The moment Liu Hui heard Shu Yan forbid him from seeing her as she was now, his anxiety intensified to agony. He immediately used his key to unlock the door, pushing it open as he entered. Shu Yan, unable to hold her ground, cried out sharply and scrambled back toward the ** bed, pulling the covers over herself to hide and weep uncontrollably inside the bedding.

Liu Hui spoke softly, "Yanyan, your aunt just told me you only have a few small bumps on your skin. It’s nothing serious. We’ll go to the hospital, get it treated, and it will be fine. Why are you locking yourself in your room?"

Shu Yan sobbed, "I can't let you see me like this. I want you to remember me at my most beautiful."

Liu Hui smiled gently, "Yanyan, no matter the time, the impression you leave in my heart is always the most beautiful!"

Shu Yan wept, "You don't understand. If you see me now, you’ll definitely despise me. Even if you don't hate me now, you will eventually."

Liu Hui chuckled, "How could I ever despise you, Yanyan? Setting aside how beautiful you are, even if you turned into an absolute fright, I would still love you! You must know, I love Yanyan, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the body or appearance!"

Hearing Liu Hui’s words, Shu Yan inside the quilt gradually stopped crying. Liu Hui smiled, "Yanyan, let me reach my hand in. Feel my hand properly, and you will know what my heart means."

Liu Hui slowly extended his hand into the quilt and found Shu Yan's hand. A powerful, electric sensation sparked between them again. Liu Hui instantly felt the deep turmoil and unease in Shu Yan's heart, while Shu Yan sensed the unwavering love in Liu Hui's heart, a love that promised never to abandon her.

"Huīhuī..." Shu Yan burst into tears again. She threw the quilt aside and stood before Liu Hui.

When Liu Hui finally saw Shu Yan’s condition clearly, he recoiled in shock. Her exposed skin, including her face and hands, was covered in countless tiny bumps that had appeared at some unknown time. These little protuberances resembled the texture on the back of a toad, dark and utterly repulsive.

Seeing Liu Hui’s startled expression, Shu Yan felt a crushing sorrow. She knew he would be repulsed by her appearance. Just then, Liu Hui lunged forward, pulling Shu Yan into a tight embrace, and pressed his lips against hers. Shu Yan froze for a second, then responded immediately with passionate fervor. They were locked in a deep kiss; Liu Hui was using this tangible action to express the depths of his commitment to her.

After the intense kiss, they sat side-by-side on the **. Liu Hui asked, "Yanyan, what is going on with these bumps on your body?"

Shu Yan spoke with confusion, "I don't know what happened. Everything was fine when I went to sleep last night, but when I looked in the mirror this morning, my face and body were covered in these disgusting bumps."

Liu Hui gently traced one of the bumps on Shu Yan’s face and inquired, "Yanyan, do these bumps feel like anything? Do they hurt? Do they itch?"

Shu Yan replied, "They don't feel like anything. Neither pain nor itchiness. I really don't know what's causing them."

Liu Hui’s mind instantly flashed back to the time Shu Yan had been fiercely scratching her face the night before, a detail he hadn't yet connected to the current situation. He asked, "Did you scratch any of these bumps on your face?"

Shu Yan said, "Probably not, right? If I had scratched them, I think I would have noticed immediately."

Liu Hui stated, "Yanyan, this situation of yours is somewhat similar to the reaction after a severe skin allergy. It should be a small issue and will heal quickly. Think hard—have you touched anything unusual in the last few days? That strange object might be the allergen causing your skin reaction."

Shu Yan tried to recall, "An allergen? Since my foot was injured a few days ago, I haven't been moving much. How could I have encountered any abnormal allergens?"

Hearing Shu Yan mention her foot injury, Liu Hui immediately remembered the piece of mesmerizingly colored glass that had pierced the sole of her foot that day. He shifted his gaze to her foot, which was heavily bandaged like a zongzi (rice dumpling), and said, "Yanyan, I’m going to unwrap the bandage on your foot now to check the wound for anything unusual."

Shu Yan blinked, then nodded. Liu Hui searched the room, found a pair of scissors, and carefully cut away the bandage on Shu Yan’s foot. He peeled back the gauze covering the wound, and when he clearly saw the condition of the sole of her foot, he couldn't help but gasp in alarm.

"Huīhuī, what is it?" Shu Yan dared not look at her own foot and repeatedly asked.

"Yanyan, I understand now. These bumps on your body were caused by the wound on your foot," Liu Hui declared.

Shu Yan quickly looked down at her sole and nearly screamed. The site of her foot wound was densely covered with these small, uniform bumps. These bumps seemed to be migrating outward from the primary wound site, growing fewer as they spread further up her body. Thus, it was clearly established that the eruption on her body originated from the injury on her foot.

"Huīhuī, what should we do? I don't want to turn into an ugly monster!" Discovering the source of the bumps, Shu Yan became utterly bewildered and panicked.

Liu Hui comforted her, "Yanyan, let's go to the hospital first and see what's going on. But I don't think it's a major problem. Modern medicine is so advanced; any strange illness can be treated."

"But if I go to the hospital, they will see me like this! What will I do afterward... How could this wound cause this? It doesn't hurt or itch at all, yet it quietly grew so many disgusting bumps..." Shu Yan began crying sadly again. For a young girl who valued beauty, a beautiful image was more important than anything else.

Liu Hui pulled the heartbroken Shu Yan into his arms and consoled her, "Good Yanyan, don't cry. Does it matter what outsiders think? What matters is that I think you are beautiful!"

Shu Yan wept, "Huīhuī, you really don't despise me?"

Liu Hui immediately swore an oath, "I, Liu Hui, swear here today that I will absolutely never despise Shu Yan because of her appearance. I want to live with Shu Yan forever. If I break this oath, may I..."

Shu Yan quickly placed her finger over Liu Hui's lips and said, "Huīhuī, please don't finish that. I believe you."

Having convinced Shu Yan, he, along with her parents, wrapped her in blankets and found a car to take her to Chuzhou's largest hospital—the Provincial People's Hospital. A very senior attending physician performed a preliminary examination of Shu Yan’s body. As this doctor could not determine the cause of the bumps, he recommended that Shu Yan be admitted immediately for observation and treatment. After Liu Hui rushed around handling the admission paperwork, Shu Yan was officially hospitalized.

Because the attending physician was baffled by Shu Yan's small bumps, and fearing it might be a contagious disease, he placed her in an isolation ward to prevent cross-infection. Seeing that the senior doctor at the major hospital had no answers, Liu Hui and Shu Yan’s parents became deeply worried, though they maintained outwardly calm demeanors while accompanying Shu Yan in the hospital.

By the next morning, the elderly attending physician called Liu Hui and the others in to discuss Shu Yan’s condition.

"Doctor, what is going on with the bumps on my daughter?" Shu Yan’s mother asked anxiously as soon as she saw the doctor.

The old attending physician glanced at the case file in his hand and stated, "After our examination, your daughter is infected with an unknown bacterium. Under the action of this nameless pathogen, her entire body has erupted in bumps of various sizes."

"Doctor, what harm do these bumps on our Yanyan pose? Also, can you treat these bumps here?" Shu Yan’s father inquired anxiously.

The attending physician sighed, "We are currently studying the characteristics of the unidentified bacterium your daughter has contracted, so we cannot clearly state what harm this pathogen poses to the human body. Therefore, matters concerning specific treatment must wait until we have the results of our study on this unknown bacterium."

Just then, the phone on the attending physician's desk rang. He picked it up, spoke a few words, and then asked in astonishment, "Impossible? All the unknown bacteria have vanished? How can that be?"

After a moment of shock, the attending physician spoke a few more sentences into the phone, then hung up. Liu Hui cautiously asked, "Doctor, were the unknown bacteria you just mentioned the ones inside Yanyan’s body?"

The attending physician nodded and said, "We were studying that pathogen, but I just received news that the bacteria being researched in the lab suddenly disappeared entirely. It wasn't stolen, it wasn't misplaced—it simply vanished right before the researchers' eyes. We have no logical explanation for any of this."

Liu Hui immediately asked with a surge of hope, "Doctor, does that mean the bacteria inside Yanyan might have also suddenly vanished?"

The attending physician replied, "I cannot say for sure. We need to conduct a detailed physical examination on the patient immediately to see if the bacteria within her body are still present."

So, Shu Yan was quickly wheeled into the examination room and was only brought out over an hour later. Liu Hui rushed forward to ask, "Doctor, what is the situation?"

The attending physician frowned deeply and reported, "The situation is strange. Not only has the amount of the unidentified bacteria in the patient not decreased, but it has actually increased."

Liu Hui was stunned, "Doctor, how could this happen?"

The attending physician said, "We don't know why this is happening. We must continue to observe and study this bacterium. Only by discovering the characteristics of this completely new pathogen can we provide targeted treatment for the patient."

Receiving no definitive answer from the doctor, Liu Hui walked dejectedly back to Shu Yan’s ward. Shu Yan’s parents sat by her bedside with worried expressions. The bumps on Shu Yan’s face had increased further, and some of the pustules seemed on the verge of breaking open.

Still accompanying my superior; these 3,000 characters were secretly typed after drinking tonight. Readers, please bear with it for now! RO