If You Get Fever, Call Me

When Xie Yuansheng paused, he kept his hand on his forehead. Feng Xinying opened the door fully and stepped in his bedroom. She went near him and placed her hand on his forehead. He turned his head to see her and feebly smiled. He was burning with fever.

Feng Xinying felt very guilty. Because of her he was drenched in the rain. "But the umbrella was so small that he was trying to take advantage of me," she thought. "No, it seems he just wanted to save himself from that rain." Thinking that Feng Xinying became uncomfortable. This was the second time he had got fever because of her.

The first thing she did was to fetch the medical kit and take out the medicine for him. She gave him an anti allergic and a fever medicine. She used to take that combination back in America whenever she got the flu.

She switched off his air condition and covered him with the blanket.

"Thanks," came a shaky reply from him.

She nodded and asked, "Would you like to have some tea?"

"No… don't bother… I will be fine," he replied.

But she insisted and went to the kitchen to prepare ginger and honey tea for him. She brought the tea for him.

"I won't have tea, Feng Xinying," he protested like a baby.

"But it will help you, Xie Yuansheng," she coaxed him.

"No, I don't feel like having anything. Plus tea will make my sleep disappear," he protested again.

"Xie Yuansheng, I have added ginger and honey in it. It will help you soothe your throat. Please have it," she coaxed him further.

When she saw that Xie Yuansheng just turned his head the other side she went up to him and pulled him up and forced him to have tea.

"Xinying, I don't want to have it!" he would keep saying that in between the sips. But she ensured that he finished the entire tea.

Once he had had it, he felt better. The medicines' effect also started kicking in. He felt drowsy. He looked at Feng Xinyin, smiled and slept off. Once again Feng Xinying had to sleep in his room near him. However, that night he didn't disturb her at all. They slept peacefully. In the night she felt warmth near her. She was very tired and the warmth was so inviting that she snuggled into it.

He had woken up and seeing that Feng Xinying was right there beside him, he slid next to her. But he was surprised when she turned towards him and snuggled into his chest. Xie Yuansheng wrapped his arms around her affectionately.

In the morning when she woke up, Feng Xinying found herself wrapped around him while he was snoring in his sleep. She removed her hands and legs from him and sprang out of the bed.

Quietly she went out of his room. Now she was not only guilty of what she did to him, she was ashamed of herself for sleeping around him. She got ready and dressed for the office. Then she again peeped in his room. He was still sleeping. She decided to go to the office but wondered if he would be fine. So she wrote a note and kept it beside him, which said,

[If you get fever, call me.]

The office was a different place without Yun Chen. She worked calmly without feeling those hateful glares from Yun Chen. Almost everyone on the office floor was cheerful that day. It was not even 11AM when she received a call from Xie Yuansheng. She picked the call.

"Xinying, I am having fever," he complained as soon as she picked the phone.

"Don't panic. The medicine is right on the table that is beside your cupboard," she replied.

There was a pause as she heard him walking. "No there is no medicine here," he replied.

"But I kept it there," she said flustered. She had kept the medicine there in the morning before leaving for the office.

"Oh, okay, I found it," he said and disconnected the call.

Fifteen minutes later he called again. "Xinying, the fever isn't coming down," he said with a weak voice.

"Xie Yuansheng, if it doesn't go down in the next fifteen minutes, I will come over," she said almost chiding him because he was acting like a baby.

The call was disconnected.

Feng Xinying went back to the computer screen to look at the project that she was reading about. She realized that in these few days he had taught her so much. The business proposal that she had made to show him was so pathetic in front of all those she had seen so far now.

Fifteen minutes later, he called her again.