By Zephyria 
Chapter 3: I Felt Uncomfortable With Him From the Start
This man is Xie Xue’s older brother, Xie Qingcheng.
Xie Qingcheng was the doctor who once served as the He family’s primary physician and treated He Yu’s illness.
On the surface, He Yu was indistinguishable from a normal person. He maintained an image of being consistently polite, with excellent academic records and conduct. However, the He family harbored a secret. In truth, this “perfect son” whom others envied suffered from a rare mental disorder since childhood.
It was a rare disease with only four documented patients in history. The basic symptoms were similar for each patient: a congenital defect in the hormonal and nervous systems that caused a drastic personality shift when they fell into a state of panic. Those who were usually insensitive to pain tended to become bloodthirsty, harming others or themselves, once a seizure occurred. Symptoms primarily manifested as the emergence of an antisocial personality, systemic high fever, and delirium. Furthermore, the symptoms worsened with each subsequent episode.
Clinically referred to as “Psychological Ebola,” this disease gradually destroyed the human mind and paralyzed the body. With the overlap of mental and physical agony, it was akin to dying twice. Much like mutating cancer cells, patients who once functioned normally in society would find their abilities limited, eventually devolving into mentally unstable individuals who had completely lost the capacity to function socially.
Patients 1 through 3 had lost their lives, unable to endure the pain before their condition fully deteriorated.
He Yu was Patient 4.
His parents had taken him to renowned doctors both domestically and abroad, but to no avail. The doctors advised that the only way to slow the progression of the disease was to lower the incidence of outbreaks through long-term nursing care by a dedicated medical team.
After considering various conditions, the He family found Xie Qingcheng, who was twenty-one at the time.
He Yu was eight years old that year.
But now, He Yu is already nineteen, and Xie Qingcheng is thirty-two.
Xie Qingcheng seemed calmer and colder than before. Being the type of person who was rarely shaken, he remained indifferent even upon seeing He Yu, who had suddenly returned to the country. He quickly scanned the young man he hadn’t seen in nearly four years from head to toe, then ignored the other’s polite greeting.
They were two people different in everything from age to social status. He felt no need, nor any inclination, to engage in idle chatter with a boy who wasn’t even twenty.
He simply asked one question.
“Why are you here?”
“I…”
“Do you know what time it is? This is the female faculty dormitory building.”
Fuck, you came here too. He Yu wanted to unleash a torrent of curses, but he maintained his polite demeanor.
“I lost track of time while catching up after so long. I’m sorry, Mr. Xie.”
“No need to call me Mr. Xie. I’m not your primary physician anymore.”
At that, He Yu’s voice grew smaller.
“I’m sorry. Force of habit.”
“…Good grief.”
Seeing the atmosphere between the two stiffen, Xie Xue, who was standing beside them, quickly stepped in to mediate.
“Now, big brother. Don’t be so serious and stern… He Yu, you sit down too. Why are you so nervous? We’re just people meeting after a long time.”
As she spoke, she created a slight distance between herself and He Yu. In truth, this wasn’t the first or second time. When they were alone, she was easygoing and unreserved, but when others—especially Xie Qingcheng—were present, she drew a line out of courtesy.
It was likely a habit formed from being scolded by Xie Qingcheng since childhood. This older brother, who was like the head of a household in a feudal society, was the epitome of ‘straight to the bone,’ and a scholar-like man with a severe male-chauvinist, patriarchal style.
Such a person is extremely sensitive to the well-being of female family members. When Xie Xue was young, Xie Qingcheng wouldn’t even let her wear skirts that rose above the knee. Once, when Xie Xue performed breakdancing at a school festival, he had watched from below the stage, his face turning dark. As soon as his younger sister stepped off the stage, he demanded with a grim face why she had participated in such a vulgar festival, and even forced his own suit jacket over her shoulders.
Even though it was only 9 PM, it was plenty late for Xie Qingcheng. The fact that He Yu and his sister—neither of whom had a partner—were together likely felt highly inappropriate to him.
Sure enough, after entering the dormitory, Xie Qingcheng pulled out a chair and sat down. The Confucian patriarch crossed his long legs, unbuttoned his cuffs, and looked up at He Yu with indifference.
“Tell me. By what coincidence did you enroll in the school where Xie Xue works, and in the very major she teaches?”
“…”
This boomer-like attitude. It was a total occupational hazard. For a moment, He Yu almost mistook himself for a patient visiting a hospital. It was like a displeased doctor asking sternly, “Tell me. Where does it hurt?”
Thinking that, it felt somewhat amusing.
When there was no answer for a long while, a faint trace of a smile appeared on Xie Qingcheng’s lips as he cast an even colder gaze.
“Aren’t you going to answer?”
“…”
He was wrong. This wasn’t a doctor treating a patient.
This tone was exactly that of a police officer interrogating a criminal.
He Yu sighed and spoke.
“No.”
“Then tell me.”
“I didn’t adjust well to living abroad, and I like directing. Even if you ask how this coincidence happened, how am I supposed to explain it?”
He Yu added with a patient smile, “I’m not a fortune teller.”
“You like directing?”
“Yes.”
Xie Qingcheng didn’t probe further. His gaze had been drawn to the ‘lump of scrambled ham and eggs.’
He frowned.
“…What is this?”
Looking at Xie Qingcheng’s face, which looked as if someone owed him a hundred million won, He Yu wanted to throw the bowl at him. Then, he wanted to snap back coolly, None of your business.
But Xie Xue was here. He had no choice but to give her brother a kind smile.
“It’s Yangzhou-style fried rice.”
Xie Qingcheng stared at the bowl in silence for a few seconds, then spoke with a cold, boomer-like face.
“Take off the apron. I’ll make it again.”
“…”
“How on earth have you been eating while abroad?”
“…Delivery.”
Xie Qingcheng’s eyes, now focused on this point, grew even sharper. He Yu felt as if he could hear the sound of a clicking tongue.
He Yu unconsciously thought that it was a look similar to the one from when they first met. On a freshly manicured villa lawn, Xie Qingcheng had looked down at the eight-year-old He Yu. That cold gaze seemed capable of effortlessly dissecting He Yu’s heart.
That day was He Yu’s birthday. A group of children were playing at the massive He family villa. Exhausted from playing, the children gathered on the sandy shore of the lake and chatted about their future dreams.
“I’m going to be a celebrity when I grow up!”
“I’ll be a scientist.”
“I’ll be an astronaut!”
One chubby little boy, who didn’t have a dream yet, kept his mouth shut and looked around. Just then, the butler was passing through the front yard with a young doctor.
Lush green grass, a sky so blue it looked washed. The young doctor was holding a bouquet bought as a gift for the employer. A bouquet matching brilliantly blooming summer hydrangeas with baby’s breath and roses. It was particularly unique for having a smooth decorative chiffon veil draped over the silver wrapping paper.
Xie Qingcheng held the bouquet in one hand and shoved the other casually into his pocket. His attire was a crisp, clean white lab coat. Two ballpoint pens were tucked into the chest pocket. Since it wasn’t formal duty, the buttons weren’t properly fastened, revealing the light gray shirt underneath. His slender legs were wrapped in casual dress pants.
After staring blankly for a while, the chubby boy soon extended a short, plump finger like a sausage and pointed at Xie Qingcheng.
“I… I want to be a doctor!”
At that moment, a fairly strong wind blew. Perhaps the flower shop had wrapped it carelessly, as the veil surrounding the bouquet in Xie Qingcheng’s arms unfurled instantly. The white chiffon veil that fluttered over the lawn fell straight down as the wind ceased.
The children all looked up at the white veil. As if by appointment, that fluttering piece of cloth dropped right in front of He Yu, who had been standing there with an indifferent attitude.
“…”
Although He Yu disliked the medical staff, pharmacists, and researchers who frequently visited the house, he was ingrained with etiquette. So, he bowed his head, picked up the soft veil, and stepped forward.
“Doctor, you dropped this.”
When he lifted his head, a pair of cold eyes met his gaze.
The height of a sweltering summer. Yet, He Yu, who was learning poetry at school, unconsciously recalled a verse:
‘Softly fallen snow piles upon the bamboo…’
Xie Qingcheng looked down and took the chiffon veil. The lab coat swayed gently with the movement, and for some reason, it looked like the feathers of a crane demon.
“Thank you.”
In that instant, He Yu caught a faint scent of medicine from the end of his sleeve.
According to research, a significant number of first impressions between people are influenced by the other person’s scent.
In other words, it is easy to fall in love at first sight if someone appears who exudes a scent one personally likes. On the other hand, if one dislikes or fears the other’s smell, the possibility of developing a good relationship later is slim.
He Yu hated the smell coming from Xie Qingcheng.
It was a cold, hard scent, like the bitter pills he had swallowed countless times since childhood, the alcohol and iodine balls that brushed against his skin before an injection, and the smell of disinfectant that filled a cold, empty hospital room.
Half-instinctively terrified, he unconsciously frowned.
However, the butler wrapped his arm around He Yu’s shoulder and introduced him with a smile to the doctor, who was making the boy infinitely uncomfortable.
“Mr. Xie, this is our representative’s son.”
Xie Qingcheng, who had been about to move elsewhere, paused. His deep, dark eyes looked at He Yu.
“…So it was you.”
For some unknown reason, He Yu thought of a surgical scalpel upon seeing that gaze. He had a strange feeling that the sharply honed blade might split his heart open and place it under a microscope.
The young doctor spoke.
“First time meeting you. I’ll be the one treating your illness from now on.”
He Yu was afraid of doctors. He had even rejected gentle female doctors, so what more could be said about this yaksha who radiated coldness from his entire body? The eight-year-old child, though feeling as if he were sitting on a bed of nails, forced a polite smile and immediately turned away.
His mother, sitting on the terrace, watched this scene unfold. That evening, after finishing her work, Mrs. Lu Zishu called her son into the study. She handed He Yu a warm cocoa that had been placed on a tea table covered with emerald flannel.
“Did you meet Mr. Xie, who arrived this year?”
“Yes.”
Having received a strict home education, He Yu remained formal and polite even in front of his mother.
At the time, Lu Zishu had been greatly disappointed by this abnormal son and had already given birth to a second child. The second son wasn’t as smart as the eldest, but he was affectionate and healthy. Perhaps that was why she only cherished and adored the second son. She didn’t particularly mince her words in front of He Yu.
“His name is Xie Qingcheng. He is the person who will become your primary physician. He will come to our house every week to help with your examinations, so you must listen to him. If any problem arises with your body, call him at any time.”
“Yes.”
Whenever she saw the eight-year-old boy who was simply too calm, Lu Zishu felt a sudden chill in her heart. To dispel this heavy atmosphere, she let out a sigh and cracked a joke.
“He Yu, Mr. Xie signed a human trafficking contract with our house. If he cannot cure your illness, Mr. Xie will become our house servant. He won’t be able to rest all year, won’t receive a salary, and won’t be able to get married. Do you understand what that means?”
“I’m not sure.”
“I mean, if you don’t listen, the effectiveness of the teacher’s treatment will drop, and the day he regains his freedom will be pushed back. If the teacher can’t get married later, you’ll have to take responsibility and feed him for the rest of your life.”
He Yu was too young then. No matter how precocious, he was only eight years old and became frightened. He suddenly looked up.
“Can’t we cancel the contract?”
“No.”
Mrs. Lu, who had spent the last few days on a plane immersed in a trashy palace intrigue drama, racked her brain and added something even worse.
“Moreover, the teacher might hold you responsible and take you as his wife. From his perspective, it wouldn’t be bad to take such a pretty child as a bride.”
At that time, because He Yu had not the slightest curiosity about love, he didn’t know that the marriage system of this country was only permitted between a man and a woman. Due to Mrs. Lu’s words, the trauma deepened, and for a while, he suffered from nightmares of being chased by Xie Qingcheng’s shadow.
“No, I hate the teacher… I won’t get married…!”
This nightmare only collapsed half a year later when He Jiwei found out about the situation.
Upon hearing the story, He Jiwei severely scolded his wife.
“What kind of nonsense did you tell the child?”
Then, he turned his arrow toward He Yu.
“You believed such a joke literally? You’re usually so smart. Aren’t both you and Mr. Xie men? To think you’d marry Mr. Xie and take responsibility—is your head filled with Pacific Ocean water?”
He Yu became very depressed.
Fearing that if he didn’t listen, Mr. Xie wouldn’t be able to cure this mental illness, and thus he would become the young bride of that doctor who smelled of coldness, he had spent the last six months intentionally acting like a fool and behaving disgracefully in front of Mr. Xie. He wanted to leave a bad impression so that even if the worst-case scenario occurred, the man would have no interest in him.
Yet, his father dismissed those six months of acting like an idiot in front of Xie Qingcheng with a single short sentence.
“Your mother was teasing you.”
It was a good thing He Yu was a cultured child; otherwise, he would have shouted “Holy fuck!” long ago. But in the eight-year-old He Yu’s children’s encyclopedia, let alone such curses, even the word ‘bastard’ wasn’t listed.
Still, after relentlessly putting on a one-man show in front of Xie Qingcheng for half a year, He Yu achieved one great feat. That was, regardless of his efforts, six and seven years later…
No, was that all? From the age of fourteen when he parted with Xie Qingcheng until today, Xie Qingcheng viewed He Yu as—
An absolute idiot who only knew how to breathe in three dimensions.
At this moment, this disastrous fried rice He Yu was holding was likely powerful evidence to Xie Qingcheng that he was a peerless idiot who still didn’t know how to make a single plate of fried rice even after four years.
He Yu put down the fried rice, untied the apron, and handed it to the eldest brother of the Xie family, who was dressed in a suit. Beneath his seemingly calm expression, there was actually a shadow. It was a mistake. He shouldn’t have cooked himself. Wasn’t this just providing Xie Qingcheng with a free laughingstock?