Chapter 3004: Taming the Stubborn 21

Chenshu had given up; not knowing where the strength came from, he suddenly broke free of Jin Chen's hand pinching his chin, ignoring the IV needle still in the back of his right hand, and domineeringly straddled Jin Chen's body. The needle on his hand was tugged by his movement, the IV tube swayed and stung, but he didn't care. He wrapped both arms around Jin Chen's neck, his broken-off tone wrapped in a coquettish way, like a threat.

"I thought that… but I don't dare. Now that you know, are you going to drive me away?"

"You can't abandon me after starting!"

Jin Chen: "……"

Jin Chen's anger hadn't faded, but he was first made somewhat helpless by his unreasonable attitude.

He sighed: "Chenshu."

Chenshu looked at him nervously.

"Are you an idiot?"

Chenshu's intestines were full of regret; hearing that, his sense of grievance grew stronger, he muttered, "What's wrong with being an idiot?" and just wanted to recklessly cling up and kiss Jin Chen's lips, trying to use this to block his later hurtful words.

Jin Chen turned his head to avoid it; Chenshu's kiss landed on the corner of his lips and missed, he whined resentfully, not giving up, he went to kiss his chin, his wet soft lips biting randomly on Jin Chen's clearly defined jaw, like an anxious puppy, trying to use this to mark possession.

But Jin Chen kept his lips tightly pressed, unmoved.

Chenshu struggled for a while, couldn't pry open those thin lips, and held back tears that welled up in his eyes.

He settled for second best, kissing Jin Chen's side neck, where the skin was warm and he could feel the steady pulse.

While kissing, he repeatedly said in a coquettish tone tinged with sobs, "Don't drive me away, don't drive me away……"

Chenshu realized more clearly than ever before that he simply could not accept Jin Chen ignoring him.

"You can't drive me away." Seeing Jin Chen still unresponsive, Chenshu lifted his head, staring at him stubbornly, his wet red eyes even flashing a hint of ruthlessness.

Jin Chen raised his hand, gently pushed away Chenshu's forehead that was too close, took out a handkerchief from his pocket with some distaste, wiped his chin that had been made wet from biting, and then lifted Chenshu off his body.

"I'll tend to your wounds."

Seeing Jin Chen about to leave, Chenshu wanted to sit up to stop him, but Jin Chen's indifferent glance kept him in place.

He could only, full of grievance, crawl back under the covers, still hanging the IV bag of anti-inflammatory medicine that was almost empty, looking longingly as Jin Chen tidied his already neat collar, then turned and left the master bedroom without looking back.

The door closed softly.

Chenshu stared at that door for a long time, until his eyes grew sore, then slowly curled up under the covers, huddling himself into a ball.

Jin Chen didn't promise not to drive him away, but… he also never explicitly said he would drive him away, right?

He needs to get better quickly.

Then… think of a way to make amends.

——

Jin Chen's subordinates have always been highly efficient.

He has operated in Yucheng for many years, with deep roots and a tangled network; although this port information leak incident was thorny, the situation was quickly brought under control.

What needed to be cleared was cleared, what needed to be deterred was deterred; in just half a month, the turmoil has subsided.

The only thing still underway is tracking the overseas force that received the encrypted information; their counter‑tracking measures are quite sophisticated, with many shifting jump points, clearly veterans.

For this, Jin Chen's top cyber‑security engineer was called in, analyzing day and night the intrusion records of that day, all data streams and traces on the USB drive.

That day, the engineer reported an interesting finding to Chen Gai.

"Brother Chen, we carefully analyzed Chenshu's operation logs that day and the copied file paths."

The engineer pushed up his glasses, pointing at the data flow chart on the screen: "Although he copied all recent cargo records and surveillance backups from East Port, you see, they are mainly concentrated in the past three months and involve routine records of ordinary bulk commodity trade; those involving sensitive materials, special routes, and the highest‑level encrypted surveillance logs show no trace of having been copied."

"Moreover," the engineer switched to another interface, showing blurry road‑camera footage near the abandoned factory: "We reviewed all surveillance around the factory that day; although the heavy rain affected visibility greatly, combining Chenshu's backup location trajectory, we can infer that before being subdued by Qin Ge's gang, he had fiercely resisted and tried to snatch the USB drive."

"He might have originally planned to, after the deal, pull a black‑on‑black and seize the goods back."

Chen Gai thought it over, and still reported the engineer's analysis and those investigated details, together with Chenshu's performance at the factory that day, unchanged, to Jin Chen, with Yan Rui adding a supplement on the side.

At that time, it was exactly lunchtime.

Perhaps after being cooped up in bed for over a month, with nutritionists and doctors constantly feeding him various soups, Chenshu's injuries had mostly healed—about seventy‑eighty percent; the scrapes on his forehead and mouth corners left only faint pink traces, the cut on his arm had its stitches removed, the bruises on his waist and back no longer hurt badly, and his complexion had regained some color.

But while his body healed, his heart grew heavier.

Over the past half month, he had simply had enough of days not seeing Jin Chen!

Every time he woke up and asked where Jin Chen was, the answer was always: "Sir left for the company early this morning."

Come evening, he would wait anxiously until late night, then ask again; the servant would look embarrassed and say: "Sir hasn't come back yet," or "Sir has already retired for the night."

In short, they just couldn't meet.

Once Chenshu really couldn't take it, feeling that staying cooped up in the room would get moldy and that this cold treatment and cold violence would drive him mad, he seized the moment when doctors and nurses changed shifts, while the servant was preparing dinner, he himself held high the IV bag that hadn't finished dripping, wearing his loose patient gown, tiptoed, sneaked out of the room, intending to go to the study or Jin Chen's bedroom to intercept him.

But as soon as he reached the turn of the second‑floor stairs, he saw Jin Chen just coming out of the first‑floor study, apparently about to go out.

Chenshu was delighted, raised the IV bag and took a couple quick steps, intending to call out to him.

"Husband……"

Before he could finish the word, he accidentally stepped on the overly long pant leg of his patient gown and also tripped over the IV tube hanging from his hand.

Chenshu instantly lost balance, let out a gasp; Jin Chen turned his head, saw him about to fall, rushed a few steps and steadied him in his arms; the IV bottle smashed onto the carpet, the needle pulled out from the back of his hand, bringing a few drops of blood.

Jin Chen: "……"

Chenshu, still shaken, lifted his head and met Jin Chen's expressionless face.

The relief of having survived, plus the longing and grievance of half a month apart, overwhelmed his reason; Chenshu didn't care whether he might have inflicted another wound, forgot how to write the characters for 'at fault', grabbed Jin Chen's shirt front with both hands, and fiercely bit at his tightly pressed lips.

Jin Chen probably didn't expect him to come just for this; a flash of anger crossed his eyes.

One hand still held Chenshu's waist to keep him from falling, the other hand rose and slapped his buttocks—made to look empty and saggy by the loose patient gown—several times.

"Mm!"

Chenshu hastily released his teeth from biting Jin Chen's lips; it wasn't very painful, but the embarrassment was overwhelming.

"Your wounds aren't fully healed and you dare to run around." Jin Chen's voice showed no emotion, but the hand gripping his waist tightened, pulling him away from the stair edge: "Looks like you haven't rested enough."

After that day, not only was sneaking out of the room to intercept him forbidden, even the right to loiter in the small living room and hallway outside his third‑floor room was taken away.

Jin Chen had A Meng assign two more people to guard the door, to stop the patient from running around and hindering recovery.

Chenshu was so angry he pounded the pillow in the room, and having no choice, could only look even more eagerly for the doctor to relent, allowing him to move freely.

And then he was back to today.

In short, after receiving Doctor Liu's approval to go downstairs and walk around appropriately, while avoiding strenuous exercise, Chenshu could hardly wait and went downstairs.