Chapter Ninety: I Am Truly Not a Big Star

A sneeze escaped him. “Nurse, could you maybe move a little faster with that needle? This drip is going to take at least an hour, right? I’ve still got class this afternoon, and I’m in a hurry.”

Chen Fan felt chilly all over, his face looking rather poor. Yesterday he had been drenched through, then spent an hour being blasted by cold wind on the bus, and when he got back he went and took a cold shower on top of that. No wonder he had thoroughly wrecked himself.

Wu Qiqi fumbled frantically for a while before finally finishing the disinfection procedure. She held the IV needle with utter concentration, looking even more nervous than Chen Fan.

“Sorry about that. I’m an intern, so I might be a little slow.” She first turned the drip rate down to the very lowest setting, then aimed at the vein on Chen Fan’s wrist and carefully inserted the needle.

Chen Fan stared wide-eyed. The school infirmary even had interns? That was terrifying beyond belief.

“Um… did you put it in the wrong place?” Chen Fan asked uneasily, glancing over and noticing that the needle seemed to have gone in at an angle.

“Oh dear, I’m so sorry. I’ll pull it out and do it again.” Wu Qiqi pushed up her pink-rimmed glasses and hurriedly withdrew the needle.

Chen Fan pointed at the IV bottle and asked, “Shouldn’t you usually insert the needle first and then open the drip? Why did you open it first…”

Wu Qiqi turned back to look and realized she really had made a mistake. She clutched her head, at a complete loss.

“Forget it. Let’s just switch to a new IV needle. The one you used already brushed against my hair.” Chen Fan was utterly speechless. If the other person hadn’t been a quiet girl with short hair, he might have blown up on the spot.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’ll go get a new one right away.” Wu Qiqi apologized repeatedly, then dashed off and quickly returned with a fresh IV needle.

“Should we call the head nurse to do it? You’re this nervous now—what if something else goes wrong?” Chen Fan still didn’t feel at ease and asked a couple more questions.

Wu Qiqi said aggrievedly, “Several nurses happen to be on maternity leave during this period, and most of the rest are rookies. I’m actually one of the more experienced ones among them. There aren’t many infusion cases here; most of what we do is simple care.”

Chen Fan immediately dropped the idea. Good heavens, he couldn’t let a bunch of interns use him as practice. Absolutely not.

This time the needle went in fairly smoothly, but Wu Qiqi forgot to adjust the drip speed back again. Only after Chen Fan reminded her did she remember.

“You’re almost graduated and you still work like this? That’s worrying.” Chen Fan teased with a smile.

Wu Qiqi pouted. “I’m only a junior this year. I still have two years left.”

Chen Fan also noticed the ornament on her wrist. The workmanship was quite delicate; it seemed to be a custom wooden piece. Looking closely, he was surprised to find the logo of a Werewolf club stamped on it.

“So you play Werewolf too?” Chen Fan said, lifting his other hand to point at her bracelet, as though he had found a fellow traveler.

Wu Qiqi nodded. “Yes. I’m even a member of the Werewolf club. I got this bracelet from the summer raffle, though I’m only average at the game. Whenever I get the wolf role, I panic.”

Chen Fan thought back. He had participated in that raffle event too and even won the grand prize: a qualification for the first VR arena experience. Too bad that also became the milestone for his one-hundred-loss streak.

“Even if I’m bad, I can’t be as bad as you. My win rate has only just barely passed ten percent.” What Chen Fan said was the truth. That win rate had only been propped up by the system. His luck was so awful it had sunk to the bottom without end.

“Oh, I know you now. Were you the one yelling and carrying on during the entertainment match on Friday, and got slapped a few times by the NPC?”

Chen Fan grinned awkwardly, not sure whether he should acknowledge the accusation.

Wu Qiqi went on, “You were talking so loudly then. I was sitting several seats away from you and could still hear you, hmph.”

Chen Fan scratched his head and laughed. “Ah, well, it’s like wearing headphones sometimes—I can’t always control my volume. Really sorry.”

“Uh, where do I go to collect medicine? They said the pharmacy was out of stock before and told me to come get it today.” Kang Jixuan walked in from the door, glanced around, and, clearly unfamiliar with the place, came forward to ask.

Wu Qiqi looked up and replied, “Take the left at the end of the corridor. May I ask if you brought the prescription slip?”

“My sister had someone bring it to me. She’s not feeling well today, so I came myself.” Kang Jixuan shrugged, then caught sight of Chen Fan out of the corner of his eye and asked, “You’re the number six player from the entertainment match, right? By the way, had we met before that?”

“It’s me. You are… the seer who got killed first, right? We probably hadn’t met before.” Chen Fan’s reaction was a bit sluggish, and only after staring for a long while did he remember.

“Solid reasoning. We can play together again sometime when you’re free. I’ve got something to do today, so I’ll head off first.” Kang Jixuan waved and followed the signs toward the pharmacy.

Chen Fan asked in confusion, “I’m just catching a cold, so why do I need an IV? Wouldn’t it be enough to give me some medicine to take?”

Wu Qiqi was stunned for a moment before she said, “Probably because injections make you recover faster. A lot of people misuse antibiotics these days, and the effects of western medicine aren’t all that obvious.”

Chen Fan wasn’t a medical major and couldn’t make sense of the intricacies. In any case, as long as he got better quickly, that was enough.

“Hey, isn’t that the big star who became famous on television?”

Chen Fan turned his head and, propping himself up on his hand, said, “He’s old news now. People have long since had their fun with me.”

He had been entertained by the internet the entire previous night, and by the time he woke up this morning, he found himself already forgotten. Those past moments of amusement had long since been replaced by even more sensational gossip.

“At least what you said still moved me.” The other person suddenly blurted out something cryptic.

Chen Fan looked carefully and only then realized it was Liu Jian, the one who had brazenly pretended to be the Magician. After changing his clothes, he really was harder to recognize.

“I was just background scenery the whole time, accomplished nothing.” Chen Fan said modestly.

“You don’t have to make achievements, just avoid making mistakes. As the ancients said, when Heaven is about to place great responsibility on a man, it first makes him develop in obscurity and endure humiliation, biding his time…”

“Stop, stop. Class is about to end. If you’re here for something urgent, you’d better make use of now. Otherwise there’ll be even more people in a moment.” Chen Fan didn’t want to listen to his endless droning any longer and interrupted helplessly.

“Then may fate bring us together again.”

At last Chen Fan had a moment of peace. Even getting an IV had turned into a scene of constant unease. Whoever passed by, whether known or unknown, would greet him every so often, making him seem like some kind of lucky mascot, everyone eager to come and bask in a little of his good fortune.

“Damn it, Elder, this mixed-blood perk is poisonous, isn’t it? I just wanted to quietly be a handsome man. Why do those people always act like we’re close friends? There’s one I’ve never even spoken to, and she came up saying she was the girl with long black hair who sat three rows in front of me in the tax law class on Wednesday afternoon. I’ve got face blindness to begin with, and now they want me to recognize people from their backs? Just kill me already.”

The Elder could not stand the smell of disinfectant here and had stuffed tissues into his nostrils. “Being the center of attention is pretty good, isn’t it? Feels like being a big star. All that’s missing is people asking you for autographs and photos.”

Chen Fan was nearly going mad. He had originally thought the mixed-blood trait would instantly elevate his looks to some higher realm, but he never expected it to produce such an effect.

“You look a lot like Zhu Yuanzhang. Is your surname Zhu?”

“You’re the one with the surname Pig. Your whole family is Pig.”