We Barely Know Each Other, but I'm Living with a Stone-Faced Mechanic! - Chapter 27

Zhou Tao had confessed his feelings to Tao Ying?

That guy moved fast.

“And you—”

“Achoo!” Tao Ying covered her nose as she sneezed.

Only then did Qin Zheng notice that she was wearing nothing but a thin blouse. He took off his jacket and held it out. “Didn’t you bring a jacket this morning?”

“It’s a matching set.” Tao Ying gestured at her clothes, sounding listless. “I don’t have a jacket that goes with it.”

The day’s high had been around twenty-seven or twenty-eight degrees. She had not thought she would need one.

When she did not take his jacket, Qin Zheng draped it over her shoulders himself and even supplied her with an excuse to accept it.

“Keep it on, Ms. Tao. If you catch a cold, it’ll interfere with your classes. The wind gets strong at night. You should leave a jacket at the university.”

Tao Ying silently pulled it tighter around herself. It still held Qin Zheng’s warmth and scent—warm and dependable.

It was only when they reached the bright lights inside that Qin Zheng noticed how disheveled her hair was. The rims of her eyes and the tip of her nose were both faintly red.

He instinctively touched her forehead. Tao Ying sniffed and stood there blankly, letting him.

Her skin burned against his palm.

Qin Zheng’s expression changed. “You have a fever?”

“What?” Her eyes could barely stay open. “No wonder I feel so dizzy.”

The unexpected discovery drove every question he had meant to ask from his mind. He helped her to the sofa and eased her into a half-reclining position.

“I’ll get you some warm water first.”

Tao Ying answered weakly.

He poured a glass and put it into her hands. “We don’t have a first-aid kit. I’m going to the pharmacy downstairs for a thermometer and fever medicine.”

“Okay.”

Qin Zheng moved quickly, his strides even quicker.

The pharmacy was only a few dozen meters from his repair shop. He was back upstairs in less than ten minutes.

The pharmacy clerk had said mercury thermometers were the most accurate, so that was what he bought.

Tao Ying leaned against the sofa like a wilted leaf, an unhealthy flush spreading across her face.

He handed her the thermometer. “Under your arm. Five minutes.”

“Mm.” Tao Ying slid it through her collar. Qin Zheng immediately averted his eyes.

During the quiet five minutes that followed, he poured her another glass of water and prepared the fever medicine.

As soon as the time was up, he reminded her.

Tao Ying took out the thermometer and passed it over. Qin Zheng checked the reading: 38.9 degrees. A high fever.

“Take the medicine.” He handed her the pills and water together. “Then get a good night’s sleep. You should feel better tomorrow morning.”

Fevers in adults were usually different from those in children. They rarely returned again and again. They came quickly and passed quickly, too.

Tao Ying obediently swallowed the medicine, but instead of returning to her room, she stretched out on the sofa.

“Hey.” Qin Zheng stopped her on instinct. “You can’t sleep here.”

She opened her eyes and tugged lightly at his sleeve. “Can you stay and talk to me for a while?”

She looked so pitiful, yet her expression was utterly serious. Qin Zheng paused, then sat down on the coffee table.

The corner of Tao Ying’s mouth lifted in a pale smile. “Why do you like sitting on the coffee table so much?”

He smiled too. “Where did you and Mr. Zhou go on your date? How did you come home with a fever?”

“The riverside. But it had nothing to do with him. I already felt unwell this morning.”

This morning? Realization dawned on Qin Zheng. The fever had probably been building inside her for the past two days.

To confirm his suspicion, he asked patiently, “How have you slept the last two nights?”

“Well enough, I suppose.”

Which meant she had not slept well at all.

He had seen her eat breakfast at home, but he could not watch over her at the university. He had no idea how much she ate there.

The fright she had suffered at Jinhua Gardens had likely kept her body taut ever since she returned.

Even in sleep, she had never truly relaxed. Now the fever had brought all the discomfort she had been holding back to the surface at once.

Tao Ying raised her heavy eyelids. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”

Qin Zheng came back to himself and gave a quiet laugh. “If I talk too much, you’ll answer me. Your throat still hasn’t recovered.”

She turned onto her side and asked softly, “Boss Qin, are you this considerate with everyone?”

“No.” He denied it without hesitation.

Tao Ying drifted into thought and did not respond. Instead, she said almost to herself, “I think something’s wrong with me.”

“What feels wrong?” Worried there might be some lingering injury, Qin Zheng immediately leaned closer.

“I can’t stand other people getting close to me.” She paused. “To be precise, I can’t stand other men getting close.”

“In class today, whenever a male student came near me, I stepped away without thinking. It happened with my colleagues too.”

“I wasn’t like this before.”

Qin Zheng’s gaze stilled. Post-traumatic stress.

Tao Ying pressed her dry lips together. “Do you know why I’m telling you this?”

He shook his head.

“Because… you seem to be the only man I can let close.”

She had not met Zhou Tao for a date. She had gone to reject him, only for him to confess his feelings first.

Before what happened at Jinhua Gardens, Tao Ying might genuinely have considered giving him a chance.

Now, however, everything in her resisted the idea. She did not want to force herself, nor did she want to lead him on.

Even as they parted, Zhou Tao had begged her to give him a chance.

Tao Ying had refused without wavering.

Qin Zheng’s eyes widened slightly, and his breath faltered.

But when he saw the confusion and fear in her eyes, he could no longer spare a thought for his own feelings.

He crouched beside the sofa. “When they come close, do you feel trapped or nauseated?”

Tao Ying shook her head slightly. “No. Just tense.”

“It may be a temporary physical aversion to social contact—a mild post-traumatic stress response,” Qin Zheng said. “Don’t force yourself. You don’t have to make yourself go back to how you were. Take life one day at a time and let the clock move at its own pace. Watch it for a while first. I don’t think it’s serious enough that you need to go to the hospital yet.”

His words eased some of Tao Ying’s fear.

She had been afraid she would sink into the fear and pain of that day and never find her way out.

“Ms. Tao, you really need to rest.” Qin Zheng turned his phone toward her. “It’s ten thirty.”

She nodded. “I’ll wash up.”

By the time she woke the next morning, most of the soreness had faded from her body. Apart from some weakness, she no longer felt unwell.

Qin Zheng had steamed eggs and yams and pumpkin, and cooked millet congee.

Tao Ying did not eat much, but she finished the steamed egg custard.

She had a heavy teaching schedule that day. Her body had not fully recovered, but she pushed through it. Fatigue weighed down not only her limbs but her thoughts. She felt like a willow beside a lake, swaying faintly without direction.

Her colleagues noticed a subtle change as well: Tao Ying was speaking less and less.

Qu Le soon brought it up. “Ms. Tao, did something happen? The department head said you can talk to the university if you’re having difficulties.”

“Nothing happened.” Tao Ying smiled. “I had a fever a couple of days ago. I’m still a little weak.”

Qu Le relaxed. “Tomorrow’s Saturday. You can get some proper rest.”

“Mm.”

When Tao Ying returned home and looked at herself in the mirror, she realized she had grown as dull and sluggish as an old machine.

Over dinner, she told Qin Zheng about it as if it were a joke.

“Exercise can actually improve your mood,” he said. “Hiking, for instance. You need to get yourself moving again.”

Tao Ying laughed but made no comment.

After dinner, she went out to the terrace, where she had set up a new reclining chair.

When Qin Zheng joined her, she was rocking lazily in it.

The injuries to her neck had healed. A light breeze moved beneath a clear moon, but everything still tasted bland to her.

“Boss Qin, do you have any alcohol?” she asked.

He looked surprised. “You want a drink?”

“Mm. I want to wake myself up a little.”

She could not go on feeling this lifeless forever.

“Need to let off some steam?” Qin Zheng sat beside her. “Has your throat healed?”

She nodded. “More or less.”

“Then it hasn’t healed.” Qin Zheng said, “Don’t you still have voice-over work to do? Better not drink.”

Tao Ying sighed. “What a shame.”

“It’s not. I’ll take you somewhere tomorrow.”

Her expression stirred with interest. “Where?”

Qin Zheng turned his face away. “I’m not going to sell you. Just come with me.”