The sickly one in F4 was the group's darling.

Bai Jiheng's eyebrows twitched slightly, his gaze shifting between the two men, a glint of anticipation already appearing in his eyes. He had tossed this hot potato to his elder brother in the corridor earlier, and after waiting for a while without any follow-up, he had assumed Bai Ci had forgotten about it. Now it seemed that this man simply had a slow reaction time; he wouldn't escape asking any of the questions that were supposed to be asked.

He leisurely stared at Bai Yanzhi, waiting to see how his older brother would respond.

Seeing that his eldest brother didn't speak, Bai Ci said again, "Eldest brother, I just asked third brother—"

"He asked who took him to the infirmary that night." Bai Jiheng immediately interrupted, steer the question toward Bai Yanzhi, "I said I don't remember clearly, and asked my older brother to tell him."

After he finished speaking, he adopted an attitude of "I'll just take care of bringing up Bai Ci's issues, and you can handle the rest, brother."

Bai Yanzhi's gaze lingered on Bai Jiheng's face for a moment.

Bai Jiheng raised an eyebrow at him slightly: You're better at making things up than I am.

Bai Yanzhi lowered his eyes, looking at Bai Ci's upturned face. That face still had the pallor of someone recovering from illness, her lips were pale, but her eyes were bright and staring at him with complete trust.

He mentally went over all the things he couldn't say before speaking.

"When I entered your room, you were already lying on the floor."

Bai Ci blinked blankly: "And then?"

"Pick you up and have Uncle Chen notify Dr. Qin immediately."

Bai Ci waited a moment. That was it? Just those two sentences? Confirming that his older brother had really finished speaking, the expression on his face changed from expectant to confused: "...That's it?"

"that's all."

Bai Jiheng silently gave his elder brother a perfect score in his heart after hearing this explanation.

The timeline matches, the cause-and-effect logic is coherent, the tone is steady, and there's no deception involved. However, the answer is almost the same as not answering at all. As expected of a seasoned old fox in the business world, even a lie can be made up so smoothly.

Bai Ci turned her gaze to Bai Jiheng, trying to get some additional information from her third brother: "Third brother, you just said in the ward that eldest brother was extremely worried—"

Bai Jiheng smoothed things over, saying, "Yes, that's what I said. Think about it, in the middle of the night, you're lying on the ground. Who wouldn't be worried? They'd be extremely worried. What else could it mean?"

After saying that, he subtly gave Bai Yanzhi a look, the subtext being: Brother, I've covered for you, you're welcome.

Bai Ci turned back to look at Bai Yanzhi, at his calm and composed face.

He suddenly realized something: if his older brother didn't want to tell him, it must be for his own good. Just like he hadn't told his older brother that a rabbit spirit lived inside this shell. It wasn't distrust, it was not wanting to hurt him. This is probably the gentle way people interact.

"Okay." He nodded and responded softly. "I'll definitely remember to close the window next time."

Bai Yanzhi looked at him and remained silent for a moment.

Then he said, "Okay."

Bai Jiheng spoke up at the right moment, turning the subject completely over: "Alright, stop thinking about those things. Just focus on recovering now, and don't worry about anything else."

Bai Ci nodded obediently: "I understand, Third Brother."

Upon reaching the second floor and turning the corner, one could see Bai Ci's door wide open, with Uncle Chen directing two servants to carry things into the room.

Bai Ci walked to the door and glanced inside.

The room's windows had been replaced with an automatic closing system, with sensor strips embedded in the window frames. Uncle Chen stood by the window, demonstrating to one of the maids how to manually set the temperature threshold. The heating had been turned on in advance, maintaining a comfortable room temperature. On the bedside table sat the same lamp and the small white porcelain vase. The pale purple flowers had been replaced with a new bunch, blooming even more profusely than the previous night, and the curtains had been changed to a thicker fabric.

Uncle Chen saw him standing at the door, bowed slightly, and said in a gentle tone, "Young Master, the room is all ready. If there's anything you're not satisfied with, please let me know."

"Thank you, Uncle Chen," he said softly.

"It's my duty." Uncle Chen bowed to the three of them and left quietly with the servants.

Bai Ci stood at the door, her gaze falling on the brand-new sensor strip on the window frame.

It was silver-gray and perfectly fitted, clearly made overnight.

He suddenly remembered that night when he opened the door after taking a shower. A cold wind rushed in through the wide-open window. Before the chill could even creep up his arms, his consciousness was cut off. It happened so fast that he didn't even have time to shout.

He thought he would get a scolding.

At the very least, you'll get a few complaints. How could you be so careless? Why didn't you close the window after showering? Why do you always cause me so much worry?

But no one criticized him.

Not a single word.

The older brother simply had the windows replaced overnight.

My eyes suddenly became wet.

He blinked rapidly, trying to force back the tears. But a tremor in his eyelashes caused a tear to fall, rolling down his pale cheek and landing with a splat on the back of his hand, burning him so much that he was startled.

It was so embarrassing. Standing at the door of the room, with nothing wrong and his older brothers standing behind him, he suddenly found his eyes reddening and couldn't stop the tears from flowing.

He raised his sleeve to wipe his eyes, but in his haste, the cuff brushed against the corner of his eye, making his eyelids red. Tears rolled down his cheeks again. He stared at the wet stains on the back of his hand, his lips pressed tightly together, his shoulders tense, his back stiff, desperately trying to stop himself, but the more he tried to hold back, the more he couldn't.

Tears fell silently, one after another, without even a sob, just streaming down my face, as if something that had been accumulating for a very long time had finally found an outlet that shouldn't have come out but could no longer be contained.

Bai Jiheng was about to walk into the room when he saw Bai Ci rub his eyes with the back of his hand, put the cloth bag he was carrying on the side table in the corridor, stride up to Bai Ci, and bend down to look at his face.

"What's wrong? Where does it hurt? Is your chest tight? Or are you dizzy again?"

Bai Ci shook his head, unable to speak. He felt that if he opened his mouth, his voice would definitely crack.

"Then why are you crying?" Bai Jiheng cupped his face in one hand, wiping away the endless tears with his thumb. His movements were clumsy, and his tone was urgent. "You were fine just now, how come you suddenly—"

Halfway through his sentence, he followed Bai Ci's gaze and saw the brand-new sensor strip on the window frame, and then looked at the newly replaced light purple floral vase on the bedside table.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say, "Just because of this? You're crying because we changed a window?", but the words wouldn't come out. He suddenly remembered Bai Ci's question in the corridor earlier, "How were you taken to the infirmary that night?" His older brother had only said three words—"Just like that." He also remembered how he had confidently covered for him, saying things like, "He was really worried, that's all."

He thought the matter was over. But when the little guy stood at the door of the room and saw that the window had been changed, the flowers had been changed, and the curtains had been changed, he realized that someone cared about him. So he silently shed tears, too embarrassed to even cry out loud.