That night, Li Yan couldn’t escape being taught a lesson by Lu Lianning. It wasn’t until three in the morning, when Li Yan’s voice was completely gone, that Lu Lianning finally let him go.
Li Yan had already been nursing a slight cold. After playing basketball with Lin Sheng in the afternoon and working up a sweat, he drank alcohol in the evening. On top of that, he was tormented by Lu Lianning, and by dawn, he woke up with a fever.
Li Yan couldn’t even open his eyes. Feeling the warmth of the feverish body in his arms, Lu Lianning irritably threw off the blanket.
He blamed the fever on the recent drop in temperature and Li Yan’s reckless behavior of running around without dressing properly.
At around five in the morning, Lu Lianning rummaged through the cabinets, searching for fever medicine but couldn’t find any. Fortunately, his not-so-quiet movements woke the butler.
Several servants also got up, some fetching water, others wetting towels.
Li Yan, either utterly exhausted or genuinely sick, hadn’t woken up the entire time, but every breath he exhaled was scorching hot.
His face was unnaturally flushed, glistening with a sheen of fine sweat.
As a servant changed the towel, Lu Lianning brought in the medicine. He lifted Li Yan halfway up, his expression grim, and the servants didn’t dare make a sound.
With a lack of gentleness, Lu Lianning shook Li Yan a couple of times. Li Yan frowned, his face burning red. Lu Lianning’s gaze lingered momentarily on the pale scar above Li Yan’s eyelid before he reached for the cup and called Li Yan’s name several times.
Covered in a cold sweat, Li Yan alternated between feeling hot and cold. Struggling to open his eyes, he saw Lu Lianning’s stern face. Too groggy to think straight, he assumed Lu Lianning was still angry and opened his mouth to admit his mistake. But before he could say anything, Lu Lianning shoved two bitter pills into his mouth.
Seeing Li Yan’s face wrinkle from the bitterness as though he wanted to spit them out, Lu Lianning brought the cup to his lips and said, “Don’t spit them out. You have a fever, you know that?”
Li Yan’s eyelashes fluttered, and he appeared to be only half-conscious. Lu Lianning laid him back down.
After changing the towel three times, Li Yan’s fever finally subsided a bit, and he fell back into a deep sleep.
As the servants left, Lu Lianning lifted the quilt and lay down beside Li Yan again. The first light of dawn was already filtering through the window.
He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again, reaching out to touch Li Yan’s forehead and tucking the quilt back around him after Li Yan had kicked it off.
At 6:30 AM, Lu Lianning went downstairs. The butler was relaying the day’s menu to the cook when he saw Lu Lianning coming down and approached him.
“No need to prepare anything else for him. Let him sleep in, and bring up a bowl of pumpkin porridge when he wakes up,” Lu Lianning said.
The butler answered, “Yes,” then, after observing Lu Lianning’s expression, suggested, “It’s still early. Would you like to rest a little more, young master?”
Lu Lianning replied, “No need.”
The butler had been sent by Lu Anling when Lu Lianning first moved to City A. He had managed the household since Lu Lianning was a child at the old Lu residence, so it wasn’t an exaggeration to say he had watched him grow up. He was different from the other servants.
After a pause, Lu Lianning asked, “Has he been in a good mood lately?”
There was no need to ask who “he” referred to.
The butler didn’t answer directly but instead said, “The day before yesterday, he watered every plant in the greenhouse and opened a can of cat food to mix with the dry food for the cat.”
After a moment of silence, Lu Lianning spoke again, “I’m not saying he can’t make friends, but I need to know who he’s dealing with. What if they have other intentions?”
–
After Lin Sheng hung up on Lin Zhe, he lit another cigarette on the balcony, finishing it before heading back inside.
Although he wasn’t heavily addicted to smoking, he did indulge occasionally. However, he couldn’t stand the smell of smoke indoors, so he always made sure to tightly close the glass balcony door before going back in.
The name “Lu Lianning” sounded vaguely familiar, as if he’d heard it somewhere before. But since he had spent the past few years abroad, he doubted he had ever come into contact with this member of the Lu family.
So where did this strange sense of familiarity come from?
Lin Sheng walked into the living room and poured himself a glass of ice water, which helped calm the irritation he had been feeling.
After returning to China, he had moved out of his family home and was now living in an apartment not far from University C.
Lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling, he recalled the anxious and nervous look on Li Yan’s face when he left earlier. What kind of grudge could it be?
Li Yan seemed like such a good-natured, honest person.
He liked basketball but never joined the games. If Lin Sheng hadn’t thrown the ball to him, Li Yan would probably just sit quietly in the corner of the bleachers.
No phone.
No money, either.
But a curfew that required him to be home after seven o’clock.
–
Li Yan woke up around two in the afternoon, feeling much more refreshed.
A servant brought him a bowl of pumpkin porridge. It was still slightly hot, so he sipped it slowly, taking half an hour to finish.
Feeling sore and weak from lying in bed for so long, he got up, changed out of his pajamas, and left the bed.
The sound of raindrops hitting the window echoed from outside; it was raining again.
Li Yan glanced out the window briefly before turning his gaze away.
Although it was mid-afternoon, the sky looked as if it were already five or six o’clock, shrouded in a gray haze.
When the butler saw him come downstairs, he approached and handed him a thermometer. “The young master asked that you take your temperature twice when you wake up and send it to him.”
Li Yan took the thermometer and sat on the sofa to check his temperature.
Noticing that Li Yan still looked a little out of sorts, the butler asked, “Would you like to watch some TV?”
Li Yan responded, “Okay.”
The butler handed him the remote control and then stepped aside.
It had been a long time since Li Yan had watched TV. The flashy variety shows and dramas felt strangely disconnected from him.
He flipped through about ten channels aimlessly, unsure of what he wanted to watch. Leaning back on the sofa, he suddenly saw Lu Lianning’s face on a financial news channel.
His hand paused, just about to change the channel when an image of Lu Lianning dining with an Omega at a restaurant appeared. The caption mentioned that the Omega was the young master of the Song family.
So, news about Lu Lianning now appeared only on financial channels, not entertainment ones.
At that moment, a figure suddenly blocked the screen in front of Li Yan. The butler reminded him, “Mr. Li, it’s time to check the thermometer.”
The butler took the thermometer from Li Yan, glanced at it, and said, “The fever has gone down.”
Li Yan still held the remote in his hand. He was very thin, and his entire body seemed to sink into the large sofa.
After speaking, the butler didn’t move away. He bent down slightly. “Mr. Li, perhaps you would like to visit the greenhouse? The young master just had a few pots of flowers delivered, and they haven’t been watered yet.”
