Qi Zhi never imagined that the person who was once his best friend would loathe him to this extent. It was one thing to be snide and sarcastic, but to put dead cockroaches in his food and trick him into eating them was another level entirely.
They had once made a vow under the starlight to be brothers and best friends for life how had they come to this? Was it really true that because his identity had changed, he was no longer worthy of even having friends?
“It wasn’t me!” Zhuang Yuexiang was also stunned. His eyes widened as he waved his hands in explanation. “I went to the restaurant and got the takeout myself. How could I have put cockroaches in your food?”
“Did they just crawl in there to commit suicide and bury themselves at the very bottom on their own?” Qi Zhi was truly beyond disappointed.
“…” Zhuang Yuexiang was speechless.
But it really wasn’t him. He had bought the food from a small restaurant outside the school, and Qi Zhennan, Qi Ran, and Zhang Dong had all been there. Could it be.
Right, after he had asked the boss to pack the food, Zhang Dong had used the excuse of going to the bathroom.
“I…”
If he spoke up, he would offend Qi Ran. Zhuang Yuexiang shut his mouth in frustration. “I really didn’t know. If you insist on thinking it was me, there’s nothing I can do.”
He lowered his head and helped Qi Zhi clear away the ruined meal. It was at this moment that he finally understood what it meant to be unable to defend oneself against a false accusation. Qi Zhi must have felt the same way when he was being wrongly accused, right?
Knock, knock, knock
Just then, there was a knock at the dormitory door. A strange male voice came from outside: “I’m looking for Qi Zhi. May I come in?”
Qi Zhi didn’t know who it was, but the voice didn’t sound like someone looking for trouble. He hurriedly wiped his eyes, covered the trash can with a tissue, and then said, “Come in.”
The door pushed open, and a sturdy young man in a black suit and sunglasses walked in. He carried a wheelchair in one hand and a set of crutches in the other. The wheelchair looked exquisite and expensive—not a simple model. It must have been quite heavy, yet the man carried it as easily as a bag of potato chips.
Uh…
Searching his memory, Qi Zhi was certain he had never met such a person. “Excuse me, you are?”
“Hello, my name is Li Jian. I am the caregiver hired for you by Mr. Lan An.”
The man answered in a loud, resonant voice. “Mr. Lan An has paid a month’s salary. For the next month, I will be living in a motorhome parked beneath the male dormitory. Please feel free to call on me for anything you need.”
Qi Zhi: “…”
This is a ‘caregiver’? This is definitely a bodyguard Lan An hired, right?
“Okay.” Qi Zhi looked at the wheelchair and crutches in Li Jian’s hands. “Are these all prepared for me?”
“Yes,” Li Jian replied.
“…Fair enough.”
Qi Zhi truly did need care, so he didn’t stand on ceremony. “Let’s exchange contact information first. Then, I’ll have to trouble you to buy me a meal, and later, help me apply some medicine.”
“No problem.” Setting the items down, Li Jian turned and strode out.
Qi Zhi took the crutches and tested them; they were quite easy to use. He hobbled his way into the bathroom. He planned to take a shower first, and when Li Jian returned, he would apply medicine to his foot, eat, and then go back to bed to rest. He could even revise his novel before sleeping.
Before he had finished his shower, Qi Ran and Zhang Dong returned. Qi Zhi specifically turned off the showerhead, wanting to hear if Zhuang Yuexiang would question Qi Ran. He knew the dead cockroaches weren’t Zhuang Yuexiang’s doing; aside from being sarcastic, Zhuang Yuexiang wouldn’t do something that malicious. Qi Zhennan wouldn’t either.
That left only Qi Ran and Zhang Dong.
But after waiting for a long while, he never heard Zhuang Yuexiang mention the cockroaches. It seemed he didn’t want to offend Qi Ran.
“Forget it,” Qi Zhi pouted, silently drawing a conclusion to this friendship. He turned the shower back on to rinse the suds from his head and body.
“Sss—!”
Halfway through the rinse, the water suddenly turned scalding hot. Qi Zhi hurriedly turned it off, but the skin on his neck that had touched the water was already burnt a bright red.
The dormitories at their school had private bathrooms, but the water heaters were installed on the balconies. If someone wanted to adjust the temperature, they had to do it from the balcony.
It was definitely Zhang Dong again. This lackey was doing everything possible to please Qi Ran.
Fortunately, the October weather wasn’t cold; rinsing with cold water was fine. The icy water felt much better on the scalded area of his neck. As he rinsed his hair, however, he realized that far more was falling out than usual.
Suspicious, Qi Zhi ran his hands through his hair a few times, only to end up with a handful of loose strands. He opened the cap of the shampoo bottle and looked inside. Sure enough, there was a cream-like white paste mixed into the originally transparent shampoo.
He sniffed it. It was hair removal cream.
“Those bastards!” Dropping the shampoo, Qi Zhi hurriedly rinsed his hair. The longer the cream stayed on, the more hair would be dissolved and broken.
Wait, what about the body wash? Was something put in that too?
Qi Zhi accelerated his rinsing.