CH 26

editor: Storm

Putting the boiling water on the bedside table, Lin Dongyang handed over the fever-reducing medicine in his hand. The dizzy and light-headed Qiao Yichen got up sluggishly and took the medicine. 

Lin Dongyang: “The water is a bit hot, drink it later.”

This single apartment with one bedroom and one living room had very good lighting. Through the large french windows inside the bedroom there was a clear view of what was below. During the daytime there was an ‘awe-inspiring view from a very high place’ sort of imposing momentum. But at night, looking at the blurry light spots below through the spacious window, the emptiness of the room made him feel the silence of ‘loneliness’. As if he was far away from the hustle and bustle of the city. The laughter on the ground and the whistling of cars could not reach the height of the 16th floor.

The freshly boiled hot water needed some time to cool down, Lin Dongyang looked at Qiao Yichen who was sitting on the bed staring blankly at the medicine in his hands and asked, “What do you want for dinner? I’ll order it.”

“Don’t really want to eat.” 

“Not eating won’t do, let me order you some porridge. After drinking the medicine, you can continue to sleep.” Lin Dongyang planned to stay tonight, after what happened during the day, he didn’t want to go out so late and get into trouble.

He then went out of the bedroom and ordered a light vegetarian porridge for Qiao Yichen according to the address before. As he didn’t want to be too troublesome, Lin Dongyang chose an egg fried rice from the same place, and then pushed open the sound insulated glass to the balcony.

The wind on the 16th floor was really cool, Lin Dongyang’s state of mind at this time was like a calm surface of water, without waves. He didn’t know what he wanted to do next. Since he came to Nanhai University, he had been playing around with his roommates for three years. For the first time he was experiencing such a silent night. Qiao Yichen seemed to have spent countless nights like this, only then was he able to achieve his cold character.

The more bored a person was, the more they liked to let their imagination run wild. Lin Dongyang inhaled the cool breeze from this high altitude and also began to feel melancholy and moody.

At this time, his roommates sent him a message and asked him why he hadn’t come back to the dormitory, he’d been out all day.

Lin Dongyang looked at the question that revealed concern and replied: [I’m not going back tonight, I’m staying at my friend’s house for the night]

[You are unexpectedly staying out all night! What’s the matter?]

Lin Dongyang: [It’s nothing. I can’t explain it clearly over WeChat, I’ll go back and tell you tomorrow.] 

[As long as you’re okay. Then, take care outside at night ah.]

[Okay]

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The feeling of other people being concerned about you was like a lighthouse on a lonely sea. Even if the other party only said one sentence, it had a reassuring magic. 

He couldn’t help but think of Qiao Yichen sitting expressionessly in his bedroom. His voice during the phone call from earlier was still echoing in his ears, it seemed that he was unhappy with his family. After such an incident, he would rather run to this place where he doesn’t usually live.

Lin Dongyang stood there for a long time, until the delivery man rang the doorbell, and he pulled back his drifting thoughts.

He carried the meal to the bedroom. Qiao Yichen had already drunk the fever-reducing medicine and was sitting on the bed with his laptop, but Lin Dongyang didn’t know what he was doing with it.

“Your porridge.” Lin Dongyang reminded him. 

“Later.” Qiao Yichen didn’t lift his eyes and kept staring at the computer screen. Lin Dongyang, who was already bored, became curious and pried like a cat. He didn’t like such a quiet environment, he liked to be more lively. There were chattering roommates in the dormitory, but there was only one ‘stuffy gourd’ person here, with a foul mouth and bad temper.

Lin Dongyang looked at Qiao Yichen, who was operating the mouse, with a mournful face. “What are you doing? Talk to me, I’m bored to death.”

Qiao Yichen stopped his action of clicking his mouse and asked, “Aren’t you going back?”

The corner of Lin Dongyang’s mouth twitched. From his words, he tasted a sense of being driven away by the owner of the house. He explained with a grin, “How can I leave you who are injured and have a fever? In any case you are a brother in need, so I’ll wait until tomorrow to go.” Lin Dongyang laughed and prepared to sit on the bed, but before he could even touch the duvet, his b*ttocks received a solid slap from Qiao Yichen, and the slap was very loud. 

Lin Dongyang leaped to the door in panic, looking at Qiao Yichen with an incredulous look on his face, and said, “You hit me…” He held back the words for a long time, but in the end he couldn’t hold them in.

In fact, it was kind of a minor issue if he did it with his roommates, because they were familiar with each other. It was normal to hook each other’s shoulders and there was no strange feeling at all. But the moment it was replaced by Qiao Yichen, the feeling was instantly different. After all, this person had chased him before!

Qiao Yichen’s already slightly red face seemed to get even redder, and he could not help but cough to try to hide it. He just hated that Lin Dongyang hadn’t showered until now and he was afraid the dust would get on the clean quilt, so when he was about to sit down, he didn’t think much about it and raised his hand to slap him, that’s all. He just didn’t notice the landing point of the slap. It was only after hitting him that he found it seemed a little wrong.

The atmosphere was awkward for a while… 

Qiao Yichen pretended that nothing had happened and said, “You’re filthy.” Having said that, he didn’t dare to look up directly, and coupled with his slightly red face, this was simply the most revealing statement.

Lin Dongyang rubbed the place where he was hit and complained, “You just gave me a shirt, but didn’t give me any pants, if I don’t wear the dirty one, should I be naked ah?!”

Only then did Qiao Yichen carefully look up and down at Lin Dongyang standing by the door, before putting down his laptop, getting out of the bed, opening the wardrobe, then picking out a pair of casual pants, and throwing them to him.

“These pants are short on me, you should be able to wear them.” 

Lin Dongyang: “…” Is he saying that I’m short? He took the pants he had thrown, and compared them to his legs. The length was really quite suitable for him, so he had to admit that he was indeed shorter than Qiao Yichen, and that the short pants he threw fit him well…

Lin Dongyang had no words to refute. He comforted himself that he was really not short. His height of 179cm was also the best in his class. However, everytime someone asked him about his height, he would round up and say he was 1.8 meters. The eyes weren’t an accurate measuring tape anyway, who could see a centimeters difference? But it was true that 180 sounded better than 179.

After comparing, Lin Dongyang threw the clothes back onto the bed and said, “Later, eat first.”

He glanced at the laptop screen placed aside, and his eyes were dazzled by the twists and turns of the line graph. He wondered: Qiao Yichen actually looks at stocks? How do you read this thing? I feel dizzy. 

Lin Dongyang had never touched anything like this at all. So his curiosity, which seemed to be like a cat prying on something, immediately dispersed, and he turned away after a glance.

Qiao Yichen was ill and didn’t have much appetite so he simply drank some light vegetarian porridge. After they had dinner, Lin Dongyang was forced into the bathroom by Qiao Yichen’s constant disgusted stare. After closing the bathroom door, Lin Dongyang took off his T-shirt, turned it over and over, and muttered, “This isn’t that dirty, what a clean freak.”

He threw the clothes on the light gray marble sink, and then carefully surveyed his reflection in the mirror. A piece of gauze folded into a square was stuck on his handsome face. He carefully removed the corner of the gauze, revealing a long, thin wound covered with a dark red scab. Fortunately the wound wasn’t deep, but he was injured in the face after all, and in the case of poor treatment it was likely to leave a visible scar. Although men didn’t care about whether there were scars or not, this was the face, the most immediate visual impression of a person. So Lin Dongyang stuck the gauze back on again, taking extra care not to let the water touch it when he was taking a shower.

When Lin Dongyang came out rubbing his wet hair with a towel, Qiao Yichen was on the phone again. However this time his tone wasn’t like the volcanic eruption in the afternoon, but rather a soft and gentle voice like flowing water. Had it not been for Lin Dongyang knowing he didn’t have a girlfriend he would think Qiao Yichen was coaxing his girlfriend at the moment. Unexpectedly, he had such a soft side. Lin Dongyang clicked his tongue, surprised that he hadn’t seen this side of him before. 

“I won’t go back this week. Don’t run around at home by yourself. Let Auntie Chen buy you anything you want to eat, don’t run around, you hear me?” Qiao Yichen’s tone was heavy, but his voice was unusually gentle as he repeatedly gave instructions.

“Sleep early, and let Snoopy accompany you.”

Lin Dongyang put the towel on his head, dragged his canvas shoes and appeared in the doorway of Qiao Yichen’s bedroom. The shirt had a low cut, plus it was a loose-fit model, so it looked a bit hip-hoppy on Lin Dongyang, but the black casual pants fit very well, so the look wasn’t so inappropriate.

Qiao Yichen frowned at the towel he was holding. “You’re using mine.” 

“I know ah,” Lin Dongyang said innocently, “There was only one inside, should I have come out wet?” After showering, he found that there was nothing but the clothes to wear outside. What could he do from inside…

Lin Dongyang was drenched with hot water as he thought about this chaotic problem. In the end, he was forced to make do with it. If there were no clothes, he endured it, if there were no slippers, he also endured it. What else could be done? This was ultimately someone else’s home, he just had to make do for the night.

Qiao Yichen didn’t say anything after listening to this. There was indeed only one towel in the bathroom, the one he had taken in at noon. Given that he wouldn’t be staying here for long, he hadn’t brought out any other necessities so as not to gather dust.

Lin Dongyang wiped his hair half-dry and then threw the towel back into the bathroom. He was finally able to spread his arms and embrace the soft duvet as he wished. As Qiao Yichen was about to make a sound, he blocked the words. “I’ve taken a shower and changed my clothes, let me lie down for a while. I slept on the sofa all afternoon and now my waist hurts.” 

If it wasn’t for the fact that his hair was still wet, Lin Dongyang really wanted to roll around on the quilt.

When Qiao Yichen saw him acting like a ‘koala hugging a tree’, he acquiesced and moved his body to make room. Sitting on the other side of the two meter wide bed, he continued to pick up his laptop and look at the dizzying line chart.

Lin Dongyang tilted his face and asked, “You should apply the medicine again. You washed all the medicine off your back at noon. The fever might have been caused by this.”

Qiao Yichen nodded. The reason he wasn’t going home this week was because he didn’t want Qiao Weiwei to see him all bruised. Next week will be her coming of age ceremony. He wanted to recover as much as possible within this week, so the medicine must be applied on time. 

Lin Dongyang took the medicine placed on the side table in the living room and put it in front of Qiao Yichen, who took off his shirt to reveal the bruises previously covered by his clothes. He casually smeared the medicine on the minor injuries on his two arms, but he didn’t remove the bandages on his left hand as it hadn’t touched the water during his noon shower so the medicine was still in effect. He mainly needed to apply it on his back, but he couldn’t reach it at all.

Lin Dongyang saw his extremely clumsy way of applying medicine, like a toddler who had just learned to write with a pen. He couldn’t help being amused by this funny appearance, but what greeted him afterwards was Qiao Yichen’s heavy warning look. Lin Dongyang finally stopped standing by idly and took the medicine. He sat behind Qiao Yichen, saying softly, “I’ll do it.”