"Hello. Could you get me a box of 999 cold remedy, please."

"Certainly."

"Do you have banlangen?"

"We do."

"I'll take a packet of that as well."

[TL: 板蓝根 (banlangen) — isatis root granules, dissolved in hot water. It is the standard Chinese household answer to a cold, and it is very common.]

In the pharmacy, Zhang Ruowei took the cold remedy and the banlangen from the clerk, and then she suddenly smiled and asked, "Do you have the kind of cold medicine that's a white pill? The kind you took as a child. The really bitter one."

"For a cold, the 999 on its own is enough. It's best not to mix several medicines together — all medicine is three parts poison, after all."

"True. I'll just take these two, then."

Zhang Ruowei paid. Twenty minutes later she reached the upscale complex where Zhao Ming lived, and took the elevator straight up to his door.

She still remembered the code. She keyed it in, pressed the confirm button, and the door opened.

He hadn't changed it.

There was nobody at all in the living room.

She looked down, and a clean pair of slippers had been set out by the door.

Zhang Ruowei kept a straight face with some difficulty, changed her shoes and went in, then called quietly into the apartment. "Zhao Ming? Zhao Ming?"

On the bed, Zhao Ming — already feeling somewhat off after the cold shower — heard her voice and answered at once. "I'm in the bedroom."

Zhang Ruowei followed the sound to the bedroom door, saw Zhao Ming lying on the bed, and walked over.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm all right. I just don't have any strength."

Looking at the state of him, Zhang Ruowei began to wonder: since when has this man's acting been this good? He looks like he really does have a cold.

"You lie there. I'll go mix the medicine."

"Mm."

She had been here once before and had gone all around the place then, so this time she already knew her way around.

She filled a cup…