Chapter 10

This bout of fever was more severe than any Xie Xishu had ever experienced before.

For the first few days, he was so feverish he drifted in and out of consciousness, unable to even open his eyes while lying in bed. His mind remained in a hazy, lethargic state. Toward the end, he even began to hallucinate; in his delirium, it felt as if someone had lifted his neck, pried open his clenched teeth, and poured smooth, thick congee into his throat, spoonful by spoonful. He also suffered from nightmares, dreaming that some terrifying, cold-blooded creature with scales had snuck into the room and would circle his bed, again and again, whenever he fell into a deep, unconscious sleep.

It was several days later before Xie Xishu’s fever finally broke and he had the strength to get out of bed.

The illness had left him much thinner, but fortunately, his condition was better than he had expected; aside from weakness, he suffered no other lingering effects.

*

However, after checking the door access logs and his phone messages, Xie Xishu had to face the reality that his parents had indeed never returned during the time he was bedridden with the high fever.

In fact, they hadn't even contacted him.

Sometimes, even Xie Xishu felt that the only communication he had with his parents was the living expenses they deposited into his account on time each month.

After such a long fever, his phone was filled only with countless missed calls and text messages from Mr. Li. The content was always the same: urging him to seize the precious time of his final year of high school, not to let himself drift and be lazy because of a minor illness, and to return to school for classes as soon as possible.

So, it really must have been an illusion.

That vague memory of being cared for was likely just a scene he had hallucinated while delirious.

Or perhaps, the strange occurrences and uncontrollable panic he had encountered the night before he collapsed from the fever were simply a manifestation of his persecution mania caused by excessive mental stress.

Xie Xishu dismissed the message box on his phone screen, rubbed his temples, and murmured to himself.

He forced himself not to pay too much attention to the subtle, almost imperceptible sense of disharmony in the house.

For instance, the "old" bath towel that felt brand new, as if it had never been used.

For instance, the several sets of loungewear that he simply could not find anywhere.

And that faint, lingering, fishy smell throughout the house.

...Xie Xishu had tried his best to clean the house, but no matter how hard he scrubbed the floors or wiped down the furniture, the scent persisted, never fading.

Therefore, once his body had recovered enough, Xie Xishu returned to school immediately. At the very least, he wouldn't be paranoid and on edge there because of that smell.

Yet, having stayed home sick for several days, stepping outside felt like returning from another world. The streets that were once bustling with traffic and people had suddenly become desolate and empty, and many shops along the road had pulled down their shutters and posted "temporarily closed" signs.

When Xie Xishu arrived at school and walked into the classroom, he almost thought he had made a mistake with the class schedule—though it was common for students at the Third Middle School to skip class, it had never been this deserted; nearly a third of the classroom was empty. Xie Xishu, who usually found the noise and playfulness of his classmates annoying, now felt an unsettling silence in the room.

Fortunately, the seat next to him was not empty. A familiar figure, Cheng An, was sprawled there, playing on his phone as usual.

*

"...Please, you got hit by it too, and you're asking why no one is in class? You should know there’s a flu pandemic going around, and a lot of people just can't be bothered to come to school."

Faced with the question from his desk-mate who had finally returned, Cheng An maintained his usual slacker attitude. He stretched and answered lazily.

"Don't even mention our 'chicken' school; I heard even the Seventh Middle School next door, that concentration camp for overachievers, has had tons of students go down. My dad’s company has staff lying flat, too. They say there are already calls to stop work and classes. Haven't you noticed how few people are on the streets?"

"I didn't realize it was that serious."

Xie Xishu replied in a low voice.

The flu epidemic in City A hadn't just started, and many people had been hit before, but it had never been this severe.

"You ask why I'm so unlucky, catching a cold right before the peak. Now my dad won't let me stay home at all, saying he's afraid I'll infect him. He forced me to come to school, claiming that a school like ours would have plenty of people skipping class, and that a place with fewer people is safer. Damn, wasn't this lousy school the one he picked for me?"

Cheng An complained indignantly, but he soon noticed that Xie Xishu seemed distracted. The latter kept glancing back at the empty seat behind him.

Oh, right. When Xie Xishu entered the classroom just now, the first thing he looked at was that seat.

That was Qi Wu’s seat.

Thinking of this, a vein in Cheng An’s temple twitched slightly.

Then, he heard Xie Xishu’s low, slightly hoarse question: "Qi Wu... did Qi Wu not come to class today?"

For some reason, Cheng An suddenly felt an inexplicable indignation rising from the depths of his being.

"Tsk, weren't you pretty scared of him before? How come you're so concerned about him now?"

Cheng An licked his canine tooth and asked coldly, pretending to be joking.

Xie Xishu’s eyelashes fluttered at the question, and shadows fell beneath his eyes—which were still slightly bruised from his recent illness—making him look even more fragile and haggard.

"It’s not concern—"

Xie Xishu’s voice rose sharply, but he quickly suppressed it.

"I was just... I was just asking."

He muttered to Cheng An, his expression appearing increasingly repressed and strange.

He couldn't tell Cheng An, who knew nothing of the situation, what he had done to Qi Wu in the restroom earlier.

He had cracked Qi Wu’s head open.

Although it seemed no one else in school knew about it, one didn't need much intelligence to guess that, given Qi Wu’s nature, the terrifying retaliation awaiting Xie Xishu was likely something he couldn't even imagine.

For example, the phone that had suddenly appeared outside his door that night felt like a silent warning, telling Xie Xishu that Qi Wu knew where he lived. Even running home was useless—Qi Wu would always be able to find him.

Even with Qi Wu not at school, Xie Xishu remained tortured.

Like a second shoe that had yet to drop, Xie Xishu’s nerves were stretched tight every moment, on the verge of snapping.

And Qi Wu seemed to know exactly how to provoke the greatest amount of fear, insecurity, and despair in a person. Perhaps this was simply part of his method of torment.

Over the next few days, Qi Wu never appeared.

Xie Xishu went to school and returned home every day as usual. Aside from the fact that there were fewer people on the streets and at school each day, his life seemed to have returned to its normal track.

But Xie Xishu knew that this was all a facade.

The moment Qi Wu appeared again, his life would completely fall apart, never to be pieced back together in its original form.

*

The flu in City A grew more severe with each passing day.

Except for the first batch of people who had caught the flu and recovered, gaining some resistance, the rest were being systematically laid low by this unprecedented pandemic. Perhaps because of this, the social atmosphere grew increasingly tense, and many vicious, unlawful incidents occurred that had been unheard of before.

Now, even sitting in the classroom, Xie Xishu could hear the wailing of sirens and ambulances passing by on the streets from time to time.

Initially, those sirens, representing accidents, were more frequent at night, but now, they were continuous and relentless, even during the day, creating a clamor that made people restless and unable to focus. Only a third of the students remained in Class 1 of the senior year, and most of them were just there to hide in peace because they couldn't be bothered to look after their sick parents or relatives at home.

"Ahhhhh, why won't our school suspend classes? I heard several other schools have already started remote learning..."

That day, as Xie Xishu was absent-mindedly working on a test paper, he heard someone nearby finally erupt in a harsh, unbearable complaint.

Cheng An was one of the few people who still came to school every day like Xie Xishu, but since his family’s condition showed no signs of improvement, Xie Xishu could tell that the once-lazy boy’s temper was growing more volatile by the day.

Just then, someone else picked up on Cheng An’s comment, joking with a grin, "If it's that bad, just skip class. If you stay home, your old man can't possibly drag you to school. Everyone else has stopped working and studying anyway; nobody can do anything if you skip."

Hearing this, Cheng An’s previously irritable expression stiffened.

"That won't do. How could I bear to leave the only 'top scholar' in our school alone in this ghost town to study? Look, with his scrawny frame, if he gets dragged into some bushes, he won't even have time to cry... you know how chaotic things are now, anything can happen."

Cheng An joked out of habit.

But by the end of his sentence, he didn't know what he was thinking, and his voice suddenly turned husky.

Xie Xishu frowned subconsciously and turned to look at Cheng An again.

At that moment, Cheng An reached out and hooked his arm around Xie Xishu’s shoulder, his whole body leaning into him as if he had no bones.

"...Isn't that right, 'top scholar'? You must really hate to be without me, right?"

Cheng An said with a grin, but his grip was unusually strong.

Xie Xishu’s face darkened instantly.

"Don't tell such boring jokes."

He said coldly.

The boy’s palm was burning hot; even through his school uniform, he could feel that sticky, feverish heat. Xie Xishu felt an instinctive nausea and tried to shake off Cheng An, but he struggled and failed to break free from the latter’s grasp. As the heat spread across his skin, every hair on Xie Xishu’s body stood on end. Though he might be accused of overreacting, at this moment, Xie Xishu could not control his response.

"Cheng An—"

He shouted sharply.

"Let go of me!"

However, Cheng An paid no attention to Xie Xishu’s resistance.

The boy bared his teeth in a strange, twisted smile, and without any hesitation, he leaned his face onto Xie Xishu’s shoulder, his nose twitching as he sniffed deeply at the boy’s collar.