Quick Transmigration: What to Do When the Male Supporting Character You Saved Becomes Obsessed with

Chapter 298 Obedient and Clingy Younger Brother (9)

Lu Liruan, carrying a large garbage bag, paused for a moment, but didn't think much of it. It wasn't too late yet, and she could still smell the smell of cooking from people cooking in the stairwell with their doors open.

As she reached the corner on the third floor, Lu Liruan saw a boy with his head down, slowly making his way up.

Clearly, one of his legs is normal, but the other leg is unable to walk, and when he drags himself up the stairs, his knee doesn't bend.

Jin Shuhe also heard someone talking to him as they went downstairs. He moved slightly to the side of the stair railing, gesturing for the other person to go first.

After a few seconds of no one passing by, Jin Shuhe looked up.

Lu Liruan was still lost in thought when she suddenly saw Jin Shuhe. She paused for a moment, not quite knowing how to speak, when her eyes met the boy's...

Jin Shuhe didn't expect that after glancing at it, he would subconsciously put his hand that was supporting his leg behind his back, as if that way no one would notice his disheveled state.

A sudden surge of heat rushed to his face.

"What... what happened? Is your leg injured?"

The hallway was dimly lit, and Lu Liruan couldn't see his appearance clearly.

"cough--"

Lu Liruan called out to turn on the motion-activated light, which had just gone dark for a moment.

"I am fine."

Lu Liruan thought to herself, if she can't even walk, it doesn't seem like she's alright.

"Can you... handle this at home?"

Lu Liruan paused halfway through her story, then hesitated, thinking about his family's situation, and asked a question.

Jin Shuhe didn't know what he was thinking. He should have said yes and left quickly.

But he didn't make a sound.

"You, wait for me here for a moment." Lu Liruan didn't get a reply from him and wanted to walk back, but suddenly remembered the trash bag in her hand.

We can't take it back now.

"Don't move. I'll go downstairs to throw out the trash and come right back up. I have some medicine for sprains and bruises at home."

As Lu Liruan spoke, she quickened her pace and walked down the stairs. Before she finished speaking, she had already passed Jin Shuhe and reached the stairs leading to the second floor.

"Wait for me!" Lu Liruan turned around and emphasized.

Jin Shuhe sat on the steps. The motion-sensor lights had been off for a while, but he didn't utter a sound.

He didn't know how long he had been waiting, nor did he know why he was actually waiting there...

He thought to himself, "It would be impolite to leave without saying goodbye now, since I didn't have a chance to refuse earlier."

The stuffy stairwell and the pain in his legs made him feel sweat beading on his forehead.

"cough--"

The motion sensor light came on from below, and the slightly hurried footsteps grew closer.

“Phew… Can you walk by yourself?” Lu Liruan walked to his side.

"can."

Jin Shuhe braced himself with his hands and stood up steadily, trying to climb up as quickly as possible.

"Slow down." Lu Liruan wanted to help him, but the boy, who was more than half a head taller than her, jumped up two steps on one leg in a flash.

When he reached the fifth floor, Jin Shuhe thought to himself that when he got to the door, he would decline his neighbor's kindness.

Then, by the light of the hallway lamp, which was brighter than the one on the stairs, he saw that his neighbor was carrying a transparent plastic bag.

It contained bandages and Yunnan Baiyao (a traditional Chinese medicine).

He didn't say it out loud.

I silently walked past my own front door, watching helplessly as my neighbor took out her key and opened her door...

After Lu Liruan went downstairs, she couldn't remember what medicine she had at home, so she went into a small pharmacy and bought two kinds.

"Bah."

The lights at the entrance and in the hall were turned on.

The small living room was cleverly divided into two parts. On the side closer to the kitchen, a cluster of daisies in a vase on the dining table was blooming beautifully.

The other half, sandwiched between the two bedrooms, serves as the living room. It has simple decorations and the main colors are rich and soft.

A large TV was hanging on the shelf, and several beanbag chairs of different colors were casually placed on the warm-colored floor.

Just by looking at it, you can tell that if someone sat down, they would definitely sink into it softly.

"No need to wear slippers, I mopped the floor this afternoon." Lu Liruan only has slippers in her own size at home.

Jin Shuhe followed her inside, her mind blank.

"Please sit wherever you like..."

Lu Liruan said this while washing her hands in the bathroom.

When she came out, Lu Liruan saw that the boy, who was sitting stiffly and trying to keep his posture upright, had blood seeping through the knees of his pants.

"Hiss—how did this happen?" Lu Liruan gasped.

"Let's play ball," Jin Shuhe replied softly, pursing her lips.

Lu Liruan didn't feel that her actions were strange, because the original timeline was quite far from the present.

The image of Jin Shuhe back then seems to have no resemblance to that of the young boy he is now.

This made Lu Liruan subconsciously treat him completely like a child.

But she forgot that she knew about Jin Shuhe and had a natural affinity for him, while he knew nothing about her.

As she approached, she noticed the young boy stiffly straighten his back again...

Jin Shuhe had just discovered the condition of his pants, took a couple of breaths, and felt nauseous.

Lu Liruan thought for a moment, then took a standing lamp from the bedroom. This time she could see clearly. She pulled out a cushion and sat down cross-legged.

The boy was wearing faded light-colored jeans with ripped knees, the wounds of which were faintly visible.

Lu Liruan's attention was focused on his legs, unaware that the stiff-bodied boy was breathing increasingly rapidly and his face was deathly pale.

"Can we cut it open? You probably can't wear these pants anymore."

Lu Liruan pondered, "This child is only wearing a pair of thin pants. I can't very well ask him to take his pants off, can I?"

The cloth was still stuck to the wound with dried blood...

"Mmm." Jin Shuhe choked back her words, forcing herself to swallow the nausea. "I... I can do it myself..."

"Don't move, it's too much trouble for you to watch." Lu Liruan gently patted his calf as he tried to pull back.

Jin Shuhe looked at his legs again, and finally gave up and stopped moving.

Lu Liruan wiped the scissors with alcohol and carefully cut around the outside of the wound, trying to peel it open. But as soon as she used force, blood started flowing from the wound again.

When they switched sides, Lu Liruan's hands were sore from all the effort.

After much effort, the cloth was finally removed, and Lu Liruan breathed a sigh of relief, only to realize that the child hadn't made a sound since then.

"Does it hurt?" Lu Liruan looked up and saw that he had raised his arm and pressed it against his face, his fingers clenched tightly.

"It's...it's alright." Jin Shuhe didn't dare to look down, but he could still smell the blood. His stomach was churning, and he felt like he would vomit if he said another word.

He didn't want to lose face in front of Lu Liruan.

Lu Liruan assumed he was just quiet, so she used a cotton swab to wipe away the sand and dust from the wound, disinfected it, and wrapped it with a bandage.

When she touched the boy's hard, prominent kneecaps, she noticed how thin he was; his thighs seemed even thinner than her own.

After dealing with the situation, Lu Liruan realized that she had been holding her breath the whole time, and now she finally let out a long sigh of relief.

"All right!"

The smell of medicine masked the stench of blood in the air, and the nausea that Jin Shuhe felt in his throat finally subsided slightly.

"Thank you," he whispered.

The sweat on his forehead was cold, and his back ached from the strain. He rubbed his hands, unsure how else to express his gratitude.

"It's alright, we're neighbors. I was worried you might have a bone problem from how you were walking, so I was just being stubborn and not going to the hospital." After examining you, Lu Liruan found that it was probably just a superficial injury.

On the stairs, Lu Liruan suddenly thought that in the original plot, this child was going to go to police academy. If his leg injury was not treated properly, he might fail the physical examination.

Based on past experience, once she intervenes in the small world, nothing is certain, and everything may change.

Jin Shuhe shook his head: "It's not that serious."

Then he didn't know what to say.

That shouldn't be happening. His neighbor helped him, but he couldn't even manage a few words, making him seem ungrateful...

The more anxious Jin Shuhe became, the less he could speak. The nausea and dizziness hadn't completely subsided, and he was sweating even more profusely, his T-shirt underneath his thin jacket sticking to his back...

Older people have always had the ability to see through younger people.

Lu Liruan sensed his unease: "Even when you're exercising, be careful. Look, your pants are all ripped."

She made a joke, so natural and casual, that Jin Shuhe relaxed his shoulders a little...

"Your hand is a little cut too, go wash it and put a band-aid on it."

Lu Liruan stood up, indicating to Jin Shuhe that he didn't need to help her clean up, gestured with her chin toward the bathroom, and quickly packed up the things she had used.

When Jin Shuhe entered the bathroom, he breathed a long sigh of relief as he looked in the mirror.

Looking up, I realized that my hair was a mess, my face looked terrible, and my clothes were covered in patches of gray and black—I looked slovenly.

You can't play ball like this.

This afternoon he went to the neighborhood to hand out flyers, stuffing them under the doors of residents' homes. He gets paid for each day he does this job, and the people who hire him don't even ask his age.

Today, in a well-managed residential complex, when I was trying to squeeze into the second building, the security guard spotted me and yelled at me to take the flyers away.

Fortunately, the security guard couldn't outrun him. He climbed over the wall, but the ground below was uneven, and when he fell, his leg hit a rock.

The security guard chased him to the wall, but upon hearing the commotion outside, fearing he might fall and get seriously injured and would have to take responsibility, he muttered a few curses and left.

Jin Shuhe lied to people.

After washing his hands and wiping his face, Jin Shuhe came out and saw his neighbor pushing the spotlight back into the bedroom.

"I……"

"Ok?"

Lu Liruan came out of the bedroom with a small box in her hand: "Take this back with you and remember to change the dressing."

"No need, I'll buy it myself." Jin Shuhe felt that every word she uttered was unwelcome.

"I have nowhere to use it," Lu Liruan said, shoving it directly into his hand.

“Um…” Jin Shuhe pursed his lips, his thin eyelids trembling.

"Then I'll add you on WeChat and transfer the money you paid for me a few days ago, along with the money for the medicine," Jin Shuhe said dryly.

"No need, you're too kind. We're neighbors, and I might need your help sometime in the future." Lu Liruan felt it was unnecessary, and she also had a selfish reason: no matter what, by going back and forth, she and the child could at least become a little more familiar with each other.

Lu Liruan felt that he was like an unapproachable fawn, not aggressive at all, and even when he looked at people, he was docile, a little timid and shrinking.

They are also incredibly alert, as if at the slightest sign of discomfort, they will nimbly leap and run far away, making it impossible for anyone to get close.

Jin Shuhe mentioned that after being rejected once, he would not insist on giving in.

He nodded hesitantly, then said softly, "Thank you."

He left Lu Liruan's house carrying the box.

Watched by his neighbors, he opened the door and went back to his own home.

He stood in the unlit room for a while before putting down what he was holding.

The lingering pain in his leg served as a reminder of what had just happened.

He leaned back in his chair, and it took him a while to relax before his thoughts, which had been stagnant, began to flow again.

I recall things I just saw, but only now am I feeling them with a delayed sense of them.

The sofa was soft, and every color was lovely. There was a faint, sweet scent in the room, and a neatly written shopping list was pasted on the wall by the door…

Everything was soft and comfortable.

It was another world, separated by just a wall, that he himself had been imagining for several days, without knowing why.

It feels like a home.

Jin Shuhe hadn't been to a house that felt like home for many years.

With the same layout, this house is cluttered, cramped, gloomy, and damp.

Jin Shuhe changed his clothes and touched the tightly wrapped gauze. It was pure white, without any of the red that made him uncomfortable.

He started to faint at the sight of blood after that afternoon.

Mild cases may result in vomiting and dizziness, while severe cases may cause exhaustion, weakness, trembling, stiffness, and loss of consciousness.

Officer Wu took him to the hospital, but the doctor believed it was a psychological problem and there was no good solution unless he received systematic counseling and treatment at the psychiatric department.

Jin Shuhe couldn't even afford one fee.

After he finished his homework, the door was opened with a "bang".

"Bah."

After the lighter ignited, the smell of smoke mixed with a strong odor of alcohol and perfume filled the living room.

Upon hearing her shout, Jin Shuhe closed his pen and walked out expressionlessly.

"You little brat, don't you know how to pour me a glass of water?" The woman looked exhausted, with dark eyeliner covering half her face, and she mumbled a scolding.

Jin Shuhe didn't say anything, went to the kitchen, poured a glass of cold water, and placed it next to her.

"I'm exhausted..." After finishing one cigarette, she knocked another one out of the pack, lit it, and took two puffs.

Her eyes glanced at Jin Shuhe's legs, which were wrapped in gauze, beneath the shorts he had changed into.

She took a sip of water and complained, "I still have to help your deadbeat father raise you, you little brat. I haven't enjoyed a single day of happiness with him, and now I'm stuck with this burden..."

She didn't criticize Jin Shuhe behind his back at all.

After she finished scolding him, she took out her wallet from her bag, opened it, pulled out two bills, and threw them on the table: "Spend them sparingly."

Jin Shuhe bit her cheek, head bowed, wanting to say: I can earn my own money, I don't need you to give it to me...

But the little money he earned wasn't enough at all.

He silently picked up the two bills and put the cup back in the kitchen.

"Thank you..." he said numbly, the warmth he hadn't fully savored dissipating silently.

He should express his gratitude; if he doesn't truly feel that way, then his conscience has been eaten by dogs.

Jin Shuhe had just mustered up the courage to ask Lu Liruan to add him on WeChat, but she casually declined.

Jin Shuhe still doesn't know what his neighbor's name is.

He paused, then clicked on the only one he was following: Sugar Pear.