Looking back, the original owner had a timid and cowardly personality. He always wore a mask to school, and his bangs were so long they covered his eyes. His presence was practically zero, making him a truly transparent figure.
Using the campus map, he found the dormitory building, stood before the door of Room 304, and pushed it open.
Inside, he saw someone slumped over a desk without any movement.
The person must have been asleep.
He turned around and whispered to the bodyguards, “Be gentle later. Keep your voices as quiet as possible; someone inside is resting.”
The two bodyguards were just about to respond in their usual booming voices when they caught themselves and quickly nodded instead.
Xia Yuning thought to himself, Why do they look a bit lacking in the intelligence department?
There were only two people currently assigned to this dorm room: himself and the slumped figure. Being seniors, the other two roommates had already gone out to find jobs and moved off campus.
Now that he was leaving too, only the sleeping classmate would remain.
He cleaned up quietly, but no matter how small he tried to keep the noise, it still produced some clattering sounds.
The sleeping classmate, perhaps disturbed by the noise, let out a muffled groan, shifted his head to reveal his face, and turned toward Xia Yuning’s direction.
Xia Yuning glanced over and immediately noticed something was wrong. He handed the packed items to the bodyguards.
Striding over to the bed, he saw that the classmate’s face was flushed and he was struggling to breathe. Xia Yuning placed a hand on his forehead to check.
Burning hot. He had a fever, just as expected.
“Classmate, classmate,” Xia Yuning patted his shoulder. “Wake up, you have a fever.”
The person muttered incoherently, clearly having lost consciousness.
Xia Yuning frowned, turned to the bodyguards, and said, “The packing is mostly done. You guys just need to clear off the remaining clutter on the desk in a bit.”
“He has a fever. I’ll take him to the hospital first.” Xia Yuning waved over the bodyguards. “Come here and help me lift him onto my back.”
The bodyguards replied, “Understood, Mr. Xia,” before briskly hoisting the person onto Xia Yuning’s back.
Xia Yuning walked quickly. By the time he finally reached the car, he was practically exhausted; carrying a grown adult male on his back was no joke.
His physical stamina really was too poor right now. Once he got back, he definitely needed to exercise properly.
Seeing Xia Yuning return with someone piggybacking on him, the driver quickly got out of the car. “Mr. Xia, this is…”
“Quick, open the door first.” Xia Yuning panted, cutting him off.
The driver immediately stopped talking, opened the door, and helped Xia Yuning place the person inside the car.
Once they were seated inside, Xia Yuning explained, “He has a fever. Go to the hospital, quickly, as fast as you can.” The classmate’s temperature must have been quite high since he was already completely unresponsive.
Upon arriving at the hospital and getting everything sorted out, Xia Yuning sat down tiredly beside the classmate’s hospital bed.
He picked up the bottle of mineral water the driver had just bought him and took a sip, finally feeling like he had come back to life.
His current stamina was just too weak. Back in the day, he used to have a faint trace of abdominal muscles, but now his stomach was just soft flesh.
He thought of Lu Jinglin’s fantastic physique and sighed. How could there be such a huge gap between people?
The phone ringing pulled Xia Yuning back from his thoughts. He picked up his phone and saw Counselor displayed on the screen.
Damn it, oh no. How could he have forgotten about this?
Xia Yuning answered the call, and the counselor’s voice came through: “Xia Yuning, where are you? Didn’t we agree you were coming to cancel your leave today?”
The counselor’s tone didn’t sound very pleasant. Xia Yuning got up and stepped outside the hospital room to avoid disturbing the patient. “I am sorry, something came up unexpectedly. Qiu Se from our class came down with a fever, so I brought him to the hospital.”
While still in the dorm earlier, he had glanced at the book on Qiu Se’s desk, which happened to have his name on it.
Hearing that Xia Yuning was held up by an emergency rather than ditching his leave cancellation, the counselor’s tone softened considerably. “Alright, I understand. How is Qiu Se? Is he alright?”
Xia Yuning replied, “A high fever of forty degrees Celsius, he’s currently on an IV drip.” He paused before adding, “Could you extend my leave by another day? And please grant Qiu Se a day of leave as well. I’ll stay here to look after him for now.”
“Huh? Such a high fever!” The counselor was a young woman and quite easygoing, so she readily agreed. “Then take good care of him first, and I’ll submit the leave requests for you.”
“Thank you, Counselor,” Xia Yuning said softly.
After ending the call, just as he was about to put his phone back into his pocket, it rang again. Seeing the caller ID, he quickly answered.
“Mr. Lu, is something the matter?”
Lu Jinglin’s deep voice came through the earpiece, carrying a unique magnetic quality. “Nothing in particular, just wanted to ask if you’re coming back for lunch today?”
Xia Yuning was slightly stunned. Was the man waiting for him to come home for lunch?
An itchy feeling blossomed in the center of his chest, and he softly replied, “No, I’ll head back tonight.”
“Alright. Have you had lunch yet?”
“Not yet.”
Perhaps remembering that Xia Yuning suffered from hypoglycemia, Lu Jinglin reminded him, “Then make sure you eat lunch on time.”
The outer corners of Xia Yuning’s eyes curved upward. “Understood.”