Chapter 72 – Going Abroad
Qiao Huaiyao’s eyes curved with a smile, “Didn’t you say you would deduct twenty days?”
Bai Jinyan slowly raised one eyebrow and pinched his cheek, “If you keep talking, I’ll confiscate it.”
Qiao Huaiyao’s lips lifted slightly, and he leaned in to kiss Bai Jinyan, transferring a bit of the bitter ointment onto his lips.
Before Bai Jinyan could react, Qiao Huaiyao quickly retreated, pressing himself against the other side of the car door to put some distance between them.
Bai Jinyan watched him, trying to make himself smaller, and moved forward without a word, raising his hand to rest against the car window.
He slowly lowered his head, gradually closing the gap between himself and the car door.
Trapped in between, Qiao Huaiyao secretly glanced up and caught Bai Jinyan’s reflection in the window.
Bai Jinyan had initially lowered his head, but at that moment, he suddenly looked at the glass, his sharp gaze resembling a wolf eyeing its prey.
Qiao Huaiyao’s heart skipped a beat. He tried to sit up straight, but in the next moment, he was pushed back down. He turned his head abruptly, and before he could speak, Bai Jinyan’s lips covered his.
“Mmm…”
The bitter taste of the ointment mixed with the sweetness of the strawberry candy.
Qiao Huaiyao squinted, unable to escape. He tried to lean back, only to find himself pressed closer into Bai Jinyan’s arms.
Bai Jinyan used one hand to hold Qiao Huaiyao’s wrists together, trapping him in a confined space.
Perhaps mindful of the fresh ointment, Bai Jinyan didn’t kiss him for too long.
When he finally let go of Qiao Huaiyao, there was still a bit of ointment left on his lips.
Qiao Huaiyao pressed his lips together and blinked lightly. Amid the roaring engine, he heard a faint sound, like something being bitten through.
Instinctively, he looked up at Bai Jinyan and saw him biting through the strawberry candy right in front of him.
Qiao Huaiyao was momentarily stunned, then his face flushed a deeper shade of red. “Brother!”
Bai Jinyan, with an unchanged expression, said, “It’s delicious.”
“!!!”
Before Qiao Huaiyao could speak, Bai Jinyan fed him another piece of candy, “Here’s a new one for you.”
He took the candy from earlier and replaced it with a new one.
Qiao Huaiyao looked down at the candy held to his lips, then bit into it, catching Bai Jinyan’s fingertips as well.
He didn’t bite hard, just gently held Bai Jinyan’s hand in place.
Bai Jinyan didn’t rush to pull his hand back. Instead, he slowly leaned in, getting closer to the one nibbling on his fingers.
His gaze never wavered, full of Qiao Huaiyao’s image.
Qiao Huaiyao paused, sensing the change in Bai Jinyan’s emotions, his jaw trembling as he released his grip.
At the same time, the car came to a stop.
Outside was the familiar dormitory building.
Qiao Huaiyao was momentarily stunned, a faint smile appearing on his face. Then he bit Bai Jinyan lightly, opened the car door, and ran out.
Seeing this, Bai Jinyan grabbed the bag of ointments and followed at a leisurely pace.
The next day, Qiao Huaiyao was forced to take a day off.
The lab equipment was still running, and results wouldn’t be available for 72 hours.
Going in today would just mean waiting around in the lab.
The room’s temperature-controlled air conditioning had been on the whole time, a blanket half-covering Qiao Huaiyao’s shoulders, marked with visible traces. His fair skin made every mark stand out clearly.
These marks extended down his back, disappearing at the edge of the blanket. Even his fingertips resting on the pillow weren’t spared.
Empty bottles and packaging piled up in the trash bin.
Having stayed up too late, Bai Jinyan only tidied up a bit before falling asleep holding Qiao Huaiyao.
Qiao Huaiyao slept until the afternoon, too exhausted to even open his eyes.
He squinted, feeling dry and uncomfortable, so tired that even moving a finger caused pain.
Except for his sluggishly thinking brain, it felt like his entire body didn’t belong to him.
Qiao Huaiyao didn’t rush to get up, closing his eyes again.
Bai Jinyan happened to come in with a cup of warm water, “Baby, drink some water before you sleep more.”
Qiao Huaiyao didn’t open his eyes, his lips moved slightly as if speaking, but he made no sound.
Bai Jinyan lifted him up, holding the cup to his lips, feeding him water bit by bit.
Qiao Huaiyao drank lazily. If not for the slowly lowering water level in the cup, it would have looked like he was asleep in Bai Jinyan’s arms.
Bai Jinyan’s hand gently massaged Qiao Huaiyao’s waist, but it did little to ease his discomfort.
Bai Jinyan kissed his ear, covering the marks left from the previous day, and whispered, “I made some porridge. Want to eat a little?”
Qiao Huaiyao shook his head, his voice muffled, “I’m sleepy.”
“Good boy.” Bai Jinyan coaxed, laying him back on the bed, pulling the blanket up to cover his neck, tucking it in carefully.
Qiao Huaiyao noticed the daylight outside and whispered, “My experiment…”
He haven’t been to the lab yet today.
His phone has an alarm, but he didn’t seem to hear it go off.
He was so tired that even the alarm couldn’t wake him.
Bai Jinyan lay down, cradling him and gently patting his back, “I checked the lab earlier, and the machines are running normally.”
He couldn’t leave Qiao Huaiyao alone here, and he couldn’t leave the lab unattended either.
While Qiao Huaiyao slept, Bai Jinyan went to the lab to check everything. Seeing no issues, he came back quickly.
Hearing this, Qiao Huaiyao felt relieved, “Then I’ll sleep a little longer.”
Bai Jinyan’s hand rested on Qiao Huaiyao’s cheek, his fingertips gently running through his hair. He suggested, “How about I bring the porridge here and feed you?” Bai Jinyan worried he might be hungry and thought he should at least have a little.
“Mmm…” Qiao Huaiyao slowly extended his hand. The movement caused some discomfort, a wave of soreness sweeping over him.
He paused, then grabbed Bai Jinyan’s hand and held it under his head, “I don’t want to eat. I want to sleep.”
Perhaps fearing Bai Jinyan would really go get the porridge, Qiao Huaiyao pressed his hand down.
“Okay.” Bai Jinyan chuckled softly, gently withdrawing his hand from under the pillow, then cuddling Qiao Huaiyao, massaging him tenderly, “Sleep. Eat when you wake up.”
Qiao Huaiyao didn’t respond, just nestled into Bai Jinyan’s embrace.
As Bai Jinyan listened to the steadying breaths by his ear, he lightened the pressure of his massage.
The living room, bathroom, and study were a mess.
After soothing Qiao Huaiyao to sleep, Bai Jinyan tidied up the house. When he returned, Qiao Huaiyao showed no signs of waking.
They had returned late from the hot springs, not resting until around four or five in the morning.
As the sky outside began to darken, Bai Jinyan brought a bowl of oatmeal with milk. Though Qiao Huaiyao seemed to have regained some strength in the evening, he only ate a few bites of the porridge before refusing more.
Bai Jinyan coaxed him into drinking about half the bowl, but Qiao Huaiyao refused to eat any more, leaving Bai Jinyan with no choice but to give up.
When Qiao Huaiyao woke up again, it was already the next morning.
The date and time on his phone clearly indicated he had slept for a whole day and night intermittently.
Despite this, he still felt exhausted.
Qiao Huaiyao sighed deeply. Bai Jinyan had likely applied some ointment to him, as aside from the soreness, he didn’t feel any other discomfort.
Noticing movement, Bai Jinyan opened his eyes and wrapped his arm around Qiao Huaiyao’s waist, “Feeling better?”
Qiao Huaiyao still felt a bit uncomfortable but didn’t mention it. He just nodded, “I think I’m okay.”
Despite his words, Bai Jinyan noticed the subtle signs and continued massaging him, “Let’s go to the hot springs again today.”
“No need.” Qiao Huaiyao, resting on Bai Jinyan’s arm, lazily leaned into his embrace, “I’ll rest a bit more, then go check the lab. Hasn’t the director been looking for you?”
In the final stages, the film crew couldn’t do without him, and it seemed Bai Jinyan hadn’t been to the set since yesterday.
Bai Jinyan reassured him, “It’s fine. I’ve talked to the director.”
Yesterday, he stayed up with Qiao Huaiyao until late at night, applying ointment several times.
He went to bed very late and woke up a bit late this morning.
Bai Jinyan leaned down to kiss his cheek affectionately, “You rest a bit more. I’ll go make you breakfast.”
As Bai Jinyan approached, Qiao Huaiyao instinctively tried to move away, but the pain quickly made him stop.
Qiao Huaiyao sighed softly, “…Alright.”
Worried that Qiao Huaiyao might get bored while he prepared breakfast, Bai Jinyan placed Qiao Huaiyao’s phone beside him as he got up.
He ruffled Qiao Huaiyao’s hair gently before leaving the bedroom.
Perhaps he had slept too long.
Qiao Huaiyao felt tired but not particularly sleepy.
He idly scrolled through messages on his phone.
Since returning from the hot springs, he hadn’t paid much attention to his phone.
There were several @all messages in the group chat, but fortunately, his lab duties exempted him from mandatory participation in department activities.
He had missed a day of checking in on his Weibo Super Topic.
Qiao Huaiyao topped up his experience points for the missed day and posted a daily update but didn’t know what to post.
In the end, he only posted a photo of the ski resort ticket.
Qiu Shufeng and the others were chatting incessantly in the group, and most of the time, the message count showed 99+.
If the messaging app could display more messages, it might have shown over a thousand.
Today, there was an early class, and Qiu Shufeng had @ed Qiao Huaiyao to say good morning.
Qiao Huaiyao replied with a message.
He noticed Du Weihuan’s name in the chat bubbles above.
Qiu Shufeng: [Honestly, people who do bad things should be punished. A high school classmate of Du Weihuan came forward to expose his bad behavior. Because there was another student in their class who was also an athlete, did well in studies, and was good-looking, Du Weihuan got jealous. He purposely knocked the student down during a basketball game, causing a severe ankle injury, which prevented the student from taking the college entrance exam as an athlete.]
[At that time, Du Weihuan was busy taking the student to the hospital, paying medical bills, buying fruits to apologize, and even took care of the student, and they became friends.]
[But now someone has revealed that Du Weihuan was overheard bragging to his buddies about how he had taken down a ‘rival’ and mocking the injured student for being so dramatic over a sprained ankle. What a two-faced person, with such good acting skills.]
Wang Zhan: [It’s eye-opening to see such diversity in human nature. His jealousy is way too strong.]
Yu Luofan: [Instead of working hard himself, he tries to drag others down.]
Qiu Shufeng: [Now the injured student has reported him to the police. The social impact is significant, and if the school still has surveillance footage, Du Weihuan is finished.]
Wang Zhan: [He deserves it. Doing bad things too often and finally hitting a brick wall, all his dirty deeds are being exposed.]
Qiu Shufeng: [Go to Weibo and see. Many people are scolding him, and more exposés keep coming out. It’s amazing. There was no news before, but after this incident, the floodgates have opened. This guy is so vile, looking decent but doing nothing decent.]
…
Qiao Huaiyao scrolled through the messages and paused at the last one. A coincidence?
His fingertips continued to scroll down, and Qiu Shufeng and the others had said a lot.
But they no longer discussed Du Weihuan.
Most of the messages were directly forwarded Weibo posts. They probably knew that Qiao Huaiyao wasn’t constantly online, so they selectively forwarded the relevant content to the group.
There was no need to search all over for the sequence of events; just follow the links Qiu Shufeng shared and click on each one.
While Qiao Huaiyao was browsing, Bai Jinyan brought in a low table.
Seeing him place the table on the bed, Qiao Huaiyao asked suspiciously, “Brother?”
“Yes,” Bai Jinyan replied as he secured the balancing hooks and then turned back to bring in the breakfast he had prepared.
Bai Jinyan said, “This way, it’s easier to eat.”
There was no need to get up and sit outside; Qiao Huaiyao could eat while resting on the bed.
Without asking Qiao Huaiyao anything, Bai Jinyan had already arranged everything.
Breakfast included two options, both according to Qiao Huaiyao’s preferences.
“Pick what you like and eat more,” Bai Jinyan said, pushing the plates in front of him. “I’ll eat the rest.”
After overexerting himself, Qiao Huaiyao hadn’t eaten much.
He hadn’t felt particularly hungry before, but now, seeing the small table filled with food, he realized he was quite hungry.
Bai Jinyan had prepared both milk and lemon tea for drinks. He didn’t eat much himself but instead propped his chin up with one hand, watching Qiao Huaiyao eat. He said casually, “After breakfast, I’ll accompany you to the lab.”
Qiao Huaiyao blinked, “Is it okay for you to miss the film set for two days in a row?”
Bai Jinyan said, “You need someone here.”
“I’m fine,” Qiao Huaiyao replied with a helpless smile. “Going to the lab is just to monitor the experiment’s progress; there’s nothing hands-on for me to do.”
Moreover, the lab had a small rest area.
If he got too tired, he could rest there for a while.
It was just moving from the dormitory to the lab, a change of scenery to rest.
Qiao Huaiyao offered him a shrimp dumpling, “Don’t let it affect your work.”
Bai Jinyan smiled, “Don’t worry, I know my limits. I’ll take you to the lab and then head to the set.”
Hearing this, Qiao Huaiyao nodded, “Okay.”
Despite the low temperature outside, it was a rare sunny day.
After breakfast, Bai Jinyan took Qiao Huaiyao to the lab.
He arranged the cushions and other items he had brought from the dormitory on the chair.
When he opened the vacuum packaging, the cushion expanded quickly as it came into contact with the air.
The soft cushion was larger than the chair, covering it completely from the front.
The lab chairs were uniformly issued by the school and were quite hard.
Usually, Bai Jinyan would put some cushions on the chair, but this time, they were bigger.
Bai Jinyan held Qiao Huaiyao’s hand and said, “Sit down and see if it’s comfortable.”
“Brother, you’re being too cautious,” Qiao Huaiyao said, feeling a bit helpless. His brother seemed to treat him like a fragile object.