During the time that Zhou Yan was stuck in bed, his consciousness would gradually recover multiple times throughout the day only to be plunged back into darkness as he was fed a thick and slimy metallic substance.

  He tried his best to resist, but because of his weakened state, his attempts were futile.

  By the time Zhou Yan recovered, three days had already passed.

  When Zhou Yan came to, he found himself alone. The quietness that enveloped his bedroom was periodically interrupted by the sounds of birds chirping.

  He slowly sat up from his bed and noticed that he had been changed into a light blue silk pajama that gave him a healthier look

  As Zhou Yan got out of bed, he stretched his muscles and could feel that his muscles had returned to normal. He also cleared his throat and a hint of metallic taste still lingered in the back of his throat.

  The metallic taste reminded Zhou Yan of the previous days.

  He quickly made his way into the bathroom with ease and rinsed himself, but the subtle feeling of irritation that he had when he’d awakened didn’t fade. The feeling of irritation was a new feeling to Zhou Yan and he didn’t know why he was experiencing it.

  Shaking away his thoughts, Zhou Yan clipped his hair back and changed into casual clothes which consisted of a cotton-tee and shorts reaching above his knees.

  Zhou Yan walked downstairs and saw Mother Zhou knitting.

  Hearing footsteps coming down the stairs, Mother Zhou looked up. She saw that Zhou Yan was able to move around and motioned him to come closer.

  Zhou Yan obliged and saw Mother Zhou raise her hand. He bent down and let Mother Zhou pce a hand on his forehead.

  Mother Zhou smiled as his temperature was back to normal. She said with relief, “It’s good that Xiao Yan isn’t sick anymore. I should really thank Xiao Jin for taking care of you these past few days.”

  Hearing that Luo Jin was the one who took care of him, Zhou Yan frowned.

  Mother Zhou continued speaking as she went back to knitting. “Mother already asked for a leave of absence from the school. Since Xiao Yan’s feeling better, how about going out to rex?”

  Zhou Yan stayed silent.

  When Mother Zhou didn’t hear a reply from Zhou Yan she paused and twisted her head back. “Does Xiao Yan not want to?”

  Looking at the woman who had clouded eyes and a subtle smile, Zhou Yan finally responded. “Okay, Mother.”

  Mother Zhou returned to normal. “Mother already packed a bag for you to take out.”

  Zhou Yan looked towards the entrance and spotted a brown shoulder bag on the floor.

  Standing up, Mother Zhou pyfully pushed Zhou Yan forward. “Go ahead and have fun, Xiao Yan. I’ve already notified the driver to drop you off at the mall near the school. And don’t forget to take your medicine, Xiao Yan.”

  She handed Zhou Yan a credit card. “Your father has been busy these past few days. He said to use this to py and when he comes back, we’ll go on a family trip together.”

  Putting away the credit card, Zhou Yan looked at Mother Zhou for a bit and finally asked, “Mother, did Luo Jin feed me anything?”

  Mother Zhou nodded. “Xiao Jin made a nourishing soup for you to eat.”

  Zhou Yan questioned further. “What was the soup made out of?”

  “Mother only caught a glimpse, but Xiao Jin added some chicken and fish.”

  Mother Zhou chuckled as she remembered the first time she saw the soup. “When Mother saw the bowl of soup that Xiao Jin made, it was so red and dark that I almost mistook it for a bowl of blood. But Xiao Jin reassured me that it was mainly from the beets.”

  Zhou Yan was silent. Was it really just a normal nourishing soup? He couldn’t answer this question as the only one who knew was Luo Jin. He decided to think about it ter and go out first as he could feel a gentle but piercing gaze from Mother Zhou. “Then, I’ll head out.”

  Mother Zhou saw Zhou Yan off. She remained in pce until he was out of the neighborhood then she mechanically returned home and continued knitting. Her back was straight as she proceeded with rigid movements.

  The neighborhood was devoid of any noise as the woman continued her mechanical set of movements.

  ***

  When the driver dropped Zhou Yan off, it was already eleven o’ clock.

  Zhou Yan stepped out of the car and noticed that there was barely anybody around.

  Having plenty of spare time on hand for now, Zhou Yan decided to casually stroll around the mall. There were a variety of stores and shops but none of them could pique Zhou Yan’s interest.

  He had walked for about an hour when he noticed two people at the bottom floor.

  Wearing a blue and white school uniform, Zhou Yan recognized them as students from the same school. He was about to look away when suddenly one of them looked up and waved--it was Luo Jin.

  Being spotted, Zhou Yan had no choice but to head down.

  Luo Jin and Zhou An were waiting nearby the escator.

  When Zhou Yan finally reached them, Luo Jin smiled. “What a coincidence, Xiao Yan.” He hooked an arm around Zhou Yan’s neck. “Let’s all eat together since we’re already here.”

  Zhou Yan noticed that his discomfort ease as he made his way towards the two, and once Luo Jin touched him, it had completely disappeared. Zhou Yan lowered his eyes thoughtfully.

  Luo Jin continued speaking without caring about what the siblings thought. “I’ve heard that there’s a new noodle shop here. Let’s go eat there.”

  Zhou An worriedly looked at Zhou Yan but saw that he didn’t care so she could only hold back the refusal on the tip of her tongue.

  The three were quickly seated once they were in the noodle shop as there weren’t a lot of people around despite it being lunch time. They quickly pced an order and casually chatted while waiting for their food.

  Zhou An let out a sigh. “You don’t know how worried I was, Brother. You wouldn’t wake up for the past three days and I couldn’t do anything. I wanted to take you to the hospital but I was stopped.”

  Leaning back on the chair, Luo Jin spoke up. “But the medicine I provided was useful, right?”

  Zhou An clenched her fist. “Brother’s health is no small matter!”

  Luo Jin shrugged. “Of course, I also care very much for Xiao Yan’s health.”

  A server came and pced the order of noodles on the table. “A bowl of Dan Dan Noodles, Wonton Noodle Soup, and Spicy Beef Noodle Soup.”

  Luo Jin sat up. “Let’s eat!”

  Zhou An huffed in anger as she silently started eating.

  Zhou Yan grabbed his bowl of Wonton Noodle Soup and was about to start eating it when Luo Jin gave him a reminder.

  “Don’t forget to take your medicine, Xiao Yan.”

  Zhou Yan paused and stared at Luo Jin.

  Seeing the scrutinizing look in Zhou Yan’s eyes, Luo Jin raised his hands with a look of defeat. “Alright, I admit it. Aunty asked me to make sure you take your pills on time if I happened to be with you.”

  Zhou Yan eyebrows furrowed but quickly straightened out without anyone noticing. He reached for the bottle of pills in his bag and swallowed one.

  He held his chopsticks and picked up a wonton. As he bit into the wonton’s soft yet chew skin, a filling that was packed with fvor bursted out of it.

  It normally would’ve incentivized the person to greedily consume all of the soup down to the very st drop and perhaps order another one after finishing the first bowl, but Zhou Yan wasn’t like that. He was strict on himself on how much food he eats--eating just enough that he wasn’t too full. Eating the fvorful bowl of noodles only provided the experience a little more patable.

  Zhou Yan only ate a little over half of his bowl of noodles before giving the rest to Zhou An. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms as he watched the two people eat.

  There was a growing drowsiness that was forming in Zhou Yan’s mind. Unconsciously lowering his head, Zhou Yan fought with his eyelids as the minutes passed, but lost as he had unintentionally fallen asleep.

  Snapping his eyes open, Zhou Yan looked up and saw that Luo Jin and Zhou An had finished eating. It was already time for them to return to css. He squeezed his arms as he realized what had just happened.

  He let the two go first and stayed behind to pay the bill. When Luo Jin had walked out of his sight, a feeling of irritation and discomfort crept up.

  Leaving the shop, Zhou Yan decided to stroll around the area outside the mall as a way to keep himself awake.

  He walked alongside the sidewalk and observed the almost barren city. The presence of people and cars remained, though not as much as it should be for a big city.

  Only an hour had passed, but Zhou Yan could tell that he couldn’t get rid of the fatigue. He thought that walking around could dispel the drowsiness that was growing but it did nothing.

  He had no choice but to find a conspicuous spot and call the driver to take him back home.

  The driver arrived minutes after Zhou Yan called and soon returned him home.

  When Zhou Yan entered the house, there was nobody in the house. But he had no mind to pay attention as his mind was growing hazier by the second.

  Stabilizing himself with a hand on the wall, Zhou Yan slowly made his way to his room.

  He threw his bag onto the floor and tossed himself into his bed where his consciousness finally gave out.

  The next time that Zhou Yan opened his eyes, he saw that the sky was turning dark. He sat up from the bed and rubbed his eyebrows. There hadn’t been any spare time for him to ask the system about the male lead’s favorability, but now that he was alone and it had been almost a week since he had come to this world, there was a chance to ask.

  “System, what’s Luo Jin’s favorability?”

  [The male lead’s favorability is 74%, Host.]

  Hearing how high Luo Jin’s favorability was, Zhou Yan was skeptical. For how little he’d interacted with him during this entire week, it shouldn’t make sense for Luo Jin to have such high favorability. But he kept this thought to himself and outwardly accepted the system’s report.

  Zhou Yan stood up from the bed and grabbed his bag that he threw on the floor. He flipped it upside down and shook out the contents of the bag onto the bed.

  Then, he grabbed a change of clothes and pced it on top of the things that came out of the bag.

  Zhou Yan headed downstairs and saw that there was still nobody around, but he continued into the kitchen to grab a cup of water to drink before returning upstairs.

  When he picked up his clothes, he also discretely grabbed his medicine bottle that was at the bottom of the pile and headed into the bathroom.

  Backhandedly closing the bathroom door, Zhou Yan felt that the system’s surveilnce disappeared. The bathrooms were the only pce that were free from the system’s monitoring, but he never thought that the first time he’d use this information would be to inspect some pills.

  He pced the clothes down and took out the bottle from underneath.

  Unscrewing the lid, he shook out a pill onto his hand.

  From the outside, the pill looked nothing out of the ordinary. It was encased in a white pstic-like capsule and smooth to the touch except for the middle.

  Zhou Yan took out a spare razor bde and cut the pill down the middle.

  With the capsule cut in half, a dark brown powder spilled out onto the counter. There was an almost unnoticeable metallic smell that came from the powder.

  He picked up some of the powder and rubbed it between his thumb and index finger to find that the metallic smell had grown a bit stronger. Sticking out his tongue, he licked the powder off his thumb to find a taste he had become familiar with these past few days.

  Piecing together the information, he was certain that the medicine was blood.