Chapter 117: The Flu

Chapter 117 The Flu

Xu Moxing received a call from Su Lichen and went downstairs. As soon as he opened the front door, he saw Su Lichen standing at the entrance holding a large bag, waiting for him.

"Mo, long time no see. These are all for you—some food, some little knickknacks. Take your time looking through them. I'll be off now."

Xu Moxing took the bag and watched as Su Lichen left.

*Is this guy being so good today? Did he really just happen to stop by?*

Xu Moxing shrugged and lugged the things back to his rented room.

It was indeed a ton of stuff, and most of the food was to his liking. The little gadgets were mostly light and compact, taking up little space.

Su Lichen sent him a message: *I saw those things and thought you'd like them, so I bought them. If you don't like them, just give them away—no big deal.*

Xu Moxing initially wanted to send him a string of six dots "……" but ultimately felt he owed him one, so he replied, "Got it, thanks for the gifts."

Su Lichen still kept messaging Xu Moxing every day.

During this time, Xu Moxing was wondering about Little Tabby's shedding issue, and Su Lichen volunteered the info.

"Little Tabby has been shedding so much lately. Winter isn't the season for shedding, is it? My clothes are covered in fur. It's fine when I work in the warehouse, but sometimes I have to meet suppliers, and I have to use a lint roller on my suit for ages before going out."

Xu Moxing didn't even know when cats' shedding seasons were, but since Su Lichen mentioned it, he asked with concern, "Is it sick? Cats seem to have a high pain tolerance. Has it been active lately?"

"Don't worry, it's still the same—clingy and a little terror at home. It sheds quite a bit every day."

Xu Moxing thought for a moment. He remembered Su Lichen didn't have a grooming brush for cats, so he decided to buy one and have it shipped to Su Lichen's place. That way, he wouldn't feel like he owed him for the local goodies he'd received.

When Su Lichen got the delivery notification, he was confused. He hadn't ordered anything online recently, so why was there a package?

At first, he thought it was a scam, but when he opened it carefully, he found a cat grooming brush and a beginner's guide on how to use it.

Su Lichen happily sent a message to Xu Moxing, "Mo, did you buy a brush for Little Tabby?"

"Nope, someone else must've bought it for you."

Teasing him, Xu Moxing didn't want to admit it.

"Fine, I'll use it for now then."

No one other than Xu Moxing knew about Su Lichen's cat—not even his parents or Jiang Xingzhou. So how could anyone else have bought him a brush?

Since Xu Moxing pretended not to know, Su Lichen decided not to call him out.

The two of them stayed in awkward yet tacit understanding. Su Lichen often found excuses to invite Xu Moxing out to eat. Generally, Xu Moxing would agree to maybe one out of ten invitations.

In early December, Deep City had its first temperature drop.

The wind blew in from the north, biting like a knife on the face. Pedestrians walked with their heads tucked in, scarves wrapped around their noses.

Xu Moxing pulled out a thick coat and put it on, but he still felt cold sitting in the office.

The weather in Deep City wasn't the kind where winter temperatures stayed consistently cold after the season began. Here, the temperature swung wildly—one day it could be 28 or 29 degrees Celsius, feeling like summer with short sleeves and air conditioning, and the next day it could plunge to just over ten degrees in a flash.

Winter was typically a high season for the flu, and with such erratic temperature changes, it was easy to catch a cold if one wasn't careful.

Su Lichen first started feeling a sore throat on Tuesday. At first, it only hurt when he swallowed, but otherwise he felt fine.

He didn't take it seriously at all, thinking he'd just talked too much. He gulped down two cups of hot water and went back to work.

In the nearly half a year since he started his business, his company had expanded to three employees, mainly because he simply couldn't handle everything alone.

He worked until past nine, he exchanged a few messages with Xu Moxing on WeChat, and then headed home.

After getting home, he continued working. It was already past eleven when he showered and went straight to bed.

*Getting an early night tonight. My throat feels off—I need to make sure I get enough sleep.*

Su Lichen climbed into bed, feeling dizzy and unsteady. He habitually hugged the pillow that had once belonged to Xu Moxing and drifted off into a restless sleep.

Su Lichen was woken up by how awful he felt. His whole body was burning, his muscles ached, and his joints felt rusted. He checked his phone: only 5:30 AM.

He struggled to get up and took his temperature—38.9°C. No wonder he felt so awful!

But he had an important thing to do today—he couldn't afford to miss it.

With that in mind, Su Lichen rummaged through the medicine cabinet, took two cold pills, and forced himself back to sleep, feeling sticky all over. The bed was both cold and hot, and his pajamas were soaked with sweat.

At 7:30 AM, his alarm went off.

Su Lichen dragged himself up and took a taxi to the office—he couldn't risk driving while drowsy from the medication.

He pushed through his work and collapsed into his office chair, sending a message to Xu Moxing with a whiny, self-pitying tone.

— Mo, I caught a cold. *Crying emoji*

— I forced myself to handle an important task today. I have an even more important one tomorrow. I'll try to exercise tonight and see if I can get better by then.

Xu Moxing didn't see the message until he was eating lunch with Xiao Ke.

Startled, Xu Moxing immediately called him.

"You have a cold?"

"Yeah, I took some medicine."

Su Lichen's voice had changed due to the cold—a bit nasal, softer, almost like he was pouting.

"And you said you're going to exercise tonight?"

"Yeah, I'll go for a run. Just sweating it out should help me recover faster."

There was a two-second silence on the other end, followed by Xu Moxing's voice, slightly higher-pitched than usual.

"Are you out of your mind? Exercising with a cold? Haven't you seen the news?"

Su Lichen held the phone to his ear, slumped in his chair and spinning it in circles.

Honestly, this was the most emotional he'd seen Xu Moxing in half a year, and he was pleased to see it.

"What's wrong? Isn't sweating good for getting better?"

"That's a myth."

Xu Moxing sounded dead serious.

"Exercising with a cold can cause myocarditis. The virus can hit your heart, and by the time you get help, it's too late." "You can run any other time—you don't need to do it now."

Xu Moxing also mentioned a recent news story he’d seen—about a young guy who often stayed up late and then went to exercise, thinking that exercising would keep him healthy, and ended up dropping dead before anyone could save him.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you, okay? Thinking you’re young and tough and can do anything—you can literally die. Exercise isn’t a cure-all. You’ve got to do it properly and in moderation.”

He fired off a barrage of words, fast and sharp, pounding against Su Lichen’s ears.

Su Lichen listened quietly. He’d missed this feeling so much—that old, familiar feeling of Xu Moxing fretting over him.

“Got it. I won’t exercise tonight.”

Xu Moxing paused. After that outburst, he realized his tone was off. He’d crossed a line.

“I’m not lecturing you. I just don’t want you to do something reckless.”

“Mm-hmm, it’s fine. I know you’re just worried about me.”

Xu Moxing felt his ears burning again. He said nothing.

“Alright, go eat. I’ll sleep a bit. More sleep helps me recover faster.”

Su Lichen gave him an out.

“Mm.”

Xu Moxing hung up and continued eating with Xiao Ke.

“Mo Xing, are you planning to marry your girlfriend anytime soon?”

“No, we’re not rushing. We don’t have money, so we can’t get married.”

Xu Moxing had a go-to script for these mandatory coworker questions.

“Sigh, I want to get married. I don’t want to work anymore.”

Xu Moxing raised an eyebrow, swallowed his food, and asked in confusion, “What does getting married have to do with not wanting to work?”

“If I get married, I can stop working. When you’re married, someone supports you.”

Xiao Ke was already full, chin resting on her hand, saying things Xu Moxing thought were wishful thinking.

“If you treat marriage as a way out, an escape from the difficulties you must overcome in life, your future will most likely be miserable.”

Treating “finding someone to marry” as a safety net is essentially not looking for a partner, but looking for a “long-term meal ticket” or a “life shelter.”

Xiao Ke mistakenly saw “marrying someone” as a low-cost, high-reward move. She just didn’t want to be independent or take responsibility for herself, and handed over control of her life to someone else.

Xu Moxing, having worked with her for so long, could already tell that if she got married and was happy, she’d be fine.

But if things didn’t go well, she’d start blaming her parents for pushing her into marriage, blaming her husband for acting like someone else while they were dating. She would say she was forced, that others had harmed her.

Then she’d keep living in resentment with her dear husband because she still didn’t want to take responsibility for herself.

If she were independent enough to take responsibility for her own actions, even if the guy turned out to be a completely different person after getting married, she could own her decision instead of blaming everyone else.

After all, blaming others doesn’t hurt them a bit. The one who bears the consequences is still yourself.

You have to build your own life. Before you can lean on others, you need to be able to stand on your own.

Xiao Ke didn’t listen at all. “My boyfriend wouldn’t be like that, right? He’s actually pretty good. He even bought me a gold bracelet.”

Xu Moxing didn’t respond, just smiled.

He just silently grumbled to himself: “Mm, completely forgotten that she reimbursed him a third of the price, huh.”

Xu Moxing then thought of another recent news story and brought it up casually with Xiao Ke.

“Did you hear that the biggest gold-and-silver market around here collapsed? Gold bracelets turned into gold-over-silver, banking on you not bothering to melt them down and change the style.”

“I saw that news too. These merchants have no conscience.”

“These days, having a conscience makes it hard to make real money.”

In the afternoon at work, Xu Moxing sent Su Lichen a message.

“And don’t mix different medicines carelessly. Watch out for liver damage. Drink plenty of water and rest.”

Su Lichen had finished his work and gone home early to crash. After waking up, he saw this message and happily bounced over to the cat bed, scooped up Little Tabby, and started talking to her.

“He gave me a talking-to. I feel like I still have a chance. Hee hee.”

Little Tabby didn’t understand, just purred.

He picked up the cat and buried his face in her belly. The cat fur tickled his nose, making it itch.

“Xu Moxing is such a good person. I need to become better too, so I don’t hurt him anymore.”

“Meow~”

Honestly, the flu was no big deal. Normally, people get a cold or flu once or twice a year.

But it’s often these small things that let Su Lichen see that Xu Moxing still cares about him.

Many times, you don’t need a crisis to see true feelings. If you pay attention, you can feel it in the details of daily life.

What Su Lichen cared about wasn’t some over-the-top care when he was sick. After all, taking medicine and sleeping properly would cure the cold.

What he cared about was that Xu Moxing didn’t coldly ignore him, nor did he let him work out while sick, not giving a damn if he lived or died.

Xu Moxing didn’t do that. That at least showed one thing—Xu Moxing didn’t hate him to the bone. Even if it was just the kind of concern you’d show a stranger, Su Lichen was more than happy.

What he wanted was never “putting the broken mirror back together,” but a “new love” between old friends.

The word “reconciliation” felt too outdated.

It meant going back to how things were, back to the cycle of getting hurt.

What Su Lichen wanted wasn’t to go back, but to start anew.

It was two people who had both been hurt and had grown apart, at some point realizing that the other person was no longer the same person.

Su Lichen hoped Xu Moxing wouldn’t get back together because he “still loved him,” but because “the guy I am now is worth taking another chance on.”

Not fixing the broken mirror, but melting the old one down and forging a new one.

After recovering from the cold, Su Lichen sent a message to Xu Moxing.

“I’m over the cold! Back to full power! I have to go on a business trip again. Are you busy? You free to watch Little Tabby?”

Xu Moxing replied half an hour later: “Sure.”

——Your humble servant thanks the emperor.jpg

Su Lichen now frequently sends memes, but only when chatting with his parents, Jiang Xingzhou, and Xu Moxing.

——Rise.

Xu Moxing didn’t send him a meme, but instead replied with the text from the meme.

A week later, Chen Pengfei messaged Xu Moxing.

“Mo Xing, are you coming to the gathering on Saturday? It seems everyone will be there, so we can make this an early New Year’s celebration together.”

“What gathering?”

“Huh? You actually don’t know? I was hoping to get the details from you.”

Xu Moxing was baffled. What kind of riddle was Chen Pengfei playing?

“Check the group chat, bro.”

Xu Moxing clicked into their friend group and saw that Su Lichen had posted a message there.

——Guys, I’m hosting a dinner party this Saturday—everyone’s invited. Anyone free to come? How about we celebrate New Year's early together? That way, the actual holiday won’t disrupt your vacation, so those of you with families can have a full family reunion during the holiday.

Since Su Lichen had invited everyone so far in advance, most people with nothing pressing were happy to attend—it was just a meal, wouldn’t take much time, and someone else was paying.

So, except for Xu Moxing, everyone instantly jumped in.

No one else even considered that Xu Moxing wouldn’t go, because they all knew Xu Moxing and Su Lichen had the closest relationship among the group.

Chen Pengfei asked only out of politeness, asking something he already knew—when in reality, he wanted to find out if Su Lichen had struck it rich.