She hadn’t thought about these things in ages. She was the type to live for the moment and enjoy life while she could.
The moment she walked out of the parking garage, a car stopped right in front of her. Shi Meiqing frowned slightly. There was so much empty space around—was this driver blind? Why park directly in front of her?
Still, she instinctively stepped back. She might not have long left to live, but she had no intention of reporting early to the underworld. Besides, if she got hit by a car, would her corpse even look good?
She had been a great beauty in life, and even in death, she intended to look beautiful.
Her fiery temper instantly overpowered her hidden social anxiety. Just as she was about to curse someone out, the car door flew open and a tiny curly-haired girl jumped out.
“Girl, you got here already?”As she spoke, the little potato waved for the car behind her to drive away.
Shi Meiqing’s anger got stuck in her throat, neither going up nor down. She pounded her chest twice before finally swallowing it.
“You little brat, you nearly scared me to death. I’m telling you, if you scare me to death, you’ll have to spend your entire fortune buying funeral offerings for me.”
Little Curly Hair’s eyes instantly turned red. She lightly punched Shi Meiqing. “Say nonsense like that again and our friendship is over. Hurry up and spit it out.”
“Come on, spit, spit, spit! Otherwise we’re done.”
“Damn it, don’t cry! I didn’t even say anything that bad! Fine, I’ll spit.”Shi Meiqing panicked and quickly turned to the side, making exaggerated spitting sounds.
Don’t be fooled by how fierce this girl acted—talking like some gang boss lady. In reality, she really could be ruthless when necessary.
But she had one fatal weakness: she cried ridiculously easily. Tears came the second she got emotional, and Shi Meiqing feared this ancestor’s tears more than anything.
Little Curly Hair was Shi Meiqing’s nickname for Zhao Qingye. After all, the girl was petite and had naturally curly hair.
Zhao Qingye casually wiped her eyes with her sleeve, her expression fierce. “From now on, you’re not allowed to say the word ‘death.’ Anything related to dying is forbidden too.”
The smile on Shi Meiqing’s face faltered for a moment. Sometimes being too close wasn’t a good thing—someone who understood you too well could see through everything.
She forced another smile and wrapped an arm around Zhao Qingye’s shoulders as they walked toward the restaurant.
“Come on, come on. Didn’t you say you were hungry? I skipped breakfast too. Let’s hurry in and stuff ourselves.”
Zhao Qingye hurriedly forced her tears back down.
Can’t cry. Can’t cry. Meiqing likes seeing me smile the most.
Wuwuwu… but I really want to cry.
Shi Meiqing shook her head, not daring to say another word, and quickly dragged Little Curly Hair into the private room.
It was a high-end restaurant. Expensive was part of its identity, but naturally the environment was excellent—especially the private rooms, which offered outstanding privacy.
After the waiter closed the door behind them, the two stared at each other.
After a while, Shi Meiqing guiltily looked away.
After all, there were practically no secrets between them. Hiding this from Zhao Qingye had definitely left her feeling guilty.
“Haha… well, so… you found out?”Even Shi Meiqing thought her voice sounded painfully awkward. She wanted to slap herself for speaking so poorly.
Zhao Qingye’s eyes reddened again, and tears started pouring down in pairs.
Shi Meiqing immediately panicked, grabbing tissues to wipe her tears.
No one knew how long Zhao Qingye cried. Only after all the dishes had been served did she finally stop, though she still hiccuped while speaking.
Shi Meiqing felt troubled. Once she was gone, what would this girl do? Whenever something happened, would she just hide somewhere and cry alone?
“You tell me… why is heaven so unfair? Haven’t we already suffered enough? Why can’t it let us live long lives?”
Shi Meiqing slumped lazily against her chair and actually found the words a little funny.
Their suffering was different from other people’s suffering.
“I think it’s pretty fair. I’ve already enjoyed everything I should in life. Getting to see Grandpa, Grandma, and my maternal grandparents earlier isn’t so bad. They’ve probably missed me a lot all these years.”
“The only thing I can’t stop worrying about is you. Without me around, where are you going to cry in the future?”
Shi Meiqing spoke lightly, and it was obvious she truly didn’t mind her fate.
Zhao Qingye sniffed hard, her whole face red like a ripe fruit. Shi Meiqing felt even more worried. Thankfully, although the girl looked soft and easy to bully, she was actually a little tank in disguise.
“Wuwuwu… is there really no way at all?”
Shi Meiqing shook her head.
“A one-in-a-hundred-million disease. Once it’s discovered, all you can do is wait for death. If there were even the slightest chance, I wouldn’t just sit around waiting to die.”
Actually, Zhao Qingye already understood everything.
From the moment she noticed Meiqing’s complexion looked wrong and urged her to get checked at the hospital, she had sensed something was off—especially because Meiqing refused to let her accompany her to appointments.
But how could the closest best friend in the world simply stop worrying because Meiqing said not to follow her?
In the end, she still found out the truth.
The moment she learned about the diagnosis, it felt like the sky had collapsed.
She consulted every famous professor and specialist she could find, both domestic and overseas. For people she couldn’t reach directly, she desperately searched for connections.
But every answer was the same.
There was no cure.
Even if that disgusting old man at work hadn’t tried to touch her today, she had already planned to resign so she could stay with Meiqing through her final days.
She just… couldn’t accept it.
Why did something like this have to happen to Meiqing?
Zhao Qingye forced her tears back again.
“Then I’ll stay with you from now on. Since hospitals can’t help, we’ll pray to gods and worship Buddha. Maybe one immortal somewhere will accidentally hear our wish.”
Shi Meiqing laughed helplessly. “Alright, alright. I’ll listen to you. From now on, we’ll go pray to gods and Buddhas.”
If gods really worked, then her grandparents wouldn’t have left so early. She hadn’t even had the chance to properly repay their love.
But faced with the last—and only—person in this world who still worried about her, what else could she do?
All she could do was spend her limited remaining time accompanying her and spoiling her a little more.
Zhao Qingye washed her face.
“Eat. You need to eat properly now. Promise me this: if you can stay with me one more day, then you have to fight for that extra day.”
“Okay. From now on, all my time belongs to you, alright?”
Zhao Qingye painfully tugged at the corners of her mouth into a smile and fussed over Shi Meiqing like an old housewife, serving her food until Shi Meiqing couldn’t help laughing.
The reason the two of them became best friends dated back to the third year of middle school.
Students these days had it rough. Even before high school entrance exams, middle school students already studied from dawn till late night every day.
That day, the weather had been terrible since morning. The sky stayed dark and gloomy, and by the time school was about to end, heavy rain finally poured down.
Looking at the weather outside, Shi Meiqing didn’t want her grandparents coming to pick her up.