Chapter 14
He had a very good sleep.
When Yu Li’s biological clock naturally woke him up, he saw the floral pattern on the suite’s wallpaper.
He was disoriented, and it took him a while to realize that he was lying on the bed.
Wait, the bed!
Wasn’t he sleeping by the side of the bed last night? How did he end up on the bed?
Could it be that his sleeping posture was uncomfortable, so he sleepwalked and climbed onto Yan Shiting’s bed?!
Yu Li suddenly froze, not daring to move a muscle, afraid that if he moved, he would see Yan Shiting lying on the bed with him.
… The psychological shadow that incident cast that morning was just too heavy.
In the midst of his jumbled thoughts, Yu Li heard a coughing sound coming from the direction of the sofa.
Yu Li came to his senses and slowly sat up, seeing Yan Shiting leaning on the sofa, coughing into his fist.
Catching his movement from the corner of his eye, Yan Shiting turned his head and looked at him: “Awake?”
Yu Li tugged the blanket, relieved that the worrying scenario didn’t happen.
He quietly let out a sigh of relief and nodded, “En. That, how did I end up on the bed?”
Yan Shiting’s voice was also hoarse, “The temperature at sea was low, and there was a strong wind. You were sleeping on the floor and might catch a cold.”
Yu Li felt a bit embarrassed, it was his own oversight, and he was just imagining things when he first woke up.
He got out of bed and caught sight of the blanket on Yan Shiting’s body, suddenly understanding that the other had slept on the sofa last night.
But Yan Shiting was still sick.
Yu Li paused and said, “elder brother Yan, you could have woken me up and let me sleep on the sofa.”
Yan Shiting turned his head without saying anything, then coughed sharply again.
Regardless of other things, since Yu Li had taken care of him for most of the night, there was no way Yan Shiting could have let Yu Li sleep on the sofa because of this.
Looking at Yan Shiting’s expression, Yu Li more or less understood.
He pressed his lips tightly, thinking about Yan Shiting’s hoarse voice, and felt in his pants pocket for the throat lozenges.
He walked up to Yan Shiting and held out the box of lozenges, “elder brother Yan, have some of these first to soothe your throat, I’ll go call the doctor.”
Without waiting for Yan Shiting’s reaction, he simply stuffed the box of lozenges into his hand.
Yan Shiting didn’t react in time, and it was only after Yu Li’s figure disappeared out the door that he lowered his gaze to look at the throat lozenges in his hand.
Yan Shiting: “…”
After the doctor came and did a simple checkup on Yan Shiting, he prescribed some cough and anti-inflammatory medication.
After washing up and having breakfast, Yan Shiting took the medicine, but the coughing still didn’t stop, and even seemed to be getting worse.
Yu Li listened from the side, his gaze unconsciously becoming somewhat worried.
Yan Shiting looked at him and said with pursed lips, “You go back and pack your things, we’ll go back together later.”
Yu Li knew he couldn’t be of much help here, so he could only nod.
Fortunately, the cruise ship was already on its way back to Y City.
Yu Li went back to the employee dormitory to pack his backpack and return his uniform.
After the ship docked, he followed Yan Shiting onto the Yan family’s car.
Back in the manor, hearing Yan Shiting’s coughing, Butler He hurriedly called for Dr. Xu to come over.
Dr. Xu, carrying a medical kit, just walked in and saw Yu Li in the living room, blinking in slight surprise.
“Ah, it’s you.”
The other protagonist of the night when he drew blood.
Dr. Xu was a bit curious, wondering why Yu Li would be here, could it be that after that night, the two had ended up together by chance?
Yu Li blinked, his gaze rather puzzled.
This was the first time he had seen this Dr. Xu, so why did Dr. Xu seem to recognize him?
Beside him, Butler He said with a slight urgency, “Master Yan is still sick, Dr. Xu, you should go check on him first.”
“Oh, oh.” Dr. Xu came back to his senses and followed Butler He upstairs. “Master Yan hasn’t been sick for several years, right? His health is usually very good, what’s wrong this time?”
Butler He sighed, “Master Yan has been working late into the night these past few days, the other night he fell asleep in the study, with the air conditioning on the whole time, and woke up with a slight fever…”
Yu Li retracted his gaze, thinking that Dr. Xu must have mistaken him for someone else.
Tomorrow was the start of the new semester, Yu Li went back to his room to pack his things.
It wasn’t much, just some clothes and daily necessities, and he quickly got it all organized.
On the bedside table were the books he usually read, all of which he had taken from the study at the Yan residence and finished reading.
Yu Li packed them up, preparing to put them back in the study, but accidentally knocked over a notebook.
He crouched down to pick it up, and in the gap between the bed and the cabinet, he also spotted a tube of ointment.
Yu Li picked it up as well.
The blue and white outer shell was very new, with no indication of its effects, only some ingredients and a production date three months ago.
And the ointment was obviously more than half used up.
Yu Li frowned.
Ointment produced three months ago… In these three months, only he had stayed in this room.
Clearly this ointment was not for his use, so how did it end up here?
Yu Li couldn’t figure it out, and put the ointment in his pants pocket, planning to go find Butler He and ask, maybe it was something a cleaning maid had left behind.
Just as he walked out the door, he happened to run into Dr. Xu coming downstairs.
Yu Li thought about it and went up to greet him, “Hello, Dr. Xu.”
“Hello.” Dr. Xu smiled in response. “Are you staying here now?”
Yu Li instinctively nodded, “Yes.”
But then he reacted that something wasn’t quite right, his expression puzzled. “Dr. Xu, do you know me?”
Dr. Xu suddenly remembered that the last time he came, Yu Li was unconscious, so he naturally didn’t see him.
He quickly said, “I’ve seen you once before, it’s just that you didn’t see me then.”
Yu Li’s doubts were dispelled.
He took out the ointment from his pocket and asked, “Dr. Xu, I wanted to ask you if you recognize what kind of medicine this is?”
Dr. Xu looked at it for a while, and a somewhat inexplicable smile appeared on his face.
He cleared his throat softly and asked in a low voice, “What medicine is this… Wouldn’t it be better to ask Master Yan? Didn’t he tell you about it?”
Yu Li was completely lost.
Dr. Xu was speaking the same language as him, so why couldn’t he understand the meaning behind his words?
Seeing the puzzled look on Yu Li’s face, Dr. Xu sensed that something was wrong.
He asked in surprise, “This, could it be that you two haven’t used it since then?”
You two? Since then?
A sense of unease rose in Yu Li’s heart, and the hand holding the ointment started to tremble.
He stiffened and asked, “Dr. Xu, what do you mean by that?”
Dr. Xu frowned and said, “This ointment is the one I gave to you two that night when I made a house call to draw blood, its main effect is post-coital anti-inflammation. After all, between two men, you have to be careful, otherwise there will be fever and injury.”
Unexpectedly, Master Yan hasn’t used this ointment since then? That’s too irresponsible of him.
Dr. Xu shook his head disapprovingly, and then suddenly thought of something, muttering, “I still have another medicine in my medical kit, I must give it to Master Yan later…”
He didn’t notice that after he explained the purpose of the ointment, Yu Li’s face suddenly turned pale, and his reddened lips also lost their color in an instant.
That night’s house call to Master Yan, that night’s for Master Yan, that night…
Yu Li immediately understood everything in a flash, it was the night of the party.
Listening to Dr. Xu’s murmuring, he hurriedly said, “No need!”
The suddenly raised voice made Dr. Xu blink in surprise, looking at him with a puzzled expression.
Yu Li’s mind was in a complete mess, and he could only repeat, “No need, no need…”
He turned and went back to the room, and as soon as he closed the door and saw the familiar room layout, he wanted to rush out again.
Now that he was back at the “crime scene”, the events of that night became even clearer in his mind.
Yu Li leaned against the door and squatted down helplessly.
From the few brief words he exchanged with Dr. Xu, he was already able to speculate what had happened afterwards.
Yan Shiting knew they had both been drugged, and after he passed out, he must have called Dr. Xu to come draw blood for testing.
So that’s why Dr. Xu said he had seen him, but he didn’t see Dr. Xu.
Apparently, Dr. Xu had also misunderstood the relationship between him and Yan Shiting.
Yu Li hugged his knees and buried his face in his arms.
Realizing that Yan Shiting was sober that night, his mind was in a mess, filled with not only embarrassment, but also unease.
He actually had a lot of questions, such as, why did Yan Shiting call Dr. Xu for a house call that night, but then stay in his room to sleep? Why did Yan Shiting still remember that incident, but showed no reaction?
And his own probing, did Yan Shiting know about it?
He had assumed that Yan Shiting had forgotten, but wasn’t that just like being a… silly fool.
Yu Li bit his lip, gripping his hands tightly and anxiously.
Yan Shiting, what was his attitude, what did he want to do?
*
Seeing Yu Li’s listless and dazed state, Dr. Xu scratched his head.
He went to the car to get the infusion medication, and came back to Yan Shiting’s room, taking out the infusion needle while saying,
“Master Yan, just now when I went downstairs to get the medicine, I saw that young gentleman in a rather unusual state.”
Yan Shiting’s voice was low, “What’s wrong with him?”
Dr. Xu said, “He first came to ask me about the anti-inflammatory ointment. After I explained, his state just became off.”
As the words fell, Yan Shiting’s hand clenched into a fist.
The anti-inflammatory ointment… That night he had applied it carefully on Yu Li and then left it on the bedside table.
Could it be that it later accidentally fell into the gap between the bed and the cabinet, and the cleaning maid didn’t notice it the whole time?
Fortunately, Dr. Xu reacted quickly, otherwise the infusion needle would have stabbed somewhere else.
He looked up, seeing that Yan Shiting’s brow was tightly knitted, his expression a bit unpleasant.
Dr. Xu’s heart skipped a beat, thinking he might have said the wrong thing, “Master Yan?”
Yan Shiting looked up at him and asked, “Did you tell him that I called you over for a house call that night?”
Dr. Xu nodded, “I told him.”
He paused, understanding that he might have misunderstood. Seeing Master Yan’s reaction, it didn’t seem like he was actually together with that young gentleman.
The room was deathly silent.
Dr. Xu felt uneasy, wiping the cold sweat on his forehead, and tentatively asked, “Master Yan, could it be that you can’t even mention the house call?”
Yan Shiting raised a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose and said, “You can go back first.”
Dr. Xu was taken aback, “But…”
He hadn’t even inserted the needle yet.
He looked up, only to meet Yan Shiting’s cold gaze.
Dr. Xu pressed his lips together and didn’t say anything else, lowering his head to pack up the medical kit and leave.
As the door closed, he glimpsed Yan Shiting’s figure disappearing into the shadows of the light, his expression unreadable.
–
At dinner time, Yu Li felt a little uneasy about running into Yan Shiting, so he told Butler He, who came to call him for dinner, that he would go down a bit later.
The sky gradually darkened, and the room was pitch black with no lights on.
Yu Li had been curled up behind the door, and when he stood up to go downstairs, his legs were a bit numb.
He was still clutching the ointment in his palm, as if that could remind him that the afternoon’s events were not just a dream.
As he turned the corner of the stairs, he saw Yan Shiting sitting on the sofa in the living room.
Yu Li didn’t dare look at him, lowering his head as he walked towards the kitchen.
But just as he was passing the living room, Yan Shiting suddenly appeared in front of him.
Caught off guard, Yu Li crashed right into Yan Shiting’s shoulder, his body trembling in fright, and the ointment fell to the ground.
Recommended Reads
