The room was done in natural wood.

Almost all the furniture in it was wood, and the effect was plain and clean.

Chen Qingqing walked Xu Ye into the room and dumped him on the bed.

The moment he went down he had no intention of getting up again. He was in that state where the mind is perfectly clear and the head is faintly swimming.

In a state like that, every worry gets pushed aside.

Seeing him lying there like a dead pig, Chen Qingqing got the travel mug out of her bag, came over to the side of the bed and hollered at him. "Get up and drink some hot water."

"Don't want to."

Chen Qingqing knelt on the soft bed and reached over to tug at his ear. "Hurry up. If you don't drink it I'm not taking care of you."

Only then did Xu Ye push his upper body up off the bed, and then, entirely without shame, he leaned back into her arms. Under Chen Qingqing's "coercion" he drank half a cup of hot water with red dates steeping in it, and his stomach did feel a little better for it.

"I've already told my mom we're going back tomorrow evening, so we need to get to bed early tonight."

"All right."

"Then go and take your shower."

"It isn't even eight o'clock."

"Shower early. What's wrong with showering early and going to bed early?"

Xu Ye rubbed his head and sat up on the bed. He gave himself a moment, then got up to go and shower — but on the way he noticed a wooden sliding door on the other side of the room, and curiosity got the better of him and he pulled it open.

Outside was a very small courtyard, about the size of a balcony. And in it, of all things, was a hot-spring pool with steam coming off it. The pool was tiny, maybe a little bigger than a bathtub, and there was bamboo planted all around the edge of the courtyard. It looked like a set out of…