The Scorching Sun - 22
By now, Fang Zhuo was aching all over. She checked her injuries one by one.
The scrape on her left palm wasn't serious. She'd probably hit her forehead too.
She was about to reach up and touch it when Yan Lie rushed over, grabbed her wrist, and held her still so she couldn’t move. His face was dark with worry as he loomed in front of her, asking over and over, "Are you okay? Dizzy? Feeling sick anywhere?"
Voices buzzed noisily around them. Too many people talking, the noise making her head spin.
Fang Zhuo blew lightly on her stinging palm and said, "I'm fine. Did you wait for the green light before coming over?"
Yan Lie ignored her question completely. “I’m taking you to the hospital. Right now.”
Fang Zhuo thought he was overreacting. At the word hospital, her expression turned stern. “What do I need a hospital for? Even buying a band-aid would be a waste.”
She got bruised and scraped all the time growing up. She honestly didn't think this was a big deal.
Yan Lie wouldn’t meet her eyes as if he'd completely blocked out everything she was saying. His gaze stayed fixed on her forehead. "You're bleeding."
Fang Zhuo wanted to touch it, but Yan Lie still had a firm grip on her wrist, so she gave up.
She figured it probably wasn't serious. She couldn't feel blood running down, so it was most likely just a scrape. Just as she was about to say so, her eyelids suddenly felt heavy, something had landed on her lashes.
Someone nearby handed over tissues. Yan Lie carefully dabbed at the blood, avoiding the wound itself.
But the bleeding didn't seem to stop easily.
Fang Zhuo kept one eye open. All she could see in her blurred vision was Yan Lie's face right in front of hers.
When he wasn't smiling, he looked cold. His lowered brows and tightly pressed lips made it seem like he was angry.
But why was he angry at her?
Yan Lie crumpled up the tissue and pulled her along. "I'm calling a car."
Fang Zhuo resisted immediately. "No need. It'll be fine after a while. It's not like I've never fallen before."
At this point, "gloomy" no longer came close to describing Yan Lie's expression. He didn’t speak, just kept pulling her stubbornly toward the street. Fang Zhuo followed him for two steps before compromising. "Then let's at least take the bus."
Yan Lie turned around. It was as if all the patience and gentleness he'd shown earlier had been temporarily taken off the shelves. His voice rose before he could stop it.
"You want to get on a public bus looking like you could star in a horror movie?!”
Fang Zhuo was silent for two seconds, then corrected him seriously. "Domestic horror movies aren't allowed anymore."
Yan Lie took a deep breath, clearly trying hard to restrain himself.
It wasn't working very well.
It was a passerby behind them who mentioned there was a proper hospital nearby, which finally eased the tension a little.
Later, sitting in the bright examination room while the doctor dressed her wound, Yan Lie still looked deeply unwell.
Fang Zhuo watched the doctor. Yan Lie watched Fang Zhuo. The doctor cleaned the wound without looking away once. None of the three spoke.
The room was too quiet. Fang Zhuo's thoughts drifted farther and farther away, like the crowds outside the door.
Not long later, she heard Yan Lie ask, "Doctor, can you check her head again? Are you sure there's really nothing wrong with it? Why does she suddenly seem... less intelligent?"
Fang Zhuo lifted her head. “I’m calculating.”
Yan Lie asked, "Calculating what?"
Fang Zhuo frowned, deeply disappointed. "I lost money."
Those two words dissolved the last of Yan Lie’s temper. He pulled a stool over and sat down across from her, arms crossed, trying to figure out what exactly was inside her head.
Fang Zhuo knew he probably thought she was stingy and obsessed with money.
"If you don't pay attention to injuries, they heal faster," Fang Zhuo explained, generously sharing her hard-won wisdom. “It’s natural healing. That’s how everyone was when they were kids.”
Yan Lie said, “So if I do pay attention to it, it’ll heal slower?”
Fang Zhuo: “I’m saying it’ll heal even if you don’t pay attention to it.”
Yan Lie was exasperated. “Doctor, tell her.”
The doctor didn't answer. He simply pressed gauze against the edge of her wound. Fang Zhuo hissed from the pain.
Yan Lie frowned right along with her.
Once he was finished, the doctor finally offered a dry remark. “No wonder you’ve got all those bumps on the back of your head.”
Fang Zhuo: "...?"
Seeing him begin cleaning up the tray, Fang Zhuo asked again, "Does the gauze cost money?"
The doctor lifted his eyelids and teased, "What, were you hoping for freebies?”
Fang Zhuo said, "I was thinking you could bandage me more. Then I won't have to attend PE or morning exercises. I'll get more time to stay in the classroom and study."
The doctor was genuinely moved by her dedication to academics and replied, "It costs money."
Fang Zhuo dropped the idea immediately. “Never mind, then.”
"You young people think up the strangest things all day long." The doctor laughed, amused by her. "I'll write you a note. Go pay first. Don't get the wound wet, get plenty of rest, and go sleep more after you get back. Just have the school clinic change your dressing."
Fang Zhuo answered obediently, "Oh."
Yan Lie made Fang Zhuo sit in the waiting area outside. Looking at her face, already lacking much color and now even paler, he couldn’t help himself. "How did you even fall? I saw you there earlier. How can you be that careless? Tripping on flat ground.”
If he hadn't brought it up himself, Fang Zhuo would've let it go. But since he had, Fang Zhuo was not about to be polite.
"This was entirely your fault."
Yan Lie burst out laughing. "Classmate Fang Zhuo, are we abandoning reason now? Oh, unless you fell because you were staring at me. In that case, then yes, it really would be my fault. Why were you paying so much attention to me? You could've just called my name."
Fang Zhuo hadn't expected him to be this shameless. Worse, she couldn't even think of a solid rebuttal.
"It's because the public infrastructure is terrible," she said instead.
Her head had split open just like those cheap waterproof tiles.
Yan Lie found this a little funny. Right then, his phone rang. He pulled it out and saw it was Ye Yuncheng calling.
He turned the screen toward Fang Zhuo.
"Don't tell him," she said immediately.
Yan Lie took the phone over to the window to answer.
Ye Yuncheng sounded worried on the other end. "Lie Lie, do you know where Fang Zhuo is? Why isn’t she back yet? If the stuff won't sell, then forget about selling it. It'll be dark soon."
"She ran into the homeroom teacher on the way," Yan Lie said smoothly. "We chatted for a bit. Since she was alone and monthly exams are next week, the teacher had her stay with a few other students for extra tutoring. So she won't be coming back tonight. She’ll see about going back next week.”
Ye Yuncheng immediately sensed something off, so he didn't respond right away. Still, he didn't expose the lie either. He only said, "I see. But her school uniform is still here."
"I'll come get it for her tomorrow," Yan Lie said.
"Alright then."
Yan Lie returned with his phone. Fang Zhuo was studying her medical chart, trying to decipher the doctor's handwriting.
He pulled the booklet out of her hands. Once she looked up, he announced with complete seriousness, "I told him you're staying at my place tonight."
Fang Zhuo looked baffled. "Why would I go to your place? Why would you use an excuse like that? He'll definitely start suspecting things!"
Yan Lie stared at her for a moment, then threw her own words back at her. “Why are you still this innocent and cute at eighteen?”
Fang Zhuo: "..."
Having finally avenged an old grudge, Yan Lie was in an excellent mood. Before Fang Zhuo could retaliate, he grabbed the forms and happily trotted off to pay the bill.
After lining up and settling payment, Yan Lie walked back out holding the receipt, only to discover Fang Zhuo had followed him over and was currently staring up at the ceiling lights.
He pulled her toward the pharmacy counter and picked up two tubes of ointment.
The doctor must have noticed Fang Zhuo’s financial situation wasn’t great. He hadn’t charged for wound cleaning, and the medicine prescribed was cheap too. Altogether it only cost a little over thirty yuan.
Yan Lie stuffed everything into the small compartment of Fang Zhuo's backpack and slung it over his shoulder.
The moment they stepped out of the hospital, sunlight poured down on them, so bright Fang Zhuo had to squint.
She still remembered the important matter at hand and called out, "Let's go. I'll take you to eat something."
Yan Lie could never find a way around Fang Zhuo's logic and principles.
"Weren't you already operating at a loss?" he asked in amazement. "You got injured and won’t even take a taxi, but you're willing to treat me to food?"
"Those are two separate things," Fang Zhuo said. "I already promised I'd buy you something to eat."
Yan Lie was practically flattered beyond belief.
He used to think Fang Zhuo wouldn’t part with a single cent for him. Who would've thought she'd rather carry a financial deficit than break her promise to buy him food?
Did this mean their friendship had achieved a qualitative leap?
Apparently, he was pretty valuable after all.
Fang Zhuo took him to a noodle shop and ordered a bowl of wontons and a bowl of mixed noodles for him. For herself, she only bought a baked flatbread.
She didn’t have much of an appetite. Her head still felt a bit dizzy, and eating too much would make her nauseous. She forced down the flatbread and drank a bit of the free soup that came with it.
Yan Lie, meanwhile, ate with extreme reverence. Every bite felt like another chunk disappearing from Fang Zhuo's wallet. If he didn't properly savor it, he felt he'd be betraying the sacrifice she'd made.
After setting down his chopsticks, Yan Lie propped up his chin and asked with smiling eyes, "Am I the first person you've ever treated to a meal?"
Fang Zhuo looked at him like he was the one who'd hit his head. She stood up and said, "We're going back to school."
***
Since classes wouldn't officially resume until the following afternoon, the school was still very quiet. Only a few people could be seen walking around, and the front gate was opened just a crack.
As the two walked in, they ran straight into the homeroom teacher.
The moment she saw the bandage on Fang Zhuo's head, she exclaimed in shock, "Fang Zhuo, what happened to your head?"
Fang Zhuo wasn’t keen on revisiting the story. She shot Yan Lie a look and had him explain instead.
Yan Lie said, "Fang Zhuo went into the city today to run a street stall. She wanted to sell the farm products her uncle brought over and earn a little money."
"Mhm." The teacher's expression turned grave. She reached out to touch Fang Zhuo's forehead and said coldly, "Did the city management officers beat you?"
Yan Lie replied, "Then she went to the bathroom and fell down on the way back."
The teacher: "...??"
Yan Lie was holding back a laugh. “Yeah!”
Fang Zhuo glared at him, clearly unhappy. "Can I leave now? I want to go back and sleep."
Yan Lie handed her backpack over. The homeroom teacher, looking at her complexion and too worried, personally escorted her back.
***
The next morning, the first day after the holiday ended, Fang Yiming walked into the office as usual and found a female colleague handing out oranges.
Comments
Post a Comment