Chapter 24 Part 1

"...No." Xu Zhinan herself hadn't expected her previous sentence to be so ambiguous, so she said directly, "I don't have a boyfriend."

Lin Qingye raised an eyebrow, and some of the gloom that had shrouded his brow for days dissipated.

Although upon later reflection he didn't think Xu Zhenfan or Gu Congwang would be the boyfriend she got later, it was still more comforting to hear her deny it herself.

He took off his hat, pulled out the chair beside the hospital bed, and sat down. He was close, his knee almost touching Xu Zhinan's.

She drew her leg back, then kicked off her shoes and climbed onto the bed. Leaning against the headboard, she pulled the blanket up to her waist, clearly avoiding any physical contact with him.

Lin Qingye wasn't talkative. He let her avoid him and remained seated in the chair, not playing on his phone, just looking at her.

Xu Zhinan's legs were bent, her arms wrapped around her calves. After a moment of silence, she finally couldn't take it anymore and started shooing him away again: "Why haven't you left yet?"

He smiled, leaning back against the chair, his chin slightly raised as he looked at her with a roguish air. "After your IV drip is done, I'll take you back."

"No need."

"Otherwise, you're going to take the subway while you're sick?"

Xu Zhinan just wanted him to leave quickly. Firstly, their past relationship was special, and now that they had separated, there was no need to see each other again. Secondly, he was now under a lot of public attention, and Xu Zhinan didn't want any trouble. If they were exposed together, she didn't know how his fans would react.

So she casually made up an excuse: "My friend will come to pick me up."

He snorted coldly: "Gu Congwang?"

Three words, clearly just a name, and he said it calmly, but it sounded like a threat. Even his dark, narrow eyes narrowed slightly.

"...How do you know his name?"

After Xu Zhinan said that, she recalled that Gu Congwang had mentioned it to her before. It seemed their two families knew each other and had even had a meal together once.

She didn't want to get Lin Qingye and Gu Congwang involved in any unnecessary relationship. Besides, Gu Congwang seemed to really dislike him, and now it appeared Lin Qingye felt the same way.

"It's not him," Xu Zhinan added. "It's my roommate."

"Aren't you afraid of infecting them?"

Xu Zhinan paused.

She had made up the part about someone picking her up. None of her friends even knew she was in the hospital right now. She had originally planned to take a taxi or the subway home herself after the drip, without considering the issue of contagion.

The summer flu was currently rampant.

It would indeed be bad to infect someone else.

Xu Zhinan couldn't help but pout and replied along with his line of reasoning: "Then if you take me, won't I infect you too?"

Lin Qingye let out a low laugh and said nonchalantly, "Then just infect me."

"..."

"Consider it revenge on your behalf." His voice held a very faint hint of a smile. "Didn't you deliberately pick a painful spot when you tattooed me? Then just let me suffer for a few more days."

Xu Zhinan didn't understand his twisted logic: "Why would I want you to suffer?"

"To atone," he said.

"..."

The hospital room fell silent again. Xu Zhinan hugged her legs, her chin resting on her knees. After a long while, she said, "Lin Qingye, do you really think atonement is that easy?"

She looked at him and said slowly and calmly, "My entire past life was thrown into chaos by you. You knew we weren't from the same world, yet you still came to provoke me."

"I used to think that everything happened because I got drunk that night, so even if I fell for someone like you, I only had myself to blame. But I later realized that wasn't true. You already knew about me when Qin Tang was pursuing me. It was you who pulled me into this situation."

"Lin Qingye, you shouldn't have come to provoke me."

He listened quietly until she finished, showing no reaction, then stood up.

Only then did Xu Zhinan realize that one IV bag was empty. Lin Qingye pulled out the spike, inserted it into another bag, and readjusted the drip rate.

"What if I insist?" he said, standing by the bed.

"I won't accept it."

He didn't say anything more. He poured her a glass of water, brought it over, and sat back down.

Xu Zhinan didn't drink his water. She took out her phone. Xu Zhenfan had sent her a voice message.

She directly converted the voice message to text, but perhaps because Xu Zhenfan's voice was hoarse or for some other reason, she couldn't understand the transcribed text.

So she had no choice but to adjust the volume and hold it to her ear.

Xu Zhinan had clearly turned the volume to its lowest setting, but Xu Zhenfan's loud voice still came through piercingly.

"Don't you be sad! I told you this thing is all about cliques, the data isn't that authentic!"

Xu Zhinan was confused and replied to him: What?

Xu Zhenfan quickly sent another voice message: "You don't know yet? Didn't the voting for the Tattoo Design Contest open at midnight this morning! Don't tell me you still haven't even taken a single look at it yet???"

"..."

[Xu Zhinan: I was too busy today, I forgot.]

[Xu Zhinan: I'll go take a look now.]

"Sis, you're way too Zen about this, you can't be like that! Go for it!!!"

He quickly sent a link to the voting portal.

Xu Zhinan clicked it to take a look.

It was already sorted by the number of votes from high to low. First place was that tattoo design by Lu Xihe. Xu Zhinan liked it a lot too, so it wasn't surprising that he was first.

However, scrolling further down, she quickly noticed something was off.

Of course, the ones she had thought were excellent were also near the top, but they were interspersed with a few of varying quality, which looked very jarring when scrolling through the list.

Xu Zhinan found herself in the upper-middle section.

In the Realism Group, she was ranked seventh. It wasn't low and she could advance to the next round, but there was a huge gap in votes between her and the top three.

It didn't look very good.

Xu Zhinan frowned slightly, not because her vote count was low, but because this voting was clearly unfair.

After exiting, Xu Zhenfan sent her two more voice messages.

"Sis, please don't be sad. Anyone with eyes can see that these vote counts are off. Even Brother Lu came to talk to me about it this afternoon."

"They're all sparing no effort to promote and campaign for votes. After all, winning an award is directly linked to future benefits. Quick, forward it to your Moments! You hear me!"

Xu Zhenfan seemed even more concerned about the voting results than she was, filled with righteous indignation.

[Xu Zhinan: But, wasn't it stipulated that competing tattoo artists can't campaign for votes?]

Xu Zhenfan: "Forget it. That kind of talk is just to trick people like you who believe in fairness and justice into competing. The few tattoo artists I have on WeChat are practically forwarding it to their Moments every hour telling people to vote."

Xu Zhenfan: "Hurry! You go forward it too! Quick!"

"..."

Xu Zhinan hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided to forward it.

Although everyone was shamelessly campaigning for votes, Xu Zhinan still didn't write anything about soliciting votes in her post. She felt it wouldn't be right, so she just forwarded the voting portal link.

Soon, people started commenting on her Moments post.

[Zhao Qian: Ahhhhhhhh Ah Nan, go for it!!! Why didn't you tell me the voting started!]

[Gu Congwang: ? What kind of garbage competition is this, do the voters have no taste??]

[Jiang Yue: Voted!!! Go Ah Nan!!!]

...

Since starting university, Xu Zhinan had joined clubs and the student union, and was later often asked to host events. Adding to that her former tattoo clients, she had many friends on WeChat. Soon, many people replied, liked, and helped vote.

The cold IV fluid flowed through the tube and into her vein, making the back of Xu Zhinan's hand feel chilly.

She covered it with the palm of her left hand for a while. Her phone was on the blanket, and she watched the new comments and likes pop up one by one.

Suddenly, there was another like—from Lin Qingye.

Her previous contact name for him was "Brother Qingye". Since they separated, Xu Zhinan had changed it to his full name.

And now, Lin Qingye was sitting right next to her.

Xu Zhinan turned her head to look at him, her gaze meeting his perfectly.

Lin Qingye asked: "Was that guy from last time your tattoo model?"

"Yeah."

"Can you make it to the next round?"

"I don't know. Based on the current rankings, I should be able to squeeze in." Xu Zhinan averted her gaze and said while replying to messages, "But it's not certain I won't get pushed out later."

Lin Qingye raised an eyebrow: "When did you sign up?"

He asked it so casually, like a friend making small talk, so Xu Zhinan had no choice but to answer calmly as well: "It was last semester."

He knitted his brows, his voice lowering a little: "Why didn't you tell me back then?"

They were still in that kind of relationship back then.

"You never asked me. We didn't really talk much anyway."

Only then did Lin Qingye recall that in the past, Xu Zhinan had indeed rarely initiated contact with him, nor was she like other girls who needed company. Only occasionally would Lin Qingye ask her out for a meal, and then they would go back to the apartment or studio together.

There really wasn't much communication.