Because of Zhou Ye's foresight, they didn't have to queue for the radiology appointment, and Wen Rui had to admit that while Zhou Ye had many faults—in his eyes anyway, even if everyone else refused to agree with him—his sense of organisation was 100% impressive.
"Here." Zhou Ye had popped down to the pharmacy with Dr Li's painkiller prescription and returned with a bottle of water and some medication. Wen Rui thanked him mutely and forced himself to swallow the medication even though he hated taking pills. He was under no illusions, Zhou Ye wasn't going to mollycoddle him and get him the liquid version only kids took.
Wen Rui had never done a CT scan before, so when he saw that he would have to lie inside a giant tube-shaped machine, his knees felt a little weak. He wasn't very claustrophobic, but he had some bad memories from being locked in a storage closet for a whole evening by some kids at a dinner party, and ever since then, he was uncomfortable with enclosed spaces. But the nurses reassured him that it would take less than half an hour and that the machine technician would be talking to him throughout the entire duration of the scan.
"Right then," Wen Rui said, trying to hide his unease behind a flippant attitude. "Um, thanks for accompanying me. I know you're busy." No matter how much he disliked his greatest rival, it didn't change the fact that Zhou Ye took care of him today.
Zhou Ye gave him a long look but didn't say anything. Wen Rui wasn't sure what that meant but he shrugged it off and went into the CT scan room with the nurses.
The scan was less scary than he expected, but Wen Rui was still relieved when the mechanically-operated bed finally shifted him out of the tube and back out into the bright room. The images from his childhood nightmares had flashed through his mind throughout the entire duration of the scan, and it had felt like the imaginary monsters in the storage closet had clawed their way through his memories to haunt him in the present day.
His skin was covered in a light sheen of sweat and despite the hideous hoodie he was wearing, he still shivered in the hospital's air-conditioning.
When he walked out of the CT scan room, he was surprised to see Zhou Ye sitting on some nearby waiting benches, looking out of place in his tailored suit. Wen Rui had thought he would have gone to work by now, seeing how he was dressed like a big shot who had a lot of important meetings to be at.
"Done?" was all he said when Wen Rui approached him. "Then let's go." He sounded perfunctory, but a second later, a suit jacket draped itself around Wen Rui's shoulders, still warm from the heat of Zhou Ye's body.
Wen Rui froze and thought for the nth time that day, [What on earth is happening?]
"I-I'm fine," he stuttered out, still flabbergasted. "I don't need your—"
Before he could say 'pity', Zhou Ye had already strolled off.
"If you fall ill," he heard Zhou Ye say, "who's going to have to shoulder the burden of taking care of you?"
"…"
This familiar bluntness was…how should Wen Rui say this. This was closer to the Zhou Ye he knew, but for some reason, Wen Rui was even more irritated now. He chalked his irascible feelings up to the concussion and the amnesia and decided to let it slide.
——————————
"May I have my phone?"
The heating in the car was a comfortable warm that didn't feel too stuffy. Wen Rui shrugged off the jacket and hesitated before placing it on the seat next to him. It felt too rude to just hand it back right now. Maybe he could send it for dry-cleaning before returning it to Zhou Ye.
Zhou Ye removed a phone from a wireless charger built into one of the car's panels. He slotted it back into a baby pink Chanel padded leather case before handing it to Wen Rui. Wen Rui felt his face twitch as he accepted it numbly, unable to imagine himself buying that flashy cover personally. He heard a quiet huff of laughter from Zhou Ye and knew that his distaste hadn't gone unnoticed.
It took him a couple of seconds to figure out how to turn on the phone but once he managed to, the interface was at least familiar. But this familiarity was quickly replaced with confusion when he realised he didn't recognise most of the stuff inside. Wen Rui felt at a loss for words when he saw the sheer number of selfie apps and social media platforms he had apparently downloaded. He felt a stirring of uneasiness. These weren't things that he ever cared about. Stranger still, was that none of his favourite games were even updated like he hadn't played them in ages.
If his password weren't still the same, he would have thought that this was someone else's phone.
Who was this person he had become?
But he didn't even have time to think. A flood of missed calls and WeChat notifications soon consumed all his attention. He opened the call log and was stumped to see a hundred missed calls from a whole bunch of strangers, as well as someone called 'Manager Qu'. Manager? Was he doing some kind of part-time job while studying at uni? Or maybe this was his internship supervisor?
Wen Rui started panicking.
"Do you know where I'm working at? Am I interning at my father's company?" he rambled. "They've called so many times, it must be because I missed work today without notifying them. Did I have classes too? Where am I studying at the moment? Did I get into B University—no, wait, since we're in SH City, please tell me I got into F or J University—"
F and J Universities were SH City's two most prestigious tertiary institutions, and also the only two that were part of the League of 9, which was a group of the best universities in the country. They had impressive world rankings too and Wen Rui's main aspiration in high school had been to get into B University. But since he was currently living in SH City, this didn't happen. Please, please, please at least let him be in a good uni now, otherwise, his parents would be so disappointed—
Wait. His parents.
Now that the pain meds had kicked in and his head wasn't killing him anymore, Wen Rui was starting to notice more and more things that were wrong. Where were his parents in this picture? Why hadn't they stopped him from dressing like a colour-blind teenager? In fact, why hadn't they stopped him from getting married?!
"You were in F University," Zhou Ye confirmed. Wen Rui's shoulders sagged in relief for a split second before he fully comprehended the whole sentence.
"What do you mean, 'were'?" he asked, heart sinking.
"You never saw fit to give me the full story but from what I heard, you were scouted by your current entertainment agency in your second year and decided to quit law school to become an idol."
Wen Rui didn't want to believe his ears. He was so shocked that he didn't even think to ask why he was studying law instead of business management to prepare him for assisting his father in the company. Not that Zhou Ye would know.
"I'm a WHAT?"
"An idol. You dance, you sing, you sell cuteness to your fans—"
"Stop," Wen Rui interrupted, burying his face in his hands. "This can't be real." What possessed him to want to be a celebrity? He was a real young master, the fame or fortune that many others craved had been gifted to him naturally as a birthright. And although he had enjoyed his music and dance lessons as a child, he had never considered pursuing them as a passion.
No wonder none of the missed calls came from his parents. The heir to the company that was his father's life's work, prancing around on stage for the amusement of others? They were probably so ashamed of him that if he weren't an only son, he was certain he would be disowned by now.
Wait, no way, right?
Yes, there was no way his mother, who adored him, would let that happen. If there was one thing Wen Rui was confident wouldn't change it was this. No one loved him more in this world than her, she would forgive him no matter how bad he became.
He decided that he would settle this work-related mess as best as he could, and then hurry home to see her.
There were a lot of Weibo notifications coming in too, plenty of which had @ed a username called 'HEX4', but Wen Rui chose to ignore them because he was too afraid of what he would see.
Taking a deep breath, he pressed on Manager Qu's number and brought the phone up to his ear with shaky fingers.
The other person picked up after one ring.
"WEN RUI!!! YOU'RE GETTING BOLDER AND BOLDER AREN'T YOU?! WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU DIE TO?!"