After Xu Ze finished showering and came out, Lu Heyang was sitting on the sofa with his chin propped up, watching a movie.
There was also an empty single-seat sofa beside him.
But Xu Ze merely walked over to his own bed and sat down, lowering his head as he dried his hair.
“Have you eaten dinner?”
Lu Heyang turned his head and asked him.
Xu Ze revealed his face from behind the towel and answered, “Not yet.”
“Do you need me to contact the restaurant for you?”
“No need.”
Xu Ze said, “I bought some myself.”
Lu Heyang looked at the tightly wrapped bag on the table.
“That?”
“Mm.”
Lu Heyang then turned his head back and continued watching the television.
Xu Ze rubbed his hair with the towel again and again. He very lightly took a deep breath and asked, “Do you want to eat some together?”
“Thank you, but I’m already full from dinner.”
Lu Heyang politely declined.
“Okay.”
Xu Ze’s voice was muffled behind the towel, sounding somewhat dull.
After drying his hair until it was half-dry, Xu Ze stood up and walked over to the table to open the bag.
A stray strand of hair fell onto his face, making it itch. Xu Ze raised his hand and wiped beneath his eye.
The motion looked very much like he was wiping away tears.
Lu Heyang turned his head to look at him.
Xu Ze lowered his eyes.
Lu Heyang had already seen him wearing that black T-shirt for the third time.
His pale lips were slightly pursed, and for some reason, he looked as though he was feeling a little down.
What Lu Heyang found strange was that Xu Ze should have been someone with very little emotional fluctuation. He did not like smiling and rarely spoke, yet sometimes Lu Heyang could still detect subtle emotions from him.
Perhaps he was simply overthinking it.
“What did you buy to eat?”
Lu Heyang suddenly asked.
For some inexplicable reason, he wanted to see Xu Ze’s face from the front now, to confirm whether the other person was really feeling down, or whether it was something else.
Xu Ze did not turn his face around, but his movements clearly paused for a moment.
He was gripping the handle of the plastic bag in his hand, tightening his fingers around it, as though answering this question was rather difficult.
But he still answered.
“Custard buns.”
Lu Heyang was slightly stunned.
“Custard buns?”
“Mm.”
The room suddenly fell silent.
Lu Heyang looked back at the television screen.
After a moment, he stood up and walked toward the table. He reached out and pulled the plastic bag open slightly.
The things inside were still warm. Heat enveloped the back of Lu Heyang’s fingers.
He saw that there were not only custard buns, but also other pastries.
Each portion had been individually and tightly wrapped, with several more plastic bags covering them on the outside.
As a result, none of them had gotten wet.
He looked up at Xu Ze and found that Xu Ze was looking at him too, his gaze focused enough to be called intent, though it only lasted for a fleeting moment—because the instant their eyes met, Xu Ze immediately looked away, while deliberately shifting the subject as if to cover it up.
“Do you want some?”
Xu Ze had already been turned down once for this question, so normally he would not have asked again. But right now, he really had nothing else to say, so he could only ask once more.
Lu Heyang rested one hand against the edge of the table and leaned slightly toward him. Instead of answering, he asked, “You went into the city?”
“Mm.”
“How did you get there?”
“There’s a bus stop down the mountain.” Xu Ze answered him honestly.
“Is it far?”
“About two kilometers on foot, then a little over forty minutes by bus, and you get to the city.”
Xu Ze spoke at an even pace, his words clear and distinct, like a navigation system announcing a route to its owner. A clean scent of shower gel lingered on his body after his shower, mixed with the pheromones that, despite his deliberate attempts to control them, he still could not completely hide because he was not wearing his wristband.
“So you spent more than three hours going there and back.” Lu Heyang came to a conclusion.
“Mm.” Xu Ze had not actually paid close attention to the time, but after calculating it now, it probably had been that long.
“That shop is still there?” Lu Heyang looked at Xu Ze’s face as he asked.
“It’s already closed. I bought them at another shop.” After saying that, Xu Ze added, “They said the ones from this shop are really good too.”
Lu Heyang realized that Xu Ze was someone who needed to be prompted into conversation. As long as you asked him a question, he would definitely answer, and he would answer truthfully—but that was not the point.
The point was that Xu Ze had spent more than three hours going back and forth, walking unfamiliar streets and searching through more than a dozen little alleys, looking for a small shop that he only knew had the character “Le” in its name and that had already disappeared.
How many detours he had taken, and how many people he had actively approached to ask for directions, only Xu Ze himself knew.
The tip of Lu Heyang’s index finger traced a very light circle across the smooth tabletop.
“Why?”
The three words were neither heavy nor forceful, but they completely knocked Xu Ze back to his senses.
When he had run down the mountain and taken the bus into the city, he had not thought that much about it. He had never seriously considered how he would give a reasonable explanation for what he had done. Now that he thought about it, this was simply something he could not explain—why would he spend more than three hours buying food for someone he was not even close to?
“Because…”
Xu Ze took a step backward and placed one hand on the table, doing his best to make himself look natural. He could feel Lu Heyang’s gaze on him. It was almost as though it had weight.
His mouth felt very dry. Xu Ze licked his lips and looked down at the carpet.
“You said they were really good, so I wanted to try them.”
That answer was not particularly honest.
Lu Heyang wanted to tell Xu Ze that he did not look at all like someone who would go to such lengths just because he was craving something to eat.
But he only stared directly at Xu Ze. It was not until Xu Ze had been stared at until his face was almost pale that Lu Heyang slowly spoke.
“So that’s how it is.”
Xu Ze even forgot to nod. He simply stood there.
“You eat,” Lu Heyang finally said. “Get some rest after you’re done.”
He sat back down on the sofa and lowered his head to look at his phone.
Only belatedly did Xu Ze respond with a quiet “Mm.” He peeled off the wrapping film and plastic lid, then sat down in the chair.
A sharp scream suddenly rang out from the television, drawing both their attention.
Xu Ze looked at the screen, then slightly turned his head toward Lu Heyang. He had not expected Lu Heyang to be looking at him too.
“You can come over to the sofa and watch,” Lu Heyang said, because it was a little difficult for Xu Ze to see the screen from where he was sitting.
“It’s okay.” Xu Ze shook his head.
He continued eating, then heard Lu Heyang say, “The pipes in the room next door have already been repaired.”
Xu Ze felt that he instantly understood what Lu Heyang meant.
He looked at the snacks inside the box, his body seeming to freeze in place.
After a while, Xu Ze finally raised his head.
“I’ll tell the teacher right away and go sleep next door.”
As he spoke, he was already calculating in his head how long it would take him to gather all his things and leave this room. It probably would not take more than a minute—even so, that minute felt incredibly long.
No matter how slow Xu Ze was when it came to these things, once he realized Lu Heyang’s implication, he would still feel awkward and embarrassed.
After all, it was Lu Heyang.
Just as Xu Ze was preparing to get up and pack his things, Lu Heyang asked him, “Do you want to sleep next door?”
The question left Xu Ze completely at a loss for how to answer. He was utterly confused about Lu Heyang’s intention in asking it.
Lu Heyang, however, calmly took a sip of water before looking over at Xu Ze.
“Even if you want to, there’s nothing you can do now. Someone has already checked into the room next door.”
If it had been someone else, they might have felt like they were being teased.
But Xu Ze only blinked slowly. After confirming that he did not need to leave this room, he quietly said, “Okay.”
“Are there any custard buns left?” The corners of Lu Heyang’s lips lifted slightly, and he looked to be in a pretty good mood. “I want to see if they’re really worth making you go all that way to buy.”
“There are.”
Xu Ze’s movements suddenly became much more efficient. He took out an unopened box of custard buns, walked over to the sofa, and handed it to Lu Heyang.
“They’re still warm.”
Lu Heyang took them and smiled.
“Thank you.”
After turning off the lights, Lu Heyang asked Xu Ze before putting on his eye mask, “Do you need me to adjust the air-conditioning temperature?”
The room was very quiet. Lu Heyang’s voice was low and soft.
Xu Ze touched his ear and answered, “No, it’s just right.”
“Okay.”
As their eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, Xu Ze lay flat on his back and turned his head toward Lu Heyang’s side. He could vaguely make out the lines of the alpha’s chin, lips, nose bridge, and forehead.
Xu Ze had thought he would not be able to sleep, perhaps even staying awake all night.
Yet as he looked at Lu Heyang like this and listened to the other person’s breathing, his mood was unexpectedly peaceful, as if he were in a dream.
He closed his eyes and fell asleep, while the dream became increasingly complicated and chaotic.
Lu Heyang was awakened a little after one in the morning by a sound.
He removed his eye mask.
On the bed beside him, Xu Ze was coughing softly at intermittent intervals, accompanied by the sound of him sniffing. It was not particularly loud, but Lu Heyang was not wearing earplugs, so even the slightest disturbance could affect him.
He sat up, reached out, and switched on the wall lamp.
Then he looked to the right.
Half of Xu Ze’s face was buried in the blanket. His eyes were tightly shut, his brows slightly furrowed as he coughed unconsciously.
And he was uncontrollably releasing pheromones.
It was probably because he had gotten caught in the rain. On top of that, Xu Ze’s heat had only ended not long ago, so it was easy for him to catch a cold because of it.
Lu Heyang got out of bed and stood beside Xu Ze’s bed. He pulled the blanket down a little, exposing his entire face.
Xu Ze’s lips and cheeks were flushed with an unnatural redness. His hair was messy, and lying there on the bed like this, he looked fragile, but somehow more vivid and real than he usually did.
“Xu Ze,” Lu Heyang called him.
Xu Ze’s brows furrowed even more deeply, and he turned his head to the right.
Lu Heyang saw that the gland at the back of his neck was red as well. He estimated that Xu Ze had a fever. If it was not dealt with in time, it might trigger another heat.
Lu Heyang left the room and went downstairs to find the staff member on duty. He asked for a thermometer and two fever-reducing tablets.
The electronic thermometer had not been used for so long that the battery inside had apparently been removed at some point. The staff member asked Lu Heyang to wait while she looked for a battery, but Lu Heyang did not want to trouble her again, so he took a mercury thermometer from the medicine box instead.
When he returned to the room, Lu Heyang put on his wristband and adjusted it to the highest setting. He then opened a new bottle of mineral water and placed the water and medicine on the bedside table. After disinfecting the thermometer with an alcohol wipe, he leaned down and brought it to the corner of Xu Ze’s lips.
“Open your mouth. Let’s take your temperature.”
Xu Ze seemed very resistant to the cold object. He pressed his lips tightly together and turned his head away.
His breathing was heavy and rapid, and his slender, fair neck rose and fell with each breath.
Lu Heyang stared at him for a moment, then reached out with his other hand and held Xu Ze’s chin. His thumb pressed against Xu Ze’s lower lip as he tried to put the thermometer into his mouth.
To prevent Xu Ze from swallowing the thermometer or spitting it out, Lu Heyang stood beside the bed and watched him throughout the several minutes they had to wait for the result.
When the time was up, Lu Heyang removed the thermometer.
Nearly 39 degrees.
He really did have a fever.
Lu Heyang washed his hands, then supported the back of Xu Ze’s neck and lifted his head slightly, placing a pillow underneath it.
He brought the medicine to Xu Ze’s lips.
“You have a fever. Take a pill.”
This time, Xu Ze obediently opened his mouth and took the medicine. Lu Heyang then fed him some water.
Xu Ze stopped after drinking two mouthfuls.
Lu Heyang asked him, “Did you swallow the medicine?”
Xu Ze weakly nodded once.
“Drink a little more water,” Lu Heyang said.
Xu Ze obediently drank a few more mouthfuls, and Lu Heyang moved the bottle away.
A thin, silvery strand stretched between the bottle opening and Xu Ze’s lips. Some water spilled from the corner of his mouth and slid down to his chin.
Lu Heyang pulled out a tissue and wiped the corner of Xu Ze’s mouth for him. Then he removed the pillow and let him lie back down on the bed.
After more than ten minutes, Xu Ze gradually calmed down.
Lu Heyang put everything away. Before returning to his own bed, he glanced at Xu Ze one last time, then turned off the light and went back to sleep.