Chapter 13
Watching the comments under his post, Xia Fengsheng manually deleted them one by one. He had forgotten to shield Lin Xingcan when he posted to Moments.
Delete one, and another popped right out.
Lin Xingcan: “How much per day? I want to rent one too.”
Deleted.
Lin Xingcan: “Come down after you finish taking pictures. If you scratch it, you’ll have to pay for it.”
Expressionless, Xia Fengsheng clicked on the profile picture and deleted him from his friends list.
It was like air freshener had been sprayed across the whole world—his living environment instantly felt cleaner.
Both Shi Ye’s and Xia Fengsheng’s coats had been tossed onto the back seat.
The heat in the car was on full blast, so Xia Fengsheng, wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, did not feel cold.
Shi Ye focused on driving. After getting into the car, Xia Fengsheng had been honestly looking at his phone the whole time, but before long he started moving again.
He looked all around, trying to find evidence that someone else had sat in the passenger seat before.
A strand of hair, or something somebody had left behind.
“What are you doing?” Shi Ye swept a glance at him from the corner of his eye.
Xia Fengsheng asked him, “Besides me, who else has sat in your passenger seat?”
Shi Ye said, “No one.”
Xia Fengsheng: “Really?”
Shi Ye turned the wheel one-handed to the right. “I’m not out here being people’s chauffeur.”
Xia Fengsheng wanted to needle him with a few more remarks, but since he really could not find any evidence in the car, he had no choice but to let it go.
The car drew closer and closer to the city center, and Xia Fengsheng sensed disaster. “Where are we going today?”
He had absolutely never imagined that he would walk through the streets of downtown wearing floral fuzzy pajama pants.
Shi Ye did not tell him. “You’ll know when we get there.”
The two arrived at Central Hospital before nine, a top-tier nationally renowned Class 3A hospital. Shi Ye parked the car, took the down jacket from the back seat, and said, “Let’s go.”
Xia Fengsheng sat motionless in the car. “What for?”
“What else? I got you an appointment and brought you to see a doctor.”
He walked around to Xia Fengsheng’s side and opened the door.
Xia Fengsheng refused to get out. “I’m not sick, so why should I see a doctor?”
“Sick people all say they’re not sick.”
Shi Ye bent down and climbed halfway into the car, his upper body and vigorous presence pressing over Xia Fengsheng.
Click.
The seatbelt came undone.
Shi Ye simply scooped him right out of the car.
“Come on.”
He said it lightly, but the strength in him was completely different from when he was in high school.
Xia Fengsheng wrapped his down jacket tighter. “If you think I’m sick, then break up with me.”
“Who wants to break up with you? Isn’t that why I brought you to see a doctor?”
Lowering his head, Shi Ye checked the hospital building map on his phone and brought him to Building A, Department of Neurology.
Their number was for 9:40. The two arrived forty minutes early, and thanks to a few random factors, they had barely just checked in when their number was already called.
The doctor was an expert wearing reading glasses. In the consultation room, besides him, there was also an intern sitting nearby.
The expert was lowering his head writing instructions for the previous patient. Hearing the door open, he slightly lifted his eyes and took a glance, but only saw the lower halves of their bodies.
“Young man, bringing your grandma to see the doctor?”
Xia Fengsheng: ……
Wasn’t it supposed to be that doctors had benevolent hearts?
Xia Fengsheng sat down in front of the desk. Seeing him clearly, the doctor let out a “Hoh.” “So it’s a young man too. How come you came out dressed like this?”
“Then again, if you didn’t dress like this, you probably wouldn’t have come to Neurology.”
“……”
Xia Fengsheng stared at the doctor’s mouth.
Why did controlled knives seem to be appearing in the outpatient clinic?
The doctor asked, “What do you want checked?”
Shi Ye did not let Xia Fengsheng speak for himself and started explaining to the doctor instead. “A while ago he fell from a building, lost a lot of blood, got several stitches, had a concussion, and lost his memory. His behavior and mannerisms have become very strange.”
“Any nonsense talk or odd behavior?”
Shi Ye gave Xia Fengsheng a deep look.
Xia Fengsheng never forgot to disgust him. Without making it too obvious, he puckered his lips a little. “Chu.”
Shi Ye turned back and said firmly to the doctor, “He’s got both.”
“……”
The doctor prescribed several examinations for Xia Fengsheng. “Bring the results back after they’re done and I’ll have a look.”
Every test in the hospital required queuing. Just doing the examinations ate up an entire day for the two of them.
By the time they returned with the test results, the doctor was about to get off work, but he still looked over Xia Fengsheng’s results.
The conclusion was: “He’s not sick.”
Xia Fengsheng nodded.
He was not sick.
“Really?” Shi Ye was unwilling to believe it. “The way he dresses has become very strange.”
When they had dated before, Xia Fengsheng had never been like this.
The doctor understood at once. “Ah, that’s an aesthetics issue. Bad taste.”
Xia Fengsheng: ……
It felt as if arrows were flying at him from all directions. He would rather admit he was sick.
“Everything looks fine. Don’t worry. Just buy some vitamins and take them when you get home.”
The doctor pushed up his reading glasses. “Supplement a little vitamin A, B…”
Xia Fengsheng cut in, “RMB.”
Shi Ye: ……
In the end, Shi Ye left the hospital carrying several bottles of vitamins, fresh and innocent, together with Xia Fengsheng.
He had no idea how long he would have to endure Xia Fengsheng’s dressing style from now on.
Back in the car, Xia Fengsheng opened one box of vitamins, tossed one into his mouth, and asked Shi Ye, “Want one? Fruit flavor.”
Shi Ye took one too and popped it into his mouth.
Orange fragrance burst across his mouth.
After spending a whole day at the hospital, the moment they got in the car, both of them started checking the messages on their phones without even discussing it.
Ten minutes earlier, Ding Qizhen had sent a message.
Ding Qizhen: “What are you doing?”
Ding Qizhen: “My flight is tomorrow morning. Let’s have dinner together tonight.”
He had originally been able to stay in the country for a month, but suddenly there was an exam on the other side of the earth that he had to go back for.
Shi Ye replied: “I’m with Xia Fengsheng.”
On the other end, Ding Qizhen sat up straight. “Eating with him?”
He had not seen Xia Fengsheng in years, and he had no idea what he looked like now.
Even though his impression of Xia Fengsheng was bad, he was still curious about his current state.
Shi Ye: “Would you mind?”
Mind? Not really. Might as well eat together, and take the chance to see what exactly Xia Fengsheng had turned into.
Even now, Ding Qizhen still remembered how bitterly Shi Ye had cried when he was dumped. From childhood to adulthood, even when Shi Ye’s father had whipped rods till they broke, Ding Qizhen had never seen him shed a single tear. The next day he would still be lively and jumping around as usual.
The final winter of senior year had been the bitter cold winter of Shi Ye’s heartbreak.
Like an elementary school kid, he said his first embrace in love, first hand-hold, and first kiss had all been given to Xia Fengsheng, and Xia Fengsheng had wronged him.
The moment Ding Qizhen heard a few of those words, his vision went black.
In order to beg for reconciliation, Shi Ye had sent the man a three-thousand-word sappy little essay in the middle of the night, only to discover after sending it that he had already been deleted.
Absolute joker card among playing cards.
Ding Qizhen: “I don’t mind. Let’s have dinner together tonight. I’ll send you the restaurant location. You just pay the bill tonight.”
Shi Ye: “OK.”
A few seconds later, he added, “Prepare yourself mentally.”
Ding Qizhen: ?
What mental preparation did he need to make?
A few minutes later, Ding Qizhen sent the location of an upscale Western restaurant.
Shi Ye started setting up navigation.
Xia Fengsheng noticed. “Where are we going?”
“To eat.” Shi Ye started the engine. “My friend is coming too.”
Xia Fengsheng’s scrolling finger paused. “Friend?”
“Mm. The one I mentioned to you before, Ding Qizhen.”
The imperial astrologer?
As for suddenly having to eat together with Shi Ye’s friend, Xia Fengsheng naturally accepted it.
If your lover’s friends disliked you, cracks would definitely appear in the relationship.
A true friend always persuaded people to split, never to reconcile. Ding Qizhen was Shi Ye’s childhood friend—if anything happened, he would stand on Shi Ye’s side one hundred percent.
Tonight was another excellent opportunity for performance.
Xia Fengsheng slowly closed his eyes in the passenger seat.
Shi Ye thought he was tired after spending the whole day at the hospital.
Little did he know Xia Fengsheng was conserving his energy for what was to come.
When they arrived, Shi Ye tossed the car keys to the valet boy. Just as they were about to enter the restaurant, Xia Fengsheng stopped walking again.
Looking at the upscale restaurant in front of him, cold sweat ran down Xia Fengsheng’s back.
Entering in this appearance—he simply could not do it.
Xia Fengsheng said, “How about we change to another place to eat?”
Shi Ye turned around. “What? You’re not used to this kind of food?”
Xia Fengsheng’s scalp tingled. Tactfully, he said, “Everyone inside is in formal wear. I probably can’t get in, right?”
The moment he got stopped, Xia Fengsheng would turn around and leave immediately.
Shi Ye was puzzled. “What’s there to not get in?”
Shi Ye was a VIP here. In front of money, all rules were worthless.
Being brought inside, Xia Fengsheng only wanted to keep walking all the way to the top floor and go blow some wind on the rooftop.
Damn capitalism.
The two sat by the window. The night view outside was extraordinarily beautiful. Every second spent admiring the scenery here was piled together with money.
And tonight, there was something even more eye-catching than the night scene outside: Xia Fengsheng held up the all-English menu and had not lowered it for even a second.
The moment he lost the cover of the menu, he would lose the courage to go on living in this world.
The cello music in the restaurant was mellow and lingering, but Xia Fengsheng had no mood at all to appreciate it.
Seeing that he still had not ordered, Shi Ye asked, “Have you decided what you want?”
“You order.”
After the waiter left, Xia Fengsheng still sat there unmoving. Curious, Shi Ye asked, “Why are you holding the menu up?”
Xia Fengsheng said, “Practicing TOEFL.”
Inside, Xia Fengsheng made a sharp comment:
An all-English menu. The restaurant had really finished showing off.
“Oh.” Shi Ye held up his phone. “Want me to take a picture for you?”
For the sake of maintaining his persona, Xia Fengsheng gritted his teeth and lowered the menu, the upward-slanting ends of his eyes carrying the sorrow of a life already ruined.
“Yes.” In a deadened tone, he said, “Help me frame the night view outside too.”
Xia Fengsheng’s outfit was simply too special, and from time to time people threw glances his way.
Led in by the doorman, Ding Qizhen almost did not need to search. At a single glance, he spotted Shi Ye’s table.
Then after seeing the pair of fuzzy floral pajama pants on Xia Fengsheng’s legs, his worldview took a heavy blow, and his glasses nearly fell.
No, big brother, you wore that and came here?!
Compared with high school, Xia Fengsheng had changed beyond recognition, but the damp gloom clinging to him had never changed once. That was the main reason Ding Qizhen recognized him.
If Xia Fengsheng in high school had been too young and green, then now he had fully opened up.
Broad straight shoulders, slender forearms with a thin layer of muscle, a long neck with a pronounced Adam’s apple—even wrapped in fuzzy pajama pants below, the length of his limbs was still obvious.
His eyes were sinister, yet because of the upward sweep, also carried a seductive charm. The bridge of his nose and line of his jaw were clean and smooth. The whiteness of his skin and the vivid redness of his lips complemented one another.
It was the first time Ding Qizhen had seen someone change this much.
Even though Xia Fengsheng’s appearance shocked him, that outfit gave him an even more profound lesson.
No, after all these years, Xia Fengsheng was still this insane.
Who wore pajama pants to a Western restaurant?!
Even his grandma would not wear that print.
Ding Qizhen was just about to flee, planning to turn back and tell Shi Ye that something had come up and he could not make it after all, but Shi Ye had the worst possible timing and turned his head to see him.
Ding Qizhen: ……
He turned his head slightly and could not help but let out a mocking laugh.
The zodiac had been calculated for Shi Ye. It had been calculated for Xia Fengsheng.
But he had forgotten to calculate it for himself.
