Recalling the first memory of being ambushed, the man gritted his teeth. It was a memory he had forgotten due to the absurd and confusing situation he faced in an abnormal state.
“Uh? Teacher! The patient is groaning! He seems to be having a nightmare again.”
The man let out a small sigh of resignation.
The kid, mistaking it for a nightmare, patted the man’s arm with his little hand.
Thus, the man continued pretending to be asleep.
‘So, that’s why. I wanted to keep it hidden.’
It was a bittersweet truth.
As much as the idea of the woman ready to flee with the kid with a sleeping potion was amusing, he could understand it.
To the powerless woman and child, his presence could seem threatening.
‘I’ll have to postpone it as long as possible.’
By delaying, his acting of pretending to sleep had become quite convincing.
“Teacher. The patient seems uncomfortable. We should lift his head a bit! No, that won’t do! The patient is heavy. Hmm…”
Suddenly, his neck was lifted, and his position became awkward, followed by a strong scent of herbs.
“Teacher, you should do what sister Birena did for me. It’s called a knee pillow!”
The man belatedly understood the situation from the kid’s words.
He kept stiffly accepting the food.
The strong herbal scent coming from the woman was very comforting. It lingered faintly in the cave whenever he was alone, a refuge of sorts.
Had he been too complacent? Or was it a consequence of deceiving the innocent duo with the excuse of fearing the sleeping powder?
[The patient is like a baby!]“How can this body be considered a baby?”
His voice, rough from disuse, was extremely dry.
Even in the dark, his solid muscles and large stature were sensually noticeable.
The man brushed his bothersome hair off his forehead.
“It seems I have to reveal it tomorrow.”
Although he wasn’t exactly proud of it, he didn’t want to be treated like a baby forever.
Moreover, the two of them had discussed his family.
Since the woman hadn’t tried to find out his identity, it was now up to him to step forward.
‘I might have a family out there, worried about me.’
He felt a tightening in his chest.
The man got out of the quiet bed, loosening his cramped muscles, and walked out of the dark cave with ease.
“She seemed clueless, so maybe she’ll throw the sleeping powder first, like last time.”
He pondered how to reveal himself to the woman without startling her as the night deepened.
However, he had overlooked something.
Sharti was quite perceptive.
A person’s muscles behave differently when asleep and awake. The difference in consciousness was quite significant.
The heartbeat felt through the skin also had subtle variations.
‘It seems he was conscious after all.’
At first, it was just a suspicion. There wasn’t anything particularly suspicious about the man who seemed to do nothing but sleep.
But the subtle cues from the man deepened her doubts.
‘Too many strange things.’
The position of the camouflage at the cave entrance, the direction in which the beast repellent herbs were scattered on the ground, the forest’s wind smell on the man apart from the herbal scent.
Moreover, she had honed her hearing in place of her damaged voice.
Occasionally, the heartbeat felt through the man’s skin also showed subtle differences.
‘Until now… Yeah, I was being naive.’
Even when she noticed the man’s suspicious and subtle gaps, Sharti foolishly dismissed them as her imagination.
She hadn’t expected the man to be acting.
It was her first time caring for a long-term patient, and the pressure of making decisions as a doctor without a guardian was immense.
The fact that she was sheltering a stranger was unsettling enough.
‘Maybe I was hoping the man wouldn’t wake up all this time.’
She had ignored the signals from her eyes and ears, not wanting to get entangled in complex realities.
The thought of encountering the man again, who had been threatening and reeking of blood when they first met in the cave, made her prematurely scared.
‘Does he remember that I attacked him with a bag of sleeping powder?’
She guessed why the man hadn’t moved rashly and was pretending.
Sharti swallowed a sigh. There must be misunderstandings between them, having never had a proper conversation.
‘Continuing to pretend I don’t know isn’t going to help.’
Sharti tried to think positively.
‘He must have a lot of questions for me, having woken up in a cave being treated by a stranger. And surely he wouldn’t attack me right away. After all, I’ve been taking care of him.’
Early in the morning, leaving the old log house, Sharti let out a long sigh.
Delaying wouldn’t bring any answers.
‘I usually wouldn’t go to the cave around this time.’
She planned to leave medicine and food in the cave for a week and then cut off her visits, thinking her job was done as his recovery was complete.
But thinking of Tein, she couldn’t do it.
Sharti recalled Tein’s unexpected confession as he tightly held her hand while descending the mountain.
[You didn’t ignore the dangerous patient. You didn’t run away but treated him. You’re the doctor I admire!]How could she disappoint a child who looked up to her with such pure, bright eyes, calling her an admirable doctor?
Leaving the patient without properly finishing the treatment was out of the question.
With a heavy heart, Sharti headed to the village early in the morning, as usual.
Male lead reborn without memories — but he still falls for her.
The person he finds displeasing in this life turns out to be his cherished wife-master in previous life…
Xie Zhi and Fang Xianxing who had known each other for less than three days through a blind date sat in the same car in front of the civil affairs bureau. They had a disagreement and failed to get married.
Xie Zhi immediately took out his phone, slid through his contacts, and randomly selected the next marriage candidate.
The woman snatched his phone and hung up. Looking at his phone wallpaper, she awkwardly changed the subject: “An ancient painting, eh? It looks pretty good, it’s just that the person in the painting looks a bit like me.”
When he heard this, he sarcastically mocked her for being so delusional, completely unaware that, the person in front of him was the reincarnation of Wen Ru, the famous prime minister of Yuan Shun whom he most admired…
The female CEO who doesn’t want to get married with a divorce agreement in hand × The male archaeological researcher who will only get married if he’s sure he can get divorced
