Yan Bubu rummaged inside his stuffed chest pocket after making sure Feng Chen took the medicine and pulled out the bread.
It was already crushed beyond recognition. Sweet cream coated the inside of the clear wrapper. Yan Bubu tore it open with his teeth and handed the bun to Feng Chen.
“Eat something, Young Master.” Yan Bubu’s face peeked out from behind the bread. “Eat some bread so you can get better soon.”
Feng Chen was so uncomfortable he didn’t have a shred of appetite. He subconsciously tilted his head away, but Yan Bubu persistently brought the bread to his mouth. “Eat, Young Master. The medicine is too bitter so eat something sweet. This kind of bread is really tasty.”
His cheeks were streaked with mud, but his dark eyes glittered like stars. Water clustered at the ends of his eyelashes.
“Eat, Young Master, eat.”
Yan Bubu’s enthusiastic urging made Feng Chen subconsciously open his mouth and take a bite of the bread. The faint sweetness overflowed in his mouth.
“Aren’t I good to you?” Yan Bubu came closer and whispered, “I’m so good I can find medicine and food, so don’t throw me away. I’ll serve you and feed you like this in the future.”
Feng Chen gave him a look and continued to chew the bread. Still, his fever prevented him from having more than a few bites. Yan Bubu had to eat the remaining half himself.
Feng Chen kept watching him as he leaned against the wall. He stopped Yan Bubu in a weak voice when the child tried to lick his fingers clean after polishing off the bun.
“…Don’t lick your fingers.”
“Wu, okay. No licking. How are you doing? Are you all better yet?” Yan Bubu came closer to inspect Feng Chen’s face. He even put their foreheads together.
“Why is it still so hot? Didn’t you just take the medicine?” Yan Bubu murmured with a bit of confusion, “Did you not take enough?”
“…It’s enough.” Feng Chen shook his head. “It’s enough..we just need to wait.”
Yan Bubu was lost in thought. “Oh right. It takes me several days to get better when I take medicine too.”
Feng Chen didn’t feel the cold right now. His body no longer seemed like his own. Yet Yan Bubu shivering so much made him struggle to look around.
The rear of the bus station was once a showroom. Several large display cabinets were in pieces under the wreckage. There was one still intact, albeit on its side on the floor. The glass cabinet doors were somehow not broken and half open to boot.
“Go rip out the cloth inside.” He said to Yan Bubu.
“En.”
The display cabinet was padded with a layer of red velvet. Yan Bubu huffed and puffed as he ripped the entire thing off and brought a large bundle back.
Feng Chen: “Take off any wet clothes.”
Yan Bubu immediately made to take off his jacket.
“I meant your clothes…take it all off.” Feng Chen said.
Yan Bubu began to take off his clothes, but he fumbled with the soaked corduroy overalls’ strap buttons for a long time. He tugged it roughly in frustration.
Feng Chen could only call him over and help him.
Just undoing those buttons sapped what little strength he had. He couldn’t even stop Yan Bubu when the child not only took off his T-shirt and overalls, but also his underwear.
Yan Bubu stripped down to his birthday suit. Without Feng Chen needing to remind him, he climbed onto the bench and wrapped the velvet cloth around himself.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Feng Chen barely managed to hold on until now. Yan Bubu’s voice vaguely echoed in his ears, but it was like there was an ocean between them.
“Ktlr lr rb kjgw, Tbecu Zjrafg. Pa’r rb mbwos!”
“Tbe rtbeiv ajxf boo sbeg kfa mibatfr abb. Lfgf, P’ii tfiq sbe.”
Lf njuefis rjk Tjc Deye lcmt bnfg ilxf j ilaaif rlixkbgw mbmbbc yfobgf ojiilcu ecmbcrmlber jujlc.
……
Mfcu Jtfc bqfcfv tlr fsfr ab j qegf ktlaf qijmf. Lf gjlrfv j tjcv ab rtlfiv tlr fsfr jcv kjlafv obg atfw ab jvjqa ab atf revvfc iluta yfobgf tf ibbxfv jgbecv.
This was a snowfield. The whole world seemed to be covered in endless white and nothing else. There were only snowflakes flying in the wind as far as the eye could see.
He caught a snowflake. The crystal clear hexagon lay quietly in his palm without melting or radiating cold.
Feng Chen felt like he was dreaming now. How else did he suddenly get here? But he was too lucid for this to be a dream. That muddled feeling of unreality wasn’t there.
Although he was surrounded by endless snow, he didn’t panic at all. In fact, the sight filled him with a sense of security, as if this was his place of refuge, his haven.
He walked aimlessly through the snowfield until a strange mass appeared in his vision.
It was a floating oval object glowing a soft white that resembled a large cocoon. As he got closer, he saw that the shell of the large cocoon was actually translucent. It seemed to contain a black mass inside.
This was all very strange, but he wasn’t the least bit afraid. He even felt a sense of closeness and familiarity.
He stood next to the large cocoon and slowly pressed his hand against the translucent shell.
The shell wasn’t as cold or hard as expected. It was warm to the touch, the same temperature as the human body. His palm gently sunk in after pressing it. It reminded him of the membrane between the egg white and the shell.
He could feel something faintly responding to his touch. It beat at the same frequency as his heart.
Ba-dum, ba-dum…
Feng Chen felt an unprecedented sense of peace right now, so he leaned his head over as well and slowly closed his eyes.
Yan Bubu wasn’t having a good night.
After Feng Chen passed out and didn’t wake up no matter what he tried, he used a lot of effort to strip the teen too and wrap him in the cloth. Fortunately, the cloth was very large. There was enough fabric to wrap himself in one end, and Feng Chen in the other.
The fire in that store finally went out, plunging the surrounding area into pure darkness. When the lightning flashed, everything was suddenly illuminated in a ghastly white.
Yan Bubu listened to the sound of the rain falling and stayed close to Feng Chen. The teen’s silence frightened him.
He kept wondering if Feng Chen was still alive, so he put a hand on his chest from time to time to see if it was still beating.
After everything that happened today, he was tired and sleepy. The scrapes on his elbows and knees stung something fierce. When he finally was about to drift off, Feng Chen started to shake.
He was shaking real bad. His entire body curled into a ball as he clenched his teeth tightly.
Yan Bubu has no other option but to hug him tightly and plead in a whisper again and again, “Don’t shake anymore, Young Master, don’t shake. You’re scaring me…”
Fortunately, Feng Chen finally calmed down and fell into a deep sleep. Yan Bubu, scared stiff, also fell asleep exhausted.
When Feng Chen woke up, the rain had stopped and the sun was high in the sky. He first checked his backpack to make sure the cipher box was still there. Then he glanced at his watch for the time. It was 10:00 am.
His fever was gone, the only reminder sore muscles. Looking beside him at Yan Bubu, he saw how the child had kicked off the fabric at some point and was lying on the bench fully exposed aside from his head, where a single black curl popped out.
If that fair little chest wasn’t still moving, Feng Chen would have suspected he had been smothered to death.
When he went to stand, he realized that he was also as naked as the day he was born. He rushed off to find his clothes.
His clothes were all hung over the back of the bench. They were now dry, but wrinkled in unseemingly ways when he put them on.
Yan Bubu’s own clothes were thrown haphazardly on one end of the bench. They had solidified into a brick, so muddy that they were almost unrecognizable. Feng Chen went over and shook it out. Some of the dried mud fell off in chunks.
Yan Bubu was dreaming of cobwebs covering his mouth and nose when he was pushed awake. He opened his eyes in a daze to see Feng Chen’s good-looking face.
“Young Master, the cobwebs…you ripped them off…?”
Feng Chen didn’t hear him clearly. He leaned down and patted his cheek. “Stop sleeping. It’s time to get up.”
Yan Bubu grumbled as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. Several small rolls of fat piled up on his belly, almost hiding his navel from sight.
“What are you doing here, Young Master? Where’s Mommy–”
Yan Bubu suddenly remembered something as his voice cut off abruptly.
As if he hadn’t heard, Feng Chen stepped away to organize his backpack. Yan Bubu was still sitting with his head hanging low when he turned back.
“Put your shoes on. Let’s go find something to eat.”
Yan Bubu gave a very soft ‘en’. He rubbed his eyes again before going for his clothes. However, Feng Chen said, “You can’t wear those anymore. Put your shoes on first.”
Yan Bubu put on his shoes and started to deal with the headache of shoelaces. It took him a long time to tie some weird knots.
When he stood up naked, Feng Chen draped the jacket of his suit over him. He squatted down and fastened the buttons one by one for the child.
This suit was way too big for Yan Bubu, going all the way down to his feet like a sack. When Feng Chen went to get his backpack, Yan Bubu waved those overly long sleeves and hesitantly said, “Young Master, maybe, maybe I can just wear my own clothes?”
Feng Chen turned around and saw him. After a moment of silence, he said, “No, they’re covered in mud.”
Yan Bubu was a little stuck. He tried to scratch his face, but his fingers were stuck in the sleeve.
Feng Chen: “Come here.”
Yan Bubu obediently walked over. Feng Chen rolled his sleeves up several times, then re-tied his shoelaces. He tilted his head. “Better?”
Yan Bubu nodded reluctantly.
“Can you walk?”
“En.”
Yan Bubu got his Tiantian Supermarket cloth bag and held Feng Chen’s hand as they left the bus station.
Although the sun was bright, the ground was still wet. The dirt had congealed into a thick layer of mud thanks to the rain. Each step they took squelched.
A rumbling sound came from overhead. Yan Bubu looked up to see a low-flying helicopter with a person inside shouting down with a loudspeaker.
“…The Western Union Army is distributing food and water at every major intersection. Everyone, look for the nearest distribution point…”
Once the helicopter was far away, Feng Chen took Yan Bubu to the nearest major intersection. He asked as they walked, “Where did you go last night to find medicine for me?”
Yan Bubu pointed ahead. “There’s a pharmacy right over there.”
Feng Chen asked, “Did you get that medicine yourself?”
“No, it was from a kind uncle in the pharmacy who was tidying the medicine. I asked him if he could give me some because my big brother was very sick and he did.”
Feng Chen hummed.
As they drew close to the rock pile, Yan Bubu suddenly leaned in and warned him somewhat nervously, “Right there, there’s a dead man lying on his stomach. We have to step over him. But don’t be afraid, I’ve covered him up.”
Feng Chen looked at the bulge in the passageway that had a few cardboard boxes on it. He paused and asked, “You stepped over him alone last night?”
“En…I was alone coming back, but there was a kitty with me before.” Yan Bubu shivered again.
Feng Chen didn’t ask any more questions. He repositioned his backpack to his chest and squatted down in front of Yan Bubu. “I’ll carry you.”
“I can–”
“Come on.”
Yan Bubu didn’t dare to protest anymore. He carefully climbed onto Feng Chen’s back.
This was Feng Chen’s first time carrying him on his back. Yan Bubu was a little flattered but also nervous. His mother often said he was fat and heavy. He was afraid of crushing Feng Chen, so he took a deep breath, thinking that it might make him lighter.
Yet Feng Chen didn’t go to that passage. He climbed up the left face of the rock pile. Although carrying Yan Bubu was a bit strenuous, each step he took was very steady.
“Young Master, am I really heavy? Why don’t you put me down and go yourself.” Yan Bubu quietly said in his ear.
Feng Chen shifted him up a bit. “It’s fine. Don’t come down.”
Yan Bubu noticed how Feng Chen said he was fine instead of that he wasn’t heavy. He became even more uneasy and took another deep breath.
Feng Chen’s shoulders and back were a little slender. His collar shifted back slightly, revealing how taut that thin layer of muscles was.
Yan Bubu rested his chin on his shoulder, thinking that he would stop as soon as the teen objected. But Feng Chen never bothered, so he kept resting his chin there.
“You’re so nice, Young Master. I like you so much.” Yan Bubu said from the bottom of his heart.
Feng Chen started getting goosebumps again. “Be quiet.”
Yan Bubu was set down on the other side of the rock pile. Feng Chen raised his wrist and quietly spoke into his smartwatch, recording his physical condition.
This was a request from his instructors. He’s never missed a report.
“…According to monitoring data, body temperature reached a high of 41 degrees with no medications taken–”
Yan Bubu stopped in his tracks.
Feng Chen glanced at him and continued, “–with medications taken in between. The Vitamin C and antacids were very effective and the fever resolved within an hour.”
Yan Bubu resumed walking, pleased.
Thank you for the chapter! 🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚🤍💚
Antacid and vitamin C for fever?😅
I’m on the side of Bubu, I don’t really understand the real name of drugs, only brands, so I had no idea what the аntacid were for
Thank you for your translation 💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗
Such a helpful little guy… Thanks for the update ❤️
Suddenly remembered the cat that wouldn’t nicely stay with him the previous chapter. 🤣
I just searched what antacid is and it’s for indigestion lol
Well at least vitamin C is helpful LOL😂