"Teacher, am I your friend?"
Before, he always called me "Professor Bei", or even called me by my first and last name. This was the first time I heard him call me "Teacher".
Over the years, there have been countless numbers of people calling me a teacher, and even Yang Haiyang would sometimes call me "teacher" as if he were joking. I thought I was used to it. But when Shang Muxiao called me, I felt different. His "teacher" was unlike anyone else's.
It was obviously a very common name, and when he said it, his fingertips felt numb for no reason, and his back seemed to be crawled by ants, which made him very uncomfortable.
"Get up, get in the car." I ignored his question and unlocked the car by myself.
Shang Muxiao also got into the co-pilot after a while.
"Have you noticed that every time you don't want to answer my question, you'll pretend you didn't hear me?"
I slowly drove the car out of the basement and taught him the conventions of the adult world.
"When a person chooses to be silent, you shouldn't be aggressive. If he wants to answer, he will answer as soon as possible. If he doesn't answer, he doesn't want to answer."
Shang Muxiao extended his tone and said "oh" perfunctorily, then lowered the back of his chair and stopped talking.
The sun always sets very early this season, and it was still slightly bright when I got home, but now it is completely dark.
I guessed that Shang Muxiao just had a fever caused by catching a cold. It shouldn't be a big problem, so I looked for a nearby hospital. It was only five kilometers away from home, and it took more than 20 minutes to arrive.
The vehicle drove into the basement, and the wheels ran over the speed bump, making a lot of noise.
Shang Muxiao didn't know if he was woken up by the movement or if he hadn't slept at all, he suddenly said, "Is that your girlfriend just now?"
I was stunned for a while before realizing that he was talking about Shen Luoyu, and hurriedly said, "No, she is my cousin."
He didn't even think about it, if I had a girlfriend, would I be able to agree to such a ridiculous bet
When parking, Shang Muxiao got out of the car first, and when I parked the car and went to look for him, he squatted down in the corner again.
"Are you okay?" I was a little worried that he wouldn't be able to stick to the consultation room.
He stood up, shaking dangerously, so that he didn't fall.
"Halo." He leaned against the wall and said sullenly.
I asked him to hold on for a while longer. On the way, I looked back and observed his situation almost every step of the way, and I was relieved to see that he followed well.
I finally got to the pre-diagnosis desk and took my body temperature. It was 40 degrees, which was higher than yesterday.
After the blood test, the doctor opened two bottles of drip after reading the report. I went back and forth to pay for the medicine, and Shang Muxiao sat quietly on the bench in the hospital corridor, with his coat zippered to the end, his collar raised, and half of his face shrunk inside.
There are not many people in the drip room, it is because of the cold weather, the doors and windows are closed, and the air conditioner is turned on again, which seems a bit suffocating.
As soon as Shang Muxiao stepped in, he frowned, chose a position by the window, and silently pushed the window open to let in fresh air.
Then I closed the window again.
He looked at me dissatisfied, and went to open the window, when I slapped me on the back of the hand.
"Do you want to burn your brain out?"
It's really too long to dare to blow cold wind when it burns to 40 degrees.
He touched the back of his hand, pouted the corners of his mouth, wanted to say something, and swallowed when he met my eyes, and didn't move the window after that.
The nurse took the utensils to give Shang Muxiao the needle. He didn't say a word when the needle was inserted. After the needle was finished, when the nurse left, he showed me the back of his hand just like a child who seeks affection from an adult.
"Teacher, she just hurt me so much."
Shang Muxiao's hand has distinct knuckles, five fingers are slender, there is very little flesh on the back of his hand, and the faint blood vessels and bones can be seen underneath. If it is said that Nu Wa spent different thoughts on each person when she created human beings, then she must have paid special attention to creating Shang Muxiao, so that he could be more pleasing to the eyes than others from head to toe.
"Acupuncture doesn't hurt." I didn't move, I glanced at the clock on the wall, it was almost seven o'clock. Shang Muxiao has two bottles of drips to hang up, and he can't finish them in an hour. It seems that he can only have dinner in the hospital, "What do you want to eat? I'll order a takeaway."
"I'm not hungry, I don't want to eat." He tucked into the chair and looked like he was going to sleep again.
He hadn't eaten for a day, and even if he wasn't sick, he would starve to get sick.
Opened the take-out software and chose a restaurant near his home. He didn't listen to Shang Muxiao, and finally ordered a bowl of chicken porridge for him, and ordered a bowl of noodles for himself.
After half an hour, the takeaway was delivered.
I put the takeaway on a small stool accompanied by my family, picked up the porridge bowl and gently pushed Shang Muxiao.
He slowly opened his eyes and saw the porridge handed in front of him, but did not take it.
"I said not to eat."
Coaxing Yang Youling to eat is not so troublesome.
How can this son of a bitch be as difficult to serve as a two-year-old child
And why should I serve him? Just because he is Yang Haiyang's future brother-in-law
I feel like a nanny. A good friend is going on a date, but no one at home can take it with me, so I can only take it with me, who has nothing to do and is single. I drenched and urinated, and I also chased the bear children to feed the house, and I worked hard just to fulfill the love of my best friend.
Yang Haiyang didn't even know what I paid for.
I scooped up a spoonful of porridge, put it to my mouth and blew it, and then handed it to Shang Muxiao.
"Open your mouth." If he refused again, I was going to put the spoon in his mouth.
Shang Muxiao looked at the porridge, then looked at me again, maybe he could hear something from my tone, no longer willful, and obediently swallowed the porridge with a spoon.
In this way, I took a spoonful of him, and I had zero communication throughout the whole process, and I also ate most of the bowl of porridge.
"I really can't eat it anymore." He turned away and refused to eat any more. "You can eat it, your noodles will be cold."
I saw that he really had no appetite, and since he had eaten a lot, he was no longer reluctant. He put the porridge bowl aside and picked up his noodles.
Noodles are delicious when they are just out of the oven. After a long time, they are easy to be lumpy, and they stick to each other and affect the taste. My noodles had been left for a while, and they were about to form a ball, but the conditions were limited and I couldn’t force too much.
When it was almost nine o'clock, Shang Muxiao's two bottles of drip were not completely hung up.
I asked the nurse to take his temperature again, 389. Although it has not completely returned to normal, it is slowly decreasing.
On the way back, I waited for the gap between the red lights and hesitated again and again, I still asked the exit: "Would you like to take you home?"
Yesterday, he was in a special situation, and it was reasonable to take him in for one night, but if he stayed at home all the time, it would always feel a little weird.
Even Shen Luoyu could see that he and I were not on the right track. We are two completely different types of people, and we can be said to be completely different in terms of our behavior and personality.
Taking care of him who is sick and taking him to see a doctor is already the best we can do in our current relationship. It's one thing to laugh at yourself as a babysitter, it's another to actually be a babysitter.
Shang Muxiao didn't reply immediately, I couldn't help but look at him and found that he was also looking at me.
In the dark carriage, his eyes were also very dark: "You think I'm annoying?"
With my index finger tapping on the steering wheel, I pressed down the irritability in my heart and said, "Where do you live?"
He lowered his eyes slightly and said, "I live at home, but I can't go back now. I had a fight with my dad. He found out about the day of the art exhibition, kicked me out, and stopped all my cards."
It turned out that this was the truth that he came to my house in the rain in the middle of the night.
"Have you contacted your sister yet?"
He lay back on the back of the chair and didn't look at me: "I turned off my phone."
"… "
What an uneasy dead kid. I can imagine how anxious Shang Yunrou was when she couldn't get in touch with him at the moment, maybe she would cry and call the police.
"Turn on the phone immediately to report your sister's safety." In exchange, I compromised, "If you really don't have a place to go, you can stay at my house until you get better."
He is young and strong, and recovers quickly, in two days at the most.
Be a mom for two more days. I tell myself.
The red light jumped green, and the traffic moved forward again.
In the quiet carriage, after a long silence, Shang Muxiao suddenly opened his mouth.
"thanks."
When I got home, Shen Luoyu had already left, and there was a note on the table, saying that there are dishes she made in the refrigerator, let me heat it up when I'm hungry, and don't always order takeout.
I sent a message to thank her, let Shang Muxiao take care of herself, and then got into my bedroom.
Across the door, I heard a series of text messages bombarding outside, guessing that Shang Muxiao was finally turned on.
Afraid that I wouldn't be able to sleep, it would affect the next day's class, so I took a sleeping pill before going to bed, and the result was even worse. It was clearly my own home, a familiar environment, but I was still having nightmares.
One moment, the dormitory was still discussing life plans after graduation, and the next moment, three bloody corpses appeared in front of me.
"North mustard, I'm in pain, save me! Save me!!" Lu Feiheng crawled towards me, the flames on his body burning his skin little by little.
I tried desperately to put out those fires, but to no avail, I could only watch him turn into a black coke in front of me.
Fear filled my heart, I was pulling my hair, screaming all choked in my throat, and I couldn't make a sound at all. My feet tightened, and I looked down, Jing Shen caught me. He asked me why I didn't save them, why I was the only one alive, and before he finished speaking, he turned into ashes and disappeared in front of me.
I shook my head and kept backing away.
"No, no..."
I suddenly stepped on something, I stiffened and looked back, it was Xu Wei's distorted corpse.
The strings in my head that kept my sanity snap snapped, and I started screaming, wailing heartbreakingly.
I didn't mean to live, sorry, sorry...
I was wrong, I shouldn't have survived, forgive me... forgive me...
"north… "
“North mustard…”
I kept struggling, my consciousness was blurry, I only felt my body being shaken gently, and the call to me came intermittently in my ears.
"North mustard, wake up... You're having a nightmare, it's alright, nothing happened..." A hot palm stroked my cheek, I struggled to open my eyes, and some liquid slipped from the corners of my eyes, blocking my vision for a while.
The emotions in the dream are so intense that they are brought to reality.
"I'm sorry..." I choked, not knowing where I was or who was in front of me.
"Shh." In the dark, the other party gently picked me up, stroked my back and asked, "Why do you want to apologize?"
Trembling all over, I couldn't help but want to get closer to this reassuring embrace.
"Because... only I am alive..."
Deep down, I know that this is a kind of ptsd and a psychological problem, but whenever I recall three friends who died tragically in the dead of night, I still feel uncontrollably guilty for surviving.
The air was quiet, and the other party hugged me even tighter, his voice was very soft, as if he was talking to me, but also as if he was just muttering to himself.
"… living is not a shameful thing, you don't need to apologize to anyone."