Upon arriving at the hospital, Zhou Fan vomited again, successfully earning the right to be treated before registering.
The doctor took his temperature and informed him that it had spiked to over 40°C, nearly 41°C. After receiving an injection, Zhou Fan lay on the hospital bed. His memory only lasted until the head nurse came to insert the IV drip, while Chi Hanqing stood beside him, staring at his hand while making a phone call.
When he woke up again, the window of the ward revealed an orange-red sunset. The clothes on his body were clean and unfamiliar. Had Chi Hanqing changed them for him?
Zhou Fan blinked and slowly regained sensation in his body, only to feel that his hand was being gripped tightly. He glanced to the side. Chi Hanqing was slumped over the edge of the bed, holding Zhou Fan’s hand firmly. His eyes were closed, but his brow was furrowed in sleep as if he were having a troubling dream.
Zhou Fan did not speak or move. He simply watched him quietly for a long time. It was only when the muscles in his neck began to ache that he let his gaze return to the hospital ceiling. His mind felt sluggish, as if he could not think straight. He wondered if he had burned his brain out.
Just as he was thinking this, Chi Hanqing moved. He slowly sat up, lifted his head, and met Zhou Fan’s eyes.
The man on the bed looked much better, but the exhaustion and lethargy from years of hard work remained between his brows. He was still handsome, and the weight loss only made his sharp bone structure more prominent. His expression still held that familiar, reckless edge Chi Hanqing knew so well, but his eyes seemed covered in a layer of gray. His eyelids drooped lazily, and his hair was a mess with a few stubborn tufts sticking up.
“Zhou Fan,” Chi Hanqing said. Then he suddenly snapped fully awake and sat up straight. After a moment, he thought of the next thing to say. “Do you want some water?”
“Yes,” Zhou Fan replied.
Chi Hanqing picked up a water bottle from the side and held it to his lips. Zhou Fan tilted his head away, withdrew the hand Chi Hanqing was still holding, propped himself up to sit, and took the bottle. After gulping down more than half the bottle, Zhou Fan caught his breath and climbed out of bed.
“Where are you going?” Chi Hanqing stood up.
“Bathroom.” Zhou Fan took a turn and entered the en-suite hospital bathroom.
After handling his business, Zhou Fan washed his hands while studying himself in the mirror for a while. As he looked, he suddenly let out a small laugh. Today, he had truly lost both face and dignity in front of Chi Hanqing.
Zhou Fan rarely felt inferior and disliked self-pity. Some things in life were unavoidable. You acknowledged them, accepted them, and kept living. Everyone did it. But today, seeing the designer-clad Chi Hanqing busy in his cramped room, he felt a strange sense of irony.
In a way, the scene was like a fairy tale where a pampered, beautiful princess married a penniless poor boy. Dressed in a gown and crown, she could only hold a rag in a small, dilapidated house, slowly eroded by the mundane chores of life.
Zhou Fan was amused by his own imagination, but a nameless emotion surged in his heart at the same time. He lowered his head, washed his face again, messily dried it with a paper towel, and walked out.
In the ward, Chi Hanqing was speaking with a doctor. Seeing Zhou Fan emerge, he turned and said, “You can be discharged, but you need to come back for the IV drip over the next two days.”
Zhou Fan said, “I am not that delicate.”
Chi Hanqing pursed his lips and said nothing. The doctor beside them smiled and said, “You should not say that. If you neglect your health just because you are young, it is easy to leave lasting problems. The weather is cold now. If you have recurring relapses, it will be even more of a hassle, don’t you agree?”
Zhou Fan glanced at the doctor’s name tag: Chief Physician.
He realized that this private ward was likely arranged by Chi Hanqing using his connections. He wanted to say something but simply sighed instead.
“Fine,” Zhou Fan compromised. In the short two days since binding with 004, Zhou Fan had compromised more times than in the previous twenty-some years combined.
Once they were in the car, silence returned. There was not even any music. The heater was so high that Zhou Fan felt a bit stifled. He looked out the window at the streets bathed in the afterglow of the sunset, thinking about how he still had to clean and air out his bedsheets when he got home. He thought it was a hassle.
Then, Zhou Fan remembered something and turned his head. “How much were the medical fees? I will transfer the money to you.”
Chi Hanqing gripped the steering wheel and stared straight ahead. “No need.”
Zhou Fan said, “You should know that I do not like owing people.”
Hearing this, Chi Hanqing’s lips twitched. “But I heard that you have owed me a huge sum for a long time. Does having so much debt not mean you should stop worrying?”
Zhou Fan found himself speechless.
The four-kilometer trip took fifteen minutes. Chi Hanqing’s car soon stopped at the entrance of Zhou Fan’s residential area. Zhou Fan now only wanted to avoid further interaction with Chi Hanqing as much as possible. Knowing that anything he said regarding the man might trigger a punishment from 004, he chose to say nothing. As soon as the car stopped, he unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door to leave.
“Zhou Fan,” Chi Hanqing seemed to anticipate his thoughts and exited the car even faster. “I still have your house keys.”
Zhou Fan’s footsteps stopped. He felt his jacket pocket and closed his eyes. He thought he would have to find a locksmith.
“And your phone is still at home.”
Zhou Fan turned around. Under the twilight, the streetlights were gradually flickering on. Chi Hanqing stood by the car, gazing at him fixedly.
“Zhou Fan,” Chi Hanqing said, “you do not actually have a boyfriend, do you?”
Zhou Fan said nothing. Of course, he could not speak. If the electric shock were just painful, he could endure it, but the negative side effects were too severe for him to handle. His only option was to face Chi Hanqing’s questions with silence.
Chi Hanqing stared at him for a while, and a faint smile slowly appeared on his face.
“Let me come into your house and sit for a while, okay?” Chi Hanqing said. “You have not fully recovered yet. I will take care of you.”
Zhou Fan’s expression became very complex. He opened his mouth and finally could not help but ask, “Why?”
He wondered why Chi Hanqing still pursued him even after everything that had happened. He questioned how much more he had to hurt him before he would let go.
Chi Hanqing closed the car door and walked over to stand in front of Zhou Fan.
“Zhou Fan,” he said, “I like you.”
“For the past six years, I have been unable to forget you.”
“I wanted to call you and text you, but after I went abroad and changed my number, you never replied no matter how I tried.”
“After returning to the country, I got my old number back, only to hear people say you had changed yours.”
“It turns out you did not.”
“You left so cleanly and decisively. I asked so many people and got vague clues, and I searched so many places, but I never found a trace of you.”
“Before coming here, I had already lost hope.”
“But that Ferrari you liked the most eventually led me to you.”
“Zhou Fan, I missed you so much.”
“Do you miss me?”
Zhou Fan slowly closed his eyes. Amid the sharp alarms in his mind, he remembered the events of six years ago.