Chapter 80: The Past Life (5): Pei Yanli's body was burned.
After that, Chen Zhao would talk to him every now and then.
Luo Yunqing seemed to be in much better spirits, and sometimes she would take the initiative to start conversations and bring up the past.
He also said that he had skipped school before.
"I think it was my first year of high school. I would skip evening self-study sessions every night. I remember... there were internet cafes just two streets outside the school, and I went there every night."
Chen Zhao smiled and said, "So you were rebellious before too."
"Yeah, and as a network administrator, I make 20 yuan an hour. I can also earn several hundred yuan by playing games for others. That's more than I can make by doing part-time work on my days off. So I thought, I might as well quit."
The smile faded, and Chen Zhao said nothing more.
If I remember correctly, I was in college when I met him.
He still achieved a respectable third place in the province in the college entrance examination.
He continued reading, though.
“After skipping classes so many times, I also stopped attending regular classes, and my grades dropped significantly. When the teacher found out, she told my mother-in-law about it.” Luo Yunqing touched her left cheek and slowly rubbed it. “My mother-in-law hit me for the first time, and also the only time.”
He didn't cry, he was just a little confused.
He earns money to buy good food for his younger siblings, and saves the rest for their medical treatment. What's wrong with that?
But her mother-in-law didn't think so.
She would repeat herself tirelessly that he had no obligation to do so, just as she had when he was sent to the orphanage after losing his parents.
Tell him that she is also part of the family.
“I resented her for this. It would have been fine if I had just made the money, but she wouldn’t let me do it. For the next three years of high school, our relationship was very tense, but it was only on my end. Especially in the last six months, I even thought about handing in a blank paper to spite her.”
Thinking back to herself back then, Luo Yunqing couldn't help but laugh.
Chen Zhao then asked, "And then what happened?"
"Later... for the first time ever, the orphanage started serving fish soup every day."
Before that, it was only once a week.
He knew that his mother-in-law hoped he could break free like Xiaoyu and return to a normal life, preferably never to return to the orphanage. Sick, disabled, and unwanted children would only be a burden to him.
But in his heart, they were not a burden, but his family.
But now...
The room was unusually quiet for a long time.
After a while, Luo Yunqing changed the subject and asked him, "Have you ever been to the beach?"
Chen Zhao nodded and asked curiously, "You haven't been there before? The nearest beach isn't far from here."
"I'm afraid of water and can't swim."
Luo Yunqing added, "However, I had previously told Pei Yanli that we would go to the beach together to watch the sunrise sometime in the future."
"What do you mean 'later'?" Chen Zhao immediately stood up: "Let's go now, I'll go with you."
Luo Yunqing looked at him for a long time, and finally shook her head, "If we leave, what will happen to Pei Yanli? Besides... it's dawn."
Sunlight streamed into the courtyard; it was well past sunrise time.
They didn't end up going to the beach.
Chen Zhao guessed: He probably only wanted to go with the boss, just the two of them.
After that, he used this excuse to half-coax and half-trick him into going to see a doctor, and Luo Yunqing cooperated very well.
Every day he seems full of hope for tomorrow, he takes his medicine without fail, and he has started eating normally again.
Everything seemed to be moving in a positive direction.
But after a full year of treatment, the doctor told him that Luo Yunqing's illness was getting worse and worse, and he couldn't cure him.
Chen Zhao felt that he was lying to himself: "Apart from not liking to go out, he is fine in every way. When I asked him to come to the hospital for a check-up, he didn't resist at all."
“That’s the key point,” the doctor asked him. “Don’t you think he’s being overly cooperative?”
The medications I usually prescribe are only meant to help calm patients down from their agitated state; they don't mean that medication can completely cure a patient.
"He hid the pain of losing his lover and pretended to be a normal person who was about to recover." The doctor was also at a loss: "He closed himself off emotionally, and I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do."
"You mean, let him continue like this? No, you have to save him," Chen Zhao pleaded.
The doctor also wanted to save him, but now... "We can only continue to prescribe medication as an adjunct. As for how long he can hold on, it all depends on him."
With the verdict in his arms, Chen Zhao walked heavily out of the consultation room.
Luo Yunqing sat quietly and obediently on the waiting chair, letting the child beside him tentatively reach out and touch his completely white hair.
She even lowered her head to make sure he couldn't reach it.
"Brother, are you an angel?"
"No, I am a bad person." Luo Yunqing shook her head with a smile.
"My brother is lying. Bad people don't admit they're bad."
Luo Yunqing smiled again.
She has such a beautiful smile, and is so popular with children, so why is she so sick and can't be cured?
"Brother, what's this?" The child quickly noticed the necklace around his neck, a silver chain with two gold rings.
As soon as she reached out, Luo Yunqing grabbed her hand, saying, "You can't touch this, it's mine."
After saying that, he saw Chen Zhao, patted the child's head, got up and walked over, and naturally let go of the necklace.
Chen Zhao suddenly remembered the doctor's words: "He's pretending. I guess he doesn't want you to worry."
To avoid worrying him, I pretended to be a normal person.
So, is it possible to just keep pretending like this for the rest of my life?
Chen Zhao couldn't help but imagine this possibility, and pretended not to know, waving the form in his hand: "You can go home after you get the medicine."
"Okay." Luo Yunqing nodded, and added as she walked, "On the way back, buy some more strawberries."
The ones I bought last time are all rotten.
Chen Zhao readily agreed.
After getting my medicine, I was about to leave the hospital when I unexpectedly saw someone.
To be precise, Luo Yunqing saw it first; after all, he was her own brother, and it was hard for her to forget.
Chen Zhao's first reaction was to block it, but it was too late.
Luo Yunqing followed the person all the way to the inpatient department, to Song Xuechen's ward. The two stabs four years ago did not kill Song Xuechen, but they made him suffer a lot, and he has not yet been discharged from the hospital.
Besides Pei Hengzhi, Song Moyan was the person who visited him the most.
Even though the Song family has had many businesses destroyed, both openly and covertly, in recent years, Song Moyan still goes four days a week without fail.
"Chen Zhao, don't you find it strange?"
"It's disgusting."
On his way out of the hospital, Chen Zhao's face twisted in disgust as he recalled the scene he had witnessed at the ward entrance.
Which older brother, or even a married one, would feed and wipe the face of his younger brother who is not related to him by blood?
If all else fails, hire a caregiver.
"Their eyes were practically glued to each other." To put it bluntly, if they weren't in the hospital, they probably would have picked each other up and started kissing right there.
"It's all because of him..."
Luo Yunqing squeezed a strawberry so hard it burst.
Back then, for Song Xuechen's sake, and to get revenge for his refusal to arrange a marriage for Song Xuechen, his own brother blocked Xiaoyu's kidney donation.
So that's how it is.
Luo Yunqing couldn't help but scratch his scarred arms, and soon found Song Moyan's wife.
"Dr. Tang."
Tang Ya-yun paused slightly as she stirred her coffee, then couldn't help but laugh: "I'm no longer a doctor."
“It’s because…” Luo Yunqing looked at the burn scar on the back of her right hand, “that she was injured.”
"Yes, I'm injured and can't hold a scalpel." Tang Yajun let go of the small spoon, hugged the scar, and touched it.
Luo Yunqing: "Did Song Xuechen make this?"
Tang Yajun suddenly opened her eyes, her gaze filled with undisguised hatred upon hearing the name. She then asked, "How did you know?"
“I not only know this,” Luo Yunqing said slowly, “I also know that you once had a child, which was pushed off the building by Song Xuechen and miscarried.”
The atmosphere instantly became tense.
Luo Yunqing ignored her: "But your husband, Song Moyan, not only did not care about you, but he also defended himself immediately."
"Luo Yunqing! Don't think I don't know who you are!" Tang Yajun's eyes instantly turned red: "Your Song family, not a single one of you is any good!"
"Yes, they're all bad people." Luo Yunqing couldn't help but ask, "Do you know why? Why did Song Moyan protect Song Xuechen like that, just because he's his younger brother?"
Tang Yajun gave him a cold look: "What do you want to say?"
Luo Yunqing didn't reply, but instead opened her phone and showed her a video from the hospital.
Tang Yajun's face turned pale after reading just the beginning, but she still forced herself to finish reading despite feeling nauseous. "Song Moyan, Song Moyan!!"
Hate him.
Tang Yajun clenched her fists tightly, but she wasn't stupid: "What do you mean by showing me this?"
"I just don't want Dr. Tang to continue being deceived."
"Ha!" Tang Yajun sneered, "You would be so kind?"
“Of course…not only.” Luo Yunqing met her resentful eyes. “I need Dr. Tang to do something for me. After it’s done, everything the Song family has left will be yours.”
"What do I need money for? I want a divorce!"
"If you get a divorce, you'll always be the one who loses. Don't you want to get revenge on them?"
After listening to his plan, Tang Yajun thought about it for a long time before finally agreeing.
"But I have one condition."
"Dr. Tang, please speak."
"Castrate him!"
"good."
…………
After Tang Yajun left, Luo Yunqing sat in the coffee shop for a long time, unconsciously touching the necklace around her neck, and ordered two small cakes.
One of the servings was decorated with a strawberry.
He pushed that one to the other side.
"Soon it will be the tenth anniversary of our meeting."
Pei Yanli looked down at the cake in front of her and nodded.
"You haven't appeared in my dreams even once in the past few years. I've started to doubt whether you really like me?"
"I like it! But I..."
Pei Yanli could not enter his dreams.
"It's been five years, have you forgotten me?"
Pei Yanli shook her head repeatedly.
"Did you meet someone else over there who... makes your heart flutter?" Luo Yunqing muttered to herself, turning her head to look out the window: "How heartless. I miss you so much."
“Chen Zhao said he would take me to the beach to watch the sunrise, but I refused. I made a promise with you, how could I agree to it?”
"But... your neck is broken. If it doesn't get cold, it will fall off and you won't be able to see the sunrise."
Luo Yunqing smiled and looked away from the strawberry cake opposite her, suggesting, "Let's try a different approach."
…………
Not long after autumn began.
He burned Pei Yanli's body and carefully packed it into the most beautiful and expensive sandalwood box in the funeral home, holding it close to his arms.
"It's so light."
"But this way, we can watch the sunrise."
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The next chapter concludes the past life arc.
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