This time Jiang Lu was sick for two days in a row and didn’t get better, and Qi Anan’s mother-heart worried so much it was almost broken.
He was quiet when he was sick, never coughing. He looked lifeless, a little less cold than usual, showing a fragility that he hadn’t noticed before.
Seeing that Yu Tianyang was a lively dragon and animated tiger, and her cub was still pitiful, Qi An was anxious in her heart. After school that day, she finally couldn’t help but propose: “Jiang Lu, let me accompany you to the school hospital to hang up an IV. How can you keep dragging this disease?”
(t/n: lively dragon and animated tiger: vigorous and lively.)
Jiang Lu’s left hand vainly clenched into a fist against his lips. Hearing Qi Anan’s words, his fist stiffened and squeezed slightly.
There was a two-second pause before he said: “No, I’ll be fine soon.”
“You’re not allowed not to go. How can it work if you have a fever all the time.” Qi Anan poked Jiang Lu’s sleeve unreasonably. “Hurry up and follow me to the school hospital.”
The cub was actually disobedient. He was very obedient when he took medicine. Look at his haggard face. She wasn’t sure when her daughter would appear. In the first encounter between the two, the image was the key.
Compared with a healthy and energetic teenager and a weak patient, which one could make a better impression, did she still need to say?
Jiang Lu’s cuffs were pinched by Qi Anan’s two fingers. He lowered his eyes to look. Her fingers were thin, white, and slender, like a lily petal’s feeble strength.
He struggled for a moment, but Qi Anan quickly grabbed him with force.
“Hey, don’t run. You’ve been sick for how many days? Is it uncomfortable? Oh… is it that you’re afraid of injections?
Jiang Lu didn’t struggle away from her cat-like strength.
He sighed lowly: “No.” And said. “Good.”
Forget it. Think of it as greedily accepting a gift. In the future, they shouldn’t have an intersection in this life. When he recalled his youthful past, it wouldn’t always be wholly dark.
…
It was still cloudy outside just now. They saw a light rain outside when they left the teaching building. Qi Anan stretched out her hand and touched it: “Jiang Lu, wait for me. You can’t get in the rain now. Otherwise, the illness will get worse. I’ll go back and get an umbrella.”
Although the distance from their school building to the school hospital was only a few meters, the cub was sick, and she wouldn’t let him get wet in the rain.
Qi Anan turned around and ran away before she finished speaking, and Jiang Lu, who was fast, had no time to stop her.
Because of the fever, his eyes were wet, and Qi Anan’s back disappeared for a long time before he turned outside again.
The drizzle of the rain was silent. Jiang Lu followed Qi Anan’s example and stretched his hand to catch it.
The rain that fell on his hand was light like a mist, such a light force, it went down the skin into his veins, went up against the current, and stung his heart gently.
When he was little, they kicked him out because the man his mother brought home thought he was too much of a nuisance. That night, he also had a burning fever. Lightning and thunder in the sky, rain pouring like a bucket of water pouring down from the sky, and he couldn’t even find a place to get out of the rain. When he woke up groggy on the roadside the next day, his clothes hadn’t dried out yet.
From then on, the heavy rain in his world lasted a long time and never stopped.
Until just now, the little girl said in that delicate and waxy voice: “You can’t get in the rain.” She knew that every rain he had ever gotten had been much heavier than the rain at this moment.
But it was this rain that was destined to be the most memorable.
Jiang Lu sighed softly. He saw Qi Anan’s figure appear from the corridor side. She was trotting over to hold open the umbrella to hold it above his head: “Let’s go, be careful, don’t step on the puddle.”
She was petite, and the way she tried to straighten her arms made people feel soft in their hearts. A vague and gentle smile flashed in Jiang Lu’s eyes, and he took the umbrella’s handle: “I’ll do it.”
There weren’t many people in the school hospital. During the infusion, Jiang Lu cooperated with the doctor to remove his school uniform jacket. The next moment, the doctor and Qi Anan frowned together.
Qi Anan was a step faster: “Jiang Lu, why are you wearing so little? It’s been so cold these two days. No wonder you haven’t gotten better since you were sick.”
The girl’s slightly complaining voice made the doctor’s brows twitch, and he swallowed what he had to say. He tied the needle steadily and accurately, didn’t hold back his gaze from sweeping across Qi Anan’s face, looked at Jiang Lu again, and finally frowned and left without saying anything.
He acted as if he couldn’t move, but Jiang Lu looked up and watched the doctor’s back for a long time.
He grew up experiencing the fickleness of human nature. With an advanced and sensitive personality, he could usually understand the meaning of the look in other people’s eyes.
After the doctor went back, there was the sound of fragmented conversations over there: “The children now… Yeah, it’s too early… At that time, we were… Oh, we can’t control it…”
Jiang Lu’s gaze turned back with emptiness, with a silent coolness.
Qi Anan was oblivious to all this, she sat on the chair next to Jiang Lu, and her mouth was still complaining about him nonstop.
“In the past two days, why didn’t you wear more clothes? You haven’t worn a coat. I thought the clothes inside you were thick, but who knew it was so thin. Ugh, it’s my fault too. If I had found out earlier, I would have reminded you long ago…”
“Qi Anan,” Jiang Lu interrupted her and said in a low voice, “You should go back first.”
Hmm? Why was she suddenly kicked out? Could it be that she was too noisy? Maybe, the way she was chattering just now, she looked like a mother forcing her child to wear long trousers.
Qi Anan glanced at Jiang Lu’s expression, but his eyes were downcast, and his calm side face had no expression so that she couldn’t see his emotions at the moment.
Being stared at by such a pair of clear eyes, Jiang Lu only felt that his throat was drier. He tried to ignore the scorching sight and the sudden emotions in his heart: “I want to be alone for a while, thank you for sending me to the hospital. From now on…”
In the future, it would be better to stay away from him.
Although Qi Anan couldn’t understand the deeper meaning in Jiang Lu’s words, she could see that he was even more exhausted than now. She could only nod to agree with him: “… Okay, then I’ll go back. First, you take good care of yourself. This bottle of water hanging. Before it ends, remember to go to the doctor to change the next bottle. Otherwise, you’ll bleed.”
Qi Anan got up to carry her school bag and handed over the umbrella: “I’ll leave the umbrella for you. When you go back, be careful not to get wet… By the way, remember to wear thicker clothes tomorrow. I’ll check on you tomorrow. If you still wear so thin, I will…”
She said it smoothly. However, Qi Anan found that she didn’t seem to have anything to threaten him, so she went on, frustrated: “Anyway, you have to wear a thicker one, and if you burn your smart little head again, you will be stupid.”
Ah, it was so hard to be a mother, and she had endless worries. Qi Anan felt relieved. Fortunately, her daughter was a caring little cutie. When the little cutie takes care of this unruly cub, she can ship sugar without worries.
Qi Anan wandered in her sweet fantasy, completely missing Jiang Lu, looking over the pair of deep eyes.
Although his face was pale, his eyes were bright, like filled with stars, with fragments of clear rays of light.