34 "Destiny is a dead end, but there is always hope."
After getting the answer, He Yu felt at ease and fell asleep holding her in his arms.
Tao Wanji was not used to being held so tightly in someone's arms. He woke up several times in a daze and tried to break free, but he just held him tighter.
She didn't sleep well that night and woke up at five in the morning.
The curtains were not drawn, letting in the dim blue sky light. In the dim vision, Tao Wanji carefully looked at the person in front of him.
He Yu slept very quietly, breathing lightly. If they were not facing each other but on opposite sides, she might have slept well too.
After staring at him for a while and finding that he didn't seem to have changed much over the years, Tao Wanjia stretched out his fingers and carefully traced the contours of his face from top to bottom.
When the fingertips slid to the bridge of his nose, the man's tightly closed eyelashes trembled twice, and then He Yu opened his eyes.
"Why don't you get some more sleep?"
He smiled and came closer, pulling her into his arms again, their foreheads touching.
"Jiao Jiao, it's so nice to see you as soon as I open my eyes."
The words were spoken softly, so softly that Tao Wanjia could almost feel his distinct heartbeat through his pajamas. The movement also affected her, and her chest felt as if a heavy weight had been placed on it, and it suddenly sank.
She coughed lightly, "But I'm not well."
His gaze was so intense that Tao Wanji looked away, suppressing a laugh as she pushed him back. "It's all because of you that I didn't sleep well."
The way she interacted with him was still the same as before, she said whatever she wanted to say and expressed herself frankly and freely. Huang Zheng also said that she would only act wild like she did when she was a child in front of He Yu. She had never thought about this before, but now it seemed to be true.
Only with him can she let go of all her worries and be herself without restraint.
"Okay, okay, it's my fault."
He Yu smiled and let her push and hit him. Tao Wanji was half asleep and had no strength left, so those two hits were like a kitten's scratches to him.
He firmly pulled her back into his arms and explained in a low voice in her ear, "I promise not to hold you so tightly in the future, okay?"
He wasn't actually as good a sleeper as she'd imagined. He'd been slumbering for the past few years, startled awake by the slightest movement. That included her tiny back-and-forth movements last night. But even when it was uncomfortable, He Yu wouldn't let go. It was probably a psychological trauma, a fear of her leaving. It would take time and a sufficient sense of security to adjust.
"Well, I'll forgive you first..."
Tao Wanjia was drowsy and fell asleep again, burying his head in front of him.
A nap is often more restful. This time she rested very well and it was almost noon when she woke up.
He Yu was not in the bedroom. After Tao Wanjia finished washing up and walked out, he saw him sitting at the desk, dressed neatly, working.
“Your phone keeps ringing.”
"I guess it's some kind of message," he handed it over, "Take a look."
He would not be a boyfriend without a sense of propriety. Even if he could guess her phone password, he would not check it out of curiosity.
Tao Wanji took it, unlocked it, and logged into the backend of a certain software. There were densely packed red dots in the dynamics. After clicking on it, he found that the post had been pushed to the top of the popularity list.
Her heartbeat inexplicably quickened as she clicked on the topic and scrolled through the replies. The first to repost the story was the Women's Daily, followed by other mainstream media outlets. The report, which had fallen on deaf ears a week prior, had only just become a major sensation in the early hours of last night.
"What's wrong?" He Yu looked over in confusion.
"What are you so happy about?"
Tao Wanjia laughed from the bottom of his heart. This moment was even more exciting than the first time he completed a report independently.
"I originally thought that something was impossible, but now it has turned out to be a success. Of course I am happy."
The response to a published story is a journalist's most fulfilling moment. Most of the time, it's a struggle against luck, a kind of luck that's hard to describe. Beyond that, they have to endure silence. When all else fails, this is a last-ditch effort.
God still favors her. Fate often brings hope to people when they are at the end of their rope.
Tao Wanjia was a little excited, with a feeling she hadn't felt in a long time. She handed the phone to He Yu and said, "Look, I thought I couldn't do it."
He Yu stared at the screen, his eyes gradually dimming.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
He thought seriously, "Traffic is the easiest thing to buy with money. I can help—"
"He Yu."
Tao Wanjia interrupted and felt a little unhappy after hearing the meaning of this.
"This is my own business. I have to rely on myself. What I can accomplish and what results I get are all my own business."
She knew he meant well, but it still sounded a bit awkward. She had never thought of relying on him for anything, and this matter was really unexpected. She even did it with the belief that this would be the last time in her life.
But there seemed to be a hint of self-inflicted suffering in his words.
"I know you can." He Yu keenly sensed her emotions, stood up, raised his hand to cover her back, and lowered his voice.
"But I also hope to help my girlfriend. At least it makes me feel a little more present, okay?"
At the end of his words, his tone changed and he expressed his goodwill directly, which Tao Wanjia gladly accepted.
"Anyway, I don't need you to do anything for me. We can just get along like before."
"I'm afraid that won't work." He Yu curled the corners of his lips and leaned close to her ear to tease her intentionally.
Tao Wanji's face flushed and he glared at him, "When did you become so frivolous? Be careful or you'll stutter if you tell too much nonsense."
"No." He Yu held her fingers tightly, looking serious. "And even if I can't speak anymore, don't you still have you by my side?"
She wouldn't just ignore him, maybe she would stay by his side like she did when they were little. Thinking of this, He Yu felt darkly that it would be good as long as she stayed by his side.
Even if it costs him something.
Tao Wanjia's personal investigation into ghost marriages remained a hot topic, and after a week of ferment, civil affairs departments across the country issued proposals to promote funeral reform and break feudal customs. Such cases might continue to occur, but she knew that as long as she kept speaking out, they would gradually decrease until they disappeared completely.
The butterfly effect caused by the report will spread everywhere with the hurricane, but the first thing that flies in is the job offer in her mailbox.
It is the leading authoritative newspaper in China, headquartered in Jingping. But before Tao Wanjia had time to read it, he was interrupted by a hurried phone call from Zhao Kuo.
"You seldom contact me recently. Let me tell you—"
"Wan Jia, Old Pei isn't feeling well." Zhao Kuo interrupted her for the first time in years. After a moment of silence, he left the hospital corridor and headed for the fire escape.
The noise was isolated outside the heavy door. Zhao Kuo held his breath and his voice became hoarse.
"What happened to Lao Pei?" Tao Wanjia raised his voice, almost thinking he had misheard.
Zhao Kuo leaned against the cold tile wall. When the chill on his back spread to his heart, he seemed to be back to the day when he was forced to resign. He was panicked, confused and at a loss.
He raised his hand to cover his mouth, trying to remain calm. "He is very ill. You, if you recover, please come and see him as soon as possible. The doctor said that he may not have much time left."
Tao Wanjia was stunned, her mind was blank. She would not ask Zhao Kuo for confirmation because his words were clear enough.
"Where is he now?"
"Jingping, he has been in Jingping since he resigned."
Tao Wanjia's hands were shaking slightly, and she knocked over the water cup beside the table. She tried her best to control herself, said a few words quickly, and hung up.
The temperature in Rongcheng has risen and there is a breath of spring in the wind, but when she looked out the window, she found that the sky was still gray.
There were broken glass and tea mixed on the floor. She realized it belatedly and bent down to clean it up. He Yu, who heard the noise, hurriedly stopped her.
"Don't move, I'll do it."
He used tissues and tape to wrap up the broken glass, then turned back and saw Tao Wanji looking flustered, as if he had lost his soul.
He didn't hear clearly upstairs just now, and was very worried when he saw her like this. He hugged her to comfort her and asked softly what happened.
"He Yu, I have to go to Jingping."
She raised her eyes in front of him, her eyes gradually moistening, "My master is ill, I have to go."
Tao Wanjia was rarely so upset, her voice trembling. He Yu didn't know who she was talking about. He knew very little about Tao Wanjia during the years they had been apart. But he knew that this person was very important.
His heart inexplicably sank along with her, and finally he gently covered her cold hand.
"I'll accompany you."
Rongcheng is not far from Jingping, a two-hour flight, and Tao Wanjia arrived at the Cancer Hospital at four o'clock in the afternoon.
He Yu hadn't accompanied her due to a company emergency, but he was too worried about her safety so he asked Xiao Zhang to follow her. Tao Wanjia thought he was being overly cautious, but between Xiao Zhang and He Yu, who had neglected work and come in person, she chose the former.
The strong smell of disinfectant in the hospital always filled his nose. Tao Wanjia met Zhao Kuo in the lobby of the inpatient building. He didn't expect her to come so soon.
On the way upstairs, he told her the situation, "He has stomach cancer, it's been almost a year, but he hasn't worked in the past six months and hasn't been idle, so his treatment has been sporadic. If he hadn't suddenly fainted while we were having dinner yesterday, I'm afraid he would have continued to hide it."
Zhao Kuo felt as if he had been hit hard by fate. He had never thought that Pei Qiang, who had been full of energy and vigor over the years, even more than young people, would get such a disease. Although they had been staying up late and having irregular diets for a long time, he could not accept this fact.
Tao Wanjia's steps were weak and he didn't notice that he had reached the door of the ward.
She and Zhao Kuo stopped in the narrow gap of the glass door. There was a person standing beside the bed in the room.
She recognized that it was her master's wife who had parted ways with her master five years ago. The woman was holding a lunch box and feeding porridge to Pei Qiang who was lying on the hospital bed.
"Let's go in later." Tao Wanjia was about to turn around and walk back.
The nurse who had just finished changing the medicine in the ward opened the door. Pei Qiang saw the two of them and immediately spoke out excitedly.
"Zhao Kuo, you little bastard! I asked you to keep it a secret but you ignored me, right? Do you want me to get you a loud speaker?" His voice was not as strong as before, but his words were still firm and stubborn.
Pei Qiang has lived his life to the fullest, unwilling to let anyone around him see this unseemly side of him. A patient's reluctance to admit illness is like a champion's reluctance to admit failure; neither can withstand the sudden drop from high to low in life. This is especially true of Pei Qiang. From the day he chose to become an investigative reporter, he vowed to die on the road, not in a cramped hospital bed surrounded by disinfectant.
So he straightened his shoulders and met the gazes of the two people at the door with a smile.
"Are you two here to see the giant pandas? Do you need a ticket to enter?"
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