Perhaps Samuel was too focused, as he didn't even respond when Ella softly called him.
The ward was so quiet that the buzz of Samuel's cellphone was very clear.
The phone buzzed several times. Samuel finally grabbed it from the table. His eyes darkened when he saw the caller ID.
A soft voice held him back when he was about to go out to answer the phone, "Samuel." Ella's voice was very soft, for she was too hungry to talk.
Maybe their son had too good an appetite. She always felt starving after breastfeeding him.
Samuel looked at the caller ID on the screen again, hesitated for a while, then hung up.
"Awake?" He walked up to the hospital bed, sat on the edge, and looked at the little woman who seemed to have recovered a lot.
Ella nodded gently, and Samuel's phone buzzed again. "You can pick that up," said Ella.
Samuel cast a complicated look at the feeble Ella.This time he hung up the phone call without any hesitation, and powered off the phone.
Ella gave a puzzled look when Samuel shut down his phone. But for a moment she thought, it must be Emma.
The ward was very quiet. Samuel lifted her hospital bed and put her on the pillow to make her comfortable, "Is that okay?"
She nodded and looked up at the man close to her. "I'm hungry."
When hearing these two words, Samuel went back to take out the nutritious porridge from the thermos jug. He put the porridge into a bowl and then brought the bowl to her.
Ella tried to move, but the wound in the abdomen immediately ached in an instant, though her other parts were good.
As Samuel saw Ella closing her eyes in pain, his heart also ached for her. A quick, painful look appeared in his eyes. Samuel sat down on the edge of the bed.
He scooped out a little hot porridge with a spoon, and raised the spoonful of porridge to his mouth and blew on it, then put the spoon onto her lips.
Ella watched his move with excitement. Her dear Samuel was feeding her porridge himself. It felt almost like a dream.
Ella opened her mouth obediently and ate the porridge. The warm porridge slipped down, and her hungry, painful stomach felt much better.
In this way, a bowl of porridge was all eaten by her, and she was almost full. But when Samuel asked whether she needed some more, she still nodded for another bowl for she loved it when he's taking care of her.
Samuel took out another half bowl of porridge, and fed the porridge into her mouth carefully.
Ella enjoyed the moment with happiness. In the meantime, Samuel simply stayed focused on feeding her.
So neither of them noticed that there was a woman outside looking into the ward through the window glass.
Emma stared at this scene, dumbfounded. That man once belonged to her. But now he was tenderly feeding porridge to some other woman. Her heart ached.
She made a call to Samuel when she saw him posting a baby picture on his private Wechat account. She dialed several times, but none were picked up. Did that mean he was done with her?
She didn't realize when the tears coursed down and covered her cheeks. Ella finished the second bowl of porridge, and unintentionally saw the figure outside the ward.
The smile on Ella's face was gone. Samuel saw the strange look on her face. He followed her line of sight and spotted a woman standing out there in tears. It was Emma.
Almost unwittingly, Samuel stepped outside.
Emma realized that she had been discovered. Her self-pride made her start running out of the hospital.
But Samuel caught up with her in only a few strides. Now the whole hospital was very quiet.
Samuel dragged Emma into the fire escape staircases. They stood there and looked at each other.
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