With a 'snap', the lights inside the room were turned on, and Fu Xiaofan stood barefoot in the doorway, the wooden stick in his hand still touching the power source of the light.
As the blurriness in his vision gradually faded, Zhou Zhou, his face pale, gave a faint smile.
"I'm fine..." His breathing had calmed down, and he said weakly, "There's a shareholders' meeting at the company tomorrow morning..." This was what He Qingqing had told the president in a message today.
"I'm not going." Fu Hengzhi said firmly, not daring to leave the other person for even a moment.
“Go on…” Zhou Zhou stroked his face, “You’ve lost so much weight…” Her hand moved down his face to his chest, a smile playing on her lips, and she said, “You don’t seem as muscular as before.”
"You'll get back into shape," Fu Hengzhi murmured, holding him in his arms.
“You haven’t been eating enough lately.” Zhou Zhou seemed to remember something for a moment, then her smile deepened.
"Let's rest, I'm sleepy."
"good."
The room returned to complete darkness. Fu Xiaofan stood stiffly at the doorway, watching the two embracing on the bed. His eyes flashed with a green light. He shook his head and ultimately said nothing.
During this time, Fu Hengzhi developed a biological clock again. He would naturally wake up at the crack of dawn and get up to go to the kitchen to cook for Zhou Zhou. This morning, when he opened his eyes, he touched the side of him and was startled by a cold sensation, which made him sit up abruptly.
She shuffled out of the bedroom in her slippers, sniffed the air, and slowed down after smelling the aroma. She paused outside the kitchen, watching the slender figure bustling about inside.
"What's next?"
Zhou Zhou wore an apron around her waist and held a spatula in her hand, as the beef brisket in the pot simmered and bubbled.
"Cover it up and turn up the heat to reduce the sauce..." Fu Xiaofan, holding the tablet with the cracked corner, flipped through the electronic menu and then said, "It will only take ten minutes."
"Okay, sure." Zhou Zhou was careful with every move. He cautiously put the pot lid on and turned around to see Fu Hengzhi standing behind him, staring at him blankly.
"Awake?" Zhou Zhou smiled. "I'll get you a thermal lunchbox. You must be hungry after the shareholders' meeting, so eat more."
“I didn’t say I was going…” Even so, Fu Hengzhi still stepped forward and hugged the other person.
"How can the president not attend the shareholders' meeting?" Zhou Zhou, who was holding things in his hands and couldn't take them back, said softly, "Go ahead. They don't usually hold meetings, so if they do, it must be something important."
"I don't want to go." Fu Hengzhi really didn't dare to leave the other person's side for a moment; he was too scared.
"Go ahead, I'll wait for you at home." Zhou Zhou whispered in his ear, "Don't forget to take your bento box, the one from last time..." Zhou Zhou couldn't remember where he had seen his wife's bento box.
“I don’t remember, but you have to take it.” Zhou Zhou had been standing in the kitchen for too long, and her feet were a little unsteady. She swayed for a moment, then quickly regained her balance and pointed to the bubbling beef brisket in the pot. “I remember you like this.”
"I love anything you make." Tears welled up in her eyes, and Fu Hengzhi knew they came from the deep emotion in her heart. Suppressing her emotions, she said in a trembling voice, "It's delicious... Please make it for me again in the future, okay?"
Zhou Zhou smiled and gently patted the other person's back, saying, "What you make tastes much better than what I make."
Zhou Zhou filled the compartments of the insulated lunchbox to the brim, then put it into an insulated bag and handed it to Fu Hengzhi, who was wearing a suit. Fu Hengzhi was carrying a briefcase in one hand and an insulated bag in the other, his neck tilted back, while Zhou Zhou was fixing his tie.
Although she had lost some weight, Zhou Zhou felt that her charming demeanor had not diminished; on the contrary, she had gained a touch of mature allure.
"Keep up the good work." Zhou Zhou supported the other's chest with his hand, tiptoed and gave the other a light kiss on the lips.
Fu Xiaofan's expression had been rather unpleasant ever since he was woken up in the morning. His brows furrowed even more when he saw the two of them being intimate. He opened his mouth as if to say something when he saw Fu Hengzhi about to leave, but ultimately he couldn't utter a word.
"You..." Fu Xiaofan's expression was extremely ugly. She gripped the other person's clothes tightly, trying to persuade them again, "Are you really sure?"
"Otherwise what?" Zhou Zhou said calmly, taking out his backpack from high school and packing it. Actually, there wasn't much to pack. He didn't bring any electronic devices, but he held his bank card, which contained the money he had earned since returning, all of which was his own.
Staring at the card, he muttered, "Too many."
After thinking it over, he decided to leave the card on the dining table, along with a note with the PIN written on it.
It took him a long time to make this decision. This was his home, and he didn't want to make it dirty. There was one month left. He had asked Fu Xiaofan, and there was one month left until the time in the book when he left this world.
"I'll go with you!"
Fu Xiaofan watched the door open and the figure about to leave, then suddenly stepped forward and grabbed the other person's clothes.
Zhou Zhou paused as he was pulled, turned to look at him calmly, and shook her head.
"You must stay with him, always stay with him."
"It's no use me being with him if you're not here." Fu Xiaofan clenched the hem of her clothes, pleading humbly, "Let me go with you... He'll be alright."
The young man at the door stood there stunned for a long time before finally nodding.
He only used his phone once to withdraw money from the bank, then turned it off and threw it in the trash. His bag contained enough cash to handle everything after his death.
Zhou Zhou had been in the car for a long time, so long that he didn't even know where he was. At first, he just asked the driver to take him away from J City to a random hospital.
At first, the driver hesitated, thinking that his passenger was too strange. Unfortunately, his hesitation couldn't last long in the face of money, because he had given too much.
In the outside world, Zhou Zhou had fantasized that if he were to live a solitary life without a wife or children and without illness, he would spend the rest of his life in a nursing home. If he were to contract a terminal illness, he would end his life in a hospital, so that his soul could have a sacred place to belong.
That's enough to give us an explanation.
The driver dropped him off in front of a top-tier hospital in the neighboring city of S. After Zhou Zhou and the child got out of the car, they reversed and drove to a suburban hospital in S city.
The suburban hospital may be remote, but it has the advantage of a good environment. After paying enough money and registering the information, Zhou Zhou began to spend the remaining twenty-nine days there.
The cheerful chirping of birds in the branches outside the window contrasted sharply with the deathly silence inside. Several caregivers huddled together outside the ward, whispering and peeking through the viewing window on the door. They only breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the patient leaning against the headboard looking out the window.
“What kind of father is this? He has a terminal illness and brings his child to the hospital. Doesn’t that leave a shadow on his life?” A female caregiver who was taking care of the elderly woman next door who had suffered a stroke clicked her tongue and said with pity, “That child is pitiful to have such a father.”
“Who says otherwise? That child is cute but never speaks. He always has a long face, which is kind of creepy.” The daughter-in-law who takes care of the paralyzed old man across the street said in a local dialect, “The father won’t live long, and the child is heartless. He should be old enough to understand human nature, but he has never cried once. He is unfilial.”
"Stop talking, Brother Zhao who serves him is here."
Brother Zhao was wearing a simple white shirt, holding a few roses he had picked from the garden. The flowers were brightly colored, and he thought they were beautiful, hoping that the patients he was taking care of would like them too.
“Mr. Zhou, I picked some flowers from outside to decorate. I hope they will make you and the child feel happier.”
"Child, do you like this flower?"
He was used to his patients not responding, so he chuckled a few times and handed a blooming rose to the child on the nursing bed.
"..." Fu Xiaofan stared silently at the flower in his hand.
Brother Zhao came to the city from the countryside to make a living. His mother fell ill and he urgently needed money. He heard that he could earn a lot of money as a caregiver in the hospital, so he came. He didn't have any licenses and his Mandarin wasn't fluent. He met Mr. Zhou, who came to the hospital, at the entrance. He has been taking care of Mr. Zhou ever since and has been very generous with his money. He is especially grateful to Mr. Zhou for helping him when he was in trouble. After learning that Mr. Zhou had a terminal illness, he thinks of ways to add some fun to the quiet ward every day.
The television was on from morning till night, playing the news channel non-stop for more than ten hours a day. Brother Zhao sat in the caregiver's chair folding the cleaned patient's trousers, which were stained with dirt due to the patient's limited mobility.
Seeing that the other person was staring blankly at the news on TV, I chatted with them for a few minutes.
"The news about finding this person in J City has been broadcast for about a month now, and they still haven't found the person."
"This big boss still hasn't found a wife? By the way, his wife shares the same surname as you, Mr. Zhou." After saying this, Brother Zhao paused, chuckled a few times, and felt that his guess was simply too far-fetched, even more unbelievable than their village chief's son bringing a male wife home.
Brother Zhao chuckled and recounted a series of strange and interesting stories from the hospital that day. After being admitted to the hospital, Mr. Zhou's mobility gradually became limited, but at least his consciousness was still relatively clear. He could still laugh along with the other person as he talked about these things. However, later on, he became like the paralyzed old man across the street and the old woman next door who had suffered a stroke, his consciousness becoming blurred and his movements becoming inconvenient. He felt that fate was truly unfair. Mr. Zhou was so young and had a child, how could he have contracted a terminal illness that even doctors couldn't cure?
"Mr. Zhou, are you thirsty? Let me pour you some water."
Brother Zhao looked at the clock on the wall and realized that two hours had passed since the last time he fed the other person water. It was time for him to feed the other person half a bowl of water with a spoon.
He scooped up less than half a mouthful of water with a stainless steel spoon and held it to the other person's lips, but couldn't open them for a long time. Water dripped down the corners of their mouths, so Brother Zhao took two tissues to wipe it away.
After wiping twice, he suddenly froze, his pupils dilated, and his trembling hand reached under the other person's nose.
"My God! Mr. Zhou!"
The call bell by the bed rang frantically, and doctors and nurses rushed in, turning the ward into chaos.
Brother Zhao stood helplessly at the foot of the bed, only then remembering that there was a child sitting on the nursing bed.
Fu Xiaofan stared at the circle of doctors and nurses, the rose in his hand withering, and remained motionless. Brother Zhao went up to him with heartache and hugged him to stop him from looking, and reached out to comfort him. The rural man softened his voice and said in a trembling voice, "It's okay, kid, your father is okay, we won't look, we won't look."
"The time has come, I know..." Fu Xiaofan murmured, distraught, "He's dead..."
Author's Note: A plot twist is coming in the next chapter! Happy ending! HE! HE!
Fu Xiaofan: Daddy got really angry after you left.
Zhou Zhou: I can't just die in front of him, can I?
Fu Hengzhi: Baby [Death Smile].JPG
Chapter 128 Waiting for Reunion
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'bite--'
As the electrocardiogram line gradually flattens, it slowly rises and falls, creating a chaotic yet hopeful trajectory of life. The young man's mouth and nose under the oxygen mask gradually begin to move, inhaling and exhaling, causing the transparent mask to be shrouded in a hazy layer of water vapor.
The young man with a buzz cut, who was dozing off in the caregiver's chair, was startled by the sound of the electrocardiogram machine. He sat up abruptly and his pupils widened instantly when he saw the zigzag linear fluctuations. He rubbed his eyes hard to get a better look, afraid that he was seeing a hallucination.
Holy crap!
A week later, the person in the hospital bed finally stirred. The short-haired guy who had been taking care of him for a week rushed out in a flurry, shouting "Doctor! Holy crap, doctor, he's awake! Holy crap!"
Everything gradually became clearer, and the confused mind slowly regained consciousness. The person on the hospital bed had not yet focused their eyes, staring blankly at the blank space in front of them. It took them a long time to realize that they were facing a whitewashed ceiling.
"Hello, hello, can you hear me?"
White medical rubber gloves swayed above.
The short-haired man, who had pulled the doctor in, imitated the doctor's actions of waking the patient up and shouted loudly into the patient's ear.
"Brother! Can you hear me, brother? Hey! Can you hear me?!"
The sound traveled straight into the cochlea through the ear canal, and the person on the hospital bed contorted their facial features, clearly resisting external stimuli.
"Quiet down." The doctor pushed the short-haired man's head away from the patient's ear, reached out and flipped the man's eyelids, shining a medical flashlight on the patient's eyeballs.
The intense light amplified the young man's reaction to the outside world, and his eyes gradually brightened. Seeing this, the doctor released his eyelids, and the young man blinked again.
"Holy crap! He's awake! He's really awake this time!" The short-haired guy exclaimed with delight.
"We need to observe him for a while longer to make sure he is conscious..."
"Dr. Bai! Dr. Bai, come quick! The twins in the next room have woken up!"
"Coming right away." Dr. Bai prepared to move on to the next battlefield, and before leaving, he instructed the short-haired man by the bedside, "Don't do anything stimulating to the patient; let the patient regain consciousness on their own."
The young man on the hospital bed seemed to have heard these words; the fingers of his hand that wasn't receiving an IV drip curled slightly, but unfortunately, the two people in the room didn't see it.
"Wake up on your own..." The man with the buzz cut sat back down in the caregiver's chair, glancing at the ECG machine next to him and checking the patient's eyelids, and said absentmindedly, "Do I have to wait another week?"
"Waiting won't hurt, anyway, this job is easy to get."
"The only problem is that the room and board included don't come with much money."
Who...who is it?
As Zhou Zhou listened to the constant chatter of the person beside him, his consciousness gradually became clearer with the words. He felt unwell in his lungs and abdomen, with an indescribable emptiness and nausea, and he also felt weak.