Los secretos del cielo, temporada 4

Capítulo 5

"I don't even know how I slept. I was in a daze all night, and when I opened my eyes it was already dawn!" Li Hui spoke significantly more than Zhang Lili.

"That's because of a concussion; the head is dizzy, and the person is fast asleep."

"But strangely enough, I haven't had a single dream!"

"The brain needs plenty of rest, even if you don't dream," Zhang Lili said, as if she were coaxing a child who knew nothing about medicine.

"I woke up this morning in excruciating pain! I couldn't even move."

"The spot I scraped yesterday has swelled up overnight, so there's bound to be some slight inflammation. How can it not hurt?"

Have you ever had this experience before?

"Once, I was in a car accident. I wasn't in any life-threatening danger, but I rolled around in the car a few times. The next morning, oh dear, I couldn't move at all; it hurt terribly!"

"This time, I didn't just roll a few times, I rolled dozens of steps!"

"Exactly, no wonder it hurts!" Zhang Lili handed a peeled apple to Li Hui, adding with a hint of mockery, "Luckily, no broken bones or internal injuries. If you had really hurt yourself, how would I explain it to Wang Yang when he gets back? Hmm?"

Upon hearing this, Li Hui's eyes reddened, and she quickly took a big bite of the apple to cover it up.

"Has Wang Yang called recently?" Zhang Lili asked while peeling another apple for herself.

"He hasn't called for days. I don't know what he's been busy with!" Li Hui said, a hint of resentment in her voice.

"I'll be back soon, probably just too busy. Anyway, we can see each other every day when I get back, so why worry about another month?"

"Then he should also care about my current situation! These days..." Li Hui suddenly felt that her words were about to reveal secrets, so she put the prop apple back into her mouth.

To everyone's surprise, Zhang Lili seemed to sense something and pressed on, asking, "What's been going on these past few days? What happened?"

"No...it's nothing, just...work isn't going well." Li Hui didn't know how to put it. She reminded herself: she absolutely couldn't reveal the "death timetable"! Not only because she didn't want Zhang Lili to know about the danger she was facing so soon, but also because she herself hadn't fully confirmed the nature of the matter, and she didn't want to make a huge fool of herself.

Although Zhang Lili was her good friend, it was best not to let her know about the accidental removal of her uterus, as she was afraid it would affect her image in Zhang Lili's eyes.

In the hospital, Li Hui and Zhang Lili, both medical school graduates, were widely recognized as top performers, possessing excellent character and earning considerable respect. Furthermore, the reason they frequently interacted was because they shared a relatively equal relationship and common ground.

Therefore, Li Hui values the mutual respect between the two parties, and respect between friends is even more important.

"What's wrong with work? Who can deny your professional skills?" Zhang Lili, like a protective mother, kept comforting her child: "Let anyone who disagrees try it! I'm telling you, you're just too concerned about what others say. Aren't you afraid of putting in too much effort?"

"No..." Li Hui stammered, something she had never done before.

"Are you missing Wang Yang? How about we call him together in a bit?" Zhang Lili's teasing expression reappeared, mixed with a hint of inexplicable excitement.

"Forget it, I won't call him. I'll wait for him to call me first!" Li Hui said coquettishly.

"So, you've been online lately, haven't you?" Zhang Lili brought up another topic. "E has been redesigned again. It's been redesigned three times this year, wow!"

Li Hui immediately thought of the email, and she didn't know how to reply for a moment.

Zhang Lili didn't seem to care when she heard no response, and just kept talking, "I heard Shanghai Hotline got a new boss, this is going to be interesting! Think about it, a new boss is like a new brain for the whole website, and a new broom sweeps clean, the website will be turned upside down, won't it?"

Li Hui only knew that Zhang Lili was bored after get off work and liked to surf the internet. She was one of the first people in the hospital to buy a personal computer. Li Hui bought her own computer after seeing how fun Zhang Lili's computer was at her home. You could say Zhang Lili was Li Hui's computer mentor!

Now, whenever Zhang Lili mentions the word "net," she feels a chill run down her spine.

The emails kept popping up in front of her, and that damned schedule was bothering her again.

Li Hui didn't want to bring up sensitive topics like computers and the internet anymore, so she deliberately changed the subject: "Lili, when are you getting married?"

"Ugh! You brought this up again, doesn't it annoy you? You're so annoying!" Zhang Lili said, half-jokingly annoyed.

"I mean, you can't just live alone all the time!"

"What's wrong with that? I'm not like you, I can't live without a man!" Zhang Lili teased Li Hui, dodging the plush animal toys she threw at her. In the blink of an eye, the two were chatting and laughing again.

"Tell me about your happy life with Wang Yang," Zhang Lili suggested to Li Hui, sitting up straight.

When the two of them were alone, this was a precious intellectual feast. Since Wang Yang went abroad, Li Hui had also become a single woman. She often talked with Zhang Lili about men, and sometimes about sex, to dispel her loneliness and solitude.

Zhang Lili had an extraordinary curiosity about Li Hui's happy life. Li Hui felt sorry for her and sometimes, with feelings of pity and charity, she would describe her married life to her in detail and share those subtle and beautiful feelings with her.

Recently, Li Hui had been so overwhelmed by the good news of Wang Yang's impending return to China that she hadn't seen Zhang Lili for many days. Today presented an opportunity, and she also wanted to find a way to express her gratitude to Zhang Lili. So she immediately agreed, "Okay."

But after thinking about it, I felt I'd already said everything that needed to be said, and of course I was too embarrassed to say anything else, so I hesitated, "...What should I say?"

"Do you know if Wang Yang had a girlfriend before he met you?" Zhang Lili suddenly asked this question.

Li Hui felt she must have met some kind of man, someone who might have been married before or had multiple relationships. But whether Wang Yang had or not... she didn't know. At least she had never asked, and he had never told her.

"This... I really haven't asked." Li Hui felt helpless and smiled apologetically.

"Fool! A man who has a first love but later marries another woman will still cherish the memory of his first love. I recently read in a book that men value their first love more than women do."

"I think Wang Yang must have had a first love, because when he was dating me, he already knew a lot about women. I remember once when he saw that I didn't look well, he suggested, 'Let's not go to the park today, those places are too damp, it's not good for your health during your period.' At the time, I thought he was so thoughtful and considerate, I was incredibly touched, but now that I think about it, I was so naive!" Li Hui said with a smile, but then noticed that Zhang Lili seemed to have drifted off into thought, so she stopped talking.

"And then? Tell me." Zhang Lili suddenly realized something and encouraged her to continue.

"I'm tired. Let's talk about it tonight, let me get some sleep first." Li Hui felt dizzy and wanted to sleep.

"Okay, I'll go to the hospital first and sort out my work. I'll come back to keep you company tonight. By the way, what would you like to eat tonight?"

"Whatever," Li Hui mumbled, almost falling asleep. She didn't know when Zhang Lili had left.

Li Hui had a dream in which she received another letter, also a computer-printed sheet of paper, with the words written in bold computer font: "I was just joking with you, don't take it personally!"

She flipped through the A-sheet that looked like a "death timetable" countless times. There were no notes or explanations. It seemed that the game was over.

Li Hui felt she hadn't had enough fun and was even a little disappointed, thinking, "It's over already? There's no winner yet!" She even had an urge to find this person's email address, send him an email, and suggest he continue... She wanted to see her own strength and who would ultimately prevail in this game!

She found Zhang Lili and asked her to help her find the address, but Zhang Lili laughed as if she were talking to a comical clown. She said, "Silly girl, he doesn't want you to know. How can you find it? He can set up an email account and use it only once before canceling it. Maybe he sends his emails from internet cafes. How can you find it?"

Li Hui was startled awake by Zhang Lili's laughter. When she opened her eyes, she realized that it really was Zhang Lili laughing; she was waking Li Hui up and telling her to get up for dinner.

"How did you get in?" Li Hui asked in surprise.

"I took the room key with me when I left. I was worried it would be too hard for you to get up, so I opened the door myself and came in." Zhang Lili said as she placed a few side dishes and two bowls of rice porridge on the dining table: "Come on, try getting up and eating at the dining table tonight. It'll help you exercise your joints and muscles." As she spoke, she came over to help her.

Zhang Lili's cooking skills are truly excellent, something Li Hui, a native of Jiangsu, has always admired. She's said more than once, "Shanghai women cook so well! When will you teach me a dish?"

"Eat more, you should get more nutrition." Zhang Lili put scrambled eggs with tomatoes and stir-fried celery with lily bulbs into her bowl one by one: "Eating tomatoes will prevent you from being deficient in Vitamin C, lily bulbs are good for clearing heat, and celery is high in fiber, which can help with bowel movements and prevent dryness."

As Li Hui ate, she thought about the features of email that Zhang Lili had mentioned in her dream. She found it strange that she had never known that email had so many intricacies, but how did she suddenly know everything in her dream?

"Lili, how do I look up an email address you don't know about?" Li Hui couldn't help but blurt out.

"After reading his letter, you can click 'Reply' to send your letter back to him."

Li Hui blinked, realizing that Zhang Lili hadn't understood her, but she didn't want to ask any further for fear of causing a misunderstanding, so she stopped talking.

"Who is so careless as to send you a letter without signing it?" Zhang Lili looked at her, put down her chopsticks, and asked.

"No, I was just asking."

"You keep only saying half of what you're saying today! That's strange. Did you hurt your brain?" Zhang Lili laughed.

"Stay here with me tonight. I'm bored by myself."

"Do you even need to tell me? I think I really need to keep a close eye on you until Wang Yang comes back, to prevent any more trouble!"

Li Hui and Zhang Lili chatted while watching TV, and time flew by.

Zhang Lili cleaned Li Hui's slightly infected wound and changed the dressing.

By the time we finished cleaning up, it was already past midnight.

Zhang Lili thought that Li Hui was injured and shouldn't rest too late, so she helped her settle in, took a book from the bookshelf, and lay down on the long sofa in the living room covered with a blanket.

Li Hui forced herself to look at the clock on the wall; it was 10:00 PM. There was still a little over an hour and a half until midnight. She felt much more at ease. Nothing else would happen tonight; once it was past midnight, she would get through this difficult time!

Li Hui felt a vague sense of satisfaction; with Zhang Lili around, she could finally get a good night's sleep.

As soon as she closed her eyes, she felt as if she were walking down a street in the rain. A person was walking ahead of her, holding their umbrella low. Li Hui suddenly became curious and wanted to catch up to see who that person was.

But no matter how fast she sped up, she couldn't catch up, and could only watch helplessly as the person went into a large black door in front of her.

Li Hui was looking around at the door when she suddenly felt someone chuckling behind her. She turned around sharply but saw nothing.

A little scared, she quickly turned around and walked back. Just then, she heard laughter coming from somewhere behind her, a sinister, hissing sound, like a snake sneaking through the grass.

In her hazy state, Li Hui felt unwell, as if she had been thrown into a furnace and was being roasted alive. She groaned and turned over, trying to escape the agonizing feeling, but to no avail.

She suddenly tried to sit up, but the pain from her falls, sprains, and scrapes made her cry out in pain. Zhang Lili rushed over barefoot and immediately turned on the bedside lamp.

"What's wrong?"

Li Hui immediately glanced at her watch; it was just past midnight. She felt like a small animal darting through a forest, finally unable to escape the trap set by a cunning hunter…

An inexplicable terror suddenly overwhelmed her.

Li Hui suffered from burning pain all over her body all night. Zhang Lili got up twice to apply mercurochrome and hydrogen peroxide to her, but the pain persisted until the next morning when it subsided a little, and Li Hui finally fell asleep like a dead person.

The next day, the hospital's examination results showed that the injury was infected and inflamed. "This kind of infection should have been brought to the hospital sooner; it could have turned into sepsis, which would have been dangerous," the doctor said dismissively as he treated the wound.

"Oh dear! The anti-inflammatory medicine in your medicine cabinet must be expired or spoiled!" Zhang Lili, who was standing to the side, said in surprise as she looked at the yellow pus on Li Hui's body.

She then remembered that Zhang Lili had used things from the first-aid kit to disinfect and apply medicine to her last night, but those were things she had just gotten from the hospital not long ago. Strange.

Li Hui felt a chill run down her spine: the counterfeit and substandard medicines these days are really terrible, they've even spread to maternity and infant hospitals!

After receiving an anti-inflammatory injection and taking a large amount of medicine, powder, and pills, Li Hui finally returned home and collapsed onto the bed.

The events of the past few days had forced her to think carefully about the matter; the serpentine, snickering laughter from her dream kept echoing in her mind. But the events of the previous four days—some accidental, some coincidental, and some purely the result of mental stimulation—had no discernible pattern; they were simply impossible to guard against!

This "unpredictable disaster" left her even more baffled.

Just as Li Hui was feeling extremely frustrated, the phone suddenly rang. She immediately thought of three possible callers:

Vast ocean.

Zhang Lili.

And then there's the person who created the "death timetable"!

After hesitating for a while, the phone had already rung six times when Li Hui finally got up with trepidation and picked up the receiver as if it were a hot potato.

"Is that Li Hui?" The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. Her heart skipped a beat, unsure whether to respond. The other person seemed to chuckle: "It's me, Dadun. Dr. Li, I heard you're not feeling well? Are you alright? My wife wants to visit you, but..."

As she breathed a sigh of relief, Li Hui wiped her forehead, which was damp with sweat.

"It's alright, are you okay?"

"No...nothing much. I just wanted to come see you."

"No need, I'll be back at work in a couple of days. You can come find me at my workplace then." Li Hui didn't want strangers to see her in this state: covered in bruises and her face was covered in black scabs. She refused them outright and hung up the phone.

About a minute later, there was a gentle knock on the door.