RHITICSG 07

But his eyes wouldn’t open, so he could only let that hand rest on his forehead for a few dozen seconds.

At first, he resisted, but the cool touch actually felt kind of nice. When the other person finally took their hand away, the ever-picky Jiang Jian actually frowned.

What the hell?
You weren’t supposed to touch me, but you did — and now you’re just taking it away? Playing with me, huh?

Jiang Jian muttered a few words under his breath, but Luo Shuxin didn’t catch them.

Honestly, he’d never seen anyone this stubborn — burning up with fever and still insisting on staying in class.

Luo Shuxin put down his pen and raised his hand to signal the teacher. He calmly said his deskmate was burning up and that he was taking him to the infirmary.

At this point, there was no way Jiang Jian could walk on his own, so Luo Shuxin carried him on his back. The “injured” leg with the fake plaster cast swung loosely as they went.

No wonder Shao Xing had nearly tripped yesterday — Jiang Jian wasn’t exactly the most cooperative person to carry.

Luo Shuxin sighed helplessly. “Can you not move around so much?”

Jiang Jian probably didn’t hear him clearly, but his head seemed to clear up a little. Realizing someone was carrying him, he decided he should “cooperate” — and obediently wrapped his arms around Luo Shuxin’s neck.

Luo Shuxin: “…”

Half-conscious, Jiang Jian caught a faint scent from Luo Shuxin — maybe body wash, maybe laundry detergent — light and clean, strangely comforting.

So the curly-haired puppy of a boy rubbed his head lightly against Luo Shuxin’s shoulder, finding himself a more comfortable spot.

But the well-behaved act didn’t last. The moment they reached the infirmary, the “puppy” started wriggling again.

Earlier, his twitching leg had been unintentional — now, he was actively struggling.

Luo Shuxin had never met anyone this impossible.

Thankfully, the school nurse reacted quickly and came over to help, or Jiang Jian would’ve managed to throw himself onto the floor.

The nurse gasped as soon as she touched his skin. “Oh my, how is he this hot?”

Luo Shuxin, as usual, didn’t waste words. He figured the nurse wasn’t expecting an answer anyway, so he stayed quiet and impassive.

After a quick temperature check, the nurse decided to put him on an IV — the fastest way to bring down a fever.

Jiang Jian was restless the whole time, frowning and mumbling, clutching the sleeve of Luo Shuxin’s uniform and refusing to let go.

If you wanted to sound poetic about it, it looked like a drowning man clinging to a single stalk of grass.

He was having a nightmare.

The same smell of disinfectant and medicine — hospital corridors crowded with people. His mother was in the emergency room, and he kept running toward it, but no matter how far he went, the hallway stretched endlessly.

He kept running and running, sweating in panic. When he finally woke up, his forehead was indeed soaked — part sweat from anxiety, part from fever.

His left hand was hooked to an IV; his right was gripping a school jacket so tightly that his palm had dampened the fabric.

Jiang Jian blinked and looked at the jacket. “?”

It was September, but the classrooms and infirmary both had air conditioning, so everyone kept their jackets on indoors. His own was clearly still on him.

“Awake?” the nurse asked from a nearby desk, peering up from behind her glasses when she heard movement.

“Oh, that?” she said, noticing Jiang Jian’s puzzled expression as he stared at the jacket. “That belongs to your classmate — the one who brought you here. Tall, thin boy, pretty good-looking.”

Jiang Jian: “?”

Why’d he leave his jacket with me?

The nurse explained, “You wouldn’t let go of his clothes. He had to get back to class, so he just took it off and left it with you.”

Jiang Jian: “?”

Jiang Jian: “???”

Who? Me???
I grabbed his clothes and wouldn’t let go???

The nurse couldn’t help but laugh at his stunned expression. “Don’t look at me like that, kid. I didn’t force you to hold on, you know.”

Jiang Jian: “……”

He glanced up at the IV bag — it was almost empty.

And his headache came right back.

Great. Yesterday, this guy had misunderstood him as trying to confess, and now today, he’d apparently clung to his clothes like some lovesick fool.

What was this, a tragic, unyielding, melodramatic tale of unrequited love?

“Oh, right.” The nurse suddenly picked something up from the desk and tossed it to him.

Jiang Jian caught it before he even realized — reflexes faster than his brain.

He looked down and saw two Golden Monkey milk candies resting in his palm.

The nurse went back to writing her notes. “Your classmate left those for you.”

Absentmindedly, Jiang Jian smacked his lips.

His mouth was bitter — that always happened after an IV, because of the medication.

He hesitated, torn between pride (“I won’t eat his pity candy!”) and practicality (“I need to get rid of this awful taste”).

Pride lost.

He unwrapped one, popped it into his mouth, and after a while, decided it wasn’t sweet enough — so he just chewed it.

When he finished, he lay back and stared up at the ceiling, his expression blank but oddly sad.

He thought for a while about Luo Shuxin. Counting this time, the tissue incident, and that misunderstanding in class, he’d owed the guy three times already.

It wasn’t a huge debt, but still — he probably needed to reconsider how he treated him.

Someone helps you again and again, and you keep snapping at them? That’s a bit much.

His thoughts wandered, and eventually, they circled back — as they always did — to his mother.

It had been almost three years since the car accident.

…He really hated the smell of the infirmary.

He closed his eyes for a bit, nearly missing the moment when the IV bag ran dry. The nurse startled when she saw it — thank goodness Jiang Jian had the sense to set an alarm beforehand.

When he finally returned to class, he found a crowd gathered around his desk.

This time, they were surrounding his new deskmate — Luo Shuxin.

The air buzzed with admiration and awe.

“Bro Luo, you’re awesome!”
“Boss Luo, I’m sticking with you from now on — save me a spot on your team!”
“Can I add you on WeChat, man? I swear I won’t bug you, I’ll just, like, ask a question now and then!”

Shao Xing was among those singing the praises of the “big boss,” and he was the most enthusiastic of them all.

Jiang Jian tugged on Shao Xing’s sleeve and asked what was going on, only to find out that the physics test he hadn’t done earlier had one super difficult question. No one in the whole class had managed to solve it—except for Luo Shuxin.

Teacher Li Zhao had announced the answer, then asked, “Did anyone get this one right? Raise your hand if you did.”

The classroom had gone dead silent. Li Zhao sighed, disappointed. He knew the question was hard, but he hadn’t expected Class One to have a complete wipeout.

After that, he’d walked around the room, checking over a few of the students who were usually top in physics to see exactly where they’d gone wrong.

When he got to Luo Shuxin’s desk, one glance at the paper made him smile. “Well, someone did get it right! Why so modest, new student?”

The only one in Class One who solved it! Li Zhao couldn’t help but praise him a few more times. Before he could even start explaining the solution, the bell rang.

Li Zhao wasn’t the kind of teacher to hold students back after class, so he said he’d go over the question in the next lesson.

But some of the students were too curious to wait. The correct solution was right there on Luo Shuxin’s paper—how could they resist taking a look?

So now, a small crowd had gathered around him, showering him with compliments as if they were trying to lift him to the heavens.

Jiang Jian couldn’t understand the mindset of these people who were so passionate about studying. Limping a bit, he made his way back to his seat, awkwardly holding Luo Shuxin’s school jacket in his hand.

Since there were no teachers in the room, everyone had already taken out their phones to add Luo Shuxin as a friend.

Luo Shuxin accepted each one and carefully edited their contact notes.

When the class bell rang again, the others went back to their seats, leaving just Jiang Jian and Luo Shuxin in that corner of the room.

Jiang Jian looked at the jacket, thinking. Should he just go ahead and give it back now and say thank you, or should he pretend nothing happened and just shove it at the guy wordlessly?

Before he could decide, Luo Shuxin finished editing the last contact name and suddenly turned to look at him.

Jiang Jian: “?”

He tensed up for no reason, even having the urge to hide the jacket behind his back. He hadn’t even figured out how to phrase his thanks yet.

Luo Shuxin: “?”

Luo Shuxin also thought Jiang Jian’s nervousness was odd. His deskmate even unconsciously straightened his back.

Jiang Jian said stiffly, “…What is it?”

Luo Shuxin replied, “Can I add your WeChat? I sent a request yesterday, but you didn’t accept.”