Xu Xingye's eyelids gave a violent twitch.
He almost sat bolt upright.
At the last possible second, thanks to the self-control forged by years of goofing off in class, he crushed the impulse and only made his breathing a touch more even.
Unfortunately, Lu Siting noticed nothing.
[He really was asleep.]
[He didn't hear that just now, right?]
Lu Siting sat by the bed, silent for a moment, then picked the thermometer up off the desk for another look. Apparently he believed staring at a glass tube could solve problems; he turned it over and over for a good while before finally putting it back.
[Why isn't he waking up?]
[He's slept so long—is his stomach still hurting?]
[Should I call the school doctor back?]
[No. He just left. Calling him back now makes it look like I can't handle anything.]
Eyes closed, Xu Xingye listened until his ears went numb.
He seriously suspected that Lu Siting wasn't keeping watch over a patient so much as running an online meeting inside his own head, with no audience.
Even more ridiculous: the meeting had no moderator either.
Lu Siting sat a while longer, then reached over and nudged the chair closer to the bed. The chair leg scraped the floor with a faint sound, and he froze at once and glanced down at Xu Xingye.
[Did I wake him?]
[No. Sleeping like an angel.]
Xu Xingye nearly choked on that verdict.
A one-point-eight-meter-tall guy, lying in the infirmary faking an illness, getting rated “sleeping like an angel”—there was something deeply wrong with that picture.
Lu Siting seemed to grow more satisfied the longer he looked, his gaze parked on Xu Xingye's face and refusing to leave.
[He wears glasses every day and I never noticed—his lashes are so long.]
[His face is smaller than I imagined, too.]
[If only I could get a little closer.]
[Kissing him probably wouldn't wake him up, right?]
Xu Xingye's fingers slowly curled into fists under the blanket.
This man had been agonizing minutes ago over whether touching a forehead made him a creep, and now he'd skipped straight to the kissing stage.
Where was the psychological build-up in between?
Did he eat it?
Lu Siting raised his hand; his fingertips hovered for a few seconds, then slowly came down, and in the end all he did was tug the corner of the blanket that had slipped to Xu Xingye's chin back up.
[Never mind. He's not feeling well.]
[I'll kiss him when he's better.]
Xu Xingye's brow gave a tiny twitch.
This had officially outgrown the question of whether the guy was a creep.
This was a crime with a scheduled time slot.
Footsteps sounded outside the infirmary. Lu Siting paid them no mind and stayed in his chair. He took out his phone and checked the time—past four in the afternoon, still a while before the final bell.
[Two more hours of guard duty.]
[I wonder what he'll want for dinner.]
[Patients should have porridge.]
[But is porridge alone nutritious enough?]
Listening, Xu Xingye's brain automatically conjured the image of Lu Siting standing at a cafeteria window, solemnly interrogating the server about the nutritional profile of the porridge.
The man looked reasonably intelligent. How did he swap out his entire operating system the moment Xu Xingye was involved?
The footsteps outside grew louder.
Lu Siting finally looked up.
The next second, the infirmary door was flung open and slammed against the wall with a bang.
Xu Xingye's shoulders jumped; he nearly blew his cover on the spot.
Lu Siting's brow furrowed too.
A man in his forties marched in, hair sparsely distributed across the top of his head, his face black as if he'd just discovered half his class had gone missing. He held a few test papers clamped in his hand, swept the room after entering, and finally fixed his gaze on the cot.
“Where's Xu Xingye?”
Lu Siting didn't answer.
Seeing that, Wang Jianguo walked to the bed himself. He peered through the curtain, then slapped the test papers down on the side table with a cold laugh.
“Nice timing, huh. Skives off during the last period of the day, and right before the final bell he's sleeping comfortably.”
Eyes shut, Xu Xingye had already begun cursing inwardly.
His stomach hurt so badly his face had gone white, he was lying flat in the infirmary, and he was still being accused of skipping class. Was he supposed to do a couple of somersaults on the cot to prove he wasn't on vacation?
Wang Jianguo got no reaction, and his tone soured further. “Some students don't manage their grades, but they pick up crooked tricks fast enough. Faking sick to dodge class, dodging homework—do they really think teachers can't tell?”
With that, he reached out and flung the curtain open, coming face to face with Xu Xingye's pale face.
Xu Xingye's heart clenched.
Now opening his eyes was wrong, and not opening them was wrong too.
Wang Jianguo clearly had no intention of letting him explain. He pointed at the cot and pressed on. “Let me make myself clear today: faking illness to skip class will be dealt with seriously. As one of this class's key watch-list students, you should be made an example of.”
Beside him, Lu Siting's face darkened, degree by degree.
[His face is white as paper and this man is still yelling.]
[What kind of homeroom teacher is this?]
[Does he want to keep his job or not?]
Hearing those lines, Xu Xingye felt a sudden, bad premonition.
Wang Jianguo was still going strong. “You students lean on your parents and think discipline is a joke. If I don't stamp out this lazy attitude of yours today, is everyone going to copy you tomorrow?”
The words had barely landed when a harsh scraping sound came from beside him.
Lu Siting stood up.
The chair legs dragged across the floor—not loud, but it cut off the rest of Wang Jianguo's speech, jamming it in his throat.
Silence fell over the infirmary.
Lu Siting looked up at him, expression perfectly flat, though his fingers pressed against the chair back, knuckles faintly white.
Xu Xingye kept his eyes closed, even softening his breathing.
He didn't know what Lu Siting was about to do. He only knew that once the man stood up, the voice in his head came through clearer than ever.
[This old fossil actually dared to yell at my wife.]
[Does he not want his salary anymore?]
[This school can forget about staying open, too.]
Xu Xingye: “...”
Aren't we drifting a little beyond the scope of a school dispute?
Wang Jianguo shifted uncomfortably under the stare, frowning. “And who are you? This is the school infirmary, not a place you can run wild.”
Lu Siting didn't answer right away. He took one step in front of the cot, exactly blocking Wang Jianguo's line of sight to Xu Xingye.
The movement was effortless, like shielding something behind him without thinking about it.
Xu Xingye's fingers paused.
Only then did Lu Siting speak, voice flat. “He's sick.”
Wang Jianguo blinked, then snorted. “Sick? He says he's sick, so he's sick? Did the school doctor write him a diagnosis?”
Lu Siting's gaze dropped, sweeping over the thermometer and the medical log on the desk.
“I approved his leave.”
The smile froze on Wang Jianguo's face.
Lu Siting lifted his head, tone still calm. “Do you have a problem with that?”
Wang Jianguo's mouth opened.
He stared at that cold face and abruptly found it familiar. A few seconds later, his expression went from puzzlement to shock, and he nearly dropped the test papers in his hand.
“You're...”
Lu Siting said nothing.
Wang Jianguo's face transformed instantly. All that lecturing menace evaporated without a trace, and his back bent along with it.
“Young Master Lu. It's you.”
Xu Xingye's eyelids stirred.
Young Master Lu?
What exactly was Lu Siting?
Wang Jianguo hurried to explain. “It's all a misunderstanding! I didn't know this student of yours was a friend of yours. Nothing I said was meant any way—discipline's just been tight at school lately, and I got anxious, that's all.”
Lu Siting looked at him, his coldness suggesting he hadn't heard a word.
Wang Jianguo mopped the sweat off his forehead and pressed on. “Don't you worry—from now on I'll take good care of this student of yours.”
[Take good care of my wife?]
[Him? As if he's worthy?]
Xu Xingye nearly opened his eyes.
Wang Jianguo, oblivious to how close he'd just come to dying again, wore a face full of smiles and waited, bent at the waist, for Lu Siting's reply.
Lu Siting answered with a flat “Mm.”
Wang Jianguo exhaled in relief.
“Then I won't intrude. This student of yours should rest well. I'll mark him down as sick leave for the afternoon.”
Lu Siting's eyes lifted a fraction. “Out.”
Wang Jianguo nodded rapidly and turned to go, moving fast enough that someone seemed to be chasing him with a disciplinary notice.
When the door shut again, only the hum of the air conditioner was left in the infirmary.
Lu Siting sat back down in the chair, looked at the cot, and only after confirming Xu Xingye was still “asleep” did he quietly let out a breath.
[Did I scare him just now?]
[This is all Wang Jianguo's fault.]
[Wife wouldn't think I'm too scary, right?]
Eyes shut, Xu Xingye heard that last line, and his heartbeat skipped a beat for no reason at all.
He pulled the blanket up a little higher and thought, for the first time, that this person might not just be sticking his nose in.