The two had only walked a few steps before arriving at Mrs. Nangong’s room. It was far larger than Sakura's room, crammed with all manner of emergency equipment. For some reason, when Li Tai and Xiao Hao had visited Mrs. Nangong the day before, the room had been deserted save for her. Now, however, a duty nurse stood by the door.

The nurse was situated in a small compartment beside the ICU, monitoring Mrs. Nangong’s vital signs through the glass partition, ready to sound the alarm to summon doctors and nurses the moment a crisis occurred.

Xiao Hao set Sakura down, and they stood outside the glass door, giving two soft knocks on the duty room. The nurse looked up from her newspaper. Seeing two smiling faces directed at her, she pushed the door open and asked, “What are you two doing here?”

“I am…” Sakura began, but Xiao Hao cut her off.

“We are family members here to visit the patient,” Xiao Hao said, winking at Sakura to signal her silence.

“Oh, the patient’s condition is unstable; you only have ten minutes for your visit.” With that, the nurse turned and retreated into her compartment, the door snapping shut behind her with a definitive thud.

Sakura was greatly irritated by the nurse’s cold demeanor and considered confronting her about her poor service attitude, but Xiao Hao pulled her back. “Don’t pay her any mind,” he advised. “Look how arrogant she is today; perhaps tomorrow will bring her misfortune.” As he spoke, a sliver of a sinister smile flickered across Xiao Hao’s face, though it vanished instantly.

The next day, news arrived from the Public Security Bureau that the nurse had hanged herself at home. The entire hospital buzzed with the incident, and police began questioning the nurse’s superiors and colleagues. A few days later, the conclusion was suicide due to depression. Sakura asked Xiao Hao, her face etched with astonishment, “How did you know? What you said came true! She actually hanged herself!” Xiao Hao replied cryptically, “She didn't pay attention; the moment she turned her back, Death was already following her.” However, this was all for later.

Having received the nurse’s begrudging permission, Sakura and Xiao Hao gently pushed open the door to Mrs. Nangong’s room and tiptoed in, careful not to make any sound that might disturb the lady’s beautiful dreams. In reality, this caution was entirely superfluous; Mrs. Nangong had long since slipped into a deep coma. Not merely the sound of footsteps, but even a clap of thunder could not stir her. If she could wake, that would surely be a blessing.

“Mama…” Sakura sat down beside the hospital bed and gently smoothed the hair spread across the pillow. The memory of her mother combing her hair when she was little brought a rush of tears. How desperately she wished she could comb her mother’s hair just once now! Under normal circumstances, this would be the smallest imaginable wish, but now, to comb her hair was impossible; even exchanging a single word with her mother felt like an extravagant luxury, let alone seeing her smile or watching her open a birthday present. Come to think of it, Sakura suddenly realized she had never bought her mother a single birthday gift in her entire life. Every time she planned to, her mother would always say to wait until she grew up and earned her own money. Thus, growing up became the prerequisite for buying a gift, and earning money, the determining factor. But why wait until she grew up? Why must the purchase be postponed until the day she earned money? Sakura pondered, beginning to chastise herself, listing all the ways she had failed her mother over the years. Her tears fell like snapped strings of beads, dampening the snow-white bedsheet and blooming into greyish water stains.

Humans are such creatures: they rarely cherish what they possess until the moment it is lost, only then regretting their past oversight.