13

When Shen Yin returned, Song Tan was already asleep.

The bedside lamp was on, casting a dim light, and Song Tan was sleeping soundly.

… However, when Shen Yin approached the side of the bed, Song Tan woke up.

It was a conditioned reflex she developed in the apocalypse. Even if she was asleep, she would immediately wake up when someone approached.

But she didn’t open her eyes.

Although she had talked to Shen Yin about it, his attitude left her puzzled.

So, as a newlywed couple sharing the same bed, she knew exactly what would happen.

Although she knew it might be unavoidable, Song Tan didn’t want it to happen tonight.

Today, because of the old man’s matter, and also because she was thinking about the novel at night, she was a bit lacking sleep.

Her health wasn’t good to begin with, and such things were better done when she was in a better state of mind.

For now, it was better for her to pretend to be asleep.

Pretending to be asleep was truly a test of acting skills.

Song Tan initially felt… as if she was sleeping too close to the center of the bed.

Before this, she used to sleep alone, and she was accustomed to sleeping in the center of the bed.

If she sleeps in the center now, then Shen Yin can only sleep at the edge.

Should she turn over and make room for Shen Yin?

But if she turns over, will he realize that she’s pretending to be asleep?

Song Tan was deeply conflicted in her heart.

While she was agonizing over it, she felt Shen Yin move.

Song Tan’s heartbeat suddenly quickened.

She felt Shen Yin’s hand coming towards her face.

Song Tan originally wanted to turn over directly and avoid Shen Yin’s approach, but she wanted to see what Shen Yin would do.

During the time she had spent with Shen Yin, he had been a very gentle person in character. In the Huo family, he was like a little lamb among the wolves.

Is he truly a little lamb or a wolf in sheep’s clothing?

Although Song Tan has a good impression of him, she is not naïve enough to believe in Shen Yin just yet.

It depends on what he is like behind her back.

So Song Tan maintained her original posture without moving, waiting for Shen Yin to approach her.

Shen Yin’s hand touched her face.

Because Song Tan had just fallen asleep, her face was slightly warm.

And Shen Yin have just come back from outside, so his hand was slightly cold.

Song Tan really controlled herself to the limit and didn’t move involuntarily.

Instead, it was Shen Yin who, after feeling the temperature difference, moved his hand slightly away from Song Tan’s face.

But he didn’t completely withdraw it; he seemed to hesitate for a moment and then used his hand to brush away her hair that had fallen in front of her.

Song Tan : “…”

Due to her sideways position, her hair on the side blocked half of her face.

Now, Shen Yin had completely uncovered it.

Could it be that he had discovered that she was pretending to be asleep?

Song Tan remained motionless, waiting to see what Shen Yin would do next.

At that moment, Shen Yin lifted the hair from her face and paused for a moment.

There was a significant difference between the sleeping Song Tan and the awake Song Tan.

When she slept, she was like a flower blooming alone in the night, quietly exuding charm.

But when she was awake…

When she was awake, she was also like a flower.

Just too weak.

After a moment of contemplation, Shen Yin stood up and left the bedside.

Song Tan : ?

Why did he leave again?

Song Tan pondered for a moment : Could it be that he was just admiring her sleeping face?

When it came to appearance, Song Tan was confident.

The book described her as a beautiful and sickly Xi Shi¹.

Although she didn’t like this description, the fact that she was good-looking was definitely not her being conceited.

So it seemed understandable that Shen Yin would be captivated by her face for a while.

However, soon Song Tan realized that this… might not be a good thing.

Just given their current situation, what should she do if he really likes her face and forces himself onto her?

Three years in the apocalypse world, Song Tan had witnessed a lot of human nature.

No matter if a man was gentle or rough, when faced with the temptation of desire, they would all stumble.

If it were Shen Yin…

Song Tan turned around and started coughing.

Shen Yin came out after washing his hands and saw Song Tan coughing.

He stood not far away, observing for a while.

At this moment, Song Tan was still not awake, but she would occasionally cough a few times.

He furrowed his eyebrows slightly.

Song Tan couldn’t die just yet.

Shen Yin walked to the edge of the bed with a frown and helped Song Tan up.

Song Tan gradually woke up.

Due to just waking up, her eyes were still hazy, and combined with her coughing, she looked pitifully helpless.

“You’re back?”

Song Tan’s voice was weak, as soft as the sound of a mosquito.

Shen Yin nodded, “I helped you up because I was afraid you might choke due to your severe cough.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Song Tan coughed a few more times.

She sighed and said, “It must be the cold weather today, causing a slight illness.”

“Where are your medications? I’ll fetch them for you.”

Song Tan waved her hand and said, “It’s alright, I can endure.”

Although she claimed to endure, she couldn’t help but cough twice again.

“This won’t do, you need to take your medication.”

Shen Yin released her and used a pillow to prop her up slightly, allowing her to lean on it.

Meanwhile, he went to fetch Song Tan’s medication.

“Where are your medications? Are they here?”

Song Tan didn’t have many things with her, and one suitcase was opened.

Song Tan initially wanted to say it wasn’t necessary, but Shen Yin had already gone to find it, so she could only nod reluctantly.

Shen Yin was quite fast in searching and found Song Tan’s medicine box inside the suitcase.

Her medicine box was quite large and contained many medicines.

“Are all these medicines yours?”

Song Tan nodded.

“Which one do you need to take now?”

Song Tan didn’t like taking medicine.

But seeing Shen Yin asking her so seriously at this moment, she was afraid it would be bad if she just casually point out one.

“For coughing, I need to take this one.”

Song Tan pointed to it, and Shen Yin picked up the medicine and read the dosage instructions on the bottle.

After reading it, he poured out two pills from the bottle.

“This medicine, is it so big?”

This medicine was prepared by Song Tan’s grandfather using traditional Chinese medicine, so indeed the pills were somewhat large.

“I can’t take this medicine on an empty stomach. Let’s wait until tomorrow, I can endure it.”

After saying that, Song Tan didn’t know if it was because she had just faked a cough, but now she was actually coughing.

This bout of coughing was even more intense than the few coughs before.

Originally, Shen Yin was about to give her the medicine, but now he couldn’t let her have her way even more.

“If you can’t take it on an empty stomach, then I’ll find something for you to eat. What do you want to eat?”

After coughing, Song Tan’s fair little face turned red.

“Something sweet, please. This medicine is a bit bitter.”

Shen Yin glanced at the two large black pills in his hand and could already taste the bitterness in his mouth.

“I remember someone gave me a box of wild honey, I’ll make you a cup of that.”

Shen Yin rummaged through a pile of gift boxes and found the box of wild honey, then brewed a cup for Song Tan.

Song Tan held the cup weakly and thanked him in a very weak voice, “Thank you.”

“No need to be so polite. I said I would take care of you.” After saying that, he pointed at her medicine box and said, “I see you have quite a lot of medicine. After you feel better, tell me about these medicines, and I can help you find them directly.”

Song Tan listened to these words and felt a warm feeling in her heart.

There aren’t many people willing to remember her medicine.

When her Grandpa was still alive, he had a custom medicine box made for her to make it easier for her to find her prescriptions. He would stick the efficacy and usage on the medicine bottles.

He said, “In the future, Tantan, you’ll find someone to fetch your medicine for you.”

After all this time, she had only encountered Shen Yin.

“Okay, thank you.”

“We are husband and wife, no need to be so polite.”

As soon as she heard him say the words “husband and wife,” Song Tan couldn’t help but stiffen her spine.

She shifted her gaze and took a sip of honey water.

As she took a sip…

“It’s hot.”

Shen Yin saw that she got burned and quickly took the cup from her.

“How are you? Are you okay?”

Song Tan felt her mouth had been scalded.

“I’m fine, I just drank too quickly.”

Song Tan just spaced out and forgot that the honey water was still hot.

“It’s my fault. I should have let it cool down a bit for you.”

Shen Yin blamed himself, but Song Tan quickly reassured him, “No, it’s my fault.”

“I still have a lot to learn when it comes to taking care of people.”

Song Tan thought, “Does this person have to be so gentle?“

His gentleness made her feel a bit burdened when she acted.

However, she quickly shook off that burden and continued probing.

“Mmm…”

She looked at the pill in Shen Yin’s hand, just as her brow furrowed, he spoke up, “Are you afraid of taking pills?”

Song Tan : ?

Even without Song Tan saying anything, he had doubts just by looking at the pill.

This pill was about the size of a jujube, wouldn’t it choke her if she swallowed it?

This Song Tan… she looked truly… fragile.

If he had any ill intentions towards her, with just one hand, he could take away this fragile life.

But now, his intentions were… not to let her die.

So, he glanced at the pill in his hand, pondered for a moment, and said, “I’ll split it for you.”

To prevent her from choking on the pill.

Shen Yin really went to split the pill for her.

Song Tan: “…”

He was so caring, and she still pretended so much in front of him. Wasn’t that a bit too much?

¹ Xi Shi was, according to legends, one of the renowned Four Beauties of ancient China, and also known as the most beautiful among the four. ↩︎