In the quiet night, the man opened his eyes helplessly, touched the bedding beside him, and sighed, "It's time to miss you again, Qin Meimei."
"I've finally experienced what it feels like to miss someone so much that I can't sleep."
Pulling the blanket up, Yu Tang recalled Feng Xu's words and the invitation, and said, "Meimei, when you come back, let's have a wedding too?"
"Whether you return as a human or not, we will hold a wedding like Feng Xu and Nan Yu's, one that everyone will envy..."
"So, please come back soon, okay?"
Hearing these words, Xiao Jin's eyes welled up with tears in Yu Tang's mind.
He couldn't find any words of comfort.
Because he had said everything he needed to say over the past ten years, and Yu Tang had shown him that through his actions.
He will wait until he dies.
Time continued to pass, year after year. When Yu Tang was sixty-five years old, he announced to the public that he was retiring from the entertainment industry and then opened a flower shop in the city.
Besides selling flowers, he also runs an exorcism business, and he usually has a few Taoist apprentices who help him look after the shop.
He himself sat in the flower shop, looking at the various humans and ghosts outside, looking somewhat tired.
I drifted off to sleep and dreamed of Qin Junyang again.
It was tiny, perched on his shoulder, and whispering in his ear.
I asked him, "Tangtang, have you missed me?"
Yu Tang's eyes instantly welled up with tears, and he replied to Qin Junyang, "I miss you, I miss you so much."
When he woke up, the shop assistant was covering him with a blanket, and Yu Tang realized that he had been dreaming.
The shop assistant met his gaze, noticed the tears in the corners of his eyes, and cautiously asked, "Master Yu, why are you crying?"
"I'm fine..." Yu Tang shook his head, wanting to laugh, but he couldn't manage to raise the corners of his lips.
He wrapped himself tightly in a blanket and said, "It was just... a beautiful dream."
"Go do your work, I'm going to sleep a little longer."
After the shop assistant left, Yu Tang fell asleep again, this time for a long time.
I stopped dreaming.
At the age of eighty-six, Yu Tang finally couldn't hold on any longer. Various age-related ailments struck, forcing him to be hospitalized to slowly recuperate.
Many people who knew him came to visit him.
Most of them were elderly people with white hair, just like him.
I would chat with him, but the conversation always revolved around my spouse, my children, and my grandchildren. When I talked about these things, my face would be filled with a happy smile.
Those who knew the story from that cliff incident seemed to have made a pact not to mention Qin Junyang's name in front of him again, for fear that Yu Tang would be heartbroken if he heard it.
In the hospital, Yu Tang's health deteriorated. At first, he could go out for a walk on his own, but later he could only sit in a wheelchair and have a caregiver push him around.
There are two caregivers looking after Yutang: a strong young man and a lovely young woman.
That lovely girl has a very good personality. Because she was afraid that Yu Tang would feel lonely, she kept talking to him while taking care of him, telling him about herself, her boyfriend, her family, and things that happened at school.
Yu Tang really liked her antics.
Only in this way could he allow himself to have a little more attachment to this world, and hold on a little longer...
One day, the girl said she was going to a classmate reunion that evening and that her boyfriend would pick her up in the afternoon.
The young woman's boyfriend was her college classmate. They have been married for three years and their relationship is still going strong. They are planning to get married.
Looking at her blissful expression, Yu Tang couldn't help but feel a little envious.
In the afternoon, there was a knock on the door of the ward, but it wasn't just the girl's boyfriend who came in.
There was another person.
He looked like a young boy, dressed in a pure black casual outfit with gold stripes on the sleeves and trouser seams.
Even the casual shoes she was wearing were this black and gold style.
"Host! He is! He is Qin Junyang!" Xiao Jin's voice was so excited it changed tone.
But then she became angry and cursed: "Damn it! Now that he's become human and returned, why hasn't he come looking for you for so long?!"
No matter how much Xiao Jin roared, Yu Tang had already lost the ability to think and speak.
She just stared blankly at the familiar yet unfamiliar boy who walked towards her step by step.
"Who is he?" the young caregiver couldn't help but ask her boyfriend.
"Oh, I forgot to introduce him." The man said, "His name is Qin Junyang, he's my cousin. He was born abroad and just came back to China today with his parents, planning to celebrate his coming-of-age ceremony here... Hey? What are you doing?"
Before the man could finish speaking, he saw the previously silent boy walk quickly to the old man lying on the hospital bed and grab his withered hand.
"Let go of Mr. Yu!" After being shocked by this unbelievable scene, the girl tried to pull Qin Junyang away, saying, "It's impolite to do this to someone you've just met!"
But he stopped just as he was about to touch Qin Junyang.
Because she saw that the boy, who had been expressionless just moments before, now had tears welling up in his eyes, and they kept falling as if he couldn't hold them back.
It splattered onto their clasped hands, onto the hospital bed, drop after drop, soaking the area.
Yu Tang's eyes also turned red.
He looked at the girl and said softly, "Manman, could you give us some time alone? Please."
"Cousin, you..."
The boy was about to say something when the girl stopped him.
"Yes, I understand, Mr. Yu."
After saying that, she left with the boy and closed the door to the ward.
“Meimei…” Yu Tang reached out and touched the boy’s tear-stained face, sighing softly, “I’ve finally waited for you.”
The next moment, he was pulled into the boy's arms. Afraid of hurting him, Qin Junyang did not dare to use force and pressed his fingers on the man's back.
Because of years of suffering from illness, Yu Tang's back had become thinner, and holding him like this, the boy felt only heartache and pain.
"Tangtang..." he called out to Yutang, his voice choked with emotion, "Tangtang, I finally remember, I remember you..."
Eighteen years ago, Qin Junyang finally fell to the bottom of the abyss and entered the path of reincarnation, but was stripped of all his memories and reincarnated as a human.
Ever since I can remember, I've always felt like I've forgotten someone.
There's a huge emptiness in my heart.
No matter what I do, I can't fill that emptiness.
It wasn't until I saw Yu Tang just now that those memories flooded back into my mind.
He then realized what he had forgotten.
After listening to his story, Yu Tang felt a mix of emotions. He wanted to complain, scold him, and question him.
But in the end, it all boiled down to one sentence: "It's good that you're back."
He embraced the trembling boy who was crying, feeling the other's body temperature, which was no longer cold, but warm enough to make him feel dazed.
He repeated, "It's good that you're back."
That night, Yu Tang asked the caregiver who was looking after him to leave, leaving Qin Junyang to stay in the ward.
The two of them kept chatting.
They talked about what happened on the cliff and Qin Junyang's experience of navigating the underworld.
When Yama made that condition, the black mist left behind by Qin Junyang helped him, allowing him to remember everything the moment he saw Yu Tang.
But the thought that Yu Tang had waited for him for so many years, and that he and Yu Tang had missed each other for eighteen years, made Qin Junyang feel suffocated and miserable.
He lay down beside Yu Tang, curled up, carefully embracing the frail old man, and tears streamed down his face again as he sobbed uncontrollably.
"Tangtang, I was wrong..." he said. "I shouldn't have gone to the underworld, no, I shouldn't have gone to hell. I should have stayed by your side... I should have stayed with you..."
His crying made Yu Tang's heart ache.
He sighed, curled his fingers, and flicked Qin Junyang on the forehead. While the other was still stunned, he placed a kiss on the boy's forehead.
"Don't talk nonsense," Yu Tang said. "Your ability to become human is a pleasant surprise for me."
"Although I arrived a little late, I still feel that waiting for so long, being able to feel your warmth, and hearing your heartbeat, is all worth it."
"So, don't apologize. Let's spend the rest of our time happily, okay?"
Qin Junyang's eyes were blurred with tears. Yu Tang smiled, wiped them away for him, and then asked him repeatedly, as if coaxing a child, "Is it okay? Hmm?"
The image of the man before him was reflected in Qin Junyang's dark eyes.
After a long while, he embraced Yu Tang and sobbed, "Good, good."
In the following period, Yu Tang dismissed the other caregivers and handed over everything related to her to Qin Junyang to manage.
When the caregiver was leaving, Qin Junyang still had a sour expression on his face. He angrily told Yu Tang, "I haven't even seen your body a few times, but they've seen everything!"
Yu Tang remained silent for a moment.
He touched his emaciated body, which was as thin as a rump, and said to Qin Junyang, "Look closely, I'm almost ninety years old, and all I'm left is a bunch of old bones. Who would want me?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Qin Junyang looking like he was about to cry again. She leaned over and kissed him, saying, "I like you. Tangtang, you are the best. You will always be the best!"
Yu Tang felt a pang of sympathy and let him go.
After that, Qin Junyang stayed in the hospital to take care of him, and his meticulous care shocked everyone around him.
Only Feng Xu and a few others knew the true nature of their relationship.
They were both happy that Yutang had finally met Qin Junyang, and also lamented the cruel twist of fate.
It's amazing how the two of them missed each other for so many years.
Later on, Yu Tang eventually became unable to even get out of bed.
He could only lie in bed, relying on machines to sustain his life.
Qin Junyang sat by the bedside, staying up all night to watch over him.
Yu Tang was mostly in a daze, and when he was occasionally lucid, he would advise Qin Junyang to rest and not ruin his health.