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The Online Dating Object is My Roommate by Fengsu__
The first thing to do upon returning to the dormitory was, of course, to plug in the phone that was about to automatically shut down. After washing up and brushing his teeth, the young man returned to his desk and sat down.
Huang Bin and Xu Yuanzhe were both absent from the dormitory, and it was unknown where they had gone. Pan Lejia had gone to bed unusually early, emitting low and even snooring sounds.
The phone’s charging cable was too short to reach the bed, leaving Ji Wenyu sitting on the floor under the bed, waiting until the battery level indicated by the phone was no longer a red number below twenty.
Swiping open the phone screen, he couldn’t help tapping open Qinghe once more.
[Little Fish: Have you returned to the dorm yet?]
X replied to the message quickly.
[X: On the way] [X: You go to sleep first]
The two sentences returned by X felt rather subtle, leaving Ji Wenyu in a dazed illusion that he had the false impression of waiting at home for X to return to bed.
The young man uncomfortably rubbed his nose, scanned the area beneath his dormitory bed, and after confirming he was completely alone, continued typing.
[Little Fish: Can’t sleep]
Wanting to see you.
He typed out these three words, hesitated, and deleted them. Being this proactive right after getting together, would X get scared off by him?
[X: Then listen to music together?] [Little Fish: Alright] [X: What do you want to listen to?]
Ji Wenyu tilted his head and thought about it.
Originally, he intended to find something interesting on the homepage rankings, but somehow, opening the search bar, he typed back in the three words “want to see you” that he had just deleted from the dialogue box.
Want to see you want to see you want to see you.
The young man tapped the Listen Together button in the upper right corner and sent it to X.
Clutching his phone, which had recovered a bit of battery power, he climbed onto his bed, originally intending to chat with X while listening to music. But he didn’t expect that the moment his head touched the pillow, he fell fast asleep, failing even to set an alarm for waking up the next morning.
Waking up again, it was indeed already afternoon.
He really had been right on the mark according to X’s guess.
One earphone was still in his ear, while the other had rolled off to some unknown corner of the bed. The phone had shut itself down due to a dead battery, leaving the screen pitch black and unresponsive to any buttons pressed.
The moment Ji Wenyu opened his eyes, he felt a simultaneous wave of discomfort in his temples and throat.
Despite sleeping for a long time, his head hurt as if he had pulled several consecutive all-nighters, aching with the severe agony of having been run over by a truck. His throat felt inflamed and swollen, turning the simple act of swallowing saliva into an arduous trial. The young man opened his mouth and found his voice shockingly hoarse.
It seemed he had caught a chill in the library stairwell last night, Ji Wenyu let out a soft sigh.
His plan to meet X today was completely ruined.
The young man raised the back of his hand to test his forehead, finding it predictably scorching hot.
Just becoming a couple yesterday, and directly getting knocked out with a fever today—talk about joy turning into sorrow.
At this moment, he was only grateful that he had submitted his winter camp application yesterday; otherwise, his cries to heaven would have gone unanswered and his calls to earth would have found no response.
Struggling to crawl out of bed to charge his phone, he dug out a bottle of mineral water to take a sip, then crawled back into bed to sleep. When a person is sick, hunger tends to stay away, making it very easy to sleep oneself into oblivion.
Regaining consciousness once more, it was already the middle of the night.
Down below the bed, Huang Bin and Pan Lejia were playing a team match, shouting instructions to other teammates through their headsets. Xu Yuanzhe also seemed to be under his bed; his desk lamp was lit, indicating he was likely reading.
Ji Wenyu gave two muffled coughs and propped himself up to a sitting position.
“Hey, Lao Ji, you’re in the dorm.”
Hearing the noise, Huang Bin peered over in surprise. Even Xu Yuanzhe, who had been reading, turned his head around.
“Yeah, slept all day,” his voice so hoarse he could barely speak, Ji Wenyu forced the words out.
Sleeping a bit more reduced the headache slightly, meaning his body temperature had likely dropped a bit. However, the razor blade throat symptoms seemed to be intensifying; even without swallowing, mere breathing caused sharp pain as the air brushed past.
“I think I have a fever,” managing to crawl down from the bed, his vision blurred with afterimages, and the young man nearly missed his footing on the final step down.
“What’s your temperature?” Huang Bin busied himself by putting his headset back on, while Xu Yuanzhe walked over to ask.
“I don’t know, there’s no thermometer,” Ji Wenyu shook his head, painfully closing his eyes.
“You’ve been burning all day? Have you eaten today?” Xu Yuanzhe continued asking, walking over to pick up the mug on Ji Wenyu’s desk.
“Pretty much, haven’t eaten yet,” Ji Wenyu rubbed his temples.
Xu Yuanzhe carried his mug out of the bedroom, returning shortly after with a cup of hot water, placing the cup before him.
“Thanks,” Ji Wenyu picked it up and took a sip; the temperature was just right.
Drinking water was agonizing; the warm liquid slid past his swollen throat, feeling like torture at every single instant.
“Drink more,” Xu Yuanzhe searched around his own desk for a moment before handing over a thermometer, “Check your temperature.”
Lacking the strength to refuse, Ji Wenyu obediently tucked the thermometer under his armpit.
You wouldn’t know without checking, and the reading was startling. His forehead had felt around thirty-eight degrees, but the thermometer directly registered thirty-nine point three.
“Let’s go to the hospital,” Xu Yuanzhe said decisively.
“I’ll be fine after a sleep…” shivering all over, Ji Wenyu had no desire to leave the warm dormitory.
The young man looked at him: “Your temperature is too high. Where else does it hurt?”
Ji Wenyu pointed to his throat.
“Hospital. I’ll call a ride,” Xu Yuanzhe pulled down the down jacket hanging nearby and tossed it into his arms.
His consciousness remained fuzzy, and it was Xu Yuanzhe who brought him to the hospital.
Walking unsteadily, Ji Wenyu relied entirely on the other person’s grip to successfully see the emergency doctor and get hooked up to an IV drip.
Settling him into the infusion room, Xu Yuanzhe thoughtfully ran downstairs to buy a cup of congee, inserted a straw, and brought it to his mouth.
Ji Wenyu drank half the congee, lay back on the chair, and fell asleep again. Only after half the IV bottle had drained did he feel his sanity recover slightly.
“Where’s my phone?” The first thing upon waking up clear-headed was searching for the phone.
Xu Yuanzhe pointed to the right pocket of his down jacket.
Pulling out the phone, he opened Qinghe.
Seeing only a single message from X, the young man pouted in slight disappointment.
It had been sent past eleven, asking if he was awake. Seeing no response from him, the person hadn’t sent anything further.
Ah, what is this? Is being this perfunctory allowed right after starting a relationship? When he doesn’t reply, aren’t they worried about him at all?
[Little Fish: Caught a fever, came to the hospital for an infusion]
After sending the message, he stared blankly at the screen.
Given that it was already two in the morning, the other person was probably asleep and wouldn’t reply to his message for a long while.
Ji Wenyu let out a despondent sigh.
“It should be about another half hour,” Xu Yuanzhe observed the remaining liquid in the IV bag closely and judged.
“Yeah, thanks a lot for tonight. You should head back first,” Ji Wenyu composed his emotions and looked up to say to his kind-hearted roommate.
At this hour, even X was asleep, and dragging Xu Yuanzhe along to stay up all night here felt somewhat inappropriate. Tomorrow was Monday, and the top student still had classes to attend seriously; pulling an all-nighter tonight simply wouldn’t do.
Xu Yuanzhe shook his head and sat down on the empty seat beside him: “No rush.”
With his throat hurting and feeling sad that X hadn’t replied to his message, Ji Wenyu stared blankly at the intravenous needle on the back of his hand without speaking. He and Xu Yuanzhe shared silence once more; when he didn’t talk, Xu Yuanzhe didn’t say anything either.
The IV bottle was close to emptying, and it was Xu Yuanzhe who noticed first.
“I’ll go get the nurse,” the youth stood up and walked quickly toward the nurse’s station.
Returning shortly after, Xu Yuanzhe held a piece of paper in his grip—a leave application filled out for him.
Three days of leave, bearing the doctor’s signature at the bottom.
Model students really have complete procedures down; actually, skipping classes directly would have worked just the same, Ji Wenyu thought to himself.
He still reached out to take it: “Thanks.”
Xu Yuanzhe seemed to guess what he was thinking: “You’d better ask for leave, especially with Chen Wang; he might look for you.”
Even with his brain wrapped in a thick fog of fever, Ji Wenyu sluggishly realized something was off: “How do you know—”
The matter of asking Chen Wang for a recommendation letter for the graduate recommendation winter camp hadn’t been shared with anyone except X. But X was an internet acquaintance who didn’t even know which university he attended, only knowing the research direction he wanted. Could it be that the Zijing University logo showed up when he screenshotted the application system for X to check? But even if X knew, there was no way he would tell Xu Yuanzhe…
A fleeting unnatural expression crossed Xu Yuanzhe’s face: “Chen Wang told me.”
Ji Wenyu grew even more nervous: “Did you apply for his research direction too?”
Crap, crap. He could still put up a fight against others, but if his opponent was Xu Yuanzhe, he genuinely stood zero chance of survival.
“No.”
Fortunately, Xu Yuanzhe’s explicit denial allowed the young man to breathe a sigh of relief.
That meant Chen Wang had invited Xu Yuanzhe to choose him as a mentor, but Xu Yuanzhe had turned it down? Human joys and sorrows truly did not connect; while he was begging Chen Wang to just glance at him and spending a week doing questions for it, Xu Yuanzhe was casually rejecting an active invitation without a second thought.
Ji Wenyu dropped his head in defeat.
Remaining seated without moving, Xu Yuanzhe didn’t rush him either, patiently waiting by his side.
With his mind completely occupied by thoughts of when he could become as formidable as Xu Yuanzhe, it took him a long time to realize the IV had finished running and Xu Yuanzhe was still waiting nearby.
The young man sprang up abruptly: “Ah, sorry, I forgot, time to head back.”
Embarrassed, he rubbed the tip of his nose and took the lead walking toward the infusion room’s exit.
Having burned all day, his body remained weak. Standing up too abruptly after lifting his leg caused Ji Wenyu to sway. Xu Yuanzhe steadied him in time.
“Slow down,” the youth pulled his arm with concern, not daring to let go for quite a while.