Chapter 82 First out, then in; make way...

They let the others leave first, then stepped aside to see the stiff-faced grandparents and the extremely embarrassed grandparents off. Actually, her uncle's parents were still quite young; Xu Ran always felt awkward calling them grandparents.

She walked into the ward and saw her uncle teasing her, saying, "You were eavesdropping on the adults."

Xu Ran, caught off guard, nervously placed the fruit basket and thermos on the table and tried to justify herself: "...I just happened to be passing by."

Her maternal grandparents might think she hadn't heard anything, but her uncle made no attempt to hide it.

Wang Kan didn't pursue the matter, saying, "Why did you bring a fruit basket? We can't finish it all."

Xu Ran paused for a moment, then said, "...My mom asked me to bring it. Do you want some soup?"

She opened the thermos, and the aroma instantly filled the entire room. Wang Kan said, "How did you know I wanted to drink pork rib soup?"

Xu Ran thought to herself that she didn't know it was soup brought by her sister Min Zhou, but she wasn't allowed to say so.

She passed the interview and recently started working online. Beforehand, she subtly inquired about the progress of her sister Minzhou and uncle's relationship, but her sister Minzhou didn't say much, so she focused on her work.

She heard from her mother that her uncle was hospitalized, so she came to visit him. She had just run into Minzhou downstairs and was pleasantly surprised, thinking that Minzhou and her uncle had gotten back together. But Minzhou just smiled and steered the conversation toward her studies and internship, so she didn't dare to ask any more questions.

When they reached the ward door, they heard an unexpected argument. Even though the context was unclear and the voices were muffled, it was not difficult to guess what was going on.

Embarrassed, she just wanted to run away. She looked at Minzhou with nervous worry, the white light at the end of the corridor blurring her face. She stood there, like a flawless porcelain vase, as if the person inside wasn't her. Xu Ran was momentarily dazed, then remembered where this feeling of déjà vu came from: Minzhou had acted similarly during her previous internship interview.

Later, she handed the thermos to her and mouthed a few words to her. Xu Ran hesitated and wanted to stay, but almost the next second, her grandfather burst out of the door.

Although her family members had a deep bond, there was still a barrier between them, and Xu Ran felt that she had overheard a secret she shouldn't have.

Unlike when she was a child, covering for her uncle and sister Minzhou, back when she had no understanding of "secrets" and treated them as a bargaining chip for eating, drinking and having fun, she is no longer at an age where she can be carefree.

Although she and Wang Kan were close, their relationship was limited to that of uncle and niece. They would bicker when they met and help each other out when needed, but they would not discuss their troubles with each other. At least, Wang Kan had never confided in her.

She watched Wang Kan drink the soup. She hadn't realized it before, but now she discovered that she didn't really understand this uncle at all, just as she didn't really understand her sister Minzhou.

Wang Kan noticed Xu Ran's gaze and asked, "What's wrong?"

Xu Ran remained silent.

She also realized that she hadn't actually grown much since she was a child. Perhaps it was her uncle who instilled this habit in her. At least in the matter of her sister Minzhou, she felt that Wang Kan should take the initiative to propose the terms.

He didn't ask, and she didn't say anything. Suddenly, he threw a job posting at her. If he really wanted to send her to be an undercover agent for Sister Minzhou, why didn't he ask her how the interview went?

She remembered that he had said he would let her know if her resume passed, but she hadn't taken it to heart and had forgotten.

“…I passed the interview for that internship you sent me before, but I forgot to tell you.”

Wang Kan responded, confirming his previous suspicions.

Seeing that Xu Ran remained silent, Wang Kan added, "Congratulations?"

"..." Xu Ran couldn't help but ask, "You know that's Min Zhou's company?"

"Um."

"and you……"

Don't you miss her a lot?

Xu Ran was stunned. After a long while, she responded with a sore nose, and slowly realized, "I told her about Grandpa's illness. Did you not want me to tell you?"

"No, but I didn't expect you to pass the interview. I thought their company was very strict in screening people."

Xu Ran's composure crumbled at her uncle's words. "What? I'm amazing, okay?"

Wang Kan smiled and responded.

Xu Ran felt as if her old uncle had returned, and she called out, "Uncle."

"Um?"

"This soup was cooked by Sister Minzhou."

"I know."

Xu Ran asked in surprise, "How did you know?"

"you guess."

"..."

Xu Ran recalled a certain afternoon many years ago at KFC, when her uncle bribed her with an extra sundae while her sister Min Zhou went to the restroom, instructing her on what to say to Min Zhou later: "Just say, 'Sister, I want to study with you next week, understand?'"

She nodded as she dug up the sundae.

"Where is he?" Wang Kan asked.

Xu Ran said she left, and she also explained how she left.

Wang Kan calmly responded, but Xu Ran's heart was pounding. She left after a short while, slowing her pace as she reached the door and deliberately leaving a crack in it. She saw her uncle immediately take out his phone, and his face fell. She pursed her lips and closed the door.

The call connected quickly, but no one spoke.

Fang Minzhou answered quickly, but they fell silent.

After the typhoon passed, the temperature rose again, and it was almost the beginning of autumn. At this moment, there was still a distant glow of sunset on the horizon outside the window, and the occasional bird call made Wang Kan feel a sense of relief, though he couldn't tell whether the pent-up frustration in his chest had dissipated or melted away.

When I calmed down, I could almost hear Fang Minzhou's breathing on the other end of the phone, soft and shallow, as if we were right next to each other, but in reality, we were thousands of miles apart.

"Fang Minzhou," he said by name, "you've hidden yourself again? Should I give you time to think it over again?"

Fang Minzhou remained silent.

"If I were to die today, and my parents wouldn't let you come to see me, would you just take a quick look from outside and leave?"

"Wang Kan," Fang Minzhou's voice came through, "don't you know you should avoid saying things that are prophetic?"

"I don't know how to write the character '谶'."

Wang Kan thought he had made a joke, but Fang Minzhou didn't react. He guessed she might be angry. In the past, she would definitely have scolded her.

He forgot to ask which floor it was. The building didn't look too tall, and there were small birds hopping around on the tops of the two trees.

He recalled his mother's three spitting sounds not long ago, and mimicking her, he spat three times as well. He found it funny afterward, but Fang Minzhou remained unmoved. Wang Kan asked her, "Isn't this enough?"

“You came to Shuangxi to find me, and you went out because you wanted me to. It was raining too hard that day, so I took shelter at a neighbor’s house for a while,” Fang Minzhou said. “It was indeed my fault that you got hurt. Your parents are right. Don’t argue with them.”

The weather is so nice today; the thunderstorm from that day feels like a distant memory.

"so what?"

"……What?"

"So you're going to break up with me like this? Is it your turn to break up this time?"

Fang Minzhou chuckled helplessly on the other end of the phone, "No, it would have been so embarrassing to run into them in that situation. I was just trying to avoid them."

Wang Kan calmed down a bit after hearing this, but then realized something was wrong. "Then there's no one here now."

"I've already left."

"Are you lying to a child?"

Fang Minzhou wiped her face and smiled silently. She looked up and saw that dusk was falling, and patients and their families were strolling back and forth in the small garden.

"I'm serious, where are you right now?"

I'll come see you again tomorrow.

"Why not now? I want to see you."

Fang Minzhou sat on the bench, with the setting sun behind her, and swallowed hard the sob in her throat: "I will cry, and I don't want you to see me cry."

Just like she was actually very afraid to see him lying in the hospital bed.

Wang Kan fell silent. After a while, she asked softly, "What time tomorrow?"

"Good morning."

"So even if my parents are here tomorrow, you won't run away, right?"

"Won't."

"I don't know how much you heard just now, but you don't need to take what my parents said to heart."

"I know."

"Don't cry."

Fang Min smiled, but tears streamed down her face. "Okay."

Do you remember the spring outing in your second year of high school?

Fang Minzhou was stunned, not understanding why Wang Kan suddenly brought this up.

Fang Minzhou remembered Wang Kan's red eyes behind the pine forest that day.

“I’m genuinely looking for you because I’m scared, but also to put my mind at ease. Of course, I would look for anyone else I couldn’t reach either, so whether I’m injured or not really has nothing to do with you, and you don’t need to offer yourself to me for this.”

The person who used to jokingly ask her to take responsibility for him every now and then is now making the responsibility so clear. Why? Is he worried that her guilt will be even greater?

"Wang Kan, if I get hurt because of you, will you feel terrible?" Fang Minzhou couldn't hold back her tears, but tried to keep her voice steady, saying in a seemingly relaxed tone, "So let me feel guilty for a while, it's okay."

"I don't want you to feel guilty. I want you to like me a little more."

I like you.

"Yeah?"

"Yes, I love you."

"you love me."

"Yes, I love you."

After a while, she heard Wang Kan chuckle softly, "Fang Minzhou, this seems to be the first time you've said 'I love you' to me."

"Really?" she countered. "Then I'll say it more often in the future."

But in fact, she had said it to herself many times.

Many, many times.

“No need, this is enough,” Wang Kan said. “It’s fine if you give less; scarcity increases value.” He paused, “Come early tomorrow.”

"Okay," she agreed.

After hanging up the phone, Fang Minzhou sat silently on the bench for a while longer. It wasn't until it got dark, and her eyes and cheeks felt tight and dry from the wind, that she stood up and prepared to drive home.

Just a few steps away stood Wang Kan's mother.

Fang Minzhou heard thunder rumbling in her heart, but she had to force a smile and greet her, "...Hello, Auntie."

Looking at the young girl in front of her, Chen Hongshan slowly felt a pang of sadness. She touched the corner of her eye. "You came to see Wang Kan? Why didn't you rest a little longer?"

"I took a break. My mom made some soup, and I ran into Xu Ran. I asked her to help me take the thermos upstairs."

"Oh, I see. You didn't go up?"

"...Tomorrow, it's too late now."

Chen Hongshan nodded. "Going home now? Have you eaten?"

Fang Minzhou sensed Wang Kan's mother's softening attitude, and she relaxed a little, saying she hadn't eaten yet and would eat at home. "...Auntie, what about you?"

"I've already eaten. Now I'm going home to get something."

"...Do you have a car? I'll give you a ride."

Is it convenient?

"It's convenient, I'm not busy."

Once in the car, the tense atmosphere didn't ease, but Fang Minzhou was able to act relatively at ease because she could sense that Wang Kan's mother was trying to mediate.

She asked her for the address, but after Wang Kan's mother told her, Fang Minzhou was slightly taken aback. She had originally thought they were still living in the same neighborhood as before.

Chen Hongshan noticed Fang Minzhou's surprise, "That house was sold a few years ago."

Fang Minzhou gave a dry reply.

“Back then, the family factory wasn’t doing well, and we needed cash, but we couldn’t raise the money, so we had to sell it. It was hard to part with it, and Wang Kan kept putting it off, but there was no other way,” Chen Hongshan said. “But things are much better now. It’s just that Wang Kan has had a tough time these past few years. You probably already know some of the things that have happened. How have you been these past few years? Are you doing alright?”

Fang Minzhou said she was doing well and told her about her recent situation.

Chen Hongshan nodded and began to recount their past, from their university days to high school, and then to Wang Kan's childhood.

Fang Minzhou felt inexplicably afraid to listen, yet he listened greedily.

She had heard Wang Kan mention some of his mischievous and naughty antics with considerable pride, but she knew nothing about his tendency to cry. When Wang Kan's mother spoke of these things, it didn't seem like she was talking to her; it was more like she was lost in her own memories.

It was rush hour, but Wang Kan's new home wasn't far from Zhangcheng No. 1 Hospital. The car stopped, and Wang Kan's mother thanked her again, to which she replied that it was nothing. As she waved goodbye, Wang Kan's mother called out, "Minzhou."

Through the car window, Fang Minzhou responded somewhat nervously.

"Auntie wants to say sorry to you."

Fang Minzhou was stunned, her eyes, which she thought had already cried dry, started to sting again.

"Come over for dinner sometime," she said with a smile.

"……good."

Fang Minzhou only restarted the car after Wang Kan's mother was out of sight.

Instead of going home immediately, she drove to the neighborhood where Wang Kan used to live, relying on her memory. She parked her car outside the neighborhood and followed the residents through the gate.

Zhangcheng has developed rapidly in recent years, but the residential buildings haven't changed much. She still remembers which building and floor Wang Kan's family lived on, and the Spring Festival couplets pasted on the door when she came out of the elevator.

When I was very young, Fang Minzhou’s family used to put up handwritten Spring Festival couplets, which would fade over time. But now, most households use plastic sheets, which look brand new no matter how much time has passed.

When Fang Minzhou was little, she watched cartoons and wished she had a magic door.

She opened many doors afterward, and what lay behind them wasn't always wonderful or glamorous, but it was always a new world. She never imagined that one day she would be weeping before an old door she dared not knock on.

She once told Wang Kan that she was grateful he broke up with her, so as not to waste their relationship. She meant it sincerely, but the more sincere she was then, the more she regrets it now, for not being by his side during his most difficult time.

Standing in the dark corridor, she thought, let her cry a little longer.

She hadn't shed a tear for Wang Kan for many years, because she had made a vow, even when she thought everything could never go back to the way it was before.