"I gave my word to Opa and Yanyan," said Shui Xian. "That I'll take good care of you. Yanyan said you don't know how to take care of yourself and she was right. You really don't know." He held her gaze and added, "This might be unnecessary to you but I don't see it that way. Yes, this is a small wound but if it's left unattended, who knows what will happen? It's not like just because it hurts today, you aren't gonna wear stilettos tomorrow. So, I have to do what I can."
"Do I look like a fragile doll to you?" she inquired.
Shui Xian stopped what he was doing. He extended his fingers to graze her cheek. The touch of his cold fingers made her rub her face against his hand and he chuckled at her reaction, "You are by no means a fragile doll. But you're someone very dear to me. And when someone is precious to us, we cherish it."
Raelle chose not to continue this discussion and leaned back to relax. Who knew when she did, her eyes would catch sight of something on the wall that made her freeze right where she was. Seeing how her body stiffened in his hand, Shui Xian looked up at her to see what happened.
Her eyes wandered around the room and settled back on him. It was the second time in the same day she didn't know how she was supposed to react.
When Shui Xian realized why she had such a reaction, he smiled to himself and questioned, "Do you like it?" He had been anticipating her reaction from the moment he followed her upstairs. Who knew his wife would only notice the change in their surrounding now? And in fact, because of her matter, even he forgot what he was up to.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"You," she didn't know how to continue. "When did you do this?"
"Today," answered Shui Xian. "I came earlier than you, no? In fact, I came an hour earlier than you for this surprise."
Raelle's eyes moved around the walls again. There wasn't something extraordinary there that shocked her. It was just a photo of them together that was framed and hung up on the wall behind the bed. There was a large portrait in the middle and a few smaller ones scattered around in the bedroom.
Even of the bedside tables, he had placed their photos. The only difference was that on her side, it was his photo and on his side, he had placed her photo. The rest of the frames in the room contained their couple photos that had been taken from the time they got married. In fact, this crazy husband of hers actually framed the very first selfie they took on the day they registered their marriage and placed it in the middle as the huge portrait.
Seeing her quiet, he asked, "You didn't tell. Do you like it?" He put her feet down and wiped his hands with a wet towel before sitting down beside her. He hugged her body and pulled her on his legs.
"Like?" she repeated. "I don't know," she answered honestly. Seeing him frown, she pressed down on the cresses on his forehead and added, "Don't frown. I really can't tell if I like it. But I can tell you I find it a bit out of place."
"Huh? Why?"
"I have never been fond of pictures," answered Raelle. "Do you really think I'll be okay with seeing my own face pasted around the room?"
"I don't mind," said Shui Xian. He nuzzled her neck and went on, "In fact, I love seeing your face around this room. In a true sense, now it feels like this room belongs to just the two of us. It's our space."
"You like it?" she questioned.
"As I said, I love it!" he told her with a smile.
Raelle leaned her head against his and said, "Then that'd be enough. I'll get used to seeing my face around this room, eventually." She pointed at that very first selfie of theirs and questioned, "But did you have to turn that one into such a big portrait? Couldn't you find a better picture?"
"What's wrong with that one?" he asked.
"That was a casual and very random click," answered Raelle.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"That's the beauty of that picture," he said as he kissed her cheek and rubbed his nose against her cheek. "Baby, that's where we began. That's the start of our marriage. Maybe people won't find anything special about that picture but to you and me, that's our moment. That's the start of our journey. It's more than special to me."
Raelle nodded her head in agreement, "That's also true. That really is our beginning and one should never forget where one began." She held his hand in her own and said, "As I said earlier, my husband loves bringing himself unnecessary trouble. This was really not needed. However, you did it for us, and I want to say thank you for that."
Shui Xian chuckled and hugged her close, "I didn't do it to hear you say thank you."
"Oh, then why did you do it?"
"Because I wanted to," he retorted.
Raelle patted his head in encouragement, "That's good. Keep it up. One should always do what one wants to do. We should never do things to please others."
Shui Xian didn't know whether to laugh or cry right now. He nudged her head, "My dear wife, the only one I want to please is you. And it'll always be you."
"I didn't ask you to please me," she said. "But since you love trouble, go for it!"
Shui Xian was amused by her words and shook his head at her.
"Let's go down now," said Raelle. "It's almost time for dinner."
Shui Xian didn't let her get up as he continued to hug her tightly. "Let's just stay like this for a bit longer.. Eh? Don't move around all the time."