Sheng Renxing pretended he had not seen the reply and turned off his phone.
He truly did not like other people using his things.
But when Xing Ye used his towel, instead of discomfort, what Sheng Renxing felt more strongly was awkwardness.
Like wearing a new piece of clothing that did not fit quite right—awkward, but mixed with a little novelty.
Xing Ye was sitting against the headboard, holding a Nokia and pressing keys one-handed as though replying to messages.
His brows were faintly furrowed. The conversation did not look pleasant.
The Nokia looked tiny and delicate in his hand, almost like a toy.
Sheng Renxing blow-dried his hair and glanced at Xing Ye through the mirror.
No one spoke. The roar of the hair dryer was noisy and somehow quiet at the same time.
When he finished, his hair lay messily over his head. He shook his head quickly several times, combed it around with his fingers, then examined himself from left and right in the mirror.
Sheng Renxing nodded in satisfaction.
Still just as handsome.
He turned around and found Xing Ye looking at him.
“…”
“…”
Sheng Renxing awkwardly picked up his phone and began tapping around randomly, pretending to be extremely busy.
Then he heard rustling from the other side.
He looked up and saw Xing Ye put down his phone and lift the quilt.
“You’re going to sleep?”
“Mm.”
“Oh.” Sheng Renxing turned off his phone too. He felt that he should sleep as well.
The bedside lamp clicked off.
Sheng Renxing lay with his eyes open, staring at the ceiling. He felt awake enough to go outside and run a lap.
He had not shared a bed with anyone since primary school, and he was extremely unused to it.
Even though the bed was large, he kept feeling that the slightest movement would make him touch the other person. Xing Ye’s presence was incredibly strong. His warmth seemed capable of passing through two quilts.
Sheng Renxing could also smell the medicine on Xing Ye. It was not especially pleasant.
He himself had applied it.
Xing Ye must have deliberately kept the wounds out of the water while showering, or the medicinal smell would not still be this strong.
Sheng Renxing guessed.
Thinking about it that way, he suddenly felt he had made a truly terrible suggestion.
Xing Ye was covered in injuries. What if Sheng Renxing fell asleep, lost track of his strength, and hit him?
Great.
Completely sleepless, Sheng Renxing rolled over and thought he might have to stay awake until dawn.
Yet perhaps the smell of medicine was hypnotic, or perhaps he was simply too tired today.
He had not been thinking nonsense for long when his thoughts began wandering into strange and fantastical places. Amid vivid fragments, they gradually blurred.
Slowly, he fell asleep.
Darkness rushed at him in a dream.
In the dream, he returned to the sheet-metal building.
Xing Ye was still standing in the ring.
But all the people who had been watching were gone, and so was his opponent.
Only the two of them remained inside the building.
Sheng Renxing discovered that he himself stood in the ring, facing Xing Ye.
“Why did you come?” Xing Ye lowered his head slightly. His overlong hair covered his brows and eyes.
Within the shadow woven from pallor and darkness, Sheng Renxing felt Xing Ye looking at him.
“You shouldn’t have come.”
“What?” Sheng Renxing asked in confusion.
The scene suddenly shuddered.
Images broke apart and flashed past like a montage. Holes burned one after another through the dream, exposing a terrifying blackness behind them, deep as an abyss.
Sheng Renxing whipped around.
Xing Ye was right behind him, skin so pale that not a trace of blood remained. Thick black liquid dripped from his body and stretched into the black hole behind him.
Xing Ye suddenly reached out and seized Sheng Renxing by the throat.
Leaning close to his ear, he whispered, “Save me.”
Then the entire scene shattered.
From inside the black hole came the tangled low growls and panting of beasts.
Sheng Renxing jolted awake.
His chest rose and fell violently. Sweat dampened his temples, and his expression remained dazed, not yet fully escaped from the dream.
His mind was full of Xing Ye’s eyes from the final moment—pitch-black, as though they had swallowed every trace of light.
He could not resist lifting a hand to touch his own throat.
Instead, he accidentally struck something beside him.
Warm. Resilient…
Sheng Renxing startled and jerked his hand back.
The thought that someone was beside him shot from his fingers into his brain. Countless horror movies stampeded along his nerves, and he woke completely in an instant.
Then he saw Xing Ye.
Xing Ye lay on his side facing him, deeply asleep with his brows knotted, looking uncomfortable. Half his face was buried in the gap between two pillows, as though he wanted to bury himself entirely.
Behind Xing Ye stretched a huge empty space.
Apparently too hot, he had trapped the quilt between his legs and pushed most of it toward Sheng Renxing.
Half of Sheng Renxing’s own quilt had been squeezed onto the floor. If he had rolled over in his dream, he probably would have woken there too.
“…”
No wonder he had sweated in his sleep.
This person was so quiet when awake. Who would have guessed he thrashed around this much in bed?
Sheng Renxing hauled his half of the quilt up from the floor and folded it back together. Then he looked at Xing Ye with novel curiosity.
The next second, however, he noticed something wrong with Xing Ye’s breathing.
It was heavy and rough, almost like panting.
Sheng Renxing froze, a bad feeling rising in his chest. He lifted his hand and pressed the back of it to Xing Ye’s cheek.
Burning hot.
Fuck. He had a fever.
Sheng Renxing immediately sat up, leaned over, and shook him. “Wake up, wake up! Xing Ye?”
Xing Ye was shaken awake. He opened his eyes blearily, seeming conscious.
Then the next second, he turned his head and tried to burrow back between the pillows.
Sheng Renxing grabbed his shoulder and turned him back again. “You have a fever. Do I need to take you to the hospital?”
Xing Ye seemed not to understand. His unfocused gaze stayed on Sheng Renxing for a long while. His brows were tightly furrowed, making him look fierce.
Only after Sheng Renxing asked again did he answer, “No.”
His voice was low and hoarse.
Then he rubbed his face and struggled upright.
Sheng Renxing helped him. “What are you doing?”
Xing Ye had very little strength. He leaned against the headboard, covering his face with one hand, groggy and silent with lips pressed tightly together.
Sheng Renxing watched him.
He himself had been woken in the middle of the night and now had a temper from being disturbed. His tone was half impatient. “If you don’t talk, I’m calling 120.”
Xing Ye remained silent.
Just as Sheng Renxing decided he must have burned his brain and reached for his phone, Xing Ye finally spoke.
“There’s fever medicine in my bag.” His fingers pressed against his throbbing temple. He suppressed the pain, voice low and hoarse, almost as if talking to himself. “Once I take it, I’ll be fine.”
As he spoke, he started to get out of bed to fetch it.
Sheng Renxing shoved him back down. “I’ll get it.”
He climbed out of bed, opened Xing Ye’s bag, then opened the first-aid pouch and searched for fever medicine.
“And painkillers.”
Sheng Renxing paused.
Could those two medicines be taken together?
He searched around but could not figure it out, so he carried the entire bag back to the bed. “I can’t tell which is which. Find them yourself.”
Then he went to get water.
There was an electric kettle in the hotel, but Sheng Renxing did not drink hot water and had never used it.
He fiddled with it for a long time. Once he finally figured it out, he opened the lid and saw dust inside.
“What kind of broken garbage is this?”
He pushed the hair falling into his eyes away and tossed the kettle aside.
Then he picked up an unopened bottle of mineral water and twisted the cap off for Xing Ye.
Xing Ye took it, tossed all the pills in his palm into his mouth at once, drank some water, and swallowed.
“Thanks.”
Sheng Renxing sat on the bed and stared at him. “Feel better?”
Xing Ye nodded. “Better.”
Perhaps his brain really had been cooked by the fever. He spoke very slowly, each character coming out separately, as though he had to weigh every word first.
It made him sound strangely solemn.
And a little dumb.
Sheng Renxing raised a hand toward his forehead.
Xing Ye dodged.
He took another sip of water. “Not that fast. It’ll go down by morning.”
“Oh.” Sheng Renxing withdrew his hand.
He thought back to the last time he himself had had a fever, then realized it might have been last year or the year before. He no longer remembered what it had been like.
“Does it hurt a lot?” Sheng Renxing looked at his furrowed brows. “You really don’t need the hospital?”
After asking, he felt nagging and frowned too.
“No.” Xing Ye’s temperament had become much more agreeable with the fever. He answered almost every question. “It’s probably inflammation. Anti-inflammatory medicine and painkillers will be enough.”
“Probably?” Sheng Renxing’s voice rose slightly.
Xing Ye said, “If it isn’t, I took fever medicine too. Either way, the fever will come down.”
“…” Sheng Renxing was speechless.
So medicine could be doubled up for insurance too?
He thought Xing Ye truly did not take his own illness seriously, but also felt he himself was interfering too much. He curled his lip. “Whatever makes you happy.”
He stuffed the medicines back into the bag.
Then he stood his pillow upright and leaned against it at the head of the bed.
Xing Ye watched him through half-open eyes and asked quietly, “You’re not sleeping?”
“I’ll play on my phone for a while, then sleep.”
Sheng Renxing turned off the lamp and opened his phone.
He opened Baidu and searched how to bring down a fever.
One result said that once a person started sweating, it meant the fever was breaking.
So Sheng Renxing decided he would wait until Xing Ye sweated before sleeping.
Xing Ye soon went quiet, apparently asleep.
His breathing was still heavy but long and even, as though he were enduring pain.
Sheng Renxing opened WeChat.
A few minutes earlier, Big-Head Qiu had posted in Moments:
[Taking advantage of Brother Xingxing being gone to ride his little wife.
[Image] [Image]]
One image was a selfie of their whole group on a mountaintop. Several girls stood with them. Multiple motorcycles were parked behind, including one belonging to Sheng Renxing.
The second image was the night view taken from the mountain, brilliant with lights.
The comments were full of people bragging and talking shit.
Someone commented: [Careful Brother Sheng doesn’t beat you up when he gets back.]
Someone replied: [Brother Sheng isn’t there? Where did Brother Sheng go?]
Scrolling farther, Sheng Renxing found that several people in the group had posted Moments too.
If he had not been here, he should have been on that mountaintop with them now.
Sheng Renxing looked coldly at the screen as irritation surged up inside him.
His fingers moved.
He replied.
Cigarette Tyrant: [Brother Sheng isn’t there? Where did Brother Sheng go?]
After replying, he closed WeChat.
His fingers moved as though wanting a cigarette, but he suppressed it.
He opened Angry Birds and turned off the sound.
Then he began killing time.
Sheng Renxing was not playing seriously, but every time one of the birds flew out, his mood did improve a little.
As he played, a voice suddenly came from beside him. “What are you playing?”
Sheng Renxing jumped so badly he nearly dropped the phone. He forced his pounding heart down and kept his expression casual. “Angry Birds.”
Then asked, “You weren’t asleep?”
“Mm. Can’t sleep.” Xing Ye rolled over.
He had slept in a feverish haze for a little while, then woken from the pain again.
Vaguely, he thought the medicine was becoming less effective. He might be developing a tolerance.
Sheng Renxing assumed the pain was keeping him awake.
Thinking of his own inexplicably bad attitude earlier, he felt guilty and softened his voice. “Want to play a game?”
“Mm?”
“To distract yourself.” Sheng Renxing reached over and switched on the bedside lamp.
Warm yellow light spilled down.
He handed the phone to Xing Ye.
Xing Ye shaded his eyes from the sudden light, then leaned against the headboard like Sheng Renxing.
He took the phone.
Sheng Renxing had been playing for a long time, so the back was slightly overheated. “How do you play?”
“Like this.” Sheng Renxing leaned closer and demonstrated on the screen while Xing Ye held it.
He slid a finger across the display. “You use this red bird to hit those pigs.”
“Like this.”
Sheng Renxing pressed the bird and pulled it backward, then—pew—it shot out.
“It’s more fun with sound.” He tested it and felt that without audio, it lacked something. So he pressed the side buttons and turned the volume on.
Xing Ye did not move.
Their fingers accidentally touched.
Sheng Renxing thought Xing Ye’s hand was very hot.
“Like this?” Xing Ye slid his left thumb over the screen, aimed, and fired.
He hit the target, but half of it remained standing.
“You have to hit the blue part.” Sheng Renxing pointed at the pigs’ structure. “Then the whole thing falls.”
Xing Ye said, “Oh,” and shot in the direction Sheng Renxing indicated.
One section of the pig structure collapsed.
Another remained upright.
“It didn’t fall.” The two stared at it. Xing Ye produced two words, then prepared to launch another bird.
Sheng Renxing grabbed his hand. “Wait, wait.”
They waited.
Sure enough, debris from the first collapsed section slowly fell onto the other one, and the entire pig structure crashed down.
“Told you my trajectory couldn’t be wrong.” Sheng Renxing laughed proudly.
He turned to look at Xing Ye and found Xing Ye smiling at the game too.
When Xing Ye noticed him looking, he turned his gaze over.
His eyes were as black and glossy as in Sheng Renxing’s dream, but now they reflected the phone’s light and carried a layer of laughter.
Sheng Renxing froze.
At a completely inappropriate moment, the phrase “sensual and vivid” flashed through his mind.
Then he realized his hand was still holding Xing Ye’s, and that they were too close.
Sheng Renxing could not stop himself from turning his face away to avoid Xing Ye’s gaze. “Feeling any better?”
At that exact moment, the phone sounded.
It was a WeChat message from Cigarette Tyrant:
[Sorry, Brother Sheng. Back then I just saw you hadn’t been coming to any of the meetups and thought you were traveling or off with a girlfriend or something. I really didn’t mean anything else…]
Sheng Renxing did not even finish reading it before quickly letting go of Xing Ye’s hand and swiping the message away.
At the same time, he put some distance between them.
“You don’t need to reply?” Xing Ye asked.
“Huh?” Sheng Renxing’s mind was still chaotic and he had not registered the question. After two seconds he answered, “Don’t feel like dealing with idiots.”
As he spoke, he climbed out of bed somewhat flustered. “I’m getting a bottle of water.”
Xing Ye raised a hand to his forehead and rubbed his temple with a restrained expression. Psychologically, at least, he felt like he should be doing better.
When Sheng Renxing came back, Xing Ye looked at him and swept the hair off his own forehead.
“?” Sheng Renxing watched him while drinking water.
“Try?” Xing Ye said.
He meant check the temperature?
Sheng Renxing put the water down, then placed one hand on his own forehead and the other over Xing Ye’s.
But one hand had been holding the burning phone and the other the cold water bottle. After feeling around for ages, he could not compare anything.
After a while, Xing Ye clicked his tongue softly, turned his head away from Sheng Renxing’s hand, and leaned closer.
While Sheng Renxing was still frozen, their foreheads touched.
Forehead to forehead, testing temperature.
For a long moment.
Xing Ye said, “I think you’re hotter than I am.”
