"Hey, Chen Jun?"
"Hmm?"
"When do you think he'll wake up? Didn't the physician say that he'd be up in like, a day or two? Shouldn't he be up by now?"
"Ruofei, this is the nth time that you're asking the exact same question. Just be patient and let him take his time."
"But..."
Ming'er slowly stirs to the familiar sound of his two best friends bickering back and forth. Well, except that he didn't quite know what they were arguing about this time.
Just then, Ming'er furrows internally. He realizes that something isn't quite right.
/Wait a minute.../
/Chen Jun.../
/And Ruofei...?/
/What are they doing here...?/
/Did they somehow come into this world too...?/
Ming'er is confident that he isn't hearing things. There's absolutely no doubt that the two voices belonged to his two best friends.
And so, Ming'er forces his eyes open, only to immediately regret doing so when the bright light bored into them. His eyes had been closed for God knows how long now that he'd grown unaccustomed to the light.
"Ugh..." Ming'er grunts as he brings a hand up to shield his eyes, only to immediately regret doing so as well when a throbbing pain shoots up his arm.
Ming'er feels like he'd been hit by a car, or a horse with wheels as he liked to call it, and then run over by it immediately after. He was in so much pain that he didn't know how else to describe it.
It was a pain that Ming'er had never experienced before, not even when he'd gotten his ass whooped for sneaking into the palace kitchen and eating the food that'd been prepared for Mingyi's birthday the next day back when he was six or seven.
Chen Jun and Ruofei immediately whip their heads around and widen their eyes at the sight of the groaning Ming'er. They look so comical that Ming'er would've guffawed had it not been for the relentless pain that seemed to sweep over his body in waves.
"He's awake...!" Ruofei squeaks ecstatically after overcoming his initial shock. He springs forward and captures Ming'er in a hug like a puppy who'd been waiting all day for his owner to come home.
Chen Jun, on the other hand, had yet to overcome his surprise. He stood rooted to the ground as he watched Ruofei embrace Ming'er, welcoming him back in the most Ruofei-fashion.
Ming'er doesn't know why, but he notices Chen Jun clenching his fists slightly. There was a faint but unmistakable blush dusting his cheeks, too.
"Welcome back...!" Ruofei chirps as he snuggles up to Ming'er, wrapping his hands around his friend so tightly that he could barely breathe.
"Ruofei, be careful with Ming'er," Chen Jun finally breaks his silence as he steps forward and puts a hand on Ruofei's shoulder, pulling him back from Ming'er.
"Be careful with him," Chen Jun repeats himself, "Don't be too rough with him," he cautions, "After all, he'd just had a close call."
Ming'er doesn't know why, but he has a brief inkling that Chen Jun isn't just pulling Ruofei back out of the fear that he would be too rough with him and accidentally hurt him.
Nevertheless, Ming'er shoves this thought to the back of his mind at Chen Jun's words. He furrows internally.
/A close call...?/
/What does he mean by that...?/
"What..." Ming'er croaks, only to cringe internally at just how hoarse he sounded. His throat was so dry that he felt as though he hasn't drunk any water in years, or even decades.
"What are you guys doing here...?" Ming'er finally manages to finish his sentence. He decides that getting an answer to his burning question should come first, his parched throat next.
/I want to know how they managed to come into this world too...!/
"We rushed over from Qilin Academy as soon as we heard the news," Chen Jun replies, "Everyone was really worried about you."
Ming'er frowns at Chen Jun's answer.
/Chen Jun and Ruofei...rushed over from Qilin Academy...?/
It's only at this moment does Ming'er take a good look around his surroundings and realizes that he's back in his room at the Imperial Palace.
There was no sign of the spinning thing on the ceiling that he'd woken up to, or the design of weird-looking creatures on Yuying's bed, or the painting-like illustrations on her walls with English words that he couldn't read.
Ming'er had been so caught up in the strange modern universe that he'd found himself in that he hadn't even realized that he was back.
He'd automatically assumed that Chen Jun and Ruofei had joined him in the strange modern universe somehow.
/I'm back...!/
However, now wasn't the time for Ming'er to try and figure out how he'd returned to his universe somehow. There were more crippling issues at hand.
/They heard the news...? What news...?/
/Why was everyone worried about me...?/
"News?" Ming'er mutters, ignoring the slight crack in his voice which prompts Ruofei to offer him a cup of water on the table beside his bed.
"What news?' Ming'er continues to ask right after he'd taken a sip from the cup of water.
Chen Jun and Ruofei exchange a look before turning to Ming'er. Ming'er didn't know why, but their faces turned sombre.
The looks on their faces were unlike them- well, not really for Chen Jun, considering his permanent resting bitch face, but for Ruofei, who was usually bright and full of energy, like the human embodiment of a ray of sunshine.
Then again, even Chen Jun looked more serious than he usually did. Ming'er couldn't help but think that he and Ruofei both looked like they were at a funeral or something.
"Ming'er," Chen Jun says softly after a while. He was looking right into his friend's eyes, so intensely that it was as though he was afraid that his friend would disappear should he blink got just a split second. It frightened Ming'er a little.
"You," Chen Jun chokes on his own words, as though he couldn't bring himself to break a piece of bad news to Ming'er, or if he himself couldn't believe the words that he was about to utter to his friend.
"You were nearly assassinated." Ruofei finishes what Chen Jun was trying to say in the most serious tone that Ming'er has ever heard his usually cheeky and mischevous friend use.
Ming'er blinks. He couldn't believed what he'd just heard. Of all the things that he'd expected to hear, this was the last thing that he would think of.
"I..." Ming'er gasps, not really knowing what he should say in response to this. "I'm sorry, what...?"
/I was nearly assassinated...?!/
Just then, Ming'er feels an odd stinging sensation by his right ear. It's exactly the same kind of pain that he'd felt in Professor Williams' office when he'd been trying to figure out how to work on an excel sheet.
Ming'er winces slightly at the stinging sensation as he unconsciously brings his hand up to his right ear.
There's a bandage over it. It's slightly damp and sticky, having been soaked through my the blood that must've flowed out of his right ear.
Ming'er widens his eyes at what this most likely meant. However, his mind is in such a mess at this point in time that he couldn't quite organize his thoughts.
/What the fuck...?! How the fuck did that even happen...?!/
/Who was the fucker who'd tried to assassinate me...??/
Anyhow, Ming'er finally understands the sombre look in Chen Jun's and Ruofei's eyes, why they looked like they were at a funeral.
Chen Jun and Ruofei wouldn't be standing right here, talking to Ming'er right now had the assassin been successful. They'd nearly lost their dear friend.
Ming'er shudders at this thought as he takes another sip of water from the cup.
/But.../
"You were in the middle of the Choosing," Chen Jun further explains, "One of the palace maids saw you falling down the stairs, a masked man hot on your heels with a sharp blade in his hands. Thankfully, he scampered off as soon as she saw her..."
"What...?!" Ming'er couldn't help but splutter out some of his water as soon as he processes the fact that Chen Jun had mentioned the Choosing. "The Choosing...?! Since when was I at the Choosing...?!"
/I was never at the Choosing...!/
/I was, um...in a girl's bedroom...and then some food market-like place...and then the Humanities Building...doing a research assistantship for a professor...!/
However, Ming'er knew he couldn't spill all of these to Chen Jun and Ruofei. They would think that he'd gone mad or something.
In fact, they were already looking at Ming'er as though he'd grown a second head.
It's at this moment that Ming'er realizes that he'd slipped up- he'd insisted that he hadn't been at the Choosing (which he really hadn't) when he, well, apparently had been.
"Ming'er, you're acting weird," Ruofei states, "Almost as weird as when you woke up yesterday and started pulling at your face while looking at your reflection in the toilet..."
/I...what...?!/
/Since when did I do that...?!/
"Ruofei," Chen Jun warns once again in that mother hen-like voice of his, "C'mon, give Ming'er a break. He could've died, you know."
Ming'er didn't want to admit it, but he really didn't get the severity of the situation. After all, he hadn't actually been the one to experience the near-death experience.
Ming'er couldn't help but furrow at this thought. All of his other thoughts, such as how the heck he'd ended up at the Choosing when he hadn't been there at all, who could've been after his life, and why they would be after his life, were instantly pushed aside.
/If I wasn't the one who'd experienced this close call../
/Who was...?/