Chapter 5

Chapter 5

“Miss Xu, all of your indicators are looking very poor. As a matter of professional ethics, I recommend discontinuing the special medication.”

“As a matter of professional ethics, you recommend discontinuing the special medication… Then what if you took into account the enormous funding the Xu family gives your hospital every year? Keep me on it, Doctor.”

The doctor pondered for a moment, then said, “That medication only makes you look no different from a normal person. In reality, your condition hasn’t improved. It may even continue to worsen.”

“I know. I know all of that. But I don’t have much time to live anyway, and I want to spend these last days relaxed and happy. Keep prescribing the special medication for me.”

…

Because of the shredded potato pancake, I had rested at home for three days. When I returned to school, Zhao Linfeng had also come back to class.

The moment I walked into the classroom, I saw her. She was so beautiful she seemed to glow, dazzling amid a crowd of students who still looked young and childish.

I headed straight toward her, but then I heard someone call my name from the back of the classroom.

“Xu Woruo.”

Yuan Lina was wearing a tight T-shirt printed with Miss Betty. Her hair was tied up in the most popular bun style, with a palm-sized red bow clipped to it. Today she had on a pair of unusually thick false eyelashes, along with her usual heavy blush and nude lipstick. When she called me, she held out her hand, and her nails, painted neon pink, were impossible to miss.

Thank goodness her hands were fair. I didn’t even dare imagine what a disaster neon pink nail polish would be on a pair of very dark hands.

“Where’s the chocolate?”

I took the chocolate the driver had packed from my bag and placed it on Yuan Lina’s desk. “What other flavors do you want to try? I still have lychee, cheese, cantaloupe, and cherry blossom at home. Next time I’ll bring you something different, okay?”

Yuan Lina had probably just woken up. Her eyes blinked as she came to, and she looked dazed and innocent in a strangely alluring way, just like Miss Betty on her T-shirt.

She pinched the chocolate between her fingers and thought for a moment. “Trying this hard to get on my good side-do you want me to protect you or something?”

“No, I just saw that you liked eating it…”

“Fine. You can get lost now.”

“Oh.”

Telling people to get lost was her catchphrase, so I didn’t feel hurt. Still in a good mood, I turned to go find Zhao Linfeng.

Before I could reach her seat, the class bell rang.

As such a rule-abiding good student, I naturally returned to my seat at once and waited for class to begin.

Unexpectedly, as soon as I sat down, Pan Li pulled her chair a little farther away from me. Her whole body also leaned in the opposite direction, away from me.

“Pan Li, what’s wrong?”

She lowered her head and stared at her chemistry textbook without speaking.

Then I remembered. Yuan Lina had threatened her that day. I asked, “Is it because I gave Yuan Lina chocolate?”

Pan Li still didn’t say anything.

“Actually, I think it was wrong of her to hit you that day, but it started because you spread gossip about her first. I was thinking, if you apologized to her for spreading those rumors, she might apologize to you for hitting you too.”

Pan Li still didn’t say anything.

“Pan Li…”

The teacher arrived in the classroom, so I swallowed back what I wanted to say and planned to continue after class.

After listening to a chemistry lesson that might as well have been written in an alien language, the whole class began filing downstairs one after another. Since second period that morning was PE, we could go to the field and play now.

I tugged at Pan Li’s sleeve, but she shook me off and quickly ran out.

I was still standing there in surprise when Yuan Lina had already walked over to my desk. “Come on, Xu Woruo. Let’s go to PE.”

Only then did I notice that she was wearing a very short white denim tiered skirt. “Your skirt is too short. Can you take PE like that?”

Without the slightest concern for the students coming and going around her, Yuan Lina lifted the hem that only reached the top of her calves, revealing the athletic shorts underneath.

“I’m wearing shorts. Let’s go.”

I was just about to get up when another voice sounded beside Pan Li’s empty seat. “Woruo, come with me to the school store.”

Zhao Linfeng was on my left, and Yuan Lina was on my right. One wore a white top and black pants, the other a black top and white skirt. One had a bare face and a high ponytail, while the other wore full makeup and a bun. They looked like the little angel and little devil that always appeared on either side of the protagonist in a comic.

Yuan Lina said, “Xu Woruo, are you close with Zhao Linfeng?”

Zhao Linfeng said, “Woruo, you promised to buy me spicy strips.”

Zhao Linfeng smiled and looked at me gently, as if saying, “Don’t be afraid of her. I’ll protect you.”