Qiu Ye was jolted awake by a sharp sting after inadvertently moving in his sleep.
He opened his eyes and stared at the snow-white ceiling of the hospital room.
Looking toward the window, he saw the sky gradually brightening.
He lowered his head and noticed one of his roommates slumped over beside his arm, fast asleep.
‘He’s just my roommate, yet he didn’t leave all night?’
They had known each other for less than fifteen days.
To put it bluntly, even if the guy had simply ignored him, Qiu Ye wouldn’t have been able to find any ground to blame him.
Qiu Ye noticed several new items on the nightstand.
His phone was charging, his toothbrush and cup were neatly arranged, two sets of clothes were stuffed haphazardly into a half-open drawer, and two 1.5-liter bottles of mineral water sat on the floor.
He must have left once and come back with daily necessities.
Qiu Ye raised his intact right arm and began idly playing with Bai Yao’s hair.
It was quite soft and smooth, feeling nice to the touch.
Bai Yao’s sleep quality had always been poor.
After his hair was disturbed a few times, he let out a muffled groan and peevishly slapped Qiu Ye’s hand away.
He lifted his head, his eyes still misty.
He stared at Qiu Ye with a dazed, confused expression, his brain currently stalled as it processed information from the system.
**[Good morning, Miss Bai Yao~ It is a brand-new day!]**
**[Yesterday, you were gentle and kind, accompanying your ambiguous partner through the emergency room and admission. Excellent performance! Qiu Ye’s favorability toward you has definitely skyrocketed! It is deep in the red! Perhaps it is time to test Qiu Ye’s X-Function! What if he is just all show and cannot satisfy you?]**
**[You have received the task reward: 100 cash. Since you over-performed on the task, you have also earned: Angelic Smile]**
**[As long as you reveal a smile from the bottom of your heart, anyone will be healed by you~]**
**[However, you just broke the Precept of Alcohol and the Precept of Lust, and you stayed up late last night. While hooking up with men, please do not forget to take care of your own body~]**
‘Angelic Smile?’
Bai Yao didn’t smile much.
He kept a poker face and a cold, expressionless look every day. What use was that?
Qiu Ye waved a hand in front of his eyes.
“What’s wrong? Did you go stupid?”
Only then did Bai Yao snap out of it, tossing the system’s AI voice to the back of his mind as his brain finally cleared a little.
He rubbed the corners of his eyes, squeezing out a single tear, and let out a massive yawn before slumped back onto the edge of the bed.
“I’m exhausted…”
The physical fatigue was manageable, but forcing himself to act capable and reliable last night had left him mentally drained.
When he realized that Qiu Ye would likely have to rely solely on him for the next few days, he felt even more tired…
“Qiu Ye, do you really not plan on telling the counselor or your family?”
Bai Yao asked weakly.
His voice was still raspy from just waking up, but his thoughts were clear.
“Then how will you handle the hospitalization and surgery fees? It’ll probably cost at least tens of thousands. Do you have insurance? The College Student Medical Insurance might be able to cover some of it.”
Supporting himself with his right hand, Qiu Ye shifted and sat up.
“Didn’t we pay a few hundred to the school earlier? For the College Student Medical Insurance.”
“Can we actually use that? I don’t know…”
Bai Yao only remembered that those few hundred dollars had dealt a heavy blow to his wallet, forcing him to eat at the cafeteria every day toward the end of September.
He hadn’t dared to spend more than 30 a day.
“Let’s ask the doctor later.”
Qiu Ye picked up his phone and checked his payment app.
“I have about 10,000 here.”
This money was the private savings he had scraped together from part-time jobs during his high school winter and summer breaks.
“Should that be enough?”
“If it’s not, I’ll borrow some from friends.”
Bai Yao couldn’t figure out what Qiu Ye was thinking.
The guy was dead set against telling his family.
It didn’t seem like he was afraid of worrying them so much as…
He finally realized the issue.
“Do you have a bad relationship with your family?”
“I spent my senior year of high school hunkered down at home instead of going to school. Do you think we’d have a good relationship?”
‘That makes sense.’
Bai Yao stretched, yawning repeatedly.
“The doctor said they’ll do a detailed examination today and perform the surgery. If it goes quickly, you can be discharged in a few days.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
After a bone-deep stretch, the grogginess on Bai Yao’s face vanished, replaced by his usual cold expression that looked as if he were detached from everything.
“I’m going to go wash up.”
Bai Yao grabbed his toothbrush and cup.
Seeing that Qiu Ye was also trying to get out of bed, he panicked and rushed over to support him.
“I broke my arm, not my leg.”
Qiu Ye stood firmly, while Bai Yao nearly stumbled from the collision.
“I saw you walking unsteadily yesterday…”
Bai Yao breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Qiu Ye seemed fine.
“Drink less. Last night, I thought you’d smashed your brain too, so I made them do an extra CT scan.”
“Yeah.”
Bai Yao remained high-strung.
Expressionless, he trailed behind Qiu Ye into the bathroom and watched him brush his teeth and wash up, even helping him soak and wring out a towel before handing it over.
Since he had already taken responsibility for Qiu Ye’s troubles, he could only do his best to look after him.
“I need to use the toilet.”
Qiu Ye looked back at Bai Yao.
“Do you want to watch that, too?”
Bai Yao silently backed out of the bathroom and closed the door.
He leaned against the wall and let out a troubled sigh.
He looked down at his phone and continued searching for what to prepare for hospitalization, examinations, and surgery, as well as the exact procedures and how much money to have ready…
Perhaps these guides wouldn’t necessarily be useful, but they at least helped soothe his internal anxiety.
He didn’t want to be as frantic as he was yesterday, having to ask about everything on the spot.
When Qiu Ye came out of the bathroom, he saw Bai Yao gnawing on his fingernails like a giant hamster.
“Stop biting them. You’re going to bite them down to the nubs.”
Bai Yao had been relatively emotionally stable before, but since starting college, he had first suffered from a bit of neurasthenia due to poor sleep.
Then he was tormented by the system, leading to his body and appearance becoming feminized.
And now, he was dealing with Qiu Ye’s fracture…
Troubles were piling up one after another, and his ten fingers were barely enough to handle the anxiety.
Bai Yao ignored him and ducked into the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face.
After a quick cleanup, he returned to the bedside and sat down, playing with his phone in silence to kill time while waiting for the doctor to announce the schedule for the exams.
However, Qiu Ye couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
He was either rambling or asking for snacks.
“Is there anything to eat? I’m hungry.”
“No. Bear with it.”
“Last night, I thought you wouldn’t bother with me.”
“I heard you spent a long time picking names on WeChat before finally having someone call me,” Bai Yao countered without looking up.
“Don’t you have a lot of friends? You’re always out playing ball or eating together. Why did you end up coming to me?”
Qiu Ye thought about it and said with a grin, “I don’t remember clearly. Regardless, I didn’t pick the wrong person.”
“You have no idea! When I saw you last night, I felt like I was looking at an angel! Beautiful and kind-hearted!”
‘What a way to put it…’
Bai Yao’s toes curled in embarrassment.
On the surface, he acted dismissive and corrected him, “Handsome and kind-hearted.”
“Right, right! You’re the handsomest. Hey, handsome, do you have anything to eat? I’m so hungry.”
Bai Yao felt a secret joy in his heart, pressing down the corners of his mouth that were threatening to curl upward.
“Didn’t you say you can walk yourself…?”
Qiu Ye lay back down shamelessly.
“I’m injured and can’t move.”
“Message me what you want to eat. I’ll go for a walk downstairs… I don’t know if any shops are open this early.”
“Thank you, big brother! You’re the best, big brother!”
His tongue was certainly sweet enough.
Having received his emotional validation, Bai Yao happily headed downstairs to buy breakfast and snacks for Qiu Ye.