"Xiang Xi, 18 years old, unemployed, professional troublemaker, got beaten up for no reason," Cheng Boyan sat by the bed, looking at Xiang Xi, speaking in a low, unhurried tone. "Then you crawled into the hospital parking lot, found the car of the doctor you once tried to scam but failed, and hid behind it, waiting for him to get off work... Is that what happened?"

"Exactly," Xiang Xi wrinkled his nose, twisting uncomfortably on the bed. "Dr. Cheng, can you do me a favour..."

"Hmm?" Cheng Boyan responded.

"My right leg is itching at the back, can you... scratch it for me?" Xiang Xi said, somewhat embarrassed.

"Your right hind leg is itching?" Cheng Boyan glanced at his leg.

"My right leg! The back of my right leg is itching!" Xiang Xi clicked his tongue. "Ah, forget it, hind leg it is. Dr. Cheng, can you scratch the back of my right leg for me? It's so itchy! I can't stand it!"

"Itchy, huh?" Cheng Boyan remained seated, asking leisurely.

"...Yes!" Xiang Xi rolled his eyes at him.

"If you don't tell the truth, you can keep itching," Cheng Boyan leaned back in his chair, took out his phone, and started playing with it. "If you don't tell the truth, I'll have no choice but to call the police."

Xiang Xi could hardly describe how he felt. His body was in excruciating pain, his legs, waist, and back were all itching unbearably, like being tortured! And to top it off, he had to deal with someone as difficult as Cheng Boyan!

"Come on, brother," he gritted his teeth. "You're way too upright, aren’t you!"

"Can't help it, my moral compass is just that strong, my sense of justice is just that overwhelming. The day you waved my wallet in front of me and I didn't call the police was already pushing my limits," Cheng Boyan said, looking at his phone. "Have you even looked at the state you're in now? Still playing the troublemaker card?"

"What state... Am I disfigured?" Xiang Xi suddenly raised his voice, his eyes widening.

"Want to see?" Cheng Boyan lifted his head.

"Yes! Do you have a mirror?" Xiang Xi lifted his arm, then grimaced and put it down. "Damn it, is there any part of me that can still move?"

Cheng Boyan stood up, stepped back a couple of steps, took a photo of him with his phone, and showed it to him. "With these injuries, it'll take at least three months to recover."

"I..." Xiang Xi quickly looked at the screen, then shouted in shock, "Where's my hair? Damn it, where's my hair?"

The patient in the next bed laughed. "They shaved it off when you came in."

"I shaved it myself. To check the wounds, and it's actually not too bad, no serious injuries," Cheng Boyan sat back down. "I never liked your hairstyle from the first glance, so this was a good opportunity."

"Damn," Xiang Xi frowned, then after a few seconds, changed his tone. "Brother... please scratch it for me, it's so itchy... My body is still in pain, I can't handle this itch..."

Cheng Boyan stared at him for a while, sighed, stood up, and lifted the blanket. He tapped on Xiang Xi's leg. "Is it here? There's a brace in the way."

"What do I do, what do I do, what do I do!" Xiang Xi felt like he couldn't stand it for another second.

"Wait a moment," Cheng Boyan frowned, turned around, and walked out of the ward. After a while, he came back with a knitting needle.

"What's this?" Xiang Xi was puzzled.

"Iron stick yam," Cheng Boyan said.

"Damn..." Xiang Xi laughed, but then his face hurt from laughing. "Hurry up, hurry up."

Cheng Boyan poked around with the knitting needle. "Is this okay?"

"Ah, a bit lower," Xiang Xi quickly felt it. "A bit to the left, yes, yes, yes... right there, oh, it's so itchy!"

Cheng Boyan poked a few more times. "Anywhere else itchy?"

"My back, can you reach it?" Xiang Xi asked.

Cheng Boyan didn't say anything, reached under him, lifted him slightly, and scratched his back a few times. "Better now?"

"Seems... better," Xiang Xi said. After Cheng Boyan laid him back down, he closed his eyes. "It hurts so much, how long will this pain last..."

"It'll stop hurting tomorrow," Cheng Boyan checked the time. "You have one more hour to tell me the truth."

"It really is the truth," Xiang Xi said helplessly. "I'm so miserable right now, I just want to drop dead. I don't have the energy to lie to you."

"Is that so?" Cheng Boyan studied his expression. He really couldn't tell if Xiang Xi was telling the truth. When he talked about his father's illness before, he also looked sincere and moved.

"Really, brother," Xiang Xi's voice was very low, almost a whisper. "Please, don't call the police. I don't have an ID. If you call the police, I'll be in big trouble."

A picked-up, ID-less troublemaker, with a name, age, and background all made up on the spot.

Cheng Boyan felt like he wouldn't be able to digest all this in one night. What kind of mess was this!

Xiang Xi's mind was already foggy, his body was in pain, and on top of that, his hair had been mercilessly shaved off by Cheng Boyan. The heavy blow left him feeling physically drained, and he dozed off again, half-closing his eyes.

Cheng Boyan leaned over to look at his head, then glanced at the IV bottle by the bed and pressed the call button for the nurse to change the medication.

After the last bottle of medication was changed, Xiang Xi's eyes were completely closed.

Cheng Boyan stood up and stretched. Xiang Xi's sleeping posture was decent, looking quite well-behaved, much better than when he was awake and spouting who-knows-what.

"You rest first. I'm too tired today, I need to go back," Cheng Boyan put away his phone and said.

"Huh?" Xiang Xi opened his eyes, looking at him groggily. "You're leaving?"

"You don't expect me to stay overnight with you, do you?" Cheng Boyan said. "I've told the nurses, they'll keep an eye on you tonight. I'll come back tomorrow."

"Brother..." Xiang Xi called him, blinking at him. "Come here, I have something to say."

Cheng Boyan bent down and leaned closer. Xiang Xi whispered, "Don't call the police, please."

"If I were going to call, I would have done it already," Cheng Boyan said, then turned to leave. But after a moment, he turned back and pointed at Xiang Xi. "But that doesn't mean I believe everything you've said."

*

When Cheng Boyan got home, he felt dizzy and exhausted. He almost fell asleep in the bathtub while soaking.

Xiang Xi's jade pendant was still in his coat pocket. After his bath, Cheng Boyan took it out and held it up to the light. He wasn't an expert, but his uncle was in the jade business, so he had seen some pieces before.

Even an amateur could tell this pendant was valuable. If Xiang Xi said it was his, Cheng Boyan found it hard to believe. Was it left in the quilt when he was found?

Was he an illegitimate child abandoned by some wealthy family 18 years ago?

It sounded like a plot from a TV series, and a particularly melodramatic one at that.

All of Xiang Xi's belongings were with him, but there wasn't much. Besides the pendant, there was some loose change, a few keys, a small pack of cartoon band-aids, and Xiang Xi's... no, his wallet.

For some reason, there was no money in the wallet. It was empty. Cheng Boyan twirled the wallet between his fingers a couple of times, then tossed it onto the table. He took out a small bag from the drawer and put all of Xiang Xi's things inside.

He didn't put the pendant in the bag. Instead, he placed it in a box and locked it in the cabinet.

Cheng Boyan slept restlessly that night, plagued by one dream after another, leaving him irritable. Finally, a voice in his dream calling "Brother" startled him awake.

He stared into the darkness, unable to tell if the voice belonged to Xiang Xi or Cheng Boyu.

He couldn't sleep anymore.

After lying in bed for a while, he got up, turned on the light, and walked over to the bookshelf by the wall.

The bookshelf was filled mostly with professional books and a large amount of osteosarcoma translation materials. In the middle shelf, between two rows of books, there was a photo frame.

Through the glass, he could see Cheng Boyu's smile.

After staring at it for a few moments, Cheng Boyan opened the glass door, reached in, and turned the photo frame face down.

He didn't like Cheng Boyu. In his memory, this younger brother, four years his junior, had brought him nothing but frustration.

Both his parents were doctors, and it was common for them to be so busy that they wouldn't be home for days. In the years before Cheng Boyu was old enough to take care of himself, Cheng Boyan had to be responsible for his food, clothing, and daily needs.

These overwhelming, trivial matters left him with no fondness for his younger brother.

When Cheng Boyu followed him around, calling him "Brother" and pestering him to play, Cheng Boyan rarely had a good expression. In Cheng Boyu's eyes, he probably wasn't much of a good brother either.

This state continued until...

"Brother, am I going to die? Can you save me..."

Cheng Boyan felt a wave of irritation and turned off the light, throwing himself back into bed and wrapping himself tightly in the blanket.

*

Xiang Xi woke up early in the morning, startled awake by the sudden image of Uncle Ping's face flashing in his mind. When he opened his eyes, his forehead was covered in cold sweat.

The moment he realized he was lying in a hospital bed, a sense of relief he had never felt before washed over him. He wanted to grin, but the wounds at the corners of his mouth and eyes, stiff from a night of inactivity, tugged painfully, preventing him from smiling.

The pain in his body and legs hadn’t improved much from the day before.

He pulled a nurse aside and asked her to explain his injuries in detail. Since he was a friend of Cheng Boyan, the nurse took the time to give him a thorough explanation despite her busy schedule.

The medical jargon left Xiang Xi utterly confused, but he gathered that he had multiple fractures—enough to keep him faking accidents for a month. There were steel pins in his leg, and Cheng Boyan had performed the surgery.

Of course, Cheng Boyan was also the one who had shaved off his cool, handsome, and edgy Mohawk.

But it didn’t matter.

What did it matter if his leg was suspended, if his arm couldn’t bend, if his neck couldn’t turn, if he was in pain, if he was itchy, or if he was bald?

Compared to finally being kicked out of Dawali street and Zhaojiayao by Uncle Ping, none of it mattered!

When Cheng Boyan came for his rounds, Nurse Xiao Jiang was holding a small mirror above Xiang Xi’s face so he could see himself.

"Ugh, thank goodness my head has a good shape. Otherwise, with this monk-like baldness, I wouldn’t dare step outside," Xiang Xi sighed.

"There are plenty of bald people on the streets," Xiao Jiang said with a smile. She put away the mirror, pushed the medicine cart, and turned to see Cheng Boyan. "Good morning, Dr. Cheng."

"Morning," Cheng Boyan nodded and walked over to Xiang Xi’s bed. "Don’t worry. You’ll need to grow your hair out to a buzz cut before you can be discharged."

"Morning, Dr. Cheng," Xiang Xi sighed. "...I don’t even look like myself anymore."

"That’s because your face is still swollen. It has nothing to do with being bald," Cheng Boyan told him, pulling a cartoon band-aid from his pocket. He peeled it open and stuck it over the mole under Xiang Xi’s eye. "Does that feel better?"

Xiang Xi was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter, staring at the ceiling. Finally, he whispered softly to Cheng Boyan, "Thank you."

Xiao Jiang came over to hook up Xiang Xi’s IV. Cheng Boyan asked how he was feeling, and Xiang Xi just said he felt uncomfortable all over, but otherwise, there wasn’t much else to report.

"Am I just going to stay like this, stuck here until my hair grows into a buzz cut?" Xiang Xi looked at Cheng Boyan gloomily. "Do I really have to be suspended like this? And what’s with the plastic shell?"

"Yes, the brace is for stabilization," Cheng Boyan explained. "Suspending it helps with blood circulation, reduces swelling, and also lessens the pain. When you’re bored, you can wiggle your toes."

"Oh... By the way," Xiang Xi suddenly smiled, "I heard from the nurse that they put steel pins in me? How did they do that? Will they take them out later?"

"They just hammered them in," Cheng Boyan said, looking down as he wrote in the medical chart. "Of course, they’ll take them out later. When the time comes, they’ll make a quick cut and pry them out with a screwdriver."

The patient in the next bed, who was drinking porridge, nearly choked from laughing. "Doctor, you’re so funny. Director Liang is always so serious."

"Director Liang has a lot of patients. He’s so busy he barely has time to drink water," Cheng Boyan said with a smile. "He doesn’t have time to joke around."

After finishing his rounds with Xiang Xi, Cheng Boyan was about to leave for the next room but stopped to ask, "Do you have any friends who can come to the hospital to take care of you?"

"Friends?" Xiang Xi was taken aback. After a while, he said quietly, "I don’t have any friends."

"Then I’ll arrange a caregiver for you, but they probably won’t be here until noon," Cheng Boyan didn’t press further. He glanced at the pink lunchbox on Xiang Xi’s bedside table—likely borrowed from one of the nurses. "As for breakfast..."

"I’ll handle it," the patient in the next bed, Zhou Jin, spoke up. He was in his twenties and had been admitted that morning with an ankle injury. He had just finished his porridge. "I’ll feed him."

Cheng Boyan left the room. After finishing his rounds, he passed by Xiang Xi’s room and glanced inside. Xiang Xi was chatting with Zhou Jin. Cheng Boyan returned to his office.

Four thousand stolen, hospital deposits, various treatment fees, medication costs, and now hiring a caregiver... He habitually recorded all these expenses in his phone’s budgeting app. The total was significant.

Cheng Boyan frowned. He was sick, really sick, to have spent so much money on a thief and troublemaker.

Maybe he should go to the psychiatric department and get some medication.

*

Xiang Xi wasn’t exactly a lively person, but being stuck in the hospital like this, unable to move his arms or legs, was pure torture for him.

After just three days, he felt like he couldn’t take it anymore.

Scratching an itch was a hassle, and brushing his teeth or washing his face... those were out of the question. Eating and using the bathroom had to be done in bed, and to make matters worse, the caregiver Cheng Boyan had arranged was an older woman. Every time he needed to use the bathroom, he had to wait until he was absolutely desperate before he could bring himself to ask.

"Dr. Cheng, Brother Cheng," Xiang Xi protested seriously when Cheng Boyan came for his rounds, "can you get me a different caregiver? You found me a woman..."

"Her son is older than you," Cheng Boyan glanced at his leg. "Besides, caregivers are hard to come by these days."

"...Oh," Xiang Xi immediately fell silent upon hearing that caregivers were hard to find. After a pause, he added, "You’ve spent... a lot of money, haven’t you? I’ll pay you back once I can move."

"Yeah, not counting what you took from my wallet," Cheng Boyan pulled out his phone, opened the budgeting app, and showed it to him. "We’ll settle this account later."

"Damn," Xiang Xi closed his eyes. "Maybe you should just throw me out. On the street, under a bridge, in a self-service bank..."

He rambled on for a while but didn’t hear a response from Cheng Boyan. All he heard was Zhou Jin laughing beside him. When Xiang Xi opened his eyes, Cheng Boyan was already gone.

"Is that doctor your friend?" Zhou Jin asked after laughing for a while.

"...Huh?" Xiang Xi was stumped by the simple question and couldn’t answer right away. He just mumbled a noncommittal response.

Friend? He didn’t have friends.

He used to say it often: "I don’t have friends."

Back then, it felt good to say it, and it didn’t feel strange at all. In a place like Zhaojiayao, the word "friend" was too luxurious, too naive. What friends? Real friends would eventually drift apart, and fake friends might stab you in the ribs at any moment. That’s what "taking a knife for a friend" meant.

But now, he suddenly felt a sense of loss.

It started the day Cheng Boyan asked him if he had any friends who could come to take care of him.

Saying "I don’t have friends" suddenly felt out of place.

Zhou Jin’s question only deepened this inexplicable sinking feeling. He didn’t even hear what Zhou Jin said afterward.

Being Cheng Boyan’s friend was the identity he now held in the hospital. Of course, someone like Cheng Boyan couldn’t possibly have a friend like him.

It was just because Cheng Boyan was a doctor, and Xiang Xi had been good at playing the pity card, so Cheng Boyan’s sympathy temporarily outweighed his disgust. That’s how he became Cheng Boyan’s... friend.

Xiang Xi sighed softly.

Truthfully, he kind of enjoyed it. Having a friend like Cheng Boyan... even though Cheng Boyan didn’t like him, didn’t believe him, kept thinking about calling the police, and even shaved off his cool Mohawk, leaving him bald.

But Cheng Boyan was someone from "a different kind of life." He had saved him and was the closest person to him now.

Today, Cheng Boyan was in the outpatient department, but by 7 p.m., Xiang Xi still hadn’t seen him come to the ward. He probably went straight home.

Anyway, he had a caregiver now, and his condition was stable. Aside from the overall discomfort, his injuries were healing well.

"Do you need to use the bathroom?" The caregiver, Auntie Sun, was quite attentive.

"Not yet," Xiang Xi closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "Auntie Sun, go eat first. I’m fine here."

"Alright, I’ll go eat first," Auntie Sun nodded. "I’ll give you a wipe-down later. The nurse said it’s okay now..."

"Wha... wipe what?" Xiang Xi panicked.

"Wipe your body. You can’t shower right now, so wiping will make you feel better," Auntie Sun said before leaving the room to eat.

Zhou Jin, lying in the next bed, laughed so hard he could barely breathe. "Man, are you really that scared?"

"Damn..." Xiang Xi actually wanted a wipe-down. He hadn’t been able to shower since the day he was beaten and thrown into the mud. A wipe-down would definitely make him feel better.

"Just let her do it. What’s the big deal? She’s seen it all before," Zhou Jin continued laughing. "Didn’t she change your clothes too?"

"Changing clothes was awkward enough, but this is different!" Xiang Xi had always taken care of himself—bathing, changing clothes, even cleaning his wounds when he got hurt. No one had ever taken care of him before. And on the streets, people like him, who didn’t look like good guys, didn’t even get close to others.

After a long internal struggle, Xiang Xi even considered asking Cheng Boyan to wipe him down, but in the end, he let Auntie Sun do it.

He had stolen money, lied, owed money, and nearly cost someone their life. Now he was asking for a wipe-down? He couldn’t bring himself to say it. If he did, Cheng Boyan might just drag him out and throw him on the street.

Auntie Sun had been a caregiver for many years and was quite efficient. In no time, she wiped him down like he was a piece of furniture, changed his clothes, and left him feeling much more relaxed. Xiang Xi lay back in bed, closed his eyes, and let out a long sigh.

*

"Dr. Cheng, is your hand okay like this?" A nurse frowned as she looked at Cheng Boyan’s hand.

"It’s fine," Cheng Boyan glanced at his right hand, which was wrapped in gauze and bandages. "I’m heading home now. My friend’s waiting in the car."

"What if they come back tomorrow? Director Liang was almost hit earlier," the nurse said worriedly.

"I’ll be in the inpatient department tomorrow," Cheng Boyan smiled.

As he left the hospital and was about to take out his phone to make a call, a car parked by the roadside flashed its lights twice. Cheng Boyan walked over and instinctively reached for the door with his right hand. Seeing the bandages, he switched to his left.

"Hey, Boyan," Lin He turned and noticed his hand. "What happened to your hand?"

"Just a scratch," Cheng Boyan got into the car and fastened his seatbelt.

"Did a patient do that?" Lin He asked.

"A family member," Cheng Boyan glanced at him. "Let’s go. Where are we eating? After that, I need to go home and sleep. I’m exhausted."

"After not seeing you for a year, this is how you treat me," Lin He laughed as he started the car.

"Welcome, welcome, a warm welcome," Cheng Boyan raised his arms and chanted. "Is that enough?"

"You’re insane!" Lin He laughed for a while. "Why did I even come all this way to see you?"

"It’s not like you came just to see me," Cheng Boyan smiled. "Are you planning to settle down here?"

"Yeah," Lin He nodded. "At this age, I just want some stability. Having someone by my side, living peacefully—it’s nice."

"Done playing around?" Cheng Boyan asked.

"Doesn’t it make you feel anything?" Lin He glanced at him. "Don’t just think about work and money all the time..."

"What money? Just focus on driving," Cheng Boyan clicked his tongue, thinking, I just lost a bunch of money.

"Find someone soon. Don’t stay single. If you get hurt, there’s no one at home to comfort you," Lin He said.

"No time," Cheng Boyan leaned against the car window, looking outside. The injury on his hand wasn’t serious—no bones were broken, just a cut from a chair leg. But it still hurt.

There just wasn’t any time.

Work kept him too busy to stop, and now he had somehow ended up taking care of a patient. When would he have time to think about anything else?

 

Translator : DarNan