The student surpasses the teacher.
The hospitals between Feng'an District and Nanguang District are not as good as those in Chaopu District, but they are closer, and closer to Qian Tong, who urgently needs to be rescued.
The open dome makes the lobby feel even more spacious. Although the sun is shining outside, there is only a faint gloom inside the door. The walls and decorations are all white, light blue, and the like, with occasional striking red accents that stand out, but still giving people a feeling of being enveloped in gray tones.
Qian Yan's soul seemed to have been taken away; she was like a stone, wherever she was taken, she stayed there peacefully.
Her empty eyes held the stillness of stone. Occasionally, passersby would sit beside her, and some would glance at her a few times before moving on.
Stones like these are frequently found in hospitals; there are many, many of them.
Inside the operating room was Qian Tong, who was undergoing emergency treatment. At the beginning of the day, Qian Tong was touching her arm, which had finally gained some weight, and excitedly ran to her mother's side. Looking up at her face, which didn't have much flesh, she grinned and said, "Mom, look, I'm getting fatter! I'm getting stronger! I'm growing up!"
He said, "When I grow up, I will protect and take care of my mother. I will try my best to become someone like Uncle Chen. I want you to rest and enjoy your life."
Beautiful wishes, and his clear, beautiful black eyes.
Qian Yan's soul seemed to have been taken away; she was like a stone, wherever she was taken, she stayed there peacefully.
When Qian Tong was born, the child was very thin, weighing just over four pounds. She didn't cry when she came into this world, and only cried and breathed the air of this world after being patted a few times by the nurse.
When the baby was a few months old, he didn't like to cry or fuss. He would just lie quietly on the bed. Qian Zheng's favorite thing to do was to lie next to the baby, his face full of wrinkles from smiling, love tucked between the wrinkles.
He always said, "This child looks like me, and he'll definitely surpass me in the future. But I don't expect him to be anything great. The most important thing in life is to be happy. Be happy whether you're rich or poor. But besides being happy, I also hope he'll be safe and healthy."
Qian Tong didn't quite surpass his father, or perhaps he did. He didn't live as long as his father, and he'll probably die much earlier.
Qian Zheng said, "From now on, this kid and I will protect you. When I can't take it anymore, he will take over my responsibilities."
But you left us too soon.
Nine years have passed since then, another year has gone by. Qian Tong was only five years old when she lost her father, and she lost her husband.
My five-year-old child has pneumonia. How can I protect her?
Qian Zheng, the one who will shoulder your burden is not Qian Tong, but me.
Traces of the past lingered in her heart and brain, and Qian Yanmo spoke to herself without moving her mouth.
What terrible sins must one commit to experience all of this?
Qian Yan's soul seemed to have been taken away; she was like a stone, wherever she was taken, she stayed there peacefully.
Happiness and hope always stood at their door, knocked twice, and then, as they opened the door, suddenly turned into a chilling wind, rolling in with snow.
After parking her car in the hospital parking lot, Wen Dai rushed upstairs without stopping. She ignored the elevators that required waiting and was not satisfied with the speed of the escalators. She said "Excuse me, please let me through, thank you" countless times along the way, weaving through the crowd and desperately climbing up.
When she found Qian Yan, what she saw was that kind of stone.
Everyone coming and going was alive, and everyone sitting in the chairs was alive, but she alone did not look like a living person.
Short of breath and exhausted, Wen Dai slowed her movements. She dragged her legs and approached Qian Yan step by step. When she reached Qian Yan, she knelt down, tilted her chin up, and looked at the stone in front of her with furrowed brows. She called softly, her voice punctuated by gasps, "Sister Qian Yan..."
She glanced at the color of the operating room light out of the corner of her eye.
We already know the answer.
On the way, the immortal suddenly became generous, no longer saying things like "heavenly secrets cannot be revealed." When she couldn't help but ask about Qian Tong's situation and fate, after a while, Chu'er passed the information to her.
Three very simple words—
"He won't survive."
Looking at the stone in front of her, Wen Dai felt that her tears were about to burst forth, and she couldn't hold them back any longer.
Qian Yan seemed to be awakened by Wen Dai's voice. Her body, which was as hard as stone and not like that of a living person, shifted its gaze and looked down at Wen Dai.
They both saw the tears welling up in each other's eyes.
The stone was finally no longer a stone, and it shed tears.
Qian Yan reached out as if to grab something, and Wen Dai raised her hand and gave it to her.
One hand was loose and almost fleshless, the other was thin and pale. She grabbed it as if grasping at a straw.
Where do so many lifelines come from? Can lifelines really be saved?
It was very forceful; Wen Dai felt as if her fingers were about to come together.
Tears streamed down Qian Yan's bloodshot eyes, forming two shallow streams. She cried silently. It was a pure, unfiltered cry.
Taking advantage of her petite stature, Wen Dai rushed over much faster than Chen Sizhe. Just as she couldn't help but shed tears and wept silently with Qian Yan, Chen Sizhe, who had been walking briskly, stopped not far away.
Two people, one sitting and one squatting, their hands clasped together, each with tears streaming from their eyes, yet their tears occasionally shared a common source—a common source of emotion.
The operating room lights went out, and the two women had to stop crying for the time being. Wiping her tears haphazardly from her cheeks, Qian Yan first pulled her hand back, took a few quick steps then slowed down, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, and finally stopped outside the operating room.
Wen Dai didn't dare go over. She hugged her knees and squatted on the ground, burying her head in her arms, tears falling one by one; her body was trembling slightly.
The doctor's voice was particularly clear at that moment, forcing those who wanted to cover their ears to listen to it; their ears had to be sharpened at such a time.
"Despite all resuscitation efforts, the patient's heartbeat could not be restored. Unfortunately, the resuscitation efforts failed."
Tears flowed like a flood, and it wasn't just her who experienced the torrent, nor just her eyes.
Chen Sizhe glanced at the person who was squatting on the ground, curled up in a ball. He pursed his lips and didn't say anything. He walked closer to her and silently stopped behind her.
Upon hearing the news of Qian Tong's death, the tense Qian Yan finally collapsed and fell to the ground in an instant, catching everyone off guard. A new round of emergency resuscitation began.
With no time left for tears, the tears still welling up in her eyes had no chance to escape for the time being. Wen Dai suddenly stood up, completely disregarding her blood pressure, which resulted in her suddenly going black out. Her swaying body was caught in time by Chen Sizhe, who had been standing behind her.
The hardness on her back, accompanied by the faint fragrance of daisy from the cage, helped her lean on Chen Sizhe to adjust herself for a moment. Then she ran a few steps toward the direction where Qian Yan had been pushed away, slowed down, and stopped at the door.
The tears on my face were slowly drying, and my skin felt a tightening sensation.
Chen Sizhe caught up and stopped beside her. His raised hand hesitated for a moment in mid-air, then with a sense of impending doom, he placed his hand on Wen Dai's shoulder, turned her body slightly, and pulled her into his arms before she could react.
In hospital corridors, especially in front of operating rooms, it's not uncommon to see two or more people embracing.
Wen Dai, who never imagined she could be one of them, stood blankly in Chen Sizhe's arms.
He held her very tightly.
With his height of 1.9 meters and his physique built through years of fitness training, it would be easy for the man to wrap his entire body around her.
His hands were around her back, and she could feel him holding her tightly, yet he seemed hesitant to use too much force.
Perhaps because their bodies were so close, Chen Sizhe's voice was exceptionally clear when he lowered his head: "If you want to cry, then cry. If you don't have the strength to stand, then lean on me."
The voice was soft and low, with a barely perceptible tremor.
Her eyes, brimming with sourness, looked up. Wen Dai wanted to look at him, but halfway there, his hand covered the upper half of her face. Then, her ears caught his voice: "Don't look." It was a breathy tone, with a pleading quality.
Wen Dai could hear the slight sob in her voice.
Is Chen Sizhe...crying?
His lips moved, but in the end, no sound came out.
"..."
After an emergency examination by medical staff, it was confirmed that Qian Yan's fainting was caused by excessive emotional distress. She was then moved to a regular ward to rest temporarily. While Qian Yan was lying on the hospital bed staring blankly out the window, Wen Dai and Chen Sizhe went to pay her bills.
Fate showered this woman with a rain of boulders, each one intended to crush her.
She's not dead yet, and the exorbitant emergency medical and examination fees shouldn't be a stone rolling down on her.
After paying the fees, Wen Dai slowed her pace as she walked towards the ward. Her eyes and the eyes of the person next to her were red, and the solemnity in their faces left people speechless.
After a long pause, Wen Dai spoke first: "I'm a little afraid to go see her." The woman's voice was hoarse, as if covered with a layer of sand.
She lowered her chin slightly, her weak legs stretched forward, each step feeling unreal.
“Before, because I didn’t dare to speak directly, I went along with their wishes and gave them hope and possibility. But now there is no hope or possibility left… If I had spoken directly back then, would Sister Qian Yan have felt any better? Then—it wouldn’t be like this now, with her hope completely extinguished.”
However, Chen Sizhe firmly rejected her apologies and self-doubt: "You're not wrong. I don't know how your experiences shaped you into the kind of person who takes responsibility and blames for everything when things happen. There's no need to question your past choices. If you told them in advance that Qian Tong would die one day, that he wouldn't live past eighteen, how would they live without any hope? In fact, they would find joy in hardship every day, and it would be difficult for them to laugh genuinely. The most prevalent feelings would probably be worries and silence."
Trying to lighten her mood, Wen Dai stopped at the ward door. She peered through the small window in the door and saw Qian Yan still in the same position they had left in. She let out a weak sigh and put on a lighthearted tone: "Your reasoning skills are pretty good. How can you be sure they won't gradually come to terms with it?"
"Because I've been there."
Standing beside her, Chen Sizhe's expression remained unchanged. He lowered his eyelids, his eyes still red from the tears he had shed earlier, making them look pitiful against his fair skin.
“Before my grandmother passed away, our whole family knew she didn’t have long to live.”
All I've been doing is running away. Everyone tacitly cooperates by pretending not to care. In reality, I don't even dare to think about it. As soon as I do, I can't put on a smile—I can't even cry. I just sit there lost in thought.
Now things are different; even being carefree is no longer an option.
Wen Dai stared in astonishment at the man beside her, chin tilted back. His lips didn't move; when he wasn't smiling, they drooped downwards. His fox-like eyes, surrounded by a blush, held his own story.
She apologized sincerely: "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have reminded you of your sad memories." She leaned forward slightly and gave a bow that was only a formality, her lowered head and the soft tone of her voice revealing her true feelings.
"It's all in the past."
He seemed to downplay it.
Such understatedness has appeared in many people's lives; the phrase "it's all in the past" is just like a wisp of wind.
Even doors that were too dangerous to open had to be opened. Wen Dai followed another person who had come to visit her family inside, with Chen Sizhe close behind.
Qian Yan, exuding a strong sense of decay, leaned against the headboard. Her head rested against the no longer pristine white wall, her withered hair falling haphazardly, and her eyes were devoid of emotion, only a blank emptiness.
A shocking scene.
There was no blood or wounds, yet it was still shocking.
Wen Dai stepped forward and dragged a chair to Qian Yan's bedside. Her heavy body sat down on the chair, but the heaviness did not lessen. Her heavy gaze made it impossible for her to smile and shake off the heaviness.
After a long while, he finally managed to call out in a dry voice, "...Sister Qian Yan."
The person, exuding a deathly aura, rolled her eyes. Qian Yan shifted her gaze and met Wen Dai's. She stared at Wen Dai blankly for half an hour—not looking at Wen Dai, or rather, not just Wen Dai.
The easiest time to see the past is when people from the past stand in front of you, especially when those people have only recently become the past.
In a daze, Qian Yan seemed to see Qian Tong, who would be nervous and excited when waiting for Wen Dai—he liked Wen Dai the most, and his eyes would light up when he saw her.
Unfortunately, even with the woman he loved, Sister Wen Dai, he still couldn't stay in this world.
"Sister Qian Yan, death is not the end, but another beginning." Saying this is a fact, the pain of suddenly losing a person in one's life still condensed into tears.
Wen Dai lowered her head and cried uncontrollably. How could she continue to offer comfort?
Fortunately, there was Chen Sizhe as a backup. He stepped forward, his shoes clicking on the ground. The tall, slender man stood beside the hospital bed, blocking most of the light coming in from the window, casting shadows on Wen Dai and the hospital bed.
He looked down at Qian Yan, his lips parting slightly: "In your life, many things will come in and many things will leave. The quality of things is beyond our control. The only thing we can manage is ourselves—in fact, we are not entirely under our control, but we are indeed the most controllable while we exist in this world."
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