Chapter 166 Bo Yan X He Li (11)
He listened to that voice message several times, and had many questions he wanted to ask.
"Does your head hurt when you're drunk?"
"Did you vomit a lot?"
"Are you feeling unwell and still not asleep?"
Were you in a bad mood when you sent that message?
He found that no matter how hard he tried to handle everything, things still ended up being a mess. Just like Cheng Boyan said, it's best not to say anything unnecessary before you've thought things through.
Even so, I still can't help but worry about him.
[Little Sweet Pear]: Drink some honey water to help with the hangover.
[Boyan]: Okay, I understand.
[Little Sweet Pear]: Okay, goodnight.
This time, the other person didn't reply. They'd done this before whenever they had a fight, deliberately using a lukewarm tone. But since they knew they'd always make up the next day, it was more like a joke.
Just now.
As He Li looked at the chat box, tears streamed down her face before she could slowly scroll up to the next page.
[Little Sweet Pear]: Brother, there's a meteor shower tomorrow, do you want to go?
[Boyan]: If you want to go, I'll invite them.
[Little Sweet Pear]: Okay, okay, I'll think about my wishes in advance so I don't forget them when the time comes.
[Boyan]: You're so stupid! I brought you some midnight snacks downstairs.
[Little Sweet Pear]: I'm here!!! You are truly the best Cheng Boyan in the world!!!
......
One day earlier.
[Little Sweet Pear]: These freshmen are idiots! What kind of rubbish did they write? My head is about to explode.
[Boyan]: She's definitely not as clever as our Princess Heli.
[Little Sweet Pear]: You're being sarcastic. I can tell. You're calling me stupid again.
[Boyan]: I like idiots.
......
The day before that.
[Little Sweet Pear]: Oh my god, Yao-ge and Xie-gou have been missing for five days! Did they go wild with their passion?
[Boyan]: Why are you so gossipy?
[Little Sweet Pear]: Kill these slutty couples in love, they're so sickeningly sweet!
[Boyan]: You're not going to talk about it?
[Little Sweet Pear]: Not for now. I haven't met anyone I like yet, so I'd rather be happy with you.
[Boyan]: Well-behaved
........
He Li looked through the chat history from each day and finally understood the pain behind Cheng Boyan's words, "If you don't like me, then don't give me any more hope."
I always gave him seemingly ambiguous responses, but in the end I couldn't give him a definite answer.
"It's one thing if you're not thinking straight, but how can you unintentionally hurt people?" He Li grabbed his hair, buried himself in the pillow, and was filled with unbearable pain.
For the next few days, he stayed at Xie Xingchen and Lin Yao's house, occasionally going out for a walk with Xie, but most of the time he sat on the terrace in a daze or fell asleep.
There was no contact with Cheng Boyan, and the other party also tacitly maintained a state of being out of touch.
It seems that from that day on, they became strangers who didn't know what to say to each other.
"He Li, He Li, He Li, wake up!!!" Xie Dai flapped her wings, fanning his face with a feather. "Get up, get up! Oh no, something terrible has happened!!!"
"You're so noisy." He Li covered the bird's beak with his hand and muttered, "Keep it down."
Xie Dai couldn't keep his voice down any longer; he shouted even louder, "The military region's research institute is on fire!!! Aren't you going to check it out!!!"
He Li snapped to attention and sat up in a panic: "What? A fire?"
"It seems like some reagent research went wrong, I don't know, and then it exploded. Lots of doctors are heading over there." Xie Dai was very confident in his information. "I'm the leader of Pink Bird, my little brother told me."
He Li threw off the covers, got up haphazardly, and put on his clothes, almost buttoning them wrong.
Lin Yao and Xie Xingchen were away on a last-minute mission today. He couldn't drive, so when he took a taxi there, the research institute was still billowing with thick smoke, and there were many fire trucks and ambulances nearby.
The flashing emergency lights illuminated the dark night sky.
He Li dialed the phone again and again, but it didn't go through and no one answered—a situation that had never happened before.
In his panic, he grabbed a nearby firefighter and anxiously asked, "Have you seen Cheng Boyan?"
"I'm sorry, I don't know which one you're referring to, but all the wounded we've rescued have been sent to the military hospital, and we're still trying to rescue some of the rest." The other person saw him trying to rush inside and grabbed him, "Please calm down."
"No, Cheng Boyan is on the night shift tonight." He Li was extremely flustered. "He works the night shift every Thursday. Is he still inside?"
"Please step aside, we need to continue the rescue, thank you." After saying that, the other person rushed back into the fire.
“Cheng Boyan…” He Li cried as she called him, “Why aren’t you answering…”
He half-squatted on the ground, dialing the phone again and again, surrounded by all sorts of noises, clamors, cries for help, and discussions, but he couldn't hear the one he wanted to hear.
He Li was trembling all over as he watched one stretcher after another being brought out, each time filled with both hope and disappointment.
"I heard two people died." Someone whispered over, "It seems that one of the new researchers messed up the reagents, and the whole third floor exploded."
He Li felt a chill run through her from head to toe. It was the third floor, where Cheng Boyan's office and research room were located.
He stood alone and bewildered in the night, trembling all over, muttering to himself, "No, no, I won't end up like Dad..."
The family of three was in a car accident. The father risked his life to throw him out of the burning car. It was a dark night like this, and he watched as the flames engulfed his smiling face.
The accident resulted in his father's death and his mother's paralysis. He changed his name to He Li, meaning separation.
Every time I call my own name, it's a cruel reminder of that separation.
From that time on, He Li became very insecure. Because she had lost something before, she cherished every hard-won relationship.
However, if something were to happen to Cheng Boyan, he would truly regret not giving him the answer he wanted.
"Rescue operation complete, team back."
He Li heard a firefighter giving instructions to his teammates over a walkie-talkie.
"I haven't seen Cheng Boyan yet... Is he still inside...?" He Li ran over and grabbed the other person's sleeve. "Could you please check again?"
"Perhaps the researcher you mentioned has already been taken to the hospital," the other party reassured. "Our rescue operation is over, and all the injured have been transferred."
He Li nodded slowly and said repeatedly, "Okay, let's go to the hospital."
His mind was in complete chaos. He kept calling and texting Cheng Boyan, but it was like throwing stones into the sea.
He raised his hand to cover his face, wiped away his tears, and forced himself to calm down. When the car stopped at the entrance of the military hospital, he strode towards the emergency room.
As soon as I arrived at the door, I saw Director Cheng. Opposite him stood a doctor in a white coat, looking serious, and I couldn't tell what he was saying.
Director Cheng sighed and said, "I understand. Thank you for your hard work."
He Li stumbled over, grabbed Cheng Shu's sleeve, and began to wail, "Waaaaah, did something happen to Cheng Boyan? He...he..."
"Something happened to him." Director Cheng looked down at He Li, whose eyes were red and swollen, making him look like he had been abandoned, pitiful beyond words.
She exclaimed, "You really can cry as much as ever. It was the same when Lin Yao was hospitalized. You cried like you were at a grave every day outside the ward. I remember it vividly."
"No... even your son..." He Li felt like her head was about to explode, gasping for breath, "You... you... you have no heart..."
Cheng Shu looked at him with a puzzled expression, tilting her head in disbelief: "He just injured his hand, and it's already escalated to this level of moral blackmail?"
He Li sobbed for several seconds before finally realizing what she meant: "What? Your hand?"
"He's fine, just a minor hand injury, he's getting it bandaged in the emergency room." Director Cheng raised his chin slightly, pointing to the cubicle inside. "It's true that someone died in the explosion, but it wasn't him, it was another colleague."
He Li looked up through her teary eyes and saw the person who appeared at the emergency room entrance. He seemed to be alright, except for a bandage wrapped around his left arm.
He just stood there quietly, looking at himself.
"He Li, don't cry, I'm fine."
It's been a week since we last met, and we've just experienced a rollercoaster of emotions, only to have it all come back to us now.
A heart finally settled, but it still ached terribly, especially since they hadn't spoken or seen each other for a whole week.
He Li ran to him in a few steps, reached out and hugged his waist, her tears soaking her shirt.
"I thought...you were dead...I was so scared...Why weren't you answering the phone...you...waaaaah..."
Cheng Boyan raised his uninjured hand to wipe away his tears and explained, "My phone exploded, but I was lucky because I was smoking outside, so I'm not seriously hurt."
People were coming and going around them, but He Li held him tightly and refused to let go, her whole body trembling.
I'm still scared. I'm really afraid that a week ago was the last time they saw each other.
"Were you scared?" Under his father's death stare, Cheng Boyan helplessly raised his hand to rub the back of He Li's head to comfort him, "Be good, don't cry, lots of people are watching you."
He Li buried her head in the crook of his neck, holding him tightly and refusing to let go, as if she was afraid that if she let go, she would never see him again.
He found it difficult to follow all the prohibitions he had previously made—no meeting, no contact, no intimacy—and choked up.
"Cheng Boyan, brother, I miss you so much."
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