Ji He was the first to finish undressing. He neatly placed his clothes on the sink, but Zhou Zhuoyuan stopped him from stripping completely, telling him to keep on a set of underwear. He must have been worried that Ji He would get too cold.
A warm feeling spread through Ji He’s heart. Once he was done, he gazed contentedly at Zhou Zhuoyuan.
Water had poured down from Zhou Zhuoyuan’s collar, soaking even his underwear. He turned his back to them, exposing his pale, slender spine to the two young men.
The idiot hadn’t completely missed his mark—there was a clear red imprint on Zhou Zhuoyuan’s lower back. Fortunately, it was just reddened skin that should heal in no time.
Ji He awkwardly averted his gaze.
Zhou Zhuoyuan didn’t stay exposed for long. He quickly snatched up Ji He’s clothes and pulled them on haphazardly. Only then did his stiff body regain sensation.
Ji He’s build was similar to his own, so the clothes fit reasonably well.
Turning back around, Zhou Zhuoyuan saw Ji He struggling to pull on Zhou Zhuoyuan’s sodden garments.
He curled his fingers slightly. “Has your driver arrived downstairs yet?”
Ji He was wrestling with his pants. “Almost. Don’t worry about me—just head back quick.”
Zhou Zhuoyuan opened his mouth to say more, but Guan Qi suddenly sneezed beside them.
Ji He waved him off frantically. “Go, go! Don’t get me sick too.”
Zhou Zhuoyuan was at his limit himself. He glanced at Ji He and murmured a quiet “Thanks” before leaving the dank, frigid bathroom.
~~~
He Qinglan had received Guan Qi’s message first thing that morning. He’d borrowed a small pot from the dorm supervisor, brewed some ginger tea, and brought it back in a thermos.
After pacing anxiously several times—standing up only to sit back down—He Qinglan couldn’t wait any longer. He was about to head out in search of them when he nearly collided with Zhou Zhuoyuan at the door.
He hurriedly ushered him into the warm room. “I’ve made ginger tea. Drink some first.”
Zhou Zhuoyuan sat down to catch his breath, then took the cup of tea He Qinglan poured for him.
They’d jogged all the way back, so they hadn’t frozen solid in the teaching building. They were just exhausted.
“Are you hurt anywhere?” He Qinglan cradled Zhou Zhuoyuan’s face, inspecting him closely from top to bottom before relaxing. “Your face is like a block of ice. Go take a hot shower quick.”
Zhou Zhuoyuan let him fuss. “Let Guan Qi go first.”
Guan Qi shrugged on his jacket and leaned against the desk with his portion of ginger tea. “You go ahead. I need a minute to rest.”
With that, Zhou Zhuoyuan downed his tea in short order, grabbed a change of clothes, and slipped into the bathroom.
Only then did He Qinglan turn to Guan Qi with concern. “What happened? Can I help?”
Guan Qi’s expression was taut. “Some people gave me trouble, and he got dragged into it because of me. I’ll handle it. This won’t happen again.”
Seeing that Guan Qi didn’t want to elaborate, He Qinglan dropped the subject.
Pei He, who had been silently observing until now, suddenly spoke up. “Why would people bothering you come after him? What’s your relationship?”
Guan Qi glanced toward the bathroom, then said with a hint of guilt, “He’s my best friend.”
Pei He’s tone grew more aggressive. “Just friends? You’re so attentive to him—don’t you have any other ideas?”
Realizing what he meant, Guan Qi’s face registered shock. “Why would you think that? Are my actions that easy to misunderstand? Besides, he’s straight.”
With that response, Pei He fell silent, leaning back against the headboard to scroll on his phone again.
He Qinglan stood there in a daze for a moment before busying himself with his own tasks.
Thanks to their care, Zhou Zhuoyuan only came down with a mild cold this time—far less severe than he’d feared.
Guan Qi and Ji He, being younger and more resilient, were completely fine the next day. Zhou Zhuoyuan envied them; his body used to be just as tough, but now the unreasonable System had stolen that away from him.
As usual, Ji He passed him breakfast from under the desk. “Don’t ever say that kind of thing to me again!”
“What’s that supposed to mean? You get off on waiting on people?”
Ji He flushed with embarrassed anger. “Shut up! As if I’d enjoy serving you! I’m just repaying you for saving me, you narcissistic—mmph!”
Zhou Zhuoyuan clapped a hand over his mouth. “Keep it down. I get it.”
Zhou Zhuoyuan’s hand was beautiful—slender and long—but not as delicate as Ji He had imagined. It felt slightly rough, softly covering the lower half of his face. The scent from his palm wasn’t quite the camellia fragrance from before, but it was pleasant all the same, sweet and inviting.
If only he could give it a lick.
Ji He felt his heart start pounding faster and faster.
Seeing him go still, Zhou Zhuoyuan slowly withdrew his hand.
The classroom wasn’t full yet. Amid the scattered sounds of students reciting their lessons, Zhou Zhuoyuan curved his eyes in a gentle smile. “Ji He, thanks for the clothes yesterday. I’ll wash them soon and get them back to you.”
Zhou Zhuoyuan had never smiled at him like that before. Sunlight sprinkled into those eyes, reflecting tiny, transparent sparkles brighter than the most expensive diamonds he’d ever seen.
It was over.
Ji He thought: He was done for.
Guan Qi felt the same way.
Zhou Zhuoyuan was already angry with him, and now, because of his idiotic blunder, he’d been bullied right in front of him. Zhou Zhuoyuan would surely have even less to do with him now.
Guan Qi’s seat was just behind and to the left of Zhou Zhuoyuan’s, giving him a clear view of their little interaction under the desk.
He knew Ji He brought breakfast to Zhou Zhuoyuan every day. This Eldest Young Master, who’d always had it in for Zhou Zhuoyuan, had suddenly turned over a new leaf, eagerly fawning over him every morning.
So, Zhou Zhuoyuan didn’t need him after all.
Panic surged through Guan Qi. He kept replaying it in his mind—why had he ever gotten mixed up with those guys? Why had he thought Zhou Zhuoyuan couldn’t get by without him? Why had he trashed and mocked his own friend behind his back?
Right, at the start, he’d looked down on Zhou Zhuoyuan.
He got a kick out of helping the rejects, the loners pushed to the fringes. They treated him like a ray of light in their dark world, clutching at him like a lifeline.
The gratitude, the admiration—it gave him a real rush. He’d always seen it as a noble pursuit.
Among those he’d helped, some were timid pushovers getting picked on, some were shunned for their poor family backgrounds, and some… well, some deserved it.
Yeah, deserved it.
Like filthy rats skulking in shadowy corners, resenting anything bright and good, turning on the very hand that fed them, haunting the home that took them in.
When Zhou Zhuoyuan vented his loathing for Zhou Zhuoyi, Guan Qi knew he’d hooked him—Zhou Zhuoyuan saw him as that same lifeline.
This haughty young master from the Zhou Family had no clue he was already leaning on Guan Qi, but Guan Qi had slotted him squarely in the “deserving it” category.
Without Zhou Zhuoyi’s plea, he’d have gone back, laid out Zhou Zhuoyuan’s flaws plain as day, and cut ties for good.
He’d cozied up to Zhou Zhuoyuan for a reason but couldn’t stomach actually liking a creep like that, so he’d vent to his other friends about Zhou Zhuoyuan’s sleazy character.
Later on, pangs of guilt toward the clueless Zhou Zhuoyuan made him pull away from those old buddies.
He never imagined it’d blow up like this.
He was always going on about Zhou Zhuoyuan’s young master tantrums, claiming he was the one putting up with it all, the one sacrificing—but that wasn’t the whole story.
For all his young master attitude, Zhou Zhuoyuan never turned down Guan Qi’s pleas for homework help. He never snapped when Guan Qi spaced out. He’d skip his own break to fetch food when Guan Qi twisted his ankle. He put up with Guan Qi’s occasional heavy-handed “caring.”
But no more.
Zhou Zhuoyuan wouldn’t give him any special treatment anymore.
~~~
Worried his cold might get worse, Zhou Zhuoyuan headed back to the dorm early that evening. He jumped when he saw Guan Qi inside, covered head to toe in grime.
Guan Qi hadn’t expected him back so soon either. He froze mid-motion, shirt half-off, not sure what to do next.
Zhou Zhuoyuan shut the door. His voice gave nothing away: “What happened? Did they come after you again?”
Guan Qi dropped his shirt and straightened up awkwardly. “No, I went to them and set things straight. They won’t bother you anymore.”
Zhou Zhuoyuan just said, “Oh.”
Relief washed over Guan Qi, mingled with a twinge of loss.
He shuffled off in low spirits to grab his clothes and took a quick, sloppy shower in the bathroom.
His left leg was swollen bad from a brick to the shin. He and those guys had been going at it hard when the blow landed, sending him sprawling. He lay there forever before scrambling up. They bolted when they saw the tide turning.
Good thing it was just swelling—no breaks.
Guan Qi limped over to the desk, fished out the safflower oil, climbed back into bed, and started huffing and puffing as he applied it himself.
After a moment, he mustered his nerve. “Zhuoyuan, mind helping me rub some on the back? I can’t reach.”
Long silence. No reply from Zhou Zhuoyuan.
Guan Qi forced an awkward chuckle, backpedaling. “Nah, forget it. I got it. Don’t trouble yourself.”
The next instant, Zhou Zhuoyuan was sitting on the edge of his bed, plucking the safflower oil from his hand.
Those guys were old friends, after all—no real bad blood. The brick hit was nasty, but the other wounds didn’t look too severe.
Zhou Zhuoyuan applied the ointment in silence. His touch wasn’t rough, but it wasn’t exactly gentle either. Still, it nearly moved Guan Qi to tears. He never dreamed Zhou Zhuoyuan would say yes.
With his back to Zhou Zhuoyuan, excitement made him stammer. “I-I recorded a video. Told them straight up—if they harass you again, it’s going online. They swore they wouldn’t.”
Seeing that Zhou Zhuoyuan was ignoring him, Guan Qi began apologizing profusely: “Sorry, sorry. I won’t do such stupid things again. It’s all my fault for causing you trouble. Those things happened a long time ago—I’ve long since cut off contact with them. I said those things about you because I didn’t understand you, because I was ungrateful. Sorry, I really know I was wrong now. How about you beat me up? Go ahead and beat me right now—don’t ignore me…”
Zhou Zhuoyuan interrupted his nonstop chatter: “Enough.”
Guan Qi shut his mouth. After a long while, he finally continued: “Then what do I have to do for you to forgive me?”
“What do you think?” Zhou Zhuoyuan’s tone was too calm—calm enough to make Guan Qi feel even more panicked than the earlier hysteria.
“I don’t understand.” He stubbornly looked at Zhou Zhuoyuan. He was clearly still willing to apply medicine for him, so why was Zhou Zhuoyuan so certain there was no hope?
Zhou Zhuoyuan sighed. “You don’t need to do anything, Guan Qi. I haven’t been deliberately ignoring you; sometimes I just don’t know what to say to you—whether as your roommate or as your classmate. I hope we can still get along well.”
Admittedly, when Guan Qi had appeared at the fifth-floor window, Zhou Zhuoyuan had been somewhat touched. He figured Guan Qi wasn’t completely using him; his concern probably included at least a bit of sincerity.
But the key to maintaining a friendship was the desire to share.
He no longer had the slightest desire to share anything with Guan Qi.
