Early in the morning, sunlight had long since spilled into the room, and when Lin Qing’an woke up, the sun was already high in the sky. His biological clock, which was usually as punctual as an alarm clock, had uncharacteristically failed.
The warmth of the bedding acted like a gentle hand, keeping Lin Qing’an in place as he tried to get up. He only felt his entire body feeling groggy, with his limbs feeling soft and devoid of strength.
Realizing something was wrong, Lin Qing’an touched his forehead, finding his palm burning hot. Clearly, he had a fever.
Fishing his phone out from under the pillow, the screen after fingerprint unlocking still showed Xie Tingchuan’s chat window, where the other person had sent a new message timed at seven o’clock in the morning.
Xie Tingchuan: ‘Bao’an, good morning.’
Xie Tingchuan: ‘The temperature has risen a bit today, but it just snowed yesterday, and snow melting is colder than when it is snowing, so you still need to pay attention to keeping warm. Also, remember to wear anti-slip shoes.’
Lin Qing’an could not understand how the other person could send caring regards right on schedule, as if absolutely nothing had happened yesterday.
‘Jingle bell, jingle bell.’ A phone ringtone sounded, and the name Qin Zhiyi appeared on the phone screen.
Lin Qing’an pressed the answer button, “Hello, Zhiyi.”
“Qing’an, why didn’t you come to class today?” Qin Zhiyi’s voice revealed care and exhaustion, and it was clear that his mood was not very good either.
“I have a fever and just woke up,” Lin Qing’an said lazily as he stretched. “Did they take attendance today?”
“No,” Qin Zhiyi suddenly chuckled twice. “I listened to the teacher’s family gossip all morning, so it doesn’t matter whether you come or not.”
“That’s good.” Lin Qing’an got up and stepped out of bed, slipping his feet into oversized slippers as he walked sluggishly out of the guest room.
“I won’t talk anymore, I have something to take care of here.”
“Alright, Qing’an, remember to go see a doctor since you have a fever. I have some matters on my end too and can’t accompany you, hang up.”
Qin Zhiyi’s speaking speed suddenly accelerated, and before Lin Qing’an could reply, the other person had already hung up.
Lin Qing’an walked out of the bedroom, sweeping his gaze around the living room, but failed to find any trace of Xie Tingchuan.
He called out a couple of times, “Xie Tingchuan? Xie Tingchuan?”
Lin Qing’an’s footsteps stopped in front of the door to Xie Tingchuan’s bedroom. Suppressing the hesitation in his heart, he pushed the door open and walked in.
The room was completely empty.
A framed photo on the nightstand caught Lin Qing’an’s attention, and it was a picture of Xie Tingchuan.
Dressed in black athletic shoes with a neat and handsome appearance, the subtle, knowing curve at the corner of his lips was captivating.
‘Tap’
“What are you doing in my room?”
The bathroom door was pushed open, and warm, humid vapor rushed out competitively from the opened doorway. Xie Tingchuan frowned coolly as he looked at this boundary-ignorant neighbor standing before him.
Lin Qing’an felt that the photo frame in his hand was scalding hot, causing him to set it down in a panic.
Please proofread while maintaining original content, ensuring no missing events, words, or sentences are cut.
“I want to say thank you to you. Can I wear this set of clothes away first? Don’t worry, I will definitely wash them clean before bringing them back.”
“No need.” Xie Tingchuan wiped his hair with an absorbent towel, wearing only a bath towel wrapped around his waist as he sat casually on the nearby sofa.
From Lin Qing’an’s perspective, the other person’s physique was entirely in view, without a single omission.
Lin Qing’an glanced away uncomfortably, feeling that the body before his eyes was completely different from the photos on his phone. Xie Tingchuan radiated an intense presence of interstellar allure throughout his entire being, impossible to ignore and drawing him in to get closer.
This is too bewitching.
Lin Qing’an muttered inwardly to himself that even if he envied the other’s physique, it shouldn’t elicit this kind of reaction, as it was simply too petty.
Be graceful, you need to be graceful.
Plucking up his courage, Lin Qing’an looked toward Xie Tingchuan, taking in an indescribable aesthetic of beauty and a dense aura of hormones that made one’s head spin.
Such an Xie Tingchuan was truly, truly.
With just a single glance, he uncontrollably suffered a defeat and fled.
Clutching the doorknob with his back turned to Xie Tingchuan, Lin Qing’an stammered nervously, “Xie Tingchuan, should we… should we be considered friends?”
“Did you forget about getting drunk on New Year’s Day?” Raising his brows slightly, Xie Tingchuan looked at Lin Qing’an’s stiff back before pushing past him to walk out of the bedroom.
Only then did Lin Qing’an realize that the other person had already put on clothes, actually putting on clothes.
The irregular pounding of his heart was deafening, and the moment Lin Qing’an thought about how Xie Tingchuan had just removed his bath towel behind him, retrieved his underwear and clothes, and put them on piece by piece, his body—already feverish, grew even hotter.
“What happened that day?” Lin Qing’an’s gaze closely tracked Xie Tingchuan’s retreating figure, appraising him wantonly where the other could not see, greedily capturing his every subtle movement.
That deep-seated sense of satisfaction enveloped Lin Qing’an, and the floating, ethereal sensation left him completely infatuated.
“There was just a drunkard who barged into my home and insisted on making friends with me.”
Xie Tingchuan looked toward him, “I find it really strange, Lin Qing’an. You keep saying you want to be friends with me, yet every time you see me you either give me a cold face or a sour face, while at other times you are overly enthusiastic. It really leaves me puzzled.”
“Did I come looking for you on New Year’s Day?” Feeling anxious and uneasy, Lin Qing’an feared he might have said something fatal on that day.
“What on earth did I say?”
Xie Tingchuan spoke up, “Nothing much, but I am quite curious why you insist on being friends with me.”
“Because, because…” Pondering deeply, Lin Qing’an wondered how he would have answered that day. Shifting his gaze back and forth across Xie Tingchuan’s face, taking in the sharp brows, the moderately gentle expression, and the slightly mocking corners of his lips, he gave a reply driven by an impulse he couldn’t explain.
“You look good-looking.”
With a soft chuckle, Xie Tingchuan offered no further comment, wondering how anyone could want to make friends with someone purely based on their appearance.
To someone who had dealt with various hidden intentions from ‘friends’ since childhood, this reason seemed bizarre, and he found it even harder to believe, suspecting instead that the person before him, this Lin Qing’an, was feigning amnesia, and that such an answer was simply meant to deepen his impression of him.
Very well, he had succeeded.
The light, shallow laughter seemed to ring right beside his ear, leaving Lin Qing’an with a tingling sensation in his earlobe as he instinctively reached up to touch it, only for his excessively burning body temperature to remind him that he was running a fever right now.
His eyes lighting up, Lin Qing’an found a temporary excuse to escape.
“I have a fever and my body doesn’t feel too well, so I’ll leave first.”
With that, Lin Qing’an returned to the guest room to retrieve his changed dirty clothes, dropped a hasty “Goodbye,” and quickly departed.
Back in his own home, unable to conceal his excitement, Lin Qing’an paced back and forth across the room.
“Friends, Xie Tingchuan and I are friends now.”
“From now on, we are friends.”
Opening his phone, Lin Qing’an saw that Xie Tingchuan’s chat window had received several more unread messages, without exception all concerning care or expressions of affection.
Replying simply to a couple of them, Lin Qing’an went back to his room and took off the set of pajamas belonging to Xie Tingchuan. As the faint scent of camellia gradually faded away, Lin Qing’an felt a lingering reluctance.
Decisively opening his phone, he purchased the exact same brand of laundry detergent and body wash online.
Staring at the removed pajamas, Lin Qing’an wondered if he didn’t need to return them since Xie Tingchuan had already said it wasn’t necessary.
He carefully folded the clothes and placed them under his pillow, deciding to leave them like that until the laundry detergent arrived.
Just after finishing his leave request with the instructor and lying down on the bed to catch up on sleep, Lin Qing’an touched his burning skin and remembered he had a fever.
Having a fever meant taking medicine, so Lin Qing’an had no choice but to climb out of bed, brew a packet of fever-reducing medicine, and drink it down. As the warm liquid flowed into his stomach, his entire body felt much more comfortable.
Lying back down on the bed, however, Lin Qing’an’s sleepiness vanished, replaced by an urgent impulse that urged him to open Xie Tingchuan’s chat window and tap on the other person’s pictures.
Bathroom photo.
An unknown flame began to burn from the center of his chest, turning into a roaring fire with a ‘boom’ that ignited Lin Qing’an.
Gazing at the stained pajamas, Lin Qing’an felt somewhat guilty, wondering how he had become like this.
Now, returning the pajamas to Xie Tingchuan was truly out of the question.
Sighing, Lin Qing’an stuffed the pajamas into the washing machine, lamenting that once they were washed clean, that pleasant scent of camellia would no longer be detectable.
His feverish body, combined with the hypnotic effect of the fever medicine and lingering fatigue, quickly pulled Lin Qing’an into deep slumber, and even the ringing of his phone beside him failed to halt his journey into sleep.
‘Ding-dong’
Xie Tingchuan: ‘Bao’an, did you take your medicine?’
‘Ding-dong’
Xie Tingchuan: ‘If you can’t hold on, remember to contact me.’
‘Ding-dong’
Xie Tingchuan: ‘If you don’t want to see me, then please trouble a friend of yours to keep you company. I’m a bit worried about you being alone.’
Messages overflowing with care kept streaming in, yet failing to receive any reply left Xie Tingchuan growing irritated.
Beneath that irritation, however, lay another kind of intensified excitement: Bao’an, it was you who chose not to reply to my messages; I am merely caring about you and wishing to understand you better.
Therefore, you will surely forgive me for having someone investigate you, right?
One day, two days, a week passed by.
Yet Xie Tingchuan still never received the information he wanted to know. Having waited far too long, Little Green Tangerine’s attitude had only grown more aloof ever since that voice call on the second day after New Year’s Day.
This aloof attitude stripped Xie Tingchuan of his patience to wait, leading him to urge the other party repeatedly, which instead agitated them to the point where they ultimately declared that no matter how much money Xie Tingchuan offered, they would absolutely never take his orders again.
The private investigator ran away! Ran away!
Furious, Xie Tingchuan hurled his glass teacup onto the floor, shattering the exquisite glassware instantly into countless pieces as tiny glass shards scattered everywhere, glittering with colorful radiance under the piercing sunlight.
During a rare class-free day, Lin Qing’an was resting when he suddenly heard a loud ‘bang’ coming from upstairs, startling him so much that he jumped straight up from the sofa.
A noise from upstairs? What happened to Xie Tingchuan?
With a tight knot in his chest, he dashed out of his apartment and anxiously hammered the elevator button, but the elevator was currently stuck on the ninth floor, meaning it would take two full minutes to come down.
Glancing at the stairwell and then back at the elevator still lingering on the ninth floor, he didn’t hesitate for a second as he sprinted toward the stairs.
Moving with incredible speed, Lin Qing’an cleared four flights of stairs in a single bound, reaching the sixth floor within mere seconds.
Before him stood the tightly shut door, which Lin Qing’an tried to open, only to fail.
Overwhelmed by anxiety, he abandoned any pretense of gentleness and pounded heavily against the door with loud thuds.
He shouted aloud, “Xie Tingchuan! Are you alright!”
Finishing his cry, he pressed his ear against the door, but failed to catch any sound from within.
“Xie Tingchuan! Xie Tingchuan!”
“Are you alright? Give me a sign!”