"I promise you..." "Xia Mo..." "As long as you get better... I'll do anything..." Clutching her hand tightly, Ou Chen buried his face in her burning, frail palm; his back rose lonely against the evening light, trembling almost imperceptibly.
Yin Cheng, however, could not remain by his sister's bedside. He couldn't bear to watch her suffer from a persistent high fever, unconscious and in pain. That torment made him wish he could undergo the kidney transplant himself, just so his sister could recover quickly! But what was that if not drinking poison to quench thirst? Perhaps it might temporarily ease her condition, but then what? It would strip her of the right to happiness. Reason told him no, yet his sister's feverish, unconscious state seemed to be tearing away all his rationality. The internal struggle prevented him from staying in her room for another moment.
He asked Zhen En to find out from Shen Qiang which hospital Luo Xi was in. Hearing that Brother Luo Xi was still unconscious, he came here.
"Brother Luo Xi..." Yin Cheng gazed blankly at the pale figure on the hospital bed, hooked up to various tubes.
Was that truly Brother Luo Xi? Whether in his childhood memories or the Brother Luo Xi he knew as an adult, he was always so gentle and carefree.
Brother Luo Xi was always smiling, as if nothing could bother him, perfect like an angel; even when innocently hurt, he would just smile it away with airy nonchalance.
But... Brother Luo Xi actually chose suicide... "I'm sorry..." Yin Cheng whispered to the unconscious Luo Xi.
He must have deeply loved his sister. That's why he chose suicide, utterly heartbroken after she left. Although this act plunged his sister into suffering, the pain and despair he felt at the moment of choosing death must have been unbearable.
"...Please don't resent my sister... It wasn't her fault... She chose to do that all for me..." The door to the room was gently pushed open.
Hearing the voice from inside, Jie Ni's hand froze on the doorknob. Listening, she suddenly raised her head, meeting Shen Qiang's equally stunned expression.
"...It was because of me... that Sister had to marry Ou Chen... Ou Chen traded his kidney... He would only agree to transplant his kidney to me... if my sister married him..." "...So... that marriage was just a transaction..." Shen Qiang, standing at the doorway, listened in shock. She couldn't believe her ears; a deafening roar erupted in her heart, leaving her without words to describe the feeling.
"I think..." "...Sister loved you... Otherwise, she wouldn't have smiled at you so often... or looked so sorrowful every time she saw you afterward... Brother Luo Xi... Sister always habitually buried her emotions deep in her heart... She never said anything..." Yin Cheng felt a sharp ache in his chest.
Looking at Luo Xi on the bed, lifeless like his sister, and then at the thick, layered white gauze wrapped around Luo Xi's wrist, he took a deep breath and said softly, "Brother Luo Xi... if you still love my sister... then get better quickly... Do you know?... She is sick... very, very sick... just like you are now, unconscious..." "Beep—" "Beep—" The electrocardiogram monitor emitted a monotonous sound, its jagged lines jumping erratically.
Luo Xi lay quietly in the hospital bed. He had lost so much weight; his lips were pale, his skin almost transparently white, like a sleeping prince whose princess had never returned to awaken him.
Summer's Bubble III