A few days after Christmas, Paula Rouco fell ill.
Dazed from the burning.
When Severo Laris came home from the law firm, he was startled to see the little creature lying on her back next to the bed, her little head tucked in and her long hair loose, lying limply in her cotton pajamas.
I thought someone had choked and died.
He went over to her and probed her nostrils, and there was still breath.
Severo Laris breathed a sigh of relief and lifted her up, reaching out to touch her slightly burned forehead.
Luckily, it wasn’t too hot.
The girl blinked sickly, smiled, and asked breathlessly, “Severo, am I going to die?”
“It doesn’t make sense. It’s just a low-grade fever, I’ll get the thermometer.”
Severo Laris tucked the thermometer under her armpit and ordered, “Take five minutes, hold it tight and don’t drop it, while I cook the porridge.”
Someone lay down on the bed, stroked her lips and tugged her sleeve, “I don’t want to eat the porridge.”
Because of the fever, my mouth was tasteless, even a little bitter, and I wanted to eat something with flavor.
Severo Laris turned and sat down beside her, his long, thin hand cupping her hot face as he asked in a low, muffled voice, “What would you like to eat?”
“I’d like to eat fried rice with minced pork and pickled beans.”
In the fridge at home, there happened to be quite a few pickled beans left over from the last trip home.
“Okay, I’ll do it, you keep an eye on the thermometer.”
Severo Laris went to the kitchen to cook and, after five minutes, returned restlessly to the bedroom.
He forgot to take the thermometer and stood there like a little piggy.
Severo Laris went over and took the thermometer from his armpit and looked at the temperature: “Thirty-eight degrees.”
Not to the point of taking a fever reducer, but to cover a sweat outside.
Severo Laris prepared the fried rice with minced pork and pickled beans, poured himself a cup of hot water and took it into the bedroom together.
Paula Rouco lay down on the bed and pointed her little finger to feed herself.
Severo Laris sat on the edge of the bed with a spoon and spooned rice mixed with minced pork and pickled beans into his mouth.
“How does it compare to my mother’s cooking, is it good?”
“Just as tasty. More capers.”
The girl’s little finger pointed to the bowl of pickled beans and ordered.
Severo Laris’s smile escaped his face, for he had a good appetite, it looked like nothing was wrong.
A bowl of rice with minced pork and pickled beans arrived quickly at the bottom.
Severo Laris passed the glass of water to her mouth and Paula Rouco drank another small glass of hot water and leaned back comfortably in her nest.
Severo Laris took his laptop out of the study to attend to her and sat by the window to work.
He watched her until the second half of the night and reached out to touch her forehead, which was no longer warm, before putting the computer away and going to shower.
After her bath, she had just laid down under the covers when the little boy crawled into her arms.
His fever had gone down, he had slept much more in the afternoon and was now in a very good mood, not knowing if he had a fever or what, asking him questions on the edge.
“Severo, will you buy me marshmallows and strawberries tomorrow?”
“Go to sleep, we’ll buy tomorrow.”
“Severo, will we always be together?”
Severo Laris looked into her pure, black and white eyes and took her in his arms, resting his chin gently against her forehead, and said firmly with a sigh, “Will, we will always be together.”
“Severo, I am so insecure, only when I cling to you, will I seem annoying if I cling more in the future?”
Severo Laris looked down, kissed her eyes and said, “No, it’s good that you’re clinging to me.”
Paula Rouco looked up at the ceiling, leaned back obediently and added, “When spring comes, you’ll take me to see the cherry blossoms at Ling Yue Temple, okay?”
Severo Laris buried himself in her hot neck and smiled softly, “Honey, get well soon, I’ll go with you to do whatever you want.”
Paula Rouco shook her head firmly and said righteously, “You can’t play along. You have to work hard to earn money to support me.”
Severo Laris’ gaze is deep and his eyes float with deep emotion.
Paula Rouco said, “You earn the money to support the family, I’ll play with things.”
With one arm around her and the other resting on the back of her neck, Severo Laris imagined a wonderful future for them, his heart full to the brim.
“Severo, could you change your Facebook nickname?”
His Facebook nickname is a dot, so random that it seems randomly written.
Severo Laris asks, “What for?”
“Work hard to earn money to support Lita.”
That night, Paula Rouco said a lot of nonsense in her arms, and when Severo Laris heard the long, weak breaths coming out of her arms, he pulled out his phone and changed his Facebook nick from “.” to “trying to earn money for lita.
In the gloom, he took another long look at her sleeping face.
Truly like a petulant toddler.
Severo Laris turned to his circle of friends and couldn’t help but post a dynamic -.
“What if my girlfriend looks too much like a child, is childish and always clingy?”.
The next morning, Severo Laris’ circle of friends exploded.
Commentary service.
Rufio gasps, “Gee, men in love like that?”
Lastra sneers, “Severo you’ve changed. It’s clear you’re an iceberg. You said the only thing you cared about was your career.”
Susana: “Is Severo really in love with someone, staying up in the middle of the night to post such nonsense of a friend?”
Rufio replied to Susana next, “They probably just hooked up, by the way, post-mortem update.”
Susana: “Blood dripping blood dripping blood dripping blood dripping blood dripping blood.”
Lastra: “You guys are a bunch of animals!”
Engracia’s fingers trembled a little at the sight of the circle of friends.
She had never known that Severo Laris would one day declare his ownership of a girl in such a loving and affectionate tone.
The Severo Laris she knows is discreet, does not reveal his personal feelings and does not get along well with this kind of circle of friends in love.
But after that, all Severo Laris’ friendships were with Paula Rouco.
“The bride is a little crybaby.”
“How someone loves so much fried minced pork with pickled beans. I ate it for three days straight.”
“Buy a few pounds of Ribs for someone with little stamina.”
“Promised someone a 90 in math on her final exam and took her to an amusement park.”
“Paula’s classmates made stewed shrimp that could poison a person, but they finished it anyway.”
“She’s the one who wants to watch ghost movies, and she’s the one who cries wolf.”
“Chips and milk for the kids.”
“The kids have recently gained two pounds, and the feeding can’t be interrupted toward a five-pound gain.”
…
The image of a friend posting a message has changed so much that unknowing people think Severo Laris has had his number stolen.
Even later, Engracia got so angry seeing it that she blanked Severo Laris.
Seeing is not seeing.
…
Near the end of her final exams, Paula Rouco picks up a small feral cat in the school garden.
Paula Rouco took the dirty kitten home and hid it for two days before Severo Laris found it.
Severo Laris is not a pet lover, nor is he very affectionate, it is enough to have one, he is no different from a small pet, he is not able to take care of himself, he messes up the house, eats chips and throws crumbs, throws clothes everywhere.
A wilder cat that doesn’t know what it’s doing and the house will be turned upside down.
Severo Laris wanted to throw the little stray cat out, but someone was holding him and sitting in the driveway, playing the game.
“If you don’t adopt him, throw me out with him.” And someone looked at him with a pitiful look of resignation.
Severo Laris squeezed his brow bone, helpless, and gestured to the two kittens sitting on the floor, “Come back.”
Someone sitting on the floor immediately smiled and picked up the kitten and walked over to him, “Severo, let’s bathe it together, you’ll love it when it’s clean. You’ll be amazed at the little pets you find and keep.”
“…” as the bride he picked up?
Paula Rouco also named the stray kitten Costillas.
Because when they were first picked up, the kittens were very thin.
Later, that kitten was pampered by Severo Laris and fed the size of Costillas to a fatty, but by then, Costillas had only his father and his mother, who had picked him up in the first place, had disappeared.