“So mean.”
“Three, two, one.” Chen Zhiyan placed the glass on the bedside table and peeled Jiang Yu out of the quilt. Meeting his watery eyes, he brought the glass back to the boy’s lips. “Drink.”
“I do not want to.”
“Then you will become an idiot and have to wear diapers every day.”
Jiang Yu glared at Chen Zhiyan in indignant shame. He opened his mouth to drink, and in the next second, a capsule was dropped in. He closed his eyes and gulped it down, but the capsule got stuck in his throat. He looked at Chen Zhiyan imploringly.
“I will go pour some more water.”
Before Chen Zhiyan could finish his sentence, the itch in Jiang Yu’s throat triggered a hiccup. A cloud of medicinal powder from the capsule sprayed all over Chen Zhiyan’s face, while Jiang Yu himself shuddered from the bitterness, feeling as if his soul was about to leave his body.
“You set me up.”
“Blame your own shallow throat for not being able to swallow a single capsule.”
“It is your fault.” Jiang Yu lay on the bed complaining that it was too hot, demanding that Chen Zhiyan lower the air conditioning. Chen Zhiyan ignored him, waited for a few minutes, and went to pour him another glass of hot water.
“I am not drinking it.”
“Do you want me to force-feed you?”
“Force-feed your grandfather.”
Chen Zhiyan propped a pillow behind Jiang Yu and shoved a straw into his mouth. “Grandpa, drink up.”
“You win.”
After finishing the water, Jiang Yu was so sleepy his eyelashes were fighting to stay open. He slept until five in the afternoon and woke up feeling refreshed. He went downstairs, ran into Mu Chuxia, and acted spoiled, saying he was hungry.
Mu Chuxia felt Jiang Yu’s forehead but could not tell if he still had a fever. “Did you take your temperature?”
“Not yet.”
Mu Chuxia found a thermometer and checked; it was 38.5°C. He was still burning up. “Where is the medicine Xiao Zhi bought for you?”
“I finished it.”
“Nonsense. Go get it.”
“Oh.”
At five-thirty, Jiang Yu went back to his own house, pulled a suitcase from under his bed, and stuffed it with clothes. He threw them all into Chen Zhiyan’s wardrobe, waiting for the other to return and fold them neatly. He placed his shoes right next to Chen’s as well.
When Chen Zhiyan returned, Jiang Yu was still throwing things in, but he acted as if Chen Zhiyan did not exist.
That evening, Jiang Yu was playing games on the computer while Chen Zhiyan was showering in the bathroom. Right in the middle of a heated match, Chen Zhiyan’s phone rang. It was an unknown number.
Jiang Yu glanced at it and answered. Before he could even say hello, a deep confession started coming from the other end.
A male voice. A confession.
Had Chen Zhiyan stumbled into a nest of gay men?
“Brother Chen, do you remember me? I am the cute boy from this morning. I wanted to tell you that although you are like the moon in the woods or the snow in the sky, cold and unreachable.”
“Good that you know.”
“Who are you? Where is Brother Chen?”
“He is in the shower.”
“The shower? You two are actually! AH! I am going crazy! What is your name?”
“Jiaming.” Jiang Yu flicked his earlobe, clicked record, and asked, “Where did you get Chen Zhiyan’s phone number?”
“Why should I tell you?”
“Because he and I are brothers; it is impossible for us to be together.”
Upon hearing this, the boy quickly revealed the source. It was Fang Baizhou, the one who had participated in a competition with Chen Zhiyan two weeks ago, talked big about winning, but failed to even reach the top three. The boy added that the number had been sold to more than just him.
Jiang Yu knew who Fang Baizhou was. In his words, the guy looked sinister and two-faced. Perhaps because his family was poor while Chen Zhiyan surpassed him in looks, family background, and talent, he was jealous. But that was no excuse to sell Chen Zhiyan’s number and completely violate his privacy.
Jiang Yu planned to contact the hacker from last time, but before he could state his requirements, his waist suddenly felt weak.
Damn it.
In the same room, Chen Zhiyan really was not afraid of being found out.
If he had known Chen Zhiyan would be like this tonight, he would not have taken a bath this morning. His wrists were still sore, his cold had worsened, and he had even needed a shot at the hospital. That capsule had been so bitter it made him question his life.
Jiang Yu staggered toward the bathroom, his legs tightly crossed. He closed the door and sat on the toilet lid, the back of his ears flushed a deep crimson. After a couple of minutes, he shifted to a crouch on the floor, burying his face in his knees while biting the hem of his shirt. He let out a soft groan, turned on the showerhead, and crawled into the bathtub to curl up, letting the water from above drench his entire body.
Damn.
An hour later.
Chen Zhiyan called for Jiang Yu from outside. Seeing him emerge from the bathroom, he stepped forward with a frown. “You have a fever and you showered twice. I never noticed you being such a clean-freak before.”
Jiang Yu said hoarsely, “If you do not know how to speak, keep your mouth shut.”
He then lay on the bed, not wanting to move a muscle. His hair was wet again. Chen Zhiyan pulled him up and rubbed it with a towel, his movements not gentle at all.
“Slow down, it hurts.”
“Endure it,” Chen Zhiyan said. “If your temperature rises again in the middle of the night, I will continue taking you to the hospital for shots.”
“It is all your fault!” Jiang Yu leaned his face closer, arching an eyebrow. “You smell so lewd.”
Chen Zhiyan’s amber eyes turned dark and heavy. He used a cool fingertip against Jiang Yu’s forehead to push him away. “You are quite the mess yourself; you must have done it a lot.”
Jiang Yu muttered “Chen-Dog” and shut his mouth, his ears turning bright red.
When it came to arguing about these things, he truly could not beat Chen Zhiyan. Chen Zhiyan was truly shameless; he would say absolutely anything.
“You dog.”
After drying Jiang Yu’s hair, Chen Zhiyan picked up his phone. Only then did Jiang Yu remember the earlier incident. “Uh, your phone number was leaked.”
“Did you do it?”
“We have lived together since we were kids. Am I that kind of person?”
“I am joking.”
“It is not funny at all,” Jiang Yu said. “Call the police.”
“No rush. I have not finished gathering evidence yet.”
“What do you mean? You already knew your number was leaked?” Jiang Yu rolled over and sat up. Looking at Chen Zhiyan, who started acting cool and refused to answer, Jiang Yu rolled over from his own bed to Chen’s. “Speak!”
“Yes.”
“Fine, you are the greatest. It was redundant for me to tell you.” Jiang Yu rolled back and went to sleep under his covers.
A few hours later, he felt that familiar sensation of being held. Jiang Yu opened his eyes and saw a hospital corridor. For a moment, he thought he had suddenly traveled to another world.
“Do I have a fever again?”
“39.2°C.”
“Let us go home. I can get better by taking medicine.”
“You might, but I do not want you spraying medicinal powder all over my face again.” He also found the bitterness unpleasant.
Chen Zhiyan entered the room and sat on a chair, lifting Jiang Yu’s waist and pulling down the edge of his pants slightly.
“Wait, wait, I am not ready yet! Hm?”
It did not hurt. It actually did not hurt at all.
Jiang Yu turned his head to see which doctor it was. His technique was so good that Jiang Yu wanted to request him next time.
After the needle was removed, Chen Zhiyan pressed the cotton ball down firmly and pulled Jiang Yu’s shirt back down. The doctor asked what Jiang Yu had eaten since returning home, and Jiang Yu told a mix of lies and truth.
Chen Zhiyan pressed Jiang Yu’s head against his chest and spoke the truth. “One ice cream, half a watermelon, a bath and hair wash in the morning, and two more baths at night.”
Jiang Yu fell silent. This meant he felt very guilty.
Usually, when he was in the right, he was aggressive and wished he could talk the other person into the ground.
The doctor said Jiang Yu did not take care of himself at all and then told Chen Zhiyan, “You need to watch him. A fever is not a big deal, but frequent fevers can easily lead to internal inflammation.”
The two of them listened to the lecture for five minutes.
On the way home, Jiang Yu was nodding off in the passenger seat. Chen Zhiyan stopped the car, moved him to the flattened back seat, and drove smoothly the rest of the way.
At nine o’clock the next morning, two surveillance cameras were added to Chen Zhiyan’s room, featuring 360-degree rotation and person-tracking.
Given Chen Zhiyan’s careful nursing during these two days of fever, Jiang Yu finally found his conscience and stopped trying to swap his underwear, not that it was because of the cameras making it impossible to find an opportunity.
Wednesday afternoon was PE again. Jiang Yu was so tired he felt he was turning into the same species as Chen Zhiyan. He urged Chen to buy him some water.
Chen Zhiyan looked at the three empty mineral water bottles and fell into deep thought. He asked a soul-searching question, “Jiang Yu, are you a water buffalo? Your stomach is only so big; how did you drink all that?”
“You are underestimating me, are you not?” Jiang Yu patted his firm stomach and said, “There is a whole universe inside. Go buy it for me.”
After waiting seven or eight minutes, there was still no sign of him. Jiang Yu went looking while grumbling and finally found Chen Zhiyan in the small woods on the path to the supermarket.
But he was not alone.