Chapter 105
I N ADDITION to being bad at consoling people, Jiang Cheng had always thought he wasn’t very good at taking care of others, either.
Perhaps it was because of the unconventional form of care that his adoptive parents had modeled throughout his childhood. With their mild yet logical expectations, any affection from them had always felt more like a demand to him.
He didn’t know if that was the culprit or if it was the presence of Li Baoguo’s genes in his blood, but whichever it was, he was not exactly an expert wielder of these “caretaking” skills.
Even Pan Zhi, his rock-solid best friend, the person he considered his only close friend, had never received much from Jiang Cheng in terms of sympathy and care when he got sick or injured.
Jiang Cheng would always sound too stiff when he asked after him.
Pan Zhi had told him more than once: “I’d actually feel better if you didn’t ask.
You’re acting so awkward, people might think there’s some kind of unthinkable history between us. ”
But a lot had changed since he met Gu Fei.
He’d learned to care for another person, to feel his heart deeply ache for another person. It was affection he expressed earnestly, straight from his heart, without any awkwardness or stiffness…
Oh, the power of love. Tsk tsk tsk.
Jiang Cheng looked down at Gu Fei where he was fast asleep on his shoulder, and kissed the top of his head.
Gu Fei’s hair was very stiff. After he shaved it down to a buzz cut, it scratched Jiang Cheng’s lips whenever he kissed it. All the same, he kissed it again, and if he hadn’t been worried about waking Gu Fei, he would even have taken a bite.
Gu Fei was the first person who’d made his heart ache so badly that he trembled. In sickness, Gu Fei didn’t have the usual air of the Big Bad Guy of the Steelworks. He seemed more like a sad cat, the way he lay quietly in Jiang Cheng’s arms with his eyes closed.
Like a cat that had fallen into a pond, even.
If it were Pan Zhi drenched head to toe in sweat like this, forget cradling him in his arms, Jiang Cheng would’ve smacked him for even coming near him.
…Though of course, Pan Zhi was his bro, not his lover.
Heh. Lover. Jiang Cheng tutted quietly to himself. What kind of cheesy romance term is that? Lover… Bleh!
Perhaps he wasn’t being quiet enough. Gu Fei’s head shifted slightly, followed by a little moan.
“What is it?” Jiang Cheng asked him.
“Am I supposed to take medicine?” Gu Fei mumbled.
“Ah, yes!” Jiang Cheng remembered abruptly that he hadn’t given Gu Fei the fever reducer.
He anxiously reached out for the bag where it sat on the coffee table, but he couldn’t reach.
To retrieve it, he would have to let go of Gu Fei, who was leaning on him right now.
But if he moved away, then this sick cat would have to hold himself up…
Though to be perfectly honest, he just didn’t want to let go.
After a second or so of hesitation, Jiang Cheng extended his leg toward the coffee table and picked up the little paper bag with the two fever pills between his toes.
“Ah, fuck,” Gu Fei said weakly, turning away. “I don’t need it anymore.”
“Don’t be fussy.” Jiang Cheng passed the paper bag from foot to hand. “The medicine is wrapped up inside. And it’s not like I stepped in dog shit or anything.”
“Ah—” Gu Fei sighed. “Then are you gonna fetch the glass of water with your foot too?”
“Crap.” The water glass was even farther away than the medicine. Jiang Cheng stared at it, deliberating. Then he extended his foot again.
“Cheng-ge, no. Come to your senses,” pleaded Gu Fei.
Jiang Cheng didn’t answer. He hooked his foot on the edge of the coffee table and yanked it hard toward the sofa. Once he’d dragged the fairly hefty coffee table within arm’s reach, he managed to pull it flush against the sofa with one hand.
“Here, take your medicine.” He picked up the glass of water and placed one of the tablets in Gu Fei’s mouth.
“Laziness is the father of innovation.” Gu Fei took a few sips from the straw to wash down the pill.
“It’s not laziness,” Jiang Cheng said. “I just didn’t want to let you go.”
Further adhering to the principle of not letting go, Jiang Cheng went on to use his foot to pick up the thermometer, a piece of candy, and the TV remote.
It wasn’t until Gu Fei wanted water and there was none left in the glass that he finally let out a resigned sigh.
The electric kettle sat on the table next to the TV.
The only way Jiang Cheng would have a chance of reaching it was if he detached his left leg and connected it to his right.
“Sit up by yourself for a second,” he said, kicking away the coffee table as he got up. “I’ll pour you some water.”
“I’m going to take a shower and lie down on the bed,” said Gu Fei.
“Shower?” Jiang Cheng looked at him. “What do you mean, shower? You’re running a fever. At least wait until your temperature goes down.”
“I can’t go on living like this. I’m covered in sweat.”
Jiang Cheng didn’t have a lot of experience taking care of a sick person.
Since Gu Fei’s fever wasn’t caused by a cold or anything, he really couldn’t tell what he had to watch out for or which precautions to take.
Now, he was a little lost between “sweating it out”—the only folk remedy he knew—and Gu Fei’s proclamation that he couldn’t keep on living without a shower.
“I’m the overachiever when it comes to general life skills,” Gu Fei said. “You flunky.”
Jiang Cheng thought he had a point, so he didn’t continue to deny Gu Fei his shower.
“And don’t wrap me up again, either. I don’t have any chills right now.” After the shower, Gu Fei lay down on the bed, where he spread himself out languidly and closed his eyes. “All I need is for you to hold me.”
“Okay.” Jiang Cheng covered him with a thin towel blanket.
He raced to the bathroom to take his own shower, then raced back to the bedroom to check Gu Fei’s temperature again.
“It’s a hundred degrees.” Jiang Cheng turned off the lights and lay down beside Gu Fei, wrapping his arms around him. “It should be going down now, right?”
“Mm-hmm,” Gu Fei answered. “I’ll feel cold if I still have a fever.”
Jiang Cheng sighed. “I was thinking just now, since I’ll be going away soon, what will you do when you get sick and I’m not around to take care of you…? But honestly, I’m only making more trouble for you, right?”