Fever

Shan Ye took the medicine, wanting to say thank you, but no sound would come out. He lowered his head and swallowed it, his eyes a little damp-not from being moved, but from the fever.

Forcing himself to speak, he said, "Take me home. I have medicine there. I don't need to go to the hospital."

Unable to change his mind, Yu Chuan drove him to his apartment building, opened his door for him, and helped him into bed.

Shan Ye was delirious with fever. Once he lay down, he didn't want to move.

"Keep the covers on. Your medicine's by the bed. Remember to take another dose tonight." Yu Chuan set the water and medicine on the nightstand and tucked him in.

Shan Ye murmured assent, already unable to keep his eyes open.

Yu Chuan stood beside the bed for a while, watching his fever-flushed face, then sighed. Instead of leaving, he went to sit in the living room, worried that Shan Ye's fever might spike in the middle of the night with no one around.

Before long, Shan Ye's phone rang.

Yu Chuan glanced at it. The screen read "Fan."

He hesitated, then picked up the phone and went to the bedroom doorway, calling softly, "Shan Ye, your phone."

Shan Ye didn't respond. He was sound asleep.

The phone kept ringing. Yu Chuan glanced at the caller ID, then at the figure curled up in bed, and answered.

"Hello?"

There was a second of silence on the other end.

"Who are you?"

Fan Jin's voice was low, cold as ice.

"I'm Yu Chuan, Shan Ye's coworker." Yu Chuan lowered his voice. "He has a fever. He just took some medicine and fell asleep."

Another silence came from the other end. "How high is his temperature?"

"I didn't check, but he feels pretty hot. He didn't want to go to the hospital. I just gave him some fever medicine, so he should be all right."

Fan Jin said nothing.

Yu Chuan waited a few seconds, then added, "Don't worry. I'm here looking after him."

Fan Jin's voice suddenly went flat. "No need."

"I'm coming over."

Yu Chuan froze for a moment. "Aren't you in-"

The call ended.

Yu Chuan looked at the darkened screen and raised an eyebrow. Getting anxious?

Fan Jin went next door to see Auntie Zhang. She was a kind woman who had often helped them in the past. He told her that something urgent had come up and he needed to return to Muzhou, asked her to look after his grandmother for a few days, and left her some money.

Fan Jin changed his flight to seven that evening. It was four in the afternoon now. He quickly packed his luggage and left for the airport.

Shan Ye slept until ten. When he woke, he looked around the empty apartment. Had Yu Chuan left?

He cleared his throat and called for Yu Chuan. A man came in from the living room. Squinting at the tall, dark silhouette, he said hoarsely, "Why haven't you left yet? Thanks for looking after me. I'm much better now. You should go home."

The figure stood in the doorway and said, "Who were you calling?"

Shan Ye narrowed his eyes. That wasn't Yu Chuan? The room was too dark to make him out.

"You... who are you?" His heart instantly started racing. That voice was so familiar, so much like Fan Jin's. But wasn't Fan Jin in Osmanthus City? How could he possibly be back?

Shan Ye slowly pushed himself upright and reached for the bedside lamp, but the man caught his hand first.

The man said quietly, "You just woke up. The bright light will hurt your eyes."

Shan Ye blinked twice in the darkness, then asked uncertainly, "Fan?"

"Mm."

"You... when did you get back?" Excitement crept into Shan Ye's voice. Was he delirious? Fan Jin had come back early? Why?

He hadn't checked his phone since that afternoon, and he hadn't told Fan Jin about his fever. How had he found out?

"I got here a little while ago. Feeling better?" Fan Jin asked quietly, resting the back of his hand against Shan Ye's forehead to check his temperature.

But the back of his hand alone couldn't give him an accurate reading. Shan Ye was still foggy-headed, and the light was still off. He watched Fan Jin go out and return with a mercury thermometer.

"Put this in your mouth," Fan Jin ordered, his tone almost stern.

Dazed, Shan Ye leaned his head forward a little and reached for the thermometer in Fan Jin's hand. The room was so dark that he had to grab Fan Jin's hand first to guide his lips to it.

He obediently held one end of the thermometer in his mouth and leaned back against the pillow.

Only after giving him time to adjust did Fan Jin switch on the small bedside lamp.

In its warm glow, Shan Ye finally saw the man before him clearly: those familiar eyes, that nose, those thin lips. It really was Fan Jin.

He stared at him, barely blinking.

Fan Jin could see the marks of sleep on his face. His hair wasn't as neat as usual, and his eyelids still carried a sleepy languor.

He looked utterly dazed and bleary-eyed.

His face was still a little red from the fever.

"Does your head still hurt?" Fan Jin asked.

With the thermometer in his mouth, Shan Ye shook his head and mumbled, "Doesn't hurt." The words were little more than a hum.

Fan Jin smiled. He took the thermometer from Shan Ye's mouth and checked it. "Your fever's gone, but it might come back in the early hours. Take some more medicine later."

Shan Ye nodded. "Okay."

Suddenly remembering something, he glanced toward the doorway. He couldn't hear any movement outside. "Where's Yu Chuan?"

Fan Jin's brow furrowed slightly. "You're that worried about him? You called his name the moment you woke up."

"He left. I'm the one looking after you now." Fan Jin stood, disinfected the thermometer, and put it back in the medicine box.

Shan Ye couldn't quite describe how he felt, but from the sound of Fan Jin's words... Was he jealous?

His eyes instantly lit up, joy blossoming in his heart.

Fan Jin stood before him, looking down at him. "Hungry?"

Shan Ye rubbed his stomach, which growled right on cue. "I think so. Are you going to make me something?"

"What do you want to eat?"

"I'll eat whatever you make."

This was great. Being sick meant not only getting to see Fan Jin, but eating his cooking too. He wouldn't mind having this cold a little longer.

Shan Ye heard Fan Jin turn on the stove in the kitchen. Perhaps because he was so hungry, he could smell the food from all the way over here. Before long, Fan Jin brought in a bowl of noodles and set it on the desk.

"Want to get up and have some?" Fan Jin asked, coming closer.

"Yes!"

Shan Ye threw back the covers and sat up, only then noticing the pajamas he was wearing. His gaze sharpened. "My clothes... who changed them for me?" he asked, sounding a little uncertain.

Yu Chuan had been the one looking after him at home earlier. Had Yu Chuan changed him?

"I did," Fan Jin said coolly.

"You were sweating when your fever broke. I thought you'd be uncomfortable in those clothes, so I took them off." He pointed at the shirt and jeans hanging on the rack.

It was a perfectly reasonable explanation, and Shan Ye couldn't argue with it, but, but, but... "You could at least have put some pants on me." When he lifted the covers and saw his bare legs, with nothing on but his underwear, he quickly ducked back under.

"...You kept kicking the covers off with them on. I came in to check on you several times, and you weren't covered up once."

"I... so you took them off again?" Shan Ye was momentarily speechless, unable to argue. Didn't that mean Fan Jin had seen every inch of him except that one place?

"Mm."

His face instantly grew hot. Although he liked Fan Jin, the thought of being so out of it with fever that he'd felt nothing while Fan Jin changed his clothes...

...was mortifying.

Fan Jin countered, "Would you rather have had Yu Chuan change you?"

"No! That's not it. I wanted you to change me." He emphasized the word "you," and Fan Jin seemed reasonably satisfied.

He went around to the other side of the bed and fetched Shan Ye's pajama bottoms. "Put these on and get up to eat."

Fan Jin turned his back to wait.

Shan Ye took the crumpled pajama bottoms, shook them out twice, and quickly pulled them on.