We ordinary people also need to fall in love.

When Xie Shu returned to the dormitory, a faint smell of instant noodles wafted out as soon as he opened the door. Was anyone eating instant noodles in the dormitory?

She glanced around; Deng Yi and the others were all busy with their own things.

"Shubao, you're back so soon? Have you eaten?" Deng Yi looked up from her book.

"I came back to get something, I'll go eat in a bit."

Xie Shu didn't say anything. She walked straight to her cabinet, picked up her phone, and turned to leave.

Deng Yi and her roommate looked at each other in surprise, and before they could react, the door had already been gently closed.

"Uncle, I need to leave the school. This is my leave slip." Xie Shu arrived at the school's front gate and handed over the leave slip.

The security guard took it, glanced at it, then flipped through it again. His brows slowly furrowed. He looked up, his gaze sweeping over the girl in the school uniform:

"Your leave slip is from before; you need to bring the latest one."

The latest leave application form? When were the regulations changed?

The security guard didn't care who the student was; he only cared about the leave slip. He returned Xie Shu's leave slip to her.

"Go to your homeroom teacher and ask him to give you the latest one before we can let you go."

Xie Shu silently put away the old leave slip, stood there stunned for a second, and the security guard had already lowered his head to continue scrolling on his phone, no longer looking at her.

She turned and walked towards the teaching building.

"Teacher Wu, I have something to do this afternoon and would like to ask for leave to leave the school."

Wu Changguo's office door was open. Xie Shu knocked lightly twice before entering. Wu Changguo was sitting at his desk grading papers.

"What is it?" He didn't answer immediately, but asked first.

"I'm not feeling well." Xie Shu coughed twice, making it sound like he was really sick. "I want to go to the hospital to buy some mabaloxavir tablets. The school clinic doesn't have this medicine, so I have to go to the hospital to buy it, but it works quickly."

Wu Changguo narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze lingering on Xie Shu's face for a few seconds, as if considering the truth or falsehood of her words. Xie Shu's expression remained normal, even showing a hint of the fatigue one would expect from a patient.

After a while, Wu Changguo put down his pen and picked up his phone.

"Taking leave is different now than before. We have to contact your parents first and have them apply for leave on DingTalk before the school can issue a leave slip."

Xie Shu lowered his head and didn't speak. In the quiet office, the only sound was the rain dripping from the rooftop and hitting the air conditioner unit.

"Teacher Wu," she suddenly spoke, her words slower than usual, "Then never mind, I'll observe for a while longer, and if it's not serious, I won't go out."

Wu Changguo's finger hovered above the screen as he looked up at her. Xie Shu coughed, lowered her gaze, and indeed looked rather listless.

"Okay." He put his phone back on the table. "If you really can't hold on, go to the school clinic first, and rest a bit more at noon."

"Um."

Xie Shu slowly walked out of the office, each step unhurried, until she was completely out of the office's vicinity, at which point her pace quickened.

She took out her phone, but there was still no reply to the message she sent to Li Mubai. It was like a pebble thrown into a deep pool, not even making a ripple. A rare feeling of anxiety welled up in her heart.

Suddenly, she thought of a place where she could leave school without needing a leave slip, parental approval, or anyone else's consent.

Xie Shu stood in the corridor for a few seconds, his mind racing. It was lunch break time, and class didn't start until 2:30, so there were still nearly two hours in between.

The dormitory supervisor doesn't check rooms at noon, so as long as she comes back before class, no one will notice that she went out.

She looked down at her white canvas shoes.

She turned her gaze outside the building. The rain had stopped, but there were still puddles on the ground. She looked away and turned to walk towards the west gate.

"According to our station..."

"Change the channel! I want to watch cartoons!"

"Bear Big - Bald Qiang is cutting down trees again - "

"Ha ha……"

Li Mubai opened his eyes groggily, his consciousness feeling as if it were stuck to something, heavy and unable to be pulled up.

The scene before me was initially blurry, then slowly came together: a white ceiling, white walls, and a small television hanging directly in front of me, showing two bears chasing a bald man, with the sound of children giggling nearby.

He glanced at the back of his left hand, where a needle was inserted, and an IV drip was above his head. Luckily, he didn't move around and knock the needle out.

Two seats away, a five- or six-year-old boy was sitting, huddled together with his mother watching "Boonie Bears".

He couldn't fall asleep at all last night until he felt dizzy and his body was shivering and chilling. Only then did he realize that he probably had a fever.

He quietly got out of bed, knocked on the dormitory manager's door, and contacted Li's parents. Li's father drove to the dormitory building and picked him up to go home.

It was a rainy night, and I had a fever, so my parents carried me to the hospital.

However, he first took antipyretics at home, and when he didn't get better the next day, he went to the hospital for an IV drip.

Mr. and Mrs. Li stayed with him for a while. Seeing that his fever had subsided considerably, they went back to attend to their restaurant business. Before leaving, Mrs. Li touched his forehead and told him to make a phone call after he finished his IV drip.

In the empty infusion room, there were only him and a few other patients with fevers. After lunch, he took a nap.

He feels better now and is not in as much pain.

Li Mubai carefully picked up the phone with his right hand, and the moment the screen lit up, he instantly woke up.

Xie Shu sent him more than a dozen messages, almost every two or three minutes, with the most recent one just three minutes ago.

Well... he was too out of it and didn't want to look at his phone, so he didn't have time to tell Xie Shu.

Li Bubai: "I have a fever, but it's nothing. I can go back to school as early as tomorrow."

As soon as the message was sent, Li Mubai's phone vibrated, and she called him directly.

"Fever? Is it serious?" She spoke faster than usual, her voice slightly breathless.

"It's alright, I'm on an IV drip now, and the fever is gradually going down, so don't worry." Li Mubai paused, his throat still a little dry. "Sorry, I suddenly developed a fever last night and was still feeling dizzy this morning, so I didn't have time to tell you."

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone, as if they were processing the information.

"Where are you? Are you at home?" Xie Shu asked.

"No, at the community hospital near my home."

"it is good."

"Wait, you're not coming, are you?" Li Mubai's heart skipped a beat. He quickly dissuaded him, "Don't come, I'm coming right away..."

Before he could finish speaking, the phone was hung up.

Is Xie Shu really coming? Li Mubai sent a message to Xie Shu with his right hand, telling her not to come and that he would be fine soon.

No reply...

Half an hour later, a figure appeared at the entrance of the infusion room. Li Mubai quickly looked over and saw that it was a new patient. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sit here and wait until this bottle is finished before you can leave." The doctor inserted the needle into the new patient, gave a few instructions, and then stood up to begin inspecting the infusion room.

She checked them one by one, and when she got to Li Mubai, the hem of her white coat just happened to block his view.

"How are you feeling now?"

"I'm feeling a bit better." Li Mubai's voice was still a little hoarse.

"Okay, there should be about half an hour left. Call us when you're done losing."

"OK."

The doctor nodded, turned and left.

The moment the white coat was moved aside, the entrance to the infusion room was once again exposed to Li Mubai's view, and a figure was standing at the door.

Wearing a black and white school uniform, her chest rose and fell slightly, as if she were panting.

She paused for a moment at the door, her gaze sweeping across the entire infusion room before landing on him.

"Thank you for your help..."

"Mm." She nodded and then sat down in the empty seat next to him.

Before he could even finish thinking about what he wanted to say, Li Mubai noticed that her trouser legs were covered in mud, her canvas shoes were no longer white but covered in yellow mud, and her hair was damp with a few strands sticking to her forehead.

"How did you get here?" His brows furrowed slightly.

"I asked security for leave," Xie Shu said calmly. "Have you forgotten I have many more leave slips?"

Li Mubai's brows furrowed even more.

"But now, don't parents need to apply for leave on DingTalk first?"

That's how he left the school last night.

Xie Shu gave a faint "hmm," then lowered her gaze without saying a word.

He stared at her for a while, recalling that if she had come out of the school gate, there shouldn't have been so much mud; there was only one possibility:

"Xie Shu, you... did you sneak out by climbing over the wall?"

Xie Shu was silent for a moment, then slowly nodded under his gaze.

On the TV, Bald Qiang was still cursing the stinky bear, as if a sound barrier had formed between them.

Li Mubai opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but not knowing what to say.

"Then Xie Shu, you should go back now." He said softly as a final word, "Lunch break isn't over yet, and class starts soon if you're late. If the teacher finds you're not there, things might..."

Before he could finish speaking, Xie Shu gently rested his head on his right shoulder.