Only after getting out of bed did he realize that not only was his head dizzy, but his legs were also weak. For a moment, Zou Yang couldn’t tell if it was from the fever or from sleeping too long.

Fan Jun had brought his clothes over and helped put them on him. Upon standing up, Zou Yang felt like he was going to fall over just by turning his head.

“Are we really going out?” Fan Jun helped him pull his pants up. “You can’t even stand steady.”

“Going out for some fresh air,” Zou Yang said.

“…Alright.” Fan Jun sighed.

This dizziness might really be from hunger; his stomach was already growling.

If it really was hunger, he was starving. While washing up, Zou Yang leaned against the wall with one hand and held his electric toothbrush with the other, feeling as if he were swaying back and forth along with the toothbrush’s vibrations.

Fan Jun stood by his side the whole time—maybe not just to keep him company, but ready to lend a helping hand the moment he collapsed.

After slowly finishing getting ready, the two headed out the door.

“Liu Wenrui called my mom, and then my mom contacted property management to have someone open the door for you,” Zou Yang leaned against the elevator wall, finally sorting out the sequence of events. “Why didn’t you just tell my mom directly?”

“I had already called her earlier, and she said you were sleeping,” Fan Jun said. “I kept feeling like something had happened to you. If I rushed over and told her, what if it scared her? Liu Wenrui said he’d talk to her; I thought he had some new tactic, but it ended up being exactly the same…”

“Why would it scare my mom?” Zou Yang smiled. “She’d only think…”

Halfway through, he suddenly felt a bit awkward. Whenever his relationship with Fan Jun involved his mom, he’d feel awkward. After all, they weren’t exactly a conventional couple.

“Think what?” Fan Jun asked.

“Think that we have a great relationship,” Zou Yang finished quickly.

Fan Jun smiled.

The temperature had risen a bit today, and the wind wasn’t too strong. Stepping out of the building, bathed in sunlight with a light, cool breeze blowing, Zou Yang felt his whole being swaying between clarity and daze.

Overall, however, it was comfortable. His breathing felt much smoother.

He wanted cake, he wanted milk tea—in short, he just wanted something sweet.

“Where to?” Fan Jun wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “If it’s far, I’ll go get the bike.”

“Just the street opposite, we can just stroll over,” Zou Yang yawned.

A security guard walked over from the opposite direction, nodding at them from afar: “You’re up?”

“Yeah,” Zou Yang replied.

Fan Jun’s hand, which was around his shoulder, quickly hid behind his back.

“You really sleep so deeply you can’t hear a thing, huh?” The guard laughed.

“Too tired,” Zou Yang yawned again.

“Your classmate was panicking,” the guard sighed emotionally. “You really can sleep…”

Fan Jun’s hand slowly rested back onto his shoulder.

After the guard walked away, Zou Yang turned his head and glanced at Fan Jun: “Up and down, are you doing physical therapy?”

Fan Jun laughed: “Yeah.”

“You ditched me this morning and went to the hospital by yourself,” Zou Yang said.

“I ditched… Fine,” Fan Jun looked at him, “Next time we go to the hospital, I’ll drag you there even if I have to physically drag you.”

Zou Yang smiled and didn’t say anything.

The street was bustling, with plenty of places to eat and stroll around.

When Zou Yang smelled the aroma from a bakery, his stomach ached with hunger: “Quick, that one.”

It was lunchtime, so there weren’t too many people in the shop. Zou Yang stood in front of the various cakes and pastries, hesitating, wanting to eat the entire display case.

Finally, he picked a slice of red velvet, a Napoleon, and a taro crepe cake.

“Is that enough?” Fan Jun asked in a low voice. “They’re pretty small slices.”

“Yeah, it’s enough,” Zou Yang nodded. “I’ll also have a piece of this mango pomelo sago lava cake, a mango cream box…”

“Didn’t you just say it was enough?” Fan Jun asked quietly again.

“These are for you,” Zou Yang said.

“I can’t eat that many sweets,” Fan Jun said.

“Perfect, give me whatever you can’t finish,” Zou Yang pointed to another row of cakes. “And an Oreo pancake, two signature milk teas, full sugar.”

“So this is what you meant by ‘enough’?” Fan Jun pulled out his phone, preparing to pay.

“I got it,” Zou Yang waved his phone. “You treated yesterday.”

“I thought you didn’t remember,” Fan Jun smiled.

“How could I not?” Zou Yang tapped his phone screen.

It didn’t light up.

He tapped it twice more.

Still didn’t light up.

Zou Yang stared blankly at the black screen for a moment, then turned to look at Fan Jun.

Fan Jun reached his phone over and scanned to pay.

“Wasn’t it ringing when you called me?” Zou Yang sat by the table, unable to remember if he had charged his phone last night or not.

“Maybe my calls drained the battery,” Fan Jun placed the two trays of cake and milk tea on the table. “You eat first. I saw a pharmacy over there, I’ll go buy some fever-reducing medicine.”

“Okay,” Zou Yang nodded.

He couldn’t exactly say if he felt terrible or not; he just wasn’t very clear-headed and felt dizzy.

Eating the cake was quite pleasant, though.

He took a sip of the milk tea. He had always liked the milk tea from this place; it was the simplest recipe, but the tea and milk flavors were both very rich.

By the time Fan Jun returned to the shop with the medicine and a bottle of water, he had already drank half the cup.

“Take one.” Fan Jun placed the medicine in front of him and unscrewed the water bottle cap.

Zou Yang touched the water bottle—room temperature.

He couldn’t help but laugh as he tried to pop the pill out of the blister pack.

But his hands were a bit weak, and he couldn’t get the packaging open after struggling for a while.

“Let me do it.” Fan Jun took the medicine pack, quickly popped out a pill, and popped it into Zou Yang’s mouth.

Zou Yang took a couple of sips of water, swallowed the pill, and leaned back in his chair: “Are you working this afternoon?”

“Are you sure you’re going to class instead of sleeping at home?” Fan Jun looked at him.

“Yeah,” Zou Yang nodded, taking a big bite of cake. He thought about it and patted his chest. “About my dad… I need to find someone to talk to about it to feel better, otherwise it’s all blocked up right here.”

“I’ll take you to school in a bit,” Fan Jun said.

“Pick me up after class,” Zou Yang said.

“Okay,” Fan Jun nodded.

“Are you not mad?” Zou Yang leaned against the chair back, tilting his head slightly to look at him.

“About what?” Fan Jun also looked at him.

“That talking to you about this isn’t enough, that I still have to find someone else to talk to,” Zou Yang said.

“It’s different,” Fan Jun said. “The reaction from Liu Wenrui and the guys will definitely be different from mine.”

“Mm,” Zou Yang smiled.

“Holy shit!” Liu Wenrui’s voice boomed like a bell. His reaction was indeed different from Fan Jun’s; the dorm windows felt like they were resonating. After yelling, he lowered his voice, “Burned to death?”

“No, severely injured. He’s probably still in the ICU right now,” Zou Yang leaned against the bed.

“Is Zou Tianrui’s mom that… extreme?” Li Zhiyue frowned. “Isn’t this a huge loss? Now she has nothing, and things will be hard for Zou Tianrui in the future.”

“The fact that she could be a mistress for so many years means she never cared about what her daughter thinks,” Liu Wenrui clicked his tongue a couple of times.

“That’s true,” Li Zhiyue took a sip of water.

“Besides, she was always operating at a loss, you know? Being a mistress for so many years, raising the kid for him,” Liu Wenrui said while clicking his tongue. “She finally managed to stick it out until she was legitimate, feeling like she was starting to get a return on her investment, and suddenly a fourth woman pops up! Of course she couldn’t handle that!”

“Killing him early was the right move,” Zhang Chuanlong suddenly chimed in.

“What?” The others all looked at him at once.

“If she killed him late, and the fourth woman had another kid, there’d be one more person splitting the inheritance later,” Zhang Chuanlong said. “It would have been a bigger loss if she didn’t kill him early.”

“Damn,” Liu Wenrui looked at him. “Long-long, your brain really is… all over the place.”

Zhang Chuanlong turned to look at Zou Yang: “I’m just saying whatever.”

“Mm,” Zou Yang nodded, “With your perceptive state today, you don’t need to drop out of school just yet.”

“How are your dad’s relatives reacting?” Li Zhiyue asked. “Have they contacted you?”

“They contacted my mom. Probably wanting her to go over and help take care of him,” Zou Yang clicked his tongue. “The things they each said back when they got divorced… I still remember them all.”

“You guys don’t know, his dad’s relatives are no good. If his dad really dies,” Liu Wenrui said, “Just watch, it won’t be that easy for Zou Yang to get his inheritance.”

“I don’t want it,” Zou Yang frowned.

“You still gotta take it,” several of them spoke at the same time.

“Fuck,” Zou Yang chuckled, closed his eyes, and sighed.

“Listen to us. When it comes to money, take every single cent you deserve,” Liu Wenrui sat on the stool by his bed, speaking earnestly. “Your relationship with your dad is what it is. When there are feelings, money comes second. When there are no feelings, money comes first.”

“…Yeah,” Zou Yang looked at him.

“You’re… running quite a high fever, aren’t you?” Liu Wenrui stared at his face. “Your eyes are totally red.”

“I took some fever meds, it’s probably gone down by now,” Zou Yang took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “I’m just tired.”

“Don’t we have a forehead thermometer?” Li Zhiyue said. “Let’s check and see.”

Liu Wenrui rummaged around for a while and dug out the forehead thermometer with only one bar of battery left from the drawer. He aimed it at Zou Yang’s forehead and it beeped.

“Thirty-eight degrees. It hasn’t gone down,” he said.

“It will in a bit,” Zou Yang touched his own face. “I don’t feel terrible right now anyway.”

“You…” Liu Wenrui sighed. “Actually, about this thing with your dad…”

Zou Yang looked at him.

Liu Wenrui’s mouth hung half-open, seemingly deep in thought.

But after a long while, he couldn’t think of the next sentence. Finally, he ended this brief comfort session with another sigh.

Zou Yang couldn’t hold back a laugh.

“Actually, I think,” Li Zhiyue said, “Maybe he’s been suppressing it ever since that incident last year. He’s never really had a huge blow-up, just kept his emotions bottled up, and when you bottle them up too hard, this happens.”

“Makes sense.” Liu Wenrui patted Zou Yang’s shoulder and glanced at his phone. “Don’t go to class later, just sleep in the dorm for a bit. After class, we’ll accompany you to…”

“Fan Jun is picking me up after class,” Zou Yang said.

“Screw you,” Liu Wenrui stood up, pointing at him as he backed up to Li Zhiyue’s bed. “Do you have no conscience?! No conscience at all?!”

“What does a guy with a boyfriend need a conscience for?” Li Zhiyue said with a laugh.

“Let’s go!” Liu Wenrui said. “Leave him here! Let him taste the feeling of being abandoned by his friends!”

“Bring me an ice cream after class,” Zou Yang said.

“In your dreams!” Liu Wenrui said, “In your dreams! Spit!“

“What flavor?” Zhang Chuanlong asked.

“Zhang Chuanlong, what’s wrong with you?!” Liu Wenrui scolded angrily.

“Huh?” Zhang Chuanlong looked at him. “Didn’t he ask for ice cream? The cafeteria has four flavors.”

“…Let’s go,” Liu Wenrui took a breath. “To class.”

In the afternoon, there weren’t too many people in the shop, but two returning customers came, and handling them was more exhausting than new customers.

“Fixing up this chair for us shouldn’t be a problem, right? You helped fix that chest we bought last time too.” The customer looked at the host chair in front of them.

“Sure.” Fan Jun nodded. His phone pinged in his pocket, and Xiao Bai immediately stretched its head over and nudged his pocket with its nose.

“Don’t use iron nails,” the customer emphasized again. “And don’t swap out my materials.”

“Right, if there’s no other way and we have to replace something, we’ll let you know in advance, and we’ll give you back the original materials.” Fan Jun took out his phone.

“Best not to swap anything out. It all looks pretty good to me, it just needs a little fixing,” the customer said.

[Zou Yang]: Class is over. I’ll chat with them for a bit while waiting for you to come over.

[Fan]: Okay.

“Mm, alright,” Fan Jun nodded.

The customer said a few more things, and Fan Jun nodded in agreement to all of them.

There wasn’t much wrong with the chair. If they really had any unreasonable demands, his agreement wouldn’t count anyway. When the time came, He Chuan could just hit them with, “He’s just an employee, what does he know about restoration? Why didn’t you communicate with me?” and that would solve it.

If that didn’t work, there was always, “He’s already been fired.”

He Chuan was due to arrive at the shop in about twenty minutes. Fan Jun took Xiao Bai to the backyard and tied him up, closed the shop door, hung a “Be Back Soon” sign on it, and rode his bike to Zou Yang’s school.

When he arrived at the school, Zou Yang, Liu Wenrui, and the others were already standing at the gate.

“Why didn’t you wait for my call?” Fan Jun asked.

“We came out to buy food, too lazy to go back to the dorm,” Zou Yang smiled.

“He’s still burning up,” Liu Wenrui pointed at Zou Yang. “Almost thirty-eight degrees. It went down a bit and spiked back up.”

“Mm, got it,” Fan Jun nodded.

“Sigh,” Zou Yang sighed, straddling the bike and sitting behind him. “It’s fine.”

“We’re leaving,” Fan Jun said.

“Go on, go on,” Liu Wenrui waved his hand dismissively while shaking his head.

After the bike turned at the intersection, Zou Yang’s arms reached around from behind to hug his waist, and he leaned his body flush against Fan Jun’s back.

Fan Jun felt his hands; they were hot. “Your fever hasn’t broken at all.”

“I’ll be fine after a nap,” Zou Yang rested his chin on his shoulder, his voice a little hoarse. “If it doesn’t break by tomorrow, I’ll go to the community clinic and get a shot.”

Fan Jun sighed and didn’t say anything.

Zou Yang didn’t have much of an appetite right now, so he decided to skip dinner for the moment and make it a midnight snack instead.

The two of them went straight home.

As soon as they entered the room, Da Hei came over. It stood up straight on the shoe cabinet, pawing at Zou Yang’s sleeve, and stretched its nose to sniff his face.

“Why are you acting like a dog?” Zou Yang patted its head. “Did you learn this from Xiao Bai?”

“He knows you’re sick,” Fan Jun scooped Da Hei up by its belly and tossed it onto the sofa.

Zou Yang took off his jacket, stretched, and when Fan Jun turned and walked over, he wrapped his arms around him. He cupped the back of Fan Jun’s head and kissed him.

Fan Jun paused for a moment, then quickly hugged him back, his arms wrapping around him tightly.

Zou Yang was a bit dizzy, and it got even worse when he closed his eyes. After kissing for only a few seconds, he started leaning backward. Fan Jun was dragged two steps before steadying them.

“Let’s go to the bed,” he whispered in Fan Jun’s ear.

“…What?” Fan Jun’s voice carried a hint of hesitation.

“Do you want to do it…” Zou Yang’s voice remained very low, “…standing up?”

Fan Jun’s breathing clearly hitched for a moment, but he still controlled his voice and asked: “Zou Yang?”

“But I’m a little dizzy,” Zou Yang said. “I might not be very good at coordinating…”

Fan Jun went silent.

Two seconds later, the arm wrapped around Zou Yang’s waist tightened abruptly. He pushed open the bedroom door and half-dragged, half-carried Zou Yang, tossing him onto the bed.

“Fuck,” Zou Yang bounced on the mattress, smiling as he raised a hand to cover his eyes. “Dizzy.”

Fan Jun still didn’t speak, but the rustling of clothes could be heard.

By the time he opened his eyes, Fan Jun had already taken off his shirt.

The first thing he saw was the wound on his chest, now free of any gauze covering it, followed by his collarbones. Tracking further down, his gaze swept all the way to the waistband of the pants hanging loosely on his hips.

He reached his arms out to Fan Jun.

Fan Jun walked to the edge of the bed.

His fingers hooked onto the waistband, tugging it downward.

“Zou Yang,” Fan Jun suddenly grabbed his wrist, looking down at him. “Are you sure?”

Zou Yang didn’t make a sound. Truth be told, he was pretty dizzy and could feel that he was a bit weak; the fingers hooked onto Fan Jun’s waistband barely had any strength.

But…

“If I’m not sure,” he relaxed his grip, letting his fingers slide down from the waistband, tracing down his lower abdomen until they landed on the mattress, “can you still stop?”

Fan Jun didn’t say anything, staring at him as he took a light breath.

Then, he kneeled one leg onto the bed, planted his hand next to Zou Yang’s head, and stared fixedly at him.

He lowered his head and kissed the tip of his nose, then moved up, caught the bridge of his glasses in his teeth, and pulled the glasses off…

His vision blurred a bit, and his breathing blurred along with it.

Fan Jun grabbed both his wrists, pinned them above his head, then grabbed the hem of his hoodie and flipped it upward.

Before Zou Yang could react, the shirt had already been pulled off along his arms.

The breeze from the lifted clothes swept lightly across his body, raising a faint shudder, and he tilted his head back.

Fan Jun leaned down and kissed the side of his neck.

A slightly cool nose tip brushed lightly past. After a very brief pause, he suddenly bit down on the hollow of his shoulder. Kisses and bites interwove from the side of his neck to his throat.

Within the dizziness, the subtle pain brought a trace of clarity, but it was fleeting.

Fan Jun’s hand moved downward, fiercely stroking down the side of his waist, brushing past his lower abdomen and continuing down…