Chapter 39. [First Update] "Then why did you say that about him..."
The branch secretary did not only just become aware of He Yan's existence.
He ran towards the girls' dormitory building. From a distance, he saw Ye Manni talking to a man. He hesitated for a moment, unsure whether to call out to her. In the end, his concern for Wen Xue prevailed, and he gritted his teeth and ran over.
He had no intention of prying into other people's privacy, so he simply greeted the man with his eyes and then looked away.
But what's the situation now?
He looked blankly at He Yan, then at Ye Manni, and asked in surprise and incoherently, "He is... him and Wen Xue?"
Ye Manni was also in a dilemma.
Because she didn't know how to introduce He Yan, or Wen Xue's relationship with him. It was too complicated, too subtle. Last night, after the three of them returned to their dormitory, they all fell into silence. It was Chen Bingwen who broke the strange atmosphere by whispering, "He Heng's brother... he's a really nice guy."
Then Chen Bingwen laughed carelessly: "My parents know I have a cough, but they won't rush over to take me to the hospital in the middle of the night. I'm impressed."
It would have been perfectly reasonable if He Heng, who was still alive, had come last night, or if it had been Wen Xue's relatives or best friends.
But he happens to be He Heng's own brother.
The three of them looked at each other in the dormitory after lights out, each with a thought or a guess flashing through their minds, but they all tacitly kept quiet, not daring to mention it, as if there was a box in front of them and none of them wanted to be the first to open it.
At this moment, the question asked by the branch secretary left Ye Manni at a loss for words.
Should she ask, "Is this He Heng's brother?"
Her subconscious told her that she couldn't.
if……
If one day...
She shook her head frantically in her heart. There were no ifs, no ifs. In short, for Wen Xue's sake, she couldn't say anything.
Besides, who is the class monitor? He's just a classmate. She has no obligation to introduce him. Thinking of this, she felt annoyed and was about to impatiently say, "What's it to you?" when a slightly deep male voice rang out before she could speak—
"Her family."
He Yan said succinctly, "Give me the notes, thanks."
The branch secretary was still processing the phrase "her family members" when she bluntly handed him the notebook, her tone unconsciously becoming much more polite: "No, you're welcome."
He Yan casually took it and looked at Ye Manni, "She's still waiting for me at the hospital, I'll be going now."
He paused, then added, "Don't worry, she's fine. She'll be back in a few days."
Ye Manni was also in a daze for a few seconds before she came to her senses and said, "Mmm."
He Yan didn't linger. He easily picked up his bags and turned to leave. Before leaving, he glanced at the Youth League Secretary. Their eyes met, and he calmly nodded, as if to say goodbye.
Only after his broad, tall figure completely disappeared into the crowd did the Youth League secretary snap out of his daze, slap his forehead, and exclaim dejectedly, "Was that Wen Xue's family? Sigh!!"
If only I had known, I would have behaved more appropriately and generously.
"Ye Manni, is he Wen Xue's brother? His biological brother? His cousin? His maternal cousin?" As soon as the person left, he stopped stuttering.
Ye Manni glared at him: "I don't know!"
After saying that, she ignored him and took three steps at a time to go up the steps and into the dormitory.
…
Bang--
He Yan opened the door, got into the driver's seat, and closed the door with considerable force.
The back seat was piled with Wen Xue's luggage, giving the impression that she wasn't in the hospital but moving house. He turned his gaze away from the rearview mirror and inadvertently fixed it on the soft leather notebook on the passenger seat, which almost blended into the color of the seat.
He could tell at a glance that the notebook was brand new.
Many people like Wen Xue, but in this short period of time, two people have come right up to him.
Driven by a very subtle emotion, he reached for the notebook. Even a fool could tell that the dim-witted boy would definitely try to jot down a greeting for her whenever he had a spare moment. Young boys always love to use this trick.
The next second after opening the cover, before he could even read the words, he slammed it shut. What was he doing?
Many girls used to like He Heng, and his schoolbag was often stuffed with love letters. At that time, he pretended not to see them and never thought about or had any interest in opening one to see what was written inside. Now he's really getting more and more like a child.
He tossed the notebook back into the passenger seat, frowned, started the engine, stepped on the gas, drove out of the parking space, and merged into the traffic.
When he returned to the ward with bags and packages, Wen Xue was sitting by the bed unpacking a fruit basket. The sweet aroma of the fruit temporarily masked the smell of medicine. Hearing his voice, she turned around, her eyes crinkling with a smile, "You're back! There are mangoes, do you want some?"
"Have any of your students' parents come here?"
He Yan knew everything about her circle of friends in Xicheng. Very few people knew she was sick and hospitalized; they were mostly students still in class. He had only been gone for an hour, and the only person who would come to the hospital at that time and bring a fruit basket was Aunt Fang, whom she often talked about.
"Um!"
Wen Xue did feel uncomfortable, but after seeing Fang Lirong and her son off and returning to her ward, she began to study the fruit basket with great interest.
Ultimately, I was happy; it felt warm to be remembered and cared for.
“She came with her son, but they were busy and left after only a few minutes. You weren’t there, so I didn’t know how to entertain them. I just gave them two bottles of water. Now that I think about it, was that a bad idea?”
She then asked, "By the way, do you know how much a fruit basket like this costs?"
No need to return the courtesy.
Each ward has a wardrobe. After He Yan put her change of clothes in and locked it, he turned around and went to the foot of the bed, handing her a notebook. "They didn't come to visit you. They came to apologize for your child infecting you with the flu virus."
Wen Xue pursed her lips, a helpless smile in her eyes, and patiently corrected her again: "It's not necessarily that she infected me."
His words implied that he considered the Fang family to be the culprits.
I remember last night the doctor asked her, as usual, where she had been recently and who she had been in contact with. She answered truthfully, and He Yan, who was standing next to her, immediately turned very ugly.
Thinking about it carefully, I'm also glad that he wasn't in the ward when Fang Lirong and her son came, otherwise the scene might have been very awkward.
She took the notebook. "What's this?"
"have no idea."
He Yan replied casually, "It was given to me by a classmate."
classmate?
Wen Xue glanced at him in confusion, flipped through the notebook, and after discovering that it was her class notes, her expression gradually became serious. The ward was brightly lit, but a shadow suddenly fell in front of her, causing her to involuntarily look up and meet his slightly lowered eyes.
She followed his gaze and looked down at the notebook, then suddenly realized, "It's a classmate who helped me organize these notes."
"He's a nice person."
“Indeed,” she nodded, “but it could also be that the class monitor or counselor instructed him; he’s the Youth League secretary.”
He Yan smiled silently, his expression calm. "He's a good person."
What does it mean to say the same thing twice?
Wen Xue didn't understand at first, so she lowered her head and continued to flip through her notes. Suddenly, her gaze stopped, and she looked up at him. He was bending over and silently packing up the fruit basket. She felt inexplicably flustered.
This panic came very suddenly.
Unfamiliar, yet not so unfamiliar. She had experienced this feeling before she and He Heng confirmed their relationship. It was during a PE class when the teacher organized a volleyball match. She didn't know how to play and wasn't interested. Plus, it was hot, and she felt drowsy, so she simply sneaked back to the classroom.
Not long after she arrived in the classroom, the physics class representative returned, took a math improvement test, sat down next to her, and said he wanted to ask her for help with the last big question.
She was so focused on working out the steps on the draft paper that she didn't even notice another person had entered the classroom.
It was a classmate outside the corridor who called out, "He Heng, the PE teacher is looking for you," startling her so much that she turned around instantly and unexpectedly met He Heng's gaze, who was sitting several desks away.
He rested his chin on his hand and looked at her quietly.
I don't know how long I held that position.
Then he smiled faintly, picked up his school uniform hanging on the back of the chair, got up and left the classroom.
It's strange. I haven't done anything wrong, but my heartbeat suddenly slowed down. I felt a little panicked and confused.
"It's not what you think." She closed the notebook and put it aside, explaining softly, "I'm not very familiar with him, we're just classmates."
He Yan frowned almost imperceptibly, his gaze unconsciously carrying a hint of pressure, repeating what she had said earlier, "Is that what I thought?"
He paused. "How?"
Wen Xueqing stared at him sharply, "I think you've misunderstood."
She didn't want to be misunderstood at all, especially by him; it felt terrible. "You seem to be misunderstanding me and him so that we'll have a relationship beyond just being classmates."
She trusted her intuition.
Over the course of their time together, she gradually came to understand him. He disliked talking nonsense, and it was even stranger for him to repeat a meaningless sentence twice.
A strange emotion flashed through He Yan's mind. Before he could think it through, he said in a deep voice, "I didn't misunderstand."
"Then why do you say others are good?"
"I……"
He was utterly speechless. "What else can I say?"
To be honest, was that kid up to no good?
Wen Xue pursed her lips. Perhaps when people are sick, they really can't control their emotions. Anger, sadness, heartbreak, vulnerability—these are things that can usually be processed well, but not now. They might even be amplified infinitely.
Very occasionally, she would think about a question: Could it be that He Yan came to the school to find her that night because he was passing by Xida University, missed He Heng, and thought of her, so he decided to have a meal with her on a whim and ask about her recent situation?
Wasn't it just a spur-of-the-moment decision?
After all, he had never called her before; no, he didn't even have her number.
She couldn't help but wonder what made him change his mind and offer to help take care of her as an older brother when he had originally just wanted to treat her to a meal that day?
It was her thin, frail appearance, and her inability to let go of He Heng.
If she had looked well that day and started a new life, perhaps they would never have seen each other again after that hotpot meal.
So, what if one day she has another relationship? Will this "what if" happen?
She was so uneasy that even before anything was out of the ordinary, she felt an overwhelming urge to tell him immediately, "...Don't misunderstand."
These four words made He Yan pause. After a nearly ten-second eye contact, she lowered her head and unconsciously touched the needle marks on the back of her hand. Even a light press brought a slight pain.
He Yan suddenly held his breath, a mix of emotions surging within him, but his eyes were almost intently fixed on the top of her head.
He knew what he should say, such as, "I really didn't misunderstand."
But he didn't want to dwell on this pointless question any longer, so he subtly changed the subject, "What did you just ask me?"
The topic jumped so quickly that Wen Xue was caught off guard and looked up at him again, "What?"
The two looked at each other, and He Yan suddenly felt happy. He was willing to give her a hint, so he turned his gaze and stopped on the fruit basket.
Wen Xue looked over as well, and after a few seconds of stunned silence, she burst out laughing. "There are mangoes, do you want some?"
"eat."
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