Seeing this, Isabelle's face turned pale white. She bit her bottom lip and asked in a low voice, "Was it when you came to rescue me? Was that when you got injured?"
They were filming a modern drama, so there weren't any fighting scenes. The only thing that could have injured him was when he grazed himself whilst catching her as she fell off the swing...
Isabelle suddenly thought back to the look Alexander had given her that day when she opened her eyes. Those eyes had been filled with worry and confusion. However, his expression changed very quickly, and so she wasn't quite sure. Deep down, she was a little doubtful, but now, seeing that he had injured his back, the absolute doubt and struggle that she had tried hard to forget, her inner most feelings resurfaced once again...
Alex... did he... care a bit about her deep down inside? Or else, why would he sacrifice himself to save her?
Her heart was confused. Her intuition told her that she guessed correctly, but she was also afraid that she was just over-thinking things. In her heart, she thought about it for a long time. By the end, she couldn't help but gently lift her eyelids to look up at the side of Alexander's face. She carefully worded her question and asked, "That day, why did you save me?"
Alexander's fingers trembled lightly as he tried to grab Isabelle's hands. He tightly grasped and let go again... he let go and grasped again tightly. In the end, he fell back on the bed without a sound. After staying silent for a long while, he then shut his eyes and masked his emotions, then said in a flat tone, "If anything unfortunate were to really happen to you on set, there's no way I could explain it to James."
Why did he save her? He loved her so much... How could he let her get hurt right in front of him?
He thought... the most depressing thing in the world was probably this. He clearly cared about her, which is why he was so selflessly brave. However, he could only find a reasonable excuse to make himself look like he didn't care.
So he actually saved her, all because of his brother... Isabelle was disappointed, but she still let out an "Oh" to say she understood.
Alexander didn't make a sound.
After staying silent for a long time, Isabelle then remembered why she was here. She looked at the wound on Alexander's back. She wanted to reach over to touch it but was afraid to hurt him. Eventually, she pulled her fingers back and asked in gentle voice, "Doesn't it hurt?"
Alexander's hand tightly grasped the bedding.
Doesn't it hurt?
They were such simple words, but to him, they were what he had once craved.
Because he had a bone marrow transplant when he was young, his health was abnormally weak. After his mother passed away, how could a child only ten years old look after himself. He would often have a cold or get a fever.
When he went to the clinic, he would see other children his age treated like gems by their parents, but he would forever be alone. Back then, he was young and craved attention. Even though his mother told him that his father and the Williams family had nothing to do with him, he still ran over to the Williams family's apartment block doors with a fever. Hoping to get just a little of his father's attention... no... just to be seen, he waited at the doorstep for a very long time before his father finally came to him. But before he could speak, his father furrowed his brows and asked with a dark look, "Who allowed you to come here? Leave!"
His father didn't even look at him but walked into the office block. To his father, Alexander was of no relation to him, as if he was a stranger.
There was practically no one who cared if he suffered when he was sick, if he was injured and in pain to the point where he felt that he could never feel suffering or pain.
But now, she actually asked if he was in pain...
They were such careless words, but they easily pierced the softest part of his heart.
When Isabelle posed her question, she reached and opened her bag, took out the disinfectant, ointment, and bandages she had bought in the pharmacy.
She picked the cotton swabs to firstly disinfect Alexander's back. Perhaps because of the pain, Alexander's back suddenly tightened.
As though Isabelle also felt the same pain travel through her, her hand struggled to hold the cotton swab.
To stay composed and divert her attention, she couldn't help but ask, "When you got injured, why didn't you say anything? Even if you didn't want to let other people know, you still had to go to the hospital to get it checked up. If the wound isn't properly handled, it could easily get infected.
"Also, yesterday, why did you drink so much? With an injury like this, you shouldn't drink alcohol at all... For someone so old now, how can you not look after yourself..."
Ever since Alexander was young, his personality was always that of a loner; he preferred silence. However, now, by his ear, all he could hear around him was her gentle, long-winded chatter.
Perhaps because it was the first time Isabelle had to take care of such a ghastly-looking wound, she seemed particularly timid. Her voice carried a slight tremble, which made her gentle voice sound especially cute and attractive.
She said one thing after another, without repeating a sentence, nor showing a hint of stopping. Yet, he didn't think that it was the least bit annoying. In actuality, as listened to her jabber on, an indescribable warmth took over his heart.
With eyes shut and body spread out on the bed, Alexander didn't say a word. It looked as though he had fallen asleep, but the corner of his lips hidden under his arms carried a slight hint of a smile.
Only when Isabelle finished handling Alexander's wound did, she climb down from his body. Then, taking a few anti-inflammatory pills into her hand, she said, "Take some of these pills, you'll get better in no time."
As she said this, she grabbed the bottled water from the cabinet by the headboard. She twisted the cap off and carried it over to the bed. That was when she discovered his eyes were shut, his breathing was long and heavy, and he had already fell asleep.
His eyelashes were long, like two wings. Under the light, his nose line was accentuated, forming a beautiful shadow.
His expression was still and calm. The corner of his lips was slightly arched, as if he was smiling. His dazzling features unexpectedly contained a hint of warmth.
Isabelle bent her body to stare at Alexander's face for a very long time. She couldn't help but draw closer, and secretly plant a light kiss on his face, before running away, blushing like crazy. She took the bottled water and pills to the cabinet by the headboard. Then she discreetly pulled the blanket over his body, picked her own bag, and quickly left the bedroom.
Alexander had woken up early in the morning to come to the villa. As he still had a slight fever, he never slept well, and so listening to Isabelle's chatter, he unwittingly nodded off.
That nap, he fell into a particularly deep sleep. When he woke up again, sky outside his window was already dark. As the lights were off in his room, it was pitch-black.
Alexander felt around for the remote control. He turned on all the lights in the villa. Seeing that he was the only one in the room, he instinctively raised his arm to rub the bandage on his back. With this, he confirmed that Isabelle had really been here this afternoon. He then flew off the bed and left the room.
The villa was very quiet. Apart from his footsteps, no other sounds could be heard. The floor-to-ceiling window on the first floor wasn't shut, and so the cold night air blew the curtains, fluttering them endlessly.
Alexander went around the whole villa but couldn't see Isabelle at all. A hint of disappointment couldn't help but appear in his heart. She had already left... Alexander stood in the large empty living room on his own for a long while before pursing his lips and striding up the stairs. He circled the bedroom once more before finally taking a few pills from the cabinet by the bedhead.
Alexander's line of sight instantly paused. He quietly stared for a long time, and then pulled out a cigarette from the side-drawer, sitting down. He lit it up but didn't take a hit, as he heard a faint sound coming from downstairs.
He furrowed his brows and listened carefully. There was in fact a faint sound of footsteps. Thereupon, he put out the cigarette in his hand in the ash tray, then quickly got up and left the room. Just as he reached the stairs, he saw Isabelle panting, carrying a large bag into the dining room.
Alexander strode over, casually going down the stairs towards the dining room.
The dining room's door was open, and he saw her taking one dish out after the other from her bag of takeaway and place them neatly on the dining table.
Alexander didn't say a word to disturb her, leaning on the dining room door as he quietly watched.
Isabelle neatly packed everything away, looked at the table of food, and clapped her hands in satisfaction. She turned around then, ready to call Alexander for dinner. When she saw him posed leisurely at the door, she jumped in shock, but then smiled at him. "You're up? Then go wash your hands for dinner."
Alexander didn't move but stared into Isabelle's eyes for a while, then asked, "You went out just now to get take out?"
Isabelle nodded, then said with a hint of an anger in her voice, "You live too far. They wouldn't deliver here, and so I had to drive over there myself to get it."
So she didn't leave after all... Alexander's heart relaxed a little. He slowly stood upright, turned towards the first floor, and went to the communal bathroom to wash his hands. When he came back, Isabelle already sat obediently at the dining table, waiting for him.
As she saw him come in, she said, "I can't cook, and I don't know what you like to eat, so I bought some rather bland food."
Alexander pulled out the chair in front of Isabelle and sat down. He glanced over five dishes and one soup. The meat and vegetables suited each other well, and nutrition was well balanced. He nodded at Isabelle and picked up the chopsticks that she'd prepared for him earlier and started to eat.
After a few bites, Alexander raised his head and looked at Isabelle, who was eating in silence. He stopped for a moment, thinking of a topic for conversation. He asked, "How did you get in?"
Alexander rarely spoke to Isabelle before, and so she only realized whilst she was about to take a bite that he had asked her a question. She swallowed the food on her chopstick, blinking at him. Flustered, she stumbled to say in a low voice, "I climbed through a window."
Climbed through a window... The corners of Alexander's lips couldn't help but twitch. He picked up his chopsticks and shoved some random dish into his mouth to stop his smile from surfacing. With a straight face, he continued to eat without saying a word.
Isabelle carefully looked at Alexander for a while. It didn't seem like he had any intention of chasing or arguing about past events. Consequently, she let go and took a bite of her food. She lowered her head and continued to innocently and sincerely scrape her rice.
The dining room was very quiet. The two of them ate their meal facing each other in silence.
Just when they were about to finish eating, Alexander suddenly broke the silence, and with no warning at all, threw six numbers at her.
Isabelle spaced out for a moment, then raised her head and stared up at Alexander, clueless with her big eyes.
Alexander shot Isabelle a glance, and continued to virtuously eat in peace. Just when he was full, he put his chopsticks down and repeated the six numbers, followed by the question, "Got it?"
What was that? Isabelle innocently blinked her big round eyes. She nodded at first to say she'd remembered, but then shook her head.
Alexander creased his brows, a helpless look on his face. With hints of wanting to spoil her, he stood up and walked out of the dining room. After a while, he came back with a piece of paper and pushed it in front of Isabelle.
On the piece of paper, he wrote down the six numbers he had just said in cursive handwriting.
Isabelle looked at the piece of paper. Then raised her head up at Alexander.
He looked down at her from above. His extraordinary handsome face didn't have much of an expression when he stretched his clean, long fingers and pointed at the paper. With two clear knocks of the table, he simply said the five words, "The passcode to the mansion."
He turned around and left the dining room.
As thought he had thought of something, Alexander stopped at the door, turned around, and said to her, "From now on, don't climb through the window. If the security system goes off, it'll call the police. If that time comes, don't call me to bail you out from the police station."
Having said what he wanted, Alexander strode off.
When he reached upstairs, he turned to the floor-to-ceiling window behind him to find that it really wasn't closed shut.
He hadn't even told his assistant about this mansion, because when he was in a bad mood or ill, he liked to stay here alone. For this reason, he didn't bother finding a part-time cleaner, and so it was up to him alone to take care of the cleanliness of the mansion. A few months ago, when he came over, he watered the flowers on his way to open the windows for some fresh air. It must've been then that he forgot to close it...
When Alexander reached out to lock the floor-to-ceiling window, he thought about the person sitting in the dining room nibbling at her food. His movements paused for a moment. In the end, he gave up and allowed the window to remain wide open. He turned and walked upstairs.
A passcode of six numbers. After saying it twice, Isabelle still couldn't remember it. Written down on paper, who knows if she'll turn around and lose it. Eventually when she came over again... then she'll still have to climb through the window... Since she likes to climb through the window, he'd better leave it open for her to climb through in the future...