The next day, the eastern sky turned a fish-belly white.
A pale, bluish-white light bled from the ink-colored horizon, resembling a smear of faint, cool light on soaked Rice Paper.
Ye Zhou lived alone in a new apartment called Taoyuan Shanzhuang.
The location was Room 606 on the sixth floor.
The area was sixty square meters, consisting of one bed, one bedroom, and one bathroom.
Though the sparrow was small, it possessed all its vital organs.
Having the habit of sleeping naked, he groped around the bed with half-opened eyes for his boxers to cover the big Ye Zhou.
“Ahem!”
In fact, starting from the middle of the night, Ye Zhou’s throat had suddenly begun to hurt. It felt as if a needle was stuck in it; every time he swallowed saliva, a surge of stinging pain would follow.
However, he didn’t think much of it. He was just glad he had finished the two chapters of his novel and uploaded them to the platform a minute before midnight. He had been so exhausted that his eyelids felt like they weighed a thousand pounds, and he had drifted off almost instantly.
But by the time he woke up in the morning, the stinging pain in his throat still hadn’t subsided. Ye Zhou vaguely realized something was wrong.
He thought for a moment that perhaps he hadn’t drunk water all night and his throat was simply too dry. He got up and poured several glasses of water to drink, but the stinging pain didn’t ease. Instead, it grew even more intense.
“I’m doomed. I caught a cold.”
……
“Cough, cough!”
At a breakfast shop downstairs, Ye Zhou endured the stinging pain in his throat and forced down some steamed dumplings and congee.
After paying, he glanced at the time on his phone—it was nearly nine o’clock.
He walked out of the shop, put on a mask, and scanned a shared bicycle on the side of the road.
The saying was right: minor illnesses were the ones that truly tormented people.
Of course, it wasn’t that Ye Zhou’s body was fragile, but rather that college students, as a species, were fragile by nature.
Therefore, he planned to ride the bicycle to a health clinic to get some medicine and quickly end this misery.
The clinic wasn’t far, located near Jianghai University. It was medium-sized, with a golden plaque hanging over the entrance featuring three powerful characters: Tang’antang.
Ye Zhou was considered a loyal old customer of Tang’antang.
Usually, unless it was a major illness requiring a hospital, he came here for minor ailments like colds, fevers, stomachaches, or skin issues.
In any case, the medicine at this Tang’antang clinic was very effective, usually showing results after just one dose. More importantly, it wasn’t obscenely expensive like the medicines prescribed by other clinics of its kind.
……
“Hahaha… Little Zhou, you’re back again so soon?”
The owner of this health clinic was named Tang Antang.
He was a white-haired old man with a kind, smiling face, and he was also an Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine Physician.
Ye Zhou gave a light cough, a hint of embarrassment flashing between his brows.
“Cough, Elder Tang, look at what you’re saying. What do you mean back again so soon?”
“Didn’t I just come here last week? It’s already been quite a while since then.”
Tang Antang stroked his white beard and smiled:
“I suppose so. Then those symptoms you had—vision going black when you stood up—should be fine now, right?”
Ye Zhou rubbed his nose, unable to hide his guilt: “Just as you said, I’ve been staying up late less to write novels and eating more eggs and dairy. It really is much better.”
Tang Antang saw through him but didn’t call him out, nodding with satisfaction.
“Then where is your body feeling uncomfortable this time?”
Ye Zhou let out an “Ah” and opened his mouth wide, pointing his finger at his red and swollen throat.
Tang Antang understood at a glance.
After a thorough examination, he provided Ye Zhou with Western medicine.
Don’t ask Ye Zhou why he didn’t want Traditional Chinese Medicine; according to general theory, Chinese medicine worked slower than Western medicine.
Ye Zhou asked for the price, paid, and bid Tang Antang a polite farewell. Just as he was about to leave with the medicine in hand, he was called back.
“Little Zhou, I don’t know why, but the input method in the chat box on my phone is lagging, and the keyboard is malfunctioning. Can you help me take a look?”
“Sure…”
Ye Zhou took the phone without hesitation. The problem was simple; he just needed to switch to the system’s default input method and clear the cache data of the third-party input method.
Tang Antang tried it out and found it was indeed fixed, nodding even more contentedly.
“Little Zhou, I remember you’re from Jianghai University, right?”
Ye Zhou blinked: “Yes, I’m a freshman this year. Is something wrong?”
“Hmm, good… So, do you have a girlfriend now?” Tang Antang asked again.
“This…”
Ye Zhou’s first instinct was to say no, but facing this elder-style concern, he had a change of heart—when you’re out in the world, your identity is whatever you claim it is, right?
“A girlfriend? I definitely have one!”
“Is that so? Then that’s a pity.”
Tang Antang shook his head and sighed: “My granddaughter also studies at Jianghai University. She’s one year ahead of you, a sophomore.”
“Seeing as you two are of similar age, I was thinking of making an introduction so you could get to know each other.”
“Oh… Huh?”
Indeed, as soon as those words were spoken, Ye Zhou felt an immense wave of regret.
As expected, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. If you want to save face, you have to lose something else.
Tang Antang shook his head and sighed again:
“I don’t know what’s going on with that granddaughter of mine. Maybe I just can’t keep up with the pace of young people these days.”
“Every day, she’s shouting things like ‘Long live Singleism’ and the like.”
“My head hurts. I originally wanted to hold a great-grandchild while my body was still sturdy, but given the situation, I’m afraid I won’t see it happen even by the time I’m in the ground.”
“However, she has to stay home recently due to special reasons. She can’t go to school—no, to be more accurate, she can’t take a single step outside.”
“…”
After listening to Tang Antang’s complaints, Ye Zhou hadn’t even taken his medicine yet, but his heart was already feeling bitter.
Just as he was waving goodbye to Tang Antang, the refreshed Daily Intelligence in his mind made him freeze in his tracks.
[Today’s Intel: Jiang Yingxue drank too much at the Club Dinner last night. Because she didn’t cover herself with a blanket while sleeping, she woke up this morning with a splitting headache. She took an Ibuprofen and rushed to the school club to revise a script, but she has started coughing incessantly. If this continues, it will likely escalate into a severe fever.]
Ye Zhou grumbled internally: “I told you it wasn’t that my body was fragile, but that college students are fragile creatures by nature. You guys didn’t believe me, but do you believe it now?”
“Um, Elder Tang, please help me get some fever-reducing medicine as well.”
“Hmm? I just took your temperature, wasn’t it normal?”
“It’s not for me, it’s for a friend of mine. If I could get a cooling patch too, that would be best.”
“That’s no problem.”
……
Ye Zhou soon arrived at the Drama and Film Club of Jianghai University.
Since he didn’t have a single class all day, he wasn’t worried at all.
He got a cup of warm water from the water dispenser and swallowed his cold medicine in one gulp.
From the corner of his eye, he inadvertently spotted a familiar pure white hooded jacket on the opposite sofa.
Walking closer, he saw a small note resting on it.
“Little Ye Zhou, this Senior Student already took the clothes home to wash them and make them smell sweet for you! Left by Chen Yuhe (plus a smiley face sticking its tongue out)”
Ye Zhou couldn’t help but smile.
But he didn’t know if it was just his imagination, but the clothes felt a bit newer than before.
He found the left sleeve; there was originally an oil stain left from eating hot pot that he could never wash out, yet now it was perfectly clean.
It seemed he needed to find a time to ask Senior Student Chen exactly what laundry powder or liquid she used and get a recommendation.
Thinking this, Ye Zhou straightened the jacket and put it on.
He happened to be wearing too little when he left the house today. Hmm, it looked like it had shrunk in the wash; it fit surprisingly better than before.
Immediately after, he picked up the extra fever medicine he got for Jiang Yingxue and headed straight for the President’s Office.
Just as he was about to knock, he found the door ajar, and Jiang Yingxue’s voice could be heard arguing inside.
Was she fighting with someone?
No, it sounded like she was on the phone.
……