Bai Zhou had a complicated expression on his face upon hearing the answer.
Ji Fanyin tried to analyze it from a professional standpoint, and her conclusion was that it was a look of disdain and disbelief.
So, she shrugged casually and said her farewells to Bai Zhou before going on her own way.
Barely a few steps later, her feet started feeling uncomfortable once more, so she decided to simply take them off. Her heels were a little red, but they were fortunately not bleeding.
While leisurely making her way out of the amusement park along with the crowd, she reached for her phone in her bag and switched it on.
She was intending to hail a cab, but she noticed that she had quite a few missed calls from Song Shiyu.
Three of them were made at around 8 pm. and the most recent one was just ten minutes ago.
It was unusual for Song Shiyu to drop her so many calls, so she decided to return the call to check on him. After all, it was important to maintain good ties with loyal customers.
Song Shiyu didn't pick up the call right away, so Ji Fanyin patiently waited and waited. It was when she thought that the call was going to be automatically hung up that Song Shiyu's hoarse voice finally sounded through the speaker, "Hello?"
"You called?" asked Ji Fanyin.
There was a long pause before he finally said, "... I'm ill."
"Do you need me to call an ambulance for you? Or should I relay your condition to Ji Xinxin?" asked Ji Fanyin.
His fever must be really getting to him for him to actually call me.
Song Shiyu mumbled something, but Ji Fanyin wasn't able to hear him clearly. However, the rustling of bedsheets coming from the other side clued her in that he had been lying on a bed and was just getting up.
Only the last few words from him were comprehensible. "Come over."
Question marks popped up in Ji Fanyin's head. "Song Shiyu, do you know who you are calling?"
"You are Ji Fanyin." Even though Song Shiyu sounded a little out of it, it seemed like he wasn't delirious yet. "I'm asking you to come over right now to take care of me."
There was suddenly a loud clang on the other side. It sounded like something heavy had fallen to the ground.
It was also with this that the call ended.
Ji Fanyin: "???"
Staring at her phone screen, she hesitated for a single second before tossing Song Shiyu to the back of her head. However, shortly after she got into a cab, she suddenly received a money transfer from Song Shiyu.
She looked at the sum she received and thought that she could at least spare a bit of her free time to him in view of his sincerity.
So, she changed her destination and began heading for Song Shiyu's home.
...
Song Shiyu thought that he could easily tank a small cold, but his condition only ended up worsening with time. The day after he returned from the movie premiere, he was down with a high fever.
His assistant was particularly vulnerable to catching colds, usually being the first one to get infected and the last one to recover. Understandably, upon hearing that Song Shiyu was sick, he immediately began begging and crying and threatening him with his life. It took a great deal of effort before he finally convinced Song Shiyu not to come to work.
His assistant did get some medicine for Song Shiyu, but the latter refused to eat it. He fell asleep at noon and woke up with a growling stomach.
He should have called his assistant to get him to deliver food over, but he found himself dialing Ji Xinxin's number instead.
Ji Xinxin declined his call but sent him a message: [Sorry, Shiyu! I'm in the middle of a class right now >_<]
With a groggy mind, he slowly typed out a response to Ji Xinxin's message: [It's nothing much. I'm ill. I just wanted to hear your voice.]
He thought that someone as kind as Ji Xinxin would surely start fussing over him, but when the person fussing over him was not by his side but in another country... It somehow felt like something was missing.
Just as he had expected, Ji Xinxin immediately sent a series of messages asking how he was feeling, whether he had gotten his assistant to buy some medicine for him and if he needed to get a check-up in the hospital just to be safe. Her tone sounded worried and anxious.
Song Shiyu's vision was a little blurry under the effects of his illness, so the speed of his typing was affected as well.
He couldn't help but smile at the messages that were pouring out from her. It was only after she dropped a series of questions and emojis that he finally managed to type out his response: [It's just a common cold. It would really be great if you could come over to see me.]
Ji Xinxin sent a sighing emoji, followed by a hugging emoji.
Then, she asked: [Are you not eating your medicine again? You can't do that. I can't rush over to keep an eye on you right now, but you need to take care of yourself.]
Song Shiyu circumvented the medicine question and asked: [When is your break? Will you be coming back?]
Ji Xinxin's response was a little slower this time around: [I was intending to come back during the winter holidays, but I might drop by earlier before Christmas. I have some matters to attend to.]
Song Shiyu quickly did a quick mental calculation. There were just a few more months before Christmas.
[We'll be able to meet each other very soon.]
He typed the message out word by word. [I miss you.]
[I also hope to see you as soon as possible!] Ji Xinxin sent a head patting emoji.
[I need to rush for my next class now. I'll check on you later on, so make sure to eat your medicine!]
Sogn Shiyu exhaled deeply before turning over on the bed.
Ji Xinxin wasn't his girlfriend, but even if she was, he couldn't possibly ask her to fly across half the globe to visit him over a mere cold.
But there's someone else who is at my beck and call.
He fiddled with his phone, which was starting to heat up under his body temperature, but his rationality eventually stopped him from sending a message to Ji Fanyin. Instead, he called his assistant to prepare some food for him.
His assistant couldn't cook and had his hands full from having to take over Song Shiyu's work at the last moment. He only had time to help Song Shiyu order a porridge delivery.
Song Shiyu ate a few mouthfuls and popped a couple of pills into his mouth before returning to bed. At some point, he drifted off to sleep yet again.
It wasn't a good sleep. In his dream, there was a beautiful glowing light drawing him in, but some sort of force was holding onto him from behind, stopping him from approaching the light. He tried everything he could, scrambling with all four of his limbs to fight against that mysterious force.
He ended up waking up not feeling like he had gotten an ounce of rest at all. His body was aching all over, as if he had just been fished out of water.
Song Shiyu was still clear-headed at that moment. He tried feeling his own forehead with the back of his hand, and it felt searing. He was still burning up.
He exerted all his might to flip over and look at the clock on the bedside table, only to find that it was already eight at night. The entire day had somehow passed him by amidst grogginess.
He grabbed his phone to take a look, but there were no messages from Ji Xinxin at all. She seemed to have forgotten her earlier promise to keep an eye on him to ensure that he took his medicine.
He continued lying in his bed for a while, but his fever showed no signs of subsiding. Even moving a finger felt tiring to him. A while later, he still ended up dialing the number that was almost like a taboo in his contact list.
The other party's phone was switched off. Thrice he tried, but there was no difference in the result.
Song Shiyu sneered.
He figured that Ji Fanyin might have managed to hook onto Cen Xiangyang after yesterday's meeting. Otherwise, she might be with Bai Zhou too.
She was usually quite contactable outside of working hours.
... Feigning as if she doesn't care for me at all!
Song Shiyu angrily threw his phone at the wall, which then fell onto the ground with a large 'bam'. Just doing this sapped him of almost half of his remaining energy.
He pulled his blanket up in hopes of returning to sleep, but sleep wasn't coming to him, possibly because he had slept for too long earlier on.
The porridge he had earlier in the afternoon wasn't enduring well either. His stomach had started growling in protest of its mistreatment.
He turned and flipped on his bed for a long time, as if he was throwing a tantrum at himself. It took an entire hour before he finally rose from the bed to retrieve his phone.
The screen was cracked and had a few problems, but the call function was still working properly. He tapped into his contacts, and once again, the name 'Ji Fanyin' appeared on his phone screen.
However, her phone was still turned off even though it was nearing ten.
Song Shiyu took a look at the time as he began to maliciously wonder how far Ji Fanyin would go for money despite her claims that she 'sold her skills and not her body'.
Doesn't she offer nighttime accompaniment service too?
Song Shiyu stared at his phone in a daze as his mind turned a little sluggish. He felt like his mind wasn't processing anything at all, but at the same time, it felt like it was overloaded with lots of thoughts too.
His phone suddenly vibrated, and Ji Fanyin's name appeared on the screen.
Song Shiyu stared at the screen in a daze, his finger hovering above the 'Accept' button but somehow not pressing it.
He wasn't certain whether he really wanted to hear Ji Fanyin's voice right now.
Maybe... I shouldn't have made those four calls.
But he still picked it up in the end.
"You called?" asked Ji Fanyin.
She didn't use Ji Xinxin's voice, but Song Shiyu was relieved by that.
At least Ji Fanyin is always waiting for me at the same spot.
So, he replied, "Come over."
To be safe, he even sent money into Ji Fanyin's bank account.
So be it. If Ji Fanyin has chosen to use money to conceal her feelings and protect her dignity, I'll go along with her, Song Shiyu thought as he fiddled with his phone.
Her accompaniment deserved his reward.
Ji Fanyin should have known the address of his apartment, but he was still ready to send a message on WeChat to remind her. But it suddenly struck him when he tapped into his WeChat app—he had deleted her from his friend list a while ago.
But just yesterday, while Ji Fanyin was exchanging contact numbers with Cen Xiangyang, Song Shiyu took a look at her phone and took down her WeChat ID.
He rubbed his blurry eyes and added Ji Fanyin back into his friend list before proceeding to send her his address and the passcode for his door.
He didn't understand why either, but he felt a surge of relaxation after doing all of these. He placed his phone back on his bedside table and heaved a long sigh of relief.
He curled himself into a ball on the bed and felt a much greater sense of security than before.
Some time later, he heard footsteps, followed by a flick of a switch. A delicate figure was slowly making her way to him.
"Ji Fanyin?" mumbled Song Shiyu.
The other party bent down to feel his forehead before sighing with a soft and gentle voice.
Despite his high fever, Song Shiyu once again affirmed his speculation.
No matter how Ji Fanyin tried to conceal it with her actions or words, she was still unable to hide her feelings for him.
For the first time in his life, the knowledge of the fact that 'Ji Fanyin likes me' spurred a hint of glee in his heart.