Hospitalized Phone-Use Restriction

Hospitalized Phone-Use Restriction governs Shen Tang’s access to her phone during recovery after an accident leaves her with multiple fractures, widespread contusions, and shattered hand bones requiring emergency surgery. Although the rule frustrates her intensely, it is framed as a practical measure for wound recovery and becomes a revealing form of care: Gu Huaian restricts her digital freedom because her injured hands need rest, while Shen Tang experiences the same protection as confinement and deprivation.

Medical Basis and Initial Prohibition

Shen Tang’s hospitalization follows a serious physical injury. Medical personnel find multiple bone fractures, extensive contusions, and shattered hand bones, concluding that emergency surgery is necessary. The surgery succeeds, but Gu Huaian still insists that she remain in the hospital for treatment. The phone restriction is part of this broader medical regime: he does not allow her to play with her phone while her hands are not healed.

The prohibition is especially severe because Shen Tang is confined to a private room with little to occupy her. Without anyone to chat with, she can only watch television, and she describes the resulting boredom in exaggeratedly desperate terms. The restriction therefore affects more than entertainment. It cuts her off from the internet, games, social contact, and the ordinary digital routines through which she maintains a sense of agency. When Gu Huaian visits and asks whether she is bored, she immediately raises the subject of her phone. He answers that her hands have not recovered and that she cannot use it for the time being, causing the light in her eyes to disappear at once.

Gu Huaian’s Controlled Permission

The rule later changes from absolute denial to limited access. After Tao Sister clears away the meal containers, she places a phone on the table and explains that Gu Huaian specifically told her to bring it. His condition is precise: because Shen Tang’s hand is still healing, she may use the phone for only one hour each day, except when necessary.

For Shen Tang, this compromise is a major relief. An hour is enough to restore some connection with the outside world, and she eagerly asks Tao Sister to turn the device on. Because her injured hand remains difficult to use, she operates the phone clumsily with her left hand. The scene makes the physical cost of the injury concrete: digital access returns before full bodily independence does, and even ordinary typing or handling becomes an effort shaped by damaged hands.

The allowance also shows that Gu Huaian’s control is not simply punitive. Tao Sister says that he is working continuously between home, the office, and the hospital, and that the phone was brought during a period when he would be especially busy. His continuing attention turns the restriction into an extension of his medical supervision rather than an arbitrary household command. Yet Shen Tang remains aware of its disciplinary character. Later, when Gu Huaian notices her phone use, he does not confiscate the device again, but warns her not to play for too long because excessive use would hinder wound recovery.

Shen Tang’s Attempts to Reclaim Access

Shen Tang does not accept the restriction passively. Before her injury, gaming and online activity are central to her social life. Miao Miao messages her to play King of Glory, and Shen Tang joins the game, where she becomes involved in both teamwork and conflict. In another match, she asks the jungler to help her lane after repeatedly being attacked, only to receive a sexually humiliating insult instead of assistance. These gaming episodes establish why phone access matters to her: it is a space of friendship, competition, identity, and exposure to hostile strangers rather than a disposable pastime.

Once the limited-use phone is returned, Shen Tang is warned not to log into Weibo casually. Pei Kesong repeatedly tells her to avoid the platform, and she promises that she will use an alternate account the next time she goes online. She nevertheless secretly logs into her main account to send large red packets to fan groups that defended her against anti-fans. Her action is unauthorized but not purely rebellious; it is an attempt to acknowledge supporters while avoiding another public mistake. The episode shows her converting restricted access into a small act of loyalty and self-repair.

Her relationship with games also continues after hospitalization. When she later logs into King of Glory, she discovers that Gu Huaian is online and has reached the King rank, though she wonders whether he achieved it himself or had someone boost the account. He immediately pulls her into his room and invites her to play together. Elsewhere, Shen Tang plays with Shen Yu, who is a novice game streamer, and their team includes players assigned to mage, support, and jungler roles. These recurring gaming scenes explain why even a one-hour allowance carries emotional and social weight: the phone is a portal to relationships that persist beyond the hospital room.

Rule, Care, and Discipline

Hospitalized Phone-Use Restriction places Shen Tang’s body under a layered system of supervision. The hospital controls treatment; Gu Huaian controls access to the device; Shen Tang monitors herself by shifting between her main and alternate accounts and by negotiating for limited use. The arrangement resembles other forms of discipline in her life, including the closed management of a film crew, where mobile phones are normally forbidden during filming and can be used only during breaks in private rooms. In both settings, access to communication is treated as something that institutions or caretakers may suspend in the name of safety, confidentiality, or recovery.

The hospital rule is also connected to Gu Huaian’s broader tendency to translate concern into commands. Elsewhere, he orders Shen Tang to write a thousand-word self-criticism when angry, and his warning about gaming makes him seem less like a distant chief executive than a strict teaching director. The phone restriction therefore carries an ironic intimacy. Gu Huaian does not express care through unrestricted reassurance; he expresses it through schedules, prohibitions, and bodily limits. Shen Tang, who values immediate pleasure and online connection, repeatedly tests those limits, making the rule a recurring site where affection and resistance meet.

Narrative Significance

The restriction gives physical form to Shen Tang’s recovery. Her successful surgery does not instantly restore freedom: the hands that were shattered still determine what she may do, how long she may use technology, and how much contact she can maintain with the world. The narrative consequently treats healing as a period of dependence rather than a single medical victory.

At the same time, the rule deepens the portrayal of Gu Huaian and Shen Tang’s developing bond. His decision to provide a phone after initially banning it shows adjustment to her needs, while his continued time limit preserves the protective boundary he believes recovery requires. Shen Tang’s impatience, secret Weibo visit, eagerness to play, and disappointment when refused keep the arrangement from becoming sentimental. The result is a compact conflict over autonomy: Gu Huaian protects her through restriction, and Shen Tang reasserts herself through negotiation, play, and carefully chosen acts of online connection.