Lu Huai'an looked at her and said softly, "If you don't want to talk about it, don't force yourself."
Su Nianchu lowered her head, was silent for a moment, and said softly, "Actually, it's nothing. It's just... some things happened at home."
Lu Huai'an didn't press her further, simply staying quietly by her side.
"Thank you, Huai'an," Su Nianchu said suddenly.
"What are you thanking me for?" Lu Huai'an asked, somewhat puzzled.
"Thank you... for always staying by my side." Su Nianchu's voice was very soft, yet carried a slight tremor.
Lu Huai'an's heart skipped a beat. He looked at Su Nianchu, wanting to reach out and pull her into an embrace, wanting to tell her that he would always stay by her side and never leave her.
In the end, however, he held back. He knew it wasn't the time yet.
"Aren't we friends? Helping each other is only right," Lu Huai'an said with a smile.
Su Nianchu smiled as well, though her smile carried a hint of bitterness.
The two of them continued walking forward, and the atmosphere grew somewhat subtle.
As they neared the downstairs of the girls' dormitory building, Su Nianchu suddenly stopped, turned around, and looked at Lu Huai'an.
"What is it, Sister Nianchu?"
Su Nianchu shook her head, a smile playing at the corners of her lips: "Nothing at all."
She paused, her tone tinged with nostalgia: "I just feel like time flies. I never thought that the little squirt who used to tag along behind me all day would grow up this big."
Hearing this, Lu Huai'an instantly became displeased.
What little squirt? That was ancient history from how many years ago!
Somewhat dissatisfied, he protested: "Sister Nianchu, you're exaggerating way too much! When did I ever..."
"What? All grown up now and trying to deny your past?" Su Nianchu cut him off.
"I..." Lu Huai'an was at a loss for words. Of course he wasn't trying to deny it, he just didn't want to be treated like a little kid by her.
"I'm only older than you by one year..."
"So what? Older by one year is still older. I wonder who was still wetting the bed at age eight?"
"Shh, Sister Nianchu, keep your voice down, that's too embarrassing..."
Seeing Lu Huai'an's foiled expression, Su Nianchu couldn't help covering her mouth and laughing.
He thought for a moment, then blurted out a random question: "Sister Nianchu, do you have a boyfriend right now?"
Su Nianchu was taken aback for a second, then retorted with playful annoyance: "You brat, are you asking for a beating?"
"No, no... I..." Lu Huai'an scratched his head awkwardly.
"Alright, alright, I won't tease you anymore." Seeing him like this, Su Nianchu couldn't help laughing out loud, though her eyes flickered slightly.
"Well, I'm heading back up now. Be careful on your way back." With that, Su Nianchu waved at Lu Huai'an with a playful smile, turned around, and walked into the dormitory building.
Lu Huai'an stood in place, gazing at her receding figure, feeling a hollow emptiness in his chest.
He sighed. Was he too abrupt just now? Would Sister Nianchu be angry?
Sigh, it was all his own fault for being too nervous to even string a proper sentence together.
He scratched his head and began walking aimlessly down the street. The neon lights along the roadside flickered, casting a shifting light and shadow across his face, mirroring the complicated and inarticulable feelings in his heart at that moment.
He kicked a small stone, watching it trace an arc through the air before landing in the bushes by the roadside.
When he reached the foot of his apartment building, Lu Huai'an noticed a girl crouching by the side of the road.
The streetlamp was dim, making it impossible to make out her face; he could only see a waterfall of black hair and a slightly crumpled white dress.
The girl was clutching her stomach tightly, her body trembling slightly as if enduring agonizing pain.
Lu Huai'an hesitated for a moment, but still walked over. "Hey, are you alright? Are you feeling sick somewhere?"
The girl slowly raised her head. Under the streetlamp was a face so exquisite it was breathtaking.
Her skin was fair and her features were like a painting, but right now that face was contorted in pain; her brows were tightly locked, a fine layer of sweat beaded on her forehead, and her lips had lost all color.
Lu Huai'an felt she looked a bit familiar, as if he had seen her somewhere before...
She glanced at Lu Huai'an, her eyes carrying wariness and aloofness, and shook her head gently: "I'm fine..." Her voice was very soft, yet pleasant to the ear.
"But you look like you're in a lot of pain..." Lu Huai'an was still worried; he could sense that the girl was desperately enduring the agony.
The girl didn't speak again, simply burying her head lower.
Seeing this, Lu Huai'an found it hard to press further, thinking that since she claimed to be fine, he was a total stranger after all and couldn't very well drag her to the hospital by force.
Just as he turned to leave, a dull thump sounded behind him—the girl had collapsed onto the ground and passed out.
Startled, Lu Huai'an rushed back and nudged the girl's body: "Hey, wake up! What's wrong?"
The girl remained completely unresponsive, her complexion as pale as paper.
Daring not to waste any time, Lu Huai'an pulled out his phone and dialed the emergency services: "Hello, is this the ambulance? Outside the south gate apartments of Jiangcheng University, someone has fainted, please hurry over!"
After hanging up, Lu Huai'an tried pinching the area beneath the girl's nose, hoping to revive her.
Every second of waiting for the ambulance felt infinitely stretched out.
A few minutes later, the siren of the ambulance finally wailed from afar and grew closer.
The medical staff quickly lifted the girl onto a stretcher and pushed her into the ambulance.
Lu Huai'an climbed into the vehicle as well. Looking at the unconscious girl on the stretcher, his heart was a flutter of anxiety.
At the hospital, the girl was wheeled straight into the emergency room.
After an unknown length of time, the emergency room doors opened and a doctor in a white lab coat walked out.
Lu Huai'an asked eagerly, "Doctor, how is she?"
The doctor removed his mask and said, "The patient is nothing serious, just acute gastroenteritis. She needs an IV drip for the night here at the hospital, and she can be discharged tomorrow once she wakes up and everything checks out."
"That's good to hear. Thank you, doctor."
Inside the ward, the girl lay on the hospital bed, her face still pale, but her breathing had steadied considerably. An IV tube was inserted into her hand, and the electrocardiograph monitor by the bed beeped rhythmically.
As Lu Huai'an gazed at that somewhat familiar, pretty face, inspiration suddenly struck: wasn't this the girl he had accidentally bumped into during the day?
He had seen her name earlier when paying her medical fees.
"Lin Jiayu?"
Why did this name sound so familiar... Just as Lu Huai'an was trying to recall where he had heard it, his phone suddenly buzzed with notifications.
"Buzz, buzz..."
Lu Huai'an glanced at the caller ID; it was Jiang Chuan.
"Hey, Chuan, what's up?"
"Old Lu, where are you? What time is it and you're still not back? Don't tell me you really went off for a deep, intimate chat with Su Nianchu..."
On the other end of the line, Jiang Chuan's voice carried a hint of urgency.
Glancing at Lin Jiayu on the hospital bed, Lu Huai'an lowered his voice and said, "Something came up, I'm at the hospital right now."
"Hospital?!" Jiang Chuan's voice pitched sharply upward. "What's wrong with you? Are you hurt?"
"It's not me. It's a girl I ran into downstairs at the apartment building. She suddenly fainted, so I brought her to the hospital," Lu Huai'an explained briefly.
"A girl? Fainted? Hero saves the damsel in distress!" Jiang Chuan's tone instantly turned suggestive. "Well, is she pretty?"
"Oh come on, can you be serious for once!" Lu Huai'an said, somewhat helpless. "She passed out, I didn't have the mind to check if she was pretty."
"Tsk, I'd have to be crazy to believe you!" Jiang Chuan clearly didn't buy it.
"...She is pretty," Lu Huai'an had to admit.
"I knew it!"
"So, do you need me to come over and provide backup?"
"No need, she hasn't woken up yet. We'll see after she wakes." Lu Huai'an refused.
"Alright then, report to me anytime if anything changes!" Jiang Chuan instructed.
"Got it, nag." Lu Huai'an hung up the phone and let out a long breath of relief.
He walked over to the bedside, pulled up a chair, sat down, and quietly watched Lin Jiayu.
The name Lin Jiayu indeed sounded familiar to him, but for a moment he couldn't place where he'd heard it.
"Wait, could it be the campus belle rankings?" Lu Huai'an remembered the conversation between Hu Hishu and Jiang Chuan this afternoon; they seemed to have mentioned a girl named Lin Jiayu back then...
He took out his phone, opened the school forum, and found the "Campus Belle Rankings" worshipped as scripture by countless shut-in geeks.
Sure enough, occupying the number one spot was the name "Lin Jiayu," followed by a long string of glowing praise like "pure goddess," "iceberg beauty," and "first-love face."
However, the only photo attached was a blurry silhouette, though her figure looked quite similar to the girl lying on the hospital bed.
"So she's Lin Jiayu..." Lu Huai'an murmured to himself.