“Xingze, where are you?”
She immediately crouched down and fumbled around with her hands until she felt an arm. Following the arm, she crawled over to where he lay and took him into her embrace. Tears flowed out of her eyes continuously and fell onto his body.
“Xingze, don’t scare me… Don’t scare me…”
She was so flustered, as if the entire world had collapsed.
She shouldn’t have accepted his invitation!
She should have rejected him cruelly. This way, even if he were disappointed, he would have been safely on the plane to America. He would never have ended up like this!
She was wrong!
Dear God!
She knew she was wrong!
She really knew she was wrong!
Can we start over?
Can we just turn back the clock!?
She did not want him ending up like this!!!
“Shishi…”
His breathing suddenly quickened. He opened his eyes and looked up at her. His heart ached when he saw her crying. “Stop crying…”
“Xingze, don’t scare me…”
“It’s fine…”
With a gentle smile, he coaxed her gently, “I don’t care much about life and death anymore.”
He had learnt to take death very lightly. Right from the beginning to the end, he had locked himself in his own world. The only ray of hope he ever had was her, but he had let her slip through his fingers.
About the only thing in the world that he could not take lightly now was her tears.
“It’s all my fault! It’s all my fault!”
Yun Shishi cried bitterly, “Can we trade places? I’ll trade my life for yours! I beg you, don’t die, you can’t die, don’t leave me so cruelly…”
“Will you forget… forget me?” he asked with difficulty.
She burst into tears at his words.
He continued to ask persistently, “If I died, will I live in your memory, even if it were only for a second?”
She was heartbroken and deliberately provoked him. “If you die, I’ll definitely forget about you. I’ll forget everything about you, so…”
He interrupted her with a chuckle.
“Yes, that would be best.”
“…”
She was shocked.
When he heard her saying that she’d forget him, there was disappointment, but also comfort in his eyes.
Disappointed because she’d forget him.
Comfort, because this way—
He wouldn’t leave her with these painful memories.
“I don’t wish to leave behind sad memories for you.”
His eyelids grew heavier and his face lost all its luster, becoming dull and gray, but still, he tried hard to smile.
“Forget me… It’s best…”
His eyelashes slowly descended, and his fair hand abruptly slipped from her palm and fell limply by the side.
…
The air suddenly became dead still.
The silence of a flatline.
She could not hear a single sound coming from him, and could no longer feel any warmth or undulations from his body. She only felt his body temperature falling, the heat draining away as he gradually turned cold!
“Xingze!”
She forced a smile and gently touched his cold face, trying to pull the corners of his lips up.
“Xingze, can you talk to me? I want to talk to you. I’m scared…”
“I’m really scared…”
“…”
“Liar!”
Yun Shishi frowned. “Didn’t you tell me not to be afraid because you were around? But… why are you leaving me behind now…”
Gu Xingze did not respond or make a sound.
The silence was frightening.
