“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Ji Wenyu pulled his arm back, testing his forehead temperature with the back of his hand, “Not burning anymore, haha, this infusion is quite effective.”
The leave note was photocopied into multiple copies and handed separately to each professional course instructor. Naturally, Xu Yuanzhe did it on his behalf.
With the top student of the year stepping forward, naturally no teachers raised any doubts. Chen Wang even had Xu Yuanzhe pass along instructions for him to rest well, mentioning that the recommendation letter had already been uploaded for him.
On Monday morning, having slept for less than four hours, Xu Yuanzhe woke up early as usual to attend classes. Huang Bin dawdled until past nine before getting up to catch the second class, while Ji Wenyu and Pan Lejia stayed in the dorm sleeping until midday.
Opening Qinghe, a reply message from X was finally received.
[X: Sorry, just saw it. How are you doing?] [X: I thought you just overslept yesterday, didn’t expect you were sick] [X: Have you returned to the dorm?] [X: Do you want me to come find you?]
Seeing the very last sentence, the young man finally displayed a trace of a smile.
Well, he couldn’t entirely blame X for being indifferent on the first day of their relationship. The blame fell on his own previous routine of sleeping an entire day away, which prevented the other person from noticing anything wrong.
Should he let X come find him?
Having not washed his hair or face for two days, Ji Wenyu could almost smell the sickly air radiating from his own body. Better not; his very first meeting with X shouldn’t feature such an image.
[Little Fish: Got back to the dorm at dawn] [Little Fish: Slept another round, feeling much better]
His forehead was no longer hot, and the swelling and pain in his throat had subsided by more than half, leaving just a slight itchiness.
The young man coughed twice, preparing to climb out of bed for water when he suddenly spotted his thermal flask in the storage basket by the bed. Steam was still rising from the hot water inside, clearly freshly filled that morning.
Ji Wenyu’s heart stirred. With such meticulous attention to detail, who could have kindly done this for him?
He glanced toward Xu Yuanzhe’s empty bed across the room in a daze, lowered his head, and took a sip of the hot water.
The water temperature was just right for drinking, neither cold nor hot.
The top student was a remarkably nice person, though a pity he liked girls. Ji Wenyu shook his head in regret. Still, regarding the matter with Xu Yuanzhe, once he said he was turning the page, he truly had turned it. Right now, that person was simply a good roommate and a good brother to him—just like Huang Bin and Pan Lejia, they were all pals.
Going to the hospital last night was thanks to Xu Yuanzhe, coupled with this morning’s warm water; once he recovered, he absolutely had to treat Xu Yuanzhe to a meal. He wondered what winter camp project Xu Yuanzhe had applied for, and during grad school next year, they might even end up continuing as roommates.
[X: Did you ask for leave for today’s classes?] [Fish: Yeah, had my roommate help ask] [X: Then rest well properly in the dorm] [X: Have you eaten?] [X: Can I come find you?]
He hadn’t responded to the previous sentence, and X asked again.
[Little Fish: In a couple of days, I’ll come out to see you in a couple of days]
Without offering a lengthy explanation—whether the other person misinterpreted it as him being sick and unwilling to leave the dorm—X didn’t push any further.
[X: What do you want to eat, I’ll order delivery for you]
This option was acceptable.
Ji Wenyu opened the delivery app with a beaming smile, flipped through, picked a dim sum shop, and sent it to X.
Of course he had money to pay for delivery, but if the delivery was ordered by his boyfriend, it naturally felt different. Even though he chose the shop, he was curious what X would order for him.
He had often ordered from this shop while in the dorm; located right near the school, it delivered very quickly, and their steamed pork ribs in black bean sauce along with red rice rolls with shrimp were absolute masterpieces.
A few minutes later, X sent a message saying it was ordered. Ji Wenyu rolled out of bed to wash up, and not long after returning to his seat with his toiletries, he saw Xu Yuanzhe push open the dorm door and return.
The youth was holding a delivery bag, and the pattern on the packaging matched the exact shop he had asked X to order from. While Ji Wenyu was still bewildered, the person had already brought the delivery straight to his desk.
“Saw it downstairs, brought it up along the way.”
“Wow, thanks! What a coincidence!” Not needing to go downstairs, Ji Wenyu beamed with joy, having just been fretting over whether picking up delivery downstairs would be cold.
“Mhm, came back to grab something,” Xu Yuanzhe said in a low voice. He placed the delivery down, rummaged through his desk for a moment, and walked back out the door.
Qinghe popped up with a message from X.
[X: Did you receive the delivery?] [Little Fish: Yup! A nice roommate brought it up on his way by, didn’t even need me to go downstairs] [Little Fish: My luck is surprisingly good today] [X: See if you like what I ordered]
Ji Wenyu unwrapped the delivery packaging.
The vendor used insulated bags and delivered quickly, leaving the small boxes of dim sum inside steaming hot.
Steamed pork ribs in black bean sauce, beef rice noodle rolls, egg custard, blanched choy sum, salted egg yolk lava buns, and black chicken soup—X had practically ordered every single light dish available among the steamed items.
Seeing that the other person had guessed his favorite dish of steamed pork ribs, the young man’s eyes curved into satisfied smiles as he marveled at how much synergy he shared with his Ah Yan.
[Little Fish: Love it! Thank you Ah Yan~] [Little Fish: Little penguin kiss GIF]
Though his razor blade throat wasn’t fully healed and swallowing food still caused throat pain, because the delivery was ordered by X, Ji Wenyu felt an exceptional appetite.
[X: Eat more vegetables, get your vitamins, you’ll recover faster]
He followed instructions obediently and polished off the choy sum completely.
[Little Fish: Do you have a lot of classes today?] [X: It’s alright] [Little Fish: Tired? Want some coffee?] [Little Fish: I’ll order some for you]
Having received such a lavish lunch from X for no apparent reason, he felt compelled to immediately return something of equal value.
[X: Not tired] [Little Fish: Then want some milk tea?] [X: No need]
Declining that as well… alright then. Ji Wenyu finished the last sip of black chicken soup. He would just have to figure out a way to pay him back later.
[X: Rest well after eating, get better soon]
Seeing this sentence, the young man curved his lips upwards once more.
[Little Fish: What, in a rush to see me?]
He crossed his legs and leaned back in his swivel chair, his slender, fair ankles exposed outside his trousers swinging leisurely back and forth.
X didn’t hold back.
[X: Mhm, want to see you]
Then he had to get better quickly.
Because—
Ji Wenyu faced his phone screen and solemnly tapped out a line of text.
[Little Fish: I want to see you too]
Following midterms came true winter.
The day Ji Wenyu caught a fever happened to coincide with the Beginning of Winter, causing him to miss out on eating dumplings. Just two days after the Beginning of Winter arrived came the annual major internet festival: Singles’ Day.
Yes, before Double Eleven officially evolved into a nationwide shopping spree carnival for everyone to chop off their wallets, this day was actually Singles’ Day. Zijing University faithfully carried on its fine past tradition by continuing to celebrate this day as Singles’ Day.
Entering university, Ji Wenyu had spent two consecutive Singles’ Days as a single. But this year, he had finally flipped the script and shaken off singlehood right before Singles’ Day!
Zijing University had invested genuine effort into helping students find their other halves. The official administration organized networking events year after year, some between different colleges and others joint with Capital University. Generally speaking, a cocktail party was held in the lecture hall on the evening of Singles’ Day, after which everyone moved over to a music bar near the school gates rented out by the institution.
These official school events were all organized by the student union. Consequently, during the previous two years, Ji Wenyu naturally participated in networking events from start to finish.
On the eve of Singles’ Day, Shi Zhiyao, the newly appointed head of the organization department, invited him to join the Singles’ Day activities together. She likely figured, on one hand, that she wanted him—an old department head—to check out how the organization department handled this year’s event and lend a hand if needed, and on the other hand, she probably still viewed him as a chronically single bachelor.
Upon first joining the organization department, Shi Zhiyao had been just like him: a certified super-extrovert. After polling the entire department about who was single, she had even openly declared her intention to pursue Ji Wenyu. Later on, when Ji Wenyu genuinely demonstrated zero interest in dating, she backed off in a timely manner and pivoted toward other targets.
His fever had long since cleared up, leaving behind just a slight cough, meaning going outside posed no problems. Ji Wenyu didn’t hesitate long before accepting Shi Zhiyao’s invitation.
[Little Fish: Did this year’s event invite Capital University?]
If students from Capital University had been invited, would there be a chance for him to see X?
With his illness not fully cleared, Ji Wenyu planned to wait until the weekend to ask X out on a date, keeping their contact strictly online these past few days. He and X still voice-chatted every evening around dusk, but since he hadn’t been going to the library nor studying over the last few days, resting entirely in the dorm instead, the two of them simply chatted idly about random trivialities.
Though Qinghe was handy to use, it wasn’t a standard instant messaging app after all. Ji Wenyu had tried multiple times during this period to suggest adding each other on the chatting apps they used in everyday reality, but the topic kept getting mysteriously derailed, leaving him no choice but to wait until they met in person.
[YUKI: Is Yu-ge finally looking to break out of singlehood?]
Shi Zhiyao sent three consecutive exclamation marks.
That wasn’t really looking to break out of singlehood, since he had already broken out of it. Ji Wenyu muttered silently in his heart.
[Little Fish: Just asking out of curiosity] [YUKI: Yes, yes, we’re linked up with Capital University’s student union, they’ll push our events over there, there’s a venue on Capital U’s side too, our students can head over to their side as well]
While he had been thinking about trying to catch a glimpse of X among the crowd before heading over, once he actually arrived, Ji Wenyu was as busy as a top-spinning cat and couldn’t spare attention for anything else.
Just like every year, the organization department ran themselves ragged around the clock while organizing the event. Even though they had made plenty of preparations for overall coordination beforehand, once they hit the actual venue, chaos reigned just the same.
Ji Wenyu first helped greet guests at the entrance and receive school leaders, then rushed backstage to help troubleshoot equipment and monitor the event flow. Forget about looking for X in the venue; he didn’t even have time to visit the snack and drink buffet table.
Once the lecture hall activities wrapped up, there was no time to clean up the mess before moving the venue over to the music bar.
Fortunately, the bar itself operated as an established business venue, meaning food and drinks didn’t require preparation on their part. The event hosting duties had also been contracted out, leaving Ji Wenyu and his team with a chance to finally catch their breath.
A dozen or so people took turns eating boxed meals in a private room while activities proceeded methodically in the main hall. While Shi Zhiyao kept watch, Ji Wenyu stepped outside to take a stroll.
He swiped a glass of sparkling wine from the bar, the alcohol bringing a touch of warmth as it slid down his throat.