recording
The phone beside my pillow kept beeping with message notifications, one after another. I had been working on data all day and was about to fall asleep when I got home, but these messages woke me up.
Frustrated, Dr. Liang turned on his phone and saw messages from Meng Chou. He couldn't help but tap the screen, casually pressing the voice message button. Before speaking, he glanced at the chat box to confirm it was with Meng Chou. With one hand on the voice message button and the other in front of his eyes, he was still too sleepy to look at the screen any longer.
"Brother, have you taken the wrong medicine? Don't you want to check the time? It's 3 a.m. in Berlin. I had just fallen asleep when a message woke me up."
"Are you ill?"
After he finished speaking, he loosened his grip on the phone, leaving it lying in his palm, seemingly on the verge of falling. If he hadn't been so tired, he would have cursed Meng Chou even more harshly.
The person on the other end seemed to care that it was the middle of the night and continued to send him messages.
His phone kept ringing. He thought about throwing it away, but he was afraid that he hadn't backed up the data he had painstakingly collected, and that breaking it would be a greater loss than the gain.
After being bombarded with messages for five minutes straight, Dr. Liang could no longer hold back. He angrily pulled out the pillow he was using as a pillow and slammed it against the door. He sat up with a jolt, ignoring the voice message from Meng Chou, and unleashed a torrent of abuse at the person on the other end.
After hurling a few curses, his anger subsided, and he gradually calmed down. He swiped through the chat window between the two of them, starting to listen to the first voice message Meng Chou sent.
"I want to ask you for a favor. It's very important, and you must promise me."
"I think the only person I can trust right now is you, so I feel at ease entrusting this matter to you."
“Yu Xi and I started a clothing design company. The company is just getting started. As you know, those people are watching me all the time and trying every means to ruin the company.”
"Forget it... let's not talk about this anymore. But you must help me with this. I will give you the funds for this order, and then you can sign the contract with Yu Xi in your own name."
“I know it’s 3 a.m. where you are. I’m afraid if I don’t tell you now, I won’t have time to explain these things to you later.”
Dr. Liang was completely confused. He was already sleepy and his mind wasn't fully clear yet. He casually sent another voice message, "Can't you handle this yourself? You're using your own money to sign this contract, is it to encourage her?"
"Seriously, you do it yourself! I can't go back to China anytime soon. You have no idea, those three years in Germany were the most unforgettable seven years of my life. That's absolutely true, it was so hard to graduate."
Not long after, another voice message came from the other end: "I know you don't need to do this now. In the future, when I'm no longer here, when Yu Xi is too heartbroken to go on, or when Jin Xuexiao encounters difficulties, then you can help her."
Upon hearing the voice message, Dr. Liang immediately perked up. After all, he had been studying psychology for many years, and given his understanding of Meng Chou, he knew that the other party would definitely not joke about life and death.
"Are you having some trouble? Tell me about it, and I'll see how I can help you."
After the voice message was sent, the other end remained silent for a long time before replying: [You can't help me with this; it's too complicated, and I can't explain it clearly in a short time.]
"What exactly is going on that you can't explain?" Dr. Liang questioned him, but the moment the words left her lips, he immediately added, "Okay, I promise you that."
Meng Chou quickly replied, "Okay, thank you so much. Also, there's something I want you to give to Yu Xi for me. Give it to her when she's about to give up. Let me really, really help her one last time."
As he finished speaking, Meng Chou's voice grew softer and softer, tinged with suppressed sobs.
Hearing such a voice message in the middle of the night made Dr. Liang feel very uncomfortable. Without the slightest hesitation, his fingertips tapped on the keyboard: [Of course!]
Not long after, the person far away in a foreign land received a large package. Inside, besides the local specialties from Meng Chou's hometown, there was also something tightly wrapped in a wooden box. Just as he picked it up and looked it over, a message from Meng Chou arrived.
[I sent you some food, and the box contains something for Yu Xi. Give it to her when you see her on the verge of collapse after you return home!]
[Also, please help me convey my feelings to her, saying that I hope she can be happy forever.]
Memories flashed by like scenery through a car window. Dr. Liang showed Yu Xi the messages Meng Chou had sent and said, "I thought it would be better if he said these things to you in person. If I relay them, I'm just relaying words, which can't convey his passionate love."
Yu Xi stared at the chat box on his phone screen, and her tense emotions completely collapsed at this moment. She looked at those words again and again, becoming more and more convinced that it was not a simple car accident.
Meng Chou had known all along that something bad was going to happen to him, and he had even planned out a way out for her, paving the way for her in advance so that her future would be easier.
"Here, this is what he wants for you." Dr. Liang stood up, handed the package to her again, turned his back to Yu Xi, and said in a low voice, "Excuse me, I need to go to the restroom."
Yu Xi didn't reply, but it wasn't hard to hear the sob in the other person's voice. Even among adults, for the sake of so-called dignity, they are still unwilling to easily shed tears in front of others.
Yu Xi took the package with trembling hands and watched Dr. Liang walk forward. Her vision was blurred by tears. She held the package to her heart with both hands, lowered her head, and the tears seemed unstoppable, dripping onto her long dress. Large teardrops stained the fabric of the dress like flowers. She bit her lower lip tightly to keep herself from crying out loud.
Dr. Liang's emotions were also affected; his eyes gradually welled up with tears. He couldn't bear to think about Meng Chou's death, nor did he dare to.
He was far away in Germany. After receiving the news of Meng Chou's death in a car accident, he immediately canceled his original plan to travel around Europe after graduation and then return to China. He didn't even have time to pack his things before buying a plane ticket and rushing back.
But he still missed the chance to see Meng Chou one last time. Even Yu Xi didn't get the chance; she was only told much later that he was gone.
From then on, he did rehabilitation training while isolating himself.
Dr. Liang had been observing her condition all along. After seeing Yu Xi's self-destructive behavior, he finally understood her concerns, based on Meng Chou's inexplicable words and the things he sent her.
This gift was his final wish, a hope that those who are alive can live well and live happily.
Yu Xi forcibly suppressed her emotions. She didn't know how she carefully opened the packaging bag or how she took out the gift.
It was a green keychain with big eyes and a blue hat. The moment Yu Xi wiped away her tears and saw the gift, she felt an indescribable pain in her heart, as if a sharp sword had pierced straight into her heart.
She remembered seeing a video about this keychain when she was in college. She couldn't recall the details of the video, but she remembered that when she pressed the keychain, it would say, "I IOVE YOU."
Meng Chou knew that she liked to collect all kinds of pretty keychains and bag charms, and sometimes he even saw her change the doll charms on her handbag three times in a week.
He didn't blame her for being naive; instead, he would secretly write down all her preferences.
He naturally remembered the pendant from the video she casually forwarded to him, but after buying it, the busy graduation season made him forget to give it to her as a gift.
Receiving this gift now, she feels not happiness, but rather sadness at the passage of time and the changes in circumstances.
She used all her strength, but could only press the button on the keychain. Then, a voice message recorded by Meng Chou came through: "Little Fish, be happy and live a good life with my love."
That short sentence was the only way she could hear his voice besides the messages Meng Chou sent via voice call on her phone.
"Ah Chou, I'm really unhappy right now. It's so tiring to keep going all by myself." Yu Xi lowered her head, clutching the keychain tightly in her hands and pressing it against her cheeks. "But I think I will live a good life as you wish."
She kept pressing the keychain, and his voice came from the small plastic doll, "Little fish, be happy, live a good life with my love."
After repeating this sentence countless times, Yu Xi suddenly realized that if the keychain ran out of power, she would never be able to hear Meng Chou's recording again.
She wanted to press the button again, but then her hand slipped, wanting to hear it but afraid to press it again.
Just like her struggling life, she persevered with difficulty, wanting to let go but unable to.
"I will also investigate and find out who is behind this and what exactly happened." Yu Xi carefully put the keychain back into her bag, quickly touched up her smudged makeup, put away the contract, and blocked Dr. Liang's way.
Everything was so efficient, as if Yu Xi had returned to the reliable person she always was at the company.
She didn't beat around the bush and said directly, "I know that with my current abilities, I definitely can't find out who was behind the car accident. So, I want to ask you to help me and seek justice for Meng Chou."
A hint of doubt flashed in Dr. Liang's eyes. He had also considered this aspect, but he still couldn't be sure.
Meng Chou's previous words were too unusual, as if everything had been expected, and the car accident happened too coincidentally.
All the events combined point to one possibility.
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