CH 86

High fevers could make it challenging for people to discern if they were asleep or awake, in a dream or back in reality.

Gu Yan opened his eyes. Perhaps due to his illness, his eyes were exceptionally dark and deep, like evening mist suspended above the surface of a lake. Whether it was the warm light that shafted in from outside, or the faint daylight from the window, none of it shone in his eyes. 

His tightly furrowed eyebrows slowly smoothed when he saw Yan Suizhi.

“How did you get a fever? Have you taken medicine?” Yan Suizhi asked in a low voice.

“Mn,” Gu Yan responded vaguely. His eyelids still seemed heavy, as though he wasn’t awake at all, only looking at Yan Suizhi for a moment before shutting his eyes, and, for some reason, his eyebrows slowly furrowed again. Yan Suizhi couldn’t tell if it was because he was used to frowning or if he was feeling uncomfortable.

So did he take medicine or not? 

Yan Suizhi was a little unable to set his mind at ease, but forcing Gu Yan to get up and shoving him some medicine under such circumstances might be counter-productive instead. So, he moved his hand away from Gu Yan’s forehead, shifted the quilt up a bunch, firmly bundling Gu Yan’s arm inside, and said, “Forget it, just sleep first.”

By then, Gu Yan’s breathing had turned long and even again.

Still leaning over, Yan Suizhi watched him for a while, only straightening up after making sure that he had really fallen back asleep.

He glanced at the slowly darkening sky outside. He initially wanted to draw the curtains, already having the remote in his hand, but, afraid that Gu Yan would wake up to find a pitch-black room at night, he hesitated and ultimately put the remote back down.

Yan Suizhi went downstairs, going around the first floor for a long time before eventually finding the first-aid kit in the short gym that was half-embedded into the floor.

Though not often at home, Gu Yan still stocked it up rather well. Yan Suizhi thought back to the medical preparedness that the nurse was going on about in the morning, and complimented Gu Yan in his mind.

The first-aid kit wasn’t small. The medicine boxes inside were neatly organised into its various categories. It barely took Yan Suizhi any effort to find four different types of fever medicine, check the side effects, and pick one that didn’t easily trigger adverse drug interactions with other medicines.

When opening the packaging, he checked the production and expiry date in passing, and then was forced to slam the brakes— 

This broken plaything had already expired more than a year ago.

Yan Suizhi tossed it one side, irate, picking up another box and checking its expiry date…

Splendid. This had expired as well.

Then the third box… 

The fourth box…

Five minutes later, Lawyer Gu’s first-aid kit was emptied out. All the medicine in it was tossed aside with utmost scorn, piling into a small mound.

“…”

A pile of expired medicine tidily kept like actual medicine; if not there to hog space, Yan Suizhi couldn’t tell what other purpose they served. 

Yan Suizhi sighed in admiration, then raised his head, glaring in the direction of the second floor, as if this could make Gu Yan feel shame in his sleep.

He took a photo of these useless medicines, sent them all to the rubbish disposal bin at the entrance, then dialled Fizz.

“What is it? Ruan?” Ms Fizz seemed to be busy with something, her words garbled, just as though her lips had been stitched shut.

“What’s wrong with you? Did you fall on your mouth?” Yan Suizhi showed some concern. 

Fizz, “…I didn’t, I’m wearing a mask.”

“Okay then. Do you have any fever medicine at home?” Yan Suizhi asked.

“Yeah, lots. Why? Are you running a fever?” Fizz said. “Weren’t you fine earlier? How did you suddenly get a fever?”

Yan Suizhi, “Not me. Gu Yan has a fever.” 

Unused to hearing him address Gu Yan straight-out by his name, Fizz gave a start before saying, “Oh—ah? Gu’s back? Didn’t he say he’d be back at ten in the evening? If he’s back at this time, he had to have sat on the morning flight, no?”

“Hm?” Yan Suizhi paused. Then, he spoke again, “Mhm… it should’ve been the morning flight.”

In the previous flurry, he didn’t even have time to think about it. Only now at Fizz’s casual question was he suddenly reminded that Gu Yan should have already been in the space shuttle during the time that he claimed to be midway through the second round of negotiations.

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There must have been an interlude in-between that made him think there was the possibility that he had been infected. As such he used negotiations as an excuse, because the variable duration of negotiations made it plausible for him to claim that there was an issue requiring him to extend his stay for a few more days for further rounds of negotiations.

As he was able to alight the space shuttle and pass the screening at De Carma’s port, smoothly returning home, it was diagnosed to only be a regular fever. 

But what if the results didn’t turn out well? If Gu Yan did accidentally catch the virus and was sent to the hospital to be quarantined, going through the critical period that was often part of treatment processes… what would he be doing?

Would he be waiting for that unidentified doctor in the black market?

Would he be carrying his luggage to the new apartment?

Would he be chatting casually with Luke and the few other young interns in the law firm? 

During all of which, he would’ve confidently assumed that Gu Yan was still at the negotiation table…

Even if these were just hypothetical scenarios in hindsight and impossible to turn into reality, Yan Suizhi still felt very uncomfortable.

Just the thought that this possibility had existed a few hours ago made him feel extremely uncomfortable.

He stood alone in the empty living room for a while, suddenly realising that this was probably what was called ‘post-trauma’, which, until this moment, he had never experienced before. 

“Ruan? Hello? Can you hear me? Is the signal bad?” Over there, Ms Fizz called him repeatedly, even whacking her smart device to see if that would do the trick.

Yan Suizhi pulled back to attention. “Yeah, I can.”

“What medicine do you want? Shall I bring it over for you?” Fizz said.

“It’s fine, I’ll go over to take it from you.” 

Yan Suizhi went out towards the neighbouring villa, but not more than a few steps later, he heard Fizz’s voice greet him. “Ruan? I’ve picked a few, you can go back to see which would be suitable for him. I also brought you a spare thermometer just in case.”

He looked up at the sound and a charcoal-black face slammed into his sight, with only the two holes for eyes that made this person vaguely recognisable as Ms Fizz.

“Why did you come out like this?” Yan Suizhi accepted the medicine boxes, between laughter and tears. “Thanks.”

“I look good all the time, why can’t I go out whenever I want to?” Ms Fizz was bundled tightly in a coat, proudly claiming this. “But anyway, doesn’t Gu prepare the usual medicines at home?” 

Yan Suizhi laughed drily. “He did; they’re even organised very neatly. The only shortcoming is that they’re all expired.”

“…”

Fizz gave it a thought then said, “Maybe it’s because he doesn’t often need it. The last time I saw him with a fever was around two years ago. Those with good immune systems don’t have much experience with falling sick. So how is he now?”

As they spoke, the smart device on Yan Suizhi’s finger started to vibrate again. 

It was weird. It was actually Young Master Joe who called. Yan Suizhi took the call, puzzled.

“Yo, lil’ intern?” Young Master Joe cut straight to the chase. “Is Gu in his office?”

Yan Suizhi said, “He’s at home. He’s having a bit of fever and sleeping it off now. Why?”

“Ah, no wonder!” Young Master Joe grumbled, “I sent him ten messages and got nothing back, called him twice and he didn’t pick up either. He never used to be this way before; I almost believed that his finger shook and he accidentally blocked the wrong number. How did he get a fever? It probably isn’t of the viral sort, right? It’s been rather chaotic these days, didn’t you two go to the hospital two days ago?” 

“It’s not the virus,” Yan Suizhi said. “He just came from the port this afternoon. He definitely isn’t infected if he managed to pass the screening.”

“Oh, that’s good to hear,” Joe said. “I found someone to do the thing he got me to help him with back then in Yaba Island. The guy in charge of delivery said that he can deliver it now. I planned at first to tell him to go home and wait for it if he was free…”

Yan Suizhi said, “It’s fine, just send it over. I’m here.”

Joe started. “No, hang on. Where did you say you are? Gu Yan’s place???” 

He sounded completely confounded, such that even the tail-end of his words almost splintered from how sharply it was raised.

Yan Suizhi deliberated for a moment, skirting around the crux of it to emphasise, “He’s having a fever.”

Joe went “Oh—” and subconsciously assumed that Yan Suizhi had come over to take care of his feverish teacher. “But that’s still rather surprising. The only time that someone else had stepped into his house was probably during renovations. Well, since you’re there, I’ll just get that guy to send it over, and sorry for having you look after him.”

“Alright.” 

After responding, Yan Suizhi seemed to think of something, asking, “Oh, right. What are you sending over?”

Joe said, “Lamp pines.”

After saying this, he also mumbled something along the lines of “this weirded me out too” or suchlike, and hung up before Yan Suizhi could make out what he said.

“Why?” Fizz casually asked. “Is someone sending something over?” 

Yan Suizhi nodded, saying, “When we went to Yaba Island last time, Lawyer Gu got a friend to procure him a few lamp pines. He appears to be quite fond of it.”

“Ah?” Fizz made a doubtful sound, her tone a mirror image of Joe’s mumbling just now. “Did his personality change overnight? Didn’t he dislike lamp pines in the past?”

“Dislike?” Yan Suizhi was startled.

Fizz said, “Erm… probably not that he disliked them. But there was one time when I was talking to a manager in the office about vacation spots, Yaba Island’s lamp pines came up, and he didn’t show a lick of interest at all. I can still recall the manager saying that he had sourced a few lamp pines and asked him if he wanted any, after all, he is the only one in the whole of Southcross who isn’t a plant killer. He turned it down, saying that it was too troublesome to take care of them.” 

She searched through her memories, saying, “It should have been… earlier this Spring?”

Yan Suizhi, “…”

“Thank you.” His expression turned complicated for a split second, and he smiled at Fizz. 

Fizz’s head filled with a confused fog. “??? You’re… welcome?” 

Young Master Joe had amazing work efficiency. Even if he wasn’t in De Carma in person, he could still get it settled remotely. Less than half an hour later, a black lorry quietly pulled into the city garden, but was stopped behind the automatic gate barrier.

“Mr Gu?” The man in charge of delivery had received Yan Suizhi’s contact from Joe but mistakenly assumed that the person he dialled was Gu Yan. “We don’t have access to come in, the owner of the house has to input the passcode.”

“I’m not Mr Gu. You can just call me Ruan Ye.” Although Yan Suizhi said so, his motions were exceptionally fluid when keying in the passcode.

“I’m Gao Lin.” The bearded man in the front passenger seat shook his hand. “Have we met somewhere before?” 

Yan Suizhi laughed drily in his mind, thinking to himself how small this world was. He did actually know this bearded man; they could even somewhat be called friends, if pushing it a bit. This man was a famous ornamental plant breeder in De Carma, and the various plants that he used to devastate in the courtyard had been bought from this bearded Gao Lin.

He once had a flourishing bout of interest towards botany and, refusing to believe he had a curse, bought several batches of plants, planning to remodel his front and back yards into something similar to his childhood home. During that period, Gao Lin had to make a trip to his place almost every month in that lorry of his.

Every time Gao Lin went over, he would see that the plants sent over last month, that were vibrant with vitality, had turned bone-thin and languished. It was a very distressing scene. Gao Lin usually got along well with him, but whenever it came to that moment, the gaze that he turned on Yan Suizhi would be as if he were looking at a terrorist.

Lamp pines were native to Yaba Island. For them to be viable in De Carma, they had to be specially cultivated by professionals with seeds from Yaba Island. And in the whole of De Carma, the best plant breeder of lamp pines would definitely be Gao Lin. 

So it wasn’t strange that Joe had sought him out.

Yan Suizhi smiled at him and said, “I might just have one of those faces; people often tell me that they feel like they’ve met me somewhere before.”

The bearded Gao Lin chuckled. “If that’s so, eighty-percent of those on the streets would want to have ‘one of those faces’. Eh—speaking of which, I remembered who it was. I probably haven’t met you before, but I just thought that you looked a bit familiar because some of your features resemble an old customer of mine.”

Yan Suizhi, with an innocuous expression, “Is that so? What are the odds? Who is it?” 

“A pretty incredible guy. The dean of Maze University. He was young and promising and highly competent,” Gao Lin said. “It’s just that his hands are poisonous; anything he touched would die. As long as he doesn’t touch a plant, he’s my pal.”

Yan Suizhi, “…”

Do you know that you’re speaking ill of me straight to my face?

The bearded man was oblivious to the look in Dean Yan’s gaze, whilst directing the few store assistants to move the lamp pines, he spoke to Yan Suizhi, “Lamp pines are pretty hard to take care of, I hope your friend, Mr Gu, doesn’t have poisonous hands.” 

Yan Suizhi said, “They’ll be fine. Several batches of plants have died under the hands of others in the firm, but those in his office are still surviving well.”

“Oh? Really? What plant varieties?”

“Evergreen pines.”

The bearded man nodded, satisfied. “That’s pretty good, evergreen pines are hard to take care of as well. They require carefully calibrated temperature and humidity levels. People also can’t touch the leaves directly as they rot easily. They also can’t receive too much sunlight or they’d easily shrivel, nor can they receive too much water or they’d drown to death.” 

Yan • Accidentally Watered One Too Many Times • Suizhi’s heart prickled with guilt.

He thought to himself, ‘How is this rearing plants, Gu Yan has got to be raising an ancestor. They’re even harder to serve than me.’

The young lamp pines that Gao Lin transported over had just matured and each had a special pot to protect the roots.

“I learned a lesson from an old customer…” Gao Lin said. “Oh, it’s the dean I was telling you about previously. In the past, I used to grow the lamp pines to about a metre tall, such that they would still have a 60% survival rate when transplanted. In that way, the customer could still experience the joy of overcoming adversity to rear it well. After he killed off over twenty trees at his place, I reflected on it and decided to do away with that sentiment and grow them to two metres tall before sending them out, essentially giving them an 85% survival rate when transplanted. Of course, there is still some challenge in ensuring its survival to the next year.” 

After saying this, Gao Lin asked Yan Suizhi, “Which way is it to the glass room? I heard that Mr Gu had previously requested for the lamp pines to be planted outside the floor-to-ceiling glass walls over there.”

Yan Suizhi guided them in. “This way.”

“There are eight trees in this batch,” said Gao Lin. “It naturally won’t match up to Yaba Island, but they would definitely fill a good half of the courtyard and turn it into a small forest. It’ll be a sight to behold.”

Those store assistants removed the special pots. Under Gao Lin’s instructions, they carefully buried the roots, tree by tree, in the earth of Gu Yan’s courtyard. These specialised plant breeders were always very meticulous—from loosening the soil to transplanting, to fertilising them for the first time, everything was done with the utmost care. The temperature and humidity controller in the courtyard were carefully calibrated and the space between each plant was measured and divided. They paid the details so much scrutiny that it seemed more as if they were burying treasure. 

By the time they were done with their work, the sky had completely darkened.

“You won’t be able to see any lampflies yet,” Gao Lin said. “The moving and change of environment would make them a bit shy, messing up their biological clocks. They’ll come out in time after they acclimatise. We’ll be off now, then. I left my comms number; please make sure that Mr Gu notes it down. If anything happens in the future, he can just look for me anytime. They’ll take another seven days to mature fully, so I’ll be back in a week to check that there aren’t any problems with this batch.”

“Alright, thank you.”

After sending off Gao Lin and his assistants, Yan Suizhi returned to the house, carefully washing off the bits of dust and dirt that had gotten onto his hands.

Porridge was gurgling in a stone pot on the glazed black counter. It thickened bit by bit as it boiled, dispersing its aroma. Yan Suizhi stirred it a few times with a porcelain spoon and glanced at the interstellar clocks on the wall.

It was past eight in the evening, and the breeze outside had gradually picked up. The forecasts said that it was going to snow tonight.

He set down the spoon and swept a glance outside the window, only then noticing that his scarf had slid halfway down from its spot on the cabinet by the door, swaying slightly. He went over and took the scarf, treading on the indoor slippers, intending to go upstairs to hang the scarf on the coat rack in the loft. 

When passing by the second floor, he stopped. He thought of going in to check if Gu Yan was sweating and if his fever had broken yet.

In the end, when he pushed open the door, he found that Gu Yan seemed to have just awoken and was sitting on the side of the bed. His long legs were bent, touching the soft and heavy carpet. He had a hand resting on his knee, the other hand pressed against his forehead, and he still looked as though he was feeling uncomfortable.

“Awake?” Yan Suizhi asked, casually turning on a low lamp in a corner of the bedroom.

From the corner of the wall, the amber light diffused on the ground, casting the back of Gu Yan’s slightly bowed shoulders in a gentle warmth. 

Gu Yan lowered his hand, raising his head to look at him. “Mm…”

“Are you still feverish?” Yan Suizhi walked over and touched his forehead with the back of his hand. He frowned. “You’re still burning.”

Gu Yan looked very tired and not quite awake. But for some reason, he suddenly got up from bed. His gaze was heavy and deep, sweeping Yan Suizhi from head to toe, pausing a few seconds on the scarf in his hand before lowering his head again with his brows creased.

Yan Suizhi didn’t notice this, only focused on wanting to get Gu Yan’s fever down as soon as possible. “I got a few medicines from Fizz. They shouldn’t have any adverse drug interactions with other drugs; take two capsules before going back to sleep.” 

He could feel the heat radiating from Gu Yan’s body just by standing in front of him. Yan Suizhi suspected that he wasn’t able to hear what he was saying clearly, or that even if he did, his mind wasn’t able to digest it yet, so he added, “I’m going down first.”

When he turned around, an edge of the scarf that hung down flashed in Gu Yan’s downcasted sight, whose mind was still pulling out of sleep.

Gu Yan appeared to finally process what the other said. His eyes, half-lidded, gently blinked, then he reached out and caught hold of Yan Suizhi’s hand.