Chapter 30

Ruan Ning nearly blurted it out—there really were people in this world who looked like they'd stepped straight out of a 2D anime. This face was practically a live-action version of the Holy Envoy Lanson!

Bai Xingmiao possessed an elegant, cool bone structure. His high-bridged nose cast a shallow shadow that outlined a profile like carved ice and jade. His features were neither as boldly handsome as Jiang Yihao's nor as arrogantly alluring as Bu Chen's. Each individual feature—nose, eyes, brows, lips—seemed ordinary on its own, yet together they formed a rare, ethereal handsomeness rarely seen in the 3D world.

He wore a plain khaki cashmere shirt paired with a black fisherman's hat. His skin was fair as jade, his temperament cool and clean.

If she hadn't known his identity beforehand, Ruan Ning would never have connected this man to the most honored duke's son in the country. She'd have just taken him for a melancholic, artistic heartthrob.

Ruan Ning's eyes were glued to Bai Xingmiao's face. He—he looked far too much like the protagonist of an RPG she used to play.

That game was ancient. Mention it now, and probably few people would even remember it, but its protagonist, the Holy Envoy Lanson, was the first boy who ever made little grade-school Ruan Ning's heart flutter.

The Holy Envoy Lanson was handsome and gentle. Every time little Ruan Ning logged in and saw his gorgeous face, she nearly swooned from happiness.

She'd played through that game no fewer than a hundred times, memorized every line of dialogue backward and forward. Back then, every screensaver and wallpaper on her devices was the Holy Envoy Lanson. Her ringtone was Lanson's character theme song. She'd even written a 500,000-character fanfiction, forgetting to eat and sleep.

Now Ruan Ning played many more games and had many more favorite characters, but seeing a real-life Holy Envoy Lanson for the first time felt like a childhood memory buried deep inside her had been awakened. A light, cheerful melody rang in her heart as butterflies fluttered out.

Ruan Ning's eyes lingered reluctantly over Bai Xingmiao, roaming everywhere. If not for the mission at hand, she'd love to snap a photo, or ask if he'd ever consider cosplaying...

Wait, there was a reward for completing these two cursed missions after all?

Ruan Ning's head spun, her body tense, but her heart felt sweet.

She struggled to suppress the excited curl of her lips and carefully nudged Bai Xingmiao's shoulder. "Wake up. What's wrong with you? What do I need to do to save you?"

Not daring to use too much force, she nudged him a dozen times before the man on the ground finally slowly opened his eyes.

Bai Xingmiao's pupils were an extremely light ink-black, and even the curve of his eyelids was exactly like the cool, handsome Lord Lanson's. The moment their eyes met, Ruan Ning screamed internally—all the ice and snow in the world seemed to melt at that instant.

She regretted not covering up her dark circles before going out today. Her anxious tone couldn't hide the rising lilt at the end of her words: "Classmate, are you okay? Let me take you to the infirmary."

Bai Xingmiao was extremely weak. He only glanced at Ruan Ning once before closing his eyes in pain again. He coughed a few times in succession, muttering something.

Ruan Ning hurriedly leaned in, listening hard until she finally caught one phrase: "...out there..."

"Out there? You can't even stand right now—how are you supposed to get out there?" Ruan Ning asked urgently.

Bai Xingmiao didn't respond. He just closed his eyes.

There are some people who, even with no expression on their face, can make others feel their displeasure through the sudden chill in their aura—and not feel uncomfortable about it, only blaming themselves for being too slow to understand what they meant.

Bai Xingmiao was that kind of person.

Ruan Ning awkwardly moved closer to support him, thinking to herself, even his anger is so elegant—even more like Lanson.

"Can you walk right now? I'll help you, and we'll go out together."

Bai Xingmiao's brow furrowed slightly as he shifted away, rejecting her touch. With the last shred of his fading consciousness, his hoarse voice squeezed out two words—"the injector"—before he passed out again.

Ruan Ning shut her eyes in embarrassment, wanting to dig a hole and crawl into it.

God, I'm such an idiot.

"Out there"? He'd said "injector"!

Her heart clenched again. So it turned out Bai Xingmiao was fragile and sickly, needing to carry medication on him at all times and take a shot when danger struck.

Ruan Ning immediately realized how serious this was. Someone with a severe reaction had to receive the injection as quickly as possible, or their life would be in danger.

She frantically searched Bai Xingmiao for the injector. The moment her hand touched his body, she yanked it back in fright—he was burning up, and the situation was critical.

She had no more room for other thoughts. The most important thing right now was saving the man. She couldn't let herself become a murderer instead of a savior.

Abandoning all decorum, she rummaged up and down every pocket on Bai Xingmiao's body, but found no injector.

Every second slipped away. Her movements grew rougher and more frantic, and her throat burned with urgency. "Where the hell is your medicine?! I've searched everywhere and found nothing! What do I do?!"

Her reckless rummaging shook Bai Xingmiao back to some semblance of consciousness. Through his haze, he felt someone clawing around on his body. A germaphobe, he pressed the corners of his eyes down slightly, his brows silently knitting together.

His whole body felt hot and stifled, like he was in a sauna. His nose and airways were completely blocked. Every breath sent pain through his lungs like a heavy punch.

More than the suffering of illness, he disliked being violated by a stranger.

Bai Xingmiao forced his eyes open and saw a girl in evening dress bent over him, her delicate brows drawn together in worry, her voice tinged with tears. "I've searched everywhere—why can't I find it?"

The girl looked familiar. Her face was like a bright moon, radiant and lovely. Ink-black hair spread like tangled vines around her oval face, her nose delicate and upturned, her big, dewy eyes filled with concern.

Bai Xingmiao's gaze silently fell on Ruan Ning's profile, appearing deep and somber against the pitch-black night sky.

"You're awake!" Ruan Ning cried in surprise, reaching out to help him up—but he grabbed her wrist, stopping her.

She met his cold, deep eyes, and the taut string in her heart snapped.

She averted her gaze guiltily, her smile turning awkward. "You just passed out. I was trying to help you. By the way, where's your medicine?"

Ruan Ning saw his dark gaze sweep up and down over her face and held her breath, afraid to even breathe too loudly. Did Bai Xingmiao recognize her?

After all, they'd been online friends for a while now. He should be familiar with her face.

But Bai Xingmiao just closed his eyes weakly, looking pained. Ruan Ning vaguely sensed an indefinable wariness from him.

She hurriedly pulled out her student ID and showed him other things that could prove her identity. "Don't be afraid. I'm Ruan Ning. I'm an Iya student too. I'm here to help you. Please, believe me, okay?"

Bai Xingmiao still kept his eyes tightly shut, his face growing paler. Who knew what he was thinking?

Ruan Ning was about to go crazy. At a life-or-death moment like this, Bai Xingmiao wasn't worried at all. Did he just not care about his own life?

She patiently tried again, her eyes filled with sincere concern. "I'm really not a bad person. Please trust me and tell me where the medicine is, okay? Your condition is dangerous—you need it immediately."

The highly intelligent are always stubborn and unyielding, refusing to change their minds easily. Bai Xingmiao ignored her concern entirely. Suddenly, he coughed violently, his body convulsing and trembling.

Ruan Ning panicked. "This is no time for that! Don't gamble with your life!"

She patted his back to help while struggling to support him. Then, suddenly, she spotted a square, box-like outline in the pocket of his trousers.

Ruan Ning froze, then instantly blushed. The injector was in Bai Xingmiao's thigh pocket... meaning she'd have to reach into his thigh...

Bai Xingmiao wore a pair of well-tailored trousers. Lying flat as he was, the area was compressed and more pronounced. It was easy to spot the outline of an injection pen in his left leg pocket, with folds of fabric rising like mountain ridges that extended down toward his lower abdomen...

Ruan Ning glanced once, then yanked her gaze away as if burned.

What an awkward spot.

Even though Bai Xingmiao didn't trust her, when circumstances were urgent, propriety had to be set aside.

Ruan Ning quickly reached into the pocket. It was right against his thigh, absorbing the boy's body heat. The moment her fingers slipped in, they were enveloped in a wave of warmth.

She'd never touched a boy's thigh in her entire life. Her body stiffened for a second.

"Hiss."

Bai Xingmiao suddenly snapped his eyes open and shot an annoyed glare at the blunt, reckless Ruan Ning.

He'd suddenly felt a foreign object intrude on his thigh. The scorching heat of his body met with a minty coolness, and his spine instantly went rigid. Before Ruan Ning could even get a firm grip, Bai Xingmiao's sudden reaction startled her. In her fluster, she accidentally scraped against his groin. The ticklish sensation at the top of his thigh shot up his spine like an electric current, making Bai Xingmiao's scalp tingle.

"What are you doing?"

The normally cool and taciturn Bai Xingmiao's voice carried a tinge of anger—the first human emotional fluctuation he'd ever shown.

Ruan Ning quickly nodded and apologized. "Sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to. See, I found the medicine. I'll give you the shot right now."

In a flash, she opened the box, pulled off the cap, gripped the pen firmly, and with all her strength jabbed it into Bai Xingmiao's thigh.

Bai Xingmiao let out a muffled groan, as if he could already see the bruise forming on his leg. A flicker of coldness crossed his handsome features. "No need to use that much force..."

Ruan Ning's nose was red at the tip as she twisted her fingers together like a scolded little animal. "Sorry... I was afraid it wouldn't go in."

As the medicine slowly took effect in his body, Bai Xingmiao felt his scorching temperature gradually drop, and his breathing finally came light and smooth.

He had been frail and sickly since birth. As a child, he spent nearly every day lying in a hospital bed, rarely interacting with peers his age. Once he grew a little stronger, he couldn't engage in strenuous exercise, so he often spent time alone in the garden observing celestial bodies, all sorts of rare plants, and insects.

Recently, he'd been simulating insect bioluminescence to create a new material. When he went out at night to test its effects, he passed by the banquet hall of the auditorium and suddenly fell ill, collapsing on the dark road.

When he opened his eyes, he easily recognized the person who'd saved him—Limeng, the one he'd been gaming with for nearly a month now. When she'd changed her avatar, he'd already recognized from the background of the photo that it was the student dormitory at Iya.

He felt no sense of belonging to any region, class, or group in society, and being classmates at the same university didn't make him feel any closer to others. But when he saw the same photo again at Bu Chen's and Jiang Yihao's places, he suddenly realized this girl might be an interesting subject for observation and study.

He looked up at the aggrieved Ruan Ning. "You're the one who saved me just now?"

Ruan Ning hastily sniffled, her eyes instantly turning bright and sparkling as she answered loudly, "Yes, yes, yes! It was me, no mistake!"