"Knock, knock, knock!"
"Come in."
The voice belonged to a girl. It was light and ethereal, as pleasant as the chirping of birds in the early morning.
Opening the door, Ye Feng—still dressed in hospital pajamas—carried the fruit basket (the one he had already raided for bananas) into the room and offered a sheepish greeting.
"Sorry to disturb your rest, Student Qin. I came specifically to thank you for saving my life."
He gestured with the fruit basket, presenting it as a formal get-well gift.
As for the fact that he'd already eaten some of it?
Please. Qin Yuxin had no idea how much fruit was supposed to be in there. He'd only snagged a few bananas and an apple; it shouldn't look too empty, right? Besides, he was dirt poor. Being an orphan, the monthly government subsidy was barely enough to cover basic living expenses; he truly didn't have spare cash to buy gifts. As for the legendary TPC welfare benefits... well, they hadn't kicked in yet.
"Oh, it's you, Student Ye. Thank you for coming to see me. You're not disturbing me at all; in fact, I've been all alone since I woke up. Having you here to chat will help kill the boredom."
Upon seeing him, a genuine smile broke through the sickly, melancholy expression on the girl's face.
With her response, Ye Feng finally took the chance to observe her closely. Unlike their usual days at school where she wore a baggy uniform, her current hospital gown was relatively form-fitting. Combined with her elegant, oval-shaped face, she possessed an extraordinary beauty. She looked like a princess in peril who had finally found redemption, her eyes brimming with a soft, touching vulnerability.
But when he remembered that behind this fragile exterior lay a fiercely disciplined and strong-willed personality, Ye Feng found it hard to reconcile the two. Was this truly the same Qin Yuxin from school?
"Student Ye Feng!"
Qin Yuxin's voice suddenly spiked in volume, jolting Ye Feng out of his thoughts.
Snapping back to reality, he saw Qin Yuxin looking at him with a mix of impatience and wariness. Ye Feng felt a surge of... awkwardness.
Seeing him return to his senses, Qin Yuxin added pointedly, "Student Ye Feng, staring at a girl like that is a very impolite thing to do~~~"
She dragged out the final syllable, making Ye Feng even more embarrassed. However, he offered a stiff rebuttal: "I wasn't staring at you. I was just thinking about something."
"Oh~~~?"
Ye Feng couldn't understand why she kept elongating her words, but he found out soon enough. And once he did, he realized his explanation had only made things worse...
"You enter a sick girl's room, stare at her, daze off on the spot, and then claim you were 'thinking about something'?"
"Student Ye, am I to understand that your mind was filled with... inappropriate thoughts?"
At this point, Qin Yuxin's gaze became dangerously sharp. It was the look one reserved for a total pervert!
'Damn it all...'
Ye Feng cursed internally, feeling utterly speechless. Sure, he had been thinking about her in his head, but her mind didn't have to go straight to the gutter! Also, why would she even jump to that conclusion? Was the rumor true—that women actually understood "those things" even better than men? He used to think it was a myth, but looking at Qin Yuxin now... yeah, rumors usually have some basis in reality, otherwise, who would spread them?
Seeing Ye Feng's expression grow weirder by the second, Qin Yuxin couldn't keep her straight face any longer and burst out laughing.
"Hahaha~~~!"
The sudden laughter left Ye Feng baffled. 'What is wrong with this woman? Did she get a brain injury from being pinned down?'
But that didn't seem right. At most, she had six monsters piled on top of her—a total weight of roughly 420,000 tons. That should... probably... maybe... not have crushed her skull, right?
Ye Feng wasn't so sure anymore. Seeing her continue to laugh, he asked cautiously, "Student Qin Yuxin... should I... should I go call a neurologist?"
"Hahaha... Huh?"
Realizing what Ye Feng was implying, Qin Yuxin's face darkened with frustration. "Go to hell! My brain is perfectly fine, but I am very uncomfortable!"
"I mean, I did save you, didn't I?"
"Uh-huh." Ye Feng nodded vigorously.
"And I only got possessed because I was trying to save you, right?"
"Uh-huh."
"Then... were you the one who piled six monsters on top of me?"
"Uh-huh... wait, ⊙∀⊙!!!"
Qin Yuxin's eyes grew increasingly menacing. Ye Feng finally realized why her behavior had been so erratic—she was out for revenge.
"Glad you realize it. Those were six monsters! And you just tossed them all on top of me in one go!"
Qin Yuxin's voice rose, trembling slightly. Clearly, it was not a pleasant memory. Her current state reminded Ye Feng of a specific mental image: a happy child suddenly getting smacked across the face, bringing their joy to a screeching halt.
'Hiss~~~'
The mere thought of it made his skin crawl!
The conversation took a downward turn. Despite only being classmates, Qin Yuxin had reverted to her true self. She spoke with immense indignation, and she spoke a lot. She ranted about how he didn't know what it felt like to be smothered by six giants, how she had finally managed to stand up only to have six "boulders" dropped on her, and the sensation of taking a flying kick from the sky and slamming into the dirt. Ye Feng didn't dare utter a single word of protest.
Because... he had actually done all of those things.
Ye Feng was starting to regret his life choices. Why did he bother coming to see her? He even sacrificed his fruit basket for this! The more he thought about it, the more he regretted it.
'What a sin!!!'
"I... I didn't do it on purpose..."
Ye Feng couldn't muster any strength in his tone. After all, no matter how he looked at it, he was in the wrong. After listening to her lecture for what felt like an eternity, those were the only words he could manage.
"Fine, I forgive you." Qin Yuxin didn't say anything more. She snatched the fruit basket away and moved to grab something to eat, but then paused, looking confused. "Huh? Are there no bananas in this basket?"
!!!
"There aren't. Why would there be bananas in a fruit basket? Do you like bananas, Student Qin? If you do, I can go buy you some extra." Seeing that she didn't know the standard contents of a gift basket, Ye Feng regained his composure and fabricated an explanation on the fly.
"I see." Qin Yuxin had never actually received one before; after all, people didn't just buy fruit baskets for no reason.
She turned down his offer: "Don't bother buying them. I just thought with this many fruits, there'd be at least one banana. To think there isn't... what a trashy fruit shop, being so stingy they won't even include a single banana. How cheap."
"Yeah... yeah, truly a trashy fruit shop." Ye Feng wiped away non-existent cold sweat, feeling incredibly guilty. He could only offer a silent apology to the fruit shop: 'It's not my fault, really!'
Seeing her start on the other fruits, and fearing he might let something slip, he quickly made his exit. "Since you're doing better, Student Qin, I won't disturb you any longer. Get some rest! See ya!"
"Wait, you—"
SLAM!
"Really, I hadn't even finished talking! Why is he in such a hurry? Staying here alone is boring to death." She glared at the door huffily, but since he was gone, she could only settle for being bored and eating her fruit.
As for her phone, it had been smashed to pieces. It must have happened when she was being crushed during the transformation...
"Dammit! I forgot to make Ye Feng pay for my phone!"
The realization that her phone was gone made her even more furious. She was already stuck in bed with nothing to do, and now she remembered her phone was toast. And the culprit behind it all thought he could buy her off with a single basket of fruit?
Incredible!
Of course, she still didn't know the basket wasn't even complete, or that the bananas she was craving had already been devoured by Ye Feng. One can only imagine what she would think if she found out.
Returning to his ward, Ye Feng felt thirsty and grabbed the electric kettle to get some water. Suddenly, he felt a cold breeze brush against his back, giving him goosebumps.
"Hiss~~"
"Why is it so cold? Did I set the AC too low?"
Global temperatures were unusually high this year. Even in June, the outside temperature in Hangzhou was nearly 37°C. He checked the unit and saw it was set to 23°C, which didn't explain the sudden chill.
"What's going on? It's getting colder." Clutching his water bottle and returning to bed, he found that the faint, ghostly chill persisted. A bold thought crossed his mind: 'Is someone holding a grudge against me?'
He thought of the woman in the room next door. Yeah, it was definitely possible.
BEEP-BEEP!
His phone screen lit up. Pushing the thoughts aside, he opened his messages.
"An admission notification? And a bonus... Holy crap, 200,000?! Is this real?!"
Ye Feng rubbed his eyes in disbelief and counted the zeros again. His bank account really had a balance of 200,000! He had never seen this much money in either his past life or this one.
Staring at his newfound fortune, Ye Feng thought to himself: 'Should I be extravagant from now on? Maybe add a sausage AND a tea egg to every bowl of instant noodles?'