He stood up, moved closer to the door, and clearly heard the voices outside.
“No one is allowed to bring him food, not even at night. Understand?”
“Yes, master.”
Hearing this, Xu Si returned to his chair. They continued talking outside, but he wasn’t interested anymore. He put his earphones in and leaned back in his chair to play with his phone.
By evening, Xu Si began feeling uncomfortable in his stomach. It was empty, and stomach acid kept burning at it. The pain was getting worse, coming in waves, along with nausea. Yuan Yuan was in his arms, warm and cozy, which somewhat eased his discomfort. Despite feeling terrible, he didn’t want to go out to eat.
Hearing a knock, Xu Si opened the door to find Yang Guan: “What is it? Did he send you with a message?”
Yang Guan glanced behind him furtively before squeezing into Xu Si’s room. Xu Si found his sneaky behavior strange. Yang Guan pulled out a huge jianbing from his jacket and pressed it into Xu Si’s hands: “The master ordered the kitchen not to save food for young master. I bought this when I went out during my meal time. The master doesn’t know. Eat it while it’s hot.”
Before Xu Si could react, Yang Guan closed the door and ran out.
Xu Si stared at the jianbing in his hands, somewhat dazed. He’d never seen such a large one before. After feeding Yuan Yuan some canned food, he couldn’t eat even half the jianbing himself. His stomach felt like it was being stabbed with needles.
He poured some warm water and found a bottle of stomach medicine, but feeling how light it was, he shook it to confirm it was empty. After searching for a while, he found another box of medicine. He stared at it absently. It was what Jiang Rong had given him before.
Xu Hengyu had brought back almost everything from where he used to live, throwing it at him like garbage, saying: “I’ve brought back all your trash. Stay put and after you do what I tell you to, I’ll naturally let you go back.”
Xu Si took out a few pills, put them in his mouth, and swallowed them with warm water. He was lying in bed, feeling groggy, when he heard someone knocking timidly. Noticing no response, a young voice came from outside: “Brother, are you in there?”
“No.”
After a while, when Xu Si thought Liang Jieran had left, he heard another timid “brother.”
Xu Si got out of bed, put on his slippers, and opened the door. He looked at Liang Jieran, whose head was wrapped in white gauze with only his eyes showing – eyes that looked exactly like Shen Yuchun’s. He spoke coldly: “What do you want?”
“Can I come in?”
Xu Si pressed his lips together silently, just looking at him. Liang Jieran dug in his pocket and pulled out some chocolate: “I’m sorry, brother. Have some chocolate. I caused trouble for you again today.”
How was he the one causing trouble? His very existence was the trouble. He shouldn’t exist. He shouldn’t.
Xu Si didn’t take the chocolate: “I’m not angry. Go back.”
Liang Jieran wanted to say more, but meeting Xu Si’s gaze, he lowered his head and finally said quietly: “I didn’t stay silent because I didn’t want to speak up for brother. Uncle gets angrier when I speak, so I didn’t dare. I’m sorry, brother.”
Whether he spoke up or not didn’t matter – it was just that Xu Hengyu didn’t like him.
Seeing Xu Si’s silence, Liang Jieran asked softly: “Can I still come see brother in the future?”
Xu Si took one piece of chocolate from his hand: “Go back.”
“Okay.”
Xu Si looked at Yang Shikun’s messages, replied briefly, then put his phone under his pillow and fell asleep.
At 11:10 PM, Xu Si was curled up in bed, his forehead covered in cold sweat. He woke up from the pain, got up, put on his coat, and was about to go out when Yuan Yuan jumped into his arms. Xu Si wrapped it in his embrace.
He saw Yang Shikun’s messages:
[Yang Shikun]: Brother Si, are you asleep? [Yang Shikun]: Brother Si, you haven’t had dinner, right? [Yang Shikun]: Brother Si?
Xu Si replied that he had been sleeping. Seeing people guarding the door, he walked straight out. Yang Shikun’s messages flooded in.
[Yang Shikun]: Brother Si, did you eat? [Yang Shikun]: Is your stomach acting up? Why did you wake up after sleeping just a bit? [Yang Shikun]: Where are you? [Yang Shikun]: Are you at home? [Yang Shikun]: Or outside?
After walking around outside, Xu Si finally found a community clinic that was still open. He wrapped his coat tighter and went in. A doctor in his forties looked up at Xu Si and stood up, asking in disbelief: “Your stomach… what’s going on?”
The young man was handsome, but why was his stomach so big?
“You mean this?” Xu Si pointed to his protruding abdomen and said to Yuan Yuan inside: “Come out.”
Yuan Yuan poked its head out of Xu Si’s coat and meowed at the doctor a few times.
The doctor sighed in relief: “You nearly scared me to death. I thought… it was your stomach that was so big.”
Xu Si: “…”
“What’s wrong?”
“Stomach pain, nausea.”
“Go sit or lie down over there. I’ll give you an IV drip and you’ll feel better.”
“Okay.”
Yang Shikun was still asking where Xu Si was.
Xu Si: Community clinic, getting an IV. Don’t come.
Seeing Yang Shikun’s flood of messages, Xu Si sent him the location.
The doctor looked at Xu Si’s hand: “You have good veins.”
“Thanks.”
Seeing that Xu Si didn’t seem talkative, the doctor stopped chatting, only instructing: “Call me when the IV is done for a new bag.”
“Okay.”
Yang Shikun arrived quickly. He wore a dark green down jacket over straight-leg jeans, rubbing his hands from the cold. He pushed open the door and smiled at the doctor: “I’m here for my friend.”
The doctor probably knew who he meant and pointed inside: “He’s in there. Go ahead.”
Yang Shikun pushed open the ward door and saw Xu Si leaning by the bed with his eyes closed. He seemed to be asleep. Before Yang Shikun could speak, Xu Si opened his eyes.
“Brother Si, I thought you were asleep.”
“No.”
“Brother Si, did you skip meals again?”
Xu Si didn’t speak, just looked at him coldly. Yang Shikun didn’t dare say more, remembering how when Jiang Rong was around, she was the only one who could make Xu Si eat properly.
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