Chapter 101 Part 2: Burning Body Temperature

He had to crush Song Qiuyu’s forbidden feelings in the cradle.

If he were in her position, he would surely do the same.

So, he awkwardly covered up part of the truth and only told the parts he could.

After hearing this, Song Qiuyu was instantly relieved, her mind flushed with embarrassment.

So it was she who had walked over asking Jiang Xiao to hold her, and she was the one who failed to catch the clothes, leaving her no choice but to wear Jiang Xiao’s shirt!

Heaven might forgive sins of fate, but not those of one’s own making!

“Ah… I see. Thank you for taking care of me last night, Jiang Xiao.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I’ll go check if the clothes are dry.”

“Okay.”

Song Qiuyu slipped on her slippers and hurried past him.

His flustered reaction only deepened his own nervousness.

Jiang Xiao clenched his fists and lightly pounded his chest, feeling suffocated and overheated.

He didn’t know what was wrong with him, but his body felt weak and heavy.

“Uh, uh, Jiang Xiao, it seems like my clothes aren’t dry yet.” Song Qiuyu said disappointedly after checking her drying laundry one by one.

She regretted being so fastidious about washing clothes so often.

“I understand.” Jiang Xiao put down his water cup.

“This T-shirt’s collar is too big for you to wear out. I’ll lend you my shirt. Do you have a jacket? Or do you want a sweater?”

Song Qiuyu hesitated only a second.

Seeing the two roommates on the opposite beds beginning to get up, she quickly accepted his offer.

“I do have a sweater, so I’ll just borrow the shirt. Thanks!”

She put her still-damp jacket back to dry and turned back into the room.

Then she saw Jiang Xiao climbing the stairs to find clothes.

Watching him climb, she keenly noticed his complexion had worsened—paler than before—and his gaze seemed unfocused, utterly spiritless. This made Song Qiuyu frown in confusion.

She thought for a moment and went to wait under the bed.

“Here.”

Jiang Xiao took the shirt, pulled back the curtain, and handed it to her directly from the bed.

Song Qiuyu nodded and reached out, but as her fingertips brushed his hand, she was slightly burned.

Jiang Xiao’s body temperature seemed unusually high?

Without hesitation, she stood on tiptoe and stretched her small hand up to touch his forehead. He hadn’t dodged in time.

Feeling the sudden coolness on his forehead, Jiang Xiao was slightly startled.

His heartbeat sped up, his mind buzzing, unable to hear what Song Qiuyu was saying below clearly.

He only saw her lips open and close repeatedly, her expression anxious.

“Jiang Xiao, you have a fever!” Song Qiuyu was truly worried.

She withdrew her hand and dashed into the bathroom, saying as she went, “Wait for me—I’ll change and then take you to the medical office!”

Jiang Xiao still didn’t catch the last part.

He covered his forehead, closed his eyes, and exhaled a hot breath.

When he got up earlier, he didn’t feel so bad.

But after moving a bit and speaking a few words, his breathing became labored, and his whole body ached terribly.

Before Song Qiuyu finished changing and came out of the bathroom, Xie Zhuran and Lin An had already stretched and gotten up.

Both were nursing hangovers, their heads buzzing.

Then they noticed Jiang Xiao’s poor condition and were all shocked.

He looked worse than them?

Yesterday at most he was tipsy, right?

What happened? Did some fox spirit sneak in last night and drain his energy?

Their confusion was resolved at the school medical office.

After getting medicine and asking for leave, Jiang Xiao returned to the dormitory alone, while Song Qiuyu, Xie Zhuran, and Lin An went on to class.

None of the three could focus on the lesson; all were worried about their sick roommate lying in the dorm.

Though their worries were each for different reasons.

“Leaving Jiang Xiao alone in the dorm like this just doesn’t sit right with me. How about we…”

Xie Zhuran raised an eyebrow. “Skip class?”

“Are you serious about skipping class when it’s almost finals?” Lin An sighed.

“Yeah, we can’t skip. If Jiang Xiao’s sick and can’t come, then we have to work harder in class and take better notes.”

Song Qiuyu responded without hesitation.

Even though she was worried about Jiang Xiao, if he knew they had skipped class to come back, he probably wouldn’t be touched but rather laugh.

“Alright, alright.”

The plan to skip class was rejected, and Xie Zhuran shrugged without pushing further.

He twirled a pen. “Now that Jiang Xiao’s sick, we agreed to pause the short video shoots and just do a comment reading episode. Should we postpone that too?”

“No need. What we need now is to sift through the comments. That doesn’t take much energy. Plus, tomorrow’s the weekend and we’ll have more free time. We can start then.”

Song Qiuyu considered and said.

Xie Zhuran and Lin An exchanged glances and suddenly felt some sympathy for the bedridden Jiang Xiao still in the dorm.

Being sick, he probably couldn’t escape.

Inside the dorm, Jiang Xiao sneezed hard, took medicine with hot water, coughed a few times, and quietly lay back down on his bed.

He could only take the torment of illness as a form of punishment.

But when he thought about how worried Song Qiuyu had been, a complex feeling quietly stirred in his heart, and he sighed softly.

A decision quietly formed in his heart.

Perhaps it was time for him to move out of this dormitory; otherwise, someday, he would make a grave mistake.

The next day.

Just as Xie Zhuran and Lin An had predicted, for the next episode of their “reading comments” video, the 602 dormitory, along with Sang Tian, started a video conference call.

Since the video couldn’t be too long, or it might be criticized as filler content, they couldn’t select too many comments to read.

Besides that, there were many other topics that needed discussion.

“I’ve seen other authors give small prizes to the selected audience members. Should we consider doing that too?”

Xie Zhuran shared screenshots of comment sections from other authors in their small group chat.

It was unanimously approved.

“But we still need to carefully consider what exactly to give.”

Song Qiuyu spoke while beginning to sift through the comments they had collected over this period.

Everyone was quietly focused on their screening. The video call was punctuated only occasionally by the soft coughs of those feeling under the weather.

Each cough was faint, obviously suppressed as much as possible—not wanting to distract the group.

Everyone understood this, so they were very serious about the task, all hoping to finish quickly.

“Jiang Xiao, have you finished your hot water?”

Song Qiuyu looked up from the pile of comments and glanced at the thermos cup on Jiang Xiao’s desk next door, now empty.

Jiang Xiao nodded lightly and, holding the thermos, was about to get up to refill it himself.

“You just stay seated, I’ll get it for you.”

Song Qiuyu naturally reached out her hand, signaling for him to give her the cup.

Jiang Xiao lowered his gaze, squeezed the thermos in his hand,

and without much struggle, placed it in her palm.

“You guys keep going; I’ll get hot water for Jiang Xiao.” Holding the thermos firmly, Song Qiuyu stood and went to fetch water.

The three others watching the video call were already used to this.

They didn’t think much of it.

Jiang Xiao’s illness was still quite severe, with a high fever of 39.5°C—last night it had reached 40°C.

They had almost sent him to the hospital.

Originally, they wanted Jiang Xiao to continue resting for this project, but he insisted on getting up to work. They were powerless to stop him.

After Song Qiuyu returned with hot water, they each screened comments a bit longer before compiling their selections for a final round of screening.

The first selected comment had a somewhat mischievous tone, but they were all satisfied with it.

The comment began: “Teacher Lemon, can you please look at me!!…” (followed by a hundred exclamation marks)

The comment ended with: “If you’re reading comments, you must pick me! The neighboring author has already done it; a Zayu author wouldn’t just surrender, right?”

“A true test of lung capacity, isn’t it?”

Xie Zhuran nodded, crossing his arms with a scornful smile. “A no-breath challenge, huh? Interesting. Lao Song, we can’t lose to the Qin Fang audience!”

“Exactly. Then this comment will be read by you.”

Song Qiuyu said.

“Uh, no, no, no. This comment obviously should be read by Lao Song!”

Xie Zhuran immediately protested.

“Lao Xie, are you admitting you’re a Zayu author now?” Lin An adjusted his glasses.

“Provocations won’t work on me, but if you insist, it’s not impossible.”

Xie Zhuran pushed up his non-existent glasses.

After all, this wasn’t a cross-dressing thing, so no psychological pressure.

◎ And so, the decision was happily made.

The second comment came from a user named Tender Catgirl.

“Big Boss Lemon, are you taking commercial orders?” This comment was chosen by Xie Zhuran.

At first, Xie Zhuran didn’t think much of it, but when he clicked on the user profile, he immediately exclaimed, “WTF!”

Startled, Jiang Xiao almost dropped his medicine.

It was an Official Account.

Not only had they left a comment, but they had also sent a private message.

Probably because the product was similar, following their advertisement for Couple Umbrella, Tender Catgirl had also approached them.

And so, they happily established a partnership.

However, the other party gave them plenty of time, so they could finish this episode before carefully considering the commercial order.

If it weren’t for the product’s uniqueness, they would have considered just treating this as a group project.

Moreover, this commercial order was, strictly speaking, even trickier than Couple Umbrella.

Most authors promoting this product took a hardcore insertion approach; integrating it into a short video would definitely require some serious effort.

According to Xie Zhuran, because Tender Catgirl was offering more than Couple Umbrella had,

he proposed incorporating Tender Catgirl’s comment into the “reading comments” segment as an entertaining act.

They discussed it and finally adopted Xie Zhuran’s suggestion.

As long as the act was interesting enough, both the audience and Party A would be pleased.

They would also gain both fans and money.

It was truly a win-win-win.

“Song, what do you think about this comment?”

After deciding on two comments, Sang Tian posted one she had selected separately in the small group chat.

Everyone then saw the following comment:

“Lemon wife, you’re so cute, I really want to kidnap you and take you home!”

“Uh…”

The four froze. Silence fell over them.

“Sang Tian, why did you pick this comment?”

Song Qiuyu broke out in a cold sweat.

Could Sang Tian be a hidden yandere?

Sang Tian was about to explain when Xie Zhuran stroked his chin, a look of sudden realization on his face, and excitedly interrupted:

“This is perfect! I’ve got it! When Lao Song reads this comment, one of us can disguise ourselves as this commenter and sneak up behind Lao Song—

put a sack over his head, fulfilling this audience member’s cyber wish!”

“Isn’t that hilarious? Heh heh heh!”

“Exactly, exactly! That’s what I was thinking!”

Sang Tian nodded enthusiastically, looking at Xie Zhuran with a “great minds think alike” expression.

“And of course, the person who puts the sack over Lao Song can only be…”

Xie Zhuran got into full drama mode, pushing up his invisible glasses, swinging his arm decisively and confidently pointing at one person.

“You, Sang Tian.”

He said it like Conan pointing out the culprit.

But almost at the same moment, Sang Tian shouted out a name that shocked everyone and instantly silenced the entire dormitory.