The rain had been falling for almost a whole night.

Du Yunyan felt cold in his sleep and couldn’t stop shivering. His throat felt like it was burning, as if smoke was about to billow out of it. He tried to swallow his saliva, but his throat hurt.

The burning sensation rose, and his brain began to swell. Why did he feel like he was burning inside while also feeling cold? He subconsciously tightened the blanket around himself.

The sky seemed to brighten a bit, and Du Yunyan felt a coolness on his forehead. He groggily reached out to touch it and felt a damp towel that had been soaked in cold water. His hand was held down by someone.

“Don’t move,” came an extremely light voice next to his ear, “You have a fever.”

He fully opened his eyes, staring at Gu Wenxi beside him with a sleepy gaze.

The temperature wasn’t particularly high, so there was no need for fever-reducing medicine. Gu Wenxi remembered that when he had a fever as a child, his mother used a cold towel to physically lower his temperature, so he did the same for him.

“How is that possible?” Du Yunyan hadn’t been sick for five or six years, let alone having a fever or even a minor cold. His first reaction was disbelief.

“Look, it’s already thirty-eight degrees,” Gu Wenxi shook the thermometer in front of his eyes, “You told me to be careful not to catch a cold, but you’re the one who got sick first.”

Du Yunyan’s consciousness returned a bit, perhaps because of yesterday’s rain.

When they went to the riverbank, they thought it wouldn’t rain again, and the journey wasn’t far, so they didn’t even bring an umbrella. However, they encountered a downpour on the way back, and both of them were soaked through.

But catching a cold after getting wet in this temperature was too embarrassing. Clearly he was fine before going to bed, Du Yunyan felt very unwilling, and even thought of getting up to do something.

“There aren’t many people today, what’s there to be busy about?” They had prepared breakfast the night before, so it just needed to be heated up, “Shall I bring the food up for you?”

“I don’t have an appetite.” At the mention of food, Du Yunyan lay back down again, rare moodiness surfacing. Maybe because he was sick, he didn’t have much of an appetite. The bread and red bean buns made last night sounded greasy just thinking about them, and he didn’t even want the ready-made milk.

There was a flush on both sides of his face, resembling how he looked when he got drunk in the past.

Gu Wenxi bent his fingers and rubbed them on his face, feeling warm. The exhaled air was also warm, brushing against Gu Wenxi’s palm, causing a slight itch.

“I’ll make some porridge for you to drink.”

Du Yunyan finally crawled back into bed, adopting an unusual lazy posture.

When Gu Wenxi saw that he agreed, he searched on his phone and found that millet porridge was better for a fever, and it wasn’t difficult to make. He went downstairs to cook it using a small rice cooker.

Outside, it was still gloomy, and with a glance, one could see the oppressive dark clouds. Due to the weather and his physical condition, Du Yunyan’s spirits were low. Stepping on the ground felt like stepping on cotton, but he wasn’t used to eating in the room and insisted on going to the dining room.

The millet porridge had nothing added to it. Gu Wenxi found it too bland, so he served it with kimchi and cold-dressed enoki mushrooms made by Du Hong. Du Yunyan couldn’t eat much else, so he quietly drank the porridge, the redness on his face still not fading.

He didn’t eat much for lunch either, just drank some cold medicine and went back to the room to rest. Before falling asleep, he took his temperature again, which had dropped to 37.3 degrees Celsius.

“My recovery ability is good, right?”

“You’re not fully recovered yet,” Gu Wenxi put down the thermometer, “Rest a little longer.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll be up soon.” There were some utensils in the kitchen that hadn’t been cleaned up, and Du Hong and the others hadn’t had lunch yet, so Gu Wenxi felt a bit guilty handing everything over to them. Before going downstairs, he filled the glass water bottle in the room with hot water.

Du Yunyan’s fever had gone down, but he felt even more tired than in the morning. He didn’t insist on doing anything else when Gu Wenxi left, and his consciousness sank, falling asleep in a daze.

He slept until he forgot the time.

He woke up to the sound of water flowing gently like a mountain spring, gradually opening his eyes. Through the mosquito net and the glass, the rain outside was just a blur, and the dim sky dulled his senses, making it difficult to make accurate judgments.

The bed beside him was empty. Du Yunyan didn’t have the habit of taking afternoon naps, and he always woke up earlier than Gu Wenxi in the morning. It had been a long time since he had woken up alone in this bed, and for a moment, he felt disoriented.

He sat up slightly, sweating a lot on his back, no longer feeling cold. When he reached for his phone, he touched the glass water bottle on the desk. The water had cooled halfway, and he hadn’t had a chance to drink it yet.

The door was pushed open lightly from outside, and he immediately raised his head, his gaze following.

“Are you awake?” Gu Wenxi, who had originally been sneaking around, saw that he was awake and no longer cared, walking quickly to the bedside, holding a cup of some kind of drink in his hand, “Do you want to try this?” He held the cup to Du Yunyan’s lips.

A full cup of deep purple liquid, Du Yunyan’s nose was a little stuffy, unable to smell anything, so he guessed, “Mulberry juice?”

“Yes, we just made it with the ones we picked yesterday,” Wild mulberries were quite sour, so they added more sugar and honey, “Du Yi said it’s better to make it into juice.”

“Okay.” Du Yunyan nodded, took the cup and brought it to his lips. He really liked sour-sweet fruit juice, almost finishing it in one gulp, his lips stained purple, looking unsatisfied as he looked at the empty cup.

“You can’t drink anymore,” Gu Wenxi saw his intention, “You need to drink more water now.”

“I know.”

Gu Wenxi poured some tap water into the cup, “What were you thinking just now?”

“What just now?”

“When I came in, why did you look so blank, are you still uncomfortable?”

Du Yunyan stared at him, his gaze gentle, “I just woke up and I was alone in the room, so I felt a bit empty.” He explained, embarrassed.

Gu Wenxi was stunned for a moment when he heard this, then smiled and asked, “Because I wasn’t here?”

“You said you’d be up soon, right?” There was a barely noticeable hint of complaint in his tone, “But you didn’t come up.”

“Haha…” Gu Wenxi chuckled softly, not telling him that they had cleaned the first floor, “Then I’ll accompany you for afternoon naps from now on?”

“No, thanks,” Du Yunyan immediately vetoed, getting out of bed, “If we both sleep, then no one will do anything.” Besides, he never slept during the day when he was feeling well.

“Boring,” Gu Wenxi stretched lazily, “Aren’t you going to lie back down?”

“No, I’ve been lying down too long already,” he finished the whole glass of water that Gu Wenxi handed him, “I’m fine now.”

Gu Wenxi reached out his right hand to feel his forehead. Not only had the temperature gone down, but there was also a thin layer of sweat, indicating that he was really okay now.

The rain didn’t stop until evening. They had kept the windows open, allowing the evening breeze mixed with the scent of post-rain soil to waft into the room, cool and moist.

Recovering from illness was a good thing, but Du Yunyan rarely slept for so long during the day, and the aftermath was that he couldn’t sleep at night. His limbs were still a bit weak, and he wanted to rest early, but his brain was uncontrollably active.

“Should I close the windows?” Gu Wenxi once again covered his forehead with his hand. He had just recovered from a fever, and it wouldn’t be good if he caught a cold again.

Du Yunyan felt a bit warm. “No need, this way is more comfortable.”

“Are you having trouble sleeping?”

Du Yunyan didn’t answer, but instead pulled down the hand Gu Wenxi had just placed on his forehead, dragging it under the blanket to play with his fingers, and suddenly said, “Wenxi, you’re really good at taking care of people.”

“Am I?” Du Yunyan recovered quickly from his illness, and Gu Wenxi didn’t think he had done anything special, “You’re just too easy to please. I’m far worse than my mom.”

Du Yunyan’s eyes flickered brightly. “What kind of person is your mom?”

Gu Wenxi adjusted the mosquito net on his side before slowly speaking, “My mom, she has a very good temper, never gets angry with me, and she loves beauty. She used to dress me up beautifully when I was a child.” He glanced at the person next to him, “I think if she could meet you earlier, she would have really liked you.”

“Why?”

“Because she likes beautiful children, like Barbie dolls.”

The corner of Du Yunyan’s mouth twitched. “Do I look like a doll?”

“You must have looked like one when you were a child, right?” Gu Wenxi’s index finger circled around his eyes, “These eyes… with such long eyelashes, and also this part of your nose…”

“Nonsense.” Du Yunyan laughed and pulled away his hand.

“When I was in third grade, she got cancer,” Gu Wenxi’s voice lowered, “I didn’t really understand it at the time. I just remembered that she took medicine every day, became thinner day by day, but still loved to wear branded clothes, kept herself clean, occasionally put on makeup… I didn’t know she was so seriously ill, and I thought she could stay with me for a long time.”

“Wenxi—”

Gu Wenxi smiled self-deprecatingly, “But I’m not as sensible as you. My mom’s family also hired a nanny, so I didn’t need to do anything. I even complained to her why she never took me out to play.”

“Wenxi,” Du Yunyan remained silent for a while, then pressed a light kiss on the back of his hand, “Let’s talk about something else.”

“Okay.” Gu Wenxi looked around. He liked the hazy feeling of being isolated from the outside world after the mosquito net was pulled down, and between the narrow space enclosed by the gauze, there were only the two of them, “Do you want to hear something else?”

“Anything will do. People and things you’ve encountered elsewhere before.”

“Hey,” Gu Wenxi was reminded of memories from several months ago, “Why do I remember that last year when we had barbecue, I talked so much, but you weren’t interested at all?”

Du Yunyan lay back, recalling, “That was so long ago…”

“It wasn’t that long ago, and you still weren’t interested?!”

“Because I used to—”

He was embarrassed to say it, but Gu Wenxi easily guessed, “You used to not be interested in me?”

“I said it was in the past,” Du Yunyan was slightly embarrassed, “Let’s not dwell on the past.”

“Who’s dwelling on the past?” Gu Wenxi chuckled inwardly, “I just want to know, are you interested in me now? How interested are you?”

“Probably…,” Du Yunyan admitted frankly, “I’m interested in whatever you have to say.”

“Alright, then I’ll tell you.”

The lamplight cast a warm, soft yellow hue on the canopy.

Gu Wenxi talked about many things from school, omitted the unpleasantness with Jiang Chen, and also talked about past travels…

Later on, he felt parched and started to feel tired, but Du Yunyan became more energetic, showing no signs of drowsiness.

“Aren’t you sleepy yet?” Gu Wenxi asked.

“I’ve slept too much during the day,” Du Yunyan’s tone sounded somewhat aggrieved, “Why don’t you go to sleep first?”

Outside the window, unidentified insects emitted faint, continuous sounds, which, under the shallow moonlight, seemed even more melodious.

Gu Wenxi looked towards the window, feeling something stir in his heart. “How about I sing for you?”

“Sing?”

“I told you I used to be in a band, right? What’s so strange about singing?” But under the direct gaze, he couldn’t relax. He said to Du Yunyan, “Close your eyes.”

After Du Yunyan closed his eyes, the world didn’t plunge into darkness. It seemed that colorful light was blossoming above his head, and the drifting song in the night led him into a distant dream.

“Purple fire, through the night clouds

Flying like a shooting star, the clue of rain

The flowers fall, opening the calm lake

Urgent like an osprey, I’m leaving

The light of the other side of the world

Sways beneath the water’s surface

Every water droplet has blossomed

In the most beautiful place of life

…”

After singing the lyrics twice, Gu Wenxi heard Du Yunyan’s even breathing. One of his hands was still resting on his chest. Gu Wenxi carefully moved his hand down and tucked it under the blanket, then got up to close the window slightly before returning to bed and lying down beside him.

The insect chirping never stopped.

^[1]Author’s note:

The lyrics are from Li Jian’s song “Blossom.”