Amateur talent show? Top mentors are my students.

He Xu followed the force of her palm and slowly turned over.

When the movement aggravated the injury on his side, he tensed up suddenly and let out a suppressed groan.

But he didn't stop; he gritted his teeth and rolled over.

He lay on his back on the bed, his chest heaving violently, his eyes red and swollen, and the tip of his nose an unnatural pink.

The T-shirt was soaked with sweat, clinging to the skin of the collarbone and chest, and the hair was messy and stuck to the temples.

Rachel looked at him like that and said nothing.

She silently took a warm towel and wiped his forehead, then gently lifted the back of his neck and held the water glass to his lips: "Take a sip first."

He Xu took a small sip of water from her hand.

Rachel waited for him to swallow the saliva, then held the medicine to his lips: "Take this, and the fever will go down and you won't feel so bad."

He Xu opened his mouth, put the medicine in his mouth, and then drank a sip of water to swallow it.

His throat bobbed slightly as he swallowed, and his eyes reddened again, but this time no tears fell.

Rachel put the water glass back on the bedside table, wrung out a towel, and stuck it back on his forehead.

Then she stood up, walked to the door, and called out towards the end of the corridor, "River! Come here!"

Jiang Yanbai's footsteps sounded almost immediately.

When he appeared at the door, his hair was a little messy, and he was wearing an old T-shirt and pajama bottoms. He had obviously just been woken up, but his expression showed obvious tension.

"What's wrong?"

"He has a fever and his injury hurts. I just gave him some medicine, but that can't be eaten." Rachel stood by the bed with her arms crossed. "Go make some porridge, something light. He needs to eat something to hold on."

Jiang Yanbai's gaze passed over Rachel's shoulder and landed on He Xu.

The person was lying on their back on the bed, with a towel on their forehead, their face so white that they almost blended into the pillow.

His breathing was heavier than usual, and his chest heaved more dramatically than usual, as if something had burned him out from the inside.

Jiang Yanbai opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end he just nodded: "...I'll go right away."

He turned and hurried downstairs.

Rachel sat down on the edge of the bed again and placed a cool towel on He Xu's forehead.

Then she turned her head to look at him and said softly, "Don't be afraid, child, Mommy is here."

mom.

He Xu's eyelashes trembled slightly.

He didn't know how to respond to that sentence.

"...I'm not your son..."

"River treats you as a friend, so I'll take care of you like a son—just think of it as me fulfilling my duties as your mother while your child is in a foreign country. If you feel embarrassed, then we'll talk about it after you recover."

He Xu was speechless.

-

He Xu never expected that an accidental injury could last so long.

The fever persisted on and off for three days.

The fever reached 39 degrees Celsius on the first night, subsided a bit on the second morning, but returned in the afternoon.

He lay in bed, mostly in a daze, occasionally regaining consciousness, watching the light outside the window change from white to yellow to gray, then to black, over and over again, while he hardly moved.

Rachel stayed in the guest room and woke up before dawn every day.

She wore a soft gray cardigan and walked lightly down the corridor. She stopped at He Xu's door to listen to what was happening inside before going downstairs to prepare breakfast.

Porridge, steamed eggs, and sliced ​​fruit—each dish was prepared with care and tenderness. Then, it was served and placed on the bedside table, while I gently called his name.

He Xu wasn't used to it at first.

When he wakes up and sees her sitting by the bed with a bowl of porridge in her hand, he instinctively wants to take it from her and says, "I can do it myself."

But every time he tried to lift himself up, the bruise on his side would pull him down, forcing him to fall back down, gritting his teeth and panting.

Rachel didn't say anything, she just sat on the edge of the bed, scooped up a spoonful of porridge, blew on it to cool it down, and held it to his lips.

"Come on, open your mouth."

He Xu was very uncomfortable at first, and his ears would turn red.

He had never been cared for like this by his elders in his entire life.

When I was a child, I would always stay in bed and endure the illness by myself. No one would cook porridge for me or change the towel on my forehead.

No one would sit by his bedside with that "I'll worry if you don't eat" look on his face until he finished the last bite.

But Rachel never rushed him; she simply did everything naturally and effortlessly.

Later, He Xu began to wonder if all mothers were like that.

On the afternoon of the third day, his fever subsided and he became much more alert.

He leaned against the headboard, the bruises on his waist had changed from purplish-black to bluish-yellow, and the pain had subsided considerably.

He looked down at the needle marks left on the back of his hand, then looked up at the blue sky outside the window, when he suddenly heard someone knocking on the door.

The door opened a crack, and Rachel poked half her body in, holding a small bowl filled with sliced ​​pears.

"You're awake? Have some fruit. Is your throat sore?"

He Xu looked at the bowl and the water stain on her apron, and suddenly felt a lump in his throat.

He didn't know what was wrong with him. Maybe he had been burning up for too long and had become weak. When he opened his mouth, his voice was slightly soft: "...I don't want to eat pears today."

Rachel was completely unaware of the unusual tone in his voice, or rather, she noticed it but didn't say anything.

She simply walked over naturally, placed the bowl on the bedside table, and tilted her head to look at him: "What would you like to eat? I'll make it for you."

He Xu looked at her, suddenly unsure of what to say.

He opened his mouth, then closed it again, and finally just said, "...porridge will do."

"Okay, I'll go downstairs and get you some porridge." Rachel turned to leave, but turned back at the door, as if remembering something. "Does your back still hurt? Should I apply it again?"

"...It's okay. It doesn't hurt anymore."

"That's good." Rachel smiled and walked out.

Over the next two days, He Xu began to slowly reveal his vulnerable side, much like a small animal that had finally found a safe environment.

Moreover, it's a side of her that's different from how she usually presents herself to her friends and students.

He no longer says, "I'll do it myself."

He leaned against the wall and waited for Rachel to feed him when she brought the porridge over.

When Rachel asks him if he wants to go outside and sit for a while, he will say, "Then help me up."

When Rachel covered his legs with a blanket, he would even subconsciously lean closer to her.

One evening, Jiang Yanbai returned home and opened the door to find He Xu leaning against the sofa in the living room.

Rachel sat next to him knitting a sweater—a sweater she had said was for her grandson—even though she hadn't even seen her daughter-in-law yet.

He Xu held a cup of hot milk in his hand, tilting his head to watch TV. Occasionally, when he saw an interesting segment, he would say something to Rachel, and Rachel would laugh and reply.

Jiang Yanbai stood in the entryway for a long time, tilting his head in confusion, feeling that something was wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

He walked over and sat down. He Xu didn't even turn his head: "You're back so early. I thought you weren't coming back tonight."

"I'm finishing work early today—how are you?"

"I'm much better now, my back doesn't hurt as much."

Rachel looked up from her knitting: "He can walk straight on his own today."

"Oh?" Jiang Yanbai glanced at He Xu. "So fast?"

He Xu finally turned to look at him: "You sound disappointed?"

"No, I just feel that your recovery speed is much faster than before."

"Because I've had a good rest these past few days." He Xu's tone carried a self-assurance he himself was unaware of. "With someone taking care of me, how could I not recover quickly?"