Is the suspect dead? Is there any confirmation?

"Hahahahaha..." Elder Qiu, who had recovered for several days, used his hearty laughter to suppress the excitement of everyone in the room. Xue Jiuyue carefully distinguished the smiling faces of everyone in the room amidst the laughter, and the warmth and joy brought her tears to her eyes.

"I can see it, clearly!"

"That's great, that's great..."

Xue Jiuyue's eyes slowly swept over the crowd. He saw Elder Qiu, who had just recovered from a serious illness, Qian Jianjun, who had lost weight, and Ke Yike, who looked unkempt. The others were also clearly tired. But at this moment, they were all genuinely happy for Xue Jiuyue.

Xue Jiuyue was also moved and smiled... but all of this seemed to lack soul. Because those smiles lacked the familiar warmth, and those joyful voices lacked the gentleness that she loved most.

Xue Jiuyue picked up the phone.

Elder Qiu stopped him and said, "Xiaoyue, you haven't fully recovered yet. The doctor said you can't look at the screen."

"It's okay, Daddy. I just took a look. The doctor said it can't last long..."

Able to guess what Xue Jiuyue wanted to do, Qiu Lao could understand her urgency and could only say: "Don't take too long, 5 minutes, just 5 minutes."

"Okay, don't worry!"

Xue Jiuyue called Liu Che directly, hoping to share her joy and even more eager to hear his news. However, the notification tone was forwarded to voicemail, and Liu Che still didn't answer the call. She checked the messages again, but there were still only the voice messages she had sent to Liu Che, and no reply from Liu Che.

I clicked on Liu Che's Moments, and this time, something was different. There was a line of text in Liu Che's Moments, which he had posted earlier: "I'm already accustomed to darkness, so why impose it on my lover? Isn't it the most brilliant blossoming of life to freeze beauty into eternity?"

Xue Jiyue calculated the date and discovered that Liu Che had posted this message just two days before her cornea replacement. This pun-filled post sank Xue Jiyue's heart to the bottom, making the joy of regaining her sight fade like the winter sun, pale and powerless.

I called again, but it still went to voicemail.

The voice call was not answered.

With no other options, Xue Jiuyue decided to try everything and go online to see "Spit Star".

As expected, "Spit Star" was not online, but I still gained a lot.

The other party left a lot of messages.

The first one was after Xue Jiuyue went offline that day.

"My dear, please tell me clearly, who is the liar? What did I cheat? Did I cheat for money or sex? 'I want to climb the dragon and meet the wise master, and the thunder god will roar and shake the sky.'"

The next day, there was another line: "Beautiful Yue, Xing'er has been waiting for you so hard. When will you be online? Have you found a new love? Oh, 'The white-haired palace maids are here, sitting and talking about Xuanzong.'"

Later, there will be three icons of people praying with their hands folded together every day.

There is a day in the icon, and a poem is also included.

"Looking up, I occasionally see the moon.

I can’t help but burst into tears;

The more common it is,

The more you leave, the sadder you become.”

This poem is plain but touching. It begins with "seeing" the moon, which makes Xue Jiuyue doubt her previous judgment.

Behind it were still icons of daily prayers, until the day before Xue Jiuyue had her cornea replaced, when a few more lines of text appeared.

"The Remnants of Fate

Drink less, sip less, and get drunk!

Listen to the xun, "Nian Can".

Majestic, vast, and tragic! It seems to lament the imperfections of heaven and earth, or to lament the cruelty of fate. These must be the tears of a man.

Hurt, so I doubt whether the ideal destination and the perfect ending are waiting for the nirvana of fate on the other side of time.

Who is drunk and who is crying?

Who dances in chains, who sheds blood to interpret eternity? Who roars to the heavens, who soothes the mountains and valleys with a sigh?

At the junction of heaven and earth, I smashed the wall of dreams with my forehead, leaving behind the remnants of fate and a slanting sunset.

This text, named after the xiao music piece "Nian Can," is written in a desolate and tragic tone, like a rebellion and questioning of fate, as well as a lingering love and helplessness. However, the text mentions "narrow capacity, shallow drinking, drunkenness," which seems inconsistent with Liu Che's alcohol tolerance...

The last message was from yesterday. It still had three prayer icons. Below the icons was a prose poem:

"I won't cry after you leave

After you left, I didn't cry. I used all my strength to look into the distance! The flowers are red, the leaves are green, but my heart cannot be stained with those colors... The flowers are still red, the leaves are still green...

After you left, I didn't cry. I tilted my neck to look at the sky! The sky was blue, the clouds were white, but how could my eyes contain that light and shadow... The sky was still blue, the clouds were still white...

Actually, I wasn’t really in pain, my hands were just shaking a little; I even looked up at the sky and smiled foolishly, but I didn’t dare to lower my head, I didn’t dare to lower my head…”

The poem's message is clear: "Spit Star" has completely given up, believing Xue Jiuyue will never pay attention to him again. The words vividly depict the pain, the heartache, the tears welling up in his eyes. But the words clearly focus on the word "watch," and the writing revolves around that word. It doesn't sound like Liu Che wrote it at all.

Regardless of whether it was Liu Che or not, Xue Jiyue was moved by the words of "Spit Star". Moreover, for such a long time, he was definitely more than just an online friend in Xue Jiyue's heart.

"Liar, I'm back. Come out and greet me!"

The familiar way of speaking was sent out along with Xue Jiuyue's tears.

"Stop looking, Xiaoyue, you're crying!" Qian Jianjun noticed Xue Jiuyue's tears and mistakenly thought that they were caused by eye irritation.

Xue Jiuyue silently put down her phone without explaining. Unwilling to spoil everyone's fun, she remained silent amidst the joyful chatter, sometimes chatting, sometimes joking, or expressing her gratitude.

"Godfather, can we go back to Xialin today?" Finally, Xue Jiuyue couldn't help but ask for Mr. Qiu's opinion.

"No, absolutely not! The doctor said I have to stay in the hospital for another week for observation, and I'll have checkups every day."

"I'm already well. I can get a follow-up check at Xialin Hospital. There's no need to go through so much trouble..."

Qian Jianjun advised, "Xiaoyue, the closer we get to the end, the more careful you must be. You must not let your efforts go to waste."

Ke Yike also agreed: "Yes, Sister Yue, why are you in such a hurry to go back to Xia Lin?"

"I've been out for so long, I miss home. And I feel bad that you guys are just hanging around me all day."

"Sister, we are a family, why should we be so formal?" Qiu Nian said this very sincerely, which attracted everyone's unanimous agreement.

"Xiaoyue, you're still young. You can't rush many things..." Mrs. Qiu said kindly, "Your cafe is named 'Inch by Inch of Time'. Why can't you break free from this? Many things are like time; you can't catch up. What's here is fate, and what's gone is reason. We can only do what we should do, and leave what we can't control to time and fate..."

Mrs. Qiu's pointed words soothed Xue Jiuyue's emotions, allowing her to wait quietly for every moment. However, Liu Che still had no news, and even "Spit Star" never returned online, which gradually made Xue Jiuyue's patience turn into salt, sprinkling it on the wound that had never healed.

Back to Xialin, back to a familiar place, and the familiar Tu Xinyue came to pick me up at the airport. A warm hug brought warmth, but it was not as good as his embrace to hold back tears.

Standing at the gate of the community, while it was still dusk and the clouds had not yet settled, Xue Jiuyue bid farewell to the smiling faces that had accompanied him day and night for several months.

She turned around with reluctance and nostalgia, but did not go home as she had just said, but went straight to the garage to drive.

As soon as Xue Jiuyue parked her car at the entrance of the Xinru Mental Health Counseling Center, she felt a sense of desolation in this familiar place. Her already anxious mood became even lower than the clouds in the sky.

She walked quickly to the door, but before she could enter, the unfamiliar young security guard stopped her at the door and asked, "Who are you looking for?"

"Hello, I'm looking for Dr. Liu Che."

"You must be a customer here before. The consultation center is closed. There is a notice next to it." The security guard pointed to a piece of white paper next to the gate that Xue Jiuyue had just ignored.

Xue Jiuyue suppressed her shock and read the information above. It turned out that the "Xinru Mental Health Counseling Center" had closed down half a month ago, and the content on the paper was about the aftermath.

I called the number left above and it was a female voice.

"Hello, I'm a regular customer of Xinru. My name is Xue Jiuyue. May I ask why Xinru closed down?"

"Hello Ms. Xue, I know you. Your situation is very bad because Director Gao passed away."

"What?"

"Director Gao has unfortunately passed away."

Xue Jiuyue had considered bringing Zhang Ru to justice and punishing him accordingly, but she lacked any evidence and, up to this point, couldn't definitively prove that Director Gao was Zhang Ru.

When everything was still a guess, Director Gao was gone just like that! This news was so sudden, so sudden that Xue Jiuyue couldn't even feel her own emotions in her melancholy.

"Ms. Xue, are you still there?"

"Sorry? Zhang, Director Gao... why?" Xue Jiuyue suspected that Director Gao had a car accident before her, otherwise how could it be so unexpected.

"Director Gao was an excellent psychiatrist and a good team leader. While providing psychological well-being to countless patients, he himself suffered from severe depression and ultimately chose to commit suicide."

Even though it's different from what I imagined, this ending...

Is it sad?

Sympathy for one's own kind!

Is it joy?

Great revenge!

The worry in her heart made Xue Jiuyue suppress the rest of her thoughts temporarily, "Excuse me, where are the other doctors now?"

"Oh, most of our doctors have been transferred to the Garden Mental Health Counseling Center, which is not far from their previous location."

"Excuse me, is Dr. Liu Che here too?"

"Dr. Liu, he didn't. He resigned before Xinru closed."

"Resigned? Do you know why?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know."

"Do you know where he went?"

"I'm sorry, Ms. Xue, I don't know either. A colleague wanted to give him something but couldn't get in touch with him."

After hanging up the phone, Xue Jiuyue called the number that Liu Che's mother had left behind.

"Hello, Auntie, I'm Xiaoyue. Is Liu Che home?"

"Xiaoyue, hello! I haven't seen you for a long time, I really miss you! Xiaoche, isn't he with you? He came back a while ago, and I asked him why he wasn't with you, and he said you were busy. Then he went back to Xialin. Why did you quarrel? Auntie apologizes to you on his behalf..."

"No, Auntie, we didn't have a fight. I was out for a while and just came back today. I called him but he didn't answer, so I asked you."

"Oh, the last time he came back, he said he wanted to move to another city, but he didn't tell me where. He said he'd tell me after he settled down. Shouldn't he have told you? Isn't he afraid that you'd worry? He's always been considerate of others. Xiaoyue, don't be angry with him. He's just worried that the people he cares about will suffer even a little bit!"

"Don't worry, Auntie, I won't be angry with him, thank you..."

After hanging up the phone, Xue Jiuyue let her hands drop weakly. She clearly realized that she might not be able to find Liu Che.

The news that was confirmed within a few minutes was mixed with sadness, joy, and indescribable. It was like two giant hands trying to tear Xue Jiuyue apart. Her head ached, and she felt like her soul was being torn in two.

The dusk was pale and chaotic, like a night less pure after being colored by lights. She stood there, lost and devastated, in pain and despair. She looked around helplessly. In the distance, a tree of golden ginkgo leaves stood as the only bright spot in the haze, like the romance of a life burned out. The wind blew past, and she wept bitterly...

A familiar light, a familiar feeling, bypassed all thought and struck her heart directly, bringing the rupture she was experiencing to a conclusion. A crisp sound of ripping silk swept away everything before her eyes, and then images surged forth, drowning her.