Chapter 114: He Was Trying to Keep Her

The desk was wide; Xia Xi leaned forward and pushed that stack of novels ahead, placing it at the edge so as not to obstruct Xu Yanfeng from putting things there.

The library does not advocate seat‑holding; a notice is posted downstairs, and those who leave personal belongings here while going out to eat are not usually complained about, but clearly stacking novels like this is seat‑holding.

Such bad behavior must be stopped.

Xu Yanfeng softly said "Thanks," took off his black backpack from his shoulder and placed it on the chair, opened the zipper, and took out a laptop and a plump light‑gray small bag, which should be a case for over‑ear headphones.

Xia Xi's mind was no longer on the essay she had just begun; she watched Xu Yanfeng's every move, his fingertips pinching the backpack zipper, closing it, then hanging the backpack on the chair back, sitting down, opening the laptop, and instantly entering a study state.

He never glanced sideways at all, and gave her a look.

"Ah‑choo—"

Xia Xi sneezed, quickly grabbed the tissues on the desk, pulled out two, wrapped them around her nose, and blew her nose.

Xu Yanfeng wasn't wearing headphones; hearing the sound, his fingers moved slowly on the touchpad, indicating his mind had wandered.

On Wednesday, Yu Tingbo slipped in the bathroom, scraped his knee, went to the infirmary for iodine, bumped into Xia Xi, and called Chen Mian; Chen Mian, afraid the intended listener wouldn't hear, shouted from the dormitory that Xia Xi had come down with a bad cold.

At that moment, he felt a little guilty.

He knew Xia Xi had caught cold because she had waited too long in the plaza the previous night, and part of the responsibility lay with him.

On Thursday, during the meeting she coughed severely; even Zhou Xiaoyu's provocations drew no retaliation, showing she was unwell. Normally, whether speaking or acting, she would not let herself suffer any injustice.

After a day's gap, today is Saturday, and her illness seems not yet healed.

After blowing her nose, Xia Xi felt a bit sloppy, damaging her image in Xu Yanfeng's eyes. She had never seen him looking anything less than neat and tidy; she had never been so disheveled before.

She wanted to explain, but as soon as she spoke, her voice carried a congested nasal tone: "Sorry, I've caught a cold."

After she finished, Xia Xi herself was taken aback; this coarse voice would have been better left unspoken…

Xu Yanfeng still didn't look at her, but he replied, saying, "Oh, it's fine."

Xia Xi covered half her face with her hand, deeply regretting not spending an extra half hour on makeup before leaving, or even a quick light touch‑up. Who could have imagined running into Xu Yanfeng in the library!

Before, to see him once she had to rack her brains; today she did nothing and just stumbled upon good luck.

This once again proved the saying, "If you try hard to plant flowers they won't bloom; if you casually insert willow twigs they'll grow into shade."

Xia Xi silently reckoned that perhaps she should just let things take their natural course from now on—what's the point of chasing?

The school isn't tiny, nor is it huge; there will always be chances to run into each other.

But if she doesn't take the initiative and relies only on fate‑made opportunities, she'll have to wait till the year of the monkey and the month of the horse to catch Xu Yanfeng.

Xia Xi's mind ran wild, her nose ran again, she annoyingly pulled out a tissue to wipe her nose, her throat suddenly itched, and she couldn't help coughing several times.

The pleasant mood from running into Xu Yanfeng vanished entirely; she felt an urge to flee. There was no other reason—her condition today was not conducive to going out.

The thought flashed through her mind, and Xia Xi sprang into action, gathering her things to leave; she could do her homework anywhere, and she would finish it just as well back in the dorm.

Xu Yanfeng noticed in his peripheral vision that the person beside him had pressed down the laptop lid and was getting up to pack his things; unable to suppress his doubt, he blurted out, "Are you leaving?"

Xia Xi stared at him in surprise, wondering if red rain was falling from the sky.

First he voluntarily sat beside her, now he's voluntarily talking to her—is this still the Xu Yanfeng she knows?

To be clear, she used to pester him with endless talk, and he rarely replied; most of the time he only spoke after getting annoyed by her nagging, telling her to stop spouting nonsense.

Xia Xi naturally couldn't tell Xu Yanfeng the real reason—that her frequent sneezing, runny nose, and coughing ruined her perfect image in his mind—so she made up an excuse: "Isn't my cold not gone yet? I'm afraid of infecting you."

Listen, how gentle and considerate that excuse is—even she felt moved by it.

Xu Yanfeng glanced at her, his gaze lingering on her face for only a brief second before returning to the laptop screen; his fingertips tapped a few keys, and in a flat tone devoid of emotion he said, "My resistance is strong."

Xia Xi: "?"

Every word spoken by the person she likes makes her want to treat it like a reading comprehension passage to analyze.

Xia Xi thought Xu Yanfeng's "My resistance is strong" could be understood as "You don't need to leave," and with added feeling could be rendered as "Don't go." Was he trying to keep her?

What was there to leave for? Xia Xi immediately decided not to go.

She took out the things she had packed, reopened the closed laptop, leaned her body toward Xu Yanfeng, brought her head near his arm, curled the corners of her mouth, and softly said, "You're still pretty nice, huh."

Xu Yanfeng's fingers sped up on the keyboard, the crisp clacking sounds being his response to Xia Xi.

At past six in the evening, Xia Xi finished all her homework; seeing Xu Yanfeng leave, she immediately jogged to catch up with him, saying, "Senior, are you going to the cafeteria to eat? Let's go together."

Xu Yanfeng's steps didn't pause: "Not going."

Xia Xi: "……"

This is the Xu Yanfeng she knows; the Xu Yanfeng in the library this afternoon must have been possessed by someone else.

Xia Xi ate alone in the cafeteria, then returned to the dorm; before she could share the latest update with her roommates, her phone rang—a WeChat video call notification.

She answered the call, lifted her face to the camera with a bright smile, and said, "Sis! Why are you calling me?"

Xia Yue laughed: "You call home every weekend; today you didn't, so I had to worry about you."

"It's only Saturday; I was planning to call you or Mom later." Seeing the background behind Xia Yue was her mother's house, Xia Xi asked, "Where are Mom and Grandma?"

Xia Yue flipped the camera to rear‑facing, showed her mother and grandmother, and added: "The two are chatting about family matters while wrapping dumplings. Dad went out for drinks with old friends. My younger sister recently signed up for a painting class; she has to go learn drawing every weekend and hasn't come back yet—I'll drive over later to pick her up."

On the screen, grandmother and mother held up the freshly wrapped dumplings to show Xia Xi—homemade dumplings with sincere filling, the skins plump and round.

On the nearby sofa, Xia Yue's husband Zhou Hongsheng lay watching the game, his legs crossed and resting on the armrest.

Xia Xi said, "I really want to eat the dumplings Mom and Grandma wrapped……cough cough cough……dumplings……cough cough cough."

Xia Yue quickly turned the camera back to front, slightly furrowed her brows, and asked, "Why are you coughing?"

Xia Xi coughed for a while before stopping; grandmother and mother tossed aside the dumpling wrappers in their hands, leaned toward Xia Yue, squeezing three faces onto the small screen. Grandmother asked, "Is it a seasonal cold?"

Unable to hide it, Xia Xi nodded and honestly admitted she had a cold: "Don't worry, I'm almost better—just a bit of coughing."

"You child, how can you not know how to take care of yourself? When it's cold you should quickly add clothes and eat less raw, cold stuff." Su Jinru worried incessantly, her face all scrunched up like a steamed bun, "You've always been like this since childhood; other symptoms are fine, but the cough is the hardest to heal."

Xia Yue: "I'll buy two bottles of loquat syrup and mail them to you; it's quite effective. When you drink it, lie in bed, pour a whole bottle at once, open your mouth, and pour it straight into your throat so the syrup slides down. Don't dilute it with water—diluting makes it less effective."

"Ah, that stuff is the hardest to swallow." Xia Xi had drunk it as a child; the memory was vivid, and just thinking of the taste made her shudder, her face full of resistance: "Can I avoid drinking it?"

"No way!" Xia Yue flatly refused.

Xia Xi pursed her lips; since her protest was ineffective, she reluctantly complied and promised she would drink it.

Xia Yue didn't believe her words, she had her own way to deal with her: "I'll supervise you, I'll video call you and watch you drink."

Xia Xi: "……"

After hanging up, Wang Qiuyu and Wu Qinglu, who had been eavesdropping the whole time in the dormitory, looked at Xia Xi with envy. Wu Qinglu sighed: "Xi Xi, your family's atmosphere is really nice."

Xia Xi smiled and said they also have arguments sometimes, you just haven't seen them.

At that moment the door was pushed open, Zhao Lei came in from outside, holding a bag of snacks in her hand and cradling a small parcel box in her arms, she handed it to Xia Xi: "Here, your parcel, I left it with the dormitory aunt, I brought it up for you."

"Mine?" Xia Xi pointed at herself, looking puzzled, "Aren't parcels usually picked up at the school gate? When did they start delivering to the dormitory building? I never filled in my dorm address."

"I don't know, the dormitory aunt said it was your parcel; I looked at the name on the slip and it's definitely yours." Zhao Lei put the box on her desk, "Go ahead and open it to see; if it's a mistake, just return it."

Xia Xi took a utility knife from the pen holder, cut the tape on the parcel, opened it and saw two bottles of loquat syrup.

What kind of express delivery does the older sister use? How did it arrive so quickly?