Seeing the man gazing out the window with such a sorrowful look, the young nurse’s heart softened. Suddenly, she didn’t think it was such a big deal to tell him about Huo Tong’s condition.
“Actually, you don’t need to worry so much. She just suddenly lost consciousness, and she’s awake now. The tests showed no aftereffects.” The young nurse spoke up to reassure him.
“Is that so? That’s a relief.”
Yao Chen replied calmly, his voice full of gratitude. Then he turned to look at the nurse.
He’d already looked at the green space where her gaze had lingered earlier. There wasn’t a single high school- or college-aged man who matched his impression of the Water Domain Venerable.
Most of the people below were elderly. The few others were middle-aged people and girls. Not one of them was looking this way, so he assumed the detail he’d noticed earlier was irrelevant.
After speaking, Yao Chen lightly touched the groove above his upper lip with his index finger, looking thoughtful. Then he asked:
“By the way, Miss Nurse, I heard he had a serious illness before. Since this happened so suddenly, could it have something to do with that illness?”
He’d only believed half of what the nurse had said. She hadn’t looked like she was lying when she talked about the illness, but it was still possible she was working with the Water Domain Venerable to fob him off.
The Water Domain Venerable wasn’t the sort to take advantage of others or ask for help. If anything, he always repaid kindness. He didn’t mind accepting a small gift, but if the favor was too great to repay, he’d refuse outright.
That was one of the reasons Yao Chen considered him a friend.
People who could ignore money and status, and treat him with the easygoing reserve of a true friend even after learning his family was well-off, were rare.
“L-Little brother... has she been ill before? Um, I really don’t know about that.”
The young nurse looked quite bewildered. Huo Tong had never had surgery at Central People’s Hospital before, so she really didn’t know whether the girl had any other illnesses.
“But she’s very healthy. Her checkup didn’t turn up anything wrong, either.”
“Mr. Yao, maybe you’re remembering wrong? It might’ve just been a minor illness that’s already been cured. If you really don’t believe me, I can go ask the doctor with you.”
The young nurse continued, thinking it over. Huo Tong probably hadn’t been sick. If she had, they would’ve caught it during the checkup.
“Is that so? Then I suppose I was overthinking it. Maybe I should trust my friend a little more.” Yao Chen gave a wry smile and nodded faintly. Since she’d explained it this far, he decided to believe her.
Illness had only been one possibility. There were all sorts of reasons why someone might suddenly stop going online. He’d only been making a guess.
But if the Water Domain Venerable was safe and sound, that was for the best.
“He asked you to keep me occupied here, didn’t he? That’s why you’ve been standing here this whole time.” Yao Chen looked at the young nurse, who’d been chatting with him by the bed without doing anything else, and calmly tested his guess.
He’d also realized that the nurse had covered for someone with her first answer. She wasn’t much of a liar: her words had sounded stiff when she first mentioned the patient had been temporarily discharged, but she’d become noticeably more natural as they chatted.
That was part of why he trusted her. But if the Water Domain Venerable didn’t want to see him for some reason, Yao Chen wouldn’t force the issue.
The young nurse looked startled, as if she couldn’t figure out how he’d guessed. Yao Chen only smiled slightly.
“You don’t have to look so surprised. I was just guessing. I still believe you.”
“Sorry for taking up your time. But if he isn’t here, I won’t bother you any longer.”
He shook his head politely. There was no reason to stay. After checking his watch, he started to leave.
“Wait, wait, Mr. Yao!” The young nurse froze for a moment. When she saw that he’d already reached the door, she hurriedly called out to him.
Yao Chen stopped with one hand on the doorknob. He turned to look at the nurse, his gaze asking what she wanted.
“Um, Huo’s little brother asked me to pass something on to you. She said, ‘Thank you. It feels so good to see you again.’”
The nurse thought for a moment, then looked at the man before her and spoke loud enough for him to hear.
Yao Chen’s gaze rarely faltered, but now it stilled. After a long moment, his smile changed, and a rare, genuine warmth appeared on his face.
“Thank you. But words like that really should come from her own mouth next time.”
He replied softly to the nurse. For the moment, he let go of the doorknob and savored the thought before asking:
“May I ask what his name is?”
“Ah...” The nurse froze for a moment. It seemed she hadn’t realized the two of them didn’t even know each other’s names.
After thinking it over, the young nurse decided it would be good to help the two of them get a little closer, so she gave him a more masculine-sounding name.
“Her name is Huo Tong... Tong, as in ‘child.’”
“What a strange name.” Yao Chen lowered his eyes, but inwardly, he committed those two complicated characters to memory.
After saying goodbye, he opened the door and left the room.
… …
… …
Huo Tong was sitting on the lawn downstairs. She hadn’t been there long, and since she’d been looking up every couple of minutes, she happened to catch the young nurse’s signal.
“He left pretty quickly. Looks like I can go back up now.” Huo Tong brushed off her pant legs, stood up from the bench, and headed toward the inpatient building.
Earlier, she’d only glimpsed someone’s back by the window. Afraid he might turn around, she’d taken one quick look, then forced herself to look away, stifling her curiosity.
Maybe I should apologize tonight? The story she’d agreed on with the nurse was that she’d come back tonight. As she thought this, Huo Tong reached the junction between the lobby and the corridor.
For some reason, the first floor was much busier than before. The admissions and discharge desk, where people constantly came and went, was far more crowded than the floors above.
She’d been in her room the whole time, where the only people she really interacted with were the doctors, nurses, and her parents. Now she was squeezed into a crowd, and the stares from so many men made her uncomfortable. She lowered her head and started scrolling on her phone.
People brushed past one another in the crowd. As she looked down at her screen, a young man in a black suit at the stairwell noticed her. He kept walking, glancing her way almost absentmindedly.
Yao Chen remembered the girl who’d stood out most in the green space outside the window. She was looking down now, her pretty face creased in a slight frown. There was something about her, like a misty Jiangnan rain, that took his breath away.
A beautiful face naturally drew attention. Seeing her up close moved even him, a man who’d met countless people. As they drew nearer to the corner, he looked away from the stranger’s face.
Moving through the crowd, Huo Tong caught the faint scent of cologne. Remembering a gift she’d received from someone in her previous life, she looked up without thinking.
There was no one like him. Yao Chen had already turned the corner and left. She smiled, lowered her head, and continued on.
Years later, whenever Huo Tong thought back to this encounter, she would remember a famous line from Wong Kar-wai.
“The closest I ever got to him was 0.01 centimeters. Years later, I fell in love with this man.”
… …
… …
By evening, the sky had darkened. Twilight swallowed the city corner by corner, and the light had faded from the quiet hospital room.
Huo Tong switched on the bedside lamp and, with nothing else to do, watched a news broadcast from several years ago. The TV played softly in the background while her thoughts wandered elsewhere.
Lots of people wear the same cologne. The person she’d run into that afternoon wasn’t necessarily the one from Chongqing Forest. She’d only glanced back, and she’d seen someone dressed to the nines—but he hadn’t been wearing a black suit.
Huo Tong shook her head and decided to stop thinking about it.
She’d heard from the nurse that he’d only asked about her condition and her name, and she felt pretty guilty. She’d already apologized and tried to sweet-talk him on QQ a few dozen minutes ago, but he still hadn’t replied.
She was about to pull out her phone and check again when, all of a sudden, a light came on in the bed beside her, hidden behind the curtain. Then a graceful shadow sat up, its hand lifting as if the person had fallen silent.
Li Shan’s awake? Huo Tong felt a rush of happiness. Half concerned, half worried, she hurried out of bed and ran over.
