Chapter 25

After getting out of the elevator, An Rong followed the doctor to the infirmary to get a thermometer. By now, she had stopped panicking and simply trailed along behind the doctor like a little tail.

The doctor didn’t chase her away either. The more she looked at An Rong, the more familiar the girl seemed. So many girls ran around this floor every day that she couldn’t place her immediately, so she simply assumed she had seen her around often enough to remember her vaguely.

Even the medicine had to be sweet. Just how delicate was this little princess?

The doctor tilted her head and said lightly, “I’ll try.”

An Rong breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

When they reached the dorm, An Rong greeted Chen Xin and ran inside first.

After making the phone call, Chen Xin had hurried over to the dorm to see what was going on. She checked around and discovered that Xu Xiaoye had caught a cold. Once she learned it was only a cold, Chen Xin genuinely breathed a sigh of relief. An Rong’s panicked expression had frightened her so badly that she thought something serious had happened to someone.

Fortunately, it was only a cold.

When An Rong went inside, Xu Xiaoye had already sat up. Looking at An Rong with an expression caught between amusement and helplessness, she asked, “Where did you run off to?”

An Rong touched her water cup and found that the water inside had already gone cold, so she added some hot water without the slightest guilty conscience. “I happened to run into Teacher Chen. She called the doctor back.”

Xu Xiaoye didn’t even know what to say to her. It was just a common cold, yet An Rong had made such a huge production out of it.

Just then, the doctor and Chen Xin came in together.

An Rong immediately moved aside and stood nearby watching.

Xu Xiaoye glanced at An Rong and saw that she was still frowning, her gaze fixed intently on the doctor as though she were the one who was sick.

“Common cold, low-grade fever, and inflamed tonsils.” The doctor put away the thermometer, then turned to An Rong and said, “Come with me to get the medicine.”

Chen Xin breathed a sigh of relief.

An Rong answered, took two steps, then turned back and said to Xu Xiaoye, “If the water gets cold, don’t drink it. I’ll be right back.”

The kettle was actually sitting right there on the table.

Xu Xiaoye gave an awkward smile. “Got it.”

There were only two people in the infirmary, separated by a long cabinet, one person getting the medicine on the inside while the other waited outside.

An Rong stood on tiptoe to look.

A medicine box stuffed full was placed on the counter. Slender fingers pressed against one side, pushing the box across the tabletop with a scraping sound until it stopped in front of her. An Rong opened it and poured the medicine out to inspect everything.

The doctor pushed up her glasses and watched An Rong take the medicine out. “The dosage and instructions are all written on there. Most of it is granules, and there are only a few tablets. But it’s just a cold. With medicine, it takes two or three days. Without medicine, three to five. Either way, it needs time to run its course.”

An Rong began putting the individually packed medicine back into the box. Her hand ​stolen content​paused. “Thank you.”

She turned to leave after saying that, but after only two steps, the doctor suddenly called out to her. “Wait.”

An Rong thought there were more medical instructions and turned around in confusion.

The doctor leaned her arms on the counter and stared intently at An Rong. “I remember now. You’re that girl… I really didn’t expect the two of you to end up as roommates.”

An Rong’s mind exploded with a boom. For a moment, she thought the doctor had become suspicious of something.

“Mm.” An Rong lowered her eyes and said without revealing anything, “That day when the dorms were assigned, the two of us happened to return last.”

That was the truth. Even she herself hadn’t expected it.

The doctor suddenly understood and nodded as she said, “Oh—fate.”

An Rong didn’t respond. “Then I’ll go now. Sorry for troubling you today.”

Only after leaving did An Rong realize her palms were covered in sweat. She really had been a little nervous just now. Fortunately, everything she had done could still be explained as concern for a friend. Friendship—reliable for ten thousand years.

But in her previous life, when Xu Xiaoye had been so good to her, had she only thought of her as a friend too?

A dull ache spread through An Rong’s heart, while her expression concealed it perfectly.

Chen Xin had already finished giving her reminders about the meeting and left. Xu Xiaoye sat on the bed wrapped in a blanket. ​stolen content​The moment she saw the medicine in An Rong’s hands, her face paled slightly. Her lips trembled, yet she still pretended nothing was wrong as she said, “It’s just a cold. I get one a few times every year. You’re being too nervous. Drink more water and it’ll be gone in two days.”

An Rong said, “You have a fever.”

“I’ll be fine if I wrap myself in the blanket and sweat it out.”

Xu Xiaoye answered almost instantly, as though she had prepared for this exact question long ago.

An Rong took all the medicine out of the box, then checked the water in the kettle. It was still warm.

Xu Xiaoye clung tightly to the wall with the blanket wrapped around herself. Her face was pale, yet she was still forcing a smile. “You’re too nervous. I recover quickly even without medicine. Stop messing around. I’m not taking any.”

An Rong mixed half a cup of medicine and had just turned around.

Xu Xiaoye suddenly growled, “Didn’t you hear me? I said I’m not taking medicine! I’m not sick!”

Her voice sounded like a trapped animal in panic, restless and agitated.

An Rong’s hand shook slightly. The dark cold medicine in the cup swirled once before sliding back down the side.

An Rong shook the packet in her other hand. “Cold medicine.”

A fine layer of sweat had appeared across Xu Xiaoye’s forehead. Her lips trembled, and her unfocused gaze finally landed on An Rong’s hand before gradually settling into a twisted expression that slowly calmed. “Oh. I know. I know. Cold medicine…”

Her exposed fingers clutched the blanket around her tightly, read the original at bailiantales.com whitening with force, as though she were gripping armor and wrapping herself securely inside it.

An Rong’s heart felt as though it had been pricked with a needle, a sharp ache spreading through it, yet she had no idea why Xu Xiaoye resisted medicine so strongly.

In her previous life, Xu Xiaoye had almost never taken medicine either. Whenever she got sick, she simply endured it. If people pushed her too hard, she would hide in her room and, when she came back out, always say she had already taken it.

It wasn’t that An Rong had never been suspicious, but the reason Xu Xiaoye gave was, “Medicine is too bitter.”

A little strange, but not unreasonable.

But now An Rong realized that didn’t seem to be the whole story. Could someone really be this terrified just because medicine tasted bitter?

An Rong shifted sideways and blocked the camera behind her. After hesitating, she took a sip herself first. Sweetness and bitterness spread across her tongue. She even smacked her lips before giving an objective assessment. “Mm… it’s not that sweet.”

She handed the cup to Xu Xiaoye and said in an extremely gentle voice, “Want to try it?”

Xu Xiaoye didn’t move.

An Rong knelt in front of her, licked the traces of medicine from her lips, and looked at Xu Xiaoye as she lowered her voice. “Sister, don’t be afraid.”

Xu Xiaoye stiffly tugged at the corner of her mouth, avoiding An Rong’s gaze without saying anything.

An Rong had never known her resistance to medicine was this severe. She didn’t dare speculate about the reason on her own and could only blame herself for not noticing sooner.

Xu Xiaoye finally came back to herself. Her gaze seemed to stolen content pass through An Rong’s body and land on the camera sitting on the table behind her. At last, she recovered a trace of reason and stretched out a trembling hand.

An Rong wanted to feed her but was afraid of upsetting her further, so she could only watch as Xu Xiaoye lifted the cup to her lips like she was drinking poison, her teeth knocking lightly against the rim with faint clicking sounds.

She drained it in one gulp. An Rong took the cup from her, returned to the table, picked up a towel, and covered the camera.

Holding the amoxicillin, An Rong hesitated before returning to the bedside. Right in front of Xu Xiaoye, she pressed two capsules out of the unopened blister pack and deliberately slowed her speech, keeping her voice as gentle as possible. “Your throat is inflamed. If you don’t take medicine and your voice goes hoarse, it might affect the performance.”

Maybe the performance held an extremely important place in Xu Xiaoye’s heart, or maybe it was because An Rong had taken the medicine directly from an unopened package in front of her. Whatever the reason, she only hesitated briefly before taking it.

Looking at the way Xu Xiaoye seemed prepared to face death, An Rong suddenly grabbed her wrist.

Xu Xiaoye’s face was pale as she looked at her in confusion.

An Rong let go and said, “You don’t need to tilt your head back when swallowing capsules. They float on water, so if you tilt your head up, the water might go down first and the capsule could get stuck in your throat.”

Xu Xiaoye was distracted and nodded carelessly.

The fever medicine was also a granule drink. Xu Xiaoye seemed to have adjusted herself by now. Her eyes followed An Rong’s hands as she mixed the medicine, and she forced a pale, thin smile. “It isn’t bitter, right? I’m just a little afraid of bitter things.”

An Rong looked up.

For the first time, she realized Xu Xiaoye was actually a pretty good actress. Even though she had probably only just regained control of herself, her first reaction was still to invent an excuse for her abnormal behavior, desperately throwing a thin cover over it.

But she had forgotten that none of the medicine this time was particularly bitter.

Capsules barely had any taste. The fever medicine was strawberry-flavored. Even if the cold medicine had a little bitterness, it wasn’t bitter enough to terrify someone until their face turned white, bitter enough to make them secretly cry, or bitter enough to make them lose control and scramble for an excuse like this.

An Rong’s heart twisted painfully.

But she only nodded and smiled at Xu Xiaoye. “It’s my fault. If I’d noticed sooner that you weren’t feeling well, maybe you wouldn’t have had to take so much medicine.”

Xu Xiaoye shook her head distractedly.

An Rong held her pale fingers. They were icy cold.

“Go to sleep,” An Rong said. “Song Ran is still waiting for me. I’ll go for a little while and come right back.”

Xu Xiaoye pulled her hand away, grabbed the blanket, and collapsed onto the bed with it pulled over her head, giving a muffled “Mm.”

The icy sensation seemed to remain in An Rong’s palm. Looking at the large bundle on the bed, her heart ached beyond words. In her previous life, during all the times An Rong hadn’t known, had Xu Xiaoye often hidden herself away like this too?

Why had she never noticed before? Why had she trusted Xu Xiaoye so completely in her previous life? Xu Xiaoye had said she hated bitter medicine, and An Rong had simply believed her.

Only now did An Rong suddenly realize that she didn’t understand Xu Xiaoye at all. She didn’t know what terrified her, nor did she know anything about her past.

Maybe Xu Xiaoye really was straight. Maybe in her previous life, she had already found the best possible person for herself.

Then what was the point of An Rong starting over this time?

At most, she was indulging in one-sided feelings and building a prison around herself.

With a dark expression, An Rong walked to the table and was about to turn off the light so Xu Xiaoye could sleep. Then she remembered Xu Xiaoye might currently be trapped in some kind of fear. Maybe having the light on would be better?

An Rong walked back to the bed. The moment her hand touched the blanket, she saw it tremble.

She hated that she couldn’t suffer in Xu Xiaoye’s place. When she opened her mouth, all she could manage was a bitter, “Don’t suffocate yourself under there. I’ll be back soon.”

After leaving the room, An Rong strode into the dance studio. Song Ran was practicing by herself.

An Rong frowned and asked bluntly, “Which part can’t you do?”

She picked up the tablet from the floor and watched Song Ran clumsily attempt the spinning movement.

“Lower your center of gravity. Lift your head. Keep your core tight.” As An Rong spoke, she demonstrated for Song Ran. She bent her body, wrapped her arms around her knees, curled her shoulders inward, and lowered her head. Then she suddenly rose, forcefully opening her shoulders outward and lifting her head high. Her right foot pushed off sharply while her waist tightened and her arms drew around her knees. Her left leg bent as well, and using the momentum, she spun twice in place before folding her shoulders inward and sinking her chest into a frozen pose.

Song Ran stared at her in amazement. She had assumed An Rong had only watched Xu Xiaoye perform the move and knew a little of the theory, enough at most to give her some verbal explanation. She hadn’t expected An Rong to actually know how to do it—and to do it so beautifully!

Wasn’t An Rong supposed to be a complete beginner just like her?

This was a beginner?

That move required extremely precise control of strength to stop as cleanly and ​Read on BaiLianTales​freely as An Rong had. Song Ran had never managed to stop properly even once. Every time, the momentum sent her staggering away.

“That was amazing!” Song Ran’s eyes gleamed as she looked at An Rong. “When did you learn that? Does your group have this move too?”

An Rong shook her head. “I watched your group practice it, and I tried it myself.”

She held Song Ran’s arm and said, “This move actually isn’t that difficult. As long as you keep your center of gravity stable, you absolutely have to support yourself through the waist.”

An Rong placed a hand on Song Ran’s waist. “Use the muscles in your legs, and pull the strength in through your core. If you want it to look good, your arms, shoulders, and back muscles all need to engage. You need strength in the movement to express the emotion.”

After such high-intensity training, An Rong’s current body was finally capable of supporting some moderately difficult movements. Although she looked thinner than she had half a month ago, the strength training was beginning to show results. A thin layer of muscle and her increasingly firm figure gave her both power and beauty.

Song Ran practiced a few sets according to her instructions. Once An Rong saw she basically had it, she said, “Practice by yourself for now. I’m going back.”

Song Ran looked dazed as she watched An Rong hurry out the door. She gave a self-deprecating smile. Maybe this was what the difference between people looked like. She really wasn’t suited to this industry after all. She had no talent, couldn’t learn dance properly, wasn’t outstanding at singing, and exhausted herself every day for just a few hundred yuan. What was the point?

An Rong had no idea she had dealt a blow to Song Ran’s confidence. She had already learned all these things in her previous life. It was only because she had started over in this life, her physical condition hadn’t been able to keep up, and she hadn’t wanted to stand out too much and make people suspicious that she had kept herself restrained.

But now, she didn’t want to hide anymore. She wanted to grow as quickly as possible and move forward step by step until she stood at the front, so she could tell Xu Xiaoye, “You don’t have to be afraid.”

She wanted to shield Xu Xiaoye from the wind and rain, wanted to smooth the road ahead of her, wanted to give her everything she had—even if it was only as a friend.