The Twenty-Seventh Chapter

Xu Anze had probably run up the stairs. His chest rose and fell sharply, and his hair was soaking wet, as if someone had poured water over him.

Panting hard, he hurried to Xue Lan's bedside and took her hand. "Lanlan, how are you feeling?"

"I told you I'm fine. It's the same as before."

She had occasionally been like this during her senior year of high school and had even been hospitalized twice. Xu Anze had already been dating her then, so he knew her condition well.

Xu Anze reached out to touch her forehead. It felt a little warm, and his brow relaxed slightly. He asked quietly, "You haven't eaten yet, have you? Are you hungry?"

"I'm hungry, but I don't want porridge. I want noodles."

Seeing that she still had an appetite, he relaxed too, a faint smile appearing on his face. "Got it. I'll go downstairs and get you some in a bit."

"And strawberries."

"Okay."

The couple were being all lovey-dovey, while Liu Mumu and the other single girls were force-fed enough romantic sweetness to last them a while. Xu Anze walked them out; he was heading downstairs to buy food anyway.

Outside the hospital room, Xu Anze thanked them. "I really appreciate your help today. Lanlan's health has never been very good. If she feels unwell again, could you let me know?"

"No problem, no problem. Come on, let's make a group chat." Qian Xiaomeng enthusiastically pulled out her phone. As she created the group, she told Xu Anze, "If you know any single guys as handsome as you, please invite them in and do us all a favor."

"Sure. I'll make it happen as soon as I get back," Xu Anze said with a smile.

He was so easy to get along with that everyone's fondness for their roommate's boyfriend went up a notch.

"Sorry for asking, but has Xue Lan ever seen a therapist?" Wei Xue suddenly asked.

At the mention of Xue Lan's health, a trace of bitterness crossed Xu Anze's face. "Auntie thinks mental illness is the same thing as insanity, so she's very against seeing a therapist. I did secretly take Lanlan to one, but the therapist's assessment was that she didn't have any psychological disorder."

"Don't laugh at me, but eventually I started thinking Auntie might be right. Maybe Lanlan isn't sick at all. During this summer vacation, we visited a lot of temples, but none of it helped. All we could do was pray for peace of mind."

They could all understand how he felt. If they could confirm that something specific was wrong, that might actually be better. At least they could feel at ease.

But being stuck in this uncertain state, not knowing what might happen next, was hard on everyone.

When science couldn't solve a problem, some people really did turn to gods and buddhas, hoping for even the slightest chance of an answer.

After walking them to the hospital entrance, Xu Anze went his separate way to buy fruit and then dinner for Xue Lan.

Liu Mumu and the others planned to take a taxi back to campus. It was stifling and hot outside, and the bus wasn't going to save them.

They waited by the roadside for a while, until an empty taxi pulled up. Qian Xiaomeng and Wei Xue got in first. Liu Mumu had one hand on the door and was about to climb in when she looked up and spotted a very familiar car slowly pulling out of the hospital's underground parking lot.

She slammed the door shut and called to the two inside, "Go on without me. I've got something to do. I'll be back tonight."

Then she hurried off.

The taxi soon drove away. Liu Mumu ran after the car with the little angel spreading its wings on the hood, waving as she went.

As Yan Xiu drove out of the parking lot, he looked up and saw Liu Mumu bouncing around by the roadside like a little rabbit. He hadn't reached a place where he could pull over yet, so the car kept rolling forward slowly.

Liu Mumu thought he hadn't seen her, so she ran after him.

At last, he reached a spot where he could stop. The car came to a halt, and the door opened from the inside.

Liu Mumu's eyes lit up, and she nimbly slipped inside.

"Chasing my car?" Yan Xiu's tone held little reproach, but for some reason it made her scalp prickle.

"I was afraid you wouldn't see me. I panicked, so you'll have to forgive me." She glanced at his impassive face, then added softly, "I won't do it again."

"Next time, you can call or text me." Yan Xiu gave her a cool look.

"And then you'd pull over?"

"...Depends on my mood."

"Hmph. I bet you wouldn't answer until you'd driven two kilometers." Liu Mumu didn't believe him.

Yan Xiu's lips curved slightly. "Where are you going?"

"Back to school. Oh, there's something I wanted to ask you."

"You could ask me over the phone."

"That's not the same. I can't see your face on the phone, and you won't video call me." Liu Mumu gave him a look that said, How could you refuse to video call me? You're such a heartbreaker.

Although they hadn't had a chance to meet again since leaving the hotel, they did chat on their phones now and then.

Mostly, Liu Mumu called, and he was forced to answer.

For several days, she'd asked him every day what the weather was like. Yan Xiu had started to think she was using him as a weather reporter.

Yan Xiu: ...

"I don't video call anyone while I'm in the shower." If she put her fortune-telling skills to better use, he might have been more pleased.

"What a shame!"

She truly meant it. Yan Xiu's fate was hard to read, so she could only ask around the edges and try to calculate when he'd come into contact with water each day.

Fortunes unrelated to herself were much easier to tell. She got it right about three times out of ten.

Eventually, she didn't even need to divine it anymore, because he lived such a regular life that he even showered at the same time every day.

What a shame he wouldn't let her admire the view. She was so sad.

"Forget it." Yan Xiu didn't want to keep discussing it. "I'll take you back to school."

"Thanks. I'll buy you milk tea."

"I don't drink milk tea."

"Oh. You're so hard to please."

Yan Xiu silently accepted the judgment.

After they drove through a traffic light, Liu Mumu finally remembered what she'd wanted to ask. "By the way, do you know about False Hysteria?"

She'd just moved into the dorm and hadn't brought the books her grandfather had left behind. It wasn't convenient to go home and look through them now, so she figured she could ask Yan Xiu.

"What are the symptoms?"

"Let's see... coughing, nonstop coughing at night while asleep. It's severe, and you can't wake the person. Their body temperature is very low. It's happened during the day too, and she coughed up blood. Her medical examination showed nothing wrong."

Liu Mumu agreed with Xue Lan's family and boyfriend about how to handle it. They should at least rule out causes related to her health first.

Since it really didn't seem to be related to her physical or mental condition, they could then consider other possibilities.

"Those are the only symptoms?"

"That's all I know for now."

Yan Xiu thought for a moment. "There are many possible causes for similar symptoms, but what you described could also be False Epidemic."

"Huh? Tell me more." Liu Mumu turned toward him with interest.

"In ancient times, swindlers were rampant in some parts of the north. They would drive away epidemics, then pretend to be immortals come down from heaven and take the opportunity to fleece people."

"Drive away epidemics? You mean epidemics as in plagues?"

"Right. Whenever they arrived in a place, an epidemic would break out there. The symptoms were severe coughing and coughing up blood for several days, but it wouldn't be fatal."

Liu Mumu frowned. "Was that really an epidemic?"

There were good people in the mystic arts, but there were also scoundrels.

Although most traces of mystics had been buried by history, she knew that some had once tried to overthrow the imperial power, using vicious methods that harmed many people.

And there had been people who tried to manipulate epidemics, refining them by processing corpses. But legend had it that those mystics were eventually struck by backlash and died horribly.

Compared to those mystics who seemed to want to challenge heaven itself, the best fortune-tellers did little more than manipulate power. They had far more of a conscience.

Her grandfather had told her that story to help her understand the subtle relationship between mystics and fortune-tellers. Liu Mumu thought her grandfather might have resented the mystics for having a broader range of methods than fortune-tellers.

In modern times, no mystics knew how to manipulate epidemics anymore. It was too wicked a practice.

"That's why they were swindlers. It wasn't a real epidemic. They used a certain kind of pollen to make a relatively mild poisonous powder."

"You mean someone poisoned my classmate?" Liu Mumu asked.

"I mean, if your classmate lives in the north, she might have happened to come across that plant in the wild and inhaled some pollen, which would explain her symptoms. Of course, I can't rule out that someone poisoned her."

Liu Mumu understood. What people called False Hysteria should really have been called False Epidemic. From what Yan Xiu had said, it didn't sound too serious.

"Does that mean she doesn't need treatment and should just wait for the pollen to leave her body naturally? I heard this has been going on for a year."

"If it's definitely False Epidemic, she can choose not to get treatment. As long as she doesn't keep inhaling the pollen, she should recover within two or three years. There's also a treatment, but it's just a folk remedy."

"Tell me." Why wait two or three years if she could get better sooner? Liu Mumu asked eagerly.

"Soak five different-colored beans in vinegar for five days, then take them out. Every day, pick out five beans of different colors, boil them, and eat them. She should start feeling better after five days. Three treatment cycles should clear all the pollen from her body."

"Why doesn't that sound very scientific?" What kind of strange antidote was this? And how on earth had anyone come up with it?

Yan Xiu sighed. "That's why it's a folk remedy."

Between a fortune-teller and a mystic, which one of them was more scientific?

"Fine..." She didn't like the sound of it, but at least it was an option. "I'll go back and have her try it."

There wasn't a better solution anyway. Xue Lan was even willing to see a Great Immortal, so surely she could accept having a fortune-teller for a roommate.

"So, you really can tell fortunes?" Xue Lan hadn't come back yet, so Liu Mumu decided to explain things to her other roommates first.

Then the two of them cornered her.

"I can only tell little things, like trivial daily matters." Liu Mumu held up one finger.

Wei Xue grabbed it. "Can you tell if I'll pass my finals ahead of time?"

"I can, but you'll still have to study hard."

Qian Xiaomeng grabbed her other hand. "Can you tell me my chances before I confess to someone?"

"That too..."

With both hands held, Liu Mumu looked like she'd been kidnapped.

"From now on, you're our sister from another mother!!"

Although her roommates believed her, Liu Mumu still showed them a little of what she could do. For example, she told them someone would bring milk tea to their room soon.

The two of them waited at the door. More than twenty minutes later, a girl from the neighboring dorm walked over with a cup of milk tea. When she spotted Wei Xue, she came over and handed her the bag.

"I ran into a guy downstairs. He said he was from your hometown and asked me to give this to you."

Wei Xue took the milk tea. "Thank you, thank you."

Then she ran back to the dorm, looking thrilled. The girl stared after her, bewildered. Was it from someone she liked? Why was she so excited?

"Oh my god, someone really did bring milk tea! How did you know? You're way too accurate!" Qian Xiaomeng circled Liu Mumu in shock, as if she wanted to examine her herself.

Wei Xue was only a little calmer.

What an incredible experience—to have a master like this as a roommate.

Of course, being mistaken for a master wasn't the main point. She mainly wanted to talk to them about Xue Lan.

Since it was such a coincidence that Xue Lan had ended up in her dorm, and she was able to help, there was no reason to pretend she knew nothing.

Liu Mumu didn't mention mystics. She only said she knew a folk remedy that might help Xue Lan.

Qian Xiaomeng and the others agreed with Liu Mumu. "It's just beans soaked in vinegar. They can't hurt her, so she might as well try. What if it works?"

"I think Xue Lan will agree, but let's not tell anyone outside the four of us for now, especially not her boyfriend. He seems really devoted to Xue Lan, and if it doesn't work, he might take it out on you," Wei Xue added.

"Okay. We'll tell her when she gets back tomorrow."

The next day, Xu Anze brought Xue Lan back. During the lunch break, Liu Mumu spoke to her privately about the remedy, and, just as expected, she agreed to try it.

They decided to soak a bottle of beans every five days, which meant they could finish the whole thing in just twenty days.

During the five days they waited for the beans, Xue Lan only had one night when she coughed nonstop. After Liu Mumu and the others woke her up, she stopped coughing.

When the beans were ready, they boiled and ate them every day using an electric cup, sneaking around to avoid the dorm supervisor. The vinegar smell filled the room and was overpowering.

Sure enough, Xue Lan stopped coughing.

And since everyone worried that three treatment cycles might not be enough to fully clear it, they soaked three more bottles of beans to make sure.

"I feel like I've been marinated in vinegar." Qian Xiaomeng sniffed her camouflage T-shirt as she walked.

"It's not just you. Remember that guy from my hometown who brought me milk tea? I saw him once in the cafeteria, and he never showed up again," Wei Xue said mournfully.

It was the first time in her life she'd ever been rejected like that.

"Only a big meal can save us," Liu Mumu added.

"Right!" all three said in unison, then turned to look at Xue Lan.

"No problem! You pick the place, and we'll eat out tomorrow night," Xue Lan agreed readily.

"No need to pick. Let's go to the hot pot place next to the school. I've been craving it forever," Qian Xiaomeng declared, and everyone agreed.

After settling on dinner for the next day, they saw that it was getting late and hurried to the school auditorium.

Their military training had lasted half a month, and today was the last day. The Welcome Party was that evening.

"Wonder if there'll be any freshman performances," Qian Xiaomeng said casually.

A banner welcoming the new students hung outside the auditorium, where some upperclassmen were handing out glow sticks.

"I think there will. Aze can play the piano. The department counselor called him in a few days ago about a piano and violin duet, but he turned it down, so they changed it to a violin solo," Xue Lan said.

"Why didn't he say yes? It would've been such a great chance to get noticed."

They chatted as they looked for their class's seats.

"He said his skills were only average and he didn't want to embarrass himself onstage... We're in the first two rows. Over there, right?" Xue Lan pointed toward the fifth row. Their class had a good spot, near the front.

Since they'd arrived early enough, it was easy to find four seats together.

They sat there for over an hour. The auditorium gradually filled with people, and at last the Welcome Party began.

The host introduced the acts. The first performance was by a freshman, just as Xue Lan had said: a violin solo.

The performer was a freshman from the History Department, Zhuo Ran.

Zhuo Ran wore a blue mermaid-style gown, and her long, curly hair was pinned up at the back of her head, revealing an elegant, swanlike neck. The moment the spotlight fell on her, the auditorium fell quiet, then erupted in cheers.

The gentle music began, and the audience gradually quieted. Everyone watched the girl at center stage as she moved gracefully to the music, as if dancing with the violin in her hands.

With every step she took, the diamond fringe on her skirt sparkled brilliantly.

When the music ended, Zhuo Ran lowered her violin and gave the audience an elegant bow.

Applause thundered through the auditorium, accompanied by screams and whistles.

After the performance, she didn't leave right away. She paused for a moment. Soon, a tall young man walked up the steps at the side of the stage, carrying a bouquet of white roses.

A smile lingered in Zhuo Ran's eyes as she accepted the bouquet and held it in her arms.

The young man was about to leave, but she stopped him. The photographer in the front row was taking pictures, so they stayed together a little longer before stepping offstage.

A handsome couple always drew attention, but if the young man hadn't been Xu Anze, perhaps things wouldn't have been so awkward.

He wasn't performing, but he'd been assigned to bring Zhuo Ran flowers. Roses, of all things.

People in the rows around Liu Mumu were screaming. Their row, however, was silent as a mouse.

A pretty girl none of them knew and their roommate's boyfriend—who could possibly ship that pairing?

Xue Lan seemed to understand what they were thinking. With all the noise around them, she could only take out her phone and send a message in the dorm group chat.

Xue Lan: Aze told me yesterday that he'd been asked to bring flowers onstage.

She also took a screenshot of her chat with Xu Anze from the night before.

Just as she'd said, Xu Anze had explained everything clearly, as if he were afraid people might misunderstand him.

The other three girls in the dorm all breathed a sigh of relief. As long as there was no misunderstanding, that was all that mattered.

With the misunderstanding cleared up, the atmosphere lightened. Qian Xiaomeng couldn't resist teasing her. "Let me interview you: does it make you nervous, having such a popular boyfriend? I swear, at least half the girls who cheered just now were doing it for your boyfriend."

Xue Lan said, "I'm used to it. It was even crazier in high school. I saw it all with my own eyes."

Liu Mumu said, "So he's the husband you fought your way through a thousand rivals to claim?"

Xue Lan said, "Mm... more or less."

Remembering what had happened in high school, she couldn't help smiling.

Xu Anze had transferred to their class from Jing City in his second year of high school. Back then, she'd been fearless. Of course she wanted to pursue a boy she liked, but unfortunately, there were far too many girls who felt the same way.

On average, twice a week, she'd see girls from upper or lower grades, or from her own year, confess to him, hand him love letters, or give him little gifts.

Her own courage had completely crumbled in the face of Xu Anze's many different ways of turning girls down, even though she hadn't been one of the girls confessing to him.

Near the end of their second year of high school, Xu Anze had confessed to her. Just before that, she'd received a love letter from a boy in the neighboring class.

They got together without a hitch, gradually came to know each other, and weathered plenty of misunderstandings along the way. After that, he made a point of telling her in advance about anything that might cause a misunderstanding. Even if he didn't get the chance at first, he would explain it to her properly afterward.

He'd given her almost all the reassurance she could ask for, and Xue Lan had gradually learned to trust him. Even after they left their old city and came to a new place, that trust wouldn't change.

After her performance, Zhuo Ran didn't leave right away. She stood by the backstage exit, holding the bouquet of white roses. She lowered her head to smell them, and a lovely smile blossomed across her face.

The boys passing by couldn't help looking at her for a few extra seconds. Everyone liked to look at beautiful things and beautiful women, and she really was gorgeous.

A few minutes later, Xu Anze walked backstage. Someone had called him over, saying a classmate needed his help. When he saw Zhuo Ran, he frowned slightly but didn't speak to her. He looked around, but couldn't find his classmate.

Zhuo Ran was still wearing the blue gown. It wasn't provided by the school; she'd brought it herself. Its expensive price tag matched the stunning impression she'd made when she stepped onstage.

She lifted her head slightly, revealing a face made up with rather heavy makeup, and said to Xu Anze, "You can stop looking. I had someone call you over. Thanks for the flowers."

"The school arranged that," Xu Anze said coolly.

"Did the school arrange the roses too? It was thoughtful of you to remember that white roses are my favorite." Zhuo Ran's gaze shifted slightly. "What if your little girlfriend sees them and gets jealous?"

"Zhuo Ran." Xu Anze's voice turned cold. "This has nothing to do with you."

"It does, actually." Zhuo Ran plucked a rose and placed it in Xu Anze's hand. As she passed him with the bouquet, the corners of her lips lifted slightly. "Give this one to her for me, as a welcome gift."

After Zhuo Ran left, Xu Anze tossed the rose in his hand aside and walked away with a cold expression.

No one knew what had happened backstage.

The Welcome Party came to a successful close, and everyone was excited. Quite a few people returned to their dorms still talking about some of the outstanding performances. Zhuo Ran, in particular, had made a name for herself among the new students.

The Welcome Party had barely ended, and already rumors about her were spreading everywhere.

Learning the violin from elementary school wasn't anything unusual. What people found even more fascinating was that she was not only talented, but came from a wealthy family.

They'd heard that because of her poor health, she'd had tutors teach her at home throughout elementary and middle school. She'd only started attending school in high school, and later won several major prizes at violin competitions overseas.

With her grades, she could easily have gotten into Jing City Conservatory of Music. Who knew why she'd come to Qing City University of Technology instead?