Gu Sheng swayed as he stood, bracing himself against the wall to go inside, then closed the bathroom door.

Zhou Shiyi felt a little awkward outside; he suddenly realized that the whole house had only the two of them.

He went to the entryway and took out the clothes sealed in a plastic bag.

The bloodstains had soaked through; if they weren’t cleaned promptly, they wouldn’t come out.

As soon as he opened the door, a metallic smell of blood mixed with the mint scent from Gu Sheng hit Zhou Shiyi’s face.

Zhou Shiyi took the clothes to soak in a basin of water, planning to wash them later.

Inside the bathroom, Gu Sheng struggled to take off his clothes and gave himself a quick wash.

His phone screen lit up; he reached for it and saw the message that had come through. With one hand, Gu Sheng typed a reply.

“Wait two more days.” The phone screen lit his face, making him look a little eerie—nothing like the bold, reckless boy he appeared to be in daylight.

*knock knock knock*

“Gu Sheng, are you okay?”

Zhou Shiyi had seen Gu Sheng go in and not come out for a long time, and he worried he might have fainted in the bathroom.

Gu Sheng put his phone away and replied, “Okay.”

He finished dressing, looking feverish, and walked toward the door, stopping to rest every few steps.

When he opened the door, he saw Zhou Shiyi standing there with a worried expression; the bathroom door was open and a wave of steam hit them.

Seeing that Gu Sheng looked like he might pass out at any moment, Zhou Shiyi reached out and helped him out.

They were very close, and Zhou Shiyi could once again catch that faint scent of mint.

Through the thin summer shirt, Gu Sheng could feel Zhou Shiyi’s hand remaining steady; Zhou Shiyi’s body heat flowed continuously across the points where they were pressed together.

He appraised Zhou Shiyi without showing it. Zhou Shiyi had been careful to avoid Gu Sheng’s wound and was bearing most of his weight.

Gu Sheng’s bedroom was on the second floor. Zhou Shiyi laid him down on the bed, and—perhaps because Gu Sheng’s legs had gone weak—he accidentally ended up brought onto the bed as well.

He instinctively braced himself on the bed so as not to press on Gu Sheng’s wound.

But Gu Sheng still gave a muffled groan. Zhou Shiyi got off him and asked, “Are you all right?”

Gu Sheng closed his eyes, his pale lips pressing together slightly. “Are you leaving?”

Zhou Shiyi glanced at the view outside—the sky was already pitch dark. If he didn’t go back now, Grandma Zhou would start worrying.

But Gu Sheng was the only person in the whole house, and he was injured. If his wound got infected at night or he ran a high fever, there would be no one to notice.

“Wait a little longer.”

Gu Sheng seemed to realize how late it was. “Sorry for keeping you so long. The cleaning lady will come tomorrow morning, so you don’t need to worry.”

Zhou Shiyi frowned and said disapprovingly, “I can’t feel at ease leaving you here like this. Do you have any spare rooms at your place?”

Gu Sheng said awkwardly, “There is one — pick a room yourself. Sorry, not only did I not help you, I’m making you take care of me.”

“What are you talking about? If it weren’t for you, I’d be the one injured.” Zhou Shiyi ruffled Gu Sheng’s hair.

After Gu Sheng finished showering, his hair hadn’t been dried yet because it was hard to manage.

Saying only “wait a moment,” Zhou Shiyi went to the bathroom to fetch the hairdryer, steadied Gu Sheng, and dried his hair for him.

Zhou Shiyi had never helped anyone with this before, but he couldn’t very well let Gu Sheng sleep with wet hair, so he grit his teeth and began blow-drying him.

His fingers threaded through the hair as the dryer steadily blew out warm air at just the right temperature, and only then did Zhou Shiyi realize Gu Sheng hadn’t made a sound the whole time.

More than that, Gu Sheng seemed as if he’d been sealed—rigid and motionless, sitting there as if waiting for Zhou Shiyi to finish drying his hair.

Knowing that Gu Sheng didn’t like being touched, such a reaction was understandable.

But even though Gu Sheng hated being touched, his whole body was stiff as a statue; he still obediently sat there, like a big golden retriever that had just been bathed, frozen by the hairdryer, motionless and waiting for its owner to finish blow-drying its fur.

Feeling Gu Sheng’s well-kept hair running through his hands, Zhou Shiyi couldn’t help but run his fingers through it a couple more times.

They both breathed a sigh of relief when the hair was finally dry.

“I’ll sleep next to you. If you need anything tonight, you can call me.”

Gu Sheng lay on the bed and responded absentmindedly.

Zhou Shiyi paused, then went out and called Grandma Zhou to let her know he was safe, so she wouldn’t insist on leaving a light on for him.

When Grandma Zhou heard that Zhou Shiyi was staying over at a classmate’s, and since it was rare to hear him mention any particular classmate, she asked a few more questions.

Zhou Shiyi showed no impatience at all; he answered every question from Grandma Zhou very earnestly.

The old woman finally felt reassured.

When he came out of the laundry room, he saw that Gu Sheng’s room still had the light on.

Zhou Shiyi went over and knocked on the door, then found it wasn’t closed.

He gave a gentle push and saw that a lamp was still on by Gu Sheng’s bedside; the man was curled up in a ball, moaning unconsciously.

Gu Sheng lay in bed, his face flushed with an unhealthy red.

He reached out and touched his forehead—sure enough, he had a fever.

Zhou Shiyi called his name softly, but Gu Sheng frowned and didn’t wake.

It seemed like he was still dreaming; Gu Sheng was also in pain, murmuring twice and talking nonsense.

“It hurts, it really hurts, Zhou Shiyi, it hurts so much.”

Gu Sheng’s hair was drenched in sweat. Zhou Shiyi took his temperature — thirty-eight point nine degrees.

The fever was a bit high. Zhou Shiyi took out the medicine bag he had brought back from the hospital today and coaxed Gu Sheng to take antipyretics and antibiotics.

During this time Gu Sheng kept shouting that it hurt. When asked if it was the wound that hurt, Gu Sheng fell silent again.

Seeing him covered in sweat, Zhou Shiyi went to the bathroom, wet a clean towel with hot water, and wiped Gu Sheng’s body.

As the towel passed over Gu Sheng’s well-formed brows and eyes, his high, straight nose, and perfectly shaped thin lips, Zhou Shiyi paused. It was the first time he had spent so long looking at someone’s face.

There are still some small cuts on Gu Sheng’s lips; Zhou Shiyi frowned—those marks could only have been caused by Gu Sheng biting himself.

Seeing Gu Sheng lying on his side, Zhou Shiyi propped a cushion behind him to make sure he wouldn’t roll over in his sleep and press on the wounds, but that position felt awkward to Gu Sheng, so he kept moving.

Worried he might press on his injuries, Zhou Shiyi could only gently hold Gu Sheng’s shoulder.

Maybe the pressure from that position made it worse—Gu Sheng began to let out quiet cries.

“Gu Sheng? Gu Sheng, wake up, it’s me.”

Gu Sheng half-opened his eyes in a haze, tears welling as he looked at Zhou Shiyi and said, “Zhou Shiyi, it hurts so much. Hold me, hold me and it won’t hurt.”

His consciousness was already fuzzy; the persistent high fever made him feel as if he were falling back into that vulnerable period all over again.

He didn’t recognize the person in front of him as the one he’d once treated as an enemy; he only wanted to find a sliver of relief from the boundless, overwhelming fever.

In his last life Gu Sheng lived only to twenty-seven. In the final half year of his life, he was tormented by pain every waking moment.

His vulnerable period didn’t feel like a normal physiological phenomenon so much as an illness; it was no longer right to call it a “vulnerable period”—Gu Sheng always thought it was better described as an “attack.”

As the intervals between attacks grew shorter and the attacks themselves longer—sometimes lasting for half a month—he was in a near-constant state of vulnerability. Every second he lived felt like torture.

The aftereffects from the incubation period hadn’t subsided before the next one arrived; the persistent high fever brought physical misery — every bone ached, every muscle, every inch of skin; a touch sent him into excruciating pain.

He could no longer use the suppressants; he could only rely on himself to get through that unbearable stretch.

By then, even the tranquilizers had little effect on him; only injecting suppressants and sedatives directly into his gland could do anything, and that only helped a little. But injecting drugs into the gland would make an alpha suffer unbearably.

The discomfort the susceptible period brought to his body, and the suppressant taking effect in him, gave him a moment of clarity to feel that kind of torment where even breathing hurt. Sometimes he thought, just let it be. It would be better to die in the susceptible period than to endure this kind of suffering.

If not for the restraint band, Gu Sheng was certain he would never willingly endure living in this world, nor submit to such torment.

Gu Sheng was out of his senses and couldn’t make out the person before him; he was simply overwhelmed by the heat, his head clouded, and wanted to draw a sliver of comfort from that person.

He heard the person by him sigh helplessly, then the edge of the quilt was lifted and a draft slipped in, bringing a touch of coolness—only to be blocked again moments later.

Gu Sheng was somewhat displeased, but he soon fell into an embrace that carried a touch of coolness.

This warmth was just right for Gu Sheng, whose body temperature was running high — being held felt perfect.

Watching Gu Sheng find a comfortable position in his arms and fall asleep as if it were routine, Zhou Shiyi felt a little helpless.

Gu Sheng held on particularly tight, so Zhou Shiyi could only reach out with one hand and switch off the bedside lamp.

In the dark, as if noticing the lack of light, Gu Sheng’s eyelids trembled violently. Zhou Shiyi had to avoid the wounds on his back and gently patted him: “Sleep.”

Sure enough, Gu Sheng stopped moving and sank into a quiet sleep.

Zhou Shiyi’s posture was very awkward; he was lying on his side, half-cradling Gu Sheng, and when he bowed his head it was level with Gu Sheng’s sleeping face.

In the darkness, Zhou Shiyi blinked, and listening to Gu Sheng’s breathing like that, he fell asleep.

In the morning Gu Sheng felt the “thing” in his arms suddenly move and struggled to slip out of his embrace; his mind wasn’t fully awake and he held on stubbornly with a morning grumpiness.

That “thing” paused, gently soothing him, and Gu Sheng loosened his grip.

Gu Sheng could still feel a warm, dry hand on his forehead, and instinctively nuzzled into it.

He heard a soft chuckle.

Gu Sheng opened his eyes and saw someone by the bedside.

Zhou Shiyi also looked like he had just woken up, carrying a trace of early-morning sleepiness and laziness.

Realizing who was in front of him, Gu Sheng understood how shameful his earlier action had been. His face flushed immediately; he buried his face in the blanket and refused to come out no matter what Zhou Shiyi said.

“Go rest for a bit first. Later you’ll have some breakfast and take some antibiotics. What do you want to eat? I’ll go make it for you.”

Last night Zhou Shiyi got up again to take Gu Sheng’s temperature, gave him some water, fussed over him until midnight, and the two of them slept until morning.

As for last night, Gu Sheng only remembered hearing Zhou Shiyi’s voice in the middle of the night, but he had no recollection at all of why the two of them ended up sleeping in the same bed.

He felt a bit annoyed, thinking that every time he ran into Zhou Shiyi he made a fool of himself in front of him, and he sulked inwardly.

“Whatever.”

Gu Sheng’s voice came through the quilt, a bit muffled.

Zhou Shiyi stepped forward and tugged at his blanket. “Don’t cover your head. If you want to sleep a bit longer, I’ll wake you up later.”

Gu Sheng refused to let go, so Zhou Shiyi could only tell him to sleep a little more.

After he left, Gu Sheng poked his head out from under the covers, his face flushed bright red from holding it in.

He looked at the closed bedroom door as if he were seeing someone standing in front of him. He sat up slowly from the bed, feeling the wound on his shoulder threaten to tear with the movement, yet Gu Sheng didn’t frown.

Compared to the agony when the gland was injected, what did this little injury amount to?

He picked up his phone from the bedside table, unplugged the charger, and looked at the messages on the screen.

There were more than a dozen messages, all sent while he was asleep.

Luckily his phone had been left on the nightstand to charge last night, so Zhou Shiyi hadn’t seen it when he came into his room.

When Nian Meilan saw Gu Sheng say he’d be sleeping at the villa, she didn’t go back. She sent him two messages asking if he was sleeping well over there, if he was comfortable. Seeing that he hadn’t replied for a long time, she sent another one asking what he wanted for breakfast and saying she’d bring it over this morning.

Noticing it was already past seven, Gu Sheng thought of Zhou Shiyi downstairs and hurriedly messaged Nian Meilan.

“Mom, I’m up. You don’t need to come in. If I go to school later I’ll be late.”

It’s a little after seven in the morning now, but first-period morning reading has already started, and Gu Sheng doesn’t feel even a shred of guilt for skipping class and lying about it.

Nian Meilan sat in the car and, seeing on her phone’s screen that the red dot representing Gu Sheng hadn’t moved at all, felt a choke of irritation.

She found out yesterday that Gu Sheng not only skipped class but also went to the suburbs; another classmate had asked for leave for him, and he didn’t come back all night.

Nian Meilan thought Gu Sheng would feel guilty, but she didn’t expect him to lie so casually now.

After thinking it over, he couldn’t let Gu Sheng be distressed right now. Although Gu Sheng had always known there was a tracking device in his phone, no one had been constantly checking it to see his movement history.

The Gu family all knew to respect the other’s privacy at a time like this, but Gu Sheng’s recent odd behavior left her unable to rest.

If she went over now to ask Gu Sheng why he’d skipped class, he’d definitely be resistant; Nian Meilan could only send him a message.

“Alright then, I won’t come over. You stay there and take care of yourself.”

After dealing with Nian Meilan, Gu Sheng finally opened his other messages.

Gu Yuan unexpectedly sent him four or five messages.

“?”

“Where did the file I left in the study go?”

“What exactly are you trying to do?”

“You die, and we’ll see how you explain it to Mom and Dad.”

Gu Yuan sent him a photo. When Gu Sheng opened it, it was the picture of him being carried out of the alley by Zhou Shiyi.

The latest message was at exactly seven this morning: “Awake yet?”

Gu Sheng had just replied “awake” when Gu Yuan’s voice call came through.

Knowing he couldn’t avoid it, Gu Sheng answered the call: “Hello.”

“Gu Sheng, what on earth are you trying to do? You took my files, then went off to find him alone—no, that’s not right, you even brought the victim with you. Two minors going after a fugitive!

You read that man’s file, you know how dangerous he is, and you actually sent away the bodyguard Dad assigned you. What were you thinking?”

No sooner had he picked up the phone than Gu Yuan, as if he’d been hit with an explosion, began firing off a barrage at Gu Sheng.

Gu Sheng touched the gauze on his shoulder, his expression deep.

What is he trying to do?

He wanted to see whether Zhou Shiyi really had ties to that organization; he wanted to see whether Zhou Shiyi had a heart at all, and why he had targeted him.

Zhou Shiyi was someone who resisted both pressure and persuasion; deliberately getting close would only make him suspicious. Only by staging this little performance could he draw closer to Zhou Shiyi.

Everything went according to his plan; as expected, Zhou Shiyi didn’t become suspicious.

“Big brother, I know my limits.”

“Limits? Your limit is getting stabbed, going to the hospital, and not telling your family?”

Gu Yuan worried all night yesterday, especially after he pulled up that driver’s information again.

The driver who caused the accident was surnamed Cao; normally big trucks have insurance, so he shouldn’t have to worry about compensation.

But the problem was that this driver hadn’t been acting like this for the first time; the insurance company and the police had already noticed him.

Right after the incident, Cao Yong realized something was wrong, so he didn’t go home at all—he stayed out, waiting for the heat to die down.

Once he ran, it confirmed that the previous car accidents weren’t accidents, and the police issued a wanted notice for Cao Yong.

Those car crashes were horrific; just reading the descriptions was shocking. Gu Sheng actually dared to go to someone’s door and pick a fight in person.

If Gu Sheng’s father and mother hadn’t come back earlier and the two of them then combed through both families’ histories for any signs of mental illness and found nothing, Gu Yuan would have even suspected Gu Sheng’s problem wasn’t psychological but neurological.

“That driver has already been caught. My people have been waiting outside for a long time; as soon as he came out of the alley they had him subdued.”

Gu Yuan’s mind spun for a moment, and he suddenly understood what Gu Sheng had been up to.

There was someone else there yesterday; Gu Sheng went because of that Zhou Shiyi.

Gu Yuan later investigated Zhou Shiyi’s background; Zhou Shiyi had excelled in his studies over the years and was a well-behaved, obedient child.

Only that his parents had been in a car accident not long ago; the driver fled the scene and the matter of compensation was left unresolved.

He also had a grandmother at home who relied on him and was in poor health, so Gu Sheng wanted to help him—find the hit-and-run driver and, in a way, do something to compensate Zhou Shiyi for them.

Unexpectedly, Gu Sheng intercepted the file that had been handed to him. When he was sure they could fully catch Cao Yong, he and Zhou Shiyi staged a self-inflicted martyrdom act there.

“You did it for Zhou Shiyi—why?”

Gu Yuan deliberately moved to a different seat so others wouldn’t overhear.

“There’s something I’ve never been sure about—whether he was involved. But I’m certain that me ending up like this must have something to do with him.”

Gu Sheng’s words were vague, but Gu Yuan, thinking of his recent odd behavior, asked, “Are you sure? I’ve checked his background—he seems clean. And you two had no contact before this.”

“I’m not sure either, so I want to try first. Big brother, please help me. I only know one thing: Zhou Shiyi is very important to me.”

Gu Yuan thought for a moment, then finally relaxed his tone: “Are you sure this was done cleanly? What if—what if he really has someone backing him? Won’t it be discovered?”

“Big brother, don’t worry, nothing’s going to go wrong.”

Gu Yuan’s emotions were complicated. Thinking of the soft, pliable younger brother who’d grown up under his watch into someone capable of scheming like this, he still found himself softening in the end.

“Alright, I’ll help you hide it from your parents, but I can’t promise how long we can keep it.” He shifted his tone and said,

“Your skipping class yesterday — Mom and Dad know about it. You better come up with a good excuse, or if this gets out, I won’t be able to protect you.”

Gu Sheng thought of the message Nian Meilan had sent him this morning.

Ms. Nian had been semi-retired for two years and no longer got up that early.

Ms. Nian wasn’t one to give up halfway; once she decided to do something, she saw it through to the end—she wouldn’t just drop it without a word.

Since she’d gotten up so early and messaged him earlier, it was just to test the waters; Ms. Nian should have arrived by now.

Gu Sheng felt a pang of anxiety, quickly pocketed his phone, and changed into another set of clothes.

He even deliberately left his clothes all wrinkled, looking like he’d been gaming all night.