Chapter 13 Taking care of each other, are you showing concern for me?
While in a coma in the hospital, Xing Lan had a long dream in which he saw an old friend he hadn't seen in a long time.
He was called an "old friend," but he was actually just a kid who had just started junior high school.
He remembered the first time he met the child; the child was very thin, dark-skinned, and short, with only a pair of bright, black eyes, like a puppy's, and exceptionally clean.
Since his mother passed away when he was five, Xing Lan has stopped giving his heart to anyone, including his own father and his good friends from kindergarten who used to share bread and toys with him.
After cutting ties with everyone, he became a lone wolf, always alone, whether at school or anywhere else.
Going to school by myself, eating by myself, doing my homework by myself, and dealing with all the troubles and frustrations of adolescence on my own.
He has no interest in, nor does he want to, build relationships with anyone.
Until he met the child by chance.
At that time, he had just entered junior high school and was still a child who hadn't fully grown up or gone through puberty. He always looked at him with an admiring gaze.
I remember when we first met, the kid was always getting hurt and would hide away to cry. When I saw him, he would bravely wipe away his tears and force a silly smile.
Like a naive little animal, innocent, reckless, and unsociable, covered in thorns, but because of its small size, the thorns haven't fully grown yet, so it's not aggressive at all, only pricking itself when it falls.
Xing Lan is not interested in people, but she will protect small animals in difficult circumstances.
In his eyes, a child is just a small animal that needs protection.
He had only helped him a few times, but the kid idolized Xing Lan, was loyal to him, and wouldn't allow anyone to say a bad word about him.
She was as small as a bean sprout, yet she dared to take on a group of tall and strong senior students from the high school all by herself for his sake.
He once vowed to follow Xing Lan for life, and to go wherever Xing Lan went.
This was just a childish vow made unilaterally by the child. Xing Lan did not agree to it at the time, and the contract did not actually have any follow-up.
He never saw a child again after graduating from high school.
I wonder what the child looks like now, whether he is tall or short, fat or thin.
Whether you're doing well or not, whether you're still as prone to crying as before, yet stubbornly deny it, sniffling and pretending you're not crying.
Xing Lan's eyelashes trembled slightly as she finally awoke from her deep sleep.
As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Li Baidong standing beside him, his eyes lowered, carefully adjusting the speed of the IV drip.
Under the cool white light, the light gray dark circles under my eyes are very obvious.
"...You didn't sleep at all last night?" Xing Lan frowned, feeling a pang of guilt towards him.
"No, I just dozed off for a little while in the middle of the night." Li Baidong sat down and said softly, "Brother, you're awake? What do you want for breakfast? I'll go buy it for you."
Xing Lan looked at the weariness and exhaustion that he couldn't hide in his eyes, shook her head and said, "Order takeout and have them delivered to the hospital, so you don't have to go out and make the trip."
Li Baidong thought for a moment, then nodded, his dark eyes looking at Xing Lan: "Okay, that way I can stay and continue to accompany you."
Li Baidong's deep and thoughtful tone made Xing Lan feel a little awkward, as if he were still a child of a few years old, lazy and in need of special care.
"...How old am I? Do I still need you to keep me company?" He turned his head and muttered to himself.
Li Baidong smiled, said nothing, took out his phone from his pocket, and looked down at the takeout options near the hospital.
He now knows Xing Lan's tastes quite well, and soon he had ordered the food himself. Before paying, he sent a screenshot to Xing Lan to confirm if there were any dietary restrictions he couldn't eat.
Xing Lan took a look and found nothing wrong.
After a while, Li Baidong heard his phone ring. He thought the delivery rider had delivered the food so quickly, but when he picked it up, he saw that it was Xing Lan who had sent him a WeChat red envelope.
He looked up at Xing Lan, whose expression was indifferent and whose eyes were cold.
"You paid yesterday's medical bills too, right? I've transferred them to you along with the breakfast money."
Li Baidong didn't accept the red envelope. He casually tapped the screen and sent Xing Lan a golden retriever wagging its tail emoji that he often sent.
Then he put his phone back in his pocket and said with a grin, "Don't worry, bro, I have money."
Xing Lan frowned, her expression turning cold and stern: "It's been raining these past few days, and you haven't been able to go to work. Where did you get the money?"
“I have a food account, and I’ve gained a lot of followers recently. I can make some money from it,” Li Baidong explained.
Xing Lan looked at him quietly, paused for a few seconds, and awkwardly said, "Thank you."
Li Baidong paused for a moment, then smiled and put his arm around his shoulder, looking very affectionate.
"Brother, what are you saying? I'm your roommate. Aren't roommates supposed to take care of each other?"
roommate……
Xing Lan lowered her head slightly.
This was also his first time living with someone, and he had no experience, so he didn't know where the boundaries of being a roommate lay.
If I had to put it in perspective, it would be somewhere between being friends and strangers.
A kind of... stranger who often sleeps in the same bed?
This relationship doesn't sound very proper at all.
-
The takeout has arrived.
Li Baidong ordered a light shrimp congee. He opened the outer packaging bag, held the bowl in his hands, and took a spoon, intending to feed Xing Lan.
Xing Lan lowered her eyes slightly and glanced at the back of his left hand.
"Is your hand better?"
"It's all better now, it doesn't hurt at all." Li Baidong shook his wrist at him and said proudly, "Brother, I told you, I'm in great physical condition."
He eagerly held a mouthful of porridge to Xing Lan's lips, but Xing Lan remained silent and did not open her mouth.
He tilted his head and gestured to Li Baidong to put the food there so he could eat it himself.
Li Baidong didn't move, as if she hadn't understood his gaze at all, and continued to look at him expectantly with her smiling eyes.
When hints failed, Xing Lan had no choice but to speak.
"I'll eat it myself..."
Before he could finish speaking, Li Baidong, who was in front of him, took advantage of his open mouth while he was speaking and quickly fed him a spoonful of warm porridge.
"..."
Xing Lan pursed her lips, looking at Li Baidong with disbelief, her tongue secretly pressing against her back teeth, her tone cold.
What are you doing?
"I already said I'd eat it myself."
"I'm sorry, bro." Li Baidong admitted his mistake in a second, blinking innocently. "The nurse just told me that you're on an IV drip and can't move around. Let me feed you."
The bowl and spoon were both in Li Baidong's hands, which he held tightly. Xing Lan was too weak from the fever to fight for them, so she could only let him feed her spoonful after spoonful.
"Is this porridge shop good?" Li Baidong asked, his hands and mouth working non-stop.
Xing Lan glanced at him: "Not bad."
"How does it compare to what I did?" Li Baidong looked at Xing Lan expectantly, as if he really wanted to know his answer.
Xing Lan thought for a moment and said only three words: "Not even close."
"Who's far worse than whom?"
"Think about it yourself." Xing Lan lowered her eyes slightly, remaining noncommittal.
"It must be because I made it better." Li Baidong looked at him confidently and said tentatively.
Xing Lan neither said it was right nor wrong.
He didn't have much of an appetite today, and after being fed a few bites by Li Baidong, he turned his face away and refused to be fed anymore: "That's enough, I'm full."
"You should eat something too." Xing Lan frowned. "You haven't slept all night. Finish your meal early and get some rest."
Seeing that he really couldn't eat anymore, Li Baidong put the bowl aside, picked up a tissue and casually wiped the porridge stains from the corner of his lips, smiling as he said, "I know."
"But brother, are you... worried about me?"
Xing Lan paused for a moment, then abruptly looked away, her tone indifferent: "What's wrong? Didn't you say that roommates should care for each other?"
Hearing this, Li Baidong's smile deepened, and the corners of his mouth practically turned up to the sky. Looking at him like this, Xing Lan almost wondered if she had accidentally said something incredibly stupid.
"What are you laughing at?" Xing Lan tried her best to remain calm and not be affected by Li Baidong's maniacal laughter. "Did I say something wrong?"
“That’s right, that’s right.” Li Baidong’s voice was clearly cheerful. “Brother, I just think… the way you care about me is kind of cute.”
"..."
You brat.
I was being overly concerned about him just now.
Xing Lan stiffly turned her face away completely, clearly not wanting to talk to him anymore.
Li Baidong laughed for a long time before finally calming down. When he saw Xing Lan's slightly displeased expression after he praised her for being cute, his heart softened and he found her even cuter.
-
Xing Lan received intravenous fluids at the hospital for three consecutive days. During these three days, Li Baidong also stayed at the hospital, bringing Xing Lan food and drink and taking care of her every need.
Don't ask, the answer is that roommates need to take care of each other.
On the day he was discharged from the hospital, he even went to a florist to buy Xing Lan a bouquet of flowers.
He didn't hide it from anyone; in front of everyone in the hospital, he openly took the flowers out from behind his back and handed them to Xing Lan, who was recovering from a minor illness.
That day, however, he was dressed unusually formally, abandoning his usual hoodie and jeans for a more formal white stand-up collar shirt, looking like a groom about to confess his love at a wedding. Xing Lan could even hear the nurses whispering nearby, their voices tinged with a hint of excited gossip.
"Hey, hey, it's those two guys... one of them is in the hospital, and the other comes to take care of him every day. So loyal and sweet!"
"Holy crap, he's so damn handsome. So all the handsome guys are taken in by the family now?"
"Smell it, isn't this the fragrance of flowers? It's clearly the fragrance of love—"
Xing Lan: "..."
"Brother, congratulations on being discharged from the hospital." Li Baidong seemed oblivious to the surrounding whispers, his eyes fixed on Xing Lan, his smile genuine. "I wish you good health every day from now on."
The bouquet that Li Baidong sent was actually very beautiful, not at all like a typical male aesthetic. Every single flower in it was carefully selected by him, and it would garner a lot of likes even on the most discerning social media platforms.
Although Xing Lan didn't want to be the center of attention, he couldn't bring himself to walk away coldly and leave Li Baidong standing there awkwardly alone, looking at Li Baidong's bright eyes.
"Thank you." Xing Lan nodded stiffly, hugged the flowers to her chest, and thanked him in a formulaic way, "The flowers are very beautiful."
"I'm glad you like it." Li Baidong smiled, then skillfully put his arm around Xing Lan's waist, wanting to help him walk.
"..."
“I just had a fever for a few days, I’m not lame.” Xing Lan glanced down at Li Baidong’s hand that was intimately draped over his waist, and coldly refused, “I can walk by myself.”
“Walking also takes a lot of effort,” Li Baidong said seriously. “Brother, the doctor specifically told me that you’ve just recovered from your illness and need to rest more and avoid doing heavy physical labor.”
He quietly leaned close to Xing Lan's ear and whispered with a hint of regret, "Brother, I know there are a lot of people here, and you're shy, so I'm sorry. Otherwise, I would have carried you away."
Xing Lan felt her eyelids twitch slightly.
“…”
Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness.
A note from the author:
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I'm taking a break tomorrow, and the next chapter will be updated the day after tomorrow! [kissing emoji]
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