CH 12

After Physics class in the afternoon, there were two PE classes per week. Zhang Man had to go to the hospital for an IV infusion at night, so she was excused from the afternoon classes except for the PE class.

Boys and girls stood on either side of the volleyball court in the middle of the field, with a large volleyball net between them.

Zhang Man felt a little dizzy when she arrived at the field, and she stretched out her hand to touch her forehead, which seemed to be still hot. She went to the PE department and asked for the PE teacher, intending to explain the situation and not participate in today’s class.

Who knew that she would be out of luck, and by the time she got there, five or six girls had already excused themselves from class, all because of headaches, fever, stomach aches, and the like.

The P.E. teacher, who was black-faced the entire time, didn’t even listen to her when it was her turn, reprimanded her for her inappropriate attitude and lack of enthusiasm and directly refused to give her a leave of absence, sternly telling her to stand in line.

It was after 3:00 pm and the heat from the sun was still strong. The hot weather of September seems capable of really burning someone.

Zhang Man stood on the field, only to feel the sweat pouring out of her forehead. The cement floor was scorching hot, and the heat was spreading through the thin soles of her canvas shoes. The sun’s rays were beating down on her naked head and face, and she began to get hot all over, as if she was about to melt away in the sun.

She was already running a fever, and she hadn’t slept all night since yesterday from worrying, and after standing for a few minutes, her legs started shaking and the feeling of weakness struck her once again.

Zhang Man gritted her teeth and tried to tell the teacher that she really couldn’t hold on any longer, but as soon as she stepped forward, she fell to the ground in a daze.

“Ah!” The girls around her shrieked, and the PE teacher hurried over to see her flushed and sweating face, knowing that she was really sick.

She waved her hand towards the other side of the volleyball net: “Hey boy, take this girl to the infirmary!”

Before she could finish her sentence, she noticed that a boy had come running from afar, very tall, unbelievably handsome and exquisite, and sturdy-looking.

–However, he was wearing a plaster cast on his hand and had a bandage on it.

The PE teacher instantly felt compelled to laugh and cry: “This student, your hand is injured ah!”

Li Wei was startled, stopped in his tracks, took a look at his left hand hanging on the bandage, and pursed his lips.

The girl was sitting on the floor being helped by several surrounding girls, her palm-sized white face was flushed with an abnormal red, and her thick, flat bangs were wet with sweat, with a lock of them stuck to her forehead.

Her lips were cracked and slightly parted, and she was clearly extremely uncomfortable as she breathed in small gulps and locked her eyebrows.

The nerves at the corners of his forehead began to throb violently again, and his anxiety continued to spread.

How could something go wrong at such a time?

At this time, several other boys heard the teacher’s call and also came over, among them was the Sports Committee member, Liu Chang.

The young man took a look at Liu Chang, who was tall and strong, and had no problem carrying Zhang Man to the infirmary. He kept his head down for a moment, intending to turn around and leave.

–But he was stopped when he was about to turn around.

Zhang Man didn’t notice anyone else at that moment. She couldn’t believe it as she watched Li Wei trot over to her in a hurry, and her heart was already more surprised than anything else.

When she saw that he seemed to be leaving, she immediately struggled to her feet and reached for his right arm for leverage, allowing herself to lean halfway against him, “Teacher, I can do it, just let him help me through.”

The young man’s chest was caught off guard by the warmth of the girl’s body, and before his brain could react, he quickly reached out with his right hand, securing her waist so that she could lean on him more securely.

No one noticed as he lowered his head, the corners of his mouth gradually curved up, and his beautiful eyelashes batted twice.

It looked like the wings of a cicada on a summer night.

The weeping willows along the twin city streams are at their peak of the year with their rich dark green color, but there is no wind and every branch hangs quietly towards the water.

Because it was class time, the entire campus was so quiet that only a few chirps of mockingbirds remained. The stifling heat from the air made the summer day appear almost stagnant.

The young man grabbed her by the waist and lifted her upward with the force of his right hand, so that she could lean all over him with little effort. He matched her steps, walking very slowly.

The sun was so hot that he put his right arm around her and instinctively tried to reach out his left hand to shield her from the sun.

A long while later, he pursed his lips and whispered a reminder: “…… You raise your own hand to shade the sun, don’t get heatstroke again.”

Zhang Man nodded obediently and lifted her left hand to place her fingers together in front of her forehead. The sun was too high, and she was worried that he might also get heatstroke, so she extended her right hand again, reaching up and trying to block the top of his head.

Unfortunately, she was so short that a few fingers almost poked the young man in the eye.

“Don’t cover me, it’s blocking the view.”

“…Oh, okay.”

Zhang Man accosted and withdrew her hand, looked up at his taut jawline, and asked softly, “Li Wei, were you running over because you just saw me fall?”

When he came running, the PE teacher hadn’t called anyone yet.

“Yeah.”

The young man’s voice was a little tense, and his speech was faster than usual, and noticeably a little stiff and hoarse: “Why don’t you take the day off if you’re sick?”

Zhang Man felt a little itchy on her face, so she borrowed the fabric of his school uniform and rubbed her cheeks, listening to his question, and answered naturally: “You know, I’m so bad at Physics, I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep up if I skip school again.”

She also asked cautiously, “Hey, Li Wei, did you get hungry yesterday?”

The young man pursed his lips and nodded his head for a long, honest moment.

Knowing she was coming early, he got up very early. She said she was coming to cook for him, so he waited at home all day, he waited for her and starved all day.

It had been a long time since he had waited for someone like this, from early morning until nightfall, and time seemed to stand still.

Yesterday, in the evening, he sat in his study, staring, unable to read anything, as if he was mad and restless, and began to think of meaningless things in his mind uncontrollably.

The young man pursed his lips and nodded his head for a long, honest moment.

Knowing she was coming early, he got up very early. She said she was coming to cook for him, so he waited at home all day, he waited for her and starved all day.

It had been a long time since he had waited for someone like this, from early morning until nightfall, and time seemed to stand still.

Last night, he sat in his study, dazed and unable to read anything, restless, as if he were crazy, and began to think of meaningless things uncontrollably in his mind.

–Like those who fawned over him and then fled far away in the past, she probably didn’t want to come back after all.

When he thought that she was like that, his heart felt like it was being dragged down by a dark and hostile force, causing him to feel more annoyed and irritable than ever before.

Fortunately, she didn’t.

Zhang Man got the answer and felt a pain in her heart, she reached out and grabbed his sleeve, shaking it lightly, “Li Wei, I will definitely, definitely make you something delicious next week. I was wrong yesterday.”

“You should worry about yourself first.” The young man’s voice was firm; he didn’t look at her either. Zhang Man was not sure if he agreed.

After walking across the small arch bridge, they reached the infirmary.

This is the second time in just two weeks that two people have come to this room, and the gray-haired doctor still remembers them.

He pushed up his presbyopic glasses and laughed and teased, “You two little classmates are too bored of me being alone and came to talk to me over injuries and illnesses, right?”

Zhang Man laughed and sat down leaning on Li Wei’s shoulder. In fact, when she went indoors, the sunlight was not so strong, and she was not as uncomfortable as before. It’s just that she was greedy for his fresh soapy smell and warm body temperature and didn’t want to leave.

The doctor looked at the two of them with a twinkle in his eye, coughed, and took out a thermometer to take her temperature.

After a few minutes, the doctor looked at the thermometer and said, “A slight fever, did you take any medicine before?”

Zhang Man answered honestly, “Well, I had a very high fever yesterday, so I spent a day in the hospital, got an IV drip, and took medicine.”

The doctor asked again, “Do you know what kind of medicine you took yesterday?”

Zhang Man shook her head. It was already the middle of the night when she woke up yesterday, and she was so anxious that she didn’t pay attention.

The doctor pondered for a while and gave his advice: “Your fever is not serious now, but it has not gone down yet. I’m worried that the medication I’m prescribing may conflict with the medication you used before. In that case, it would be prudent for you to take a leave of absence and go back to that hospital to continue the infusion.”

“OK, I’ll call my mom later.”

……

Zhang Huifang came very quickly, saw a student holding Zhang Man and looked at him for a few moments before thanking him, and immediately directed her anger at her daughter.

She picked her up with a sneer and prodded her on the forehead, her voice even more sarcastic: “You told me you wanted to come to school no matter what, but when I thought about it later I felt that something was wrong, when did you become such a good student? Was it to explain to that classmate of yours? What’s wrong with waiting for a day or two, if you’re sick, can they still blame you? You should be burned to death with fever for making me worried.”

She just explained to Li Wei that she didn’t take a leave of absence because she didn’t want to skip class — isn’t this an immediate slap in the face?

She looked up at Li Wei with some embarrassment, but found that the young man’s expression had not changed at all, and his eyes were drooping, not knowing what he was thinking of.

Zhang Man breathed a sigh of relief, he probably wasn’t even listening.

……

Zhang Huifang drove to pick her up and took her to the same hospital yesterday.

On the way, Zhang Huifang showed great interest in Li Wei: “Man Man, who is that boy who just helped you? He looks a bit like that star in his youth, you know, the one who acted in a very famous movie ……”

Zhang Man listened to her chattering with an excited voice and felt a bit helpless in her heart. Zhang Huifang is one of those people who can’t walk away when they see a beautiful and attractive person, she was like this when she was young, and she hasn’t changed until now.

So later on, Zheng Zineng was able to cheat her heart away so easily, after all, that scum has a pretty decent looks.

In the meantime, she weakly complained: “I’m still sick.”

Zhang Huifang closed her mouth and lifted up her long hair: “Yes, but Zhang Man, don’t miss out on such a good looking guy, with my life experience, this looks is considered superb.”

It took Zhang Man almost a week to recover from her cold.

This Saturday, she got up at seven o’clock and carried her bag to a nearby market.

The market was very crowded in the morning, and this year’s N City did not have a unified plan for each stall as it did later, so the vendors just scattered their stalls around, some even on the side of the road.

Zhang Man thought about what to cook, and picked up a bag of Chinese fried glutten balls, a bag of ground meat, a bag of mushrooms and onions, and two eggplants.

After leaving the market, she saw a fruit stand at the intersection, squatted down and bought a few mangoes.

More than half an hour later, she arrived at Li Wei’s house with her things. After ringing the doorbell for a while, he came to open the door.

The air conditioner was on in Li’s house, and the temperature was so low that Zhang Man shivered as soon as she walked in the door.

She was wearing a sleeveless dress with strapless shoulders and was a bit chilly from the cold air.

The young man’s hair was a bit messy, and it looked like he had just gotten up to open the door for her when he heard the doorbell. He was dressed in gray, long-sleeved house clothes, and because his left hand was still in a cast, the sleeve on that side was cut open, and looked slightly funny.

He saw her shivering from the cold and frowned: “You’re wearing so little even though you’re sick?”

Zhang Man retorted, “I’m fine already.”

The young man looked at her with cold eyes, and turned back to the bedroom without speaking, coming out shortly with a set of clothes in hand.

It was the same style and size as the one he was wearing, but in a different color.

He handed her the clothes and pants, “Put them on.”

He said, and went to the living room to turn up the temperature of the central air conditioner.

Zhang Man obediently dressed up, but the clothes were too big for her, so when she put them on it reached her thighs. The long sleeves wrapped her arms completely, and the soft cotton fabric was very warm in the air-conditioned room.

Also, it had the same fresh, soapy smell that he had.

She looked at the pants on her hands with embarrassment, “Do I have to wear the pants, too?”

The young man’s gaze went down and stopped for a moment on her bare legs, nodding.

“Then …… you turn around.”