“Are you also here to cause trouble?”
April brought the blooming season of sweet osmanthus.
A massive sweet osmanthus tree grew beneath the inpatient building of Renzi City First People’s Hospital. Clusters of pale white flowers blossomed profusely, filling the air with a rich, intoxicating fragrance. This scent drifted along the slightly salty sea breeze into a certain fourth-floor hospital room, disturbing the teenage boy lying on the hospital bed.
“Achoo—”
Duan Xiyin raised a hand in a hazy half-sleep, rubbed his nose, and extremely reluctantly woke up from a deep, sweet slumber.
He hadn’t slept this soundly in a very long time.
To him, sleep was like a shield that could temporarily help him fend off the torment of illness. Yet this shield was always as thin as mist and as light as smoke; the sharp pain would be crushed and kneaded by dreams, for a moment converging into a grim monster howling beside his ear, and the next transforming into a pitch-black, icy vortex swallowing him whole.
Whenever the dream gradually receded, the clear and distinct pain would once again burst forth from deep within his body, as if wanting to tear apart his every cell.
Yet this time, there was none.
Aside from a slight headache, there was no other obvious discomfort.
Realizing this, Duan Xiyan snapped completely awake.
“Oh, Little Bao is awake! Go call the doctor quickly!” A middle-aged woman’s pleasantly surprised voice came from beside the hospital bed, which instantly transformed into overflowing worry: “Why is your complexion looking so terrible? Are you uncomfortable, or did you have a nightmare?”
From the woman’s perspective, the teenage boy on the bed was pale, with fine beads of sweat oozing from his temples and his pretty brows slightly furrowed, looking as though he had suffered a considerable shock.
Duan Xiyan sat up sluggishly, took a small sip from the water cup the woman handed over, and his moistened lips finally looked like they had regained a bit of color as he said, blankly, “No, nothing.”
Contrary to the woman’s guess, he felt too comfortable, so comfortable that he almost suspected this was a fleeting, beautiful dream, while the viper known as illness was perhaps lurking in some corner, waiting to deal him a fatal blow the moment he let down his guard.
Before his eyes was the painfully familiar layout of a hospital room, yet Duan Xiyan examined his surroundings right now as if he had just arrived in an unfamiliar environment.
He had transmigrated.
This wasn’t the sanitarium where he had spent over a dozen years, nor was he that Duan Xiyan who had just been handed a critical illness notice.
In this unfamiliar hospital room in an unfamiliar world, he was simply a person who had come down with a minor illness and was about to fully recover!
The scent of disinfectant floated in the air, blended with a faint floral fragrance that was somewhat intoxicating.
Duan Xiyan’s left hand was hooked up to an IV drip, while his right hand was held in the palm of the woman guarding the bedside, transmitting a reassuring warmth.
He raised his gaze to look at the woman, and with just a glance, he froze. The middle-aged woman before him gradually merged with that young face deep in his memory.
This was his current body’s mother, Ms. Huang.
“Mom,” Duan Xiyan became increasingly dazed.
Ms. Huang was well-maintained. Although she was already in her mid-forties, she looked like she had just stepped into middle age. Her attire was low-key yet luxurious, and her demeanor and elegance all clearly attested to her wealthy background.
Hearing Duan Xiyan’s murmur-like call, a trace of warmth surfaced between Ms. Huang’s brows, but the next second she raised them in a scold: “You child, weren’t you quite capable when you were drinking? Now that you’re suffering, you know to call Mom? Let’s see if you learn your lesson this time.”
A massive sense of unreality washed over him, leaving Duan Xiyan completely bewildered.
Was he actually dreaming right now, or had he already reached heaven?
A knock came from the door of the hospital room. The attending physician greeted Ms. Huang and walked in, checked Duan Xiyan’s condition, and while furiously scribbling notes in the medical chart, rattled off precautions.
“The rashes have basically subsided. You can leave once this bottle of IV finishes. Avoid spicy, raw, and cold foods upon returning home. The prescribed medication every day…”
Ms. Huang nodded repeatedly, attentively memorizing these precautions. Suddenly, the hand that had been gripping Duan Xiyan emptied out. The boy on the bed flipped up abruptly and slipped away like a gust of wind.
“Hey, where are you going—” Ms. Huang lost focus for a split second and failed to even catch a glimpse of Duan Xiyan’s shadow, leaving her to call out exasperatedly: “Quick, chase him, chase him! This brat, he’s still hooked up to an IV!”
“Young Master, don’t run!”
In the corridor, several men in black suits pursued a slender boy in a hospital gown in a roaring, thunderous stampede.
The head nurse on her rounds raised her head to look at the commotion in the corridor, frowned, and spat out: “This young master Duan is truly a handful; he never stays quiet every single time he comes.”
Duan Xiyan didn’t hear her commentary.
He couldn’t hear anything anymore at this moment.
He ran with all his might, panting heavily, his chest heaving violently, the burning pain in his lungs, the icy temperature of the floorboards against the soles of his feet, all of this gave him back a sense of reality.
He felt a blazing fire raging within his chest, burning him so intensely that he wanted to scream at the top of his lungs, but when he opened his mouth, his voice came out somewhat lost.
“Young Master, where are you going?” The guards’ anxious calls came from behind.
Duan Xiyan’s explosive speed was astonishingly fast. All the way into the garden downstairs of the inpatient building, none of the bodyguards managed to catch up to him.
Where to go? He didn’t even know where he was heading himself.
Duan Xiyan looked out toward the sunset and high-rises outside the hospital, momentarily unable to tell whether they were illusions or reality.
If this wasn’t a dream, if he had truly gained a new lease on life, he urgently needed to venture into the outside world.
Meanwhile, in a narrow alley near the hospital, inside a somewhat dated video arcade.
A burly man rudely tossed a half-smoked cigarette butt onto the floor where it glowed a dim, scarlet red before being crushed mercilessly like Mount Tai by a filthy pair of flip-flops, twisted twice to scatter cigarette ash across the ground.
One of the underlings handed the big man a club. He weighed it in his hand, raised his chin, squinted, and glared down at the Omega teenager standing before him.
The boy was tall and slender, dressed in a clean blue-and-white school uniform with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing a section of fair, lean forearms. His facial features were refined yet cold, and he looked calmly at the cigarette butt the big man had tossed on the floor.
Clearly showing no expression, the big man inexplicably sensed utter disdain.
This was simply a supreme insult.
“Brat, what are you looking at!” The big man spat another mouthful of phlegm onto the cigarette butt and barked coarsely, “Do you know what we’re here for?”
The teenager averted his gaze, casually picked up his schoolbag from the checkout counter to reveal a QR code sticker pasted on the desk, and said coldly, “One yuan per token, fifty minimum.”
It was dusk right then, and there were barely any customers in the shop to begin with. Having these hoodlums block the entrance like this directly cleared the place out.
The arcade machines flashed with colorful lights, reflecting in the teenager’s eyes and masking the dark emotions at the bottom of them.
“Who’s playing your piece-of-crap machine?” One of the hoodlums kicked over a stool in front of an arcade cabinet with a loud clang. “We’re here to cause trouble for you!”
Accompanied by this booming declaration, the atmosphere instantly grew tense, as if a room full of dry kindling had been piled up, waiting only for a single spark to ignite it.
Veins bulged on the back of the teenager’s hand as he gripped the strap of his schoolbag.
He naturally knew these people were here to pick a fight. Not only that, he could even guess who had sent them.
He was already used to it.
The two sides locked eyes, almost frictioning sparks, and conflict was about to erupt.
Right at this moment, someone wearing a hospital gown abruptly barged into this standoff.
Duan Xiyan had been chased by the bodyguards for a full two streets, twisting and turning through alleys until he stumbled blindly into this video arcade, still carrying the faint scent of sweet osmanthus from the hospital.
He hadn’t engaged in strenuous exercise for a long time; the sudden burst of running made him unaccustomed to the feeling of his muscles practically burning. Extremely exhausted, he bent over to catch his breath.
Having finally regulated his breathing, Duan Xiyan raised his head and locked eyes with the group staring at him inside.
Everyone in the shop: “?”
Duan Xiyan: “…”
Sorry to disturb you.
Clearly, Duan Xiyan had stumbled upon a scene of bullies picking on someone. The person cornered in the shop by them was a teenager around his own age, whose slightly long, choppy bangs cast a soft shadow over his amber-colored eyes. Perhaps due to the tense atmosphere, the teenager’s refined and handsome brows carried a hint of reckless edge.
Compared to the few fierce-looking hoodlums, the teenager’s figure appeared quite slender and utterly helpless.
He definitely couldn’t beat them.
Duan Xiyan hesitated. Logically speaking, this was the moment he should step up and be a hero, but judging by appearances, he and that teenager combined would probably just equal sending free food.
“Little brother over here, just standing there without leaving, don’t tell me you’re a helper invited by Yu Zhen?” The big man impatiently tried to shoo Duan Xiyan away with a look, but Duan Xiyan stubbornly stayed put, simply staring at the teenager inside.
“If you don’t leave, we’ll deal with you together!”
“Hah, before your feathers are even grown, don’t go trying to play the hero saving the beauty. Get lost, right now.”
Duan Xiyan’s rebellious streak was triggered. Taking a deep breath, he opened his mouth to blurt out, “Come on then, who’s afraid of who!” Only, his fighting words had barely rolled onto his tongue before they were nonchalantly blocked right back by the teenager inside.
The teenager raised an eyebrow slightly, looked at Duan Xiyan, and a flicker of vigilance flashed across his eyes: “Are you also here to cause trouble?”
Duan Xiyan was stunned by this cold question: “Not me.”
“Oh, then don’t interfere with my business.” The clear, ringing voice remained calm.
The next second, the teenager suddenly erupted, swinging his schoolbag to smash it straight at the leading big man!
The big man failed to dodge in time and took a solid hit squarely in the stomach, producing a heavy, dull thud. The teenager definitely wasn’t holding back with his strikes.
“Damn it! Brothers, get him!” The big man angrily raised the club in his hand, and the group instantly descended into chaos.
Duan Xiyan was similarly startled. He had originally worried the teenager was frail and would get bullied, but looking at it now, the teenager’s movements were fierce and fast, holding his own remarkably well against several hoodlums all at once.
Yet, he was still starting to lose the upper hand.
Confirming the teenager could still hold out for a bit longer, Duan Xiyan turned and sprinted out the door, yelling his location to the bodyguards who had chased him to the alley entrance: “I’m here! Help!”
The well-trained bodyguards subdued the hoodlums within three to five moves and dialed 110.
Several hoodlums squatted down with their heads in their hands in the open space outside the video arcade, timidly sizing up Duan Xiyan while offering flattering pleas for mercy, leaving none of their previous arrogance behind.
Having just fought a fight, the teenager’s originally clean school uniform was stained with dirt and grime, and the back of his hand had a scrape where the skin had broken, likely from scratching it while hitting someone earlier.
He glanced at Duan Xiyan, complex emotions hidden in the shadows, vanishing in a flash.
“Are you alright?” Duan Xiyan met the teenager’s gaze and asked with concern.
The other party didn’t appreciate it at all, not even offering a word of thanks as he turned around and walked back into the shop.
Duan Xiyan muttered softly under his breath, “This guy is really weird.”
Walking out of the police station after finishing the depositions, the sky had already turned dark.
Duan Xiyan had spent the entire journey enduring Ms. Huang’s lectures and hadn’t interacted with the teenager again. He watched as the teenager was picked up by an elderly grandfather with white hair; the grandfather and grandson flagged down a taxi and quickly vanished into the night.
“That kid was actually quite good-looking.” Ms. Huang’s voice chimed in abruptly.
“Huh?” Duan Xiyan snapped back to reality, only to realize he had been staring at the direction where the teenager left for quite some time. His face flushed scarlet instantly, and he waved his hands hurriedly: “No, no, I didn’t…”
Given that Duan Xiyan’s attitude toward admitting his faults had been exemplary the whole way, Ms. Huang’s anger had mostly dissipated. Seeing him hurriedly explaining now, she couldn’t help finding it amusing: “What are you shy about? Our little Bao even knows how to play the hero saving the beauty now.”
Duan Xiyan didn’t quite know how to reply for a moment, then heard Ms. Huang say: “I’m not opposed to you playing the hero, but next time you run away from the hospital again, see if I don’t break your leg! Do you even know how you, forget it, let’s go home.”
Duan Xiyan didn’t notice Ms. Huang’s hesitation mid-sentence, catching only the two words “go home,” causing him to nod repeatedly like he had been granted a general amnesty.
Going home.
He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he last heard those two words.
The past dozen years spent living in the sanitarium felt like something from a past life, separated by a layer of frosted glass, gradually blurring as they plunged deep into the recesses of memory.
Now, he was going home.