Reunion
(What if Jiang Yile finds a suitable organ donor, the surgery is successful, and he gradually recovers...)
Five years is enough for a city to change slightly and for many stories to be covered by the dust of time.
But for some marks that are deeply ingrained in the bones, five years will only make them clearer with the passage of time.
Five years later.
Outside the review room of the Organ Transplant Center of Nancheng Central Hospital, the windows are bright and clean, and the sunlight shines through the huge glass windows, casting warm spots of light.
The air is filled with a unique scent of disinfectant and hope.
Jiang Yile sat on the bench, quietly waiting for his number to be called.
She was a little plumper than she had been a few years ago, and her cheeks had a healthy, natural glow, no longer that sickly pale color.
Her long hair draped softly over her shoulders, her eyes were calm, and between her brows there was a sense of calmness and tranquility left over from the past years. It was a kind of peace that was unique to those who had gone through the test of life and death.
Only occasionally, when her eyes swept across a familiar street corner outside the window, or heard the sound of rain, a fleeting, complex glimmer would flash in her eyes.
Three years have passed since that life-or-death heart transplant surgery.
The operation was successful, the rejection reaction was well controlled, and she recovered unexpectedly smoothly, almost like a normal person.
The healthy, strong heart from an unknown donor beat steadily in her chest, giving her a new life full of possibilities.
She picked up her paintbrush again, and with her solid skills and deeper understanding of life, she was admitted to the art college of her dreams. Her life finally returned to the sunny track it should have been.
However, there is always a gap in a corner of my heart, carrying the coolness of the rain and the broken tears of the boy, as well as the ignorant emotions that were shattered by the truth before they could be sorted out.
Occasionally, she would hear bits of news about Gu Nanxiao from her old classmates - he had become a well-known painter with a melancholic style, had held art exhibitions, and had always been alone, as if living in his own world.
She didn't know how to face him, or rather, how to face the past that was a mixture of great pain and short-lived beauty.
Hate?
She no longer hated him. When she was struggling to survive on the hospital bed, she had a broader understanding of life after being reborn.
Love?
That youthful throbbing seemed to have been rationally buried in the deepest part of my heart along with the serious illness, the long recovery period and the passage of time, and was no longer easily touched.
She is grateful for every day she has now, but she can't completely erase that unforgettable memory.
"Jiang Yile, please go to Clinic Room 3."
The electronic beep interrupted her thoughts.
She withdrew her gaze, stood up and walked towards the consulting room with steady steps.
After completing a series of detailed examinations, the doctor looked at the latest report with a satisfied and relieved smile on his face: "All indicators are stable, and the heart function is good. Continue to maintain the current state. The next checkup can be postponed to six months later."
"Thank you, doctor." Jiang Yile breathed a sigh of relief and expressed his sincere gratitude. This gratitude included respect for all medical staff, the unknown organ donor, and life itself.
Holding the follow-up report showing that everything was normal, she walked out of the clinic with a relaxed mood, and felt that the sunlight outside was a little brighter.
Just as she reached the busy and slightly noisy hall of the hospital, her steps suddenly stopped. Her blood seemed to freeze in an instant, her heart skipped a beat, and the edge of the report in her hand was unconsciously clenched.
At the elevator entrance at the other end of the hall, a tall figure, familiar yet unfamiliar, was processing procedures at the payment window with his back to her.
It’s Gu Nanxiao.
He seemed to have lost some weight, with broader and straighter shoulders. He wore a simple black shirt and trousers. His posture was still straight, and the lines of his profile were still sharp and distinct. However, he had lost the youthfulness of a boy, and had gained the calmness and restraint of a mature man, as well as a lingering, slightly melancholic temperament.
The years seemed to be a bit harsh on him, leaving some traces of wind and frost between his brows, but his whole temperament became more and more calm and compelling, like an ancient well with no bottom to be seen.
How come he is here?
Are you sick?
Or... is there someone at home... ?
Jiang Yile's heartbeat suddenly went out of control, and the hand holding the report trembled slightly.
She subconsciously wanted to turn around and escape from this sudden reunion that caught her off guard, but her feet seemed to be nailed to the spot, unable to move at all.
Her eyes, like being drawn by a magnet, could not be taken away from him.
As if sensing something, or perhaps some kind of bond that transcended time and life and death, Gu Nanxiao slowly turned around at this moment.
Time stood still the moment their eyes met.
The noisy hall seemed to have been muted, and all the people and sounds blurred into the background.
He saw her.
In those deep peach blossom eyes, once filled with countless pain and despair, now settled into silence, after the initial astonishment and disbelief, a huge wave quickly surged up -
Shock, ecstasy, caution, disbelief, and an extremely complex emotion buried deep in her eyes that never faded, so strong that it almost swallowed her.
His pupils contracted violently, as if he had seen an impossible illusion.
The bill in his hand fell to the ground from between his fingers, lightly, but like a huge rock hitting the silent air between the two of them.
He just stood there, staring at her motionlessly, as if afraid that everything before him was just an illusion created by his countless midnight dreams, which would shatter at the slightest touch and would shatter and disappear, pushing him back into the abyss of despair.
His breathing seemed to have stopped.
Jiang Yile also looked at him, his eyes quickly turned red uncontrollably, and a strong sour feeling surged to the tip of his nose.
Five years, the misunderstandings and pain of life and death, now surged in his shocked and painful eyes.
Five years.
They were separated by five years, the distance between life and death, endless guilt and longing, unspeakable pain and rebirth, and finally, they met again.
a long time.
It seemed as long as a century.
Gu Nanxiao finally took a step forward, walking towards her very slowly, step by step, as if walking on thin, fragile ice.
Every step seems to be stepping on the strings of time, heavy and solemn, with a thousand hesitations and expectations.
He stopped in front of her, so close that she could smell his fresh and familiar scent, which seemed to have been steeped in time. She could see the tears welling in his eyes as he tried to hold back, and his thin lips trembling slightly as they lost their color.
His eyes greedily swept over her eyebrows, her cheeks, and her healthy and rosy complexion, inch by inch, with almost pious confirmation.
The review report in her hand, representing new life and hope, seemed to engrave this vivid and real her deeply and firmly into the deepest part of her soul, filling the blank and despair of those five years.
"Yile..." He began, his voice hoarse, filled with uncontrollable sobs and deep uncertainty, "Is it really you?"
He seemed to have asked this question thousands of times in his dreams.
Jiang Yile's tears finally burst out and slid down her cheeks.
She nodded vigorously, her throat seemed to be blocked by something hot, and she couldn't make a sound. She could only use her actions to give him the most affirmative answer.
After getting her confirmation, the tears that Gu Nanxiao had been holding back in his eyes instantly fell.
He looked at her healthy and rosy face, and the review report in her hand that looked like a miracle. The huge ecstasy and relief of regaining what he had lost almost overwhelmed him like a tsunami, breaking down all his defenses.
He reached out his hand tremblingly, wanting to touch her and confirm her real existence.
His fingertips trembled slightly in the air, but at the moment when they were about to touch her cheek, he suddenly stopped, as if he was afraid that his touch would desecrate her new life and disturb this hard-won miracle.
He withdrew his hand, clenched it into a fist, and tried to calm his excitement that was about to explode. His eyes were full of humble, cautious, and pleading like looking up at the stars.
"Are you…okay?"
He asked, his voice still trembling with incredible hope.
"Um."
Jiang Yile nodded again with tears in his eyes. His voice was tearful but he responded clearly.
"It's great..." He murmured, tears streaming even harder, but his face revealed an extremely complex expression that resembled both crying and laughing. In it was sadness, ecstasy, relief, and endless emotion. "It's great..."
He kept saying these two words, as if he could not find any other words to describe his feelings at the moment.
The two of them just stood there in the busy hospital lobby, looking at each other in silence, tears streaming down their faces.
Everything in the past——
That fate-changing downpour, that hospital ward filled with the smell of disinfectant, that desperate confession on a rainy night, that heartbreaking dying promise, those five years of separation and the pain they each endured—
It flashed through their minds like a silent movie, carrying sharp pain and deep sadness.
All the misunderstandings, all the pain, all the regrets, all the longings, at this moment, in this hospital full of new life, seemed to have found an outlet to vent and melt away.
Tears wash away the haze of the past and also water something that may sprout again.
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