The rain outside the window was getting heavier, making crackling sounds on the closed glass windows.

As Shi Jin walked out of the bathroom, someone knocked on the door.

The only person who could come to see him in the inn was one person.

Shi Jin put down the towel she was using to wipe her wet hair and opened the door.

The person outside the door was standing very casually, but his tall stature and long arms and legs made him stand in front of the door, blocking half of the door frame.

Seeing the door open, Yu Ci raised his eyelids and glanced at Shi Jin: "Not bad."

There was some doubt in Shi Jin's eyes: "What's good?"

Yu Ci walked into the room with a tray in his hand. Hearing this, he raised his eyebrows and said with a smile: "It's good that you know how to take care of yourself after getting caught in the rain."

Shi Jin knew that he was teasing her.

He pursed his lips, and his ears felt strangely hot.

In order to avoid the topic, he looked at the tray in the man's hand: "What is that?"

Yu Ci let go: "Ginger soup."

A snow-white porcelain bowl was placed on the table, and the spicy smell lingered in the air.

"The climate in the mountains is different from that outside. If you get caught in the rain, you should drink some ginger soup to ward off the cold."

Shi Jin's eyebrows furrowed when he heard the word ginger soup.

He stared at the bowl of warm yellow liquid and hesitated for two seconds before speaking: "I have changed my clothes, so I won't catch a cold."

Yu Ci understood his implication, and the smile in his peach blossom eyes deepened: "I added brown sugar, so it's not spicy."

Shi Jin was still hesitating.

Yu Ci raised his eyebrows, realizing for the first time that his roommate had such a childish side.

How to coax a child?

I'll buy you candy if you take the medicine?

He thought about it, and imitated the way he had seen Zhong Ling coax children during the Chinese New Year, and softened his tone: "Be good, drink it, and I'll buy you a cake when we get home."

Shi Jin’s expression paused.

Is he treating himself like a child?

Shi Jin moved her lips, wanting to speak but not knowing what to say.

never mind.

He was silent for two seconds, then, under Yu Ci's inexplicably shining gaze, he picked up the porcelain bowl and drank the ginger sugar water in it.

Ginger soup mixed with brown sugar is indeed less spicy than pure ginger soup, but the taste of ginger is still lingering.

Shi Jin swallowed the last mouthful of ginger soup and felt like he had fallen into a mountain of ginger.

He calmly put the bowl back on the tray and politely asked them to leave: "I want to take a nap."

Yu Ci didn't plan to stay any longer.

Besides coming here to visit Aunt Chen, he also had another thing to do.

If he wasn't worried that his roommate wouldn't take care of himself and would catch a cold, he would have left by now.

He picked up the tray and said before leaving: "Tell me if you feel uncomfortable."

Shi Jin nodded: "Okay."

The door is closed.

After drinking the last bottle of water in the room, the ginger taste lingering in my mouth finally dissipated.

Shi Jin put down the cup and listened to the rustling sound of rain hitting the eaves. He actually felt a little sleepy.

The moist and slightly cool air is best for falling asleep with a thin blanket.

Almost the next second after I closed my eyes, my hazy consciousness was dragged into darkness by sleepiness.

However, Shi Jin still overestimated his body.

The light sleep became extremely uncomfortable halfway through, as if my nose was blocked by something, and breathing became extremely difficult.

The exhaled air was scorching hot, and there seemed to be a faint smell of spicy ginger, which made his skin begin to heat up.

In a daze, he tried to lift the quilt that was pressing on him, but found that his hands and feet felt like they were weighed down by thousands of pounds of stones, so heavy that he could hardly move even a finger.

The feeling of being weak all over was really uncomfortable, and Shi Jin couldn't help frowning in his sleep.

While he was drowsy, a strange thought flashed through his mind at an inopportune time.

It seems that ginger sugar water doesn't work...

——

Yu Ci helped the inn make a list of the supplies that needed to be purchased, and went out again when the rain subsided a little.

When he came back from outside, it was already afternoon.

He took off his raincoat which was covered with water droplets and changed his shoes at the door.

A Qiu raised his head from the counter: "Brother Yu Ci is back?"

"Yeah." Yu Ci walked into the living room: "Where's Aunt Chen? Is she feeling better?"

"It's still the same." Qiu shook his head: "My knees hurt when it rains."

"This should be rheumatism, right? You'd better live somewhere else." The boy who was slurping noodles at the table said vaguely. When he looked up, he saw two people in the living room looking at him. He smiled a little embarrassedly: "Rheumatism is greatly affected by weather changes. This village is close to the mountains and it rains frequently. People with rheumatism have the hardest time here."

A Qiu sighed: "The doctor said so, but grandma refused, saying that if she passed away, what would happen to the children in the village?"

There is a school in the village. When it is not raining, grandma will go to the school to help and do what she can.

She sighed with a worried look on her face, but quickly put aside her worries and looked at the boy: "Are you full? There are noodles in the kitchen. I'll help you get some."

“No, no, no.” The boy waved his hand, his face a little red: “I’ve already eaten three bowls, I can’t eat any more.”

A Qiu smiled and turned to look at Yu Ci: "Where's Brother Yu Ci? Do you want to eat anything?"

"Just noodles."

Yu Ci poured himself a glass of water, glanced upstairs, and asked casually: "Where's Shi Jin, has he eaten?"

Ah Qiu served a bowl of noodles. The scalding edge of the bowl made her pinch her earlobe with her fingers. When she heard the question, she uttered an "ah" and remembered something: "Mr. Shi hasn't come downstairs since he came back in the morning."

"Just now when we were having dinner, I asked Mr. Yu to go upstairs and call him, but he didn't open the door."

Yu You, who was drinking water, nodded: "I knocked on the door a few times just now and he didn't answer. There was no light on in the room. Maybe he fell asleep."

It was raining in the village and the weather was gloomy. If the lights were not turned on, the light in the room would be very poor.

Yu You glanced through the crack in the door a few times and found that the light was not on. He guessed that Shi Jinxing might have fallen asleep, so he didn't call him again.

Yu Ci raised his head and glanced upstairs, his brows furrowed.

He put down the cup in his hand: "I'll go and take a look."

The road into the mountains is bumpy and difficult to travel. Except for the fixed daily bus routes and group buses of travel agencies, generally no taxis are willing to take passengers in.

Yu Ci didn't know how Shi Jin got here, but he asked A Qiu in the morning, and A Qiu said that Shi Jin arrived at Qingliuzhai last night. Judging from the time, he should have come here just after coming out of the police station.

Shi Jin didn't drive, and it's usually difficult to find a taxi willing to come to Qingliuzhai without a reservation, so he probably came by bus.

He had the good fortune to ride on that bus once before. Not only was it slow and shaky, but the mixed smells in the car were almost suffocating. He estimated that Shi Jin must have been in agony when he came here yesterday.

The bed upstairs was thin, and it rained this morning...

Yu Ci frowned even more tightly.

He took a few steps up the stairs, then went back to the second floor and picked up two quilts from the warehouse next to the stairs.

"Aqiu, please help me make a bowl of porridge."

Looking at the man's back as he went upstairs, Qiu blinked and said, "Okay."

The gloomy weather outside meant that the lighting in the corridor was not very good.

Yu Ci turned on the light in the corridor, walked to the front of the corridor under the warm yellow light above his head, and stopped at the door of Shi Jin's room.

The door was tightly closed. He knocked several times, but it was always quiet inside, with no response or footsteps.

Are you going out?

This thought flashed through his mind, but was quickly put aside by him.

No, when he came back just now, he saw Shi Jin’s black umbrella at the door. If he went out, the umbrella shouldn’t be there.

So he fell asleep?

But sleeping so deeply didn't seem like his roommate's habit.

Yu Ci frowned and reached out to turn the door.

The door was not locked and was pushed open easily.

The curtains were drawn, and the room was filled with darkness.

Yu Ci held the quilt with his left hand and fumbled for the switch on the wall with his right hand to turn on the light.

The light dispelled the darkness in the room. He walked to the bed with the quilt in his arms. His brows instantly frowned when his eyes met the naked person.

** was sleeping soundly, his thin eyelids tightly closed, his breathing was a little rapid, his cold pale face was half buried in the quilt, with an unnatural blush.

He seemed to be sleeping very uneasily. When Yu Ci walked to the bedside, he could still see his eyes rolling restlessly under his thin eyelids.

Yu Ci squatted down and helped him pull down the quilt that was covering his face, revealing his flushed face: "Shi Jin?"

**'s eyelashes moved.

Yu Ci's brows had never relaxed since he entered the room. He put the quilt in his hand at the foot of the bed, stretched out his hand and touched Shi Jin's forehead. The scorching temperature made his heart sink.

I have a fever indeed...

He acted decisively and picked the person up from the bed along with the quilt.

He had lived with Shi Jin for several months, so he naturally knew that Shi Jin was thin. But when he touched him, he realized that he was not just thin, but the person in his arms was frighteningly light.

The breath, which had become hot due to the fever, hit my neck, as thin and weak as a kitten's.

Yu Ci tightened his arms in silence.

When he went downstairs, the noise he made startled Qiu at the counter.

Ah Qiu put down the paintbrush in his hand, walked around the counter, and asked nervously, "What's wrong? What's wrong, Mr. Shi?"

"I have a fever." Yu Ci said briefly, his eyes quickly swept across Aqiu's face, and finally landed on Yu You who was sitting at the table: "Can you drive?"

Yu You was also a little scared, but he quickly reacted, stood up and nodded: "Yes, I have had my driver's license for two years."

“Pah—”

A key was thrown over.

Yu You hurriedly caught the key and trotted out the door behind Yu Ci.

Shi Jin felt very uncomfortable, his hands and feet were weak, and his whole body was powerless.

This feeling was very familiar. He vaguely remembered that he felt the same way the last time he had a fever at home. His eyelids felt heavy as if they were weighed down by a thousand pounds, and his whole body alternately felt hot and cold.

He didn't know how long he endured this torment, until it was so long that he was almost in despair when he seemed to hear a vague voice in his ears.

He couldn't hear clearly, but he could feel the man's anxiety.

Shi Jin wanted to open his eyes, but his heavy eyelids made his efforts in vain. When he was about to give up, his body fell into a hot chest.

The familiar smell penetrated through the blocked nasal cavity and went all the way into the mind, outlining a signal of reassurance in the brain.

The weak fingertips pierced through the thin quilt wrapped around the body and hooked a piece of clothing.

The young man's frowned brows relaxed slightly, and his drowsy consciousness fell into complete darkness.

As Yu Ci carried the person into the back seat of the car, the corner of his clothes sank slightly.

He paused slightly, and following the falling corner of his clothes, he saw someone coming out of the quilt and pulling at his slender white fingertips, with a deep and unclear look in her eyes.

Yu You looked at him standing there, with a frighteningly cold expression on his face. He was a little scared, but he still asked carefully: "Well, brother, where should I go?"

Yu Ci calmed down his emotions and said, "Go to the left and drive to the innermost part of the village."