Chapter 185: Just Let It Be~
Late at night, An Han was woken up by coughing sounds from the next room. She turned over sleepily, picked up her phone, and saw that it was only 1 a.m.
Hungry...
Rubbing her small, flat belly, she sniffled, her red nose twitching before she sneezed.
“Ha–choo!”
It was still raining outside. The drizzle had made this autumn feel like winter had already begun. As soon as An Han stretched her arms out from under the blanket, the cold forced her to pull them back in and even hide her whole head under the blanket.
“This damn weather…”
“I want to eat something…”
But she didn’t even want to get up to grab food if she ordered delivery. And even if she did get it, she didn’t want to leave her warm bed to eat it.
So hard to decide.
Her newly bought pajama shirt was meant for summer. When she first moved into this rental place, she thought she could finally enjoy the cool autumn breeze. But after just one week, the changing temperature had completely defeated her.
After squirming around in the blanket, she finally managed to put on a jacket underneath, then got up shivering and ran to the bathroom. Her legs were trembling from the cold.
“Cough! Cough!”
Su Peng’s coughing sounded even worse now, like his throat was being torn apart.
When she came out of the bathroom, she glanced toward the wall. After a short hesitation, she stepped out into the hallway and knocked on the door next to hers.
There was no response. An Han tried turning the doorknob, and to her surprise, the door opened a little.
“You didn’t lock the door?”
The room was dark. She peeked inside and saw Su Peng sitting at the head of the bed.
“Why are you coughing so badly?”
“Too much phlegm. My throat’s itchy,” Su Peng said, his voice so hoarse it sounded distorted.
Feeling around the wall, An Han turned on the light. “You’ve been coughing so much you woke me up.”
“The soundproofing here’s terrible,” Su Peng said with a tired smile.
His eyelids kept drooping, but his constant coughing made it impossible for him to sleep.
An Han dragged a chair from the computer desk, sat down, rested her elbows on her knees, and cupped her face in her hands as she looked at him.
She wasn’t sleepy anymore. Watching him suffer made her feel a little sorry for him. Normally, this would be the time to take care of a sick person, but she had no idea how to do that.
And she also worried that spending too much time with him would trigger more “intimacy points” or whatever nonsense the system liked to mess with.
Besides, if she took good care of him, his affection would only grow, and then he’d cling to her even more.
Maybe she should just eat something first. But eating a late-night snack meant gaining weight…
“Are you hungry?” she asked after thinking for a while.
Su Peng shook his head.
“You are hungry~,” she said, taking out her phone to order food. “Barbecue or McDonald’s? These are the only two options at this hour.”
If she got fat, at least someone else would get fat with her.
She ordered McDonald’s, feeling too guilty to even look at the total price. Putting her phone on the desk behind her, she asked, “So if you’re still not better after the weekend, you’ll have to go to the hospital, right?”
“Yeah, probably.”
Good, if he’s hospitalized, I won’t have to deal with him.
But even though she didn’t want to admit it, if she didn’t see Su Peng for a long time, she’d probably feel strangely empty and moody, like withdrawal symptoms.
And right now, just looking at his tired, weak face somehow made her feel… happy.
An Han began to wonder if maybe she was the problem, not the system.
“Oh, right,” Su Peng suddenly said.
He opened the drawer by his bed, took out a small bottle, and tossed it to An Han.
An Han fumbled and caught the little bottle. She was about to ask a question, but he spoke first, “I saw your skin peeling. I bought you a hydrating skin product.”
“I’m too lazy to use that,” An Han muttered, wanting to refuse the gift. “You spent a few hundred on it, I think.”
Now she felt even more reluctant, but she still asked curiously, “You know about skincare?”
“No. I just saw the price was high, so it should work.”
Su Peng coughed hard a few more times, his body bouncing against the headboard. An Han felt her heart tighten.
She put the small bottle aside and thought about getting closer to check on him, but then felt that would be too attentive.
Part of her wanted to take care of him, and part of her was afraid she’d end up liking a man because of it.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I’m fine. You get used to coughing.”
Watching his face, she felt uneasy, so she stood and walked toward the door. “I’ll go back and wait for the delivery. I can bring some to you later.”
“That’s fine.”
Her head filled with images of Su Peng looking weak. Even leaving made her feel guilty. In the hallway she sighed and nervously ran her fingers through her hair.
[Option 1: Ignore Su Peng’s illness. Reward: a sports car]
[Option 2: Carefully take care of him for two days so he gets better. Reward: a Good Luck Card item]
[Option 3: Check on him occasionally. Reward: random stat points]
“I’m already torn, and now the system shows up to make it worse.” An Han muttered when she returned to her room. “Does the system mean ignoring him will cause something bad? Or will it make getting the reward hard?”
The earlier “unexpected money” task had been easy but collecting the reward was messy, scammers nearly took the money. She was glad she had already taken Wang Sheng’s prize money as that reward. Otherwise, she might have been fooled by the scam calls.
She looked at the task timer and the three choices again, then decided to “give up”, to slack off. She flopped on the table and sighed, “Random is fine. I’ll accept anything.”
“Ignoring his illness is easy, but you probably won’t get the reward.”
“Taking care of Su Peng is possible.”
“Occasional concern is easiest, keep things as they are…”
[Timer ended. Random choice: Task Two]
“Of course!” An Han’s eyes lit up.
She checked the task reward. The Good Luck Card looked good, though she wasn’t sure what catch it might have. The reward didn’t matter as much as having a reason. Now she could say, “The system made me do it,” and feel justified to take care of Su Peng.
Worried about his affection level rising? Worried about changing her feelings? The system made me do it! she told herself.
She hurried toward Su Peng’s room, but stopped when she heard snores through the thin wall. Fatigue and a blocked nose from the flu made Su Peng snore loudly enough to be heard down the hall.
An Han paused, took off her slippers, and, barefoot, tiptoed into his room like a thief. Using the faint light from her phone, she found the key on his desk. She stepped quietly to the door, locked it from the outside, and pushed the key back through the gap.
“Not locking your door at night, you really have nerve.”