Chapter 11

Yu Fan had a vague sense of it, really.

Since morning, his head had been heavy and his feet light, his whole body weak — listening to people talk sounded like chanting.

He hadn't been sick in a long time. This felt worse than getting hurt physically.

His lips were dry. Yu Fan swallowed, and the dull ache in his throat made him frown. 'Take your hand off.'

The person beside him didn't say anything. A few seconds later, Chen Jingshen pulled his hand back.

Yu Fan shifted his head and rested it back on his arm.

'You should go to the hospital.'

Yu Fan closed his eyes. 'Mind your own business.'

The silence beside him stretched.

Right then, just like during morning self-study, Yu Fan's mind was foggy but he couldn't fall asleep. So he listened hazily as the person next to him closed his textbook, packed up, and zipped his bag shut.

He turned his head slightly and happened to see Chen Jingshen with his backpack on both shoulders, lifting his chair one-handed and stacking it upside down on the desk.

Once everyone was gone, he could push the desks together and sleep.

Or maybe just rough it another night at the Internet Café? In his current state, going home didn't guarantee he could take Yu Kaiming...

Yu Fan's eyelids drooped halfway. He saw Chen Jingshen vaguely reach for his zipper and take off his coat.

Underneath that heavy down jacket, he was actually wearing a beige knitted vest, and under that, the school uniform shirt.

Yu Fan thought, how delicate were these bookworms? It was only a few degrees and they already bundled up like zongzi. The zongzi bent down and grabbed his arm.

?

Grabbed... his arm?

Yu Fan snapped back to reality. 'What are you doing?'

'Going to the hospital,' Chen Jingshen said flatly.

'I said mind your own business. Let go.' Yu Fan frowned. 'Touch me again and see what happens. Believe I'll really beat you—'

He stared at Chen Jingshen's face and threw a punch out of sheer exasperation — then his wrist was caught in a firm grip.

He got lifted up by Chen Jingshen just like that chair from earlier.

He raised his other fist — and that hand got confiscated too.

Yu Fan suddenly found being sick way more troublesome.

Couldn't beat Yu Kaiming, fine. But he couldn't even beat Chen Jingshen??

The down jacket was draped over him. Chen Jingshen said, 'Raise your arms.'

Two girls passed by outside the Classroom. Hearing the noise, they both looked over—

Yu Fan's clenched fists loosened again.

Forget it. Struggling would only make it worse.

Chen Jingshen ignored the 'I'll kill you the second I'm better' look in the other boy's eyes, pinched the coat zipper, and pulled it all the way up.

It was a high-neck down jacket. Yu Fan's nape was covered again.

He felt the residual warmth from the jacket's owner, lifted his head in disgust, and said coldly, 'Trying to suffocate someone?'

Chen Jingshen glanced at him, then reached over and pressed the collar down under his chin.

To meet some teachers' housing needs, Nancheng No.7 Middle School's Faculty Dormitory was built right next to the Experimental Building.

The people living here were usually newly hired young teachers and a few passionate veteran teachers who had the school's development plan for the next twenty years all mapped out.

Hu Pang lived on the fifth floor of the Faculty Dormitory. His balcony faced the school side, and two steps out he could see the school gate.

That evening, as usual, he strolled to the balcony with his bowl, using the sight of the country's future flowers — who'd studied so hard they'd forgotten the time and were only now leaving school — as a side dish for his meal.

When he spotted Chen Jingshen's tall, lean figure, Hu Pang's lips had just started to curl up when they froze solid.

Chen Jingshen had an arm around someone. The two were standing very close, in a pose just like those early-dating couples he often caught in the School's Garden.

Was Chen Jingshen also...??

Hu Pang's heart skipped a beat. He quickly put down his bowl, grabbed his glasses, and looked again — and saw a head of messy hair—

And that face that gave him high blood pressure just by looking at it.

Hu Pang: '...'

You might as well be dating early.

Yu Fan had resisted this position.

Then he'd almost fallen down the stairs.

There weren't many people at School at this hour, but not everyone had left yet. Yu Fan wanted to memorize faces so he could silence them later, but he was too dizzy to see clearly.

So he just kept his head down and let Chen Jingshen lead him into a taxi.

They went to the Hospital closest to School.

They took his temperature: 39.1°C. High fever.

'Temperature's a bit high. How long have you had the fever?' The doctor looked at his face. 'I'll prescribe some medicine first to see if it helps. If the fever hasn't broken by tomorrow, come back for a blood test and IV...'

Yu Fan couldn't be bothered to wait. 'Just give me the IV now.'

Ten minutes later, Yu Fan was sitting in the Infusion Room.

He pulled one arm out of his sleeve and held it out to the nurse.

Yu Fan wasn't wearing a band-aid anymore. The nurse paused when she saw the bruises on his face, then couldn't help glancing at the school uniform underneath.

Yu Fan's arms were thin — actually, he was thin all over, barely any meat on his bones. When he slept on his desk, his shoulder blades would poke through his uniform. It often made people wonder where all that strength for fighting came from.

Yu Fan stared down as the needle slowly pierced his skin. The needle tip was secured with tape, leaving the needle in the back of his hand.

'All done,' the nurse said. 'Drink plenty of hot water. Keep your coat on. Best if you can sweat a little.'

Yu Fan: 'Thanks.'

After the nurse left, Yu Fan leaned back and collapsed into the infusion chair. The down jacket sank under his weight.

After burning up all day, he was in worse shape than the other fever patients. Lying on the soft coat, drowsiness crept back over him.

Medicine and a cup of hot water were set in front of him.

'Take it, then sleep,' Chen Jingshen's voice came from above.

Yu Fan couldn't be bothered to argue anymore. He downed the medicine in one go, tilted his head to find a comfortable position, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

...

When he woke up again, it was already dark.

Yu Fan kept his sleeping position, fighting off drowsiness as he squinted and scanned the room.

There weren't many people in the Infusion Room — a mother holding her son, a couple holding hands, an adult working on a laptop while getting an IV, and a high school student writing homework with his head down—

?

Yu Fan turned his head again and looked at the last one.

The armrest meant for patients was now covered with a test paper and an empty notebook. Chen Jingshen had his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, head down, pen in hand, writing.

Yu Fan's aversion to studying flared up instantly. He rasped, 'Why are you still here?'

Chen Jingshen: 'Didn't finish my homework.'

'...'

What, changing locations would interrupt your train of thought on the problems?

After sleeping through the IV, Yu Fan clearly felt a lot better.

He watched the pen moving in Chen Jingshen's hand for a while, then remembered how this weakling had physically overpowered him earlier because he was sick. He figured he should give him a warning.

He drawled lazily, 'Chen Jingshen.'

Chen Jingshen didn't stop writing. 'Mm.'

'You know what happens to people who mess with me?'

Chen Jingshen turned his head.

Yu Fan tilted his head, staring at his single eyelids, and said coldly, 'Since you're already here, you might as well book a bed—'

A cool hand touched his forehead.

Yu Fan's voice cut off abruptly. Before he could react, Chen Jingshen had already pulled his hand back.

'Fever's broken.' Chen Jingshen looked up at the IV bag. 'I'll go call the nurse.'

'...'

They took his temperature again. It had indeed dropped to 37.9.

When the nurse came to remove the needle, she asked casually, 'You two are classmates?'

Yu Fan said lazily, 'Mm.'

'You get along pretty well,' the nurse said. 'While you were asleep, he kept an eye on your IV bag the whole time. Watched two bags for you.'

Yu Fan, who had just been threatening his classmate, felt his eyelid twitch. He glanced discreetly at the person beside him. Chen Jingshen was writing problems without even blinking, as if he hadn't heard a thing they were saying.

So he paused, then said dismissively, 'Mm.'

The nurse had barely left when Wang Luan'an's call came in.

Out of the corner of his eye, Chen Jingshen saw him press a cotton swab to the back of his other hand, hold the phone between his shoulder and ear, and wait lazily for the other end to speak.

Wang Luan'an's voice came through the phone: 'Dude, open WeChat yourself. I sent you thirty-seven messages tonight and you didn't reply to a single one. I'm like your desperate simp!'

Yu Fan: 'Didn't see them. What's up?'

Wang Luan'an paused. 'Why's your voice sound weird?'

'Caught a cold,' Yu Fan said. 'Get to the point.'

'Nothing much, just reminding you to copy the math test,' Wang Luan'an said. 'Fangqin ordered it in class today. Wrong questions, copy each one ten times. If you don't hand it in tomorrow, you're standing for math class all next week.'

Ten times?

Yu Fan thought about his completely blank math test and said woodenly, 'Not copying. Skipping class next week.'

After hanging up, Yu Fan figured he was done. He took the cotton swab off and was about to toss it.

A new homework notebook, with no name written on it yet, was handed to him.

Yu Fan stared at the notebook for two seconds before looking up. 'What's this?'

Only when sitting did he realize how tall Chen Jingshen really was.

His jawline was smooth and handsome, and his Adam's apple rolled slightly when he spoke.

'Math homework.'

'Give it to Fangqin. Why give it to me...' Yu Fan paused, then suddenly caught on. 'You wrote it for me?'

Chen Jingshen said, 'Mm.'

'...'

This guy had been scribbling away beside him all that time — writing his homework?

Yu Fan stared at him blankly, feeling like the fever that had just broken was coming back. 'Who told you to write it for me? Fangqin's not stupid. Our handwriting is way too different—'

'I used my left hand.'

'...'

Well, my handwriting's not that ugly either.

Chen Jingshen said, 'Think of it as thanks for helping me out at the back gate.'

'Don't overthink it,' Yu Fan frowned. 'I just didn't like those guys.'

'Mm.' Chen Jingshen looked at his evasive gaze and acknowledged it.

Since it had come to this, and Chen Jingshen didn't need the copied wrong answers himself anyway, Yu Fan took the notebook.

'How much was the medicine today?' Yu Fan pulled out his Mobile Phone. 'I'll transfer it to you on WeChat.'

Chen Jingshen told him a number.

Yu Fan opened WeChat and scrolled through his contacts for a long time before it belatedly hit him—

'Oh, right.' Chen Jingshen asked, 'Why can't I see your WeChat moments?'

'...'

Was this guy an idiot?

The words 'You can't see them because I blocked you' were on the tip of Yu Fan's tongue, but when he met Chen Jingshen's gaze, he swallowed them back down.

Damn, why did this make him feel like some kind of jerk??

'Don't know. Glitch.' He held up his phone and pulled Chen Jingshen out of his blacklist. 'Money's sent.'

When Chen Jingshen accepted the money, he tapped on Yu Fan's profile picture.

His profile picture was a few stray cats, looked like they were taken casually around School.

A pitifully small number of moments popped up.

He raised an eyebrow subtly. 'Mm. I can see them now.'

-

Zuo Kuan was hunched over in the observation room.

A middle-aged woman was giving him instructions: 'Just had circumcision, so be careful with the wound. Take your medicine on time. Try not to make any big movements.'

Zuo Kuan's scalp went numb. He nodded repeatedly, leaning against the wall and looking around everywhere to distract himself.

Then he saw two familiar figures.

Zuo Kuan's eyes flew wide open as he stood up. The wound pulled slightly, and the pain made him cover his crotch with a 'Shit—'

Bearing the pain, he braced himself against the wall and double-checked carefully.

The boy walking in front had both hands in his pockets, as lazy and casual as ever. Maybe because of the cold, his face was a bit pale.

The person following behind was dressed thinly. His usually neat and tidy school uniform shirt was now full of wrinkles. When he reached the door, he even raised a hand to rub his eyes.

Zuo Kuan snapped out of his shock, immediately grabbed his phone, and started snapping pictures wildly. Then he sent them to the school's hundred-plus-person group chat—

【Class 8 - Bro Kuan: [image] Holy shit, guess who I saw.】

【Class 7 - Zhang Xianjing: What are you doing in urology?】

【Class 8 - Bro Kuan: ??】

【Class 7 - Wang Luan'an: Hahaha congrats Bro Kuan, let's play ball tomorrow.】

【Class 8 - Bro Kuan: Fuck off.】

【Class 8 - Bro Kuan: I sent the picture for you to look at THIS??】

【Class 7 - Wang Luan'an: Then what are we looking at?】

Zuo Kuan circled the two tall, lean figures in the photo.

【Class 8 - Bro Kuan: Can't you even recognize people from your own class?】

【Class 8 - Bro Kuan: Yu Fan beat Chen Jingshen into the hospital!】