Chapter 79: Antipyretics Why Don’t You Have the Love of Mom and Dad?
The old man swam calmly and swiftly to the little boy's side like a fish in water, pushing him towards the steps of the water outlet while calling out to Xu Sirui: "Little brother, come over here and catch him!"
Xu Sirui regained his composure. He couldn't afford to dwell on any more trivial matters. He simply followed his instructions, descended the stairs, and carried the wailing child up. Thanks to the child, he was soaked from the knees down. His pants weren't the worst of it; the worst part was his shoes, soaked to the bone. They felt like two dragon boats on his feet, and the discomfort was so intense that the hairs on his body stood on end.
On shore, Zhu Yingning meticulously questioned the child about his situation, asking where he lived, why he was there, and if he knew how to get home. Unexpectedly, the child, not only unruly, but also unable to distinguish between good and bad people, now knew how to pick it up, cinching the swimming ring around his waist and warily saying, "Why are you asking me this? You're a human trafficker!" Then, without thinking, he screamed, "Help! There are human traffickers!" and ran off, leaving Zhu Yingning disheveled in the wind.
But she was not discouraged. She quickly focused on his shoes and said happily, "That's great, Xu Sirui. It's a blessing in disguise. Now you have to go home and change your shoes."
“…”
He wanted to say that this was a case of misfortune, and that no one would immediately come to congratulate a friend after seeing their shoes get wet, but in the end he just said, "I'm not going back."
She was surprised and asked, "But what about your shoes?" Then she coaxed him in a child-like tone, "If you wear wet shoes for a long time, your feet will stink. It will stink badly. Don't do that."
Xu Sirui was a little annoyed. He was really curious about what kind of image he held in her mind. He felt like he was not even five, let alone sixteen. He turned and walked away, planning to buy a new pair of shoes at a random mall. He still had some spare money.
Zhu Yingning could only continue to follow him with her schoolbag on her back.
The sun was getting higher and higher, and the sky was bright. He estimated that it was already past seven o'clock. As long as he could wait until school time, she would probably leave tactfully.
However, when he walked around and walked into the mall, he saw that the wall clock on the shoe store showed half past eight - it was long past the morning reading time, and even the first class had ended - he looked back and found that Zhu Yingning was still following him quietly.
She tugged at the strap of her schoolbag, her eyes dull from staying up all night, her single eyelids becoming double eyelids from fatigue, but the corners of her mouth were still stubbornly pursed, forming two bracket-like arcs.
She stood outside the sensor door of the shoe store. When the door closed, her face became blurred. Only the pair of black and white eyes that had impressed him many times, even though they were tired, still had a certain stubborn light in their eyes, silently looking at him through the sensor door.
The salesperson in the shoe store came over and asked him what he needed: "Hello, what kind of shoes are you looking for?"
Xu Sirui opened his mouth and slowly closed it. The second time he opened his mouth, he whispered, "Sorry, I still don't want to buy it."
He walked out.
There are some people like this. Perhaps they are born with a stronger energy field than others, or perhaps they are simply stubborn. In short, compared with their persistence, ordinary people are bound to fail miserably. Xu Sirui has realized that in this matter, he is indeed an ordinary person.
"Let's go." he said.
**
It was already past nine when he got home, and no one was home. Xu Sirui took off his wet shoes, cleaned them in the bathroom, drained them, and hung them on the balcony.
After doing all this, he came to the living room and found Zhu Yingning sitting on the sofa, still not going to school.
She looked at him, seemingly wanting to say something. Before she could open her mouth, Xu Sirui interrupted, "You can go home, but don't force me to go to school." He spoke calmly, his voice low, but his face was expressionless, his eyes devoid of a smile. It was clear this was indeed his bottom line at the moment, so Zhu Yingning swallowed her words to persuade him to go to school and nodded, "Okay."
She stood up from the sofa and discussed with him anxiously: "Then...you stay at home today? Don't go anywhere else, okay?"
He didn't say yes or no, so Zhu Yingning took it as his consent.
She packed her schoolbag, went to the bathroom to wash her face to get rid of some of the fatigue, grabbed two bags of biscuits, and then hurried out.
When he arrived at school, he was naturally criticized by Hong Qingyang.
However, Hong Qingyang was generally gentle towards good students. After criticizing her, he said, "I'm giving you a personal leave this time. Next time, if you need to, you must ask for leave in advance. You can't skip classes again, understand?"
Zhu Yingning immediately nodded like a chick pecking at rice, and was finally pardoned by him and left.
After finishing her last two classes in the morning, she quickly slumped over her desk to catch up on some sleep. Wu Bo and Zou Hao wanted to call her to the cafeteria, but she was already fast asleep and wouldn't wake up no matter how hard they tried. Helpless, Wu Bo said, "Let's go to the cafeteria first and come back and pack her some food."
After finishing Wu Bo's relief food, Zhu Yingning insisted on returning the money, which gave Wu Bo a headache. "It's only five or six yuan. What's the point of returning it? If you really want to pay it back, why don't you..." She originally wanted to suggest that she accompany me to buy charming romance novels, but then she remembered how her parents scolded her for her poor grades in the midterm exam, so she changed her mind and said, "Why don't you lend me your notes?"
"Okay." Zhu Yingning took out the notes enthusiastically.
After a day of school, she hurried to Zhu Zhiwei's store to help, and finally returned home in a hurry. She found that Xu Zhengkang was rarely at home, and had already packed food from outside and asked her to sit down and eat together.
She sat across from him and didn't see Xu Sirui, so she asked, "Uncle Xu, where is Xu Sirui? Is he still at home?"
Xu Zhengkang snorted coldly, "He's sleeping. Don't bother with him. He's a useless piece of mud. Just looking at him makes me upset."
"I'll go wake him up for dinner."
"Don't spoil him. If he doesn't want to eat, just starve to death. You're not his servant, so who has the time to wait on him every day?!"
Zhu Yingning ignored his angry scolding, got up and walked to Xu Sirui's bedroom and knocked on his door.
No one answered from inside.
She knocked a few more times, but Xu Sirui still didn't respond. Seeing Xu Sirui's silence, Xu Zhengkang from the restaurant grew increasingly irritated. He angrily shouted, "Forget it! Come and eat by yourself!"
She laughed dryly a few times, ignoring Xu Zhengkang's temper, reached out and opened Xu Sirui's door, and whispered: "...I'm coming in?"
His bedroom had blackout curtains drawn and the lights off, making it dim. She could only barely make out a human figure on the bed. She walked to the edge of the bed and dug him out from under the quilt: "Xu Sirui, get up and eat?"
He frowned, closed his eyes, and did not move.
Zhu Yingning thought of something and reached out to touch his forehead. As expected, it was incredibly hot.
**
Xu Zhengkang was eating outside when he heard Zhu Yingning say inside, "Uncle Xu, Xu Sirui seems to have a fever! Do you have a thermometer and fever-reducing medicine at home?"
He put down his bowl and chopsticks suspiciously: "Are you having a fever?" He walked to Xu Sirui's door and saw him lying weakly on the bed. An inexplicable anger rose in his heart and sneered, "I think it's just playing with your phone. If he didn't play with his phone, there would be nothing wrong."
“…”
Zhu Yingning looked at him with strong disapproval, but in the end, she could only repeat helplessly, "Then, the thermometer..."
Xu Zhengkang, cursing, fetched the medicine box. She took it and first took his temperature: 39.8°C, a high fever. She quickly dug out some ibuprofen, poured him a glass of water, patted him awake, fed him the medicine, and then found a fever-reducing patch and applied it to his forehead.
Xu Sirui was weak and confused throughout the whole process, allowing her to toss him around.
When she finished taking care of him, she looked back and saw that Xu Zhengkang had disappeared from the bedroom door. She walked out and found Xu Zhengkang sitting in the dining room, continuing to eat his dinner as if nothing had happened.
All the words in her mouth turned into a sigh that she didn't know what to think.
She thought silently, Xu Sirui, why don’t you have the love of your parents?
**
Although Xu Sirui had always been aware of his physical condition, he hadn't anticipated developing a high fever after simply diving below his knees. He'd been feeling vaguely unwell that afternoon, and had only intended to lie down in bed for a while to ease the dizziness, but he ended up being unable to get up.
He seemed to have had many nightmares during the journey, but he couldn't remember them clearly. In a trance, he felt as if he was the only one left in the world.
Will he die?
...Forget it, just die.
Just when he was giving up on himself and was about to rot in silence, he felt someone wake him up, help him up and feed him medicine.
Different from the gentle and considerate care model, Zhu Yingning has been adept at dealing with various emergencies at home since she was a child, and the principle she adheres to in doing things is efficiency.
Xu Sirui smelled the faint scent of laundry detergent on her and was deeply moved. He didn't have the strength to open his mouth to drink water, and thought she would feed him slowly with a straw like they did on TV. However, she pinched his jaw open without saying a word, and just like giving medicine to pigs, cows and sheep, she quickly threw the medicine down his throat, gave him a sip of water, and finished feeding him the medicine before he could react.
At ten o'clock in the evening, she came to see him again. Seeing that he was still hot, she immediately fetched some alcohol to clean his body. Of course, there was no gentleness at all. She used a towel to wipe his exposed arms, shoulders, and neck. Her hands were so strong that Xu Sirui felt like his skin was being rubbed off. What was even more hateful was that he didn't have the strength to say anything. He could only silently endure her abuse. Occasionally, a painful groan or two would come out of his throat. She didn't understand what it meant, but she comforted him softly, "It's okay, it will be fine soon. I'll come back to clean you again later."
That night, he was sometimes awake and sometimes drowsy. In fact, he couldn't remember how many times she came. He only knew that although her care was not gentle, and was completely different from Zhou Tianlan's meticulous care of singing to him to sleep when he was sick, it was very warm.
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