Chen Xiao stared at the monitors for a long moment, his young face scrunched in concentration as he tried to make sense of the numbers and graphs and flashing lights. Then his gaze returned to Yuyan herself, tracking over her peaceful face and the gentle rise and fall of her chest with each breath, looking for visual confirmation that she really was just sleeping rather than dying or permanently broken.
"Can I hold her hand?" he asked quietly, and the question carried such vulnerable hope that Shuyin felt her chest tighten with protective affection for this small, worried child who was showing such fierce devotion despite their young ages.
"Of course you can," Shuyin said gently, standing and guiding him toward the examination table while keeping her body positioned to block his view of where the maintenance team was efficiently bundling Dr. Zhang's corpse onto the medical gurney. "She'll probably like knowing you're here when she wakes up."
