Chapter 5 You said good night to Gu Shiyan and reminded him to go to bed obediently.

Hospital.

Having just sent off Li Zhao, Gu Shiyan arrived for his shift.

Su Mo could clearly sense that his mood today was even worse than yesterday.

"Gu, did you break up? You look terrible."

Gu Shiyan's fingertips paused. "How did you know..."

"You’re the most popular heartthrob at Xing University. Of course I know you, Gu Shiyan."

The girl was dressed in hospital clothes, her eyes reflecting shards of light.

She had a comforting appearance.

But Gu Shiyan felt anything but comforted right now.

Few people ever interrupted him, and besides that, what made him most uncomfortable was those two words: 'break up.'

"We didn’t break up," Gu Shiyan replied, unusually saying more than a single sentence.

Su Mo hadn’t expected that answer.

She knew Gu Shiyan was currently dating Luo Xing, a classmate.

But Gu Shiyan’s previous relationships had lasted only months, sometimes mere days.

As far as Su Mo knew, without exception, the breakups happened because the girl was too clingy.

She’d seen Luo Xing sticking close to Gu Shiyan, so she understood that their relationship wouldn’t last long either.

At most, another two months before they parted.

As for Luo Xing, Su Mo didn’t feel she was any different to Gu Shiyan than the others.

Perhaps his current demeanor was just the result of being annoyed by that girl.

Gu Shiyan was only here to hand off duties to Li Zhao, and once the aunt arrived, he would leave.

Su Mo lay on her bed, while he curled up on the sofa, staring at his phone.

He played a few rounds of games, his mind drifting further and further away. Games that used to be easy for him, he lost several times.

Silently, Gu Shiyan exited the game, gazing at his phone's home screen, his eyes unconsciously lingering on an app he wanted to open.

Su Mo watched openly from her bed as he sat on the sofa. Gu Shiyan had not looked up once, holding his phone, his pale, slender fingers poised over it, eyes locked on the screen from start to finish.

"Bored?"

In the quiet ward, Su Mo’s voice sounded clear and cool.

Gu Shiyan’s fingertip trembled on the screen, and he entered the app. His eyelashes quivered too.

He wasn’t sure if he was annoyed by her interruption or simply didn’t want to see the empty chat box. He raised his dark eyes, glancing at her.

"The game you were playing just now, I can play it too. Want to team up?" Su Mo shook her phone, her face curving into a perfect smile.

But Gu Shiyan’s mind conjured up the scene outside the cake shop, where Luo Xing laughed freely at someone across the street.

His chest felt compressed again. He took a deep breath, his voice heavier than before. "Match by yourself."

Su Mo was taken aback, unsure what she had done to annoy him again.

She didn’t let his coldness faze her. Smiling lightly, she said, "Gu, I’m genuinely curious—how do you ever find a girlfriend acting like this?"

Before Gu Shiyan could reply, the aunt knocked and entered.

Su Mo watched as Gu Shiyan, unwilling to stay another second, strode out with his phone, his tall figure brushing past the aunt, who barely reached his shoulder.

Gu Shiyan’s attitude toward her was clearly still that of a stranger, but Su Mo wasn’t worried. There was still a month to go. Besides, once he broke up with Luo Xing, things would be easier for her.

Gu Shiyan returned to the hotel opposite the hospital. Standing at the window, he opened the chat box with Luo Xing and began typing rapidly.

He wrote:

'Are you angry?'

Then deleted it. Gu Shiyan truly couldn’t figure out what had upset her.

He typed again:

'Why didn’t you say good night?'

He barely glanced at it before deleting it.

Maybe she simply forgot.

Asking her like this made him seem overly attached, as if he couldn’t live without her.

'What are you doing'

Before he could delete it, he turned off his phone screen.

He tossed the phone onto the bed and grabbed his pajamas, heading to the bathroom.

Luo Xing was tired from playing all day.

After washing up, she lay on her bed, planning to sleep early.

But seeing her phone charging at thirty percent, she wasn’t quite sleepy.

Forget it—she finally had a holiday, no early class tomorrow. She’d play a bit more.

Luo Xing quietly thought: once the phone runs out of battery, she’d stop.

She unplugged the charger and opened her chat app.

Aside from the ‘Patient Group’ where Yao Xiangming and Yun Cai were exchanging emojis in a playful feud, there were no other messages.

Gu Shiyan’s chat was still pinned; she’d changed the remark but hadn’t removed the pin.

Luo Xing tapped it.

The screen flashed.

'It’s night, say goodnight to your friends!'

'Wonderful, you successfully wished Gu Shiyan good night and reminded him to sleep early!'

Oh—my—god—!!!

"Ah! I’m dying!" Luo Xing tapped in.

Unfortunately, she had already sent Gu Shiyan a sleeping moon emoji.

Below, in small print: ‘You wished Gu Shiyan good night and reminded him to sleep early.’

Luo Xing banged her forehead against the bed, wishing she could die on the spot.

Trembling, she opened Baidu to search if the greeting could be recalled.

No solution.

A hopeless case.

Luo Xing lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling, closing her eyes. Well, it was sent, and he hadn’t replied!

Never mind, wasn’t that always the way?

...

Gu Shiyan emerged from the bathroom with a white towel draped over his long neck, his pale skin flushed from the hot water.

He habitually picked up his phone, his clear eyes glancing at it, one hand lightly wiping droplets from his hair.

He froze.

A drop slid from his hair onto his lashes, making him blink.

He couldn’t help but press his lips together.

The corners of his eyes curved.

Both hands cradled the phone, his brows lowered in thought, hesitating for a long time.

The landscaping at Xingyue Community was lush; outside Luo Xing’s window was a swath of green, and at night, insects chirped incessantly.

Listening to the noisy chorus, Luo Xing finally calmed down, peeled off her blanket, and wiped sweat from her forehead.

She adjusted the air conditioner to a lower temperature.

Her palm vibrated—her screen lit up.

Luo Xing set down the remote and flipped her phone to check.

It was a message from Gu Shiyan...

Luo Xing swallowed hard.

Unbelievable—Gu Shiyan never responded to her pointless greetings.

He actually replied tonight?

Maybe he was just bored and humoring her.

Luo Xing couldn’t think of any other explanation to convince herself.

Suppressing the flutter in her heart, she opened the chat.

[I will.]

Luo Xing: "..."

As expected, even when Gu Shiyan replied, it meant nothing—he was just being perfunctory.

Luo Xing exited the chat.

After some thought, to avoid future mishaps, she deleted Gu Shiyan from her contacts.

After all, he’d never message her first; he probably wouldn’t realize she’d deleted him for the rest of his life.