When An Xumo was struck by the bat, he didn’t have any particularly strong reaction. Seeing Zhou Jinchen afterward and the satisfaction of being with his brother further dulled most of the pain. But after just a single meal, a sudden, searing pain flared up on his back, as if it had been set on fire, the previously ignored agony surging back all at once.
The man beside him made a phone call first, then, after hanging up, started asking, “Was it those people from before?”
An Xumo barely managed to nod, fresh blood seeping from the corner of his lips, staining most of his already pale lips red.
In his dazed state, he vaguely felt someone wiping the blood from his mouth. He wanted to thank them, but his throat was filled with the taste of iron. He wasn’t even sure if he had spoken at all—he only felt that despite being in a temperature-controlled room in the middle of summer, a persistent chill kept burrowing into his skin, making his teeth chatter uncontrollably.
He didn’t know how much time had passed before a strong yet cool hand helped him up. It seemed like someone else was checking his back, as he felt continuous pressure being applied there. Voices murmured around him, but all An Xumo could remember was leaning against someone’s chest. The person’s buttons pressed uncomfortably into him, and there was a faint, cold scent on their body.
After that, An Xumo lost consciousness and knew nothing more.
The fire on his back burned into his heart as if an unseen hand was relentlessly adding fuel to the flames. Meanwhile, the front of his body felt like it was plunging into an icy abyss, his limbs so cold they were on the verge of freezing stiff. An Xumo struggled for a long time before grasping a sliver of light. He fought his way out of the tormenting contrast of fire and ice, and only after a while did he realize he had already opened his eyes.
The surroundings were dim. Night had fallen, and the room was unlit, with only a sliver of light seeping through the doorway not far away. An Xumo found himself lying face down; the burning pain on his back had eased considerably, seemingly covered and treated with medicine. Faint voices drifted in from outside, and as he strained to listen, a somewhat familiar male voice said, “Call me when he wakes up. I’ll have someone pick him up. I have to go now—Jinchen still has things to deal with.”
An Xumo, still groggy, couldn’t immediately recognize the voice. Someone else asked if the first man was going home tonight, but after a couple of perfunctory replies, the noises outside suddenly vanished.
An Xumo propped himself up against the edge of the bed and sat up. The wound on his back felt slightly numb but no longer hurt as much. He fumbled around the bedside in the dark and found a pair of slippers. Without thinking much, he instinctively walked toward the door where the light was coming from and pulled open the half-closed door.
If he had known what was happening outside, he wouldn’t have been so reckless. But it was too late for regrets—An Xumo was startled to find that the room outside was a doctor’s office.
Of course, being in a hospital wasn’t surprising in itself. The real shock was that two people were standing in the office—kissing.
The person facing away from him was Xin Zimai. His slightly curled hair at the nape of his neck made him easy to recognize. What was even more unexpected was that the person he was kissing was also a man—someone dressed in a doctor’s white coat, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, and standing a good half-head taller than Xin Zimai, who was already over 1.8 meters tall.
The man looked refined and well-mannered, but when he glanced over, his sharp gaze was evident even through the lenses.
An Xumo immediately felt awkward. He didn’t dare make a sound, afraid of alerting Xin Zimai, who had his back to him. After hastily making an apologetic gesture toward the stranger who had seen him, An Xumo carefully retreated back into the room.
The door was ajar, allowing the voices from outside to filter in clearly. Xin Zimai’s voice carried a distinct note of panic: “What the hell are you doing…”
The other man, however, responded with a faintly amused tone, “Just checking off tasks from our pre-wedding list. We have to complete them one by one.”
His voice sounded much gentler than the sharp gaze he had directed earlier. Though An Xumo didn’t understand what they were talking about, he obediently sat back down on the bed and waited. As he reached for his back, he confirmed that it was indeed wrapped in bandages.
“I would never…” Xin Zimai started, only to angrily cut himself off midway. His voice then shifted slightly farther away. “I have to go… Hey, was the door to that room open just now? Did Xiao An wake up?”
An Xumo was startled, but what he didn’t expect was that the man who had clearly seen him earlier calmly replied, “No, it was like that before.”
“Really…” Xin Zimai still sounded a little doubtful, but he didn’t seem inclined to stay any longer. After a brief, hurried “I’m leaving, then,” he turned to go.
“I’ll call you when he wakes up,” the other man said.
“Thanks for the trouble.”
After the sound of the door closing, the room finally fell silent. Light footsteps approached, and a man pushed open the partition door, reaching out to switch on the light. “You’re awake?”
Only then did An Xumo realize that the place he had been sleeping in was a small resting area sectioned off from the main room. The space was tiny, just big enough to fit a bed and two chairs. As he glanced around at the furnishings, the man at the door spoke, “Non-critical patients aren’t allowed to take up hospital beds. You were sleeping in my break room. Don’t worry, the sheets were changed.”
An Xumo hadn’t meant anything else. He pressed his lips together and said softly, “Thank you. Sorry for the trouble.”
The man gave him a once-over, his tone softening slightly. “If you remember not to eat seafood after getting injured next time, then I won’t have gone through this trouble for nothing.”
Only then did An Xumo realize why he had suddenly felt such intense pain earlier. He looked up at the man. “Thank you… Dr. Li. I’ll remember that in the future.”
A name tag pinned to the white coat read Li Qiucheng. Li Qiucheng stepped forward to check the bandages on An Xumo’s back before saying, “It’s nothing serious. Take off the bandages tomorrow and reapply the medicine. The ointment is on the desk outside. Don’t let the wound get wet for three days, avoid spicy food, meat, and seafood. Rest for a week, and you’ll be fine.”
An Xumo thanked him again, picked up his jacket from the bedside, and put on his shoes. By the time he stepped out, Li Qiucheng had already returned to the office outside. While retrieving the ointment, An Xumo noticed that Li Qiucheng was on a call with Xin Zimai. Xin Zimai told him to wait at the hospital entrance—Tang Tang would be coming to pick him up.
An Xumo actually wanted to ask about Zhou Jinchen, but he had already caused enough trouble today and didn’t feel right bringing it up. As he left, Li Qiucheng was still on the phone, seemingly discussing something else. An Xumo didn’t linger, carefully closing the door behind him as he left.
By the time he saw Tang Tang, it was already past ten. She had obviously heard about what had happened that afternoon. Though she had many questions, her concern for An Xumo outweighed her curiosity, so she didn’t press him for details. She only told him to rest well and assured him that she would handle everything.
An Xumo was so tired that he slept most of the way in the car in a daze. When he got back to the dorm, he barely tidied up before collapsing into bed and falling into a deep sleep.
Another half a month passed, and as expected, those seven trainees never appeared again. An Xumo had heard Tang Tang mention once that their contracts had been downgraded to the subsidiary company, but he had never been particularly concerned about other people’s matters. Once the issue was resolved, he simply returned to his routine of training for over ten hours a day.
By the time the injury on his back had almost healed, An Xumo was debating whether to buy the limited edition cover of <Bright> featuring Zhou Jinchen. But before he could make a decision, Tang Tang suddenly requested leave for him, hauled him onto a plane with a pile of luggage.
First-class seats, no less.
When An Xumo asked, it turned out that the recording for <Weekend with a Sunny Day> was about to begin.
Their destination was Sanya, the filming location for Season 2 of <Weekend with a Sunny Day>. An Xumo had already watched the first season in preparation, but since the location and segments were different this time, there were changes to the format as well. Plus, this was also his first time officially appearing on camera, so he couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous.
However, that nervousness took on a completely different meaning when, during their layover, he saw the man seated next to him.
—This was also An Xumo’s first time officially presenting himself in front of his brother.
Zhou Jinchen had just rushed over from a previous engagement. As soon as he boarded, he stowed his luggage, put on an eye mask and earplugs, and immediately fell asleep. Even the blanket covering him had been carefully placed by An Xumo after requesting one from the flight attendant.
They sat side by side, with Tang Tang seated in the row behind them. The flight lasted over three hours, and it wasn’t until the landing announcement played that An Xumo cautiously tried to wake up the man sleeping beside him.
“Senior, senior? Wake up, we’re almost there.”
Zhou Jinchen’s sleeping posture was steady, barely moving throughout the entire flight. The tension that had been building in An Xumo’s chest for the whole trip had finally eased a little. Seeing that Zhou Jinchen wasn’t responding, he hesitated before lightly pushing his arm in an attempt to wake him.
He hadn’t expected that at that exact moment, Zhou Jinchen would suddenly reach out and grip his wrist with a force as strong as a vice.
“Wu…”
An Xumo flinched from the pain. The man in front of him had already torn off his eye mask, his sharp gaze completely unlike someone who had just woken from sleep.
An Xumo endured the pain and didn’t dare make a sound. Zhou Jinchen stared at him for a moment before seeming to realize what had happened and withdrawing his hand.
He raised a hand to rub his temple, his voice still carrying traces of drowsiness and hoarseness. When he looked over again, there was a hint of barely noticeable regret in his gaze. “Why did you call me senior… Did I hurt you?”
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Late update, sorry! Please bookmark and leave a comment =3=
Mai-zi’s CP has appeared la~ Next chapter will cover the variety show recording 0v0
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