The heavy rain lasted all night, only stopping when the sky began to lighten the following day.

Ruan Mian hadn’t slept well. The thunder had startled her awake several times. Eventually, she just sat up, clutching the blanket, her forehead pressed against her knees, her long hair hanging down both sides.

She missed her mother. She missed her so much.

But she knew in her heart that her mother would not be coming back.

The text message she sent on the phone was like a stone sinking into the sea; it seemed hope was slim there, too.

Everything, like the thick darkness outside the window, was impossible to push through.

Her thoughts gradually blurred, and somehow, she drifted off to sleep.

When she woke up, the hour hand pointed to nine o’clock. Ruan Mian felt like the sky was collapsing. She rushed to wash up and grabbed her school bag, running downstairs.

Her bicycle was gone!

She spun around in a panic. How could it… be missing?

Yesterday, yesterday…

She had walked home; the bike had been left halfway!

Ruan Mian felt the sky collapse a second time.

At her age and in her situation, losing a bike meant disaster. Just her father’s cold gaze alone…

She didn’t dare think too deeply.

The only thing she could hope for now was that the bike was still where she left it and hadn’t been picked up. But was that possible?

The doorknob was rusty. Ruan Mian twisted it a few times but couldn’t open it. Her palm was covered in red flakes. She gritted her teeth and gave it a hard twist and pull. The resulting shake sprayed water droplets all over her face.

She didn’t bother to wipe them off; her mind was only on her bike. As she stepped over the threshold, she nearly ran into someone.

She apologized while hurrying out.

The person called out to her. “Excuse me, are you Ruan Mian?”

She stopped and looked up in surprise.

A stranger stood before her, wearing a formal black suit. He looked like a sharp, capable elite.

Ruan Mian’s eyes suddenly brightened.

She saw her white bicycle parked behind the man.

Her heart suddenly settled into place.

“I am Mr. Qi’s assistant. He asked me to bring this over.”

Ruan Mian quietly repeated, “…Mr. Qi?”

“Don’t remember?” The assistant smiled at her. “He’s the man who drove you back yesterday.”

How could she forget?

Ruan Mian shook her head. “I remember.”

“It’s Saturday today. Do you have supplementary classes?” he asked, gesturing to her school bag.

A blush of embarrassment crept up Ruan Mian’s cheeks. She quickly waved her hand. “No.”

She was flustered and had gotten the day wrong.

The assistant leaned on the door frame and smiled again, a faint dimple visible near the corner of his mouth. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll be leaving.”

Ruan Mian opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to ask something, but her mind was blank, and she couldn’t think of anything. Water ran down her cheeks, and she wiped it away with the back of her hand.

In the end, she just managed two words. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. It was expected.” The assistant gave a slight nod. “Goodbye.”

He turned and walked away, getting into a car parked not far away. After the car drove off, Ruan Mian pushed her bicycle back into the house.

So, that man was Mr. Qi.

In the clubhouse that night, everyone revolved around him.

He was a person whom even her father had to bend over to flatter. He could save the collapsing Ying Group…

At this thought, her heart unaccountably started beating out of rhythm. She couldn’t stop herself from forming certain unpleasant ideas…

In the living room, the nanny held the receiver, calling out to her without any politeness. “Hey, it’s for you.”

Then, she looked Ruan Mian up and down with an unkind gaze. “It’s a man calling.”

Ruan Mian felt her scalp prickle under the scrutiny. She took the receiver. “Hello, I’m Ruan Mian.”

“Hello. I’m the assistant to the Director of Shengke Hospital. Are you free this afternoon?”

Ruan Mian held her breath and slowly asked, “The Director wants to see me?”

The voice on the other end gave an affirmative reply.

The phone call seemed to have drawn away half of Ruan Mian’s mental focus. Even her footsteps going upstairs felt light, as if she were walking on cotton.

Why did the Director suddenly want to see her?

Could it be that he wanted her to… repay the debt?

She couldn’t think of any other possibility.

She rummaged through her cloth wallet, managing to scrape together only 136 yuan and 5 mao, not even enough to pay off the interest. Ruan Mian slumped onto her desk, her head reeling.

The little creature fluttered its wings, hopping and jumping, happily tilting its head and chirping a few times. The silent room suddenly gained a certain vitality.

Ruan Mian lightly tapped the desktop. It seemed to receive a signal and immediately chased after her with its mouth wide open. She patted its head, and it lowered its head to lightly peck her finger.

After feeding it a few insects, she washed her hands, neatly stacked the money spread out on the table by denomination, put it into her wallet, and grabbed an umbrella.

Closing the door, she went downstairs.

Ruan Mian arrived at Shengke Hospital half an hour before the scheduled time.

She was not unfamiliar with this place. She could accurately find the location of every department with her eyes closed and even remembered the names of every doctor.

Unfortunately, no place in this world, and no one, could have helped her keep her mother.

A child’s crying could be heard, getting closer. Ruan Mian sat on a long bench and looked over. A young woman walked by, holding her daughter. The little girl refused to take the medicine because it was too bitter. Her mother gently coaxed her while wiping her tears.

Ruan Mian couldn’t take her eyes off them, filled with envy.

Don’t think about it. You can’t think about it. It just makes you sad.

She walked around a few buildings, and soon the time approached.

Just as she walked toward the hospital entrance, she saw several hospital staff rushing over, heading straight for the ambulance that had just stopped at the entrance.

She quickly stepped to the side, but her gaze followed. The man being rushed in was covered in blood and kept spitting up more…

Ruan Mian’s legs felt weak, and she was shaking all over.

Everything around her seemed to vanish instantly. She was dragged into a terrifying memory. She seemed to see buildings collapsing before her eyes, a vast, burning red expanse of blood spreading out endlessly…

She thought she heard someone crying out, “Please, save him!”

“He can’t be saved. The steel bar pierced his lung…”

Reality overlapped with the memory….

The man was still vomiting blood, unable to stop, gushing out like a spring. The air was thick with the scent of fresh blood.

A shocking sight.

Only this time, there was no hand, like years ago, to gently cover her eyes, shielding her from the sorrow of this world.

Ruan Mian turned around and ran away.

By the time she stood outside the Director’s office, more than half an hour had passed. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

She pushed the door and entered.

“Ruan Mian?” The middle-aged man behind the desk looked up.

“Director Zhou.” She instinctively gripped her thin, flat wallet.

Zhou Guangnan stood up and pointed to the sofa. “Have a seat over here.”

After Ruan Mian sat down, he poured her a cup of tea and got straight to the point. “The main reason I asked you to come is because of your mother’s dying wish.”

“My mother?”

“Yes.” Zhou Guangnan pushed a plump envelope toward her.

Ruan Mian picked it up and gasped in disbelief. “What is this?”

“This is something your mother left for you.” He looked at her with a gentle smile, a hint of apology in his tone. “I was on a business trip recently, and I got busy and forgot about it.”

Ruan Mian held the envelope containing twenty thousand yuan, still feeling as if she were dreaming. She unconsciously picked at the surface of the envelope, her throat dry.

She couldn’t understand why her mother would leave the money with Director Zhou for him to pass on.

Also, where did her mother get this money? Back then, they even needed someone else to cover the medical bills…

“Your mother was initially included in a medical foundation’s aid program, but the funds hadn’t been released before she…”

Ruan Mian didn’t remember this at all. Her mind was in turmoil.

Zhou Guangnan added, “I helped her apply for it.”

His tone was calm and logical, making it impossible to question.

The scent of tea curled up to her nose.

“Thank you… Thank you, sir,” Ruan Mian pursed her lips. “You also covered my mother’s medical bills before.”

“It’s nothing.” Zhou Guangnan’s hand rested on the envelope, which she was about to open. “The outstanding medical expenses have already been deducted from the funds.”

He looked at the young girl whose eyes were slightly red, sighing silently in his heart, but keeping a gentle smile on his lips. “Actually, I have something I’d like your help with.”

A yellowed photograph was placed in Ruan Mian’s palm.

She looked at it seriously, her face showing confusion.

“You don’t remember her?”

Ruan Mian shook her head.

“Then, do you still remember the Linshan earthquake nine years ago?”

She tensed up.

“She was my wife,” he continued. “She died in that earthquake.”

Ruan Mian’s breathing was rapid, her fingernails digging into her palm.

“You were with her at the time.”

That memory was too distant for her, yet too profound, so profound that she only remembered the collapse and the death, but the faces of those people were not clear.

“She was…” Ruan Mian stared intently at the photo, then looked at the man before her. Although his face was unfamiliar, the feeling grew stronger. “You are… that doctor!”

“It was me,” his kind voice seemed to have a soothing power. “Don’t be afraid. It’s all in the past.”

Ruan Mian drank a cup of tea, slowly calming down.

“Little girl, can you tell me what my wife said before she died?”

“Nothing. She didn’t say anything.”

Zhou Guangnan remained silent.

Ruan Mian repeated, seeing his disbelief, “She didn’t say anything.”

Her memory was awakened, surging back like a tide.

In that disaster, nine-year-old her had stayed with a strange woman, the woman’s body cold in her arms…

“No, she did speak.”

Ruan Mian was pulled back to reality, astonished. “What did she say?”

Zhou Guangnan: “She said, ‘Live well.'”

“No,” Ruan Mian looked at him firmly. “She didn’t say anything.”

There wasn’t time to speak.

She was the only one who accompanied her through the last moments of her life. No one knew better than her.

Zhou Guangnan sighed, his eyes deep. “Little girl, could I ask you for a favor?”

“If another person asks you the same question someday, please tell him what I just told you.”

“Tell him my wife’s final words were, ‘Live well.'”

Ruan Mian insisted, “That’s a lie.”

“I know, but it could save a person’s life.”

Ruan Mian shook her head. “I don’t understand…”

“You will understand later.”

“Uncle Zhou, are you sure this is okay?”

After Ruan Mian left, a young doctor pushed the door open and came in.

Zhou Guangnan was still sitting in the same spot, gently stroking his teacup. “They once relied on each other for life and death. I think this girl might hold some unique significance to him.”

He looked at the standing man. “Chang Ning, don’t mention the fact that I met with this girl to him.”

Chang Ning showed no embarrassment at being found out. “Understood, Uncle Zhou.”

He walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and watched the thin, white figure gradually move away, thinking, I hope so.

Ruan Mian left the hospital, detouring to a bookstore to buy a few reference books. She still couldn’t follow what the teacher was saying very well in class, and her results from the previous week’s mock exam probably wouldn’t be ideal.

She couldn’t let things continue like this.

After buying the books, she rode her bike aimlessly through the streets. She suddenly remembered something, sped up, and after riding for twenty minutes, the familiar small woods appeared before her. She turned the bike to the left and rode in.

She quickly reached her destination.

She stood outside the gate, holding her bike.

The old man had already seen her and walked over with a smile to open the gate. “Not enough bugs again?”

“No,” Ruan Mian pointed inside, a little embarrassed. “I think I left something behind yesterday.”

Something very necessary that she had to retrieve in person.

“I see,” he stepped aside to let her in. “I’m still busy. Go ahead and get it yourself.”

Ruan Mian didn’t move her feet. “Is he…”

The old man understood and smiled. “He’s not home.”

Ruan Mian sighed in relief and walked over.

She quickly slipped off her shoes and bent down to search around the sofa.

She had packed up in such a rush yesterday that she must have accidentally dropped something. She only realized it was missing when she checked her bag at noon today.

It should be here. Why can’t I find it?

Ruan Mian was sprawled on the carpet when she saw a pink corner peeking out from the gap in the sofa. Her face lit up, and she slowly pulled it out.

A sanitary napkin she kept in her bag for emergencies.

Luckily, she found it. How embarrassing would it have been if that man had seen it?

Just as she was about to get up, she inadvertently saw a document on the coffee table. Her gaze was immediately drawn to a certain spot in the bottom right corner.

It was a signature, only two characters.

The first long, elegant character was easily recognizable: Qi.

The second character was written in a flowing, unrestrained style. Ruan Mian pinched the paper, practically trying to look through it, but still couldn’t decipher the character. She lightly frowned, unconsciously murmuring, “Qi… Qi what?”

“Qi Yan.”

A man’s voice answered her.

Low and slightly husky, yet it clearly reached her ears.

NOTES

New chapters will be added every Sunday. If you’d like more chapters, you can support the novel by buying a coffee; each coffee unlocks one extra chapter.