home in the night and slept in Xia Ling’s ward to keep her company.

A small bed was added next to the main bed. Although the staff tried their best to make it as comfortable as possible, it was too different from his bed at home. Furthermore, whenever she coughed, he would wake up to check on her, the amount of liquid in the bottle, measure her body temperature, and adjust the appropriate temperature of water for her to drink.

Tan Ying could not bear to see him like that. Ever since Su Tang was dismissed, Tan Ying became his special assistant. In the past, Tan Ying went through thick and thin with Li Lei. However, due to his serious injuries and family issues, he retired from his job as a trainer and second Boss of Skyart Entertainment. Now that he had returned to his side, he was just back in his former role.

He was familiar with Li Lei’s taste. Every day, he would ask the nanny to make a nutritious meal and delivered it to Li Lei. Early spring was a little cold. Sometimes, the food he delivered had already turned cold. Regardless of whether they made do with it or re-heated it, the original taste could not be restored.

Although Li Lei was usually particular about it, he was also a mercenary and could make do with what he was given. Every day, he made do with the cold food and ate it all. He remained by Xia Ling’s side and refused to move an inch.

Tan Ying could not help but advise him. “Boss, you should go out to eat something warm when Miss Ye is sleeping. Your body can’t tolerate this forever.”

Li Lei replied, “I know my limits.”

Tan Ying was worried. “You already lost a lot of blood making that amulet for Miss Ye. Your blood type is also very special. There isn’t a suitable blood type in the blood bank, so you can only slowly recover. However, you haven’t even recovered, yet you are spending the entire day in her ward. This is really harmful to your body. You should at least eat warm food for your three meals every day.”

Li Lei frowned. He looked at Xia Ling who was in a deep sleep. Thankfully, she did not wake up.

“In the future, you are not allowed to mention the amulet in front of her.” He sacrificed himself not because he wanted her to be grateful, he did not want her to give her any stress.

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Tan Ying reluctantly gave up. In the end, he stopped talking after seeing his stern expression.

However, Tan Ying felt indignant. Boss Li Lei’s blood type, MNSSU, was very rare and could not accept blood transfusions from conventional blood types. Every drop of his blood was very precious. This was the reason why Old Master Li allowed him to return to China to develop the triad business. Otherwise, he might injure himself during their gang shootouts, leading to his death.

He risked his life to donate his precious blood and crawled back from the dead to give her the amulet.

However, she was not wearing the amulet when she was in trouble.

A few days ago, Li Lei instructed Tan Ying to search for the amulet at the location of the premiere and found that it had been randomly cast aside in the corner of the dressing room with a pile of cheap rhinestones, used paper towels, and styling gel.

At that time, Tan Ying was almost exploding with anger and wanted to tear that woman apart.

However, after Li Lei took back the amulet, he only carefully put it around Xiao Ling’s neck and tied a dead knot.

There were so many women in the world, why could he not choose another woman to love?

Tan Ying did not understand what Li Lei was thinking. Li Lei continued to care deeply for the woman he loved, while as a subordinate, he could only do his best to serve him by delivering food, ordering flowers, contacting experts for consultations… He was so busy, he felt that his legs were about to break.

Xia Ling’s bones slowly recovered.

Li Lei finally suppressed his anger and asked her, “Why did you not wear the amulet I gave you?”

Her body was weak for these few days, so he tried to be as gentle as possible when speaking to her. Xia Ling was startled as she did not think that he would suddenly ask about it. “It did not match with my outfit.” She replied.

“If you wore it then, you wouldn’t be hurt now.”

“You believe that?” Xia Ling looked at him and felt that it was rather amusing. “Boss, you can buy an amulet like that from any random tourist attraction for five dollars. If you buy three, you can even get them at a discounted price of ten dollars. If it was really efficacious, why are there still so many disasters in this world?”

“It is not the same.” Li Lei stubbornly said.

“In what way is it different?” Xia Ling was not very interested and lazily asked him. She glanced at his haggard disposition. “Thank you for taking care of me during this period of time, Boss. You have to take care of yourself as well. I think you should just go home and rest. You don’t have to be 24 hours a day with me.”

She was upset because she had burdened him with her injuries. During this period of time, he had really helped her a lot.

She had been dizzy for the past few days and did not have the energy to advise him, but now that she had regained some of her strength, the first thing she wanted to do was to ensure that he went back home for a good rest instead of taking care of her. However, they had already broken up, so her inner pride made her say things that were quite crude.

A polite way of thanking him was the best way she could word her thoughts.

Her indifferent tone was like a needle that pricked his heart.

Li Lei felt that he was the wronged one. He had sincerely cared for her, but she did not appreciate it at all. He never told her that Old Master Li said she was destined to be cursed as he did not want to scare her.

More importantly, he could not tell her how he obtained that amulet.

He could understand why she thought it was just a cheap souvenir and did not take it seriously.

However, he knew that if he told her the truth, she would not care about it at all and discard the amulet. Li Lei was afraid that he would not be able to handle the heartbreak and disappointment that followed.

He also did not dare to try it out.