Chapter 44 44 The beating is more intense than the kiss.

Tang Ke felt very heavy-hearted, perhaps because a heavy adult man was pressing on her chest, but more likely because the man was calling her name in his sleep.

His body temperature was scorching hot, like a giant heating pad. Combined with his haggard face and hoarse voice, it wasn't hard for her to deduce that he was seriously ill.

"Fu Yu? Fu Yu?" Tang Ke pushed the heavy objects on his body, trying to wake him up.

However, the more she pushed him away, the tighter he held her. With no other options, she did the opposite, soothing his head. Sure enough, the man in her arms relaxed.

"When did the fever start?" she asked.

Fu Yu didn't answer, his head buried in thought. In this last moment of life, heaven had generously gifted him with the call of his beloved, the warmth of his beloved, and a soft pillow. He had died a worthy death, and what regrets lay there?

After a long time, the sharp pain gradually disappeared from the temples on both sides, and everything in the outside world gradually became real. He finally woke up and realized that the person he was hugging was the person he loved, and not a pillow that was having a last gasp of energy - a pillow would not grow two hands and quietly slip into his pajamas.

"?" Fu Yu looked up in confusion.

Tang Ke blinked at him innocently.

"What are you doing..." he asked vaguely.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking you this?" Tang Ke pushed him aside and sat up with his hands. "I've been calling you, but you've been unconscious. First, tell me, when did your fever start?"

Fu Yu lay on the carpet. The hard ground made his head ache again. He raised his forearm to cover his eyes, half hiding his embarrassment, and said, "Yesterday, or maybe the night before yesterday."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Tang Ke straightened his clothes, revealing his belly.

Fu Yu took advantage of the situation and grabbed her wrist, answering the question irrelevantly: "I thought you would never come back."

"How is that possible? Where else can I go if I don't come back?" Tang Ke was confused.

"You didn't go home last night..." Fu Yu said, his voice choking with sobs, and he said hoarsely, "I heard you talking to someone on the phone. You said you were leaving, and you said it so firmly. If you don't like me, you can just say it directly. Why are you so far away from me? I had nightmares all day long. I have no definite information. I hold on to unrealistic fantasies. When I see you again, I will say some insincere words to save the situation, but I can't make up anything. I can't make up anything funny to cover up the four words "I like you."

"No, wait a minute..." Tang Ke couldn't get a word in.

Fu Yu leaned over, tightly grasped her hand, and pressed it against his heart, guarding his most important treasure. "Even if I had to do it again a thousand times, I would still confess my love to you.

"Holding hands with the opposite sex, hugging, kissing, taking walks, saying good morning and good night to each other, sleeping in the same bed, maybe you think these things are insignificant, but for me, they are all firsts. When doing these things, I am actually not calm at all, even very clumsy, and I don't know how to judge the occasion. So you always laugh it off. I can't do it, Tang Ke, I can't..."

The surface of his lips was covered with a thin layer of dead skin due to dryness, and a little blue stubble appeared on his chin, just like his current state, rough, uneven, and unreasonable.

"I didn't know it would be so hard to be rejected. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think, I couldn't eat, I couldn't see clearly."

He almost begged:

"But I will adapt slowly. I'm very adaptable. Can you please not leave? I'll kowtow to you."

"?" Tang Ke was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. Seeing that he was going to make things worse, he lifted his legs and sat on his waist, covering his mouth with his hand to solve the problem from the root.

"You can't breathe or eat because you have a high fever, and you can't see clearly because you're not wearing glasses! And—" She pinched his cheek, "Did I reject you? Huh? When did I reject you?"

"Mmmm." You're not even going home, what else are you talking about.

"I see you're completely delirious now. Get up and come with me to the hospital."

"Hmm." No.

Tang Ke didn't understand a word he said, but kindly performed standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him twice.

Fu Yu immediately spoke after he was able to speak: "I can't see through you."

"Where are your glasses?" Tang Ke looked around.

"have no idea."

"Okay." Tang Ke unbuttoned his pajamas one by one, from top to bottom.

"?" A look of disbelief crossed Fu Yu's lifeless face. His clothes had already fallen to his abdomen before he asked weakly and terrifiedly, "What are you doing?"

"I can't explain it right away. I'll go to the hospital with you. When you're more awake, I'll tell you slowly." Tang Ke was ready to take off his matching pajamas.

Fu Yu hurriedly stood up and supported Tang Ke as she fell backwards. The distance between them suddenly shortened, and he finally saw her face clearly.

"If you want to refuse, you can tell me now," he said.

"What will happen if I tell you? What will happen to you?" Tang Ke's thumb gently brushed across his swollen eyelids. "Will you cry like a sad frog?"

Fu Yu lowered his head. "...Tell me, and then, don't worry about me. I'll go to the hospital by myself."

Tang Ke smiled, holding his face and forcing him to look at her. "Originally, I could kiss you right now, but you have a fever and I'm afraid of getting infected. Do you understand me?"

Fu Yu was stunned: "...I don't understand."

"Look, I told you you're not in your right mind, but you still refuse to admit it." Tang Ke stood up, took his hand, and pulled him up. "Okay, come with me to the hospital first. Your health is important. Go change your clothes quickly. Do you want me to get them for you?"

Fu Yu was confused and held his pajamas in a daze. "No, I can do it myself. Um..." He walked to the bedroom and turned to look at her with a blank look. "Are you still leaving?"

Tang Ke actually laughed out loud this time, and coaxed him gently: "Don't leave, wherever you are, that's my home, okay?"

"oh."

Fu Yu closed the door. About two minutes later, melodious music came from the crack of the second bedroom door.

"Falling in love with someone who doesn't come home, waiting for a door that doesn't open..."

Tang Ke couldn't stand it anymore, so he rushed into the second bedroom like a robber, snatched his cell phone, turned off the music, and put a short-sleeved shirt on his head while cursing.

"I just didn't come home for one night. Why are you so upset? Didn't I tell you? The unit is on duty, the unit is on duty. How can I decide the unit's arrangements? It's not like I'll never go home again!"

Fu Yu looked at her aggrievedly: "You didn't say."

"Didn't I tell you?! Didn't I send you a message? Didn't I tell you..." Tang Ke remembered that she had indeed not told him that this was a duty shift decided by the unit, and assumed that he knew about it.

She slapped her forehead and said angrily, "Okay, okay, I didn't explain it clearly. But the most important thing now is that you have to see a doctor as soon as possible. We can talk about other things later, okay?"

Fu Yu nodded obediently, his messy hair falling all over the place.

In any case, most of the depression in his heart had disappeared.

Tang Ke drove to the hospital and took him to register, pay, and see a doctor, holding his hand the entire time. While waiting for the blood test results, she bought him two steamed buns and a cup of cornmeal from the breakfast stall outside the hospital to fill him up. The emergency room test results came back quickly, revealing a viral infection, something that had affected many people since the National Day holiday. The doctor recommended an IV drip.

The infusion room was packed. When Tang Ke helped Fu Yu in, she thought she had walked into the wrong set, mistakenly stumbling upon the filming location of "Resident Evil." Seeing this, Fu Yu wanted her to go back first, saying it was dangerous for a healthy person to stay there.

A hero never brags about his past achievements, so Tang Ke just lifted his mask and said solemnly, "I haven't had an erection in three years of this pandemic. This is just a trifle, ridiculous."

“…”

"There's a seat over there. Come, follow me."

She spotted a middle-aged couple who were about to finish their IV drip and quickly took over their seat.

After sitting down, she asked, "Are you sleepy? Do you want to take a nap?"

Fu Yu had a needle in his left hand, and her right hand was held in his palm. He shook his head: "I'm not sleepy."

"Okay, if you're not sleepy, listen to me." Tang Ke interlocked his fingers with his. "You're so afraid of me leaving, did you hear the conversation between me and the landlord that day?"

After much thought, this is the only possibility.

Fu Yu: "Yeah."

"That's exactly what happened." Tang Ke intermittently fiddled with his fingertips, like he was fiddling with his money tree while making a phone call. "To be honest, I really hadn't figured out how to handle my relationship with you at the time. I couldn't move forward, and I couldn't move back. The landlord suddenly called me, and I just wanted to stabilize the status quo and not change anything. If I did, it would only make things worse. That's why I told him I would definitely go back, but that wasn't my final choice."

The infusion room was very noisy, filled with the sounds of mechanical announcements, nurses calling out numbers, children crying, and electronic equipment playing loudly. Among all of this, her voice was the most beautiful, and Fu Yu listened intently.

"You didn't send me any messages yesterday, only a single 'OK'. I didn't sleep well at work last night. Originally, I wanted to wait until I figured it out before giving you an answer, but then I suddenly felt like I should learn from you. You confessed your feelings recklessly, then asked the person what to do if they were rejected. I was stunned to hear that. My brain was buzzing."

Tang Ke spoke in a relaxed tone. What she didn't say was that when he held her in his arms and said those words, her head didn't go "buzzing", but "ding", and a light bulb went on in her head.

"Fu Yu, are you listening?" She shook his arm.

Fu Yuhui held her hand and said, "I'm listening."

Tang Ke looked around, leaned forward, covered his mouth, and whispered in his ear: "Actually, I like you too."

After she finished speaking, she quickly sat up straight and wanted to continue talking about her considerations over the past few days, but was interrupted by Fu Yu.

"Wait……"

"What's wrong?"

"I want to go home..."

"ah?"

Fu Yu fell straight onto her shoulder, half of his body leaning over, and said in a muffled voice: "I want you to kiss me..."

"No, I haven't finished speaking yet, why are you in such a hurry to advance the progress bar?" Tang Ke pinched the flesh on the back of his hand.

"You said it yourself. If I wasn't sick, you would kiss me. Now I understand." Fu Yu reluctantly snuggled into her neck. The fever was simply the catalyst for his coquettish behavior.

Tang Ke teased him deliberately: "Yeah, what a pity, you are sick."

Fu Yu suddenly looked up.

Their eyes met, silently intertwining into a ball, swallowing up the dialogue with a sticky feeling, more intense than a kiss.

After a long while, he lowered his head in compromise, resting his forehead on her shoulder, and said, "Forget it, then touch me."