Chapter 282: Injured
Two days later, snow began to fall in Beijing. Feathery flakes danced in the air, and soon, the whole world was painted white.
Yun Shifei had never seen such a heavy snowfall. In South City, it rarely snowed, let alone such a thick blanket of snow.
Like most children from the South, she was mesmerized by the sight of such a scene.
Her other dormmates, all Northerners, found it rather ordinary.
They were only mildly annoyed by the inconvenience the snow created when going out. But Yun Shifei, on the other hand, had already begun gathering snow in her hands to play with.
"On a day like this, wouldn’t it be great to build a snowman?"
Hearing Yun Shifei’s suggestion, her dormmates laughed, but they agreed it might be fun: "How about we do that? We don’t have many classes today. Let’s go downstairs and build one after we’re done."
Thrilled, Yun Shifei hurried back to her dorm with her friends after class, and together, they built a snowman nearly as tall as half a person.
They gave the snowman eyes, a nose, and even a scarf. It turned out to look quite lifelike.
Yun Shifei thought to herself how nice it would be if she had a camera. She could capture it and send the photo to Yun Tiancheng.
As the thought crossed her mind, a pang of longing for home struck her. She missed Yun Tiancheng, missed her little treasure, and even missed Sun Xiaoqi dearly.
However, with the holidays approaching, the thought cheered Yun Shifei up again.
That evening, Yun Shifei attended a gathering for their club.
"Shi Fei, how about we go out for some outdoor sketching in a while?" their art club president, Xiang Wenwen, asked Yun Shifei.
She was the most beautiful girl in the club, effortlessly eye-catching no matter where she stood.
Yun Shifei nodded, "Sure."
Upon hearing Yun Shifei agree, the others were thrilled as well.
The art club was quite niche, with only a handful of members. Outings like these were rare.
With Yun Shifei’s agreement, even the less enthusiastic members decided to join in.
The group planned to visit a historic town in the outskirts of Beijing, a former Royal Garden that had since been developed with some tourist attractions. It was said to be vast, luxurious, and stunningly beautiful.
Yun Shifei had never been there before, although she had intended to visit someday. To her surprise, the opportunity had now come along.
Yun Shifei also received a gift from Cheng Lie.
It was a rectangular transparent glass box, inside which was a tiny snowman.
Snowflakes seemed to swirl inside as well.
Cheng Lie explained to her that to prevent the snowman from melting, the box needed to be charged, as it had a built-in power storage function. Charging it for two hours would keep the snowman intact for a whole day.
The snowman inside turned out to be made of real snow.
Yun Shifei was puzzled as she touched the cold glass box. The chill wasn’t unbearable; it was within a range she could tolerate.
This was probably the most impractical gift Cheng Lie had ever given her.
She wanted to reject it, but Cheng Lie’s expression made it impossible to refuse. Besides, she actually liked the gift. After all, which girl doesn’t love beautiful things?
She suddenly thought of the heating pad Cheng Lie had given her last time and couldn’t help but ask, "By the way, the heating pad you gave me before, where did you buy it? My dormmates want one too."
Cheng Lie replied, "I made that myself."
Yun Shifei’s eyes widened in amazement. "You made it yourself?"
"Yes."
How impressive!
She had thought as much—such a design couldn’t possibly be something available on the market.
For Cheng Lie to craft something like that... Was he self-taught? His creativity and skill were truly remarkable.
Yun Shifei turned her attention back to the tiny snowman and asked, "Did you make this too?"
Cheng Lie gave a soft hum of confirmation.
In that moment, the gift suddenly felt incredibly precious to her.
No wonder it looked so exquisite—Cheng Lie truly had a pair of talented hands.
Her gaze involuntarily fell on Cheng Lie’s hands.
Then, she noticed that he was wearing gloves. Was he really that afraid of the cold?
The gloves looked familiar... They seemed to be the ones she had bought for him before.
He seemed to have taken great care of them; they still looked as good as new.
For some reason, Yun Shifei’s heart softened uncontrollably.
"You don’t need to go to such trouble to make these things for me in the future," Yun Shifei said softly.
If this continued, it would be harder and harder for her not to forgive Cheng Lie.
He was so thoughtful. Yet, when she thought of how he had deceived her, Yun Shifei felt torn again.
She hated being lied to more than anything, especially by someone she liked so much.
It was as if she was reliving what had happened in her past life all over again.
With the gift in hand, Yun Shifei turned to leave, while Cheng Lie remained standing quietly in place. He thought to himself that Yun Shifei must have liked this gift.
She had smiled. Thinking back to her smile, though faint, her eyes had sparkled with light. She hadn’t even tried very hard to refuse him.
It had been worth the effort he put in, spending days coming up with the idea and even cutting his hand on glass in the process.
At that moment, Cheng Lie’s phone rang.
"Mr. Cheng, are you sure you don’t want to see a doctor? If the wound on your palm gets infected, what then?"
"I’ve already taken care of it." Such small injuries didn’t concern him.
But Zhao Pan was deeply worried. Why was this kid so stubborn?
That had only happened earlier today.
While attending to work matters, Zhao Pan had stumbled upon Cheng Lie crafting something. Thinking it was a prototype for Fourth Master, Zhao Pan was surprised to hear that it was a gift for Yun Shifei.
This made Zhao Pan feel a pang of disappointment. But before he could say anything, he saw Cheng Lie’s hand get sliced by a shard of glass, and fresh blood spilled onto the floor.
Startled, Zhao Pan rushed to grab a medical kit to help stop the bleeding.
But Cheng Lie remained remarkably calm, dressing the wound himself and continuing his work.
He even remarked that he needed to hurry and finish; otherwise, the snow might melt, and the snowman wouldn’t look as good.
For a moment, Zhao Pan was at a loss for words.
He had once thought of Cheng Lie as sharp and cunning, someone who manipulated others with ease. But now, this side of Cheng Lie seemed so clumsy—was the gift really more important than his injured hand?
Cheng Lie, however, didn’t care about his hand in the slightest, which left Zhao Pan completely exasperated.
Now calling to urge Cheng Lie to visit the hospital, Zhao Pan received the same refusal, growing increasingly frustrated. "Mr. Cheng, does Miss Yun even know about your injury?"
"She doesn’t like to see this side of me."
Cheng Lie recalled Yun Shifei’s previous words. Yes, he couldn’t show his vulnerable side to her—it would soften her heart.
She hated herself for being soft-hearted toward him.
He knew this all too well.
That’s why, when delivering the gift, he had intentionally worn gloves. In the past, he might have used his injuries to gain her pity, but now, he would never do such a thing again.