Suddenly canceled, Yan Luqing unexpectedly found herself quite unaccustomed.

Gu Ci ate little today, finishing before Yan Luqing. Only when he stood up did he finally speak: “This afternoon you go to school by yourself, don’t wait for me.”

Yan Luqing was stunned, lifted her head, carefully observed his face, and her first reaction was: “What’s wrong, are you not feeling well?”

“No, not unwell.” On the surface, Gu Ci seemed only a bit more tired than he had on the return journey. In the end he said one sentence, “Very sleepy, too lazy to go.”

After that, he turned and left the dining room, the direction seeming to be back to his room.

Apart from his tone being slightly cold, the rest truly did look like he simply had not slept enough, so Yan Luqing believed Gu Ci’s explanation.

Only, after he did this, Yan Luqing’s own drowsiness seemed to be infected as if transmitted over, rushing up all at once. After finishing her meal she went back to her room, collapsed onto the bed, and when she woke up, the first class in the afternoon was already more than halfway through.

Yan Luqing stretched lazily, reached for the phone by her side, and saw several messages sent by Little Mahua a few minutes ago.

【Little Mahua】: You said you were going to attend a banquet, why didn’t you tell me you were going with that one of yours?

【Little Mahua】: [image][image]

The pictures were still screenshots of chat records, from the T University group chat.

First, half an hour ago—

【Learn to the End of the World: I realize, people ah, being too outstanding isn’t a good thing】

【Grasses on the Plain: How so?】

【Learn to the End of the World: Our professional course’s Professor Wu loves to have us enter the laboratory, not the formal kind, just the teaching-use laboratory】

【Learn to the End of the World: Then our group’s beloved, the great beauty Gu Ci, the previous two times was always his exclusive assistant. This afternoon Gu Ci didn’t come to class, Old Wu lost his assistant, and immediately discovered he skipped class hahahaha】

Then, eight minutes ago—

【Grasses on the Plain: Just now I was chatting idly with a friend from a neighboring school, she said this was a large lecture, with over a hundred people, the teacher suddenly started roll-calling one by one, the most critical thing—Little Pretty also didn’t attend class.】

【Learn to the End of the World: ? Ah this, the great beauty and the little pretty both skipping class together? I vaguely remember it was mentioned in the group that these two even live together】

【Learning is Endless: Grass, suddenly shipping them? Even this crooked road can be shipped?】

【Learn to the End of the World: kdlkdl! kswlkswl!】

……

Yan Luqing casually replied to Little Mahua, while marveling as she sat up from the bed. She sighed at how magical the existence of this group was—it proved that even study tyrants had love, study tyrants could also gossip idly.

When Yan Luqing went downstairs, the living room was empty.

She had already slept nearly three hours. How sleepy must Gu Ci be, that he still had not woken up even now.

Afterward she sat down on the sofa, turned on the television, and watched a full hour of drama series. Yet while watching, she felt somewhat absent-minded.

—Gu Ci still had no movement.

Yan Luqing again thought of how he had also eaten very little at lunch, and at once many guesses rose up, like perhaps he had passed out in his sleep, or was suffering, fever burning until his mind was unclear…

She did not hesitate too long, immediately got up and walked to Gu Ci’s room door.

She lightly knocked twice, then very slowly, very softly pushed it open—

The curtains in Gu Ci’s room were not fully drawn, leaving a gap for the sunlight to spill through, and that sliver of light illuminated the room within.

He had originally been lying flat, but it seemed he had not been asleep. Almost instantly, he sensed her entering, then propped up his upper body on the bed.

Before Yan Luqing even saw his face clearly, she first heard his voice.

“Why didn’t you go to school?”

Not much different from his usual way of speaking, just a little hoarse, like someone who had just woken up.

Yan Luqing instantly let down half of her worry, teasing: “There’s a study god at home not going to class, sleeping at home. I just follow your example.”

“Oh,” Gu Ci’s voice carried a tinge of laughter again, “so it’s my fault?”

“Mm.” Yan Luqing said it shamelessly, then closed the door and walked toward him. As she walked, she spoke the truth: “Actually I just slept a bit too long. When I woke up the first class was already more than halfway over, so there was no point going to the trouble.”

“And you?” She stopped at the edge of Gu Ci’s bed. “I saw you slept too long, I was afraid you…”

Halfway through the sentence, Yan Luqing saw his face clearly, and suddenly froze.

Gu Ci’s complexion compared with lunchtime earlier had worsened by not just one or two degrees.

He had always been pale, but at this moment his face and lips could completely be described as pale as paper—without exaggeration. This kind of sickly whiteness made his eyes look even more black, and fine beads of sweat hung on his forehead.

This appearance overlapped with some memory of him.

Before Yan Luqing could recall which moment it was, her eyes slowly widened: “Gu Ci… what’s wrong with you? Are you sick?”

Her expression was bewildered and anxious, her tone rising, unconsciously carrying a slight tremor.

Gu Ci was not very willing to see her like this.

He was never the kind of person who, after being injured a little, would show people how much blood he had shed.

But facing Yan Luqing now was as though facing a piece of wood he had taken a liking to, yet it seemed solid through and through.

The little piece of wood had walked over to him on its own, he had to do something.

Gu Ci did not answer her directly. Instead, he replied with a seemingly irrelevant sentence: “Do me a favor.”

Yan Luqing was stunned: “What?”

“Bring me a bottle of wine.”

Yan Luqing instinctively turned to go fetch it, but after walking two steps, suddenly realized something was wrong.

—After having attended so many occasions with him, when had Gu Ci ever drunk alcohol?

All the more so had he never taken the initiative to ask for it.

Yan Luqing pressed her lips together. “…Why do you suddenly want to drink?”

Gu Ci was silent for three seconds, then suddenly said: “On the first day I came, I told you, I thought I had been drugged. Do you remember?”

Yan Luqing remembered.

In her mind she even found the scene of the original host instructing Big Black to drug him.

She hesitated and said: “So the way you are now, and the times before when your complexion suddenly looked bad, it was all because of…”

Gu Ci looked at her and answered directly, “Yes.”

Yan Luqing suddenly felt a tight pain in her heart. “What is it—”

“Simply put, its effect can basically be summarized as hallucinatory. The hallucination is pain,” Gu Ci said. “Pain that is exceedingly realistic.”

“…Where does it hurt?”

“It’s like—” Gu Ci stretched out his hand, palm facing up. It was clean, with faint lines. With the other hand, he pointed from the tip of the finger and traced downward. “What I feel now is as if from here, a knife cuts open and ruins every finger, every inch of your hand. It’s also like someone with scissors, cutting your…”

He did not go on.

Because with an unintentional lift of his eyes, he met Yan Luqing’s gaze. She was both shocked and heart-sore, all of it written on her face; her eyes already brimmed with a bright layer, staring round like a little animal that had been bullied.

Gu Ci was suddenly amused by her expression, even though clearly he was the one being bullied.

Yan Luqing stayed silent for a long time, then quietly sat down on the edge of his bed, and in a low voice asked: “How much does it hurt?”

Gu Ci thought for a moment, then spoke truthfully: “At the very beginning, there are a few moments when I can’t tell whether this pain is the hallucination, or whether the uninjured skin my eyes see is the hallucination.”

“…”

Yan Luqing suddenly thought of when the two of them had been in the tree hollow. She had wondered at discovering Gu Ci seemed unable to feel pain—he had once said, almost casually:

Pain is something one gradually endures.

Her heart suddenly became especially stifled; with each beat there came a faint dull ache.

Yan Luqing asked again: “Why did you just now want me to get wine?”

“To dull the senses, and also to shift attention.” Gu Ci gave her a small smile. “Wine is faster.”

Bloodshot lines appeared in Gu Ci’s eyes, sweat sliding down from his temple—everything looked like the spontaneous stress response of a body under pain, yet his expression was not affected in the slightest. His smile and the curve of his eyes were no different from usual.

As though he could separate himself from his own body.

“There’s no other way?” Yan Luqing for a moment could not think, and grew a little anxious. “You must have something, right? Don’t drink wine. You barely ate at noon, your stomach is far more delicate than mine. After drinking won’t you just have one more place hurting…”

Yan Luqing still wanted to say more, but Gu Ci suddenly spoke, cutting her off.

“Not drinking is also fine.”

Yan Luqing was stunned. Her wrist was suddenly grasped, pulled in his direction, and then her whole person was embraced—

She felt Gu Ci’s hand loosely encircle her waist, his face resting on her shoulder. As he spoke, his warm breath scattered against her neck, almost like a plea, softly saying: “But you have to let me hold you for a while.”

He had clearly already acted, yet still asked once.

“Alright?”

“Family Head.”