Chapter 7: The Armor of the Mushroom

Lu Canran was disappointed to realize that meeting with Chen Wanli had been a mistake.

The moment she brought up Liang Yuanzheng, the bullet screens above Chen Wanli’s head burst out like flocks of crows in winter—loud and swarming, circling noisily above him.

[So annoying, so annoying, so annoying]

[Why is it that every time someone comes to me, it’s always about Liang Yuanzheng? So what if his dad is my aunt’s husband? We’ve never even met. He doesn’t acknowledge my aunt’s husband as his father, and he doesn’t see my cousin as his brother. He and I have nothing to do with each other.]

[So pissed off, so pissed off, so pissed off]

[Am I not more handsome than Liang Yuanzheng? Not richer than him? The people chasing after me could form a line from here to B University’s front gate. What’s so great about him? Just taller than me and poorer. So what if you’ve got a special taste for tall, poor, and handsome guys? What am I supposed to do about it? I was born good-looking, can’t help it even if I try. What, should I start wearing height-increasing shoes and donate all my money? That money belongs to my parents, and they wouldn’t agree either. Who asked me to be born a second-generation rich kid? Sigh.]

Lu Canran promptly cut Chen Wanli off. “Thank you, but I can’t listen to any more of this.”

She already knew far too much.

If this went on, she might end up physically assaulting her childhood friend.

Chen Wanli looked baffled. “I haven’t even said anything yet.”

Lu Canran replied, “But I could feel it.”

Chen Wanli: “?”

“Your eyes,” Lu Canran said solemnly, “I could feel it from your eyes. You and he are not on friendly terms.”

“No way,” Chen Wanli forced a smile. “Don’t forget, his biological dad is my aunt’s husband. How could we possibly not get along?”

Bullet screen: [So accurate at reading people—is this that damned sixth sense women have? What height of shoe inserts should I get? How tall is that kid Liang Yuanzheng?]

He even ordered a fruit basket for Lu Canran. The delivery rider, soaked from head to toe, brought it downstairs. As Lu Canran thanked him, she also told Chen Wanli not to do this again. It was dangerous for riders to deliver things in the rain.

Chen Wanli sneered, “Don’t you know their delivery fee is higher in this kind of terrible weather? I helped them earn more money—they should be grateful to me. If he dared to take the order, it means he wanted to make that money. He was already putting himself on the line and didn’t care, so don’t go overboard with your bleeding heart. You don’t need to be so nice to everyone.”

As he spoke, his phone rang again, and a bullet screen popped up above his head: [Crap, my dad’s causing trouble again. Sigh, I’ve got to go look for him. Where could he be in a hospital this crowded?] He left in a huff.

Once he was gone, the hospital room fell quiet.

The congratulatory cake her dad had ordered had already been delivered to her dorm by four in the afternoon. Lu Canran didn’t dare tell him about her food poisoning, and Liang Yuanzheng had also reminded her not to eat anything too spicy, too sweet, or too salty. She sent a message to the dorm group chat, telling Xu Qiao and Qin Bingshuang to eat the cake without waiting for her.

Her romance coach Zhu Huaxin called to guide her. “Listen to me, Canran. I got some intel from my brother. Liang Yuanzheng has the afternoon off tomorrow. Invite him to a meal. You already have a perfect excuse—to thank him for sharing his umbrella with you. Be brave and just go for it. Remember that saying? The brave get to enjoy the world—and men.”

Lu Canran said, “I’ve heard the first part, but I don’t recall the last three words being part of it.”

Zhu Huaxin replied, “Don’t get caught up in the details. When you enjoy the world, of course you’ll end up enjoying men too. I’m almost back at school. If anything comes up, contact me anytime.”

Only then did Lu Canran realize she had returned to campus. It was still raining outside, though more lightly now, with a fine and steady drizzle. Worried, she asked, just to be sure, whether Zhu Huaxin had brought an umbrella.

The school had always prohibited outside vehicles from entering the campus.

“Jiang Si is picking me up,” Zhu Huaxin said. She never called Jiang Si “brother.” “Don’t worry. Oh, how are you feeling? I heard from Bingshuang and the others that you’ll be discharged tomorrow.”

Lu Canran vaguely heard a song playing.

“…If there’s emotion, don’t waste it. A pair that can’t be together, dear like brother and sister. Love makes us pretend…”

The sudden music reminded Lu Canran of the song she’d heard that morning. It was clearly nothing like the bright and cheerful “I love you I hate you” of Sunshine Rainbow Little White Horse.

She cautiously asked, “Xinxin, do you think there’s a possibility that you like Jiang Si? And Jiang Si likes you too?”

Zhu Huaxin said, “How about we extend your hospital stay? I can help you look up the contact info for the psychiatry department. Don’t lose hope. Medical science has advanced—a delusional disorder is totally treatable.”

Lu Canran asked, “Is it possible that you and Jiang Si are mutually pining for each other?”

“OMG, Jiang Si is trash at games and a total green tea^[1]“Green tea” (绿茶) in this context is internet slang in Chinese describing someone (often with manipulative or fake behavior) who appears pure and innocent on the surface but is actually … Continue reading guy. How could I possibly like him!” Zhu Huaxin suddenly let out a spicy-girl-style shriek. “I always thought you and Liang Yuanzheng were the ones secretly in love with each other!”

“Alright, alright,” Lu Canran flailed her hands out of nowhere, flustered. “…I didn’t say that. I believe you.”

“Seriously though,” Zhu Huaxin said thoughtfully, “someone once said that a crush is like a burning fire. The person being crushed on can’t possibly not feel that warmth—have you felt Liang Yuanzheng’s warmth?”

“Ah, ah, um, well,” Lu Canran stammered a bit, “I haven’t hugged him or held his hand, so I don’t know if he’s warm or not…”

Zhu Huaxin fell silent.

“…Sometimes I do feel like he’s pretty nice to me, and it kind of feels like fate, like we often run into each other by chance,” Lu Canran tried hard to gather all the scattered pieces of evidence and told Zhu Huaxin, “But, because I really like him, sometimes I wonder—am I liking him so much that I instinctively try to find ‘he cares about me too’ kind of proof, just to balance out my own desire to get closer to him? So that I can keep my feelings stable… Just like you said, a crush is like a fire, and the one being crushed on can’t not feel that warmth. I don’t even know anymore whether the warmth I feel is coming from him—or if I’ve burned so fiercely that I’ve set myself on fire.”

Zhu Huaxin said, “What are you even babbling about? That’s a mess. Listen to me—be brave, go kiss him, and you’ll know the answer.”

Lu Canran: “…”

She really didn’t dare take Zhu Huaxin’s advice. Her phone battery was down to thirty percent and probably wouldn’t last through the night. Lu Canran’s first instinct was to borrow a charger from Liang Yuanzheng, but then she worried their charger models might not be compatible.

The last time they exchanged WeChat contacts, Lu Canran had quietly noted his phone model, thinking of getting a spare to match his and make a couple set. But that phone had already been on the market for six years, and there were no new units in circulation anymore. After searching for a long time, she finally found a seller on Xianyu^[2]Xianyu (闲鱼) is a popular secondhand marketplace app in China operated by Alibaba. It’s similar to eBay or Facebook Marketplace, where users can buy and sell used goods such as electronics, … Continue reading offering secondhand phones—199 yuan each, including a phone case, screen protector, charger, and even earphones.

Lu Canran bought one.

It hadn’t arrived yet.

She hesitated as she went to get some water. There was no one at the nurse’s station. Just as she was wavering, a female doctor rushed past, saying “Excuse me,” and brushed against her shoulder before Lu Canran could react. The cup in her hand had just been filled with warm water; it wobbled, and some spilled onto her hand. The heat made her flinch, and she let go. The cup hit the floor with a crisp clang and rolled a short distance away.

The female doctor quickly apologized but didn’t stop. Flustered and hurried, she called back to Lu Canran, “My name is Xue Ningyuan. Come see me later at Emergency Room No. 5. I’ll make it up to you.”

Lu Canran paused for a moment.

So that was Xue Ningyuan.

Xue Ningyuan had a lot of bullet screens above her head, all jumbled and chaotic. Aside from [Patient critical, emergency surgery,] the rest were all medical terms that Lu Canran couldn’t make sense of.

She was completely different from what Lu Canran had imagined. Tall and slender, with straight black hair pulled back neatly with a duckbill clip, wearing thin-rimmed glasses, and two small moles at the corner of her right lip. She had a cool and aloof air, meticulous and upright—when she brushed past, it felt like a gust of winter wind.

Lu Canran picked up the cup, cleaned it, and went to fill it again. She began seriously considering whether to head back to the dorm to grab her charger and maybe sneak a bite of the little cake while she was at it—she had just reached the inpatient department entrance when a call came in from Qin Bingshuang.

“Canran, I think I lost my Bluetooth earphones in the hospital cafeteria,” Qin Bingshuang said. “Could you help me look for them?”

Before she could respond, Zhu Huaxin snatched the phone away. “Don’t forget, it’s still raining. Go borrow an umbrella from Liang Yuanzheng! There won’t be many people in the cafeteria tonight, and it’s not safe for a girl to go alone—make him go with you!”

Lu Canran agreed.

The hand that had been scalded by the hot water was still a little red, but the temperature hadn’t been high enough to cause a burn.

She took a sip of warm water and thought to herself, how lucky. If Xue Ningyuan hadn’t bumped into her, she wouldn’t have stayed longer at the hospital; otherwise, she’d already be scanning for a shared bike and riding back to campus by now.

Lu Canran sent a text to Liang Yuanzheng.

Very responsible and very reliable, Liang Yuanzheng showed up at the entrance of the inpatient department five minutes later, umbrella in hand.

As soon as he saw Lu Canran, Liang Yuanzheng handed her the baseball jacket in his hand. “Put this on. It’s cold outside. You’re getting discharged tomorrow, so it’s best not to catch a chill.”

Lu Canran’s face instantly turned bright red.

—Wasn’t this basically an indirect hug?

Excited and nervous, she asked, “Is this your jacket, Senior?”

“Yeah, I just washed it two days ago. I only wore it for less than half an hour, so it shouldn’t have any smell,” Liang Yuanzheng explained. “I don’t have a spare jacket, and it’s not convenient to borrow one from anyone else… It might be a bit big.”

Lu Canran shook her head. “It’s okay, it’s okay. I like oversized.”

—It’d be even better if it were a jacket he’d worn for longer… or one he’d just taken off, still warm with his body heat… Help, I really need to stop thinking in that direction.

She took the jacket as calmly as she could and put it on as calmly as she could, like a little mushroom donning armor. At this moment, Lu Canran’s joy was enough to topple a mountain.

And yet, in front of Liang Yuanzheng, she had to do her best to appear nonchalant. Hiding elation was just as exhausting as hiding a crush—both made you act against your own will and speak against your true thoughts.

While she was putting the jacket on, Liang Yuanzheng stood staring out at the rain, lost in thought. The lack of eye contact between them made Lu Canran secretly happy. She was afraid her eyes would betray her.

People online said that when a person sees something they love, their eyes become more moist, and look brighter.

It was a kind of mind-reading that required no bullet screens.

How wonderful. How lucky that no one else in this world could read minds. Otherwise, a whole swarm of pink-spore-spraying mushrooms would surely be blooming over her head right now.

The rain gradually lightened. On their way back to the cafeteria, things felt more familiar the second time around. Sharing an umbrella again, Lu Canran no longer walked with mismatched hands and feet. She even had the courage to take the initiative and ask Liang Yuanzheng a question.

Rainy days were truly wonderful. The hazy mist concealed so many things—for example, how she had taken it upon herself to treat Liang Yuanzheng as a breathing apparatus that connected her to love.

She was cheating.

She was using answers gained through cheating to seek validation from him.

“Is Director Xue very busy today?” Lu Canran asked. “I heard that Senior Xue Ningyuan is also in the emergency department.”

“Yeah,” Liang Yuanzheng replied. “A patient with a bone fracture suddenly experienced heart palpitations. He’s busy with that.”

“You’re not needed this time, Senior?” Lu Canran asked. “Is Senior Xue Ningyuan handling it on her own?”

Liang Yuanzheng said, “I was originally off this afternoon. I’ve been working for a long time, and that kind of surgery isn’t suitable for me to attend.”

“Senior, are you very tired?” Lu Canran suddenly realized something. “Is that why you didn’t come for rounds?”

She had been waiting.

Because of one extra blood pressure measurement, Lu Canran had even gone to the restroom to wash her arm twice and carefully applied a layer of fragrant rose-scented hand cream. It was a scent she had chosen deliberately—like roses and leaves crushed together into perfume.

Suddenly, Lu Canran felt a sense of guilt for what she was doing now.

Zhu Huaxin had mentioned it once—how grueling it was to be a standardized resident trainee. Liang Yuanzheng had been at the hospital for so long and was already so exhausted. He shouldn’t have had to hold an umbrella and show up here at night, just because she liked him so much, to accompany her to the cafeteria and help her find a friend’s lost item.

This wasn’t right.

It was awful.

Senior was just a person, merely someone she happened to like. Being liked by someone was normal—it didn’t mean he owed anything in return. Liking someone was, by nature, an act that asked for nothing back, a private kind of devotion.

Lu Canran’s eyes gradually grew moist.

She wanted to say sorry. I’m sorry, Senior. I didn’t know you were so tired. You shouldn’t have to tolerate my whims. You shouldn’t have to generously accompany me when you’re so exhausted you can’t even assist in surgery.

“It’s not that,” Liang Yuanzheng said. “Wasn’t your friend here? I didn’t want to interrupt your pleasant conversation.”

Only then did Lu Canran remember Chen Wanli, with his head full of crows.

“Ah, he already left,” Lu Canran said. “I’m sorry, Senior. I shouldn’t have asked you to come out this late… Are you really tired?”

She lowered her head and noticed that Liang Yuanzheng was walking slowly, matching her pace every step of the way. Suddenly, she realized—on both of these umbrella-sharing walks, he had quietly adjusted to her stride.

“I am a bit tired,” Liang Yuanzheng said, “but it’s all from work. I’m not tired now.”

Lu Canran’s heart thumped. She worried she was reading too much into things. On impulse, hesitating slightly, she asked, “…The road’s slippery in the rain. I’m afraid of falling. Is it okay if I hold onto your jacket?”

Liang Yuanzheng fell silent.

The silence made it hard for Lu Canran to breathe.

For the second time, she wished she had the ability to “unsend.” The wind was too gentle, the rain too lovely—so lovely that the little mushroom, not knowing the height of the sky or the depth of the earth, surged upward recklessly, only to smash its cap beneath solid rock, a dull, heavy pain.

Lu Canran hurried to cover for herself, laughing awkwardly in regret. “Haha, I was just kid—”

“My jacket isn’t clean,” Liang Yuanzheng said. “Even though the lab coat can block some bacteria, it’s not completely sterile. If you stand too close, you might get contaminated.”

Lu Canran’s heart thumped wildly. “It’s okay. I’m a patient too.”

Her heart grew even bolder, bold enough to shout: holding hands would be fine too.

Her mind was screaming that this wasn’t okay—

But Liang Yuanzheng casually broke off a short piece of bamboo from the side, handed it to Lu Canran, and told her to hold one end while he took the other.

Lu Canran gripped the trembling little piece of bamboo tightly.

It kept shaking.

So was she.

The damp little bamboo segment connected the two of them, who seemed so big and far apart.

“It’s cleaner than I am,” Liang Yuanzheng paused for a moment, took a breath, and carefully explained, “Maybe I didn’t make myself clear earlier, Can—Lu Canran. Work is tiring, but walking with you, talking with you, helping you look for something—I’m happy. Not tired at all.”