Leonardo took the white wine, as well as the towel, and returned to the room.
By the time he stepped in, Summer was already sitting up in bed, seemingly still in a trance.
Her face was flushed and her brows were furrowed. Not to mention, her eyes were watery because of the fever.
She squinted hard before she was able to make out who was coming in.
“Where have you been?” she asked when he came closer.
She spoke a little slower than usual, making it sound like she deserved his sympathy.
Leonardo sat down on the edge of the bed. She was only wearing his shirt, so when he looked down, he could see her beautiful fair thighs.
She had to be disoriented from the fever.
Leonardo pulled the blanket over her and said, “Lie back down.”
“No.” She pressed her lips together.
She could not think straight at that moment due to the fever. It did not matter what Leonardo said, he just sounded unfriendly to her, and she refused to listen.
Leonardo stared at her for a few seconds. As though he had read her mind, he creased his brows and softened his tone. “Lie back down.”
“Oh.” Summer was very cooperative this time.
She had lost all her strength by then. She fell back down straight away after she heard what Leonardo said.
Luckily enough, Leonardo caught her just in time.
She was too weak. Leonardo held her by her shoulders and lowered her down on the bed.
He put his hand against her forehead, which was burning hot.
He opened the white wine, took a look, then put it back down.
White wine could lower physical temperature, but it should be used as a last resort.
Leonardo placed the damp towel on her forehead and pulled the blanket over her before he went downstairs.
The elderly man was sitting at the doorway with his cat in his arms and a long tobacco pipe in one of his hands. He shoved some tobacco inside and lit it up.
He then smoked the tobacco that he planted. Unprocessed, it had a pungent smell.
Leonardo subtly raised his eyebrows as he sat across the elderly man.
The elderly man handed his tobacco pipe to him. “You want some?”
“No, thanks.”
“How’s your wife?” It just seemed like a casual question that came out of the elderly man’s mouth after a drag.
“She’s fine.” There was no change in Leonardo’s expression.
“You live in the city. What are you doing here?” The elderly man gave the pipe a couple of puffs and looked at him.
“I’m here for business.” He glossed over the question.
The elderly man probably realized that Leonardo was a man of few words, so he did not ask further. Instead, he started to study him.
The man in front of him was tall and handsome with deep-set eyes. The rag on him could not hide his elite upbringing. He knew that this young man was not any Tom, Dick, and Harry.
…
Summer woke up and found herself in a dim space.
She allowed her eyes to adapt to it for a few moments before she saw the room’s interior.
Above her was not the familiar ceiling that she would see whenever she woke up early in the morning. In its place were beams of solid wood and black tiles.
There was no extra décor in the room. From where she lay, she could only see what looked like a cupboard and sense a damp smell of wood.
As she recovered her senses, she finally realized that there was a towel on her forehead.
Her body temperature had nearly dried the towel.
She could only vaguely recall that Leonardo had come for her.
Summer bounced up and sat in bed, her head spinning. She waited it out for several seconds before she got out of bed and headed to the door.
Her eyes caught sight of a stairway as she opened the door, and she could hear the voice of an old man downstairs. Occasionally, a younger-sounding voice would chime in.
Summer stood at the doorway and listened in for a while, discovering that the young voice would only respond with a syllable after the old voice spoke for a long time.
It would be a short “mhm” and “yeah”, but Summer could identify the voice as Leonardo’s.
She was elated and excited to go downstairs.
However, after she took two steps forward, she realized that she only had a shirt on her. She quickly returned to the room and found the light switch somewhere behind the door.
She flicked the switch, but nothing happened; the lamp did not light up.
There was a blackout, which was expected given the heavy rain and the mudslides that had been occurring for the past few days.
There was not a lot of stuff in the room. She rummaged around for some time but did not manage to find any clothes.
With no other option, she got back in bed and waited for Leonardo to come back.
Fortunately, she did not have to wait for too long.
Less than ten minutes later, she heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
They sounded steady, which meant it was Leonardo.
Sure enough, a moment later, the door was pushed open, and Leonardo came in. He was holding a candle in one hand and Summer’s clothes in the other.
As the yellowish-orange candlelight illuminated the dim room, Summer was immediately able to see his face.
“Leonardo!” Her voice was filled with a pleasant surprise.
He said nothing as he walked to the bedside. With the candle still in his hand, he placed her clothes on the bed and held his hand against her forehead.
After he made sure that her forehead was not as hot as before, he got to his feet.
Only then did Summer notice the clothes that Leonardo was wearing.
It was a pair of military-green overalls, a little like those worn by people in the nineties as shown on TV.
Nonetheless, being Leonardo, even if he wore a rag, his elite appearance and demeanor would be hard to miss.
Leonardo looked down and found that Summer was staring at him. “Put your clothes on.” He frowned.
Summer took her clothes, which had a burnt smell on them, and guessed that Leonardo must have helped dry her clothes over the fire.
After all, there was no electric dryer in such a place.
She looked at her clothes and then at Leonardo. “Turn around!”
Leonardo cocked an eyebrow as he looked at her. “I saw enough when you begged me to shower you earlier.” Right then, he added, “There wasn’t much to see.”
Summer pursed her lips and glared at him. Then she whisked the blanket away and started to get changed.
The entire time, he stared at her while she was at it, his eyes unblinking.
Summer felt her body temperature, which had gone down, rise again.
She blushed and felt a fire burning inside her as Leonardo gawked at her while she got changed.
Summer was more convinced than ever that no matter how one’s memory changed, shameless is as shameless does.
She got out of bed and looked at him provocatively. “You have to take responsibility for what you’ve seen.”
Leonardo hissed. “Because of you, I’m stranded in such a place now. Do you want to take responsibility for that? Do you have any idea how much work in Emerson Group ends up unfinished with each day I’m stranded here?”
His words destroyed the little gratitude she still felt toward him.
She gritted her teeth. “Then you shouldn’t have come! Why did you come?” She sounded quite vexed.