From start to finish, he had never once said the word "thanks"!
A minor brawl between students had been expertly handled by this young master in such a way that three of them ended up in the hospital, and the rest—including the two of them—were all carted off to the police station.
Thank him for nothing!
This young master's thought process was simply not something an ordinary mortal could comprehend.
"Are you unwilling?" Not hearing a response from Yu Tianqing after a moment, Cen Mubai turned his head to stare at him at close range. His tone remained unchanged, but his burning gaze nakedly communicated the meaning: "If you dare say yes, I'll beat you up."
"No, I'm not unwilling—" Tianqing pursed the corners of his lips and hurriedly shook his head. "I was just wondering what to treat you to!"
It wasn't that he was truly afraid of Mubai beating him up; rather, since the other person had stepped in to help when he was heavily outnumbered, the least he could do was not hurl abuse in return.
"Pfft—" Wang Zirui, facing forward and seemingly focused on driving while secretly cocking his ears to catch the conversation between the two in the back seat, couldn't help bursting out with a laugh upon hearing this. "Lord Xiaoqi, this... why do I feel like you're kind of forcing someone into a life of crime?"
"Force your mom—" Hearing this, Mubai furrowed his brow, stretched out a long leg, and kicked the back of the driver's seat once more. "Wang Lao'er, do you even know how to talk, dammit? If you don't know how to speak, get your mouth sewn shut!"
"Haha... right... hehe..." Wang Zirui nodded frantically, pressing his lips together to hold back his laughter. How had he never noticed before that their Lord Xiaoqi had such an adorable side?
The three of them arrived at the hospital and checked into the emergency department. The doctor had Tianqing take off his shirt, carefully examined the injury on his shoulder blade, and said it wasn't serious, but suggested an X-ray to check for any hairline fractures or the like.
"Alright—go ahead and write the order! We'll do—" Before Tianqing the patient could speak, Mubai chimed in first.
The doctor made a swift stroke of the pen, quickly wrote out the examination and payment order, and handed it directly to Yu Tianqing. "Go pay the fee right away. I'll give the radiology department a call; the doctor on duty will take care of you, and you'll have the results in ten minutes. Hurry on over!"
"Thank you, doctor—" Yu Tianqing stood up with the slip, but the next second, a fair hand reached out and snatched the payment slip straight from his grasp.
Tianqing looked in astonishment at the owner of the hand, only to see Mubai directly slapping the payment slip into Wang Zirui's palm.
"Why are you giving this to me?" Wang Zirui took the slip instinctively and stared blankly at Mubai.
"Go pay the bill, obviously!" Mubai glanced at him sideways, as if wondering how he could be so utterly lacking in common sense.
"Why me?" Wang Zirui protested, deeply aggrieved.
Just as Mubai was about to retort, Tianqing reached out to take the slip. "I'll go pay it myself!" His shoulder was injured, but his two legs were perfectly fine.
"Let him go—" Mubai said, flicking the back of Tianqing's hand. Tianqing pulled his hand back in a wince, only to hear Mubai give a light hum and say quite matter-of-factly, "Wang Zirui has money!"
"What the hell! Cen Xiaoqi, what kind of bandit logic is this? This is naked, unadulterated envy, jealousy, and hatred—you're retaliating and robbing me!"
Wang Zirui clutched the payment slip to his chest with a look of utter grievance, frustration, and every imaginable kind of agony. "Your big brother here just suffered a massive bleeding of funds, paying over thirty thousand in bail and medical expenses for the two of you..."
"Hey—I say, you guys—" Just as Wang Zirui's theatrical performance reached its dramatic climax, the emergency doctor who had just finished his phone call bellowed at him:
"I said, drama queen student, stop acting for a second, okay? Go pay the bill already! I've already woken the doctor on duty up, so get over there right now. Hurry up—"
"Haha..." The bizarre expression frozen on Wang Zirui's face instantly made Mubai burst into laughter, and this time, even Tianqing couldn't help cracking a wide smile.
By the time they finished the X-rays, got the results, went back to see the doctor, and finally got their medicine and left the hospital, it was already past one o'clock.
Wang Zirui drove Mubai back to the hotel first, and then drove Tianqing back to campus.
Wang Zirui had originally suggested just renting a room at the hotel to rest for a few hours before heading back to school, but Tianqing insisted on returning.
Today's last class was a massive lecture on pathology. After class ended, the students filed out one after another. While packing up his things and mentally reviewing the material covered in the lecture, Tianqing heard someone shout from the doorway:
"Yu Tianqing—someone's looking for you—"
Tianqing acknowledged the call, his movements still unhurried. He assumed it was Tan Yanxi; because he had been injured these past few days, Tan Yanxi had been helping him wash his clothes and shoes, which was why he was treating Tan Yanxi to a meal today.
"Hey, Tianqing, who's that?" The male classmate sitting next to him glanced at the guy standing in the doorway, couldn't help patting Tianqing's arm, and lowered his voice. "Tianqing—looks like Cen Mubai. Is he here for you?"
Cen Mubai?
Hearing those three names, Tianqing instinctively looked toward the doorway and happened to lock eyes with Mubai, who was looking right back at him.
Cen Mubai was standing at one of the exits of the large lecture hall, one hand tucked into his trouser pocket, a black backpack slung diagonally over one shoulder.
Today he was wearing jeans and a white top. The shirt was long-sleeved, with the cuffs rolled up to his elbows, and the hem tucked neatly into his jeans, which made his waist look exceptionally slender and his legs exceptionally long. Dressed in a white shirt and blue jeans, he looked remarkably clean and well-behaved.
Yu Tianqing sighed slightly in his heart; although he knew the words "clean and well-behaved" had not a single damn thing to do with Cen Mubai, he still couldn't help stealing a couple of glances at him from afar. Just as Tan Yanxi said, everyone liked to look twice at something pleasing to the eye, regardless of gender. It was only human nature, and he couldn't very well make an exception for himself!
Mubai looked steadily from afar in Tianqing's direction. He didn't wear an aloof expression to keep people a thousand miles away; he just stood there quietly, yet no one dared to approach him or speak to him. Regardless of gender, those who passed by him couldn't help casting quiet glances at him or even whispering among themselves, but he paid them no mind whatsoever, stingy enough to withhold even a single glance in return.
"Need something? You could've just sent a text, why'd you come all the way over?" Tianqing stopped three or four steps away from Mubai and looked at him.
He and Mubai belonged to the medical department and the law department respectively, and their two buildings were right next to each other. Tianqing studied clinical medicine, with a primary focus on surgery.
There was a large anatomy room and a cadaver storage room on the upper floor of Tianqing's teaching building, so students from other majors practically never came up here.
Usually, the people attending classes were all familiar faces, so Mubai's sudden appearance—coupled with his exquisitely peerless face—meant one could easily imagine that the Z University forum would explode yet again shortly.
"Treat me to lunch!" Mubai looked straight into Yu Tianqing's eyes and spoke as a matter of course.
Mubai was not using a question for this sentence, but an imperative. Tianqing found that this type of sentence structure was the one the young master used most often, completely robbing people of any right to choose.
"Oh—" Tianqing was somewhat at a loss for words. Not knowing how to reply right away, he paused and tried to suggest, "Does it have to be today? Can we make it another day?"
"Just today. I'm hungry!" Mubai gave Yu Tianqing zero opportunity for refusal.
"Alright then!" Yu Tianqing rubbed his nose. "Then do you mind if there's one more person? I already made plans with Tan Yanxi to eat hot pot together at noon. If you mind, let's make it tomorrow instead!"
"Tan Yanxi?" Mubai frowned. "Guy or girl?"
"A guy! The one you saw in the dorm the other day."
"Oh—" Whether Mubai remembered who that guy was or not, he let out a single "oh," turned around, and started walking away. "I don't feel like eating hot pot—"
Yu Tianqing swung his backpack onto his shoulder and hurried to catch up with Mubai.