After a D-List Celebrity and Their A-List Ex-Partner Join a Travel Reality Show - Chapter 14

The thief didn’t just want to act like a hooligan toward him; he was even going to take…

The warm yellow light illuminated a corner of the room. Shen Shiqin was lying with his back toward him.

He Lan leaned over, almost draping half his body across the bed, trying to catch a glimpse of Shen Shiqin’s complexion in the dim light.

Shen Shiqin’s head rested on the pillow, his brows slightly furrowed, and his breathing was far from steady. Loose strands of hair were matted against his forehead, and a large patch of the pillowcase was already damp. His complexion was poor, and his cheeks were flushed with a feverish heat.

He Lan’s heart missed a beat for no reason. He placed the back of his hand against Shen Shiqin’s forehead to check his temperature. Sensing the coolness, Shen Shiqin subconsciously nuzzled into the source of that comfort.

He Lan’s hand paused there. After a long moment, he said in a very soft voice, “Shen Shiqin, you’re sick.”

Whether it was the coolness of his hand or some other chill in the room that roused him, Shen Shiqin’s eyelashes flickered, and he opened his eyes.

Upon seeing who was before him, Shen Shiqin realized what was happening and muttered an “Oh,” his voice raspy, “I didn’t notice; I just fell asleep.”

Seeing the person finally wake up only to act so indifferent, a spark of anger ignited in He Lan—an inexplicable, nameless sort of anger.

He asked, “Have you taken your medicine?”

Shen Shiqin shook his head, but the motion brought on a wave of dizziness, so he stopped and said, “No.”

“Do you even know you have a fever?”

“…I know.” Shen Shiqin paused, then added earnestly, “I’m not stupid.”

He Lan took a deep breath and retorted sarcastically, “Right, our Teacher Shen isn’t stupid.”

He noticed he was still hovering over the bed with one hand propped beside Shen Shiqin, so he pulled back and sat on the edge of the mattress. Hearing those frustratingly calm replies, He Lan asked again, “You didn’t bring any medicine?”

Shen Shiqin didn’t understand why he was asking again, but he didn’t have the energy to think about it. “Yeah,” he replied.

He Lan pointed to the two unopened packets of medicine on the nightstand. “Then what is this?”

Hearing the question, Shen Shiqin looked in the direction he was pointing. He lowered his gaze, contemplated for a moment, and slowly replied, “Xiao Yuan sent them over.”

“…” He Lan glanced at the packets on the nightstand and looked away. “Oh.”

The two fell into a sudden silence. Shen Shiqin coughed twice and retreated back into the covers. After a while, a muffled voice came from beneath the quilt: “Can you not just stand there?”

“?” He Lan didn’t understand. “There is no camera anymore; you don’t even have to put on an act.”

Ignoring his tone, Shen Shiqin said faintly, “You’re very cold.”

He Lan watched him for a moment and then silently stood up. Why is this person so annoying even when he’s sick? And why is he so… annoying toward me?

He Lan suddenly felt a bit restless. He reached up to scratch his head, only to grab his hat instead. He pulled the hat off, tossed it aside, and said, “I’m going to take a shower!” before walking away.

After a while, hearing the sound of the shower from the bathroom, Shen Shiqin finally turned over.

He had been lying there all afternoon. Aside from feeling generally unwell, he didn’t have much sensation beyond alternating between heat and cold, and a slight discomfort in his stomach. When He Lan first walked in, he had been awake; he could feel the man sitting on the edge of the bed, yet they just sat there in silence. If not for the chill He Lan had brought in from outside and the sound of his breathing, he would have thought he was alone in the room.

He had originally intended to keep pretending to sleep, but for some reason, with He Lan sitting by the bed, the discomfort became impossible to ignore.

Shen Shiqin stared at the bathroom door for a while, lost in thought. He shifted his gaze to the nightstand, where a gift bag sat. He lay sprawled on his pillow, staring at the exquisitely wrapped bag for a moment, before calling out toward the bathroom: “Can I look at the bag?”

His voice was very soft due to his illness, but the person in the bathroom must have heard him, as the shower stopped immediately.

Then, a voice came from inside: “You can.”

His head was spinning again. Shen Shiqin pulled the covers up higher and rubbed his face against the blanket. “Oh, thanks.”

He thought to himself: What is this guy made of? How is his hearing still so good after all this time?

After shifting around under the covers for a bit longer, he finally reached out to grab the bag.

He Lan pushed open the bathroom door while drying his hair. As the bathroom light spilled into the bedroom, he looked across the room and locked eyes with Shen Shiqin.

The warm light from the bathroom and the desk lamp combined, casting their shadows against the wall. It seemed to be the aesthetic of Northern Europe: warm lights, snow outside the window, and the crackling wood in the fireplace. No matter where you were, it felt cozy.

He Lan looked at the person on the bed, who was propped against the headboard, wrapped in a blanket, with half-unpacked souvenirs in front of him. Shen Shiqin had set the discarded wrapping paper to the side, and the quilt in front of him was piled with both opened and unopened items.

He was holding a deer-antler bottle opener in his left hand and clutching a moose plushie in his right, looking at He Lan in a daze. His cheeks were flushed red, likely from the fever.

He Lan watched the warm light hit Shen Shiqin’s face. Just as he was about to speak, the person on the bed struck first: “Are you acting like a hooligan?”

“? What is that?” He Lan was stunned.

Shen Shiqin gestured at him with the deer antlers, his voice raspy. “You’re not wearing any clothes.”

He Lan had walked out of the bathroom with only a bath towel wrapped around his waist. Beads of water trickled down his tight, narrow waist, disappearing into the edge of the towel.

He Lan realized it belatedly and felt his face burn. “Oh.” He had been in such a hurry to shower and get warm that he hadn’t brought any clothes inside, leaving him with only the towel. When the other person was around, his body still held memories from years ago, and he tended to act subconsciously casual.

He Lan went to grab his clothes, but his eyes drifted to the two packets of medicine on the nightstand. They lay there quietly. He Lan stopped his movements and slowly walked over to the person on the bed, casting a long shadow over Shen Shiqin.

“What are you doing?” Shen Shiqin leaned back cautiously.

Watching him prepare for a fight, He Lan inexplicably recalled the request from those two young fans at the shop today: Don’t get into a fight.

He Lan looked at the man before him. Well, I didn’t plan to, but this person seems like he really wants to throw hands with me. This thought made his already restless heart feel even more stifled. He Lan lowered his gaze, looking at the guarded Shen Shiqin, and suddenly leaned forward.

The distance between them closed in an instant.

Shen Shiqin was caught off guard and met He Lan’s eyes. He could clearly see his own reflection in the man’s pupils. He Lan leaned even closer, forcing Shen Shiqin to lean back further. The distance was far too close; it exceeded the boundary they had been deliberately maintaining for the past few days.

The position was unstable, and Shen Shiqin, unable to support himself, had to reach behind him with one hand to steady his fall.

He Lan looked down at the slightly bewildered Shen Shiqin, noticing he was still gripping the deer-antler bottle opener tightly to his chest. It was an obvious defensive posture.

He Lan raised his eyes, locking gazes with Shen Shiqin again.

“Teacher Shen.”

Shen Shiqin suppressed the urge to hit him with the deer antlers and regained his composure. “What?”

He Lan rested one knee beside Shen Shiqin and snatched the source of his security away. With no barriers left between them, He Lan grabbed his shoulders and pulled him forward.

“Teacher Shen, this is what it means to act like a hooligan.”

Their noses were almost touching. The loose hair on their foreheads was already tangled together, the strands catching on each other and occasionally brushing against their cheeks, causing a ticklish sensation.

Shen Shiqin looked up at the person so close to him, his dizzy head suddenly clearing for a moment. In his peripheral vision, he could see the man’s firm abdominal muscles and the faint, defined line of his obliques disappearing into the towel. A drop of water fell from his hair onto his collarbone, slid down his chest, and dripped onto Shen Shiqin’s pajama pants, leaving a dark spot.

Shen Shiqin blinked softly. The man who had just come out of the shower carried a familiar, refreshing scent that lingered at the tip of his nose. His mind, which had cleared for a split second, became chaotic again. Shen Shiqin squinted and took a light sniff of the fragrance.

He Lan only needed to tilt his head slightly to see that everything about the man before him was flushed red. His pajamas were already in a mess… He swallowed hard, a sound that was distinct in the silent night.

“? You are sick.” Shen Shiqin did not hesitate to lift his leg and kick He Lan’s calf.

He Lan, prepared, caught his ankle and shoved it back under the covers. He immediately stood up with the force of the movement, putting distance between them.

“Don’t act like I’m the one bullying you.”

He said this with a strange sense of righteous indignation, as if Shen Shiqin had been the one to start the hooliganism and he were the innocent party.

Shen Shiqin frowned and tilted his head, watching him. What is wrong with this guy all of a sudden? It has clearly been him acting crazy all day.

At that thought, Shen Shiqin said coldly, “You should rein in your own disgraceful behavior, too.”

He Lan ignored him. He looked down at himself, grabbed his clothes from the side, and, ignoring the look in the other man’s eyes, walked out to get dressed with a slightly erratic gait. He even tripped over the carpet on his way out.

…

Shen Shiqin watched this sequence of events and reached up to touch his forehead. After a long while, he shoved all the souvenirs back into the bag, leaving only the moose plushie.

Holding the plushie, his gaze swept over the two packets of medicine. After some thought, he decided to get up and take it. He had been feverish all afternoon and had only just recovered enough strength; if he did not take the medicine, he would certainly delay tomorrow’s shoot.

With that in mind, he crawled out from under the covers sluggishly. However, before his hand could even touch the nightstand, he watched, wide-eyed, as a long-fingered hand snatched the two packets of medicine away, along with his cup.

Shen Shiqin slowly turned his head to lock eyes with the thief, a giant question mark appearing over his head.

In broad daylight, under the open sky… The thief was not just acting like a hooligan toward him; he was actually taking his medicine away. But he was sick and had no strength to fight back. If they scuffled, he would not have the upper hand.

Thinking this, he locked eyes with the thief for a moment longer and decided to return to bed to conserve his energy. But he was furious. As he turned to go back to bed, his legs went soft and he stumbled.

He did not hit the floor; the thief had some conscience left and reached out to steady him. Shen Shiqin looked down at the hand wrapped around his waist—the same hand that had just taken his medicine right in front of him.

He turned his head toward He Lan. “Let go.”

He Lan heard the emotion-filled words and released him as told. He watched Shen Shiqin shuffle over to the bed in his slippers, scramble up using both hands and feet, and dive under the covers. The blanket soon formed a small lump, and the person inside was moving around here and there.

After adjusting his position, Shen Shiqin reached out and pulled the blanket up. This time, he wrapped himself so tightly that he did not even leave a patch of hair exposed, save for a few stubborn strands poking out at the top—a symbol of his current frustration.

He Lan watched this with his arms crossed, let out an undisguised laugh, and left the room.

The first-aid kit was placed neatly in the living room cabinet. He Lan threw the two packets of medicine into the cabinet and turned to grab a different set of medications. Just as he was doing so, Meng Yichun called. He Lan took the call, and as soon as he held it to his ear, Meng Yichun’s anxious voice blared out: “He Lan! Where are you?!”

He Lan finally remembered the evening banquet. He held the phone between his shoulder and ear while searching for medicine, calm and composed. “Yeah, that is right. I am not coming.”

The other end went silent for a moment before an ear-piercing shriek followed: “What do you mean you are not coming?!”

He Lan held the phone away from his ear and explained, “Not coming means I cannot make it.”

“You cannot make it?!” Meng Yichun could not believe it. Finally, he asked, “And I actually trusted you… so are you coming or not?”

He Lan glanced at the bedroom door and said, “Keep it up, Little Meng. Even though your two brothers are not there, Assistant Director Ji is still there to keep you company.”

Little Meng was left hanging up the phone in shock.

—

The bedroom was lit only by the desk lamp. As soon as He Lan turned on the main bedroom light, a “Tsk” came from the direction of the blankets. The person was clearly still angry.

He Lan found it amusing. He walked over, stood by the bed, and poked the lump under the quilt. “Get up and take your temperature.”

The blanket shifted, and then an arm stretched out from inside, palm facing upward.

He Lan had just placed the thermometer in his hand when he heard the blanket ask, “Where is the medicine?”

He Lan paused. So, he really thought I would not give him his medicine.

He went along with it, smiling gently. “One hundred thousand per pill. Given your current condition, you should take three.”

As soon as these words fell, the quilt was finally flung open, revealing Shen Shiqin’s messy hair and his eyes full of disbelief.

“You are not even pretending anymore?!”

He Lan spread his hands, feigning innocence.

“Due to unforeseen circumstances tonight, I have missed out on the opportunity to earn three hundred thousand.”