When Xiang Xi was dragged out of the car by Erpan and thrown to the ground, the surroundings were eerily quiet. The only sounds were the howling of the north wind and Li Hui's muffled sobs, choked back in her throat.

He lifted his head, wanting to say, "If you want to cry, just cry. This whimpering is creepy, like a ghost is haunting us." But he didn’t get the chance to speak. As soon as he raised his head, Erpan kicked him in the face.

The snow on the ground was thin. He could even hear the sound of his forehead hitting the rocks beneath the snow.

He wrapped his arms around his head—it was the only self-preservation move he could make.

He didn’t know how Erpan and Uncle Ping planned to deal with him. Kill him? Uncle Ping wouldn’t dare to commit murder, but Erpan might.

Xiang Xi.

That was his name. He had used it for over ten years... maybe twenty? Or longer?

Erpan lifted his leg and kicked him in the stomach. Xiang Xi curled up, his face buried in the snow, struggling to breathe.

How old was he? He wasn’t sure. Uncle Ping said the piece of paper with his birthdate was lost. He didn’t have a birthday. The age of 18 was calculated based on a date Uncle Ping had casually mentioned, though he didn’t know if it was true or not. He might be younger, or maybe older.

Li Hui kept crying, her sobs stifled in her throat. Occasionally, a few choked sounds escaped, filled with terror and despair, adding a background soundtrack to the silent beating Xiang Xi was enduring.

He wanted to breathe.

He turned his head to the side.

Erpan grabbed the back of his neck and pressed his face into the snow, pressing hard. The snow was so thin that his nose was pushed into the dirt beneath, and he caught a puff of a strange, indescribable smell.

Was it the smell of blood or dirt? He couldn’t tell.

Da Jian finally found his chance to show loyalty to Uncle Ping, swinging a stick at Xiang Xi with all his might.

Xiang Xi even wanted to provide sound effects for him: "Hmph, ha, hee..."

"Xiao Zhan—" Li Hui finally let out a cry, her voice hoarse and broken.

"Stop shouting," Xiang Xi frowned. He hadn’t felt much pain before, but her piercing scream made him feel as if his entire body had been shattered, the pain so intense he wanted to roll on the ground.

There were only three people beating him: Erpan, Da Jian, and one he didn’t recognize—the guy holding Li Hui.

Xiang Xi thought that if he had known he would be beaten like this, he should have eaten more, gained more weight. This was too painful...

The sticks might even break.

His bones must have been broken in many places again. He could go back to hustling, but he didn’t know if he would run into Cheng Boyan’s car again.

Xiang Xi thought that if he did run into Cheng Boyan’s car again, the expression on his face would probably be pretty amusing.

For some reason, he felt like laughing. With his face still buried in the snow that had been trampled into mud, he started laughing, laughing so hard that it sent waves of pain through his body.

"What the hell are you laughing at?!" Erpan yanked him up from the ground.

Xiang Xi couldn’t stand. His legs didn’t seem too injured, but he couldn’t muster any strength. His stomach and body hurt too much. He could only kneel, and if Erpan hadn’t been gripping his hair, he wouldn’t even have been able to stay kneeling.

But his arms could still move.

He raised his hand and flipped Erpan the middle finger. He couldn’t speak, but he mouthed the words: "F*** your uncle."

Erpan didn’t say anything. He swung his fist and smashed it into Xiang Xi’s temple.

*

"Dr. Cheng," Nurse Xiao Jiang poked her head in through the door, "want something to eat? Pineapple cake."

Cheng Boyan smiled and checked the time before standing up. "Eating in the middle of the night again?"

"I’m hungry," Xiao Jiang said with a smile, handing him a few pieces of pineapple cake. "There’s milk at the nurse’s station. Want me to grab you a box?"

"No, thanks," Cheng Boyan tore open the small bag of pineapple cake and took a bite. "I still have work to do. You guys go ahead. How’s patient 26 doing?"

"She just pressed the call button saying she’s in pain," Xiao Jiang frowned. "I don’t think she’ll be able to sleep tonight."

"She’s being transferred to the oncology department tomorrow," Cheng Boyan said.

After Xiao Jiang left, Cheng Boyan sat back down at his desk.

He wasn’t sure if he had caught a cold from a previous patient, but he felt a bit dizzy and his nose wasn’t feeling great. He opened a drawer, pulled out a packet of instant medicine, and drank it.

There wasn’t much to do at this hour. He finished writing the admission records he was working on, closed his eyes to rest for a while, and then stood up and walked to the window.

The night was heavy. The spot under the tree where he had seen someone earlier was now empty. The entire street was quiet, so quiet that it made him feel like he could sleep for two or three days if he closed his eyes now.

*

Xiang Xi felt very sleepy, like he was about to fall asleep.

He couldn’t feel the pain in his body anymore.

But just as he was about to drift off, someone slapped him, and snow mixed with mud splashed onto his face.

He opened his eyes and saw Uncle Ping’s face. Without moonlight, Uncle Ping’s face looked strange, his features blurred into a single mass. But he could still see his smile.

It was a sad smile.

"He’s tough. I told you, this kid can’t be beaten into submission. Keeping someone like him around is just asking for trouble. He’ll ruin everything sooner or later," Erpan’s voice came through, but Xiang Xi couldn’t tell which direction it was coming from.

"Xiao Zhan," Uncle Ping touched his face, "I’m sorry. Whether you survive today like you did when I picked you up years ago will depend on fate."

Xiang Xi stared at Uncle Ping’s collar, gasping for breath. If he didn’t breathe like this, he would suffocate in the next second.

"I cared for you," Uncle Ping moved, slowly standing up, "but you’re too stubborn. You and I aren’t on the same page. You’ve made life too uncomfortable for me."

Xiang Xi kept staring at Uncle Ping’s collar. The moment Uncle Ping let go and started to stand up, Xiang Xi mustered all his strength and swung his hand toward Uncle Ping’s face.

Uncle Ping quickly dodged backward. Xiang Xi didn’t hit his face, only managed to grab his collar before Uncle Ping kicked him in the chest, sending him rolling down the embankment and into a ditch filled with dry grass.

Xiang Xi didn’t know when Uncle Ping and Erpan left, whether they came back to check on him before leaving, what happened to Li Hui, or whether he had passed out, woken up, passed out again, or woken up again... He didn’t know any of it.

The only things he felt were sleepiness and cold.

Even the pain had disappeared. It was truly miraculous.

The sun rose.

The weather was pretty nice, the sun warming his body.

He thought of the cat on the wall that loved to curl its tail around itself...

Xiang Xi lay in the pile of dry grass, his right hand still tightly clenched into a fist.

The wind blew through the yellowed grass, making a rustling sound. The shadows of the grass swayed on his face under the sunlight.

In the flickering light and shadow, Xiang Xi closed his eyes.

He wouldn’t die. He couldn’t die. His "other life" hadn’t even started yet.

*

"Doctor," a girl sat in the consultation room, waving her arm, "can you check this splint? It feels loose."

"Why don’t you sing a song while waving your arm?" Cheng Boyan checked the splint on her arm and glanced at her. "Did you take it off yourself?"

This girl was the one who had fractured her arm while swinging a bottle at someone in a KTV a while back. Cheng Boyan remembered her vividly, especially her loud singing.

"Yeah, I took it off. I heard that splints can turn your hand black if they’re too tight, so I loosened it a bit..." The girl clicked her tongue. "But it seems too loose now? Hey, why didn’t you put me in a cast? A cast would’ve been better."

"...You should drink less in the future," Cheng Boyan said helplessly. "That day, you absolutely refused to let me use a cast, saying that casts are too cold and would give you arthritis. Don’t you remember?"

"Huh? I said that?" The girl looked confused. "Where did I even learn that? Hey, doctor, why aren’t you being ‘Dr. Cheng Fuyan’ today…" (NT: word play between Boyan (博言), ‘speaking extensively’ and Fuyan (敷衍 ) ‘being perfunctory’)

Cheng Boyan didn’t have the energy to chat with her. He had been on night shift yesterday, slept for half a day at home, and then came back because a colleague had a sudden gallstone attack.

When his mom called to remind him to take his Dendrobium officinale, he didn’t dare tell her about this, afraid she would worry.

After finishing up with the girl’s arm, he yawned and rubbed his face. It was almost time to get off work. There was only one more patient coming to remove a cast, so today’s schedule wasn’t too bad.

As usual, he walked out of the hospital pondering what to eat for dinner. The weather was nice today. The snow had stopped in the middle of the night, and the sun had been out all day, warming the wind.

When Cheng Boyan walked into the underground parking lot, he felt a bit suffocated. The parking lot was too stingy, only turning on half of the ventilation system every day. If it were summer, coming in here and then leaving would feel like taking a shower.

He stood between the second and third aisles for a while, unable to remember where he had parked his car. He pressed the remote control as he walked, and after circling from the second aisle to the third, he finally spotted his car.

Cheng Boyan opened the car door, threw his bag inside, and out of habit, started walking around the car to inspect it. Just as he turned past the front of the car, he suddenly noticed a hand near the rear wheel on the side closest to the wall.

He was startled and instinctively stepped back, nearly bumping into the car next to him.

"Who's there?" Cheng Boyan asked after steadying himself.

The hand didn’t move, and no one answered him.

Cheng Boyan hesitated for a couple of seconds before walking over.

As soon as he rounded the back of the car, he was stunned.

A person was sitting slumped against his car, head bowed, arms hanging limply at their sides.

Then he noticed the bright triangular fluorescent pattern on the person’s sleeve and the messy Mohawk hairstyle.

"Xiang Xi?!" Cheng Boyan immediately crouched down, his voice cracking slightly.

Xiang Xi was completely soaked, covered in mud and water, as if he had rolled around somewhere.

What happened to this kid? What’s going on? How did he end up by my car?

Cheng Boyan’s mind was flooded with questions, each one punctuated by an exclamation mark.

Just as he was about to reach out to lay Xiang Xi flat and check his condition, Xiang Xi’s head, which had been hanging low, lifted slightly.

"Xiang Xi?" Cheng Boyan knelt beside him, gently lifting his chin. "Can you talk? Where are you hurt?"

"Brother..." Xiang Xi grinned at him, his face so covered in what looked like blood and mud that his expression was barely visible. "You finally... got off work."

"Stop talking nonsense! Where are you hurt?" Cheng Boyan was almost speechless. Xiang Xi, half-dead, managed to say something like that. Cheng Boyan wanted to ask, "Are you here to pick me up from work? Where should we eat?"

"I don’t know... everywhere... hurts," Xiang Xi frowned, speaking with great difficulty. "Brother, help me."

After saying this, he slowly closed his eyes again, seemingly losing consciousness.

Cheng Boyan’s heart ached at his last words. He carefully laid Xiang Xi flat on the ground and took out his phone to call the emergency department.

"This is... my friend. He probably got beaten up in a robbery. I’ll cover the medical expenses. Does he have anything in his hand? Try to pry it out... can’t... Got it."

*

Xiang Xi slept deeply, seemingly very soundly, without even dreaming. He felt like he had slept for an eternity, as if he would wake up with amnesia.

But when he opened his eyes, he didn’t lose his memory. The room was lit, with blue-and-white cabinets and doors.

It was a hospital.

Cheng Boyan had saved him. He hadn’t left him in the parking lot or thrown him into a dumpster.

"This kid’s awake," someone nearby said. "Hey, press the call button for the nurse. He’s awake."

Xiang Xi wanted to turn his head to see who was speaking, but he found he couldn’t move. He rolled his eyes to look at his body and was immediately stunned.

Both of his legs were suspended in the air as if ready to take off.

His arms were stiff, lying at his sides.

And yet, in this position, he had somehow slept soundly?

The person who pressed the call button for him was a family member of the patient in the next bed. The doctor and nurse arrived quickly, and checked various things on his body—he didn’t know what, probably his temperature and blood pressure.

The doctor also waved a finger in front of his eyes and shone a light into them.

"Where’s Dr. Cheng?" Xiang Xi asked.

"We’ve called him," a nurse nearby said, placing the call button in his hand. "He’s on outpatient duty today. He’ll come after work. Rest for now. If you feel uncomfortable, press the button to call us."

Xiang Xi’s fingers lightly closed around the button, but suddenly he broke into a cold sweat, desperately trying to turn his head. "Where’s my stuff?"

"What stuff? Don’t move!" The nurse held his forehead. "Your things are with Dr. Cheng. Ask him when he comes."

Xiang Xi couldn’t see the time, but the person in the next bed told him it was noon and that he had been lying there for two days.

For the rest of the afternoon, Xiang Xi drifted in and out of consciousness. He woke up and slept, slept and woke up, constantly uncomfortable. Pain, pain, pain—his skin hurt, his muscles hurt, his bones hurt, his head hurt. On top of that, there was a faint numbness, itchiness, and soreness, making him extremely irritable.

If he had known, he would’ve stayed unconscious longer. Waking up was too unbearable!

And he was also very anxious.

The jade pendant he had snatched from Uncle Ping’s neck—if it was with Cheng Boyan, that would be fine. But... had he been holding onto it the whole time? Had he dropped it in the grass? On the road? In the parking lot?

He had stumbled and crawled his way to the hospital, gritting his teeth the entire way. Could he have lost it along the way?

In the afternoon, the doctor came again, and the nurses came in and out several times to change his IV drip. Xiang Xi really wanted to ask when Cheng Boyan would come, but they had already said he would come after work. He didn’t want to keep asking, and besides... he wasn’t sure what reason Cheng Boyan had used to get him admitted to the hospital.

So he drifted in and out of sleep, listening to the two people in the next bed chat.

They went from talking about how they got injured to discussing Obama and Putin. After listening for a while, Xiang Xi felt like he was about to explode from frustration.

When the door to the ward opened again, Xiang Xi closed his eyes and said weakly, "Nurse, can you turn up the TV volume for me?"

"Recovering so fast that you can listen to the TV now?" Cheng Boyan’s voice sounded by the bed.

"Dr. Cheng?" Xiang Xi felt a surge of joy and anxiously tried to turn his head, but remembered the nurse’s warning not to move. He could only glance sideways and saw Cheng Boyan’s expressionless face and furrowed brows.

"How are you feeling?" Cheng Boyan looked under the bed, bent down to pick up a bag, and then turned to head to the bathroom.

"Dr. Cheng, Dr. Cheng, bro, brother..." Xiang Xi was extremely anxious, speaking in a rush. "Don’t go yet, don’t go yet. Do you have my stuff?"

Cheng Boyan frowned and turned to look at him. "Do you want me to chat with you while holding a urine bag?"

"I..." Xiang Xi glanced at his hand. "You can pee so much... sorry..."

When Cheng Boyan came out of the bathroom, the nurse came in. Seeing him handling the bag, she quickly walked over. "Dr. Cheng, why didn’t you call for help with that?"

"It’s fine, you all are busy," Cheng Boyan finished with the bag and went back to the bathroom to wash his hands. "I’ll stay here for a while. You can go about your work."

"Alright," the nurse smiled. "Call me if you need anything. I’m on duty today."

"Okay," Cheng Boyan nodded and went back to the bathroom to wash his hands again.

Xiang Xi waited anxiously for the nurse to leave. When Cheng Boyan walked to his bedside, he was about to speak, but Cheng Boyan suddenly turned and went back into the bathroom.

Xiang Xi could hear him washing his hands, the water running for a long time. After what felt like forever, Cheng Boyan finally came out, pulled up a chair, and sat by his bedside.

"What’s wrong with you? Even if I peed on your hand, you don’t need to wash it three times..." Xiang Xi whispered urgently. "Do you have my stuff? Is the pendant there too?"

Cheng Boyan glanced at him, reached into his pocket, and pulled out his hand. The jade pendant dangled in front of Xiang Xi’s eyes.

"This?" Cheng Boyan asked.

"Damn..." Xiang Xi felt a wave of relief wash over him as soon as he saw the pendant was still there. He let out a long sigh. "I was scared to death, thought I’d lost it."

"Let me ask you," Cheng Boyan shook the pendant in his hand and leaned closer, speaking in a low voice. "Did you get beaten up like this because you tried to rob someone?"

Xiang Xi turned his face slightly with great effort, his brows furrowed. "F***, this... this is mine!"

"Yours?" Cheng Boyan raised an eyebrow, holding the pendant up to the light to examine it again. "Such a high-quality piece of jade, and it’s yours? Do you know how much this thing is worth?"

"I don’t know," Xiang Xi still frowned. "But it’s mine. Believe it or not."

Cheng Boyan stared at him for a while, his voice still low. "Xiang Xi, you told me your dad had a malignant tumor in his stomach, but then you said you don’t have a dad. You said you couldn’t stay in the hospital because you had to take care of your dad, but then you came out of an internet café. You said your name was Zhan Hongtu, but now you’re saying it’s Xiang Xi. And then you pulled out a wallet—my wallet. Now you’re saying this thing is yours... Do you really think I can believe you?"

Xiang Xi glared at him for a long time before finally letting out a long sigh. "No, you can’t."

"I’ll keep this for now," Cheng Boyan put the pendant back in his pocket. "I have time tonight. You’d better explain everything to me clearly. How did you end up coming to me?"

"What’s there to explain?" Xiang Xi muttered softly. "I just thought you could save me."

"Have you been watching too many medical dramas? Do you think I’m Cheng Jun, rushing to save everyone I see?" Cheng Boyan said.

(NT: Possibly a reference to the character Cheng Jun from the Chinese web novel "I Want to Eat Your Pancreas", written by Yoru Sumino; Cheng Jun is a character often attempting to help everyone around him)

"Then just tell me, would you rush to save someone in need?" Xiang Xi smiled.

Cheng Boyan pinched the bridge of his nose. "...Yes."

"Then that settles it," Xiang Xi smiled happily, but after a while, his eyelids drooped again. "Brother, that thing really is mine. It was... in the blanket I was wrapped in when I was found."

"What?" Cheng Boyan was at a loss for words. "So now you’re a lost and troubled youth who got picked up again?"

 

Translator : DarNan