Chapter 68, The 68th Beam of Light: "You'll never be able to repay this debt in your lifetime..."
Dense fog in the early morning
The long-distance bus station waiting hall was crowded with people. The chairs were full, and even a few people were lying on the floor. They carried large and small bags and coarse cloth sacks, and it was not hard to tell that they were people who worked in this big city but were about to return home.
That's true, there are only two weeks left until Chinese New Year.
Song Xingyun, this young girl, seemed somewhat out of place among them, but she knew that she was no different from them; she was also a stranger wandering in a foreign land.
Originally, Song Xingyun thought this year's New Year would be much better, but unexpectedly, she ended up back to square one. She was filled with melancholy as she thought about this.
"Young lady, are you also going back to Changle Town?" The simply dressed middle-aged woman next to her glanced at the identical tickets in their hands and asked, "I can't see clearly, is this the 7 o'clock departure?"
Song Xingyun was suddenly struck up a conversation. Judging from her observation of people, the older woman didn't seem like a bad person, so she nodded.
Chang Le Town is a small town in the surrounding county of the city where Song Xingyun is currently located. After Song Xingyun's mother passed away, Song Huazhang took her away from that place to work. However, they did not expect that the two would return to their hometown so that Song Huazhang's soul could return to his homeland.
Every year, she would endure her grief and go back to see him during the Qingming Festival. This time, she returned early, as the end of the year was approaching, and her trip seemed reasonable to outsiders.
People would occasionally push open the door to enter the waiting hall, only to leave again when they found there was no room inside. However, the cold air outside still managed to sneak in through the cracks in the door. Song Xingyun's seat was directly facing the door. She wrapped her down jacket tightly around herself and buried half of her face in her scarf. The heat rushed up, blurring her vision and causing her eyes to fog up.
Dad, I'm all alone again...
Song Xingyun was lost in thought as she remembered the things she had left at Villa No. 9.
At this moment, inside Villa No. 9,
Yu Mushang, lying on the large bed, had opened his useless eyes at some point. He was usually a person who rarely dreamed, but he had been tormented by nightmares all night. When he woke up, the smart alarm clock on the bedside table told him that it was only early morning.
Yu Mushang suddenly remembered the meeting he missed with Song Xingyun last night. Without thinking too much about it, he followed his heart this time, got up, put on a coat, picked up his smart cane, and went to her room.
Just like last night, there was no response.
Yu Mushang felt a sudden panic. His hand trembled as he placed it on the doorknob, muttering absentmindedly, "This guy, he didn't forget to lock the door, did he?" as if trying to convince himself.
But when he pressed the doorknob down effortlessly, the door opened a crack, and the man suddenly hesitated to go in. "Xingxing?"
There was still no response. He dared not guess or think, yet he could not control his sixth sense.
He took a deep breath, pressed the button on the side of the intelligent white cane, mentally prepared himself, and then pushed the door open completely. Soon, he heard the robot's notification in the Bluetooth headset: "No personnel detected."
Yu Mushang's heart tightened. He walked with difficulty to the bedside and sat down. His hand reached towards the pillow and found an envelope. He opened it somewhat anxiously. It was a Braille letter left for him by Song Xingyun.
He read it word by word, afraid of missing a single word.
"Yu Mushang:"
"By the time you read this letter, I will have already left. I'm sorry I can't say goodbye to you in person."
"The time I spent with you went by so fast, yet it was so fulfilling and wonderful. You know, if I didn't stop, I could add a hundred adjectives after that. In short, I'm so glad I met you."
"But some things can't just be left behind. I can't lie to myself. I'm selfish. I hope that all that's left between us are good memories. I have to leave. I'll find a way to repay what I owe you."
"I believe Yingqi will take good care of you, and you should take good care of Changming too, okay? Don't take your anger out on it because you hate me. There are so many things I want to say, but it's all in vain. May you be safe and happy, and live a carefree life."
"Do not search for it, do not think of it."
"Song Xingyun".
Yu Mushang gripped the letter so tightly that it cracked slightly. He quickly stopped, tenderly stroking the crack, his expression contorted with restraint. "Don't tear it. This is what she left for me."
There was also a bank card in the envelope. Yu Mushang suspected that she had left all her savings from all these years there. "Song Xingyun, you still owe her..."
"You'll never be able to repay this debt in your lifetime..."
Clever as he was, he knew she knew about that old story.
"When did you find out? And how much did you find out? You idiot, why didn't you ask me..." His heart felt like it was being pierced by needles. He recalled Song Xingyun's "abnormal" behavior recently, blaming himself for not seeing it, for not being careful enough, and for not even noticing that she wanted to leave him.
It turns out she had been planning to leave all along...
He frantically dialed her number, but the mechanical female voice was icy cold: "The number you dialed is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."
Yu Mushang suddenly stood up. "No, she can't have gone far. I have to go find her, I have to go find her..."
"I can't let you go, I can't..."
He folded the letter and put it in the box, then ran out in a panic, clutching his smart cane, his phone still repeating the same mechanical message.
At the main road intersection outside the villa, a taxi driver on the early shift, still half asleep, turned the steering wheel as soon as the green light appeared. Just as he rounded the corner, he saw a man in pajamas suddenly appear. He slammed on the brakes, but, "Bang!"
A loud bang.
The tall man rolled off the car, and his smart white cane was run over by the wheels and landed nearby. The taxi driver felt a chill run down his spine and quickly got out of the car to check, his legs trembling. "Sir? Sir?"
Rain began to fall from the sky at that moment. The man lay on the cold road, his hand laboriously placed on his chest to confirm that the things in his pocket were still there. For a moment, his brow relaxed. The driver, who was leaning closer to him, only heard a muffled "star" before the man's head slumped as if he had lost consciousness.
"Hello, is this an ambulance...?"
*
Waiting hall,
Song Xingyun stared blankly at the updated train schedules on the electronic screen, sitting there from late at night until dawn. She glanced at the time, got up, and went to a public phone booth.
She dialed a number, and after ringing for a long time, the person on the other end, sounding like they were still half asleep, finally answered, "Who is it?"
Song Xingyun said helplessly, "Wenwen, it's me."
Wen Ying on the other end thought she had misheard. She rubbed her eyes and glanced at the caller ID. "Xingxing?"
"It's not some kind of voice-changing software, is it? You're trying to scam me using my Xingxing's voice so early on? I absolutely won't fall for it!"
Song Xingyun was even more helpless after hearing this, "It really is me."
Wen Ying sat up, ready to battle the "liar," but Song Xingyun spoke first, "You're sleeping on the left side of the bed now, next to your StellaLou doll, and there's a photo of you and me on the bedside table."
Wen Ying:?
"No, scammers these days even have surveillance cameras?"
Song Xingyun looked up at the sky speechlessly, "You still haven't won Ying Qi's heart."
Wen Ying:......
"Why would I say that? Don't I have any dignity?" she roared, then calmed down. "Are you really Xingxing? What kind of call is this?"
Once Song Xingyun heard that she believed her, she told the truth: "It's a public telephone at the long-distance bus station."
A minute later, Wen Ying jumped out of bed. "What did you say? You left? Just like that?"
Song Xingyun told her that she was just going back to see Song Huazhang and would come back. "But I probably won't have any more contact with him, Wenwen, you have to keep this a secret for me." She deliberately chose to call her around the time she was about to wake up, just in case she found out in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep.
"I'm coming to find you now," Wen Ying said, starting to put on her clothes with one hand.
But Song Xingyun stopped her, "No, my car is about to leave. I'll contact you once I'm settled. Okay, I'm not saying anything more now. I really have to go. Don't worry about me."
Wen Ying stared blankly at the phone that had been hung up. "I will definitely wait for you."
The phone rang again the next second. Seeing the contact name "Future Boyfriend," her heart jumped again. "I can't betray my sisters for a man!" She mentally prepared herself before answering, "Hello."
Ying Qi's voice was anxious on the other end of the phone, "Is Assistant Song with you?"
"No, what happened?" Wen Ying had already used all her acting skills.
Ying Qi was also surprised that even Wen Ying didn't know where Song Xingyun had gone. He was standing at the door of the operating room, so worried that his fingernails were about to crack. "She sent a resignation letter to my email and then disappeared. If she contacts you, remember to let me know."
"What!" Wen Ying exclaimed in maximum astonishment, "What did you do to her? How could she just leave without saying goodbye!"
At this moment, the operating room lights went out. Ying Qi didn't have time to explain the situation to Wen Ying and quickly said, "I'll talk to you later. I have to hang up now."
Wen Ying breathed a sigh of relief as the phone call ended, her shoulders slumping. She murmured, "I hope things at Villa No. 9 aren't in chaos..."
But unexpectedly, Yingqi's "late" was several days late.
*
On the highway, the bus was getting further and further away from that bustling place. Song Xingyun chose a window seat, and the view outside, from the buildings to the country lanes, made her feel dazed.
They were having dinner face-to-face just yesterday.
Song Xingyun forced herself to stop thinking about him. She decided that every time she thought of him, she would pray for his health.
For a while, she felt a tightness in her chest. The older woman who had spoken to her in the waiting room earlier sat down next to her and, seeing her pale face, asked, "Young lady, are you getting carsick?"
As she spoke, the woman pulled out a few locally grown preserved plums from Changle Town from her bag. They were individually wrapped. "They're delicious! Want to try some?"
Looking at the familiar preserved plum, Song Xingyun couldn't immediately recall how many years it had been since she'd last seen one. "Thank you..."
The older woman was startled by her sobs. "Why are you crying? You're feeling really nauseous from motion sickness. Eat this." She kindly unpacked the food and held it to Song Xingyun's lips.
“My daughter loves these too. I used to give her a few every time I took her to catch a bus. She’s never gotten carsick since she was a child!” The woman’s eyes shone brightly as she said this.
Song Xingyun felt even more upset, crying and laughing at the same time, "Auntie, do all the parents in our town like to do the same thing?" When she was little, Song Huazhang would always stuff preserved plums into her mouth before she got on the bus.
"Huh?" Seeing that the older woman didn't understand, Song Xingyun had probably been holding back for too long, and her pent-up emotions burst forth. Tears streamed down her face like broken pearls.
The older woman looked at the endless tears, somewhat at a loss. Song Xingyun sniffed, her voice still trembling with sobs, "No, I just miss my dad..."
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