KMYB | Chapter 16

A cool breeze rustled outside when someone violently pried open the balcony door from the outside, and the lock fell to the floor with a clatter.

Xi Shui was lying across the edge of the bed, battling stomach pain and drowsiness, half-asleep. Hearing the loud crash from the practice room, he jolted awake, then flopped back down. “Forget it, forget it. What’s even worth stealing in this place?”

The black shadow that walked into the bedroom heard only Xi Shui’s muttering. Not a single word was clear.

He was sweating coldly all over his forehead from the pain, the dampness soaking the broken hair at his brow. He no longer looked lively and bright. A frail little swan appeared in Zhou Zeqi’s line of sight.

Xi Shui struggled to turn his head. The shadow’s face went from blurry to clear, and by the time he could make it out, Zhou Zeqi had already bent down and scooped him up from the bed, holding him against his chest. “I knocked, didn’t you hear?”

Zhou Zeqi grabbed a knit sweater from the bedside table and pulled it over Xi Shui’s head. Xi Shui shoved his arms into the sleeves himself and said muffledly, “How did you get in?”

Zhou Zeqi told him how he got in.

Xi Shui was silent for two seconds, then said in a low voice, “That’s not right.”

By then, Xi Shui had already gotten dressed. Before he could even hear Zhou Zeqi’s reply, Zhou Zeqi’s arm slipped under the bend of his knees, his other hand supporting Xi Shui’s back, and he lifted him straight into a horizontal抱.

“Then call the police?” Zhou Zeqi’s tone gave away nothing.

Xi Shui’s stomach hurt so badly that his brows were tightly knit. His cheek rested against Zhou Zeqi’s chest, listening to the other man’s strong, steady heartbeat. Eyes closed, he said weakly, “We’re dating, you can do anything.”

Zhou Zeqi lowered his head and looked at Xi Shui, then tightened his hold a little more.

Wu Fengyi’s car was parked at the entrance to the residential complex. More precisely, it was his older brother’s car. His brother happened to work at the gym too and was on duty these past two days. Zhou Zeqi was in a hurry to get over, so Wu Fengyi had gone straight to his brother for the key and drove over.

“Can’t walk anymore, huh?” Seeing Xi Shui being carried out, Wu Fengyi silently thought that this little swan really had a weak body.

After he said that, he lifted his eyes and met Zhou Zeqi’s gaze, and his brain turned the corner at once.

“Alright then, it’s just that you can’t bear to let him touch the ground.”

Wu Fengyi opened the car door.

Zhou Zeqi carefully set Xi Shui down in the seat, then covered him with a thin blanket he had grabbed at random.

Wu Fengyi: “…”

Zhou Zeqi sat with Xi Shui in the back seat. Xi Shui chose the latter between leaning against the car window and leaning on Zhou Zeqi’s shoulder. Zhou Zeqi handed him a thermos cup. He held it in both hands and took a small sip before remembering to ask, “Whose cup is this?”

“Mine,” Zhou Zeqi said.

“Oh…” Xi Shui said no more.

Wu Fengyi drove very steadily, talking nonstop as he drove.

“Hey, I asked Meng Kewen. He said Lin Xiaojin went to the hospital because he ate moldy bread. Were you too?”

Probably, Xi Shui thought, since he hadn’t eaten anything else weird either.

“How are you two this stupid? That bread sat there for a week. In this heat, even if it hadn’t expired, it definitely shouldn’t have been eaten. And it was moldy, how did you not taste it?”

Xi Shui had to defend himself.

“We bought whole wheat bread. It was sour and bitter to begin with.”

After being jabbed at by Wu Fengyi a few times, Xi Shui argued for his dignity. By the time they reached the hospital, he was even a little more awake. Zhou Zeqi got out of the car first and reached out to carry him, but Xi Shui angrily swatted his hand away.

The atmosphere suddenly froze.

Wu Fengyi thought, Old Zhou just got dragged down with the little swan.

Xi Shui lowered his eyes and pressed a hand to his stomach. “That bread was bitter.”

“If it had been with honey, I definitely would’ve tasted it.”

Xi Shui was the kind of person who took things very seriously, and sometimes he would even walk himself into a dead end and be unable to get out.

Zhou Zeqi was still standing outside the car with his hand outstretched. His expression was cool, but when Wu Fengyi walked over, he gave him a kick.

Wu Fengyi was very good at reading the room.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have made a joke.”

Only then did Xi Shui reach out to Zhou Zeqi for a hug. Looking at Wu Fengyi, he said softly, “I shouldn’t have lost my temper either. Thank you for bringing me to the hospital. When I’m better, I’ll treat you to a meal. You can eat whatever you want.”

Zhou Zeqi yanked him into his arms. “Why do you have so much to say?”

Wu Fengyi scratched his head and walked behind them, thinking about what he had just said to Xi Shui.

It was indeed a bit rude. Xi Shui wasn’t very familiar with him.

But Xi Shui could directly express his displeasure instead of talking about him behind his back. That was really great!

–

The First People’s Hospital was the nearest hospital to Beijing University. Two students were sent in one after another with acute gastroenteritis. As the nurse looked at the two teary-eyed boys lying on the emergency beds, she joked while inserting the IV, “What is this, a family reunion?”

Xi Shui’s stomach hurt and he didn’t want to talk.

Zhou Zeqi answered for him.

“They’re friends.”

“Oh, so you ate the same meal.” The nurse smiled, patting the back of Xi Shui’s hand and rubbing it hard. “Your veins are really thin. It might not be easy to get in.”

Xi Shui’s veins were already fairly thin, and after vomiting, the blood vessels constricted, making them even harder to find and harder to stick.

The first try failed.

The second needle also didn’t go in.

The nurse looked up a little embarrassedly. “How about this, you cover your hand and warm it up a bit, then we’ll try again.”

“Okay.” Xi Shui pressed on the bleeding spot and pulled his hand back.

As he reached up, Zhou Zeqi naturally took Xi Shui’s hand in his.

His hands were much warmer than Xi Shui’s. Xi Shui’s were icy cold, like holding a block of ice.

“If you warm them for me, they’ll definitely get warm faster. You’re good at warming things up,” Xi Shui praised him.

Zhou Zeqi said, “You’re the one who warms up fast.”

The smell of disinfectant in the hospital was strong, lingering in the air.

In the large emergency room next door, people came and went. Patients needing resuscitation were constantly being carried in from outside. Xi Shui and Lin Xiaojin weren’t seriously ill, so they lay in the infusion room nearby, along with several others there for IVs.

Xi Shui had been to the hospital in the middle of the night before. His stomach was bad, and being sent to the hospital because of irregular meals or being injured while dancing was routine. Even he thought it was no big deal.

This was the first time someone had stayed with him in the middle of the night and warmed his hands.

Xi Shui blinked at the long fluorescent light on the ceiling, feeling moved to the point of near tears.

“Thinking about that moldy bread of yours?” Zhou Zeqi’s lazy voice sounded by the bed, pulling Xi Shui back from his wandering thoughts.

Xi Shui turned to look at Zhou Zeqi. “You’re really annoying.”

“How annoying?”

“Anyway, very annoying.”

Lin Xiaojin beside them couldn’t take it anymore. “Can you two stop flirting if you’re going to do it? Pull the curtain!”

Lin Xiaojin didn’t know whether Xi Shui really liked Zhou Yanguang, but looking at the way Zhou Yanguang was smiling even after being scolded, it was probably because he liked Xi Shui to death.

And given Zhou Yanguang’s personality, how hard he found it to like someone, he had probably been eyeing Xi Shui for a long time.

Lin Xiaojin’s brain turned over at lightning speed. Didn’t Zhou Yanguang live next to Xi Shui? And he’d only moved there this semester. He suspected the guy had moved there just to pursue Xi Shui, only to find out Xi Shui had thrown himself right into his arms!!!

The more Lin Xiaojin thought about it, the more it seemed that way.

Looking at Xi Shui’s proud little scolding expression again, he instantly felt a little sour. Xi Shui! What are you so smug about! You’re about to get eaten alive!

When the nurse came back to insert the needle again, she got it in on the first try. Not only did Xi Shui and Zhou Zeqi both breathe a sigh of relief, even the nurse did too.

After adjusting the drip rate, she reminded the two young men, “Don’t turn it up yourselves. If the medicine is almost gone, press the bell and we’ll come change it.”

After the nurse left, Xi Shui asked Zhou Zeqi, “You and Wu Fengyi aren’t playing the game tomorrow?”

“I let him go back first.” Zhou Zeqi didn’t really care. It was just a ball game.

“What about you?”

“I’ll go back after you finish your IV.”

Xi Shui nodded and closed his eyes. A few seconds later, he opened them again. “No, you need to rest. How are you going to play if you don’t sleep?”

Zhou Zeqi tucked Xi Shui’s hand under the blanket and smiled faintly. “I don’t need sleep. I can still beat them.”

Xi Shui still thought that wasn’t okay.

Winning was one thing, but he still had to take care of his body.

He thought about it, looked at the large bag of fluid above his head, then shifted over to one side of the bed.

Xi Shui lifted the blanket and patted the empty space on the bed. “Come on, sleep with me.”

He was straightforward and open, but unfortunately, someone had bad intentions.

Zhou Zeqi looked at Xi Shui. Under the light, his brows and eyes were so refined he looked like an invaluable painting.

Xi Shui thought Zhou Zeqi was worried the bed was too small to sleep on together, so he continued, “If you’re worried the bed is too small, you can hold me, and I’ll hold you. We can hold each other and sleep!”

——————–

Author’s note:

Lin Xiaojin: I can’t even look at this.