Chapter 28 Published
There is a hospital near Peking University, but influenza is prevalent this season. Ji Ruan's fever was not serious, and Gu Xiuyi was afraid that going there would be too many people and lead to cross infection. After hesitating for a while, he took a detour and took Ji Ruan to his own private hospital.
The VIP lounge was very quiet. Ji Ruan had just finished having his blood drawn and was leaning dejectedly on the sofa, pressing his elbow with a cotton swab.
The door was gently pushed open. Li Suian ran up from the third floor to join in the fun and saw Ji Ruan looking haggard.
"Why are you sick again, little patient Ji Ruan?"
Gu Xiuyi made a cup of sugar and salt water, took the cotton swab and pressed Ji Ruan's elbow, and handed the paper cup to him: "Drink some."
Ji Ruan opened his eyes, held the paper cup and greeted Li Suian first: "Hello, Doctor Li, nice to see you again."
Li Suian laughed at Ji Ruan's expression. This kid obviously didn't want to meet him in such a place, and his expression was a little resentful.
Gu Xiuyi didn't even raise his eyes and patted Ji Ruan's head: "Don't worry about him, drink some water first... Do you feel dizzy?"
Ji Ruan sniffed and said, "It's okay, I just don't have the strength."
Li Suian took two steps closer to look at Ji Ruan's elbow and said, "Tsk, the platelets are still not coming up?"
It took so long to draw blood that several cotton swabs were stained red.
Gu Xiuyi finally gave him a look: "Why are you here from the ENT department?"
Li Suian patted his white coat and said, "Of course I'm here to greet my former patients. Fever may also have an impact on the ears."
Gu Xiuyi was silent for two seconds after hearing this, and called the nurse to put medical tape on Ji Ruan's elbow, and asked Li Suian: "Do I need to go to your place to check it out?"
"Not yet," Li Suian waved his hand, "Let me ask him a few questions first."
Gu Xiuyi gave up some space.
Li Suian pulled over a chair and sat down in front of Ji Ruan. He reached behind Ji Ruan’s left ear and felt the implant under the skin.
"Does it hurt? Any stabbing or cramping pain in the ear canal, under the skin here?"
"It doesn't hurt, um...actually I have a slight headache, but my ears don't feel anything."
"What about tinnitus? It doesn't have to be a sharp sound. Have you ever heard a fine sand sound after the fever? Very mild is fine too."
Ji Ruan pursed his lips and felt it carefully, then shook his head: "No, I heard it very clearly."
"Okay, not bad." Li Suian stood up and looked at Gu Xiuyi: "No need to go to my place, it's nothing serious."
Gu Xiuyi took away Ji Ruan's empty paper cup and asked, "Why was he in so much pain last time?"
Li Suian smiled and said, "Don't worry. Fever doesn't necessarily cause neuralgia. Last time, it was probably because he had a higher fever."
There was a knock on the door of the lounge, and a fat doctor came in with a test report in his hand. When he saw Li Suian, he said, "Hey, Mr. Li is here too?"
Li Suian nodded and said, "I'm here to see a friend."
The fat doctor laughed cheerfully: "That's a good idea. Let's have dinner tonight. There's a new hotpot restaurant across the street?"
"Okay."
After the fat doctor finished speaking, he looked at Gu Xiuyi and resumed his professional attitude:
"Mr. Gu, your wife is fine. The flu has been ruled out. It's not viral. She just caught a cold and was tired. Her weak constitution caused her fever."
Gu Xiuyi nodded and asked, "Thank you, do you need to be hospitalized?"
"No need," the fat doctor said with a smile, "Kids of their age can recover almost immediately after taking some medicine and having a good sleep."
He glanced at the test results and said, "It's just that your wife's physical condition is a bit special. We recommend that you give her a fever-reducing injection so that the fever can go down faster. It also avoids the problem of the ear, nose and throat being affected if the medicine is not effective."
Gu Xiuyi also felt that the sooner Ji Ruan's fever subsided, the better, so he looked at Ji Ruan and said, "Then how about an injection?"
Ji Ruan had a needle stuck in his arm as soon as he arrived, and two large tubes of blood were drawn. He was not afraid of taking more at this moment, and nodded: "Okay."
"Antipyretic injections are usually given into the upper arm or buttocks. Where do you think we should inject it?" The fat doctor clapped his hands and threw out a choice.
"Most people get their buttocks pierced," Li Suian said, "If you have thick muscles in your buttocks, it won't hurt that much. Ji Ruan's arms don't look very fleshy."
He looked at Ji Ruan with a heavier tone as if he was scaring a child: "It will hurt if you prick your arm."
"That's enough." Gu Xiuyi pushed him away.
Thinking of Ji Ruan's waist that could be grasped with one hand, and the fact that there was not even two taels of flesh on his whole body, he frowned:
"The buttocks aren't very muscular either."
?
Ji Ruan doubted his ears: "Are you saying that I am shriveled?"
Li Suian burst out laughing.
Gu Xiuyi, who had no such intention at all, said: "......?"
He met Ji Ruan's incredulous eyes and was speechless for a moment.
What is this child thinking?
"Of course not, I..."
Gu Xiuyi was speechless again.
Ji Ruan's eyes were really funny, with two big dark circles under his eyes, his lips were chapped and he looked sick, but he was trying very hard to maintain the dignity of his buttocks muscles.
Gu Xiuyi sighed and made the biggest compromise: "Okay, you are rich."
Ji Ruan: “?!”
Li Suian laughed even louder.
Ji Ruan made a decision immediately and looked at the fat doctor: "Please excuse me, I will pierce your buttocks."
The doctor was also very happy, "Okay, okay, come with me, hahahaha——"
Even when the door of the clinic was closed, Li Suian was still laughing so hard that he couldn't stand up.
Gu Xiuyi walked away from him silently, folded his arms and leaned against the door frame of the clinic, looking at him like an idiot: "What are you laughing at?"
Li Suian pressed his sore abdominal muscles and put his hands on Gu Xiuyi's shoulders: "It's really interesting."
Gu Xiuyi moved his arm away without changing his expression: "Ji Ruan is indeed an interesting child."
"I mean you're interesting!" Li Suian laughed and patted Gu Xiuyi's chest, and his smile gradually turned into something meaningful: "It's interesting for you and Ji Ruan to get along."
Gu Xiuyi's cold eyes met his watching expression:
"Um."
Li Suian really found it fun.
At first, he thought that the child would not be able to resist Lao Gu's temptation and fall first, which made him feel extremely guilty on behalf of Lao Gu and he sympathized with Ji Ruan for a while.
Unexpectedly, considering recent events, it seems obvious that Lao Gu is the one in charge.
Li Suian curled his lips and decided not to remind Gu Xiuyi again. It was time for this man to taste the bitterness of love.
"You didn't come to Old Duan's birthday yesterday. Do you know how much you missed?" Li Suian changed the subject.
Gu Xiuyi straightened his collar: "What's wrong?"
"It's not a big deal," Li Suian sighed, "It's just that my confession failed again."
Gu Xiuyi frowned and thought for a moment: "Or is it that Lin...finally refused?"
"Lin Qing, no," Li Suian said, "He didn't agree or refuse. He said he had concerns, but he didn't say what they were... Tsk, Old Duan is like a possessed man."
Gu Xiuyi curled the corner of his mouth and didn't make any comments.
Li Suian thought of something and said, "By the way, he seems to be from the same school as Ji Ruan."
Only then did Gu Xiuyi look at Li Suian.
"It seems that she is learning Chinese embroidery from some master. As a top student who is also into art, she might be a little arrogant... Tsk, no, that's not right..."
Li Suian said, then shook his head and denied himself: "Your little darling is also a top student, but people are not like that..."
The door of the clinic opened. Li Suian wanted to say something, but the next second, Gu Xiuyi disappeared.
Li Suian: “…”
As expected, the little treasure inside is the most important.
Ji Ruan pulled up his pants and rubbed his sore buttocks in a daze. Could it be that his buttocks muscles were really not thick enough? It hurts so much...
Gu Xiuyi knew what Ji Ruan was thinking when he saw his bitter expression. He went over and rubbed Ji Ruan's cheek, helped him stand up, and asked casually, "How is it? Does it not hurt?"
Ji Ruan's hand covering his buttocks froze, and he slowly moved it away, pretending to be relaxed: "Of course, I don't feel anything at all."
Gu Xiuyi turned his head away and suppressed his laughter: "That's good, let's go home."
The fat doctor warned: "You may feel sleepy after the injection. Go back and have a good sleep. You will be fine after the fever goes down."
Ji Ruan felt that his constitution might be really sensitive. He felt uneasy in the car even after just getting an injection in the buttocks, and he was also uncomfortable lying down to sleep.
In the end, Gu Xiuyi brought him a hot pack and asked him to apply heat.
Ji Ruan had never heard of applying hot compress to the buttocks, so his face turned red and he was unable to react even when holding the hot pack.
Gu Xiuyi was still laughing and asked him, "Why, do you want me to help you apply it?"
Ji Ruan shuddered, shrank into the quilt, covered his face and said, "No, thank you, go out, I want to sleep."
Gu Xiuyi smiled again, stopped teasing him, and quietly closed the door and left.
Although it was embarrassing, the hot compress was indeed effective. As soon as the antipyretic injection took effect, Ji Ruan fell into a deep sleep.
I don't know what time I woke up again. My buttocks didn't hurt anymore and I felt a little lighter, but I still had no strength.
Ji Ruan closed his eyes and gathered some strength, raised the bed a little and turned on his cell phone.
It was almost time for dinner, and Han Xiaolin sent him many messages.
Ji Ruan pulled the quilt up to cover his shoulders, covered his mouth and coughed a few times, then opened the chat box.
[Awesome guys! I saw your drawings, they are fucking awesome!]
[Before you were scribbling in your notebook, I thought you were showing off! Turns out you are really good at it!]
[That kid Li Yu said he wanted to take you as his master. I laughed my ass off. How could he, a painter, take you as his master when you study literature, be so embarrassed?]
Han Xiaolin kept talking and his strong tone could be felt even in the text messages. Ji Ruan smiled and pressed the voice message: "We all drew this together. Senior sisters contributed even more."
Then continue scrolling down.
[I saw that it became a little popular online. Everyone knows that you guys are not professional painters, but they all praised Peking University as a gathering place for multi-talented people. It made me laugh...]
[It is said that no one is visiting the exhibition hall there, and they are all surrounded by your corridors. In the end, the security guards came to chase people away and begged everyone to go inside and take a look. I am dying of laughter]
[By the way, where have you been? Why can’t I see you?]
[Ji Ruan?]
[Ji Ruan, are you still alive? ]
[At least make a sound!]
Ji Ruan was so amused by him that he replied with a smile: "I have a little fever, but now I'm home and I'm still alive."
As soon as the message was sent, Gu Xiuyi came in with a bowl of porridge in his hand.
"Are you so happy just after waking up?" Gu Xiuyi turned on the light.
Ji Ruan put away his phone, the smile still on his face, maybe because he was sick and had no strength, his whole body was limp: "Han Xiaolin couldn't find anyone to ask where I was."
Gu Xiuyi put the bowl of porridge on the small table in front of the bed, reached out to touch Ji Ruan's forehead, and found that the fever had subsided.
"Have some porridge. Aunt Zhao added minced meat. It tastes good."
Ji Ruan had already smelled the fragrance, so he propped himself up and sat up straight, then started eating slowly.
Gu Xiuyi sat down on the edge of the bed, folded his arms, thought for a while, and said, "Ji Ruan, I want to discuss something with you."
"Hmm?" Ji Ruan raised his eyes and motioned for him to continue.
Gu Xiuyi combed his hair and said thoughtfully, "The flu has been getting worse recently. Your immunity is already low. Why don't you move back home this semester?"
Ji Ruan swallowed his porridge slowly and felt that what he said made sense: "But, it's almost the final review week."
"Because the course is almost over, isn't it a good opportunity for you to review at home?" Gu Xiuyi said, "I can send you to school on the final day."
"I... cough cough..." Ji Ruan thought for a moment, and just as he was about to speak, he covered his mouth and started coughing.
Gu Xiuyi put his arm around his shoulders and gently stroked his back: "Slow down... Are you feeling better... Come and drink some water..."
Ji Ruan's throat was itchy, so he took a few sips of water before clearing his throat and saying, "Okay..."
"But I still have to go to school tomorrow," he looked up at Gu Xiuyi, "I have to bring back all the information."
Gu Xiuyi wiped away the tears from his eyes and said, "I have something to do tomorrow. Can I ask Uncle Zhang to take you there?"
"It's all right."
"Okay," Gu Xiuyi helped Ji Ruan to sit at the small table, "but your fever has just subsided, don't stay outside for too long."
Ji Ruan was amused by his increasingly nagging appearance that seemed to be possessed by Aunt Zhao, and said helplessly, "I know."
The next morning, Ji Ruan was fully armed with a scarf, gloves, down jacket, and even a woolen hat knitted for him by Aunt Zhao.
The hat was very warm, but it had a fur ball on the top. Aunt Zhao said it was very cute, but Ji Ruan thought it looked like something little girls would like, so he was too embarrassed to wear it.
But his cold hasn't recovered yet, and he was afraid that going out would make it worse, and he would have to trouble Aunt Zhao to take care of him when he came back. After hesitating for a long time, he gritted his teeth and finally wore it on his head.
Uncle Zhang was waiting for him outside the school gate. Ji Ruan didn't want to delay too much, so he went to the dormitory to put away his books, and then waited for two minutes under the clock tower. Cheng Zizhan came out trotting out holding a large file bag.
"I'm sorry, Xiao Ruan, have you been waiting for a long time?" She was a little out of breath. Seeing Ji Ruan, she couldn't help laughing and pointed at the fur ball on his woolen hat: "So cute."
"No," Ji Ruan scratched his nose embarrassedly, "I just got here too."
Cheng Zizhang exhaled, looked at Mao Qiuqiu several times before handing the file bag to Jin Xing: "That's good... Here are all the materials of our department last year, you can take a look at them."
Ji Ruan quickly took it and said happily: "Thank you, senior sister."
Cheng Zizhang smiled: "You're welcome."
Lin Qing followed Cheng Zizhang out of the bell tower, and when she saw Ji Ruan nodded, she said to Cheng Zizhang, "Are you leaving, Senior Sister?"
"Right away," Cheng Zizhang explained to Ji Ruan, "We are about to go out to see our master."
Ji Ruan immediately realized that it was the legendary master, "Is that so... I didn't delay you, did I?"
"No, no," Cheng Zizhang smiled and waved his hands, then suddenly remembered something: "By the way, Xiao Ruan, why didn't I see you yesterday?"
Ji Ruan pulled her scarf and said, "I had a fever yesterday so I went home... What happened?"
He saw that Lin Qing's face turned a little bad.
Cheng Zizhang didn't notice it and said with a smile: "It's nothing, it's just that the teacher looked at your paintings yesterday and really liked your painting style. He said that your brushwork is a bit like that of our Han embroidery masters, so he wanted to meet you."
Ji Ruan was shocked.
As expected of a master, his eyes are poisonous.
Ji Ruan learned to paint from his family, all of whom are engaged in Han embroidery. As they have been drawing embroidery patterns for many years, their paintings have unconsciously taken on the flavor of Han embroidery over time.
Painting is just a basic skill for Ji Ruan, and he will not deliberately get in touch with other schools. When he picks up the paintbrush, he naturally cannot avoid using his family's traditional techniques.
"That's a bit of a pity," Ji Ruan said, half-jokingly curling his eyes: "I also miss the master."
"I've seen your paintings, too," Lin Qing said, "They're really well drawn. No wonder the teacher likes you."
Cheng Yunxiu now has only two disciples, Cheng Zizhang and Lin Qing. Cheng Zizhang is her biological daughter. She is always afraid that Lin Qing will think her mother is partial to her, so she always consciously avoids calling Cheng Yunxiu "Mom" in front of Lin Qing, and calls her "Teacher" together with him.
Now that Lin Qing said this, Cheng Zizhang felt a little embarrassed: "Ah Qing, don't think too much."
"No," Lin Qing stroked her hair and smiled, with a hint of loneliness in her smile: "I just felt that the teacher taught me so seriously to embroider a winter scene, but I didn't do it well..."
At that time, his winter landscape paintings were placed in the most conspicuous position in the exhibition hall, but no one was interested in them all afternoon. Everyone crowded in the corridor to look at the paintings of Cheng Zizhang, Ji Ruan and the vice president, and everyone only praised them.
“…”
The atmosphere was a little depressing for a moment.
Perhaps because of the presence of Ji Ruan, an outsider, Cheng Zizhang didn't know what to say. Lin Qing still looked depressed and stopped talking.
A gust of cold wind blew by, and Ji Ruan covered his lips and started coughing.
"Xiao Ruan, are you okay?" Cheng Zizhang quickly patted his back and said, "Stop standing outside in the wind. Go back first."
Ji Ruan used a scarf to completely cover the lower half of her face, and said apologetically: "Then I'll leave first, senior sisters, you guys should go home quickly, it's a bit cold."
"Yeah, okay."
Ji Ruan waved goodbye to them, tightened his clothes in the cold wind and walked out of the school gate. After sitting back in the car, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Sometimes it's tiring to talk to someone like Lin Qing. I don't know how Cheng Zizhang has lived in peace with him for so many years.
"Hey, Xiao Ji, are you feeling unwell?" Uncle Zhang started the car and looked at him in the rearview mirror.
"No," Ji Ruan pressed his solar plexus, "I'm just a little sleepy."
Uncle Zhang smiled and said, "Okay, I'll take it back to you right away and let you sleep in a warm bed."
Ji Ruan smiled sweetly: "Thank you, Uncle Zhang."
When he got home, Ji Ruan was really tired. His temples were aching slightly, and he immediately wanted to lie down on the bed.
Aunt Zhao looked a little surprised when she helped Ji Ruan take the bag at the entrance.
Ji Ruan coughed and asked hoarsely, "What's the matter, Aunt Zhao?"
Aunt Zhao sighed, winked towards the living room, and whispered, "Madam and Young Master Fang are here."
“…”
Ji Ruan even thought carefully about who the Madam and Young Master Fang were.
Unsuccessful.
Finally, it was Aunt Zhao who reminded me that it was Gu Xiuyi's stepmother and her eldest son.
Ji Ruan put on slippers, took off her scarf and walked to the living room. As expected, she saw Fang Lan with a hypocritical smile on her face, and her hot-tempered elder brother Fang Qiming's stinky face as if he owed a debt of five million.
Ji Ruan's head suddenly hurt more, and he leaned over to Aunt Zhao's ear and asked, "Where's Gu Xiuyi?"
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