What did twenty days truly mean? In a normal work routine, a month consisted of only twenty-odd working days. Yet, aside from the fleeting joy of payday, almost every one of those days could feel like a grueling crawl, even with the reprieve of a two-day weekend.
The virus ravaging Guo Junyi’s body knew nothing of weekends or rest. It spent every second replicating, pitching its tents and expanding its territory within him. For those involved in the treatment, these twenty days were not merely a tedious shift at work; they were a fierce, desperate battle with no room for retreat.
For Guo Junyi himself, it was an indescribable agony. He could feel his body growing heavier by the day. Despite every effort, his temperature remained stubbornly above thirty-nine degrees Celsius. A cough had begun to set in. For now, he could still use his willpower to suppress the intensity of the tremors, but he knew that eventually, he would lose that control. Whether it was a hallucination or reality, he began to feel a faint, searing pain radiating through his entire body.
Guo Junyi was not a paranoid man, yet in this moment, he found himself unable to distinguish whether the pain was real or a product of his imagination. Finally unable to bear the uncertainty, he shifted slightly, lifting one side of his body to test the sensation. This movement, which would normally not even qualify as an "action," required a significant amount of effort. As his skin left the sheets, the pain seemed to persist, but the slight exertion gave him a sense of agency over his own body. He tried to lift himself higher, only to be pressed back down by a gloved hand.
Only then did Guo Junyi realize someone had entered the isolation room. Jiang Langmin held a hand against his chest, his eyes devoid of emotion as he looked down at him. "Don't move."
"Sorry," Guo Junyi said instinctively. To facilitate the connection of various instruments, he had long since been deprived of the right to wear a shirt. The hand pressing against his chest, clad in a protective suit, felt exceptionally cold. Jiang Langmin did not pull away until Guo Junyi was completely settled back down.
Guo Junyi glanced at the time on the monitor; it was barely seven in the morning. "Dr. Jiang, you're here early."
Jiang Langmin gave a noncommittal grunt. He pulled a fresh vacuum blood collection tube from a drawer and skillfully drew thirty milliliters of blood. Blood draws had become part of Guo Junyi’s daily routine. As he watched Jiang Langmin expertly withdraw the needle, he tried to make small talk. "Since you're here so early, where's Jiang Cheng? Hasn't he arrived yet?"
Jiang Langmin turned to set the blood sample aside before replying indifferently, "I wake up early, so I came over first." As he spoke, he peeled back Guo Junyi’s eyelids and checked them with a penlight. "How does your body feel right now?"
"I was just moving around to test if I was actually in pain."
"Pain?" Jiang Langmin looked at him with a scrutinizing gaze. "Where?"
"Maybe the muscles, maybe..." Guo Junyi grimaced as he shifted his shoulders to gauge the feeling. "Maybe I've started bleeding internally?"
Jiang Langmin leaned down and pressed firmly on several spots on his body without ceremony. After observing for a moment, he said, "It’s likely just muscle stiffness from lying down too much." He looked up to adjust the IV drip. "We’re starting the new antiviral agent today. It would be quite unfortunate if you started internal bleeding before that."
Jiang Langmin hadn't held back his strength when pressing down; the pain receptors throughout Guo Junyi’s body seemed to migrate toward the finger marks the doctor had left behind. It served as a perfect distraction. Guo Junyi glanced out the window. The person on duty had likely seen Jiang Langmin arrive; the figure who had been hovering there all night was now nowhere to be seen. Once he was certain the patient was stable, Jiang Langmin stopped talking. He began checking the machines one by one, silently flipping through the data.
Guo Junyi watched him quietly for a while, mentally reviewing Jiang Langmin’s file. He finally concluded that when this genius was at work, he truly was exceptionally cold.
Suddenly, his stomach let out a loud growl. Jiang Langmin, busy with his tasks, turned around. "Hungry?"
Guo Junyi felt no embarrassment about such things. "Yeah. I don't know if it's because I saw you and Jiang Cheng, but after all these days, today is the first time I've actually felt hungry."
It was a subtle bit of flattery, but the other man didn't seem to register it, merely nodding dismissively. Guo Junyi couldn't help but sigh inwardly. He grumbled to himself that someone should at least bring him something to eat; he wasn't at all satisfied with just being pumped full of glucose.
The silence in the isolation room wasn't broken again until Jiang Cheng entered around eight o'clock. To Guo Junyi, Jiang Cheng’s arrival was nothing short of a godsend—finally, someone remembered that a patient needed nutrition. He had brought a high-protein breakfast: a small portion of poached chicken breast, an egg, and a bowl of vegetable soup. Despite the circumstances, the food was kept at a perfect temperature, nearly bringing tears to Guo Junyi’s eyes.
"I'm starving! How long has it been since I've actually eaten?"
Jiang Cheng set the food down with a smile and carefully adjusted the bed to a comfortable angle. "Eat up. You haven't had much lately, so I didn't use any oil, fearing your stomach wouldn't handle it."
Guo Junyi had already taken a bite of the meat. It had been marinated with spices before cooking; its pale, diced appearance had initially led him to believe it was only seasoned with salt, making the flavor a pleasant surprise. "Now *this* is living," he said through a mouthful of food. "If I have to spend every day on a glucose drip from now on, I might as well let the virus take me."
Jiang Cheng saw that Jiang Langmin had finished recording all the data, so he didn't rush to start working. Instead, he stood idly by, watching Guo Junyi eat. "Good food is one of the motivations to keep living."
"So, you're an hour late just to prepare this?" Jiang Langmin finally dropped his icy facade to join the conversation, though his desire to talk seemed reserved solely for Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng shook his head. "How much time could this possibly take?" In his eyes, preparing this meal was less trouble than tidying a lab bench. He gestured toward the window. "Lu Linjiang came to pick me up this morning. We hit some traffic, which is why I'm a bit late."
Only then did Guo Junyi and Jiang Langmin realize that Lu Linjiang was actually standing outside the isolation room. Seeing that Guo Junyi had finally noticed him, Lu Linjiang gave a cold snort and waved.
Guo Junyi, finally enjoying a warm meal, had no intention of wasting his rare moment of pleasure on that guy. He ate a piece of blanched vegetable and gave a half-hearted finger-wave back to Lu Linjiang as a token of acknowledgement.
If it weren't for the various wires connected to him, Guo Junyi looked no different than he did when they ran into each other in the cafeteria. Perhaps because he was finally eating, his complexion looked significantly better than it had the day before.
Jiang Langmin glanced at Lu Linjiang once before looking away. "Oh? Captain Lu went out of his way to pick you up?"
"Mhm." Jiang Cheng handed a napkin to Guo Junyi. "He wanted to ask about Guo Junyi’s condition."
"Didn't we discuss that yesterday?" Everything that needed to be said—and even things that didn't—had been covered in front of Chief Chu. What game was Lu Linjiang playing now?
Jiang Cheng shrugged indifferently. "It worked out since I had to bring the food. The subway is too crowded in the morning." This was the truth; Jinghai’s morning rush hour lasted from seven to nine. With the soup and containers Jiang Cheng was carrying, it was questionable if he could even get through security, let alone keep the bowl intact on the journey.
"That was an oversight on my part." Jiang Langmin idly twirled his pen. "I'll lend you a car. My family has plenty of them anyway; you'd just be helping me keep the engine running."
Guo Junyi, who was sipping his soup, nearly spat it out. Truly, the wealthy had such unique ways of pursuing people. Jiang Cheng, however, waved his hands dismissively. "No, no, thank you." Before Jiang Langmin could insist, he added, "I don't have a driver's license."
Failing to gift a car, Jiang Langmin tried a different tactic. "Then, why don't you move into my place? I have an apartment very close to here. If you don't drive, it's less than a ten-minute walk." He glanced at the food in Guo Junyi’s hands. "It would make cooking more convenient for you as well."
This time, Guo Junyi wasn't even surprised. He calmly finished the last of his soup, thinking that if the guy was this rich, maybe his life really could be saved. But Jiang Cheng showed no appreciation. "Really, there's no need." Seeing that Jiang Langmin seemed slightly displeased, he explained, "I actually have my own place here. I just haven't been back in a long time and didn't know what state it was in, so I've been staying at the hotel. Rather than troubling you, I'd rather just hire a cleaning service. It’ll only take a day to get it ready to move in."
Jiang Langmin finally remembered that Jiang Cheng had lived in Jinghai for several years. "Oh, right. I forgot you used to live here. Is it a house left by your parents?"
"I suppose so," Jiang Cheng nodded.
"Is it far? I can pick you up; don't worry about troubling me." Having been rebuffed twice, Jiang Langmin preemptively blocked Jiang Cheng’s exit. "I can make it 'on the way' to almost anywhere in Jinghai."
Jiang Cheng looked conflicted at Jiang Langmin’s confident expression. "...It's not too far. It's on Lingxuan Road." Before Jiang Langmin could speak, he pointed outside. "Right downstairs from his place."
Guo Junyi, still savoring the taste of the chicken breast, used every ounce of his strength to keep from laughing out loud.
The isolation room fell into a sudden silence. Outside, Lu Linjiang couldn't hear their conversation. He only saw the two men talking when they suddenly glanced at him and stopped. Simultaneously, Guo Junyi began twitching on the bed as if he’d been electrocuted. Lu Linjiang felt a surge of panic for a moment, but seeing that Jiang Cheng and Jiang Langmin weren't moving, he realized Guo Junyi was just having a fit of silent laughter.
Jiang Cheng cleared his throat and checked the time. "Alright, breakfast is over. Let's start the medication."
Jiang Langmin didn't pursue the awkward topic further. He took a small bag of transparent liquid from the incubator and hooked up the IV drip for Guo Junyi.
