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Chapter 28: Classmate Chu Zining, you wouldn’t want your affairs exposed, would you?

Lu Li raced to the infirmary with Chu Zining in his arms, shouting, “Help!”

A female doctor in a white coat, who had been tending to another student, noticed Lu Li’s urgency and hurried over to examine Chu Zining. The examination took only a moment, but Lu Li waited anxiously, like a husband outside a delivery room.

Fortunately, the doctor was experienced and quickly identified the problem. “No need to panic; it’s nothing serious,” she said as she skillfully inserted an IV, half-amused. “You were in such a rush I thought it must be something major.”

Lu Li glanced at the bottle of plain glucose and asked, confused, “Doctor, what exactly happened? Why did she suddenly faint?”

The doctor explained calmly, “She skipped breakfast and then ate something acidic, like hawthorn, on an empty stomach. Hawthorn contains a lot of organic acids, and consuming it without any food drastically increases stomach acidity, causing bloating, belching, and reflux. Coupled with the physical test that burned through her glycogen, her blood sugar dropped, so she passed out. In short, she fainted from hunger.”

“Fainted from hunger?” Lu Li felt both amused and helpless. If the doctor hadn’t spoken so earnestly, he never would have believed it.

Moments earlier, Chu Zining’s complexion had been so awful that he had even suspected poisoning. At least she was fine; Lu Li let out a long breath of relief.

“But I see scrapes from the fall,” the doctor added. “You’re her boyfriend, right? Take this iodophor and handle it. There are many injured students today, and I need to treat the serious ones first.”

She handed Lu Li iodophor, cotton swabs, saline, and band-aids.

Lu Li froze and waved his hands repeatedly. “I’m not her boyfriend… you misunderstood.”

The doctor snorted and rolled her eyes. “Look how frantic you were, and you still claim you’re not her boyfriend? The school cracks down on puppy love, but I don’t, so what are you afraid of?”

“Rinse with saline first, dab iodophor with the swab, then cover with a band-aid… simple,” she said as she stuffed the supplies into his hands and walked away.

Lu Li shook his head with a wry smile. He had indeed panicked, but he was actually worried about his second slot… if something happened to it, he wouldn’t be able to farm attribute points for a while.

If someone else were occupying that second slot, he would have done the same; it wasn’t solely for Chu Zining’s sake. Of course, that was not something he could tell outsiders.

He glanced at the unconscious Chu Zining on the bed and sighed, “I really owe you one.”

Lu Li sat by the bed and gently washed her arm with saline. Ironically, her worst injury was the scrapes from being shoved—several red marks marred her smooth forearm.

“What a pity if it leaves a scar,” Lu Li muttered. He was no hand fetishist, but seeing such fair skin scratched felt like vandalism.

Without a trace of embarrassment, he lifted the girl’s soft arm and poured saline over the wound.

It was his own second account anyway; would he be shy about touching himself?

“Mmm.” The sting of the saline seemed to hurt, and Chu Zining whimpered awake.

The moment she saw Lu Li holding her arm, she instinctively pulled back, curled up, and inched toward the headboard. Her moist, doe-like eyes darted around like a wary squirrel.

But to Lu Li, she looked more like a silly roe deer.

“Remember me? Bright Lu Li’s Lu Li,” he said, stopping his movements and pointing at himself.

Hearing his voice, Chu Zining relaxed as though reassured. She looked at him timidly and whispered, “Th-thank you.”

Before passing out, she had vaguely seen Lu Li, and upon realizing she was in the infirmary, she guessed he had brought her here.

“Why didn’t you eat breakfast?” Lu Li asked.

Chu Zining peeked at him timidly and shook her head.

He pressed, “Why did that girl shove you? Do you two have some grudge?”

Chu Zining lowered her head and said nothing.

Lu Li felt secretly vexed; using his second persona worked better… this version of Chu Zining was guarded and hard to talk to.

“Let’s treat the wound first,” he said, reaching out for her arm.

She hesitated and whispered, “I-I can do it myself.”

Her injury was on her right arm, but her left hand was tethered to the IV, so she simply could not manage it. Yet she was stubborn, refusing his help; she grabbed the saline and pressed it against the wound, splashing it everywhere.

Lu Li rolled his eyes; this silly girl really had a terrible temperament.

After a moment’s thought, he leaned toward her ear and chuckled wickedly, “Hey, why did you buy that kind of thing yesterday?”

Feeling the warm breath at her ear and seeing Lu Li mime a helmet, Chu Zining froze.

Remembering last night’s embarrassing scene, she became flustered and her breathing turned erratic.

“I-I…” She opened her mouth to explain, but thinking it had nothing to do with Lu Li, she fell silent again.

Lu Li chuckled softly and gave her a contemptuous look. “So that’s the kind of person you are!”

Chu Zining remained expressionless, seemingly indifferent to his judgment.

Raising an eyebrow, Lu Li smirked. “Classmate Chu Zining, you wouldn’t want others to know how messy your private life is, would you?”

Chu Zining glanced at him coolly, a hint of disappointment flickering in her dull eyes. “It doesn’t matter.”

Lu Li stretched lazily. “Doesn’t matter? Heh, you’re still a high schooler; if people find out your private life is a mess, your first-place scholarship will be gone. If things get out of hand, you could be disciplined, expelled, and not even make it to college.”

“No college…” The phrase snapped Chu Zining awake, panic surfacing in her numb eyes.

“N-no, please don’t…” Chu Zining clutched Lu Li’s arm, her moist eyes pleading.

Lu Li brushed her small hand aside, patted her head with a smile, and said, “So, can you tell me why you skipped breakfast this morning?”

The hand on her head seemed to hold her fate; she finally gave in and muttered, “It was Mom… she took the food away.”

“What?” Lu Li asked several times until Chu Zining haltingly told the whole story.

Only then did Lu Li understand that Chu Qing, to spite her own daughter, had cut off her food.

Truly childish and despicable.

Oh, Chu Qing, Chu Qing, you really let your feelings cloud your judgment!

He was about to ask why she hadn’t simply bought food herself, then recalled that Chu Zining was a broke girl. Poor girl, saddled with a mother like that… she must have been starving…

Lu Li sighed and continued, “So why did that girl in your class push you?”

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