Mary Sue Chapter 51: The gentle doctor and his cold-loving stray (Part 2)

Translated by J.

Editor: Addis 

 

Dugu detested exposing his naked body in front of strangers, even if the other person was his doctor. With his blood-soaked trousers piled onto the floor, Dugu reluctantly revealed a pair of lean, powerful legs. Due to his recent loss of blood, his skin looked bloodless and without a shred of warmth, that and the fact that he did not receive much sunlight from always wearing long sleeved shirts and long pants that wrapped airtight around his body. He very much resembled a white marble statue.

Dugu did not have to wait long before Doctor Xuanyuan returned with a cart full of medical supplies and equipment. The doctor’s eyes calmly scanned across Dugu’s legs.

Pursing his lips out of embarrassment, the air temperature around Dugu dropped by a few more degrees. Even the blood dripping down his body froze.

Sensing the unease under his patient’s cool exterior, Xuanyuan relaxed his expression further. With a face that spelt ‘business as usual’, he put on a pair of disposable latex gloves and began to treat Dugu’s bleeding.

Although he was the number one gastroenterologist in the world, Xuanyuan also studied a variety of other disciplines at medical school, including general medicine, amongst others. His nimble fingers calmly and methodically treated Dugu’s wounds. As a stranger’s hands touched the embarrassing region at the top of his thigh, Dugu tensed every muscle in his body, his thick lashes slightly quivering from an attempt to stay calm.

“Your body temperature is very low,” Xuanyuan asked in a gentle voice, “has it always been like this?”

Feeling irritable, Dugu turned his head to the side and snorted out a cold humph.

“Sounds like a yes.” It was almost as if Xuanyuan had the ability to interpret the various meanings of Dugu’s humphs purely from their volume, pitch and tone, “You seem to have severe hypothermia. Perhaps I can help you.”

It seemed pretty incredible that the hypothermia not only kept himself cold, but also froze other people to death. However, if Doctor Xuanyuan said it was hypothermia, then it had to be hypothermia, because a world-renowned doctor like him would not misdiagnose a patient, alright?

With the piercing gaze of a lone wolf, Dugu’s eyes slowly surveyed Xuanyuan’s gentle, comely face, before replying in an icy voice, “You talk too much.”

Xuanyuan curved his lips as he added superfluously, “Very well.”

Despite his patient being rather rude – and if he counted the fact that Dugu threatened his life with a dagger earlier, then ‘rude’ did not quite cut it – the doctor was surprisingly unaffected by his uncouthness.

Perhaps it was due to being deceived by a little white flower not so long ago – one who looked innocent and adorable on the outside, but was sadistic and cruel on the inside, Xuanyuan became instinctively turned off by soft-spoken, gentle youths. But for some reason, he took an instant liking to someone as cold and surly as Dugu.

It was actually rather odd that once Little Master Murong had vanished from the face of the Earth, Doctor Xuanyuan’s love for him also swiftly faded. However fast his love had appeared, it had disappeared just as quickly and inexplicably. Xuanyuan did not believe that he was someone who was logical to the point of being heartless. Despite knowing that he had been played, he still thought he should have been a bit more torn up about it, but nothing of the sort had happened.

Not knowing that his feelings had been manipulated by the system, the doctor found it really difficult to grapple with the mysterious speed of his recovery.

Fortunately, like every other extra in the story, once Doctor Xuanyuan’s interaction with the protagonist had ended, the system would place him back into his original environment and leave him to fend for himself.

Being left to his own devices was actually not a bad position to be in…

Of course, this was not something that the doctor would ever come to understand.

Once the doctor had stopped the bleeding, then disinfected and applied bandages to the most severe of Dugu’s wounds, he took off his latex gloves and warmed his cold stiff fingers with his breath, before moving onto minor wounds. When he began treating a cut on Dugu’s calf, the doctor got down on one knee to get a better angle. With his eyes downcast, his gaze was gentle and focused.

Dugu was surprised at how inexplicably familiar the scene before him had seemed. But before he could discern what was happening, he was interrupted by the itchy feeling from the disinfectant wipes being gently dabbed onto his skin. Dugu did not feel pain, but he was ticklish. As he shirked from the itch out of reflex, Dugu glowered at the young man kneeling at his feet who dared to give him a rather dubious grin.

It was the smile of a veterinarian who had found an injured kitten cowering next to a rubbish bin on a stormy night, a smile that was full of compassion, sympathy and pity.

Dugu sharpened his gaze, “Hmph!”

The small kitten next to the rubbish bin flashed its little claw and angrily meowed at the vet.

“Okay, I’ll stop smiling.” Again, Xuanyuan was able to correctly interpret the meaning of Dugu’s humph. Then intentionally donning a serious expression, he declared, “You can put your pants back on now. Your wounds are not as serious as I thought.”

The little kitten Dugu swiftly pulled up his pants and immediately turned around to leave.

It was the same tenderness, but when the tenderness came from Little Master Murong, Dugu was filled with gratitude and protectiveness. However, now that the subject had switched to Xuanyuan, Dugu felt an inexplicable awkwardness, mixed with something indescribable even to himself, which made his face heat up…

Obviously, this was the difference between being a dom and being a sub. However, it was not something Dugu would ever come to understand…

“Wait.” Xuanyuan took a step forward and blocked his way, then calmly handed over a few boxes of medicine under Dugu’s vigilant eyes. A small slip of paper was stuffed into one of the boxes.

Xuanyuan instructed in a serious manner, “Take your medicine at the prescribed times every day. Don’t eat anything spicy or acidic, don’t let your wounds get wet and please try to rest as much as you can while your body is healing. You can come see me at the same time tomorrow to change your dressing…”

The way Xuanyuan spoke, it was as if he was speaking to an ordinary patient, as if Dugu was returning to a warm, cozy home with loved ones waiting for him. As if Dugu was someone who would relay to his family that ‘the doctor said I can’t eat anything spicy’ then avoid the single chilli dish on a table full of steaming hot food. Then after his meal, he would wipe his body clean with a warm towel, carefully avoiding his cuts… As if the man before him, who was covered in blood and giving off a threatening aura would do all of these.

Dugu seemed to have also sensed the incongruousness in Xuanyuan’s instructions. He arched his chiselled brow and revealed his first smile of the day, a very vague smirk that was full of derision.

Xuanyuan smiled back at him with a wholesome, heartfelt kindness, then pointed to the small slip of paper in the box of medicine Dugu was holding, “I’m not on duty tomorrow. You’ll have to come to my home to change your dressing. That’s my address.”

Dugu tightened his jawline, then let out a cold hmph before walking away in long strides.

The small kitten was in shock after being treated with kindness by the vet. Then letting out a furious meow, it ran away with its tail exploding into an angry puff.

Doctor Xuanyuan watched without blinking as the shadow left his field of vision, a shadow that seemed to be running away more than ‘leaving’. After a short while, he shook his head and laughed out loud.

At the same time on the following evening, as the doctor sat in his study reading a medical journal, a quiet knock came from the window. Xuanyuan looked up to see a pitch-black shadow perched on the window sill in the inky darkness of the night. A shadow with black clothes, black hair and black eyes, only his hands and face were pale.

The little injured kitten came to find him as instructed.

Xuanyuan swiftly opened his window to let Dugu in.

As the number one gastroenterologist in the world, Doctor Xuanyuan was quite wealthy. Though he paled in comparison to the bigshots who easily held the fate of the global economy in their palms, the doctor did own an exquisite villa built on one hectare¹ of land.

As Dugu climbed through the window, the doctor could see that he wore the same clothes as the night before. Dugu had intended to return to the assassins’ guild to retrieve some supplies. However, since the Huangfu bodyguards had noticed that he was missing, countless bodyguards surrounded the headquarters of the Buried Love Assassin’s Guild, lying in wait for his return. The injured Dugu would have been no match for them in a head-on fight, so he was forced to return empty-handed.

In addition to being penniless, he had no place to shower and no spare clothes to change into. It was truly pitiful indeed.