The cards began to be played.
Opponent No. 1: Airplane~ (Airplane combination)
Next came Zhao Che’s turn. Looking at his cards, he let out a helpless sigh. Just as he was hesitating whether to throw out a bomb, an egg was hurled at him from the opposite side.
Opponent No. 1: Hurry up, I’ve been waiting so long the flowers have withered~
He couldn’t make a decision until the timer ran out, and the system automatically called out for him: Pass!
Next was Gu Yu’s turn to play. Without a moment’s hesitation, he tossed out four 8s.
GY: Bomb!
Opponent No. 2: Bomb! (Four 9s)
Opponent No. 1: Pass!
The right to play returned to Zhao Che. His biggest bomb was merely six 10s. Just as he was contemplating, ten buckets of virtual ice water were splashed over his handsome avatar from the opposite side.
Opponent No. 2: Stop dawdling, play your cards quickly!
Fuck! Rush, rush, rush, all they know is rushing! After throwing a hundred eggs at the person who splashed water on him, he gave in and tapped: Pass!
GY: Bomb! (Five Jacks)
Opponent No. 2: Bomb! (Five Queens)
Opponent No. 1: Pass!
When it came back to Zhao Che, he didn’t dawdle this time either, tapping to pass.
Gu Yu threw out six Aces again. After a round, the whole table said “Pass,” leaving the right to play with him.
GY: Airplane~ (Three Queens and three Kings with a pair of 10s)
Seeing that Gu Yu had only four cards left, Opponent No. 2 grew anxious and immediately played four 2s. Unsurprisingly, Opponent No. 1 passed.
Zhao Che was still pondering whether he should play his only six 10s to claim the round and throw a hand to Gu Yu, when out of nowhere, Gu Yu slammed ten bricks at him.
Damn it! It’s one thing when others throw stuff at him, but even Gu Yu threw at him! After his brief outrage, he held his tongue and swallowed his anger, pouring ten cups of coffee props for Gu Yu before playing his final hidden hand: Bomb!
GY: Four-King Ultimate Bomb!
Zhao Che: “…”
Turns out he had overthought it… No wonder Gu Yu slammed bricks at him—it turned out to mean “hurry up and play your cards!”
Unsurprisingly, no one could counter Gu Yu’s monstrous hand. He claimed victory directly, winning 10,000 coins. During the interval before matching the next game, Zhao Che switched to WeChat and sent Gu Yu a cute cat-head sticker set.
Che Ye: Woah.jpg
Over the next six rounds, Gu Yu carried him through almost every single game. In the final round, Gu Yu’s hand was extraordinarily good—a single “Spring” sweep wiped out hundreds of thousands of coins from the opposing side.
Just as Zhao Che was collecting his task rewards, GY sent a message.
GY: Going to shower.
Che Ye: Go ahead, go ahead! Thanks for carrying me, big boss~
After shameless replying with a line borrowed from an ad slogan, he hummed a tune in a great mood and went off to shower as well.
Entering the bathroom, he took off his clothes and turned on the showerhead to test the water temperature. The moment the water poured down, he gasped out a “Whoa!”
He was stunned—the water had no heat to it whatsoever! He toggled the switch back and forth, but no matter which side he turned it to, the water temperature didn’t change at all.
Unsurprisingly, the water heater was broken.
Zhao Che stood bare in the bathroom. He had broken a sweat on the playground this afternoon and felt uncomfortable all over; going to sleep like this was out of the question. After feeling his smooth, broad forehead back and forth, he decided to just shower anyway!
Anyway, the weather is so hot, taking a cold shower shouldn’t be a big deal, right?
At this thought, he stepped under the showerhead and turned on the tap. Fine, dense cold water instantly cascaded down his black hair, streaming over his body. The moment it touched his skin, a sharp shiver ran through him, but he forced himself to resist the urge to jump away.
After slowly adapting for a bit, he started lathering on body wash. The entire process was pure agony.
The moment he turned off the showerhead, his fingertips felt somewhat stiff. Letting out a long breath, he grabbed a bath towel from the rack, wiped himself down haphazardly, slipped into shorts, and dived straight back under the thin blanket with a towel draped over his head.
Suddenly, a gust of cold air blew over. Zhao Che sneezed, realizing the air conditioner hadn’t been turned off.
Just as he was about to get out of bed to find the remote control, Gu Yu popped into his mind. Instinctively picking up his phone from the nightstand, he sent Gu Yu a message, completely forgetting about turning off the air conditioner.
Che Ye: You there?
Che Ye: Did you shower with cold water or hot water?
After finishing his shower, Gu Yu sat on a chair, drying his hair while checking his phone. Tapping open the two messages from “Che Ye”, he didn’t quite get what they meant.
Why would anyone use cold water instead of hot water? So he sent back a question mark.
The reply came quickly from the other side: I’m asking if your water heater is still working normally.
GY: Yes.
Che Ye: OK.jpg
Early the next morning, before the 7:30 AM alarm had a chance to ring, Gu Yu was pulled awake by his biological clock. Rolling over in bed, his sleepiness vanished completely. He flipped off the blanket, got up, and padded into the bathroom in his slippers.
Squeezing toothpaste onto his brush and putting it in his mouth, he casually picked up his phone from the counter and swiped the screen open—the message notification area was squeaky clean. Zhao Che hadn’t sent messages like he usually did. Holding the foam in his mouth, Gu Yu paused for a moment. He probably hasn’t woken up yet, he thought.
After rinsing his mouth and washing his face, he turned and pulled a copy of Physics Competition Problem Set from the bookshelf, intending to pass the time.
The tip of his pen rustled across the scratch paper. An hour quickly went by, but the phone at the corner of the desk stayed quiet the entire time, without even a single notification chime.
Frowning slightly, his fingertips hovered over the chat box before he finally initiated a message.
GY: Awake yet?
When ten minutes passed with no reply, he sent another line: Not eating breakfast?
Gu Yu glanced at the clock—it was nearly 9:00 AM. Both he and Zhao Che had reliable biological clocks. Normally speaking, their daily routines shouldn’t differ by much. How could he be sleeping until now?
He packed up the things on his desk and prepared to go check in person.
“Knock, knock, knock.”
No answer.
So he knocked twice more, but there was still no answer. Remembering that Zhao Che didn’t have the habit of locking his door, he simply turned the doorknob. The moment the door opened, a wave of cold air rushed at his face—Zhao Che’s bedroom was currently as freezing as an ice cellar.
Goosebumps instantly broke out all over Gu Yu. He turned off the air conditioner, opened the window, and swept his gaze to the person curled up under the thin blanket, his brows furrowing in an instant.
It isn’t even June yet, and he ran the air conditioner all night long?
After calling “Zhao Che” twice without the person on the bed moving at all, he walked over. Crouching down, he clearly saw the pale half-face exposed beneath the thin blanket. He reached out his hand to touch Zhao Che’s forehead; the moment his skin made contact, a surge of burning heat met his hand, making his fingers curl up instinctively.
Under his touch, Zhao Che also slowly opened his eyes, though his gaze lacked clarity.
Seeing him wake up, Gu Yu hastily drew his hand back, his voice lacking any warmth: “You have a fever. Get up and take some medicine.”
Zhao Che forced the corners of his mouth up, saying in a low, raspy voice: “I’m sick like this, how can you still be so cold? You’re almost catching up to my cold shower yesterday.”
Cold shower?
Hearing this unconscious complaint, Gu Yu finally understood what those weird messages Zhao Che sent yesterday were about.
It turned out the water heater in his room was broken, yet he acted like everything was fine while checking in on him instead.
Standing and looking down at the sickly person on the bed, he spoke with a trace of subtle anger: “Your water heater broke, and you didn’t know to come find me?”
Covering his face slightly, Zhao Che also realized he had let the cat out of the bag. So he played it off casually: “Aiya, I was already completely stripped down at the time.”
“Then couldn’t you put clothes on before coming over?”
“Actually, I didn’t think it was that cold…” The more Zhao Che spoke, the less confidence he had, finally turning a bit bashful: “Aiya, don’t stare at me like that.”
“Not cold? Then how did you end up burning with a fever like this?”
“It really was manageable…”
“What about running the air conditioner all night then?”
Uh… this was a question Zhao Che couldn’t answer. He couldn’t even remember how he fell asleep last night.
So he stopped making excuses, his voice carrying a coaxing tone as he spoke: “I was wrong, okay? Student Gu Yu is a magnanimous person, don’t hold it against a humble guy like me, alright?”
Zhao Che stole a peek at Gu Yu. Seeing that his expression had softened slightly, he pressed his advantage: “I definitely won’t take cold showers next time!”
“Mm.”
Seeing that the atmosphere was no longer so tense, Zhao Che grumbled casually again: “Luckily my mom is on a business trip, otherwise she’d definitely force me to go to the hospital.”
“Mm. After eating, go to the hospital.”
“Hospital?!”
“If you don’t want to go, then take medicine.”
It was embarrassing to admit, but what Zhao Che couldn’t stand most in his whole life was getting shots and taking medicine.
Back in kindergarten when he and Gu Yu went to get vaccinated together, Gu Yu at least held tears back in his eyes without letting them fall. As for him, he went to the battlefield crying, came home fainting, and whenever he was fed medicine, he squealed like a slaughterhouse pig—Ms. Wang Xue was utterly helpless about it.
In the end, Zhao Che compromised, letting out a dry laugh: “Hehe, fine then, I don’t want to go smell the disinfectant at the hospital anyway.” After thinking a moment, he added, “Then let’s order takeout. In my condition, I can’t really go out to eat.”
“Didn’t Auntie Xue forbid it?”
“What are you afraid of? She won’t know; having a few meals won’t hurt.” Zhao Che paused, then said: “We can’t possibly cook ourselves, can we?”
“I’ll try.”
Zhao Che: “?”
What did Gu Yu just say? Cook for him personally? Though he looked forward to it a bit, he had never seen Gu Yu step into a kitchen before—would whatever came out even be edible?
“How about… we still order take—”
out. Before he could finish his sentence, the door opened and shut—Gu Yu was gone.
“…”
At this moment, something kept buzzing repeatedly beside Zhao Che’s ear, making his already dizzy head spin even more. He felt around under his pillow and picked up the culprit.
Who is it? Sending him messages continuously first thing in the morning. Unlocking the screen, twenty-one spam messages from “I Like Zhouwei” were displayed. Annoyed, he tapped in to take a look.
I Like Zhouwei: Brother Che! Help me!
I Like Zhouwei: Emergency
I Like Zhouwei: You there? Brother Zhao Che!
…
The remaining messages were almost all like this.
Zhao Che reluctantly typed a few words: Cut the crap and spit it out.
The other side replied in a second: Nothing much, just that physics assignment… you know, right? Begging you.jpg
It seemed he really had promised Zhou Wei to cover a week’s worth of physics assignments in exchange for returning a love letter. The problem was, right now even getting out of bed was a struggle—it would be a miracle if he could hold a pen to do worksheets. So he replied to Zhou Wei with regret: I have a fever, how about asking someone else first? Sad.jpg
I Like Zhouwei: Ah, alright then. Get some good rest!
Just as he was about to put his phone down, he saw someone tagging Gu Yu in the How Can Studying Be as Sweet as Slacking Off? (Say No to Overwork) group. Curious, he tapped in.
Gentle: @GY, Brother Yu, how’s your practice going?
I Like Zhouwei: Wild guess: Brother Yu hasn’t even looked at it.
GY: Mm.
I Like Zhouwei: Everything under control.jpg
Gentle: Alright then, let’s rehearse together when we get back to school.
Sport: Where’s Brother Che? Why is he so silent?
I Like Zhouwei: Brother Che is sick, needs to rest well. Secret-laugh.jpg
Wei Junjie: Zhou Wei, how do you know?
I Like Zhouwei: I just messaged Brother Che, how could I not know?
I Like Zhouwei: ? Wei Junjie, did you just connect to the internet? Why are you popping up only now? Scorn.jpg
Wei Junjie: Phone fell in the water, just got it fixed.
Sport: Who finished the physics? The worksheets set by Grandma Lin this week are too crazy.