My Idol Turns Out To Be My Ex-Girlfriend - Chapter 5

Lin Sanyuan held up a single finger. “The first condition for staying at my place: you are not allowed to go to bars to drink anymore. Even though I don’t have a curfew, my sleep quality isn’t great, and I don’t want to have to crawl out of my warm blankets to open the door for you.”

Her tone carried an unquestionable strictness, yet the “wiggle room” she provided was longer than the overnight pads she used.

“But, if you really want to drink, it’s not entirely out of the question. Just text me in advance. I can pick up a can of beer for you after work. You might be old enough to drink, but you shouldn’t overindulge. Too much alcohol dulls the nerves and messes with your studies.”

Qiao Lian let out a soft laugh, tilting her head. “How can there be so many ‘buts’?”

A “but” was supposed to signify conditions, constraints, and demands. Yet, coming from Lin Sanyuan, Qiao Lian heard more of a sense of indulgence.

Annoyed by the interruption, Lin Sanyuan frowned. “This is only the first condition. Can you agree to it or not?”

Qiao Lian offered a thin smile. “I won’t go to bars anymore, and I won’t drink again.”

“Eh?” Lin Sanyuan was momentarily confused.

Wait, what? This “problem child” wasn’t nearly as rebellious as she had imagined. In fact, she was almost… well-behaved?

“You are a good person,” Qiao Lian said, propping her chin on her hand and looking up at her with a smile. “A stubborn bad kid has no right to live in a good person’s house. What’s the second point?”

Lin Sanyuan leaned back strategically, trying to tuck in her chin.

Qiao Lian was puzzled. “What are you doing?”

“Can you stop smiling like that?” Lin Sanyuan asked.

“Hmm?”

“Nothing.” Lin Sanyuan rubbed her forehead helplessly.

This kid had a good foundation. Without makeup, her features were striking, and she possessed a sense of maturity that transcended her age. She had smiled at her countless times this morning, always with a calm, composed air that felt inexplicably flirtatious. It made Lin Sanyuan’s scalp tingle. It felt like all her efforts to act like a proper adult were completely futile.

Qiao Lian watched blankly as Lin Sanyuan’s eyelids drooped. Her bright, deer-like eyes turned into those of a dejected puppy. Nevertheless, Sanyuan held up a second finger.

“Second point: you have to go back to school and study hard.”

This time, there were no “buts.” It was a very simple demand.

Qiao Lian nodded calmly, though she felt a bit lost inside. She watched as Lin Sanyuan curled those two fingers back into her palm without raising a third.

After a moment of silence, Qiao Lian asked, “Is that all?”

Didn’t she need to… pay some sort of basic compensation?

“What else do you want there to be?”

This wasn’t even a proper residential complex; it was just an old tenement building in a rural-adjacent area. There weren’t that many rules to follow. Besides, Qiao Lian was eighteen and would be taking the college entrance exams in six months. She wouldn’t be staying long anyway.

Qiao Lian pursed her lips and explained, “Even though my family situation is a bit complicated, I’m not short on money.”

Lin Sanyuan burst out laughing. “Oh, so that’s what you’re worried about.”

Qiao Lian’s face flushed slightly.

“You don’t need to pay. I usually live alone anyway. Just focus on your personal hygiene and things like that.” Sanyuan wasn’t like those weird blind-date guys who would haggle over the price of a bottle of water. “Alright, I have to get to work. I’m going to shower first. Clean up after you finish eating, and I’ll drop you off at school in a bit.”

Even though she had showered the night before, the “vomit incident” had left a massive shadow on Lin Sanyuan’s mind. Even now, she felt as if a faint, lingering scent of vomit clung to her.

After a night of tossing and turning, her body felt increasingly cold. She felt as if a ghost were about to possess her and suck out all her vitality.

Qiao Lian glanced at the half-finished bowl of porridge on the coffee table and blinked. “Speaking of showering, how exactly did you wash me?”

Her memories of last night were fragmented and blurry. She wondered how a girl as thin and weak as Sanyuan managed to bathe someone who had lost all motor skills.

“Don’t even bring that up! Do you know you puked all over me yesterday? You, me, everything was covered in vomit. It smelled deathly! Washing you was exhausting.”

Lin Sanyuan sniffed her stuffed nose, finally catching an opportunity to complain loudly.

Qiao Lian flicked her eyes up and pressed her lips together. “Impossible. I never vomit when I’m drunk.”

Lin Sanyuan gave her a sidelong glance, her deer-like eyes shooting icy glares. “Oh? Lying with such a straight face? It seems you aren’t completely blanking on last night after all.”

Qiao Lian cleared her throat, her cheeks reddening slightly. “If I remembered, why would I ask you?”

Lin Sanyuan, possessing the memory of a goldfish, paused. “What did you ask me?”

Qiao Lian felt helpless. “I asked how you showered me.”

Old houses like this usually didn’t have bathtubs.

“Oh,” Lin Sanyuan pointed to a large red plastic basin standing in the living room. The bottom of the basin featured a golden koi and pink lotus leaf print so gaudy it could only be described as “grandmother-chic.” Such basins were typically used by housewives for laundry or for scrubbing toddlers in the countryside.

“There. I plopped you in that. Luckily, I bought a bigger basin than usual, otherwise, with those long arms and legs of yours, you wouldn’t have fit.”

Lin Sanyuan estimated that Qiao Lian was over 1.7 meters tall, while she herself was only 1.64. This kid was a good half-head taller than her.

Looking at that garish red plastic basin, Qiao Lian’s brow slowly knitted into a tight knot.

Lin Sanyuan had overestimated herself. She didn’t make it until the time Qiao Lian was supposed to leave.

After showering and putting on her pajamas, she suddenly shuddered violently. Her hands began to shake uncontrollably. A chill surged from her knees up to her spine, followed by the familiar, agonizing ache of her bones being simmered in pain. She couldn’t even stand steadily.

Qiao Lian was caught off guard. Who would have thought that a person who seemed fine a moment ago would look as if her soul had been carved out after a quick shower?

She quickly supported the struggling Lin Sanyuan and helped her to the bed.

Though the small apartment in the old tenement felt dated, it wasn’t actually small. It was a standard two-bedroom, one-living-room setup with a sunny balcony. Likely because Sanyuan rarely stayed here, only the second bedroom was fit for sleeping.

The autumn cicadas were buzzing outside, creating a noisy backdrop. Qiao Lian closed the windows tight, drew the curtains shut, and turned on the warm bedside lamp.

Lin Sanyuan rolled over under the covers, curling her body into a ball even in sleep. Her previously pale cheeks were now flushed with an unnatural feverish red. Her brow was furrowed, and cold sweat beaded at her temples. In just that short span of time, she had become delirious.

“Lin Sanyuan, Lin Sanyuan…” Qiao Lian patted her head. Her skin was scalding.

One didn’t need a thermometer to know her temperature was well over 38°C.

Qiao Lian had never dealt with this before. She had always been healthy and rarely fell ill growing up. Not knowing how to handle the situation, she could only lean over the bed and helplessly ask the patient for guidance.

“You’re so hot. Should I take you to the hospital?”

Lin Sanyuan’s teeth were chattering. Her skin felt like it was on fire, yet her bones were freezing. She knew she probably looked terrifying while feverish. Her eyes, which she forced open, were bloodshot, and her voice was as raspy as if it had been rubbed with sandpaper.

“No hospital… I have experience with this. Every time I get sick… cough… it looks scary, but I’ll be fine after some sleep. You go to school. Do you have money? If not, check the small drawer under the coffee table. There’s change in there. Oh… even if you have money, you probably don’t know how to take the bus. The station is a bit far from here…”

As she spoke, she seemed uneasy and began fumbling around. “Phone… where’s my phone? Let me call a car for you.”

Qiao Lian pressed her back into the bed and tucked the covers tightly around her, wrapping Lin Sanyuan up like a cocoon. She leaned down, a gentle yet cool aura in her eyes, her voice very soft. “I’m supposed to go to school when you’re like this?”

Lin Sanyuan only felt the fire raking through her body, scorching her internal organs and causing her stomach to cramp with nausea. She didn’t have the strength to argue further and let out a low moan.

Qiao Lian’s gaze lingered on that small, palm-sized face with an unreadable expression for a long time before she slowly sat up. She pulled her phone out of her bag and searched: How to take care of someone with a fever.

The first search result: Patients with a fever are prohibited from bathing.

“Tsk…” Qiao Lian felt inexplicably frustrated.

She kept calling herself an adult, yet she didn’t even know the most basic common sense. Her finger continued to slide down the screen.

Replenish fluids, physical cooling, and medication.

Qiao Lian went to the kitchen, brought a basin of cold water to the bedside, and gently patted Sanyuan’s face with her wet palms. Then, she found a medical kit in the living room.

Lin Sanyuan hadn’t lied; she must get sick often. The kit was stocked with a variety of medicines: fever reducers, cold medicine, Ibuprofen, stomach medicine, and herbal granules.

Qiao Lian was speechless. Just how weak is her constitution to have all this?

She carefully read the instructions for various medications and selected a fever reducer. As she closed the box, her movement triggered a latch. A hidden compartment at the bottom of the kit popped open.

Inside was another box of medicine.

Paroxetine.

Upon seeing the name, Qiao Lian’s eyes fixed on it for a full three seconds, her pupils harboring something deep and dark. She didn’t need to read the manual; she recognized this medicine.

It was the same kind her mother often took.

The long drone of the cicadas outside grew more irritating, to the point where even the sunlight hitting her felt heavy. Qiao Lian took a long, deep breath and picked up the opened box of medicine, returning it to its original place.

She went back to the bed and helped Lin Sanyuan take the fever reducer with some warm water.

Perhaps unaccustomed to being cared for by a stranger, Lin Sanyuan tried her best to support her limp body, avoiding leaning her weight into Qiao Lian’s arms. With her eyes closed, she held the glass cup handed to her and swallowed the pill.

She looked a bit obedient. And a bit pitiful.

Perhaps it was this harmless appearance that softened the strange, heavy shadow in Qiao Lian’s heart just a little.

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