With the referee’s whistle, the ninety-minute soccer game came to a close, with Argentina clinching a narrow 1:0 victory over Nigeria.
Xu Qingfan finished the last bit of his juice, belched, and said to the others, "See, I told you we could win for sure."
"Well, as long as we won." Wu Lingyu finally relaxed, even though she had won some money, she still believed gambling was bad, and given another chance, she would still only bet one yuan symbolically.
"Hehe~ I don’t understand the rules, but it was fun to watch. Let’s play soccer ourselves sometime!" Xiao Ruawen energetically kicked her legs in the air on the bed.
"Let’s get ready for bed. We’re going to Ocean Park tomorrow." Xia Xiaoxiao patted the girl’s mischievous feet and yawned.
"Yeah, let’s rest early. Wanning has already fallen asleep." Xu Qingfan turned his head to look at the girl sleeping with her arms around his arm and instinctively raised his hand to scrape her nose.
However, the heat of Wanning’s breath startled him; in the air-conditioned room, it was obvious that the breath she exhaled was much hotter than normal.
"Wanning?" Xu Qingfan instinctively reached to touch her forehead, "Damn!" The temperature of around 38-39 degrees nearly scared him to death.
"Brother Qing Fan..." The girl opened her eyes groggily, and the light in the room hurt her eyes, but she whispered, clinging to Xu Qingfan, "It’s uncomfortable... cough cough..."
"Why didn’t you tell me sooner that you had a fever? Xiaoxiao, call the front desk for a car. Yiyi, bring a jacket for Wanning." Xu Qingfan didn’t even spare a second to think, and immediately princess-carried the girl.
Wanning instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck—the girl’s consciousness was already somewhat blurred, and she murmured vaguely, "Brother Qing Fan... where are we going..."
"To get you medical treatment!" He only had time to slip on the hotel-provided slippers and dashed out with the girl in his arms without looking back.
Just before leaving, he seemed to remember something and shouted back into the room, "Go to my room and grab my wallet!"
While the four girls were still dazed, Xu Qingfan and Wanning had already vanished from the room.
Xia Xiaoxiao was the first to snap out of it and picked up the bedside phone to call the front desk.
Soon after, the others came to their senses too. Zhang Yiyi went to find clothes, Wu Lingyu went to grab the wallet, and Xiao Ruawen anxiously paced in place.
Meanwhile, Xu Qingfan had already reached the elevator with the girl in his arms, where he touched Wanning’s forehead again to feel her temperature during the wait—this time, he felt it more distinctly; it was definitely a high fever over 38°C!
The average normal body temperature ranges from 36 to 37°C, and anything over 37.3°C is considered a slight fever. Xu Qingfan, growing anxious, kept inhaling sharply. Thankfully, the elevator arrived at that moment, and he hurriedly carried the girl inside.
Although fever is something everyone experiences, a high fever sustained over a long period can cause significant damage to the body, and in severe cases, may even lead to brain damage or shock.
When Xu Qingfan reached the lobby with the elevator, the front desk staff, having received the call, was already waiting at the elevator entrance.
"Is the car ready? The fever is severe." Because he was extremely anxious, his tone was rather harsh.
"It’ll be ready immediately. The driver has been notified. Let’s apply a cooling patch to this lady first." The front desk staff maintained a good attitude and handed over a cooling patch they had prepared earlier.
"Thank you. I appreciate your help." Xu Qingfan placed Wanning on the sofa, tore open the packaging of the cooling patch, and applied it to the girl’s forehead.
Soon, Zhang Yiyi and Xiao Ruawen ran down from the stairwell, out of breath—possibly the waiting time for the elevator was too long, and the two couldn’t wait and had run down from the sixth floor.
"Is Wanning okay?" Both were panting heavily, their concerned eyes fixed on the girl in Xu Qingfan’s arms.
"I’m cold..." Wanning instinctively shivered, clinging tightly to Xu Qingfan’s neck.
"Here... your coat." Zhang Yiyi hurriedly helped Wanning put on her jacket.
"So hot... so cold... so hot... uncomfortable..." The girl was clearly burning up, murmuring now hot, now cold.
After a few more minutes, Xia Xiaoxiao and Wu Lingyu also hurried down from the staircase.
"Brother Fan, how is Wanning doing?" They, too, immediately asked about Wanning’s condition.
"Her temperature is a bit high. Without a thermometer, I don’t know exactly how high, we’ll see what the doctor says." Xu Qingfan did not dare give the girl random fever-reducing medication as medication is a specialized field.
After all, anyone with a basic knowledge of biology knows that a body’s high fever is meant to combat invasive germs, though this process often does not differentiate between friend and foe.
He took the wallet from Wu Lingyu’s hand, opened it, took out two five-hundred-valued bills, and waved his hand to signal Xia Xiaoxiao to go ahead.
Xia Xiaoxiao turned to see the direction Xu Qingfan had just indicated, nodded implicitly, took the money, and ran over to the front desk.
The girls’ attention was immediately drawn to Xia Xiaoxiao. They saw the front desk staff first wave off the offer, then after some discussion, the attendant’s face brightened with joy, and she politely accepted the money.
When Xia Xiaoxiao returned, the attendant picked up the phone again.
A few minutes later, she came over and politely said, "The car is parked outside", leading them to the vehicle before returning to the lobby.
"Driver, please take us to the nearest private hospital. It’s late at night, and we appreciate your efforts." Xu Qingfan sat in the front passenger seat, buckled up his seatbelt and said as he got into the car.