Chapter Text
Over the next few days, Xichen brought Jiang Cheng around town, showing him around the new shops that have been built in his absence.
It was on one of the days that Jiang Cheng asked to visit their university's library. The university where they met, the library where they used to study for finals and the place where Xichen fell in love with Jiang Wanyin.
"You'd think for all the changes that this town made that they would have at least renovated the library but I think this is the one place that stayed the same." Xichen said with a soft chuckle. It has been years but his legs naturally brought him over to their table the table they used to hog when they used to cram for finals, almost like it was muscle memory.
"I think it's great that a small part of this town stayed the same. Everything has changed and everything is different now. But this place...at least this place still feels a little like home." Jiang Cheng said, with a distant look in his eyes and a soft (almost sad) smile on his face.
---
It was finals week and Jiang Cheng was drowning in his notes. He could not remember the last time he ate or even slept. Not that sustenance was important. Nope, definitely not. Especially when retaining his first-class honours was dependent on him scoring an A for this final exam. Some twisted member of the faculty decided that it would be fun to put a 50% weightage on the final paper for his Econs 300 module and now Jiang Cheng was made to suffer for it. Well, whoever that was Jiang Cheng wishes he trips and falls face-first onto hard concrete.
He was fully focused in his study session when a phone call broke his concentration. Looking at the caller ID, he realized it was from the only person he would stop his intense mugging session for...Lan Xichen.
While he was a little annoyed that the call broke his concentration, he couldn't help but answer the call as he knew his Xichen-ge wouldn't interrupt his study session unless it was for something important.
"This better be imp-" before he could even reply, Jiang Wanyin was interrupted by Lan Xichen's gasps for help.
"Help Wanyin. Help me" Xichen pleaded
At his pleas, Jiang Wanyin couldn't help but panic.
"Where are you now?" Jiang Cheng asked while frantically packing up all his notes
"In the dorm. Pl-please help me A-cheng". and that was all it took for Jiang Cheng to grab his backpack and start sprint back towards the dorm.
Jiang Cheng almost tore the door down with how hard he flung it open, as his entire being shook with a mixture of fear and adrenaline only to be greeted with Lan Xichen lounging on their couch with a wide array of Jiang Cheng's favourite foods spread on the coffee table in front of him.
"What the fuck?! What happened?! I thought you were in trouble??!!!" Jiang Cheng couldn't help but yell as his worry and confusion manifested into anger.
"I am..." Xichen replied cooly as he walked towards Jiang Cheng to pull him towards the couch
"The love of my life has not eaten or slept in the last 48 hours and it's causing my heart to hurt. I think it might be broken and I need immediate care." Xichen said with a pout.
At his cheesy reply, Jiang Cheng could not help the warm smile that grew on his face, and the anger that he felt at having his study session disrupted immediately disappeared.
"Xichen-ge, you know it's finals week for me. I have to bust balls if I want to be good enough and I'm barely maintaining my first-class honors as it is" Jiang Cheng said placatingly
"You're first-class to me A-cheng" came Xichen's cheeky reply
"Xichen-ge..."
"A-cheng, I know it's finals week and you're stressing over your exams but you still have to eat and get some rest. Dinner isn't going to take too long and you can rest for a while before going back to your notes. If you don't rest you are going to fall sick before your paper and 2 hours of downtime isn't going to hurt. I even cooked your favorite lotus pork rib soup..." Xichen said pleadingly turning his puppy-dog eyes towards Jiang Cheng.
Jiang Cheng was silent for a while, seemingly contemplating Xichen's words before he sighed and asked with a resigned smile, "Did you use Jie jie's recipe?"