Chapter 187 185. Might as Well Give Up~
Late at night, An Han was woken by the coughing sounds from next door.
Half-asleep, she turned over and picked up her phone to check the time, only to find it was just one in the morning.
I’m hungry…
Rubbing her flat stomach, she sniffed her reddened nose and couldn’t help sneezing.
“Ha—choo!”
It was still raining outside. The drizzle made autumn feel like winter had arrived early. An Han had barely stretched her arms out of the blankets when she was frozen stiff and immediately burrowed back inside, even pulling the covers over her head.
“This damn weather…”
“I want to eat something.”
But even if she ordered takeout, she didn’t want to get up to fetch it.
And even if she fetched it, she didn’t want to crawl out of bed to eat.
So troublesome.
The pajama shirt she’d just bought was a summer style. When she moved into the rental, she’d thought she could finally enjoy the coolness of autumn—but after only a week, the wildly fluctuating temperatures of the season had thoroughly taught her a lesson.
Rustling around under the covers, she put on an outer layer before shivering her way out of bed. When she ran to the bathroom, her legs trembled so badly from the cold that she could barely stand.
“Cough! Cough!”
Su Peng’s coughing grew even more wrenching, sounding as if his condition had worsened.
As soon as she came out of the bathroom, her gaze fell on the wall. After a brief hesitation, she stepped out into the hallway and knocked on the door next door.
After a long while with no response, An Han tentatively tried the doorknob, only to find it cracked open.
“You didn’t lock the door?”
The room was pitch-black. She poked her head inside and could barely make out Su Peng’s silhouette sitting at the head of the bed.
“Why are you coughing so badly?”
“Too much phlegm. My throat’s itchy.” Su Peng’s voice was hoarse and distorted.
Feeling along the wall, An Han turned on the light. “You kept coughing and woke me up.”
“The soundproofing here is terrible,” Su Peng said weakly with a bitter smile.
His eyelids were fighting to close, but the intermittent coughing kept him from sleeping properly. An Han pulled over the chair by the desk and sat down, elbows on her thighs, chin in her hands, watching him.
She wasn’t sleepy at all. Seeing how uncomfortable Su Peng looked made her feel a little heartache. Logically, this was when someone should take care of a sick person—but she had no idea how to care for someone, and she was also worried that spending too much time with Su Peng would drag her back into that strange, confusing state.
Besides, taking good care of him would only raise his affection again, making him even more clingy.
Better to fill her stomach first—but late-night snacks might make her gain weight.
“Are you hungry?” she asked after a long moment of consideration.
Su Peng shook his head.
“You’re hungry, then~” She took out her phone and ordered food. “Barbecue or McDonald’s? Those are the only things you can get this late.”
If two people ate together, then gaining weight together wouldn’t matter.
She ordered McDonald’s, too pained to even look at the total, casually set her phone down on the desk behind her, then asked Su Peng, “So if you don’t get better over the weekend, you’ll have to be hospitalized, right?”
“Probably.”
Hospitalization would be good—then he wouldn’t cling to her.
Yet, even though she didn’t want to admit it, if she went too long without interacting with Su Peng, she’d feel emotionally low, like withdrawal.
And now, just looking at his listless appearance, just seeing that face, made her feel inexplicably happy…
An Han began to suspect that this might be her own issue, not the system’s.
“Oh, right.” Su Peng suddenly spoke. He opened the drawer of the bedside table, took out a small bottle, and tossed it to An Han.
She fumbled and caught it, just about to ask when he explained, “I saw your face peeling a lot, so I bought you a moisturizing skincare product.”
“I’m too lazy to use stuff like that,” An Han muttered, wanting to refuse the gift.
“It cost me several hundred.”
That made her even more afraid to accept it, yet she still asked curiously, “You know about skincare?”
“No. I just figured if it was expensive, it should work.”
“……”
Su Peng coughed hard again, his body bouncing against the headboard.
An Han felt her heart clench instinctively.
She set the small bottle aside and wanted to get closer to check on him, but felt that doing so would make her seem overly attentive.
An impulse urged her to care for and look after Su Peng in his current state, while reason warned her about being bent out of shape—about falling for a man…
“Um… are you okay?”
“I’m fine. You get used to it after coughing enough.”
Feeling restless under his gaze, she finally headed for the door. “I’ll go back and wait for the food. Want me to bring some over later?”
“Sure.”
Her mind was full of Su Peng’s weak, spiritless 모습…
She even felt guilty leaving.
Out in the hallway, An Han let out a heavy sigh and irritably scratched at her hair.
【Option One: Ignore Su Peng’s illness. Reward: A sports car
Option Two: Carefully take care of him over the next two days and help his condition improve. Reward: Item—Luck Card
Option Three: Just show occasional concern. Reward: Random attribute points】
“I’m already conflicted enough, and now you pop out to stir things up,” An Han muttered after returning to her room. “Aren’t you just making it worse?”
“So what the system means is that ignoring his illness will cause serious consequences? Or that the rewards will be hard to claim?”
The previous “windfall” task had been low difficulty with no serious consequences, and completing it had been fairly easy—but claiming the reward had been extremely tricky. One slip-up and she could’ve been completely cleaned out by those persistent scammers.
Luckily, she’d already counted the bonus Wang Sheng gave her as the reward; otherwise, she really might’ve been fooled by the fake prize calls.
Looking at the countdown on the choice task, An Han scanned the three options again and finally decided to give up and let it go.
She slumped over the desk and sighed, “Random is fine. I can accept anything.”
“Ignore his illness—easy task, but I probably won’t get the reward.”
“Taking care of Su Peng isn’t impossible.”
“Occasional concern is even more acceptable. Just keep things as they are…”
【Countdown ended. Randomly selected: Option Two】
“Of course!”
An Han’s eyes lit up, and only then did she focus on the reward.
A Luck Card sounded pretty good—she just didn’t know where the catch was.
The reward didn’t matter. What mattered was that she could now use “being forced by the system” as an excuse to convince herself, and go take care of Su Peng with a clear conscience.
Afraid of raising affection? Afraid of having her orientation bent?
Wasn’t this the system forcing her?
Excited, An Han opened the door to head for Su Peng’s room—but just as she took a step out, she heard loud snoring from next door.
Between exhaustion and nasal congestion from the flu, Su Peng’s snores were so loud they were clearly audible even from the hallway.
An Han paused, then slipped off her slippers and tiptoed barefoot into Su Peng’s room. In the darkness, she felt around, using the faint glow of her phone screen to locate Su Peng’s room key.
Like a thief, she crept out on tiptoe, locked Su Peng’s door from the outside, and slid the key back through the crack…
“Sleeping without locking the door—seriously, unbelievable.”
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