A Terminal Illness?

Fu Liangxia only received the system's notification after her body had fallen unconscious—though that might sound strange, she was still fully aware. She could hear sounds from the outside world and still had sensation, but her body was genuinely in a coma.

She heard Fu Haoyao's furious questioning, and Fu Langshu's cold remark: "Liang Huiming, this time you've truly gone too far."

As for Liang Huiming himself, Fu Liangxia didn't hear him say a word.

But that made sense—he had no real connection to her, and he'd been bent on kicking her out of the project. What reaction could he possibly have now that she'd fainted? Wasn't he probably overjoyed?

By the time Fu Liangxia could regain control of her body, it was already nearing dusk. She woke up on the bed in the infirmary, still feeling somewhat weak, but besides that, there were no other symptoms.

She stared at the familiar ceiling for a long while, then suddenly let out a laugh.

In just over a week since enrolling, Fu Liangxia had nearly made the infirmary her second home—she'd been coming by every couple of days or so.

All thanks to that damned world's will.

But it wouldn't be long now; once she finished the seduction tasks and raised her existence value, she'd no longer have to suffer from these sudden illnesses.

She just wondered what time it was.

Although reviewing or not reviewing wouldn't make much difference for tomorrow's competition, she still had to go tutor Fu Haoyao. It wouldn't be good to be late.

With that thought, Fu Liangxia was about to take out her phone from her bag to check the time when the infirmary door opened.

The first to come in was Fu Haoyao, followed by Liang Huiming, and bringing up the rear were Fu Langshu and the school doctor in a white coat.

The most eye-catching among them was Liang Huiming, who walked in the middle. He had a bruise at the corner of his mouth and a dark mark under his eye, looking as though he'd taken a fall or, alternatively, a punch.

He no longer had that nonchalant, carefree air about him; now he kept his eyes slightly lowered, appearing much more subdued.

It was just that his gaze seemed to avoid resting on her, as if he were afraid to even glance her way.

Fu Liangxia almost thought she had some kind of heat source on her, like he'd get burned just by looking at her.

Weird.

But she merely glanced at him once and then turned her attention back to her phone, noticing that school was already over. She looked at Fu Haoyao apologetically and said, "I'm sorry, because of me, I've delayed your tutoring session."

Unexpectedly, he froze for a moment, then suddenly turned cold. "You're like this, and you're still thinking about tutoring? I'm not some slave driver—take care of yourself first."

With that, he frowned and tossed a thin blanket at her. The tag was still on it, clearly just purchased.

Fu Liangxia blinked in confusion. "What's this?"

"A blanket," he said.

Fu Liangxia: "..."

Of course she knew it was a blanket.

"I mean, what's this for?"

Fu Haoyao pursed his lips. "It's gotten colder outside. My brother and I will take you home in a bit. Wrap yourself in this so you don't catch a cold."

"Oh, thanks." Fu Liangxia ran her hand over the blanket absentmindedly, feeling the smooth, soft texture that signaled its expense.

She thought for a moment, then said, "So about today's tutoring..."

"Take care of yourself first," Fu Haoyao said with a sigh, as if she were about to drive him to the brink of exasperation.

Her health was already this bad—even he had seen her pass out a second time—and she was still thinking about tutoring him. Was she really that dedicated?

Fu Liangxia gave him a strange look. "But didn't you say you didn't have enough class hours?"

At that, Fu Langshu cast a glance over, looking at Fu Haoyao with a faint smile. "Oh? There's such a thing?"

Extra class hours? Him, Fu Haoyao?

Not that Fu Langshu thought little of him, but his younger brother wasn't stupid—he just had never liked studying, especially mathematics, which he detested. To think that one day he'd hear those words come out of his brother's mouth voluntarily—wanting more math classes—was truly a rarity.

More class hours was likely just a pretext; the real intention was to see Fu Liangxia.

As his thoughts turned, he said in a calm voice, "It's good to have ambition, but Teacher Fu isn't in good health. Adding more lessons would only burden her, and she has her own studies to consider. Why not get you another tutor instead? That way, you can make use of the remaining days."

The moment the words left his mouth, he indeed saw Fu Haoyao bristle. "No need!"

Fu Haoyao turned his face away, muttering, "Those trash teachers can't compare..."

The voice was low and somewhat muffled, but Fu Langshu caught it all.

He narrowed his eyes. "It has to be Teacher Fu, right?"

His thoughts being exposed right in front of the very person in question made Fu Haoyao react like a cat whose tail had been stepped on—he jumped up with a start, his ears turning red. "What nonsense! There's no such thing!"

Fu Langshu didn't respond, just looked at him, until Fu Haoyao finally gave in, grumbling, "You're so annoying, big brother. I said there isn't, so there isn't..."

Mid-sentence, he suddenly realized something and turned to warn him, "But you're not allowed to change teachers either!"

Then, maybe thinking that wasn't enough, he turned back to Fu Liangxia and said, "The moment you're better, you come straight back to work—no resigning!"

Fu Liangxia: "..."

She hadn't even said anything. And it wasn't like she would give up such a generous offer from the Fu family.

Still, watching Fu Haoyao jump around like that was way too entertaining—he was almost adorably silly.

She curved her eyes slightly.

But Fu Haoyao, looking at her, turned even redder for some reason. After staring at her for a few seconds, he suddenly spun around and tossed out a "I'll wait for you guys outside" before striding out of the infirmary.

Fu Liangxia raised an eyebrow, puzzled, not understanding why his emotions had fluctuated so much or what he was up to now.

But the chime in her ear clearly announced his feelings.

After Fu Haoyao left, the room fell into a few seconds of silence. Finally, the school doctor broke the quiet.

He kept his hands in the outer pockets of his white coat, his expression lazy. "We meet again, Miss Fu. You come to the infirmary so often that I'm starting to suspect you're secretly in love with this old man."

The moment he finished speaking, three pairs of eyes of varied expressions turned to him. The school doctor chuckled. "Just kidding—trying to lighten the mood."

With that, he forced a dry laugh, but the other three didn't play along at all.

Fu Liangxia looked at him coolly and asked, "Doctor, do you know what's wrong with me?"

She herself didn't even know what had caused her to faint this time. The system hadn't given her a prompt like before, only saying that a debuff had been triggered.

Fu Liangxia suddenly felt curious—what would her symptoms look like in a doctor's eyes?

Would the world's consciousness give her a reason, or would it simply find nothing at all?

She was curious.

But when Fu Liangxia finished speaking, she noticed a flicker of unnaturalness cross the school doctor's face, while Liang Huiming's body tensed, and Fu Langshu's eyes darkened.

The reactions of the three left Fu Liangxia even more confused.

"Based on the examination results, Miss Fu's body shows no issues at all." The school doctor paused, then said.

So it was the latter.

But if it was a case where nothing could be found, why did they all look like that?

They seemed somewhat... mournful?

The school doctor thought for a moment and suggested, "The school infirmary's equipment is limited. Miss Fu, if you have time, you'd best get a more thorough check-up."

With that, he performed his due diligence as a good employee and made his exit, escaping the scene. But the look he gave her before leaving made Fu Liangxia almost think she'd been diagnosed with some incurable disease.

Wait, incurable disease?

Thinking about the expressions of the others, Fu Liangxia suddenly felt she might have guessed something close to the truth.

She often fainted for no reason, and the doctors couldn't find the cause. By common sense, it did point toward diseases that modern medicine couldn't detect...

So, were Fu Langshu and Liang Huiming's expressions out of pity for her?

No, that didn't seem right either.

It wasn't so much pity as it was a more complex emotion—like the regret and sympathy one might feel upon discovering a cute kitten on the road that was about to die.

Liang Huiming had a bit more guilt mixed in.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you..." He lifted his eyes, and only then did Fu Liangxia notice that his eyes were frighteningly red, the emotions within them churning wildly.

Her spine involuntarily stiffened.

Perhaps it was a conditioned response—Fu Liangxia's body gave a slight, involuntary shudder as she recalled the scene before she'd fainted: the man going mad at her neck.

She looked away and forced a flat tone. "It's nothing."

But her pale face and trembling body were clearly visible to the two men.

Liang Huiming's expression stiffened, and for the first time in his life, the emotion called regret arose in his heart. If he'd known she was in poor health, with all the methods at his disposal, he wouldn't have used that tactic to test Fu Langshu, nor would he have let himself lose control.

Looking at the way the girl was trying her best to suppress her instinctive flinch, Liang Huiming suddenly felt he truly deserved to die.

That punch from Fu Haoyao? He deserved it.

Even he thought he'd acted like an animal in that moment.

Fu Langshu knew well that Fu Liangxia wasn't as fragile as she appeared, but recalling the news he'd received not long ago, he couldn't help but frown.

After the school doctor shook his head and said they couldn't find anything, he'd had someone pull up the girl's past medical records.

He couldn't quite say why—perhaps because of the affection Xiao Yao had for her, or perhaps driven by some impulse in his heart—Fu Langshu had sent the previously casually scanned information to experts for their evaluation.

But the news that came back was far from optimistic—

They couldn't figure it out either.

Although Fu Liangxia's physical reports appeared to show no issues, they were clearly different from what a healthy body should look like.

Her various metrics were all on the low side, yet kept within a seemingly reasonable range.

But when these numbers were fed into a computer for modeling, each experimental model quickly fell apart.

Her physical condition was worse than he'd imagined.

Fu Langshu didn't dare tell Xiao Yao about this. He could barely handle even the school doctor's grave expression, and had nearly gone to land a punch on Liang Huiming.

He feared that if he added this on top, Fu Haoyao would break down.

After all, this was the first time Xiao Yao had ever liked a girl.

Fu Langshu frowned, his fingers tapping slowly against his phone case, as if trying to calm himself through that motion. Yet the low pressure radiating from him clearly signaled his failure.

But whether it was truly fear that Fu Haoyao wouldn't be able to handle it, or that he himself couldn't, only Fu Langshu knew.

"Your illness—does your family know?"