It was still dark outside. Snow hadn’t yet melted from the streets, and red Spring Festival couplets newly pasted on shopfronts flapped loudly in the cold wind. Qin Weidong walked ahead while Fang Li followed close behind.
The sudden upheaval had shaken the young master, who, while not exactly pampered, had still been coddled for nineteen years. Now, the picky airs he once had were gone. He walked through the snow without complaint.
Qin Weidong glanced back and noticed Fang Li’s shoes were soaked. Without a word, he stepped back, squatted down, and lifted Fang Li onto his back.
“What are you doing?”
Qin Weidong exhaled, his breath instantly turning to mist. “You don’t need to walk.”
Crunching through the snow, they finally reached the entrance of a gold shop. Qin Weidong used his boot to sweep the snow off the steps before setting Fang Li down.
The owner of Dawang Gold Shop was surnamed Xu. He was from a nearby town in Suixing. Years ago, he’d suffered a mining accident that left him with a crippled leg. After that, he opened a secondhand gold recovery shop in the county. He’d had some dealings with the Fang family’s ore business.
As soon as he saw Qin Weidong, Mr. Xu’s face changed. He rushed over, pulled him inside, and shut the door tightly behind them.
“Weidong! What are you doing here in Suixing? Is it true? Old Fang really ran off? I heard from folks back home that the workers at the Baishanling mine are out looking for Fang Hongqing and the Fang family’s kid to collect on their debts…”
His gaze landed behind Weidong, and he exclaimed in shock, “You brought him with you?!”
“He’s my young master.”
“Oh come on, at a time like this? That Fang Hongqing still owes you wages, doesn’t he? Why didn’t you go with them to get what’s owed to you? And now you’re dragging him along—aren’t you asking for trouble at a time like this…?”
Mr. Xu tugged on Qin Weidong’s sleeve and lifted the curtain, motioning him to come talk behind the counter.
Qin Weidong hesitated, then took the car keys and the last few bills he had and placed them in Fang Li’s hand. “I’m going to talk to Uncle Xu. Wait for me here.”
Fang Li’s eyes were vacant, but he nodded. Only then did Qin Weidong step behind the counter with the shopkeeper. He didn’t shut the door completely—just left it slightly ajar so that Fang Li could still see him the whole time.
To be honest, Mr. Xu was in a tough spot. The news that Fang Hongqing had run off with ore and several hundred thousand in cash had already spread that morning—no one had expected such a thing to happen during the New Year.
Originally, Qin Weidong might’ve been able to distance himself from the whole mess and take up a job at the shop. But after last night—when he stopped the crowd of workers from storming the Fang family estate and got into that fight—it was as good as declaring where he stood. Now, things were bad. The miners, having lost their wages, were furious. They called him the Fang family’s lapdog, nothing more than a damn guard dog.
Mr. Xu didn’t dare hire him. He only said he had a friend back in Yanhua County and would ask if there were any openings there.
Qin Weidong thanked him. Mr. Xu hesitated for a moment, glanced toward the door, and asked if the old pickup truck Fang Hongqing had used was still around. If it hadn’t been sold yet, maybe they could sell it off for scrap—he’d be willing to offer a price.
Qin Weidong didn’t respond. That truck had been bought by Fang Hongqing years ago from another mine. It was practically falling apart now, but as run-down as it was, it was still the most valuable thing they had left.
When he stepped out, he saw Fang Li slumped on a bench, head tilted awkwardly, resting against the wall.
“Lili?”
Fang Li didn’t respond. Qin Weidong reached out to touch his forehead—it was burning hot. Alarmed, he quickly asked Mr. Xu where the nearest hospital or clinic was. Without even saying goodbye, he hoisted Fang Li onto his back and rushed off.
Bounced around on Qin Weidong’s back, Fang Li started to stir.
“Qin Weidong, my eyelids are burning… my body aches all over…” Sweat began to bead on Fang Li’s forehead, mixing with melting snow.
“Hang in there. Once we get to the hospital, it’ll be okay.”
Fang Li had always been frail, the kind of child locals described as having a soft melon’s flesh—easily bruised, easily hurt. After everything that had happened, it had simply overwhelmed him, triggering a high fever.
Drifting in and out of consciousness, he lowered his head and saw that the wound above Qin Weidong’s brow was bleeding again. He reached out and gently wiped it away, then blew on it. “We’ll get you looked at too when we get there.”
Qin Weidong didn’t answer. Fang Li, jostled by his movements, started to feel nauseous. “Are you even listening…?!”
“I hear you. But don’t talk—you’ll catch a chill.”
Fang Li nodded, then kept wiping at the blood trickling from Qin Weidong’s brow. He did it the whole way there, until his cotton jacket sleeves were stained dark red. When they burst into the small clinic’s reception, the sudden sight of them startled everyone. The taller boy’s blood was streaming down his temple, dripping off his chin. The boy on his back was flushed red with fever.
“You’ll need to register for both of you,” the receptionist said.
“Just one for now,” Qin Weidong replied, pulling two crumpled bills out of his pocket.
“Alright, go queue over there.”
Once inside, the doctor initially assumed Qin Weidong was the patient. But Qin Weidong wiped the warmth-clouded sweat from his glasses and said, “Doctor, it’s him—he’s running a fever.”
The doctor was surprised, only then noticing the nearly unconscious boy in his arms. He first took Fang Li’s temperature, then used a stethoscope to listen to his chest. After a moment, he frowned slightly and asked, “Has he ever had a check-up before?”
“No. Why would he?”
“There’s a murmur in his heartbeat,” the doctor said, taking off the stethoscope and scribbling a note on a slip of paper. “For now, we need to bring the fever down. If it drags on too long, it could cause lasting damage. But you really should take him to the county hospital for an ECG and a cardiac ultrasound.”
Qin Weidong was stunned. “A what?”
The doctor glanced at him impatiently. “To check if your brother has a heart condition. We can’t do that here, and we can’t make a diagnosis either. Did you pay for your head injury? Are you still being seen? There are people waiting.”
“No need,” Qin Weidong said.
The doctor waved in the next patient.
Silently, Qin Weidong picked up the slip, hoisted Fang Li back onto his back, and went out to the hallway, weaving through a few patients sitting crookedly on benches with IVs in their arms, looking for the pharmacy window. Fang Li’s foot accidentally nudged one of the IV tubes, and Qin Weidong apologized quietly.
Fang Li’s whole body ached from the fever. In a daze, he mumbled, “Qin Weidong, did they check your wound?”
“They did. It’s fine.”
Fang Li relaxed a little and nodded, resting his head again on Qin Weidong’s back. “What did the doctor say? Do I need a shot?”
“Yeah, just a quick one.”
Fang Li forced himself to stay conscious, his feverish fingers reaching up to pinch Qin Weidong’s cheek. “Then why do you look worse than me…? Does your wound hurt?”
“It doesn’t hurt.”
Fang Li was puzzled. He was the one about to get a shot—so why did Qin Weidong look so pale?
Qin Weidong turned his head and gently pressed a kiss to Fang Li’s forehead. “You’ll need to be brave when they give you the shot, okay? You’re a young man now.”
“I don’t want to be brave…”
Fang Li pouted. He had always been afraid of doctors. The thought of a shot made him want to cry.
“Can I not be a man? You’re so mean. I feel awful—so awful. Why do you have to make me be a man…?”
The whole situation had erupted so suddenly, and the little money Qin Weidong had brought with him was nearly gone. After paying the fees, he gently comforted Fang Li as the nurse approached. “Okay, then don’t be one. I was wrong, Lili.”
Fang Li felt a little better.
But the fever made him so miserable. His eyelids felt like they’d been melted shut, fused to his face, too heavy to lift.
Qin Weidong let Fang Li lean against him. The gash on his brow was deep, not healing, and fresh blood kept seeping out. Yet he seemed completely numb to the pain, as if the blood didn’t even belong to him.
A young nurse, newly graduated from medical school, couldn’t bear the sight. She called Qin Weidong into a back room and stitched him up with needle and thread. He didn’t make a sound throughout. When she was done, she said, “Okay, you’re all set. You’ve got quite the pain tolerance. Just be careful not to get it wet these next few days.”
She didn’t add what she was really thinking: with such a handsome face, it’d be a real shame if it scarred…
Her cheeks flushed, and she didn’t dare meet Qin Weidong’s eyes.
He thanked her and asked for directions to the county hospital. Meanwhile, the pharmacy had finished preparing the medication, and someone was calling Fang Li’s name.
When it came time for the shot, Fang Li’s entire little face scrunched up tight. First they injected his backside, then the back of his hand. The small clinic only had four beds, all taken, so he had to sit on a long wooden bench outside for the IV drip.
The cold fluid entered his veins, making him shiver. Qin Weidong draped his leather jacket over him and wrapped one of Fang Li’s hands in his own to warm it.
Fang Li saw an old woman nearby picking up medicine and couldn’t hold back the tears in his eyes. “Granny is still at home…”
Qin Weidong comforted him gently, “I already asked Peng Chao to help. He’s taken care of everything for Granny.”
There was nothing they could do now. They couldn’t go back to Chongsi, and they had no idea where to go next.
Fang Li dozed off, feverish and hazy. When he woke up, there was still more than half a bottle left to drip.
“The last time I got a shot was when I was really little.”
He turned his head and saw Qin Weidong with his eyes cast down. His brow was freshly bandaged, and his face was drawn with worry.
“Do you remember…? Back then I was so scared of the pain, I just wouldn’t go to the clinic. You and Grandma tried forever to coax me. I got so upset that I made you go first, to see if it hurt before I’d agree…”
Fang Li lowered his voice. “Who would’ve thought you’d take it so seriously—you actually grabbed one of Grandma’s needles and stabbed yourself. I was terrified. And then you told me, ‘Yeah, it hurts.’”
Of course, Qin Weidong remembered. It wasn’t until they got to the clinic that they realized injection needles weren’t the same as the ones for sewing pillows or quilts. The two puncture marks on the back of his hand had scarred slightly—and to this day, the faint marks were still there.
Fang Li smiled faintly and said, “How could you be so stupid?”
That smile, even tinged with exhaustion and pale from illness, was what relieved Qin Weidong’s weariness the most. He smoothed Fang Li’s hair, and his body—tense for what felt like the entire night—finally eased a little. “You were always tricking me.”
But coming from Qin Weidong’s lips, there was no hint of reproach.
Seeing Qin Weidong relax at last, Fang Li started to get sleepy again. He really was exhausted. He squeezed Qin Weidong’s fingers gently. “I just wanted you to test if it hurt first… Isn’t that your job?”
“It is.”
Qin Weidong looked at him and replied softly.
Axolotl Translations 
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