Ruan Mian headed straight for the hospital as soon as school let out. In front of the two elevators serving the odd-numbered floors, family members were waiting with wheelchairs, followed by several doctors and nurses. She decided to simply take the stairs to the fifteenth floor.

The desire to share her joy with him was so intense that she could not hold it back. She could not wait even half a second.

Only the echo of her light, brisk footsteps filled the stairwell. When she reached the tenth floor, the chaotic sound of high heels joined the rhythm. Ruan Mian looked up and saw a young woman.

She wore a light blue short skirt that outlined an exquisite, curvy figure. Her large, wavy hair was tied with a sapphire blue beaded ribbon, revealing a section of her slender, pale neck.

She was incredibly beautiful and possessed an elegant aura. She was the kind of woman one would never forget after a single glance.

Had she encountered something heartbreaking?

Ruan Mian could sense that her mood was quite low. In a place like a hospital, however, partings between the living and the dead were far from unusual.

Sure enough, the woman removed her sunglasses. Her eyes were red, and tears welled within them, threatening to spill over. Sensing there was someone else in the stairwell, a trace of panic appeared on her exquisitely made up face. She hurriedly put her sunglasses back on and rushed downstairs.

As they brushed past each other, Ruan Mian caught a whiff of a faint, clear fragrance. She suddenly remembered something and looked back at that light blue figure.

She knew who this woman was.

She had first heard of her from Pan Tingting.

She was Pan Tingting’s goddess, a beauty from the soft, misty regions of Jiangnan. Her appearance was refined, and her voice was warm and melodious. She had stood out in a talent show and seized the national championship. Just three years after her debut, she had been crowned the “Jade Maiden Diva.”

Pan Tingting would rather skip snacks and novels to save money for tickets to her concerts. Unfortunately, to this day, she had not succeeded once.

That hardcore fan would never imagine that Ruan Mian would run into her goddess, Su Hengyin, in a hospital.

Su Hengyin.

This name was also recorded in Qi Yan’s phone contacts.

Ruan Mian had not forgotten it after seeing it just once. At first, she thought it was a coincidence, but she did not expect it to really be her.

Was she at the hospital because he was here too?

What was their relationship?

As her mind wandered wildly, a slight sense of loss bubbled up from the bottom of her heart. It squeezed her joy into a corner bit by bit. Ruan Mian lowered her head and continued climbing the stairs. She looked around blankly and could not find the ward, only realizing later that she had walked up to the nineteenth floor.

There was a ward on this floor she knew all too well. The blue numbers embedded in a small silver plate seemed impossible to escape, just like the fate of the patients who entered.

The oncology ward of Saint Ke Hospital.

This was where her mother had walked the final stretch of her life.

Ruan Mian turned to leave, but out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed a figure walking out from inside. She froze on the spot.

Director Zhou?

As an expert in oncology, his appearance here was not strange. What shocked her most, however, was that he was wearing a patient’s gown.

She bit her lower lip until it turned red, unable to digest this terrible fact.

Zhou Guangnan saw the little girl nearby at a glance. He signaled the nurse beside him to leave first, then slowly walked toward her, step by step.

“Director Zhou…” Ruan Mian’s heart was in chaos.

Zhou Guangnan smiled gently. “Sit with me over there for a while?”

There was a row of chairs at the end of the corridor. During the nights she had spent accompanying her mother, tossing and turning in restlessness, she had secretly come to this spot to cry several times.

“I am fine, do not worry,” Zhou Guangnan said. “The surgery was very successful.”

Ruan Mian’s heart loosened slightly. “Then… does he know?”

It seemed this clever girl already knew about their relationship.

Zhou Guangnan hesitated for a moment. A trace of gloom flashed quickly across his eyes, but then he smiled again. “What difference would it make if he knew?”

Ruan Mian looked at the newly added white hair at his temples. Her heart felt as if a small hand were squeezing it. She looked away at the green plants in front of them. “I told him what you said.”

“That is good.” Zhou Guangnan nodded.

“Do you need me to tell him about your situation too?” she asked.

“No need.” Zhou Guangnan thought for a moment and added, “Also, keep the fact that you met me a secret as well.”

“Actually…” Ruan Mian held her voice at her lips. She wanted to speak, but in the end, she did not say a word.

She could see he was very tired. This was not just from the immense physical toll, but also from what he had silently endured for so many years.

Actually, father and son did not have to be estranged like strangers. Given the current situation, if Auntie Qi knew in the afterlife, she would be heartbroken. This was never her intention.

That strong and brave woman had traded her life for a chance at survival for her son. She absolutely would not want them to become like this.

“Is there… anything I can do?”

“Yes.” Zhou Guangnan looked at her with a smile. “If you do not mind, sit with me a little longer and chat.”

Meanwhile, in the ward on the fifteenth floor.

Seeing Qi Yan glance at his watch from time to time, the assistant could not help but ask, “Mr. Qi, is there an important arrangement later?”

Qi Yan shook his head and looked toward the door again.

At this hour, logically speaking, she should have arrived long ago. Perhaps something had delayed her today? Or what if something had happened on the way here?

Footsteps gradually approached from outside. A moment later, Chang Ning walked in wearing a white coat and holding a stethoscope. “Oh my, your face went cold as soon as you saw it was me. Am I really that unwelcome?”

He pulled up a chair and sat down on his own. “But it is no wonder. The great beauty came all this way to see you, only to leave with red, crying eyes. I must say, how can you not understand how to cherish the fairer sex?”

Chang Ning’s personality was such that once he started talking, he would not stop. The two were childhood friends, so he spoke without any reservations. When Qi Yan was admitted the day before yesterday, Chang Ning had rushed over upon hearing the news. He had nodded repeatedly while looking at the medical records. “Oh, just a gastric hemorrhage. A small matter. It is much better than I imagined. I thought you would be sent straight to the ICU. I even greeted my colleagues over there in advance.”

He even added, “I did not expect that even after the Mid-Autumn Festival passed, Heaven insisted on sending you to the hospital to reunite with your father.”

He grew thirsty from talking, so he peeled a tangerine for himself. He meticulously picked off the white pith stuck to the fruit before putting it in his mouth. After eating, he continued. “At any rate, she is a big star with tens of millions of fans. She lowered her posture enough, did she not? But you, you are something else. When have you ever looked at her properly? Besides, she has waited for you for so many years.”

Qi Yan was already in a somewhat bad mood, and his voice was extremely cold. “Giving her hope when there is no result would be even more cruel.”

Chang Ning was choked into silence. He could only let out a huff from his nose. He threw the tangerine peel into the trash can and turned his head. Seeing a pretty girl standing by the door, he blurted out, “Ruan Mian?”

“You know me?”

After asking, Ruan Mian’s gaze secretly fell on the man sitting on the bed. Unexpectedly, he looked over too. Their eyes met, and she smiled at him.

Chang Ning watched the two of them calmly, his eyes narrowing into thin slits. “Are you not curious how I know your name?”

“How do you know?” She was indeed a bit curious.

Qi Yan gave Chang Ning a warning look, but the other party returned a fearless gaze. Swinging the stethoscope in his hand, he said nonchalantly, “I calculated it on my fingers.”

“…”

“Hey,” Chang Ning stood up. “It is getting late. I have to go grab a bite. I have rounds tonight.” He walked to the door, looked back, and raised an eyebrow meaningfully at a certain someone before leaving.

The assistant also went down to prepare dinner, leaving only two people in the ward.

“Do you want some fruit?” Ruan Mian looked at the fruit basket. The fruits all looked beautiful, and there were many different kinds.

The doctor had ordered that he could only have a liquid diet for now. However, unable to bear disappointing the girl, Qi Yan nodded. “Peel an apple.”

Ruan Mian picked the deepest colored apple and began to peel it with a fruit knife. She peeled very slowly. The skin remained thin and connected in a long strip as the white flesh was slowly revealed between her fingers.

Peel slower, just a little slower. That way, she would have a sufficient reason to stay here a bit longer.

Only when the assistant returned with the food container did she finish peeling the entire apple. She washed it with water before handing it to him.

Qi Yan reached out to take it. The assistant’s expression changed slightly. Just as he was about to say something, he was stopped by a cool glance from Qi Yan and could only shrug.

Observing this exchange, Ruan Mian naturally sensed something. She asked with some annoyance, “Are you not allowed to eat fruit right now?”

“There is no such thing.” Qi Yan took a bite of the apple. It was a bit sweet, and the texture was pleasant.

The assistant wagged his finger at Ruan Mian where Qi Yan could not see.

Ruan Mian did not know where she found the courage, but she leaned forward and snatched the apple he was about to bring to his mouth. Qi Yan looked at her in confusion. Her face instantly flushed red. “I… I also really want to eat… apples.”

He raised an eyebrow in amusement, but she felt as if she were about to burn up.

Fortunately, the assistant came over in time and gave her a portion of mushroom and chicken rice.

Ruan Mian finished the apple with a red face and did not leave a single grain of rice behind. After eating, she picked up a spoon to drink the soup.

In the normal order of things, one should drink soup before eating rice, but at that moment, she had forgotten everything.

Also, they had shared an apple. Did that count as an indirect kiss?

Outside the window, twilight was faint.

The man suddenly called her name. “Ruan Mian.”

“Mm?” She snapped back to reality.

“You should go back.”

Ruan Mian looked down at her watch. It was almost six o’clock. Time passed so quickly.

“Can I stay a little longer? Just ten minutes.”

Ten minutes passed quickly. Now there was really no reason to stay.

Ruan Mian picked up her schoolbag. “I will go back now. I will come over again tomorrow afternoon.”

“Be safe on the road.”

After Ruan Mian left, Chang Ning returned. He entered the ward familiarly and sat in his original seat.

“Something else?” Qi Yan was looking at a document and did not even lift his head.

“I could not tell,” Chang Ning clicked his tongue. “No wonder you did not even bat an eyelid when so many beauties surrounded you back then. Turns out you were waiting for this type.”

“What do you mean?”

“Robbing the cradle.”

“Chang Ning.” Qi Yan’s tone already carried obvious emotion.

He was a patient, but Chang Ning was not afraid of him at all. Besides, if they actually fought, it was not certain who would win.

“I do not believe you cannot read the look in that girl’s eyes when she looks at you.”

Qi Yan fell silent.

Chang Ning’s tone became serious. “She is still young, at the age where love is first awakening. It is very easy to be moved by an outstanding man. Besides, you two share that kind of past. Maybe her feelings are more about dependency.”

“Furthermore, you are a man whose mind and emotions are much more mature than hers. And your health… you know in your heart how much you have ruined it over these years. I will return that sentence to you intact: giving her hope when there is no result would be even more cruel.”

Qi Yan looked at the boundless night outside the window, his thin lips pressed into a straight line.

Even if romantic love did not happen between him and this girl in the future, he could not simply ignore her for the rest of his life.

He hoped she would live well more than anyone else in this world.

She was his hope, the only glimmer of light in the dark starry sky.

The night grew as deep as water.

Ruan Mian finished her homework and sat on the bed in a daze.

The phone on the bedside table received several WeChat messages from Pan Tingting.

“Soft Cotton! I heard you participated in the city painting competition and won the Special Prize!”

“Wait! First prize has ten thousand yuan in prize money. How much is the Special Prize?!”

“Ahhh! I seem to see a huge wave of sunflower seeds rushing toward me!”

“By the way, remember, do not forget your friends when you become rich!”

…

Realizing it was getting late, Ruan Mian got out of bed to shower and wash her hair. After drying it with a hairdryer, she followed her habit of not wearing a bra to sleep. As she bent over to dry her hair, she had a full view of her chest.

Is it too small?

She tried to recall the woman with the excellent figure she had met in the hospital stairwell, the famous singer Su Hengyin. What was her bust size again? Was such private data public online?

NOTES

Robbing the cradle: Literally “an old cow eating tender grass.” A common Chinese idiom used when an older man dates or pursues a much younger woman.

Jade Maiden : A term used in the Chinese entertainment industry to describe female celebrities with a pure, innocent, and clean image.

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