Chapter 23 Chapter 23 "Damn it, I can't pretend anymore...

Jiang Mian's amnesia is Jiang Mian's business. As long as Qiao Yu didn't lose his memory, he wouldn't be able to get over that hurdle.

You can say that he is a loser or that he can't let go, the boy's true heart is clean and pure. It's the only one that will be gone once you throw it away.

Qiao Yu used to be in pain all the time.

But now I feel that if it’s gone, it’s gone.

"I don't want to excuse myself, but I need to explain to you. My father is critically ill and asked me to return home. The Jiang family is always keeping an eye on my location, so I can't leave."

Qiao Yu listened with a blank expression.

Jiang Mian held his wrist: "Ayu."

Qiao Yu lowered his eyes: "Aren't you tired?"

"Are you tired?" Jiang Mian asked.

Qiao Yu paused and said, "I'm tired."

Silence stretched between the two.

This feeling was different from years ago. It was a kind of indifference without any anger. Jiang Mian could feel it.

Maybe being persistent might have been useful before, but now it only adds to the disgust.

He didn't know how to deal with Qiao Yu for a moment. Uncertain things made him feel uneasy.

The cramped space in the car actually magnifies the senses.

Jiang Mian could hear his own breathing, and when he looked up he saw his own reflection in the windshield.

Layers upon layers, blurry and unclear.

While I was sitting in the car, Luo Hao called me and asked, "Ancestor, why are you going to Huaicheng again!"

Jiang Mian's voice was as gloomy as his face: "What's wrong?"

Luo Hao cried and screamed on the other end of the phone: "You left in such a hurry that you left your phone on and made a call! Miss Qin came to Lincheng but found nothing. She is now on her way to Huaicheng!"

Jiang Mian frowned slightly: "She's alone?"

"What else?" Luo Hao said, "You can't catch an adulterer alone."

Jiang Mian hung up the phone expressionlessly.

He removed the SIM card, broke it with his fingers, and threw it into a trash can on the side of the road.

This time he came to Huaicheng in a hurry, and ran away from the old man.

There is no time to deal with it, and there are a lot of loopholes behind it. I guess it can't be hidden for long.

If I can't hide it, I won't hide it.

Jiang Mian changed his phone and sent a message to Qiao Yu: Give me some time.

Then he dialed another number.

The call was connected immediately, and the girl's voice was so sweet that it was almost dripping with water: "Baby~"

Jiang Mian started the car: "Where is it?"

"Okay," the voice on the other end became more normal, "airport."

When Jiang Mian arrived at the airport, Qin Yulu was already waiting on the roadside.

The passenger seat was empty, so she got in without hesitation: "Where's your lover? Why don't you bring him here for me to see?"

Jiang Mian didn't respond: "Does Jiang Junyao know I'm here?"

"Of course - I don't know," Qin Yulu blinked, "It's our secret."

Jiang Mian didn't say anything else and directly navigated to the highway.

"No way, I just got here and now I have to go back?" Qin Yulu was unhappy, "What? My baby is in such a state, and I can't even see him?"

Jiang Mian plays music.

Qin Yulu rolled her eyes, took down the makeup mirror on her head and started to touch up her makeup.

Jiang Mian stepped on the accelerator to the upper limit, either changing lanes or overtaking.

Qin Yulu was so shaken that she couldn't help but complain: "Can't you drive more steadily?"

Jiang Mian turned his eyes away and saw Qin Yulu pulling out an eyelash brush and poking it at his eyelids.

He wanted to remind the other car not to do such dangerous actions, but he was stunned when the brush got close to his eyes.

In a flash, he stepped on the brakes and the car stopped at the last second of the yellow light.

The mascara brush poked the end of Qin Yulu's eyebrow and she screamed.

The eldest daughter started to lose her temper and cursed a lot.

But Jiang Mian was staring at the black spot at the end of her eyebrow, until a car honked outside and Qin Yulu pointed at the intersection: "Brother, the light is green!"

Jiang Mian came back to his senses.

"oh."

-

At the beginning of the new year, before the new year even came, Qiao Yu had already started his life of a cowherd.

During the day, I either work part-time at a teaching institution or stay in the laboratory.

He had the advantage of being close to the school and returned to school earlier than other students. At that time, no one was rushing to use the laboratory, so he could run data very quickly.

I don’t mind running home to see my grandma in the afternoon before dinner.

He would clean up and do odd jobs in the evening, and save all the money he earned, intending to give it to Jiang Mian as a cushion.

No matter whether it is enough or not, we have to take out some.

Jiang Mian hasn't returned to Huaicheng since he left last time, but he did send messages, all of which were about trivial matters. He punched in on time every day like a eunuch paying his respects.

Qiao Yu didn't block him, after all, he owed him money.

It's not that they will never have any contact with each other again, but the main thing is that he doesn't know what to do with Jiang Mian now.

His inbox still contained the message Jiang Mian had sent him when he left last time, which stood out among the verification codes and small advertisements.

——Give me some time.

It was an unfamiliar number, but he knew it must be Jiang Mian.

How much time exactly is “some time”? Qiao Yu had no idea.

He didn't know how to "give".

Once he thought about these questions, he would never get the answers. Anxiety and contradiction filled all his emotions.

Finally, Qiao Yu thought: Love is whatever it is.

He didn't have to do anything anyway, just wait and see what Jiang Mian would come up with.

At the end of February, students began to return to school.

Qiao Yu's supervisor suddenly increased the pressure, and the academic pressure doubled.

Fortunately, Qiao Yu had completed most of the data collection, so there was no need to be so busy.

Zhou Shuhe was not so lucky. He was frowning and crying every day. He was criticized at the group meeting. When he was working on experimental data, the whole team went out to dance. He always got the worst time in the laboratory. The patrolling security guards would directly turn off the power of the whole building on a whim.

To show sympathy, Qiao Yu would go to help him when he was free.

Zhou Shuhe is good in every way except that he is a bit talkative. He always talks to Qiao Yu about his first love whenever he gets the chance.

Qiao Yu was annoyed by the conversation and stood up to leave.

Zhou Shuhe chased after him and pulled him back: "That's why you care. Otherwise, your heart would be as calm as still water and there would be no fluctuations no matter what you mention."

Qiao Yu thought for a moment and said, "Then you tell me."

After that, Qiao Yu ignored whatever Zhou Shuhe said.

Later on, Qiao Yu was no longer willing to help him.

Zhou Shuhe made the person cry again.

Qiao Yu's daily schedule is fully scheduled, and he basically falls asleep as soon as he gets home at night.

Although I will feel a little tired physically, at least I won’t have any random thoughts and I will feel much better.

However, such high-intensity non-stop work was still a bit tiring, and when the seasonal flu came, Qiao Yu became one of the first people to be infected.

At first he didn't notice it himself, he thought it might be because he didn't get enough sleep and felt a little dizzy during the day.

Later, the entire research group began to sneeze, with Qiao Yu sneezing the worst. Zhou Shuhe realized something was wrong and sent him to the school hospital.

I took the thermometer and it showed 38.5 degrees.

Qiao Yu hummed nasally: "Not bad."

"What's wrong?" Zhou Shuhe frowned, "You have a high fever."

That's a bit exaggerated, this is medium hot at best.

Qiao Yu took a leave of absence at night and slept in the dormitory for fear of infecting her grandmother.

Zhou Shuhe immediately put on a mask: "Do you consider me a human being?"

Qiao Yu pulled the quilt over her head and said, "You'll be included in the group assignment."

Zhou Shuhe knelt down to thank him for his grace.

Qiao Yu took some antipyretics and awoke feeling groggy and uncomfortable.

He kept thinking about the past and having some intermittent dreams. These things tortured his brain and made him feel more tired after sleeping, which was supposed to be a relief.

After tossing and turning all night, Qiao Yu's fever successfully turned from moderate to high.

Zhou Shuhe dragged him to get an IV drip.

Afraid that Qiao Yu would feel cold, he specially brought over a down jacket that looked like a sleeping bag - it was distributed uniformly by the hospital, and most people used it in the laboratory as work clothes.

Qiao Yu was placed on a bench in the school hospital, with her down jacket covering her, revealing only her red, burned little face.

Zhou Shuhe looked at him: "You seem to be checking the red parts in the plagiarism check."

Qiao Yu glanced at him weakly: "Another crazy one."

"Is there any hope for my group assignment?" Zhou Shuhe asked.

"Yes," Qiao Yu narrowed his eyes, "bring my computer over. I'm just sitting here doing nothing anyway."

In the school hospital filled with the smell of disinfectant, Qiao Yu had a needle stuck in the back of his hand and had fallen into a semi-comatose state while working on a PPT.

He was woken up by the ringing of a phone call. He held the computer with one hand and took out his mobile phone from the pocket of his down jacket with the other hand. He swiped to answer the call one second before seeing the note on the screen.

It’s Jiang Mian’s call.

I've already answered it, Qiao Yu thought.

He struggled to move the phone and put the microphone to his ear.

"Ayu, are you home?"

The computer was not connected to the Internet, so Qiao Yu saved the PPT locally first: "It's not here."

Jiang Mian asked again: "In school?"

Qiao Yu didn't say anything.

He wanted to close his notebook, but it was not convenient to operate with one hand, and the surface of his down jacket was not that rough, so his laptop slipped and fell to the ground with a "crack".

Qiao Yu jumped three feet high like a rabbit.

Jiang Mian was also frightened: "What happened?"

Qiao Yu held his down jacket in one hand and bent down to pick up the computer.

When I opened it, the screen was broken.

Although this computer was bought second-hand and was not expensive, it had accompanied him for hundreds of days and nights, and it was filled with various data graphics packages and engineering software, so it would still be very troublesome to replace it.

Qiao Yu's heart also broke slightly.

He hung up the phone, sat back on the stool, hugged his computer, and thought about the group assignment he had almost finished but had not yet saved to the cloud.

A little more despair.

Just as I was despairing, I turned around and found that the blood in the syringe had returned to half a foot high. I stopped despairing and quickly called the nurse.

The nurse came over and treated him urgently, and Qiao Yu received another injection on the back of his hand, which was already prone to injury.

He became completely honest.

Putting the broken computer aside, Qiao Yu set the alarm for half an hour later, covered his head with his down jacket, and planned to take a nap.

I'm simply too sleepy. I didn't sleep well yesterday.

Also, there are too many things to do and it is very troublesome to deal with them, so he chooses to give up and take a nap.

But I didn't fall asleep either.

Before the alarm went off, he heard rustling noises beside him.

The volume isn't that loud, but a living person sitting next to it can still feel it to some extent.

Qiao Yu pulled open the down jacket and it turned out to be Jiang Mian.

He pulled his down jacket back on.

Jiang Mian put the laptop that had died gloriously on a stand next to him, sat down next to Qiao Yu, bent down to pick up the hem of his down jacket that was about to fall to the ground, and tidied it up to cover his legs.

Qiao Yu couldn't sleep in the first place, and it became even more difficult with the presence of several life-threatening ghosts around him.

He pushed around under his down jacket, creating a small gap, and squinted to see how much medicine was left in the bottle.

The angle is a bit tricky and I can't see it clearly.

He moved aside a little and bumped his head against the raised armrest next to the chair back.

But it was soft, and Jiang Mian blocked it with his palm.

Qiao Yu folded his down jacket a little in front of him.

"Why are you here?" he asked calmly.

Jiang Mian looked at Qiao Yu: "You have a fever."

Qiao Yu said "hmm" and looked up at her IV bottle. There was still one third of it left and it would probably be finished in a while.

"Is it uncomfortable to sit?" Jiang Mian asked.

Qiao Yu ignored him, collapsed again, closed his eyes and pulled the down jacket over his face.

Jiang Mian's heart softened as he looked at the "red fever" patient sleeping like a mealworm in front of him.

He stood up, took off the IV bottle, held his lower back and knees, and picked up a black down jacket.

Qiao Yu fluttered around and subconsciously grabbed Jiang Mian's shoulders with his arms.

Jiang Mian passed his arm under Qiao Yu's armpit and raised the IV bottle in his hand a little higher.

"What are you doing?" Qiao Yu grabbed the clothes on his shoulders.

Jiang Mian carried Qiao Yu and walked out: "Go home."

-

This was Qiao Yu’s second time coming to this “home”. He always felt dizzy every time and did not come in on his own.

Jiang Mian drew the curtains, and the room immediately fell into night.

Qiao Yu was placed on the soft bed, feeling so comfortable that as soon as he tilted his head he wished he could fall asleep immediately.

Jiang Mian took away the needle in his hand and pressed it with a cotton swab.

With nothing to do, he sat on the edge of the bed. With his other hand, he brushed away the scattered hair on Qiao Yu's forehead. His fingertips rubbed across the red skin and he could feel the abnormal body temperature.

His fingertips rested on the scar on Qiao Yu's eyelid.

When he touched her, the curled eyelashes were like a small fan, tickling his fingertips.

It felt a little itchy, so Jiang Mian curled his knuckles and placed them beside his ear. He wanted to continue touching, but he didn't dare to cross the line.

Qiao Yu was half asleep and half awake. His body wanted to sleep very much, but his mind was still struggling to resist.

He could feel Jiang Mian's presence, and subconsciously followed his cool fingers, pressed his hot face against them, and let out a comfortable sigh.

Jiang Mian lowered his eyes and sat quietly, slowly digesting the accumulated emotions, repeating this over and over again.

I don’t know how much time passed.

When he woke up again, Qiao Yu vaguely heard someone talking.

Feeling the unfamiliar environment, he subconsciously supported the bed with his elbows. The touch was soft, not the hard bed board of his dormitory.

After a brief recollection, he realized that Jiang Mian had forcibly carried him back to this... home from the school hospital.

Qiao Yu sat up from the bed.

He still has to go back to school.

Jiang Mian was on the phone outside. Although he lowered the volume, his words were clear and Qiao Yu could still hear them.

He dressed slowly, thinking that out of courtesy he should wait until the other party finished the call before going out. He returned some of the money he had saved recently to Jiang Mian and asked him how long the "some time" in his inbox meant.

However, the next second, Jiang Mian said: "Will he become suspicious if his memory suddenly recovers?"

Qiao Yu was stunned for a moment.

"Damn it," Jiang Mian turned around irritably, "I can't pretend anymore."