Chapter 28

"What do you want to eat?" Lin Qinhe looked at Tao Xi's fingers grasping the braided rope and asked softly.

Tao Xi still looked at Lin Qinhe and said, "I can do anything."

Lin Qinhe looked at Chen Ting who was standing beside him. Chen Ting asked with understanding, "I'm going downstairs to buy some food. Do you and your wife need any?"

Lin Qinhe said: "No need, just buy him one copy."

Chen Ting nodded and left.

Seeing that Tao Xi was still looking at him, Lin Qinhe bent down slightly, looked into Tao Xi's eyes with his eyes level, and asked in a low voice: "What's wrong? Are you hungry?"

Tao Xi lowered her eyelashes and shook her head.

Lin Qinhe stood up straight, and his cell phone rang. It was Luo Zhengyin calling.

Before answering the call, he asked Tao Xi: "Do you want to come with me?"

Tao Xi bit her inner lip and nodded silently.

He followed Lin Qinhe, and after Lin Qinhe answered the phone, he said, "I'll be right there."

The two walked towards the ward and met Luo Zhengyin who was looking for Lin Qinhe on the way.

Luo Zhengyin looked anxious. She didn't have time to look at the person who suddenly appeared behind Lin Qinhe. She said to Lin Qinhe:

"The doctor wants to intubate Lele, but Lele won't cooperate and keeps crying. His grandparents and I can't persuade him no matter what we do. You should go and try to persuade him."

In the afternoon, Luo Zhengyin and Lin Qinhe went to visit Yang Duole's grandparents together. Yang Duole couldn't help but play volleyball with several children from the neighborhood. In the evening, he suddenly had pneumothorax again. Lin Qinhe, who was about to go out, had to go with them to take Yang Duole to the hospital.

Lin Qinhe frowned when he heard this.

Luo Zhengyin then noticed the boy following Lin Qinhe. The boy raised his head and looked at her. When she saw those eyes, she was slightly stunned and her fast steps paused.

Lin Qinhe introduced her: "His name is Tao Xi, and he is my deskmate."

Tao Xi looked at the tall, short-haired woman in front of her, guessing that she should be Lin Qinhe's mother, so she said obediently, "Hello, Auntie."

Luo Zhengyin came back to his senses and smiled a little haggardly: "Hello, I heard Qin He and Lele talk about you. Thank you for coming to see Lele."

She thought Tao Xi came to visit Yang Duole, but she also felt a little strange. In her impression, Yang Duole did not like this classmate named Tao Xi.

Tao Xi didn't know what to say, but fortunately Lin Qinhe said to Luo Zhengyin: "Let's go to the ward first."

Before the three people reached the ward, they heard Yang Duole's crying and the earnest words of comfort from an elderly couple.

Tao Xi's steps became heavier and heavier. He knew that the old couple must be his grandparents.

Luo Zhengyin was anxious and entered the ward first. Tao Xi gently pulled Lin Qinhe's sleeve before reaching the door of the ward.

Lin Qinhe looked at him and seemed to understand what he meant. He took Tao Xi to the bench in the corridor and said softly:

"Would you please sit here and wait for me?"

Tao Xi sat down on the bench and said hello calmly.

He asked to come here, he has no right to be sad.

But he didn't know that sadness, like love, cannot be hidden.

Lin Qinhe looked down at Tao Xi, and from this angle he could see his drooping and trembling eyelashes.

He took out a candy from his pocket that a neighbor's kid had stuffed into his pocket when he was at Fang's house that afternoon. He half-knelt down, held Tao Xi's hand, put the candy with the smiley face on it into his palm, and said:

"I heard that all children will become happy after eating this candy."

This is what the little girl who gave him candy said to him.

Tao Xi looked at the candy in her hand, then looked at Lin Qinhe, smiled and said:

"But I'm not a kid anymore."

Lin Qinhe looked into Tao Xi's eyes. He was silent for a while, and said in a voice that Tao Xi couldn't hear:

"Who are you."

Then he stood up and walked into the ward after Luo Zhengyin urged him to come out again.

Tao Xi looked at the candy and squeezed it tightly into her palm.

He thought, what was there for him to be sad about?

He has a healthy body that Yang Duole does not have. In the future, he will make a lot of money, buy a big house, travel to many places in the world, and have a wonderful life.

The only thing missing from his wonderful life is Lin Qinhe.

But he still couldn't help but quietly walk to the door of the ward and look inside in the dim light at the side of the door to see what the life that should have belonged to him looked like.

Luo Zhengyin apologized to the doctors and nurses, then walked to Yang Duole's grandmother Ye Yurong, who was wiping her tears, and handed her a tissue.

Grandfather Fang Zuqing, who was sitting on a chair nearby, was silent with red eyes. This old professor, who had been strong for most of his life, only loved this one grandson and never said a harsh word to him no matter how willful he was.

Tao Xi quietly looked at the two old men with red eyes wiping away tears.

He thought, these are his grandparents.

It turns out that when relatives feel sorry for a child, they will cry for him.

Then he saw Lin Qinhe walk to Yang Duole's bed and ask him:

"Why don't you cooperate with the doctor?" The voice was serious but gentle.

Yang Duole's face was pale and full of tears. He had done this operation before and knew how painful it was, but he never dared to disobey Lin Qinhe. He said in self-abandonment:

"Brother Qinhe, I'm in so much pain. I feel like I can't go on like this. It's so painful to live like this."

Hearing this, Luo Zhengyin turned her face slightly away, her eyes reddened, Ye Yurong hunched over and shed tears, and Fang Zuqing hugged his wife in his arms.

Lin Qinhe's voice became deeper: "Le Le, don't say such things, don't make your relatives sad for you."

Yang Duole pursed his lips in anger and said nothing, with tears streaming from the corners of his eyes.

Lin Qinhe gently held Yang Duole's right hand. There was an obvious red round birthmark on the wrist of that hand, and a red peace knot with gold beads.

Whenever Yang Duole was reluctant to take medicine when he was a child, Lin Qinhe would hold his hand and persuade him like this.

And that string of red peace knots was the last gift Fang Sui left for Yang Duole.

Lin Qinhe softened his voice and said slowly to Yang Duole:

"Do you remember the letter your mother wrote to you when you were 18? I think she hoped that by the time you opened the letter, you would have grown into a strong and optimistic adult."

Luo Zhengyin couldn't hold back any longer and also shed tears.

Yang Duole was silent. He could be willful in front of all his relatives, but he couldn't be willful to his mother because she had given her life for him.

He finally agreed to cooperate with the doctor.

After that, the doctor and the nurse came with instruments to intubate Yang Duole. Yang Duole cried out in pain. Lin Qinhe held his hand the whole time, and Luo Zhengyin wiped his tears.

Tao Xi left the ward door and sat back on the bench.

He tore open the candy wrapper of the warm candy in his hand, put it into his mouth, and chewed it hard.

It had a very sweet peach flavor, but he couldn't taste anything.

He thought that Lin Qinhe was also sometimes wrong.

He ate the candy and didn't feel happy at all.

Not at all.

He quickly finished the candy. Chen Ting walked up to him with a box of food and said, "I bought this at a nearby restaurant. I wonder if you like it."

Tao Xi took the lunch box and said thank you.

He opened his lunch box and started eating. He ate faster and faster, wolfing down his food like a man who had been starving for days.

Only in this way could he control himself and not rush into the ward and shout to them:

I am Fang Sui's son.

You should all love me.

I feel very uncomfortable, my heart hurts, and I live in pain.

Why don't you come and care about me?

How come no one has ever cried out of pity for me?

He felt like vomiting after eating, so he took out a bottle of water from his pocket, tilted his head back and drank several sips before he suppressed the nausea.

Tao Xi put down the bottle and saw a pair of long legs appear in front of him. Then the legs bent, and Lin Qinhe half-knelt in front of him, looking up at him.

He rarely had the opportunity to look down at Lin Qinhe like this. The light from the corridor fell on Lin Qinhe's face, and the shadow under his brow bone made his facial features seem more profound. There was obvious worry in the deep eyes that looked at him.

Lin Qinhe reached out and took a grain of rice from his mouth, and asked him in a low voice: "Tao Xi, what's wrong with you?"

Tao Xi looked at Lin Qinhe in a trance, like a drowning man looking at a single piece of driftwood, or a person in the dark looking at a single lamp.

He suddenly asked: "Lin Qinhe, if one day I get sick and it hurts a lot, will you come to see me?"

Lin Qinhe frowned slightly and asked, "Why do you ask such a question?"

Tao Xi asked paranoidly: "So will you come to see me?"

Lin Qinhe was silent for a while, then said, "You won't get sick."

His tone was so certain that it was almost childish, as if he could determine that his life would be free of illness and disaster, and full of happiness and joy.

Tao Xi's heart ached. He smiled and said, "Lin Qinhe, I want to go back."

Lin Qinhe stood up and said, "I'll take you back."

"Don't you have to stay here with him?" Tao Xi sat still and asked a cruel question to himself.

Lin Qinhe said calmly: "He has many relatives accompanying him."

He bent down, held Tao Xi's hand, pulled him up from the bench, and whispered,

"But it seems like I'm all you have now."

Tao Xi's breath was choked and he almost burst into tears. At that moment he really wanted to ask Lin Qinhe.

Do you like me a little bit?

But he ultimately didn't have the courage.

He was afraid that it was just his illusion.

Once you ask the question, there is no room for maneuver.

Lin Qinhe carried Taoxi's schoolbag and took Taoxi to the Lin family's car. Chen Ting drove the car to Wenhua No. 1 Middle School.

In the car, Tao Xi looked at the rapidly passing neon lights outside the window, and then looked at Lin Qinhe who was silent beside him.

Lin Qinhe noticed his gaze and turned to look at him in the dim light. The colorful neon lights reflected in his eyes, and soft colors were revealed in the movement of light and shadow.

Tao Xi opened her mouth and wanted to say something, but finally just said, "I don't have time to draw a comic for you today."

Lin Qinhe said to him, "It's okay." After a pause, he added, "Give it to me tomorrow."

Tao Xi nodded and said nothing more.

He looked at the neon lights outside the window again and thought.

This road should be longer and longer.

When he grew up, he was always the only one by Lin Qinhe's side.

But after the evening rush hour, the city was no longer congested, and the car soon arrived at the gate of Wenhua No. 1 Middle School. Tao Xi reluctantly followed Lin Qinhe out of the car.

Lin Qinhe still carried Tao Xi's schoolbag and walked him all the way to the dormitory building.

The campus was deserted on Sunday night, with only the soft noise of the October evening breeze.

Tao Xi stood at the door of the first floor of the dormitory. The only light left on was very dim. He seemed to have more courage in the dimness. He said to Lin Qinhe:

"Lin Qinhe, I'm very sad today. Can I ask for the midterm reward in advance?"

Although he hadn't even made it into the top 50, he couldn't absolutely guarantee that he would make it.

But Lin Qinhe seemed to be particularly indulgent tonight, and said softly: "Okay, what do you want?"

Tao Xi did not answer. He pounced on Lin Qinhe in the dim light, slightly tiptoed, put his arms around Lin Qinhe's neck, rested his chin on Lin Qinhe's broad shoulders, and rubbed him gently like a puppy.

Lin Qinhe's body froze, and he subconsciously wanted to push the person away, but eventually he withdrew his hand.

Tao Xi's eyelashes trembled slightly, and he whispered:

"Lin Qinhe, I will also work hard to become a strong and optimistic adult."

Just like you said to Yang Duole.

He quickly let go of Lin Qinhe, otherwise he was afraid that his pounding heartbeat would be heard.

"Okay, I'm not sad now, thank you."

Tao Xi took her schoolbag from Lin Qinhe and ran quickly upstairs to the dormitory building.

Lin Qinhe stood there motionless until the automatic response lights in the corridor went out one by one.

He walked out of the school gate.

Later, Lin Qinhe would always think of that night, and wish that time could be reversed and he could go back to that time.

He will definitely hug the person in his arms tightly back.

Tell him.

You don't have to be an adult.

You just need to be my most favored friend in the world.

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