Everyone you-a-mouth I-a-mouth, essentially all were caring about the two people, but this line revolving around “give a kiss” stood out very abruptly among the crowd’s concern.

Yan Luqing glanced over; the one shouting about giving a peck was precisely that plaster No.1 who stuck to Gu Ci and kept saying “my wife chased me” “I’m not a simp” — he was the only non-single person present; sure enough, his thought processes were a bit more twisted than the singles’.

Not only abrupt, but this person was also a loudmouth; the moment the words came out, the surroundings instantly, as if someone had pressed a pause button, fell into an eerie silence.

After three seconds of silence.

The “not-a-simp” plaster No.1 spoke in bewilderment: “Um… you two, why aren’t you refuting?”

Yan Luqing: “…?”

Isn’t this caring about them? Why would one refute?

Before anyone could say anything, he stepped forward another step, eyes wide as copper bells: “No way, did I hit the mark? They really went to give a kiss???”

Yan Luqing: “……”

She was just about to speak, but heard Gu Ci emit a light snort from behind. He walked to Yan Luqing’s side and replied in a faint voice: “Pei Ze, you might as well go write novels; I’ll be your first reader.”

That was a rebuttal.

And both Yan Luqing and Gu Ci wore such expressionless faces, completely showing no sign of having been pierced in their hearts.

Only then did everyone seem reactivated; the pause button switched to play, and they surrounded Plaster No.1, laughing loudly, “Your imagination is way too big, you even scared me stiff…”

Whether or not twins really shared a tacit understanding, Xia Yutian and Xia Xuetian, upon hearing Gu Ci’s rebuttal, reacted differently from the others; amid the seven-voices-eight-mouths chaos they butted in to complain, “Ah, what a pity, I actually thought they really kissed!!!”

Yan Luqing: “…………” I heard that, thanks.

In the end it was the search-and-rescue team personnel who came out to give instructions.

“All right, all right! If you have things to say don’t gather here to talk; you two who just came out get on this vehicle, go to the hospital first for a check-up, on the car tell us in detail how you fell down; the rest go where they should go; those who want to follow find your own car — disperse, disperse…”

The manager was strict; even when Big Black and Little Black said they were accompanying from home they were not allowed to get on the car together. The two nearly 1.9-meter-tall big men hung their heads dejectedly and stood to one side, looking pitiable to everyone, flowers withering at their sight.

A few hours earlier Yan Luqing had still been observing the two’s bubbles, and finding the brothers were not ordinarily full of guilt, she found some tasks for them: “This border collie is called ‘Wolf’; you two take it to a pet hospital and have any injuries treated.”

Having entrusted Wolf to them, she turned and, with Gu Ci one in front and one behind, boarded the vehicle bound for the hospital.

The vehicle they rode in was an ordinary van; the search-and-rescue team rode in another car and left. In total four scenic-area staff sat in the last row plus the front passenger seat.

Yan Luqing and Gu Ci sat side by side in the second-row seats, but the seats were independent; there was a distance separating them.

Once they got into the car, the surroundings instantly quieted considerably.

Because of an inexplicable low mood, Yan Luqing at this moment was in a state of not having quite come to; when it quieted down her mind felt very empty. Fortunately, not long after the vehicle set out quietly, a staff member’s voice began repeatedly echoing in the car asking them for details—

“We heard from your classmates that you are this year’s graduating university students, who arranged to come together to Dieye Mountain for a mountain-climbing autumn outing. At that time your group’s people were preparing to go buy things; you two suddenly fell behind, which caused those behind to misstep and roll down the hillside.”

That staff member was sitting in the front row and turned back to speak to the two of them. He was dark-skinned, with white teeth; in the pitch-black one could only see the shining big white teeth, much like what they say in skits: “the teeth have become sentient and float in midair.”

Big White Teeth asked, “So, Yan Luqing, Gu Ci, why did you suddenly not walk with them?”

Yan Luqing thought Gu Ci probably wouldn’t answer this kind of Q&A, most likely finding it boring; just as she was about to take the answer upon herself, Gu Ci unexpectedly opened his mouth.

“Because earlier I had left something at her place; she was going to bring it to me.”

“What kind of thing needs to be given from so far away, avoiding people?”

“The thing is a secret, so I can’t let the classmates see it.” Gu Ci paused, slightly turned his head, and, looking very sincere, said, “So sorry, I also can’t tell you.”

Yan Luqing: “……”

Actually it was just that she brought him medicine and glasses, did he need to make it so mysterious?

“…Okay,” Big White Teeth cleared his throat, “then how did you fall down?”

This time Yan Luqing answered quickly, “Because I didn’t watch my step, I stepped into thin air; he tried to pull me but couldn’t, and then we fell down together.”

“Mm, we later found the spot where you stepped into thin air; because of your accident, that spot will be reinforced afterwards.” Big White Teeth finished and continued, “So after falling down, you two stayed in that tree hollow at the foot of the mountain — how did you rest?”

Gu Ci: “We slept in the sleeping bag I brought.”

Big White Teeth hesitated, “…Slept together?”

Yan Luqing inexplicably felt the atmosphere in the car become strange; she herself also felt a bit uncomfortable, and immediately raised her voice slightly to emphasize, “What he brought was originally double-sized.”

Big White Teeth: “Ahem, okay, what did you eat?”

Gu Ci: “We ate the food from the backpack of the female classmate beside me.”

Big White Teeth paused for a moment, “So… she brought the food, you brought the sleeping?”

Gu Ci smiled faintly, “Yes, that summary is correct.”

Big White Teeth: “……” Why does it even become about dividing the work and cooperating, are you two really not doing this on purpose???

Dieye Mountain is a well-known scenic area developed for many years, considered one of the local tourist attractions; its facilities are all very complete. The emergency center is not very far from the mountain area; the vehicle soon drove into the nearest hospital.

Yan Luqing got out of the car first and, under the lead of a staff member, entered the hospital. Gu Ci had originally been a few meters behind her, but was suddenly grabbed by Big White Teeth, the man who had been asking questions in the car.

Gu Ci looked at the man who had grabbed his arm and said without much emotion, “What’s the matter?”

Big White Teeth was stunned.

When Gu Ci had been in the car he had seemed easy to talk to; at that time a smile hung on his face, that kind of smile looked very polite, and combined with the fact that he was too good-looking, it gave people the illusion that this person was very approachable.

But now, when that smile receded and he was stared at by those pitch-black eyes, it actually made one’s heart chill.

Then he came back to his senses: he’s merely a raw youngster who just graduated high school, what the hell is there to feel chilled about.

“…Well, young man,” Big White Teeth first sized him up from head to toe, then shook his head at him, and made the kind of pose gym-goers often use to show off their muscles; those overly exaggerated muscles were plainly a show-off. “You see, if it were someone like me, wouldn’t I be able to pull a little girl?”

He said earnestly, “So, in my opinion, you really ought to exercise more from now on!”

“……”

The one examining them was a middle-aged female doctor wearing a mask; the laugh lines at the corners of her eyes were many, and she looked to have a good temper.

Yan Luqing was in the middle of telling the doctor exactly how the two of them had been injured and where they were hurt, when a low-pressure presence suddenly came from beside her.

She turned her head and saw Gu Ci’s expressionless face; under the hospital’s bright white lights that delicate face looked like one of those cold-faced models in magazines.

—Almost as a reflex, a few words floated across her mind: The princess is in a bad mood.

Wasn’t he still smiling and answering questions in the car? What happened?

Yan Luqing was puzzled. Gu Ci left the words “I’m going to the restroom, go check on her first” and walked out the door; not even a few seconds later, the Big White Teeth from the car happened to enter the consultation room.

Yan Luqing had a number of small injuries on her body, but basically none required ointment or bandaging—after all, wearing long sleeves and long pants still blocked some of the scrapes—so her external wound check finished quickly.

By chance Big White Teeth had a few sheets of paper in his hand; it looked like he was there to confirm and sign some documents with the doctor, and Yan Luqing sat to the side and waited.

Big White Teeth watched the doctor sign and chatted with her: “These two kids are lucky—rolling down the slope such a long way and nothing major happened. I was just telling that male classmate, he’s just a bit weak, he should exercise more in the future. You know, if his strength were a little bigger, like mine, wouldn’t they have not even fallen in the first place? Sigh…”

“……”

Although since being rescued Yan Luqing had been in a somewhat dazed state and didn’t understand why she felt that way, now she knew very clearly: she was really unhappy.

“Sir.” Yan Luqing spoke up and interrupted Big White Teeth, who was about to continue his chatter.

All eyes in the room immediately turned to her.

“You don’t know what our situation was, why say it like that?” Although Yan Luqing was clearly sitting on a stool, her tone carried the force of someone standing on a stool. “Pulling me wasn’t just about strength, don’t you know how slippery the dirt slope was? And when we rolled down the hill he was carrying me while also dodging obstacles—”

Yan Luqing changed her breath and finished, enunciating clearly, “If that male classmate really had so little strength we might very well have died; please don’t say it so casually, okay?”

“……”

She knew this person probably meant no harm, probably just blunt and speaking offhandedly.

But she was simply angry.

She remembered exactly how Gu Ci had grabbed her then; she remembered when she tried to let go and he instead clasped her hand back; she remembered how he had held her head the whole way, and how, after finally hitting the tree, his back was injured… Why, when it was spoken by outsiders, did it become something that could be casually joked as “this little boy isn’t strong enough”?

Big White Teeth was silenced by the retort, and finally the female doctor smiled and broke the silence.

“Young lady, what you said is absolutely right; he’s just too simple-minded. If that boy really were as you say, would the young girl have so few injuries?”

Big White Teeth, holding the signed papers, left awkwardly. He pushed the door open, and Yan Luqing happened to meet Gu Ci’s gaze as he was about to come in. Did he hear it? How much did he hear? Even if he heard it all, Yan Luqing didn’t feel embarrassed.

She sat in the chair and waved at Gu Ci: “Hey, Gu Ci, come over.”

That man had been foolish enough that he didn’t even deserve a retort; Yan Luqing, however, had spoken so earnestly at length.

Gu Ci obeyed and came to her side.

Yan Luqing said: “Lower your head a bit more.”

Gu Ci lowered his head as told.

Then the girl’s deliberately softened voice smoothly entered his left ear.

“You absolutely mustn’t listen to his nonsense. If you dare train yourself into a muscle brute like him, you will lose me, this precious friend.”

…

The female doctor, who was witnessing the boy and girl whispering, was very patient. Only after Gu Ci straightened up did she walk to their side and begin the formal examination.

During the process, she kept sighing with emotion.

For example, when she discovered that Gu Ci’s back had already been disinfected, medicated, and finally wrapped with a bandage—

“Not bad, the way you two gave each other emergency treatment is really good.” The female doctor marveled. “The disinfection and bandaging tools were so complete; there’s no infection at all, it’s just that the splinter wounds are a bit deep. Be sure to change the medicine regularly; it will still take some time to heal.”

Yan Luqing was just about to help by asking whether there would be scars, when Gu Ci suddenly curved his lips and said: “Indeed not bad, because we have a Doraemon—everything is in the pocket.”

“…?”

When the female doctor found that both of them had dislocations that had been set back in place, she sighed again: “The technique is very good. Normally, if not reset at the hospital, there’s a pretty big chance of leaving lingering problems, but you two did excellently, perfectly.”

Yan Luqing recalled how Gu Ci had at that time reacted as if he couldn’t feel pain at all, and her own astonishing act of resetting her own joint, so she also said: “That’s normal, because we also have an Astro Boy, you know.”

“???”

The female doctor’s smiling face froze: Was it that she couldn’t understand kids’ jokes these days? What was all this supposed to mean??

In the end, she carefully summed up: “I didn’t expect that you two, at this age, still really love watching cartoons… such childlike hearts, really childlike, haha.”