Chapter 35: Even the bittersweet summer must come to an end.
As the last class before school ended on Friday, the teacher on the stage had just assigned homework when Chen Wei suddenly walked into the classroom with an anxious expression and called Luo Yiqiu out.
A short while later, Shen Qingli saw her hurriedly return, grab her schoolbag, and run outside without saying a word.
"Yiqiu! What happened?" Chen Chaoxi's class had just finished, and she was carrying her schoolbag, ready to wait for Luo Yiqiu to get ready to go home together. But when she saw Luo Yiqiu's flustered appearance at the classroom door, she quickly stopped her and asked.
"Yixiao, he... he fainted at school and is in the hospital now. Teacher Chen said that Teacher Zhao couldn't contact Uncle and Aunt, so she came to ask me. I have to go there right now." She finished speaking hurriedly and ran towards the stairs before Chen Chaoxi could say anything else.
Shen Qingli, who overheard the conversation at the door, immediately stood up. She exchanged a glance with Chen Chaoxi outside the door, then grabbed her schoolbag, and the two of them, holding each other's hands, quickly caught up with Luo Yiqiu.
When they arrived at the city hospital, Shen Qingli immediately spotted Lin Xiaqing standing not far away. Chen Chaoxi and the others also noticed him, but Luo Yiqiu had no time to care about him or why he was there at this moment.
She went straight to the nurses' station to ask about Zhao Yixiao's condition, her voice anxious and her whole body trembling uncontrollably.
Lin Xiaqing looked up when he heard the sound. When he saw the three of them, his gaze unconsciously fell on Shen Qingli. In just a second, he noticed the nervous look on her face. He was stunned for a moment, and then turned his head away without showing it.
Seeing Luo Yiqiu's condition again, he kindly stepped forward and comforted her, saying, "He's fine now, don't worry, his condition has stabilized. His ward is the first one over there."
As soon as he finished speaking, Luo Yiqiu followed the direction he pointed and found that Zhao Yixiao's homeroom teacher was also at the door of the ward. She hurriedly thanked Lin Xiaqing and then ran over.
When Zhao Yufang saw that it was her, she felt like she had seen a savior and quickly asked her if there was any way to contact Zhao Yixiao's parents now.
Whenever there's anything about Zhao Yixiao, everyone immediately thinks of her, believing that as his childhood friend, she must have a solution.
But things are different now. Luo Yiqiu is not quite clear about the current situation of Zhao Yixiao's family. She bit her lip tightly, feeling helpless. She thought of borrowing her teacher's phone to call her father, explain the situation, and ask him to think of a solution.
After confirming that she had contacted Zhao Yixiao's parents, Zhao Yufang finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She stood at the door of the ward and said to Luo Yiqiu, whose face was pale with worry, "The doctor said that Zhao Yixiao is fine for now, but further examinations are needed to determine the cause of his fainting. He hasn't woken up yet, and Shen Qingyun is inside with him. Yiqiu, why don't you go in and see him too?"
Upon hearing this, Luo Yiqiu, who was about to take a step to open the ward door, froze when she heard Shen Qingyun's name. She was stunned for a while before slowly shaking her head and saying in a hoarse voice, "As long as he is alright, that's fine. Since there are people inside, I'll wait a while before going in."
Having said that, faced with her current situation, she felt completely drained and hurriedly found a place to sit down. Only after she was settled on a chair outside the ward did Luo Yiqiu realize that her legs had gone weak.
The tension she felt earlier had gradually subsided, but the worry continued to spread in her mind.
Why did Zhao Yixiao suddenly faint? Is there something wrong with his health? Was his last check-up not very good?
She knew absolutely nothing about any of this, and once the other party decided to remain silent, she was completely at a loss.
Today's events were like a warning hammer from God, making her realize how absurd she had been doing. She knew perfectly well that his health had always been poor, yet she still wasted his precious time by arguing with him.
-
Shen Qingli and Chen Chaoxi were standing not far away, watching Luo Yiqiu sitting alone in a chair, head down, silent for a long time. They glanced at each other and stood there, not knowing what to do.
After several minutes of silence, Chen Chaoxi finally spoke: "I'll go downstairs at the hospital to buy some food. It's almost dinnertime now, and everyone probably hasn't eaten yet."
"Okay, then I'll go with you."
"No need, you stay here and keep Yiqiu company." She glanced at Luo Yiqiu worriedly and pleaded with her.
Shen Qingli looked at her, understood what she meant, and nodded silently.
If it were just a matter between Zhao Yixiao and Luo Yiqiu, Chen Chaoxi might have been able to intervene and help, but Shen Qingyun is caught in the middle, so this matter can only be handled by her.
Seeing that she agreed, Chen Chaoxi patted her on the shoulder gratefully and then went downstairs.
Just then, a nurse from the nearby nurses' station came over and asked who among them could pay the hospital fees. Zhao Yixiao's parents hadn't arrived yet, and Zhao Yufang, being the only adult present, naturally had to pay for them first.
Seeing that she was about to go with the nurse to pay the bill, Lin Xiaqing took a look at the situation and volunteered to go with her: "Teacher Zhao, let me go with you. That way, if there are many steps later, I can help you."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Yufang glanced at him and said with satisfaction, "Well done, thanks to you today, Xia Qing. If you hadn't discovered Zhao Yixiao's situation in time, I really don't know what would have happened today."
Walking down the hospital corridor with the nurse, she could hardly bear to think about the possibility that hadn't happened.
"It's nothing, Teacher Zhao, it's what I should do."
As he spoke, he silently turned to look at Shen Qingli, who had already sat down next to Luo Yiqiu, before calmly withdrawing his gaze.
-
Luo Yiqiu noticed someone sitting down next to her. When she saw it was her, she forced a smile and said, "Are you trying to comfort me? Don't worry, I'm fine."
"Stop laughing, you look uglier than crying." Shen Qingli saw through her bravado and couldn't help but expose her. "I understand how you feel right now. When my sister suddenly had a fever, I was also very anxious and worried. But now Senior Zhao is fine, so don't look so unhappy."
She tried to comfort Luo Yiqiu, but the person in front of her shook her head after hearing this. She pursed her lips and stammered, "I...I'm sad because of more than just this."
"What?" Shen Qingli asked, not understanding her words.
When Luo Yiqiu met her puzzled gaze, she wearily lowered her eyes again. She thought she would keep those words, which she had kept in her heart and never spoken to anyone, to herself for the rest of her life. But at this moment, she felt that if she didn't talk to someone, she would be driven crazy.
After thinking it over, she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.
A few minutes later, just when Shen Qingli thought she wouldn't answer, the person beside her finally spoke: "I'm just blaming myself. Because of his actions, I got angry and quarreled with him, and I didn't even know when he wasn't feeling well..."
“How can you blame yourself? All of this is unknown…” She didn’t quite understand why Luo Yiqiu would blame herself for this, but she still tried to comfort her.
But before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted again: "It's all my fault. I was too harsh on him. I was the one who ruined this relationship from the very beginning, yet I treated him like this time and time again."
She was talking to herself, saying things that were hard to understand, as if she were lost in a deep memory, her brows furrowed in pain.
...
Before Zhao Yixiao was diagnosed with this disease, their parents were the closest of friends, and since childhood, many people had mentioned the childhood betrothal that their parents had joked about.
Perhaps it was because she had been nagged so much, but even when she later developed feelings for Zhao Yixiao that went beyond friendship, she didn't think it was a big deal.
Until... until, during her first year of high school, when she played a four-hand piano duet, she asked a friend with a camera to take a picture of her and Zhao Yixiao from the audience. She hid that picture in her desk drawer, and secretly drew a small heart on the back of it.
At that time, she was secretly delighted because under that photo, they were greeted with applause and envy from countless people in the school, and in everyone's eyes, they were a perfect match.
But everything started to fall apart because of that group photo. A few weeks after the cultural performance, she and Zhao Yixiao went home together as usual. After saying goodbye to him, she entered the house and found that the group photo that she had carefully hidden was now swaggering on the table in her living room.
Her parents were sitting in the living room with serious expressions. Luo Yiqiu hadn't even had time to wipe the smile off her face when she knew that everything was about to fall apart.
Her feelings for Zhao Yixiao were exposed in a pathetic and embarrassing way to her parents. They didn't even ask her for an explanation before ordering their daughter to never have such thoughts again.
Their overreaction stemmed not only from the fact that she shouldn't have thoughts other than studying at her age, but also from the fact that the person was Zhao Yixiao.
From the moment he was diagnosed with his illness, she could no longer like him. She could treat Zhao Yixiao as a friend, as a brother, but she couldn't have any other feelings for him.
From that day on, Luo Yiqiu's parents wanted to nip her inappropriate feelings for Zhao Yixiao in the bud. So they no longer agreed to the two of them going to and from school together, and demanded that she not have any further contact with him except for things that were unavoidable at school.
Unwilling to break ties with their former close friends, they could only place all the pressure on their daughter in order to maintain a semblance of dignity.
But Luo Yiqiu refused. From the time she was born and had memories, Zhao Yixiao had always been by her side. She couldn't accept that he was no longer in her life, so she even started a hunger strike to protest. The Luo family was in an uproar for those few days, and eventually the news even reached Zhao Yixiao's ears.
That year, Zhao Yixiao made a promise to Luo Yiqiu's parents behind her back, and they finally agreed to let them continue to go to and from school as usual, but they still did not allow any other contact outside of school.
Little did she know, she still naively believed that she had done everything in her power to save the relationship.
From that day on, she was both afraid that Zhao Yixiao might already know her feelings, and awkwardly looking forward to his reaction after he found out, since anyone would be suspicious of the sudden obstruction from both sets of parents.
But neither what she feared nor what she vaguely hoped for happened. He didn't even ask her a single question. The two of them were still the same as before, but in her heart, things were no longer the same.
At first, she could deceive herself into thinking that he didn't know, until after that hospital visit, when they had their first argument. She refused to agree to his request and didn't want to lose the last time she could spend alone with him on her way to and from school.
Having been spoiled since childhood, Luo Yiqiu once again used what she thought would be a way to threaten people, but unexpectedly learned that he had always known. He knew about the stupid things he had done to rebel against his family and for him. He knew everything, but in that year, he pretended to be ignorant and never responded to her feelings, neither rejecting nor agreeing.
He is still keeping his childhood promise to protect her, but from now on, whenever she takes the initiative to approach him, he will have to take a step back again.
Luo Yiqiu didn't understand. She even hoped that Zhao Yixiao would give her a clear answer so she could give up, but she got nothing.
They still seemed to be childhood sweethearts in everyone's eyes, but all her privileges were slowly disappearing from Zhao Yixiao's life, and to this day, she still hadn't received any answer from him.
-
That was a past that no one knew. Luo Yiqiu had never told anyone about it because no one could understand. They were clearly the kind of people everyone envied, so how could things have turned out like this?
No one would believe that Zhao Yixiao didn't like her, but only she knew that she might never get that answer in her entire life.
Because Zhao Yixiao had already decided the end of their relationship without her knowledge.
-
After saying that, she sighed deeply, and the pressure in her heart finally eased a little. She kept everything to herself, with no one to share it with or confide in, and could only grieve alone. That feeling was too painful.
Perhaps it was Zhao Yixiao's unexpected accident today that threw her into a panic, making it impossible for her to continue pretending to be strong, and she had to find someone to talk to about what had happened recently.
Shen Qingli had no idea that Luo Yiqiu, who seemed cheerful and carefree, actually harbored so many things in her heart. She was somewhat surprised, and then genuinely empathized with Luo Yiqiu and felt heartbroken.
How can liking someone be such a bittersweet story?
Noticing her sad gaze, she looked away, her expression melancholy as she said to herself, "Sometimes I think, maybe he just doesn't like me. Even if you all say he likes me, it doesn't matter, because he's never said it himself. And if he liked me, there would definitely be an answer, wouldn't there?"
Zhao Yixiao doesn't like Luo Yiqiu. Even Shen Qingli wouldn't believe it if she heard him say that, but she couldn't say it out loud. As he said, the liking expressed by others doesn't count; only the person involved can say it for it to be true.
Thinking of this, she suddenly didn't know what else she could say to comfort her, who was in so much pain. Just as she was feeling troubled, she heard soft voices coming from the ward.
Realizing that the person in the ward was probably awake, she asked, "He seems to be awake. Do you want to go in and check on him?"
Luo Yiqiu naturally heard the voices as well, but although she couldn't hear the conversation clearly, she knew that Zhao Yixiao was talking to Shen Qingyun. Realizing this, she shook her head and said reluctantly, "Let's wait until they finish talking."
Staring at the tightly closed ward door, the hospital corridor was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, yet my heart couldn't find peace.
Luo Yiqiu didn't want to talk about this sad thing anymore, so she deliberately changed the subject and asked Shen Qingli, "But Qingli, could you please not tell anyone what I told you today?"
“Okay, don’t worry, I won’t tell.” Knowing her concerns, Shen Qingli immediately agreed, but looking at her, she hesitated for a long time before finally saying, “But I think today might be a chance for you two to have a good talk. Whatever the answer is, I think there should be a result.”
Hearing this, Luo Yiqiu turned her head and saw her earnestly advising her. She suddenly smiled and sighed, "Qingli, you've probably never liked a boy before, right?"
"Huh? Why are you suddenly asking this..." She was taken aback when the topic was suddenly changed, and her expression became flustered when she was asked this question.
Fortunately, the person next to her was preoccupied with their own affairs and didn't notice her unease.
The speaker was still smiling, but the smile on his lips looked increasingly bitter. "Because many feelings of affection are destined to remain unrequited."
Just like a summer in your youth, once it's over, it's over. No matter how much you want to go back or how much you miss it, the end is the end.
Summer in Suzhou always ends abruptly each year; it seems like one day it's still hot, and the next day the cold autumn wind is already blowing.
No one can predict when summer will end, just like the feelings that appeared that summer—elusive and fleeting.
-----------------------
Author's Note: TT We're childhood sweethearts [crying emoji]
I set the wrong time again, so sorry TT
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
