From the moment he stepped through the auditorium doors, Jiang Chen felt entirely miserable.
When he and Gu Xin made their entrance together, they bowed to the line of school leaders seated below the stage. Jiang Chen then took his place at the piano, while Gu Xin, already positioned, stood right by his side.
This was their very first time performing a duet on stage, and Jiang Chen was determined not to hold Gu Xin back. Straightening his spine, he lifted the hands he had been deliberately hiding just moments before.
Fuck, it hurts like hell.
Jiang Chen gritted his teeth slightly and pressed the first key.
To the untrained ear, it sounded perfectly fine. Gu Xin caught the cue instantly, stepping in with his violin right on time. Having practiced together for over a week, their synergy was locked in. Besides, the piece wasn’t long…roughly five minutes…and featured a solo section for Gu Xin in the middle, which gave Jiang Chen a much-needed moment to breathe.
With a dull, throbbing pain radiating through his back and hands, Jiang Chen silently told himself: Just hold on a little longer. Just a little longer.
During the performance, his hand flared with pain, causing him to hit a wrong note. Whether the teachers in the audience noticed was up in the air, but Gu Xin had caught it the exact second the key was struck.
During rehearsals, Jiang Chen rarely ever made mistakes. This piece was supposed to be a breeze for him. How could he trip up now?
Gu Xin knew something had been off about Jiang Chen ever since they walked into the room.
Ultimately, their duet concluded without any glaring issues. Thanks to Gu Xin’s years of stage experience, his execution remained flawless despite having his mind elsewhere. He had even intentionally played up his performance for the school leaders, drawing the spotlight so entirely that the audience barely focused on the piano, viewing Jiang Chen as mere accompaniment.
When it ended, Yang Xiu and the other Omegas backstage broke into enthusiastic applause, deeply impressed by the performance.
“Our class monitor is too good at the violin! He’s dead gorgeous!”
“Did anyone record that? Send it to me, send it to me!”
“I did! Ahhh, he’s so handsome!”
Ignoring the chatter, Jiang Chen turned to Gu Xin. “It’s too crowded here, I’m heading out for a bit.” He then squeezed his way through the gathering crowd.
Worry gnawing at him, Gu Xin grabbed his backpack from the side and went after him. He knew things weren’t as simple as they seemed; Jiang Chen was definitely hiding something.
Once out of the auditorium, Jiang Chen ducked straight into the restroom. Turning on the faucet, he fought through the stinging pain to roll up his sleeves, rinsing the fine grit of sand from his palms and the blood oozing from his scraped elbows.
Those bastards had actually chased his bicycle down and dragged him right off it. The fall had trashed his back and left his palms and elbows raw. It hurt so much he could barely lift his arms.
The rush of water made him flinch. “Hiss! Those three pieces of trash.”
Believing he had successfully evaded Gu Xin, Jiang Chen had been using his jacket to conceal the mess.
“You’re hurt?”
Gu Xin’s sudden voice caught Jiang Chen entirely off guard. He had gone through all this trouble precisely to keep Gu Xin in the dark.
With his elbows still raised, the raw wounds were completely exposed. Trying to pull his arms back now was useless.
Jiang Chen tried to play it cool. “Why did you come out?”
“You’re asking me?” Gu Xin strode up to him, his eyes locked onto the injuries. “How did you manage to clear-cut yourself like this? Why didn’t you tell me? Let’s get to the infirmary to patch this up. Stop rinsing it under the tap, you’ll get bacteria in it.”
Jiang Chen opened his mouth to protest, but Gu Xin simply grabbed his uninjured hand and hauled him out.
Since resistance was futile, Jiang Chen had no choice but to comply.
Moments later, they arrived at the infirmary, only to find it locked…it was the weekend, and no doctors were on duty. Gu Xin, acting out of sheer urgency, had completely forgotten. Pivoting quickly, he led Jiang Chen out through the school’s side gate and over to a nearby private clinic. It was more than enough to get the wounds properly cleaned.
Gu Xin recalled how Jiang Chen had flinched earlier when he touched his back. “Is your back messed up too?”
With the cat out of the bag, Jiang Chen dropped the act. “Yeah.”
Gu Xin sighed. “No wonder you practically jumped out of your skin when I touched you earlier.”
Jiang Chen’s voice softened significantly, carrying a trace of a whine. “Because it hurts.”
The doctor looked at Gu Xin. “Young man, help your friend take off his jacket.”
With Gu Xin’s careful assistance, Jiang Chen managed to ease out of his jacket. The sleeves were stained with small patches of blood, a sight that made Gu Xin’s own skin crawl.
Gu Xin gently pulled up the hem of Jiang Chen’s T-shirt. The skin along both sides of his spine was heavily grazed from the friction of the fall. While the scrapes weren’t deeply lacerated, they looked brutal.
As the doctor applied iodophor to cleanse the area, Jiang Chen hissed and winced continuously. Gu Xin couldn’t bear to watch, pacing anxiously beside them.
Once the cleaning was finished, the doctor prescribed some anti-inflammatory medication and packed up some iodophor for them to take home.
Meanwhile, Gu Xin’s phone had been buzzing with calls from the school teachers wondering where their star performer had vanished to. Gu Xin concocted a quick excuse, claiming he had a sudden stomach bug and asking if he could head home early. Given his stellar track record, the teacher didn’t question it and let him go, genuinely concerned for his health.
Gu Xin called a ride through his phone. “Let’s go. We’re heading home.”
Holding his right arm stiffly, Jiang Chen asked, “What about your bike? You’re just leaving it?”
“It’s on school grounds, it’s not going to sprout legs,” Gu Xin countered. “Look at the state you’re in. Why are you still worrying about a bicycle?”
Seeing that Gu Xin’s jaw had been tightly set ever since he discovered the injuries, Jiang Chen shuffled closer the moment they got into the car. He used his good hand to gently tug at the edge of Gu Xin’s shirt.
“Don’t be mad. It’s not like I hid it on purpose. I just wanted to clean it up myself first. I didn’t realize it was this bad.” He knew Gu Xin would be upset, but the sheer gravity of the lecture felt looming.
Gu Xin wasn’t actually angry at Jiang Chen; he was furious with himself for not walking home with him today.
Refusing to scold the injured boy for being careless, he asked instead, “How did this happen?”
Jiang Chen had no intention of mentioning the three morons from the sophomore tier. He had already cooked up an alibi. “I just wasn’t careful and took a spill off my bike.”
Having known Jiang Chen for years, Gu Xin knew his tells. Whenever the boy lied, his chin would subconsciously tilt upward.
Gu Xin continued to probe. “Which stretch of road?”
Jiang Chen named the intersection where the fight had actually broken out. “Near that convenience store down the road from school.”
This time, his chin didn’t tilt. The location was real…but the cause was likely a fabrication. It probably wasn’t a solo accident. If Jiang Chen was covering it up, there was only one plausible explanation: he had gotten into another fight. Remembering their recent disagreement regarding Jiang Chen’s penchant for brawling, Gu Xin chose not to press for specific details.
Gu Xin pointed to a spot just beneath Jiang Chen’s lower lip. “Your lip is split a bit here. Does it hurt?”
Nervously, Jiang Chen pressed the spot Gu Xin indicated, wincing immediately. “Damn, it really does. Am I going to be disfigured?” To a good-looking guy, losing the ability to coast on looks was a major crisis. Visual appeal was a top priority!
Gu Xin pulled a band-aid out of his backpack. “Tilt your head back a bit. Keep this spot dry.”
Jiang Chen tilted his head back obediently, letting Gu Xin handle it. “Is this going to look incredibly stupid?”
Gu Xin looked at him blankly. “You spend all day sleeping anyway. Why do you care what your face looks like?”
Jiang Chen cupped his cheek. “Xin-bao, a guy’s face is his currency. Besides, you’re looking a lot like the Dean of Discipline right now.” Fierce and strict.
Gu Xin let out a sharp chuckle. “For the next two days, you aren’t going anywhere. You stay home and rest.”
“Oh, got it,” Jiang Chen nodded submissively. In his head, however, he was already plotting to track down those three bastards and beat them to a pulp the second his wounds closed up.
He might be lazy, and he might love living like a carefree, unbothered salted fish, but he absolutely refused to swallow an insult quietly.
By the time they reached home, it was already noon. Gu Xin’s parents weren’t around. Knowing he would get a severe lecturing if he went home looking like this, Jiang Chen parked himself in Gu Xin’s room and refused to budge.
Despite his relaxed nature, Jiang Chen had a mild streak of cleanliness. His clothes were covered in dirt from the asphalt. “Xin-bao, I want to change. My pants and shirt are filthy.”
Knowing how incredibly low Jiang Chen’s pain tolerance was…noticing the cold sweat he had broken into during the medical dressing…Gu Xin asked, “Can you wash up yourself?”
“Nope.” Jiang Chen decided to commit fully to being an invalid. “You need to wipe down my back.”
The two had known each other since they were toddlers running around in diapers. Whenever their parents were busy, they frequently bathed at each other’s houses. Jiang Chen’s mother often stripped them both bare to wash them together for efficiency. Over at the Gu household, Gu Xin’s mother would place them in a large bathtub, washing their hair and scrubbing them down meticulously while they splashed around playing water games.
Before Gu Xin’s family relocated to their current home, sharing a bath occasionally was standard practice.
Jiang Chen didn’t see anything weird about asking Gu Xin to help him clean up. Gu Xin, however, froze for a fraction of a second. Turning away from Jiang Chen, he began sorting through his wardrobe for loose clothing. After an agonizingly long search, he failed to find anything suitable and ended up holding two pairs of casual trousers.
Jiang Chen waited for a while before asking, “What are you hunting for?”
Gu Xin tossed the trousers aside, forcing himself to calm down before picking out a loose T-shirt and a pair of shorts. “Getting your clothes ready.”
Jiang Chen pointed at his elbows. “Bending my arms pulls the skin too much, it’s brutal. Help me get this shirt off.”
“We can’t let your hand get wet either, I’ll need to wrap it in a bit,” Gu Xin said, gathering the hem of Jiang Chen’s T-shirt. “Will pulling it up like this hurt?”
Jiang Chen kept his arms straight and lifted them upward, finding the angle manageable. “That works. Keep going.”
Gu Xin worked with extreme caution, slowly rolling the fabric upward. His fingertips accidentally brushed against Jiang Chen’s skin…it felt smooth, soft, and slightly cool from the air conditioning running in the room.
By the time the T-shirt was fully removed, Gu Xin found himself breaking out into a light sweat.
When he looked up, Jiang Chen had already stood up to shed his pants.
While pulling a shirt over his head forced his elbows to bend painfully, sliding his pants off was easy enough. He was wearing his school uniform trousers today, which featured a simple drawstring. He unknotted it with ease.
The fabric slid down his long, straight legs, and he walked casually straight into Gu Xin’s bathroom. Noting that Gu Xin hadn’t followed, he called out.
“Aren’t you going to wash me? My right arm is practically paralyzed.”
The visual of Jiang Chen’s bare legs made Gu Xin’s muscles tighten slightly. “Hold on. Let me grab some plastic wrap to shield your injuries so they don’t catch the water.”
Jiang Chen stepped out of his underwear, turning on the warm water to rinse off gradually while keeping his back and right arm clear of the stream.
Stepping inside, Gu Xin kept his gaze strictly focused on the task at hand. He wrapped Jiang Chen’s injured right arm securely in plastic wrap, then soaked a towel in hot water, wringing it out thoroughly. He began to carefully wipe down the uninjured areas of Jiang Chen’s back, though his peripheral vision inevitably mapped out the rest of the boy’s frame.
Jiang Chen wasn’t thinking about any of that; his back still felt like it was on fire. “Done yet?”
Gu Xin’s touch grew even lighter. “Am I hurting you?” He was only cleaning the skin surrounding the grazes, avoiding the raw areas entirely.
Jiang Chen sighed. “No, it just throbs on its own.”
Treating Jiang Chen with the absolute care reserved for a fragile patient, Gu Xin didn’t just wipe him down; he assisted him through the entire shower, even washing his hair for him.
Emerging from the bathroom smelling fresh, Jiang Chen even had his clothes guided onto him by Gu Xin.
Gu Xin steered him out of the bathroom. “Do you want to lie down or sit up?”
True to his “lie down whenever possible” philosophy, Jiang Chen replied, “I think I can only manage side-lying or lying face down. Sitting up means I can’t lean against the backrest.”
“Then face down or on your side it is.” Gu Xin brought over a glass of water and some snacks. “I’m going to take a shower myself. Helping you wash up got me completely drenched in sweat.”
With his back mostly taken care of and his elbow wrapped safely, Jiang Chen felt thoroughly pampered. Lying prone on the bed, he felt comfortable enough to start teasing his friend.
He let out a mischievous giggle. “Xin-bao, you just saw every single inch of me. Why don’t you let me return the favor?”
Gu Xin had felt flushed during the entire process, but now the heat spiked drastically, as if he had been dropped straight into a cauldron of boiling water.
“Stop messing around,” he muttered, turning sharply and fleeing into the bathroom.
Jiang Chen shouted toward the closed door, “What’s the big deal? It’s not like looking at you makes a piece of your meat go missing!”
On the other side of the wall, Gu Xin cranked the shower handle completely to the cold side. He desperately needed to cool down.