It Seems There is Light

Sudden Illness

After the audition, it was getting closer and closer to New Year’s Day.

These days the temperature had dropped rapidly. Almost everyone in the school had a thick jacket over the school uniform, wrapping up like a dumpling.

Tong Zixin was always rubbing her cold fingertips and shouting that her performance clothes were very thin and that she would have to suffer to perform in this weather.

In the past few days, there hadn’t been much sun, the sky was frozen white, but the red lanterns hanging on the street added some warmth.

Lanterns were hung in front of every store in Qingjiu Alley, and they looked great among the wooden houses and green tiles.

Tomorrow would be the New Year’s Day, and the New Year’s Day party would be held tonight.

Shi An had been suffering a lot because of the temperature change these past few days, but today seemed to be especially bad.

At four o’clock in the morning, he suddenly woke up from his sleep and ran to the bathroom to throw up, sitting at the side of the toilet.

He was awake in daze and propped up against the wall. After he finished throwing up and cleaned himself up, he tried to go back to sleep, but after lying there for who knew how long, he sat up again and rushed to the bathroom to throw up again.

Shi An turned his head to look at the wall clock, it was already five o’clock.

As soon as he lay down, he felt sick. Instead of going back to his room, he moved a low stool and sat in the bathroom, leaning against the wall. When he wanted to vomit, he would lean toward the toilet.

Later, when he vomited all the food in his stomach, he didn’t need the toilet. He directly supported himself at the edge of the sink to retch, with a cold sweat on his forehead.

Near six o’clock, he was already a bit exhausted, sitting on a stool to rest for a while, but ended up leaning directly against the wall and fell asleep again.

Someone was stroking his forehead in the faint. When he opened his eyes, he saw Jiang Yuan crouching in front of him.

Jiang Yuan reached out and wrapped her hand around him. His nose was soon filled with the sweet and soft smell of old cloth brocade and dessert mixed together.

As soon as Shi An finished throwing up, he pressed the flush button. Probably it was because the water was too loud and woke up Jiang Yuan.

He smiled and comforted Jiang Yuan for a while, saying that he was fine before he went to the room to get his clothes and took a shower.

Sometimes when he caught a cold or ate something unclean, or even ate before going to bed, he would want to vomit after lying down. He didn’t care about it much and went out after taking a shower.

There were activities to be held in the evening. Although classes continued to be held during the day, everyone was already extremely excited that no one was listening to the class seriously.

At around eight o’clock, Shi An opened the zip of his bag to take a book and saw the breakfast in his bag.

He took out the bag of steamed buns. However, after a glance, he felt a little nauseous again.

He stuffed the buns back into his bag and went to the class medicine box to take a tube of glucose.

At noon, he ordered a vegetarian dish and ate some lunch carelessly. Before returning to class, he rushed to the toilet and threw up.

He went to the sink to rinse his mouth and wash his face. He went back to the classroom and lay down for a while but did not recover.

Shen Qiaoqiao nudged him, as if asking if he wanted to go to the school infirmary.

As the afternoon class was about to begin, Shi An straightened up and said he was fine, then leaned back in his chair with a bit of discomfort.

It was rare for him to sit like that. In most cases, he would straighten his waist.

His face was very pale, his forehead was wet with cold sweat, and the fine tips of his hair hung down to cover his beautiful eyes. Because of vomiting a lot, the ends of the eyes were flushed with a conspicuous red that made him look delicate and fragile.

The afternoon passed in a daze. In the evening, Shi An didn’t dare to go to dinner and made another cup of glucose.

Throughout the day, except for vomiting, he was in a state of dehydration, but otherwise there seemed to be no discomfort.

Cheng Yuan looked at Shi An whose face didn’t look too well and asked him if he wanted to take time off to go home.

“It’s okay,” Shi An leaned on the back of his chair, feeling that he didn’t have much energy to speak, “Maybe I caught a cold, or I ate something dirty.”

Cheng Yuan was about to laugh at him: “Do you know what kind of face you have now?”

Because of not eating dinner, he didn’t really want to throw up, but he just didn’t have any energy, which was similar to the usual feeling of a cold. Shi An said, “It’s okay. I don’t feel bad.”

He told Jiang Yuan before he went out that there was a New Year’s Day party tonight, so he could not get home until ten o’clock in the evening. If he went back now, Jiang Yuan would be worried.

“Teacher, I won’t go to the party, I’ll rest in the classroom, is that okay?” Shi An was so tired that he couldn’t lift his head. Cheng Yuan looked distressed and bent down to talk to him: “Okay. Then you can rest in the classroom, call me if you need anything.”

Shi An answered yes.

Shi An didn’t really like to join in the fun and didn’t feel much lost by not going. When everyone in the classroom had left, he breathed a sigh of relief and flopped back onto his desk.

The lights in the classroom were turned off. The light of the moon shone in through the window, and the whole building was quiet.

Shi An wanted to get some sleep to gather his strength to go home later.

As he closed his eyes, his consciousness gradually blurred, but a sharp pain awakened him instantly.

The pain in the upper left side of his abdomen made Shi An subconsciously try to curl up, forgetting that he was sitting in his seat. He curled up so hard that he nearly toppled over his desk.

It was a stomachache.

Shi An frowned and tried to get up to find some stomach medicine in the medicine box, but just as he straightened up, another twinge of pain in his abdomen caused him to bend down that he almost fell to his knees.

He occasionally suffered from stomach pain, but usually it didn’t hurt this much. Shi An realized with hindsight the seriousness of the problem.

He curled up and squatted down, pressing his hand firmly against his stomach, crushing himself to the point where he could barely breathe, but the pain didn’t stop. It was so bad that he was blacking out.

He fell to the ground with a slight gasp and curled up, biting his lip so hard. The taste of blood spread in his mouth, cold sweat wet his shirt, and his arms around his abdomen began to shake uncontrollably.

It hurt so much that he wanted to cry.

Shi An bit the tip of his tongue to keep himself awake and pulled out his cell phone from his pants pocket with a shaking hand.

Before he had time to turn the screen on, his stomach twisted violently, causing his knuckles to tremble with pain. His raised wrist fell back to the ground, and so did the phone.

He struggled to lift his head; his head was heavy and it hurt so much that it was difficult for him to breathe. He had to open his mouth slightly to catch his breath and reached for the phone, but before he could touch it, he heard a girl’s scream coming from the side.

Shen Qiaoqiao stood in front of the classroom with her mouth covered and her eyes full of panic.

Shen Qiaoqiao was a little short-sighted. Sitting in the auditorium, she couldn’t see clearly, so she went back to the classroom to get her glasses. As soon as she entered the door, she saw someone falling to the ground.

It was hard to imagine that Shi An, whose school uniform was neatly worn and whose white shirt had no wrinkles, would look like this now.

He was curled up on the floor, his face was pale because of the pain, his fingers were clutching the clothes in front of his belly, his thin lips were slightly opened and gasping for breath while his eyes were hazy and red at the end, as if he would cry out in the next moment.

Shen Qiaoqiao shrieked and rushed over to help him, but kicked his phone, which flew out with a thud.

Shi An: “…”

Shen Qiaoqiao was so anxious that she wanted to cry, bending down to help him up.

Shi An was a boy after all. Even if he was skinny, his body was still bigger than a girl’s. Besides, he was in so much pain that he wanted to curl up all the time.

When Shen Qiaoqiao pulled him up a little, he felt his stomach twitch and tried to curl up again, causing Shen Qiaoqiao to almost fall to the ground.

Shi An was not very good at tolerating pain, and this kind of pain was killing him. He swallowed the lump in his throat and said with difficulty, “My phone…call…”

Shen Qiaoqiao whimpered and cried, her eyes hazy with tears. She was afraid Shi An wouldn’t be able to endure it for too long, so she raised her hand to dry her tears carelessly. She soon saw Shi An’s cell phone lying on the ground, its screen reflecting the moonlight.

The gentle girl pounced on it without regard for her image. Her shaking hand unlocked the screen before she opened the address book and asked in a shaky voice: “…Call, call who?””

“Yan…Liang.” Shi An was almost speaking in a breathless voice. He used his fist against his left abdomen while his body couldn’t stop trembling.

Perhaps Yan Liang was not the best person, but in the most painful times, the first person Shi An thought of was always Yan Liang.

When he was sick, Yan Liang would always be extra gentle to him.

He could take advantage of his illness to shake off his festering sanity and calmness and greedily enjoy Yan Liang’s kindness to him.

How could he not be greedy?

Shi An arched his back and rested his forehead on his knees, gritting his teeth fiercely.

He heard Shen Qiaoqiao with a sobbing voice, whimpering into the phone, “You quickly…wuwu you quickly come! Teaching building wuwuwu, Shi…Shi An, you quickly wuwu…come to the teaching…building!!!”

Shen Qiaoqiao was probably trying her best to suppress her crying voice and spoke intermittently.

But Shi An knew Yan Liang must have understood.

The only sound left in the classroom was Shen Qiaoqiao’s whimpering. Shi An was in pain and his consciousness was a little blurred when a series of hurried footsteps came from the corridor.

The runner was probably in a hurry and seemed to be in a bit of a panic.

Yan Liang rushed to Shi An’s side and squatted down, still gasping for breath and unable to speak. Bending down, he picked up Shi An’s arm and lifted the person on his back.

With the sudden change of the movement Shi An felt another throbbing pain, and he suddenly shrinking with a jerk. Yan Liang also followed the shaking.

“Shi An! You, you bear it,” Yan Liang carried him on his back and dashed out, “You bear it! I can run fast, really fast! Can you hold on?”

Yan Liang was probably really anxious; his voice was shaking badly. He was running and shouting at the same time. His panting mixed with the sound of wind pouring into Shi An’s ears.

Shi An could feel that Yan Liang’s arms holding his knees were trembling.

“Hold on…Shi An, it’s okay!!!” Yan Liang seemed to only keep shouting his name. He was probably tired of running, panting heavily, but not slowing down his pace.

Shi An wrapped his arms around his neck and buried his face in his shoulder.

Yan Liang was so anxious, so anxious as if he would break in the next second

Why should Yan Liang be so anxious?

Shi An struggled to stay still, lying on Yan Liang’s shoulder in a daze, thinking.

This kind of anxiety obviously exceeded the limit of how friends treated each other.

Shi An buried his eyes on his shoulder.

Yan Liang was thin but not too thin; it was very comfortable to lie on his back.

The cramping pain in his stomach made Shi An want to shed tears, his eyes were swollen and painful, his nose was blocked and he couldn’t breathe.

Shi An tightened his arms around Yan Liang’s neck, feeling aggrieved for no reason.

Yan Liang was so tired that he couldn’t breathe, but his steps didn’t stop. He seemed anxious and afraid that his arms were trembling badly.

He looked like this, it would make Shi An think that he was really important to him.

Shi An slumped against his shoulder, his eyes spilling warm liquid. He tried desperately to swallow the whimper back into his throat, but the hot breath and the hot water vapor made him uncomfortable, and the overwhelming pressure made him almost breathless.

He felt his tears dampen the fabric on Yan Liang’s shoulders, and the hot water smeared all over his face. At one point he thought he was going to suffocate to death.

Yan Liang was still shouting something, but he couldn’t quite hear it.

Probably the feeling of being cared for by Yan Liang was addictive.

Shi An wrapped his arms around him tightly, tears flowing constantly, not knowing if it was from pain or because he was really aggravated.

Yan Liang seemed to care so much about him that he almost thought Yan Liang would forgive him for his absurd thoughts that he shouldn’t have, just because he felt sorry for him.

He made a fool1 of himself again.

T/N: So, surprisingly, after last week, I’m quite free for the rest of the month until mid January so I’ll try to update this every day.

自作多情 – to imagine that one’s love is reciprocated