Chapter 53
Ji Zhiqi felt like he was trapped in a nightmare from which he could not wake up.
His consciousness was hazy and his body felt heavy as if filled with lead, but his hearing was extremely sharp.
He clearly heard that familiar voice - Song Shiyu was crying and desperately begging him not to sleep and to wake up.
It’s Ah Yu… He’s crying.
Ji Zhiqi used all his willpower to open his eyes, wanted to raise his hand to wipe away his tears, wanted to tell him not to be afraid, but his body seemed to be imprisoned by invisible shackles and he could not move.
Then, he heard words that made him even more heartbroken.
Song Shiyu said he wanted to make a wish.
That wish is - for him to live.
Then, a cold and majestic voice pronounced the exchange of fate: "The price is... your life in exchange for his rebirth."
These words were like the sharpest ice spike, instantly piercing through his chaotic consciousness.
What does that mean? Is it to use Ah Yu's life in exchange for his rebirth?
No! He doesn't want it!
He would rather sink into eternal darkness than let Song Shiyu do such a stupid thing for him!
He felt a warm and powerful force injected into his body, and the suffocating pressure in his lungs and the pain in his heart miraculously calmed and disappeared... followed by a complete loss of consciousness.
"No——!" Ji Zhiqi suddenly sat up from the hospital bed, his chest heaving violently and his forehead covered with cold sweat.
What meets the eye is a dazzling white, and the smell of disinfectant lingers at the tip of the nose.
It's a hospital.
He subconsciously touched his chest, which was flat, his breathing was extremely smooth, and his body felt lighter and more comfortable than ever before.
It wasn't a dream...the pain of dying, the desperate conversation, were all real.
Song Shiyu...really used his life to exchange for his own healthy life.
This realization burned into his heart like a red-hot iron.
A huge sense of grief and powerlessness instantly engulfed him.
"Song Shiyu...are you really...disappeared forever?" he muttered to himself, his voice hoarse and broken.
There actually exists a forbidden technique in this world that allows one to exchange life for another.
So that night, when Song Shi said with such confidence and arrogance, "Who are you looking down on?", it turned out that he had already known this method...
Endless regret and self-blame wrapped around his heart like poison ivy, tightening more and more.
Ji Zhiqi suddenly raised his fist and smashed it hard on the hospital bed!
With a muffled "bang", the needle buried in the back of the hand was pulled off, and blood instantly gushed out of the wound, staining the white sheets red.
"Brother Qi!" Xiaohua, the assistant who came in with some fruit, was terrified by the scene and hurriedly pressed the call bell, "Doctor! Doctor! Brother Qi is awake!"
She rushed over, frantically trying to help him stop the bleeding, her voice filled with tears: "Brother Qi, how do you feel? Where do you feel uncomfortable?"
Ji Zhiqi seemed to feel no pain. His eyes were red as he tightly grasped Xiaohua's arm, his voice trembling: "Where's Song Shiyu?! Where is he?!"
Xiaohua was frightened by the madness in his eyes and shook her head blankly: "No... I don't know. Since you were admitted to the hospital, there has been no news from Mr. Song..."
Ji Zhiqi pulled out the needle that was still bleeding, lifted the quilt and was about to get out of bed. He wanted to find him, immediately, right now!
"Brother Qi! You're not well yet, you can't go out!" Xiaohua tried to stop him.
The old doctor who rushed over after hearing the news also held his excited shoulders, his tone filled with relief and a hint of subtle doubt: "Xiao Ji, calm down first! Your condition... has improved miraculously! It seems that the new medicine we used before has finally taken effect, but it's taking too long to take effect..."
Ji Zhiqi smiled bitterly, his heart seemed to be tightly grasped by an invisible hand, the pain was so severe that he could hardly breathe.
Where is the effect of the medicine?
It was the person he loved most who gave him a second life in the most decisive way.
That night, he ignored the doctor's advice, forced himself out of the hospital, and went straight to Song Shiyu's apartment.
Pushing open the familiar door, everything in the house was the same as before. The air seemed to still have that person's fresh scent, as if the owner had just gone out temporarily and would be back soon.
But every corner was empty, completely shattering his fantasy.
He went to find Ruan Ning again.
However, Ruan Ning didn't even meet him.
The company, the old house, all the places they had been to together... Ji Zhiqi searched every corner like crazy, but could not find any trace of Song Shiyu.
That person, as if he had evaporated from the face of the earth, completely disappeared from his world.
Returning to the hospital in a daze, Ji Zhiqi saw Zuo Dancheng in the ward.
"Where have you been?" Zuo Dancheng asked worriedly.
Ji Zhiqi shook his head weakly and did not answer.
Zuo Dancheng looked at him, pale and haggard, as if he had lost his soul, and said softly, "When I saw you collapse on the day of the concert... I thought... fortunately, you were okay."
Ji Zhiqi curled the corners of his mouth, and his eyes, which once shone brightly like stars, now only contained bottomless pain and desolation.
"Ms. Zuo," he said in a hoarse voice, "My illness... seems to have healed. Our previous cooperation can be terminated. I'm very sorry for the trouble I've caused you due to personal reasons. I will issue a statement later. I will bear all responsibility and will never let your reputation be damaged."
Zuo Dancheng looked at his forcing appearance, his heart full of mixed emotions, and finally just sighed: "Brother Qi, I don't care about those empty reputations. As long as you are okay, that's better than anything else."
She helped with the discharge procedures and sent Ji Zhiqi back to the apartment.
Since then, Ji Zhiqi has completely disappeared from the public eye.
He locked himself in Song Shiyu's apartment, like a wounded trapped beast, greedily breathing in the increasingly thin smell of Song Shiyu in the air.
He looked at the recording studio and practice room that Song Shiyu had personally built for him with countless efforts, and his heart ached so much that it spasmed.
He began to frantically search for Song Shiyu's whereabouts through every possible channel.
He looked at some of Song Shiyu's sporadic, non-public updates in the past and saw that Song Shiyu had gone skiing in Country E and watched the great animal migration in Kenya...
Ji Zhiqi seemed to have grabbed a life-saving straw, and immediately followed these traces and embarked on a journey of pursuit.
He went to the ski field where Song Shiyu had skied, to the grassland where he had seen the river crossing, and walked through every inch of land where he had walked, as if this would bring him closer and closer to him.
As the days passed, an idea gradually became clear in Ji Zhiqi's mind - the Song family had never shown any signs of holding a funeral.
A bold, heart-stopping guess came to his mind: Is Song Shiyu... still alive? He just... doesn't want to see him?
Yes, I have done so many unforgivable things to him and said so many nonsense, how could he possibly forgive me?
This realization plunged him into deeper pain, but it also ignited a faint flame of hope.
From that day on, Ji Zhiqi began to go to the Song family's old house day after day, begging Ruan Ning for forgiveness, hoping to get some news about Song Shiyu.
His persistence even made Ruan Ning feel helpless and distressed.
Finally, during a visit, Ruan Ning softened his heart when he saw the thin, haggard young man in front of him, whose eyes were burning with an unextinguishable fire.
"It's not that I don't want to tell you," Ruan Ning sighed, "it's Xiaojiu...he doesn't want you to know his whereabouts."
This sentence was like the sound of nature, and it instantly struck Ji Zhiqi!
He is still alive!
Ahishi is really still alive!
A huge ecstasy swept over him like a tsunami, causing his eyes to burn. His voice was so choked that he could barely utter a complete sentence: "He... he's still alive? As long as he's alive... As long as he's alive... "
Ruan Ning was confused by his violent reaction: "What do you mean he's still alive? Xiaojiu has always been alive and well."
Ji Zhiqi could no longer control himself and tears welled up in his eyes.
He bowed deeply, almost reverently, to Ruan Ning. Thousands of words were stuck in his throat, and in the end, he could only say one sentence: "Thank you... Thank you..."
As long as he is alive, as long as he is still somewhere in this world, that is enough.
A gleam of determination rekindled in Ji Zhiqi's eyes.
He will find him.
No matter how long, no matter how far.
He will spend the rest of his life begging for his forgiveness and making up for all the mistakes he has made.
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