Sweet Temptation: After Rebirth, The Campus Heartthrob Can’t Hide His Feelings Anymore - Chapter 35

Xu Zhizhi was deep in sleep and didn’t wake up until half past ten in the evening.

“It’s so late already.”

She glanced somewhat awkwardly at Zhou Xuci beside her, her gaze flickering away when she met his gentle eyes. “Senior, I’m sorry for keeping you so long.”

Zhou Xuci studied her drowsy, just-awakened expression, adorably disoriented. “It wasn’t a bother.”

Every minute and second spent with her was something he treasured beyond measure.

“Then… I’ll head back first.” Xu Zhizhi pushed open the car door and smiled at Zhou Xuci. “Goodnight, Senior.”

She lived in an old residential area where security was decent, but many facilities were outdated, and most of the streetlights were broken.

The entire road looked pitch-black, exuding an eerie, chilling atmosphere.

Deep down, Xu Zhizhi had always harbored a fear of the dark.

As a child, whenever she misbehaved, the orphanage caretakers would lock her in a cramped, dark room.

It was a row of tiny, claustrophobic spaces where, in the darkness, she would often hear heart-wrenching screams and terrifying cries.

Thus, her fear of the dark became an instinctive, bone-deep reflex.

Slinging her drawing board over her shoulder, Xu Zhizhi took a deep breath and looked up at the long, shadowy street ahead. Just as she was about to step forward, she heard the sound of a car door closing.

She turned and saw Zhou Xuci walk around the car toward her.

Zhou Xuci took her drawing board from her with gentlemanly courtesy. “It’s too dark. Walking alone at night isn’t safe. Let me walk you.”

“Okay.” This time, she didn’t refuse.

Xu Zhizhi met his gaze again, sinking once more into the depths of his affectionate eyes.

Thump.

Falling for someone often happens in just an instant.

The evening wind rustled through the tree branches, their creaking sounds snapping Xu Zhizhi out of her daze. She quietly lowered her head and walked toward the old residential area, with Zhou Xuci following silently behind her.

The rundown building had no elevator.

Zhou Xuci accompanied Xu Zhizhi up eight flights of stairs, escorting her all the way to her doorstep.

At the stairwell, a dim yellow bulb flickered to life, emitting a low, buzzing hum like the deafening chirps of cicadas on a summer night.

Under the muted glow, Xu Zhizhi noticed Zhou Xuci’s complexion had grown unusually pale.

“Senior, you don’t look so good-”

Before she could finish, Zhou Xuci’s vision darkened, and he collapsed into her arms.

“Senior!”

Xu Zhizhi instinctively caught him, wrapping her arms around him.

The force of his weight made her stagger back a step. She tightened one arm around his waist while the other hand reached up to feel his forehead.

He was burning up.

With great effort, Xu Zhizhi managed to half-carry, half-drag Zhou Xuci into her apartment, settling him onto the sofa and covering him with a thick blanket.

Because of her own frail health, she always kept emergency medicine on hand.

She quickly retrieved a thermometer from the first-aid kit and took his temperature.

102.6°F (39.2°C).

The high fever made Zhou Xuci’s face grow increasingly ashen.

Xu Zhizhi hurriedly applied a cooling patch to his forehead and prepared fever-reducing medicine along with a glass of warm water.

“Senior.”

She gently shook his arm.

Zhou Xuci opened his eyes, his vision blurry at first before Xu Zhizhi’s face gradually came into focus.

He felt utterly exhausted, drained of all energy.

He had spent over half a month working nonstop on the program’s development, pushing himself to the point of illness from sheer lack of rest.

Zhou Xuci forced himself to sit up despite his discomfort, his ingrained good manners evident as he spoke apologetically, “I’m sorry for troubling you.”

“It’s no trouble,” Xu Zhizhi replied, handing him medicine and water. “You have a fever. Take some antipyretics.”

Zhou Xuci obediently took the medicine, his head feeling as heavy as if it were filled with cement.

Xu Zhizhi sat down beside him, carefully observing his condition.

The small one-bedroom apartment only had space for a tiny two-seater sofa.

Xu Zhizhi and Zhou Xuci sat so close they were practically shoulder to shoulder.

“How are you feeling…?”

Before she could finish her concerned question, Xu Zhizhi felt a weight on her shoulder, Zhou Xuci had rested his head against her.

She froze, her entire body stiffening. “You-”

“My head hurts,” Zhou Xuci mumbled, his voice slightly slurred.

“Then-”

“Let me lean on you,” Zhou Xuci said, his illness making him clingy and a little spoiled. He whispered, “Is that okay?”

Xu Zhizhi clasped her hands together, her heart flustered, but she answered obediently, “Okay.”

Zhou Xuci buried his face in the crook of her shoulder, a faint, satisfied smile tugging at his lips when she agreed.

His headache was real.

And so was his desire to lean on her.

Nestled against Xu Zhizhi, Zhou Xuci breathed in the fresh, sweet scent unique to her, sinking deeper into his infatuation.

“Zhizhi.”

He murmured her name tenderly.

Xu Zhizhi lowered her gaze, her eyes landing on Zhou Xuci’s hair. The intimacy of the moment made her cheeks flush. “Wh-what?”

“Nothing.”

He loved her name, it carried endless tenderness when he said it.

Zhou Xuci didn’t elaborate.

Under the influence of the fever medicine, he nestled against Xu Zhizhi and drifted into a drowsy sleep.

Xu Zhizhi sat stiffly, letting him rest on her until her shoulder went numb.

She gently touched his head. “Zhou Xuci.”

Zhou Xuci let out a soft “Hmm?”

“Go sleep on the bed.”

Feeling a little cold, Zhou Xuci wrapped his arms around her, his tone drowsy and slightly whiny. “No, I just want to hold you.”

He couldn’t bear to let go of this closeness.

“That’s not it,” Xu Zhizhi stammered, her ears turning red as he embraced her fully. She pushed lightly at his shoulder.

Zhou Xuci wasn’t as out of it as he seemed. Sensing her resistance, he immediately loosened his grip. “Fine, I won’t hold you then.”

He looked like a dejected, abandoned puppy.

Pitiful and aggrieved.

Xu Zhizhi’s heart softened. She took his hand and placed it back around her waist, then stuttered, “It’s not that I don’t want you to hold me, it’s just-”

“Just what?” Zhou Xuci asked.

“You’re a little heavy,” Xu Zhizhi admitted bluntly. “My shoulder’s gone numb. QAQ”

She was going to wake up with a stiff neck tomorrow!

Feeling slightly rejected, Zhou Xuci lifted his head from her shoulder and rested his chin there instead, his arms still looped around her waist. “…Then I’ll lean on the sofa.”

Xu Zhizhi checked the time: 1:30 a.m., an awkward hour.

She couldn’t very well kick him out in the middle of the night.

Besides, Zhou Xuci had always been so good to her, she couldn’t possibly betray that.

Glancing at the 1.5-meter sofa and then at Zhou Xuci’s long legs, she realized the sofa couldn’t possibly accommodate him. She really couldn’t bring herself to make him suffer.

“Sleep on the bed,” Xu Zhizhi decided firmly.

“No,” Zhou Xuci declined weakly.

Xu Zhizhi gazed at his sickly pale complexion and coaxed him in a soft voice, “Zhou Xuci, be good and listen to me.”

Zhou Xuci’s heavy eyelids fluttered slightly, drowsiness thick in his voice as he mumbled with a nasal tone, “…Keep coaxing me.”

Xu Zhizhi couldn’t help but laugh, thinking he must be delirious from the fever.

“But I don’t know how to coax people,” she said helplessly.

Zhou Xuci wasn’t having it. “Don’t care.”

“Then…” At a loss, Xu Zhizhi reached out and ruffled his hair, teasing, “If you’re not good, I won’t let you hug me anymore.”

Zhou Xuci: “…”

…