Running just a few steps left Zou Beiqi out of breath, and his lower abdomen began to ache dully. He had to steady himself against the hospital corridor wall, pulling out his phone to seek help.
The person who might be nearby right now…
“Heng Shi, where are you right now?”
“At the hospital, haven’t entered the building yet. What’s wrong?”
Driving from the entrance of the First Hospital to the Central Hospital took only a few minutes.
“My friend might do something foolish. I don’t have time left, please come over immediately.” Zou Beiqi bit his lip nervously. “I’m begging you.”
“Central Hospital? Wait for me.”
Zou Beiqi took a deep breath, continuing to wind his way forward as fast as he could manage, only to find that Heng Shi had already parked himself in front of the elevator doors and pressed the button. The elevator was taking its time arriving, and he grew so anxious that he kept scratching his palms with his fingers until a sudden warmth wrapped securely around his wrist.
He turned his head to look, and Heng Shi had already grabbed his wrist. “It’s going to be fine.”
“But the elevator…”
A chime rang out.
“It’s here.” Heng Shi pulled him into the elevator. “Don’t panic.”
Heng Shi’s other hand was still injured, so Zou Beiqi pressed the number for the top floor. The elevator couldn’t go straight to the rooftop, and Heng Shi told Zou Beiqi not to rush over and to take care of his body, while he himself quickly stepped onto the stairs.
Zou Beiqi walked toward the rooftop at the fastest speed he could bear, only to see Lin Huixi standing at the edge, one foot already stepping onto the railing while she cradled a fast-asleep little girl in her arms.
The railing was very low, unable to block the vast blue sky stretching out in the distance and the dense clusters of buildings. The scenery of Liwan City seemed to be laid out entirely in a high-altitude perspective. Lin Huixi’s gaze landed blankly among them, devoid of the slightest shred of emotion, as if she had not the slightest bit of lingering attachment to this city.
“You don’t understand. Not long after our family moved to Liwan City, my daughter fell ill. We went to several hospitals for checkups and couldn’t find the cause, and it took a very long time after coming to the Central Hospital to get a diagnosis.” Lin Huixi’s voice sounded as though it would be blown away by the wind in the next second. “Later, because of my daughter’s illness, my husband insisted on divorcing me. My daughter’s medical expenses are so expensive, yet he still wants to take the money back. I called all my relatives and friends, and either they didn’t have money to lend or they refused to lend it. We live in a rented house, and I really don’t know what else to do.”
Before Heng Shi could speak, Zou Beiqi couldn’t help stepping forward. “I told Sheng Wanzhong to report your situation. There will be kind people to help.”
“It’s too late. Her medicine cannot be interrupted for even a single day, and I can’t even piece together tomorrow’s medical expenses anymore.”
“I probably have money, I can lend it to you.” Zou Beiqi spoke subconsciously.
Lin Huixi was startled, turning her head back to look at Zou Beiqi. “Really?”
“Really, come down first.” Zou Beiqi walked over slowly, but Heng Shi approached the woman a step ahead, extending his hand toward her.
Only then did Lin Huixi slowly step down from the railing, and Heng Shi helped steady her body. The moment her gaze shifted to Zou Beiqi, she couldn’t help shedding tears, her mouth full of words of gratitude. Had Heng Shi not stopped her in time, she might have knelt down while holding her daughter.
Including the sleeping little girl, the four of them descended from the rooftop together. Zou Beiqi brought up the rear, and Heng Shi’s voice suddenly broke into his ears: “This illness isn’t as severe as it seems, but it requires long-term use of expensive specialized medication. The early stages will require frequent administration, but later on, after good recovery, it will only need to be used a few times a year, and her lifespan should be able to extend to several decades.”
“Thank you for telling me. I don’t even know if we can hold out until then.” Lin Huixi sighed imperceptibly.
“I’ll message Sheng Wanzhong right now and ask him to help, he’ll definitely be willing.” Zou Beiqi chimed in.
“Thank you, truly, thank you both.”
After sending Lin Huixi and her daughter back to their ward, Heng Shi opened an umbrella and walked with Zou Beiqi to the parking space. “The money I gave you, you didn’t spend any of it?”
Heng Shi deposited living expenses into Zou Beiqi’s account at a fixed time every month, and the amount was not small. His father’s medical expenses were covered by Heng Shi, he ate Heng Shi’s food and lived in Heng Shi’s house, and his daily necessities were all prepared by the housekeeper, so indeed there was practically nowhere that required Zou Beiqi to spend his own money.
“Almost didn’t spend any.” If he had to name an instance, the most recent one was packing meals for Lin Huixi and her daughter.
“You don’t spend it on yourself, but you give it all away to treat other people’s illnesses?”
“Is that not allowed?”
“That’s not what I meant.” Heng Shi paused. “You can care more about yourself.”
“You’re already good enough to me.”
Heng Shi inexplicably went quiet again.
“I’ll have Yan Ze deposit a bit more money into your account this month.” Heng Shi opened the rear passenger door, signaling for Zou Beiqi to get in.
“I have enough to spend.”
“Just in case.” Heng Shi sat down beside him. Today Little Li was driving, and before long they encountered a red light and slowly came to a halt.
“Heng Shi,” Zou Beiqi’s lips moved a few times. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said you were cold-blooded that day. You’re actually pretty good.”
“Oh.”
Now it was Zou Beiqi’s turn to stay silent.
The air inside the car remained dead silent all the way home. Following Heng Shi into the villa entrance, Zou Beiqi without warning pulled back the figure that was about to walk away: “Heng Shi, thank you.”
“What are you thanking me for?”
“Seeing Lin Huixi like that, I couldn’t help thinking: what if I didn’t have you? Would I also be standing up there, wanting to jump down?” Zou Beiqi paused. “Seriously, you’re actually very important to me.”
Heng Shi was silent for another half-day.
“You wouldn’t jump.”
“Huh?”
“There are no what-ifs.” Heng Shi supported his arm as he sat him down on the sofa. “Rest. Stop letting your mind run wild.”
Zou Beiqi obediently leaned back against the sofa. Heng Shi pulled a laptop out from who knows where, placed it on the coffee table, and began working with an expressionless face, typing stubbornly even with only one hand.
It made Zou Beiqi feel utterly uncomfortable just watching.
“I’ll type for you, just tell me what to write.” Zou Beiqi was about to take over Heng Shi’s computer when he was blocked by the other: “Don’t overwork yourself.”
“There’s nothing overworking about it. Don’t I usually go to work anyway?”
“You don’t have to go.” Heng Shi met his gaze. “Computers have radiation, use it less. Do you use computers often at work?”
“Sitting in an office without a computer, there’s nothing else to do.”
“Don’t go anymore. Or else buy a radiation-proof suit.”
“Even though I don’t like working, I’m also not used to having nothing else to do.”
“Don’t you like photography?”
“There’s nothing I want to shoot.” Zou Beiqi’s pregnancy wasn’t stable yet, so it was inconvenient for him to go too far away. The surrounding area consisted only of ordinary shops and residential houses, and the villas in the affluent neighborhood all looked much the same. Maybe some people could find beauty and create beauty in ordinary things, but Zou Beiqi was definitely excluded from that group.
The only thing that interested him slightly was the villa’s back garden, but it seemed to remain unmaintained year-round, featuring only a few withered plants.
Such a wonderful plot of land, too.
“Did you hire a gardener? To manage the back garden.”
“No, I don’t usually go there.”
“You should come take a look. The pond water is still very clear, and you can even see the ocean from the outside. It would look great if we cleaned it up.” Zou Beiqi tentatively opened his mouth. “Can you leave it to me?”
“Do whatever you want, just don’t wear yourself out and affect the child.”
Zou Beiqi wasted no time once he made up his mind. He searched for relevant information online, and even spent money to hire a gardener to add items and cultivate plants in the garden according to his layout.
He took maternity leave, spending his usual days raising flowers in the garden. When some fast-growing ones bloomed, he would pick up his camera and snap picture after picture.
A giant flower rack sat in the garden, right next to the pond, where the clear water reflected pots of flowers in bloom or merely sprouting green buds.
Zou Beiqi even specially set up a bench so he could sit and enjoy the flowers when he had nothing to do. Looking at his creation, he raised his camera and took a very satisfied photo, importing it into his phone to send to Heng Shi: [Many haven’t grown in yet.]
Heng Shi: [Mhm.]
[You don’t need to tell me, once the garden was given to you, I won’t interfere.]
Zou Beiqi: [Don’t you have any desire to share things?]
Heng Shi: [?]
Zou Beiqi: [For example, when you make a breakthrough in the laboratory, you must have the urge to share it with others.]
Heng Shi: [No.]
[When the medicine hits the market, everyone will find out sooner or later.]
Zou Beiqi: […]
[Your garden is something I can only send to you to see.]
[I am very satisfied with my own arrangement.]
Heng Shi: [Mhm, very good.]
Just like throwing a needle into water, this bit of echo was perfunctory to the point of being negligible, showing neither interest nor any condescension to even pretend.
Yet besides Heng Shi, there was nobody else he could talk to over here at the villa.
Zou Beiqi was staring blankly at a flower bud when footsteps suddenly sounded from behind.
Thinking it was the gardener, he looked back only to find Heng Shi walking toward him, before sitting down on the bench with complete self-awareness.
“What did you plant?” Heng Shi asked him.
“Lots of things: Chinese roses, roses, marigolds, can’t quite remember all of them.” He pointed to the trees surrounding the edge of the pond. “I had people trim those.”
Just as he was about to stand up to show Heng Shi the other areas that had been tidied up, the other man abruptly pressed down on his shoulder: “Don’t move.”
The hairs on the top of his head were gently stroked, as light as a dragonfly skimming a pond surface in the afternoon. “There’s a leaf.”
“Oh, thank you.” Zou Beiqi felt inexplicably shy. It was clearly a very ordinary action, but coming from Heng Shi, it seemed to carry a different flavor.
This must be the protagonist’s halo, right?
It was rare for the evening sunlight not to be too harsh, the wind whipped up a few threads of coolness, while the daylight turned warm and pleasant right at that moment. Zou Beiqi had wanted to say a few more things, but unconsciously drifted off to sleep without realizing it.
In his drowsy state, he seemed to hear someone speaking.
“What kind of person are you, really?”
“I thought you were unscrupulous and insatiable, but looking at you now, you’re not.”
Must be dreaming, Zou Beiqi thought. Sure enough, he saw too much, and even in his dreams he could dream of Heng Shi.
When he opened his eyes, he realized he was leaning against Heng Shi’s shoulder. Night had already fallen, filled with stars and the moon.
“Why didn’t you wake me up?” Zou Beiqi quickly sat up straight, casually smoothing down his somewhat messy hair. “Sorry for making you accompany me out here for so long.”
“It’s nothing. During this period of leave, I’m not busy either.”
“How is your hand?” Zou Beiqi subconsciously took hold of Heng Shi’s hand, which was still wrapped in gauze. “Have you had a follow-up check?”
Heng Shi fell silent for a moment, not answering his question.
“Can you tell me what it is that you actually want?”