Chapter 66: The Pain Of Parting, The Joy Of Reunion
“Ah, I forgot you don’t smoke anymore, sorry, sorry.”
Zhou Zhenyu was just about to pull back his hand offering the cigarette when Shangshan Che took the Liqun from his hand.
“Liqun Liqun, smoking alone is called self-serving, but smoking together is what makes it Liqun.”
Shangshan Che smiled at him and saw the old, wrinkled packaging box and the single cigarette remaining inside.
“Right?”
Zhou Zhenyu gave him a thumbs up, flashing a mouthful of white teeth: “Countryman, spot on.”
“But you can’t smoke in the hospital, and it’s not good to light up casually on the roadside curb either.” Zhou Zhenyu shrugged, pointing to the smoking room not far away. “The little details of daily life are handled pretty well, all systematic.”
The two walked into the smoking room, where Zhou Zhenyu first lit a cigarette for Shangshan Che, then one for himself.
In his view, it didn’t matter if Shangshan Che lit it but didn’t smoke; he’d been saving this Liqun to share with a friend anyway.
And the man standing before him was a compatriot.
In a foreign land, the word “compatriot” felt much warmer than a couple of casual friends, not to mention he’d saved his life.
He took a deep drag and exhaled, and Zhou Zhenyu’s gaze grew complex as it drifted with the smoke.
He thought for a good while before finding a way to broach a topic.
“Actually, my return flight is scheduled for the early morning the day after tomorrow, on Spring Airlines. If nothing goes wrong, they’d probably be staying in some hourly room near the airport by now.”
Shangshan Che: “Gotta say, that green-skinned airline in the sky is still pretty cheap.”
Zhou Zhenyu raised an eyebrow and showed him the screen: “199 special fare ticket, what’s your take?”
“—I’d feel bad if this didn’t make me stand the whole way.”
“Haha, that’s the logic.” Zhou Zhenyu grinned and continued, “As for coming to the hospital, my ex-girlfriend suddenly came down with a new type of incurable disease that’s cropped up recently. They say she doesn’t have many days left.”
The smile vanished from Zhou Zhenyu’s face.
“Her parents passed early, and her grandparents went a few years ago too, so she called me last night hoping I’d come see her one last time.”
The previously cheerful atmosphere vanished in an instant.
Zhou Zhenyu went on: “She’s a good person. Back then, she broke up with me because she felt her education was too low and her job had no future, not wanting to drag me down. So don’t go saying I’m spineless or whatever; I know a thing or two about the domestic public opinion.”
Shangshan Che sighed: “No way.”
But a new type of incurable disease, one that’s appeared recently…
Shangshan Che asked hesitantly: “Can I join you to see her later?”
“She’d definitely be happy about that.”
As soon as they shifted from the heavy topic, Zhou Zhenyu lit up with excitement: “That little girl has been saying she wants to meet some Chinese person other than me. She says I nod and bow whenever I talk to others, looking no different from the locals.
I told her that’s impossible; I’m a homegrown Chinese guy through and through. It’s just going with the flow, but she always just smiles and says nothing.”
Zhou Zhenyu took a heavy drag: “Usually at this point, I’d give her a good ‘lesson’.”
Talking about the past, the smile on Zhou Zhenyu’s face became noticeably warmer and more vivid.
He casually tossed the smoked cigarette butt into the trash can.
“And even in the final stages of this incurable disease, she hasn’t given up hope of living.”
Zhou Zhenyu said earnestly: “So I feel like I can still give it a shot too. Going home to lie flat can wait.”
He walked out of the smoking room with Shangshan Che, and the cold wind sweeping in from the door instantly dispersed the smoke smell on them.
Zhou Zhenyu huddled his shoulders and pondered.
“But I also know the job market is tough right now. Plenty of college grads and postgrads can’t find work, let alone someone with just high school education like me.”
Shangshan Che followed behind him back into the hospital and suggested: “Factory work and delivery gigs are dead ends. Those industries treat people like screws. How about trying education training? You’ve got that overseas student status, bro.”
“Sounds promising. Could even do some self-media on the side.” Zhou Zhenyu nodded thoughtfully.
The two reached the sixth-floor nurses’ station, where Zhou Zhenyu confirmed the room number after some inquiries.
On the short corridor leading to that hospital room, Shangshan Che noticed Zhou Zhenyu’s little fidgety movements increase, his breathing quicken, and his hands tremble uncontrollably.
When they reached the tightly closed hospital room door, Zhou Zhenyu stopped in his tracks.
He turned his head to Shangshan Che and tugged at his cheap clothes that together cost less than 200 bucks: “Bro, is it okay to see her dressed like this?”
Shangshan Che patted his shoulder: “She definitely won’t mind that. And don’t put on that miserable face. She’s already suffering, so what’s with the bitter melon look.”
“You’re right.”
Zhou Zhenyu fell silent, slapped his cheeks, and took a deep breath.
He placed his slightly trembling hand on the cold door handle, mustered his old sunny smile, and twisted it open firmly.
He pushed the door and entered.
A thick disinfectant smell wafted out, accompanied by a girl’s faint sobbing.
Shangshan Che could see, on the snow-white hospital bed, a girl with pale skin, gaunt and skeletal, deep-set eyes, but still with jet-black long hair.
Even as she just sat there crying, Shangshan Che could clearly sense the intense and profound fear, anxiety, sadness, and pain constantly emanating from her…
A chaotic tangle of negative emotions intertwined on the girl, relentlessly tormenting her spirit and soul.
Just standing in the doorway watching, Shangshan Che felt a pang of deep bitterness.
For a split second, Zhou Zhenyu’s face was filled with sadness and anger, but in the next moment, he forced a warm and gentle smile.
He approached carefully, speaking softly as if afraid to disturb something: “Mengzi, long time no see…”
On the hospital bed, the girl named Xingye Mengzi stopped crying abruptly. She let out a couple of panicked “ah”s and fumbled around trying to find something to cover her ugly face and exposed body.
Zhou Zhenyu gazed closely at his former girlfriend, the girl who once stood with him on the rooftop declaring they’d make it in Tokyo.
Xingye Mengzi hurriedly covered her face with her hands: “Don’t look, don’t look…”
“Mengzi, after all this time, you’re still so shy.”
Despite the girl’s flustered resistance, Zhou Zhenyu pulled her into his arms.
“Sorry.”
He closed his eyes and said softly: “I’m back.”
At that, the girl’s crying stopped. She lifted her frail, trembling hands and hugged Zhou Zhenyu back.
In that instant, a sound like something blooming echoed in the room, like an auditory hallucination.
Yet in the next moment, an utterly real smile appeared on Xingye Mengzi’s face, growing denser visibly to the naked eye.
Shangshan Che’s pupils contracted slightly.
The scene before him was clearly a long-separated couple reuniting—a warm and beautiful moment.
He should have been clapping in celebration.
But more than celebration, Shangshan Che felt a chill of horror.
—Xingye Mengzi’s all negative emotions vanished in an instant. And at the same time, waves of surging, intertwined joy, pleasantness, and happiness began welling up on her…
This eerie scene nearly made Shangshan Che rush forward to pull them apart.
“Wait, better not to alert them until something affects the outside.”
Taking a deep breath and forcing himself to calm down, Shangshan Che thought—this was absolutely not a normal emotional shift for Xingye Mengzi.
It was more like… something was using her as a petri dish for extreme emotions.
He quietly watched the tearful embracing couple in the hospital room, lovers on the brink of parting forever.
Shangshan Che could sense Xingye Mengzi’s joy of reuniting with her lover before death, and see the parting pain Zhou Zhenyu was desperately suppressing.
Whether reunion joy or parting pain, they were probably just another handful of nutrients in the petri dish.
Love had become death’s accelerator.
The change he’d just witnessed was the best proof. Under such drastic, extreme emotional shifts visible to the naked eye, Xingye Mengzi might not even see tomorrow’s sun.
Shangshan Che closed his eyes.
For the first time, he felt genuine anger and killing intent.
Shangshan Che’s face was unprecedentedly calm, but in his mind, he enunciated the name syllable by syllable:
“Ai Bieli.”
Please read on, PKing Sanjiang next week, everyone please keep reading orz
