My Dearest General: It Has Always Been You

Si Zhening arrived together with Ru Meiqi, a medical kit in his hand. "Young Master Jiang, Miss Shi, who is injured?"

Jiang Jinyan was sitting on the bed, all prim and proper whilst Shi Nian sat on the furthest couch with her coat buttoned until the top, covering her whole body. The weather was indeed cold in the Capital, but it's different here, in a tropical island where the lowest temperature barely reached eighteen degrees. It was obviously hot, bundled up like that, yet she still wasn't willing to take it off no matter how flushed her face was.

Hearing Si Zhening's answer, Shi Nian pointed toward Jiang Jinyan with a humph.

Ru Meiqi looked at them back and forth and rubbed her chin, a meaningful smile on her face.

"It's me." Jiang Jinyan echoed along. "Sorry for bothering you this late at night, Secretary Si, Miss Ru. It's just a small wound but Shi Nian overreacted."

"I overreacted?" Shi Nian repeated, incredulous. His arm had gotten all bloody like that but he still said she's overreacting?

"No, I misspoke." He corrected his words without batting an eyelid. "I am the one who overreacted."

Shi Nian harrumphed and turned her head away, half angry and half amused. Who did he want to kid with that sorry excuse?

"Excuse me, let me see." Si Zhening stepped forward but he was held back by Ru Meiqi. Confused, he looked at her inquiringly. "Miss Ru…?"

Ru Meiqi boldly snatched the medical kit away from him and threw it into Shi Nian's arms. "Alright, it's already late into the night so let's not bother the youngsters anymore. Shi Nian can treat Mr. Jiang's wounds just fine, right?" The last sentence was clearly directed to Shi Nian.

She blinked, baffled and pointed toward her own nose. "Me…?"

"You can't?" Ru Meiqi asked in return.

"I—" Three pairs of eyes nailed onto her, but the worst one was Jiang Jinyan's. Shi Nian couldn't bear to refuse, not when he was looking at her like that. Otherwise she would feel like she had just committed a felony. "I can…" She mumbled in resignation.

"Alright! After you treat Mr. Jiang's wounds, make sure to have a good rest. Your room is next door." Ru Meiqi gave her a wink that made her embarrassed for no reason. "We will not bother you anymore. See you tomorrow morning!" The woman cheerfully dragged the clueless Si Zhening away and closed the door behind them, leaving Shi Nian with him in this suffocating silence.

"So," Jiang Jinyan chuckled lightly. "Are you treating me or not?"

Huffing, Shi Nian didn't have any choice but to approach him. "Of course I will! But you…" Eyes lustrously bright and cheeks rosy, she bared her teeth. "No biting again okay?!"

Jiang Jinyan's eyes deepened and he smiled softly. "…okay."

Shi Nian sat on the bedside and rolled up his sleeve. "Let me see…you shouldn't hurt yourself again. Isn't it painful? Why are you so silly?" She grumbled and pinched an iodine cotton with a tweezer, slowly cleaning the dried blood around the wound.

"…Does it hurt?" She peeked at him.

"No."

Although he said that, Shi Nian still blew on it as she dabbed the red medicine on it as softly as she could. Her heart couldn't help but ache when she saw the obvious nail marks. "Seriously, what were you going to do if I didn't come?"

Jiang Jinyan lowered his head to look at her, his eyes softening. "I don't know…" He reached out and tucked a lock of silky hair behind her ear, pinching her soft earlobe along the way. "That's why, you shouldn't leave me alone or else, I don't know what will happen to me."

The rims of Shi Nian's eyes reddened and she hastily lowered her eyes to hide the tears. "I won't." She said quietly. After a while, she gingerly asked,"Your father…is he okay?"

"He's fine." His eyes instantly hardened. Even the atmosphere around him felt biting cold, heavy and pressurizing.

"Alright, that's very good to hear." Shi Nian sensed the change in him and didn't ask anymore. After that, she proceeded to wound his arms with gauze. "Okay done!" She gave him a grin and stroked his head, easing the messy strands of hair and enjoying the silky sensation between her fingers. "Don't let it touch water when you bathe and tomorrow, I will change the bandage for you."

He grabbed her hand, almost subconsciously. "Where are you going?"

"Ah, I—" Shi Nian answered, baffled. "I am going back to my room…"

Jiang Jinyan frowned and said with all seriousness. "Haven't you just said that you will not leave me alone anymore?"

Shi Nian was rendered speechless by his audacity. "So…what do you want me to do?"

Under her stunned gaze, he scooted in and patted the space beside him. "Come here. I want to cuddle with you."

Shi Nian almost clutched her chest, feeling like she was going to get a heart attack sooner or later. Why…Why was Jiang Jinyan so different tonight?! The restrained, reticent man seemed to lose all his inhibition in a single day. Every word he blurted managed to make her heart race faster and faster. Blood pumped to her head and she got so dizzy that she couldn't think straight. "No…don't want. You will bite me again."

Jiang Jinyan's gaze was perfectly sincere, so sincere that she couldn't pick on any flaws. "I won't. Trust me, hmm?"

Shi Nian already had an innate trust toward Jiang Jinyan to begin with. Now that the man pleaded like this, she couldn't bring herself to say no. "No biting, okay?" She asserted once again.

Jiang Jinyan chuckled as he tugged on her softly. "Okay."

Shi Nian took off her coat and slowly climbed to his side. Jiang Jinyan opened the blanket and enveloped both of them in it. It was so warm, tinged with the man's cool scent mixed with the pungent smell of medicine. Shi Nian lied on her side and took special notice not to bump into his injured arm.

But her careful act seemed to have made him dissatisfied. Frowning, he complained. "Why are you so far away?"

Shi Nian blinked and slowly moved closer half an inch.

Jiang Jinyan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "I only injured my skin, not my bones. How can I cuddle when I can't even hug you?" In a yank, he pulled her closer until her head leaned onto his shoulder and the man's arms wrapped around her. Only then did he heave a sigh.

"Your wound—"

"Hush." He pressed her head back down. "Let's sleep."

Her heart was pounding rapidly, how could she sleep in a situation like this?! Shi Nian secretly held her breath and tried to remain still until Jiang Jinyan fell asleep. However, not even five minutes later Jiang Jinyan suddenly spoke, "Are you asleep?"

"…No," she said quietly. "Why aren't you asleep?"

"I can't sleep." He chuckled. "This is the first time I have someone sleeping by my side. I can't get used to it."

A smile made its way to her face. "Me too. But when I was young, my mother used to sleep with me until I could get to the bathroom myself. After that, no matter how many times I threw a tantrum, she didn't budge. She said that a woman should depend on herself first before anyone else."

Jiang Jinyan loosened his embrace and slightly pulled away. Shi Nian thought that she could finally take a breather but when Jiang Jinyan looked at her with smiles, his eyes lazy and languid, her heart beat faster instead. "She's a good mother."

Dazed, Shi Nian blurted out the first thing in her mind. "What about your mother? I have never heard you talking about her…"

Sadness flashed in Jiang Jinyan's eyes. He lowered his eyes and said in a quiet voice. "She passed away this summer."

Shi Nian sobered up in an instant, her expression sank. "I—I am sorry…"

"No, it's okay." The corner of his lips tilted upward. "Maybe because you're here with me, I feel calmer and serene." He placed a hand over his chest. "It's so peaceful here whenever I am with you. Sometimes, I wonder why…you're just so magical. What should I do without you?"

Shi Nian reached out gingerly and grasped his hand. Their fingers gradually intertwined on Jiang Jinyan's chest, one lean and calloused, the other slender and fair, like two souls that blended with each other, inseparable until the end of time. 

"I love you..." She whispered.

Jiang Jinyan closed his eyes, seemingly to savor the girl's words or to suppress something surging within. Maybe both. "You know," He said with throaty voice when Shi Nian thought that he had fallen asleep. "On your birthday…that day, there's something that I have prepared to tell you if not for those gangsters blocking us. Do you remember?"

Shi Nian's heart jumped to her throat for some reason. She swallowed with difficulty, "…What is it?"

"Shi Nian," The man's eyelids lifted, baring a pair of extremely dark, piercing eyes that bewitched her soul. Yet the voice that came out of his lips was exceedingly tender and gentle. Truly, like a devil's whisper that demanded no rebuttal. "Be my girlfriend, okay?"

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A/N: Finally, after almost 300 chapters, our main leads got together! (ﾉ≧∀≦)ﾉ(ﾉ≧∀≦)ﾉ(ﾉ≧∀≦)ﾉ Sorry to have made you all wait oh! I know MDG is kinda slow and I'm still trying to match the rapid pace in most hahaha

And yes, if there's no people obstructing them that day, Jiang Jinyan and Shi Nian would have gotten together right on her 17th birthday! He's so sweet to wait until she becomes a legal (ﾉ≧∀≦)ﾉ