“Um… I-I just remembered I left something at the shop. I need to go get it.” As soon as Chen Man finished speaking, he left without a backward glance, moving even more hastily than usual, as if he were fleeing.
After Chen Man fled to the main lobby of the night emergency department, he sighed deeply, eyes red-rimmed as he stood in a daze. His head was an absolute mess. What he’d overheard earlier kept echoing through his mind.
He knew Xie Qingcheng must have slept with someone. The thought made his heart throb with pain—but he didn’t even have the courage to ask who Xie Qingcheng had slept with.
In Xie Qingcheng’s eyes, he was forever a child. Xie Qingcheng would take care of him and protect him, but he’d never open his heart to him, let alone share his personal life with him. If Xie Qingcheng knew he actually had these kinds of feelings for him, Chen Man worried that he’d destroy their friendly relationship forever.
But right now, his heart was twisted up too tightly.
He wondered, Who exactly is it… What kind of girl is she?
Chen Man closed his eyes. It really was too painful for him; just because he wasn’t a woman, he would never be able to confess his feelings to Xie Qingcheng, would he?
But what Chen Man didn’t know was that at this very moment, that “girl,” the primary culprit, the one he hated so much he could spit blood, was leaning against the wall in the corner with his hands in his pockets, watching from afar as Chen Man exited the emergency infusion room.
He Yu had followed Xie Qingcheng and Chen Man all the way here.
And it was only now that he got a clear look at the person scurrying about by Xie Qingcheng’s side.
He Yu recognized Chen Man. He had eaten a meal with this guy, that time at the dining hall. He was very close to Xie Qingcheng.
As Chen Man stood in the light, his heart in distress, He Yu stood in the darkness, also a bit uncomfortable, with a heart that felt like it had been stuck through with thorns. But he wasn’t sure why he felt that way.
Though he despised Xie Qingcheng, when he woke up, sobered up, and recalled the scattered fragments of those past incidents, he felt that it would be a bit much to allow Xie Qingcheng to meet with a truly terrible mishap. But in the end, after he followed Xie Qingcheng all the way back, all he got for his efforts was the opportunity to personally witness Chen Man half-carrying the unconscious Xie Qingcheng out of the medical school’s faculty dormitory and into a car…
As He Yu watched these events unfold, he felt very, very uncomfortable.
It was his fault that Xie Qingcheng had fallen ill. He didn’t fear anything and was willing to bear the consequences for all his actions. He wasn’t ashamed of facing the doctor. He didn’t need someone else to clean up the debts he incurred, especially since Xie Qingcheng had just today accused him of “running away after doing something wrong” back when he was still conscious.
I didn’t run away, He Yu thought. Xie Qingcheng was the one who had way too many friends who were too young for him, friends who were always following him around at his beck and call, eagerly scrambling to clean up He Yu’s messes.
He Yu had been standing outside the whole time Xie Qingcheng was hooked up to the IV in the infusion room. Although he wanted to know about Xie Qingcheng’s current condition, there was no way for him to go in and ask with Chen Man present.
It was indisputable that he was the one who had given Xie Qingcheng a fever, but after all this time, he couldn’t even enter the infusion room—until now, when Chen Man stepped out.
Watching from afar, He Yu noted the grim expression on the youngster’s face; he looked like he thought the sky had fallen. A tendril of worry immediately unfurled in his heart. Was Xie Qingcheng really in terrible condition? He couldn’t care less about Xie Qingcheng, but he was the one who fucked the man. Out of respect for his own dignity, he felt honor-bound to bear some of the responsibility.
Then, Chen Man walked closer. Now that He Yu could clearly make out the unexpected redness rimming his eyes, he was even more dumbfounded. He felt somewhat at a loss. What did this mean?
What exactly was wrong with Xie Qingcheng?
He Yu’s face had turned slightly pale. He didn’t realize it, but he was practically the spitting image of a young father-to-be waiting outside of a delivery room—barred from entering, unable to obtain any information, and desperately anxious. As He Yu was caught in the midst of his fretful hand-wringing, though, one of the nurses stationed in the emergency infusion room came running out, saying, “Sir, you’re Xie Qingcheng’s family, right?”
Briefly startled, Chen Man gave it a moment of thought and then nodded slowly.
“The results of the blood work covered by the patient’s insurance should be out. You missed one when you were picking them up just now, so if you could, please go get it. There’s also the medicine prescribed by the doctor. Please pay and pick it up as soon as possible.”
“Oh… Okay.”
Chen Man walked listlessly over to the reception window for the lab report and collected Xie Qingcheng’s blood test results. Then he went to a different window to pay for the medicine. But he was truly in a terrible mood, his mind wandering as he went through the motions. As he was picking up the medicine and paying the bill, the blood test report that he had only just obtained floated from his pile of miscellany and onto the ground.
The flimsy sheet of paper fell like a snowflake onto the ice-cold tiles of the emergency room lobby’s floor.
He Yu stared at it, transfixed.
That was Xie Qingcheng’s lab report…
After a few seconds of indecision, he pulled the brim of his cap lower. Then, before Chen Man could notice, he walked over with an upright posture and picked up that snow-white sheet of paper.
In that moment, He Yu was struck by an exceptionally bizarre thought. It was as though he were a scumbag university student who, after having sex for the first time, was worried that he had accidentally gotten his girlfriend pregnant because he had been too hasty to put a condom on properly. And now he was sneaking a peek at his girlfriend’s pregnancy test.
He Yu shook his head aggressively, trying to dislodge the ludicrous thought. He’d really gone mad. After so many momentous events these last few days, even his thinking process had become warped.
Lowering his head, He Yu carefully examined Xie Qingcheng’s blood test report. Only his white blood cell count was elevated—it seemed like he was suffering from inflammation. Everything else seemed to be within the normal ranges, so there was nothing seriously wrong with him.
Then what was that young guy crying about…?
Breathing a small sigh of relief, He Yu lifted his lashes slightly and his eyes fell on the words “Xie Qingcheng, Male, Age 32” written at the top of the report.
He stroked a finger over the line of fine print.
Hot off the press, the report still carried a hint of residual warmth from the printer.
Warm to the touch, just like that man’s skin…
“Excuse me, buddy, but I believe that belongs to me.”
After a round of bustling activity, Chen Man had finally come to his senses and realized that he had lost the blood test report. When he retraced his steps, however, he saw a young man about his own age carefully analyzing that very same report.
It was just a pity that Chen Man’s mood was so poor, and with He Yu wearing his cap, Chen Man didn’t get a very good look at his face and missed his opportunity to confront the primary culprit. Taking He Yu for an ordinary patient, he said, “Sorry, but could you please give that report back to me?”
He Yu didn’t reply. With his eyes hidden in the shadow cast by the brim of his cap, a thought struck him for a split second: there was no way he would hand over the report. But an instant later, that thought seemed strange to him. Why didn’t he want to hand it over? After all, it wasn’t as if he was actually a scumbag university student holding the results of his girlfriend Xie Qingcheng’s pregnancy test.
How utterly absurd.
Despite these thoughts, he still said in a chilly voice, “You’re mistaken. This is mine.”
Chen Man said, “I clearly… Please, can I just take a look?”
He Yu refused to give the paper back to Chen Man, tightening his pale, slender fingers on the lab report as he held it behind him.
“You can’t. Patient confidentiality.”
“I just want to see the name! Because I just dropped this sheet, right around here…”
“You want to see my girlfriend’s pregnancy test results?”
Chen Man was speechless.
He Yu himself found it ludicrous the moment the words left his mouth, but perhaps because he had been thinking about all that nonsense earlier, that was the refusal that slipped out.
The deterrent those words posed was far too great. A naive young lad like Chen Man could never have the nerve to keep badgering He Yu after hearing the words “pregnancy test results.”
Chen Man turned bright red and didn’t dare look the boy standing before him in the eye, even though he found the entire situation rather preposterous. He hadn’t taken a proper look at He Yu’s face, but he was certain that the other party must be a student who was younger than him.
The things that college boys got up to these days were truly…
Chen Man stammered, “S-sorry, my mistake.”
He Yu tucked Xie Qingcheng’s blood test report into his pocket with a cold expression. “Yes, it was indeed your mistake.”
“Then I’ll keep looking…”
He Yu ignored Chen Man. That report was honestly of little use to him and could at most prove that he had fucked Xie Qingcheng for an entire night. Still, he stuffed it into his pocket with a chilly cast to his face and left without a backward glance.
Not a single person knew that he had been there.