Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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His gaze remained fixed on Chen Queyue’s lit-up phone screen saver.
Chen Queyue’s phone wallpaper was a photo of Xing Cheng sitting on the edge of a stage lift, singing to his fans.
The spotlight overhead made Xing Cheng’s skin appear even paler and colder. Under the DSLR lens, his eyes were slightly red, their moist depths revealing a bottomless ocean. And the silver sequins at the corners of his eyes shimmered, resembling a starry night sky against the backdrop of his beauty mark.
No wonder fans online always said that Xing Cheng always carried a unique sexual tension, which was both unrestrained and restrained, abstinent yet flamboyant, like a red rose with sharp thorns.
In the photo, he held the in-ear monitor with one hand and had raised the other high, pointing the microphone at the audience. From the angle of the shot, you could see a delicate tattoo on the back of his left hand— a small star with half a point missing.
Lu Dangui was slightly taken aback.
Xing Cheng was crying in this photo.
During his time at medical school, his professor had shared several real-life examples. This was a common physiological phenomenon among people with alexithymia; they suddenly burst into tears when touched by external stimuli.
They remained silent, their tears serving as their answer.
In addition, he noticed another detail.
Xing Cheng clearly had a tattoo on the back of his hand, but now it was gone, leaving only a pale hand with prominent blue veins.
Seeing her brother lost in thought by the candlelight, Lu Wenfei couldn’t help but remind him, “Brother, make a wish.”
“…Oh, okay.”
Lu Dangui gradually came to his senses and looked away from Chen Queyue’s phone screen saver.
Before the candle went out, he quickly closed his eyes, put his hands together, and made his first wish at the age of twenty-eight.
Starting three years ago, he made the same wish every year.
I hope my sister will be healthy and safe in the coming year.
….
Because S University’s dormitories had access restrictions, and Chen Queyue’s school was quite far from the city center, the two girls chatted casually for a while after finishing their cake before preparing to say goodbye.
Lu Dangui wanted to take his sister back to school, but Lu Wenfei firmly refused. She said she was an adult now and no longer the little girl who needed her brother by her side all the time. Besides, her brother had a patient who needed care, and she couldn’t interfere with his work.
Before leaving the consultation room, Lu Wenfei glanced once more at the cubicle with the curtain drawn.
It was so noisy outside just now, she wondered if it disturbed the patient inside.
However, that person was quite patient; they stayed in the consultation room for so long, and he didn’t utter a single word.
After seeing off Lu Wenfei and Chen Queyue, Lu Dangui closed the consultation room door and leaned against it, silently letting out a sigh of relief.
He had been on tenterhooks, afraid that Xing Cheng would suddenly make some noise and be noticed by the two little fans, or that his bodyguard would suddenly come looking for someone and disrupt the whole plan.
Fortunately, everything went smoothly.
Aside from not knowing how to comfort the big Buddha in the dark room.
He kept Xing Cheng locked up for so long, the young master probably even wanted to kill him.
Before Lu Dangui could recover, the curtain to the cubicle was lifted. Xing Cheng, leaning on his cane, slowly walked out of the small, dark room.
“I know that girl.”
Xing Cheng said to him.
Lu Dangui feigned composure, but his heart was pounding like a drum: “Who are you talking about?”
If Xing Cheng really recognized his sister, then he might as well go all out today and confront Xing Cheng directly.
He had long wanted to find this person and get to the bottom of the accident that happened to his sister back then, and the three-year-long feud between him and Xing Cheng.
“The one who was standing,” Xing Cheng said coldly, “is my fan.”
He had seen the girl who came with the young doctor’s sister on many occasions. When picking people up at the airport, this girl always carried a DSLR camera and ran at the front of the line.
So he vaguely remembered this girl.
“…”
While tidying up the trash on the table, Lu Dangui didn’t look up. “Hmm, I’ve heard her mention you before.”
Upon hearing Xing Cheng’s answer, he was overwhelmed with mixed feelings and didn’t know what to feel.
She was also a fan of this man, and had liked him for eight years. Even though she lost both legs because of him, his sister had left no trace in his world.
If Lu Wenfei knew that her years of affection had led to this outcome, he wondered what she would think.
“The other one, is she your sister?”
He heard Xing Cheng speak behind him.
Lu Dangui nodded, seemingly unwilling to elaborate on the topic.
The young doctor didn’t speak, and he didn’t press for details.
Leaning on his cane, Xing Cheng walked to the window of the clinic, stood with his hands at his sides, and looked down at the endless stream of cars below the building.
The young doctor’s sister gave him a sense of familiarity.
It wasn’t her appearance, nor her unusual physical condition of having both legs amputated, but rather her voice.
He had heard similar sounds in his dreams.
Many nights, a scarred hand would appear in his dreams. A faint, almost inaudible voice, resembling a girl’s, would plead for help from beneath the wreckage:
“…Brother, I don’t want to die.”
“Please save me!”
But the girl in his memory was long gone.
Someone tapped him on the shoulder from behind, and Xing Cheng snapped out of his reverie, cold sweat already beading on his temples.
“Are you leaving?”
The young doctor’s tone remained calm, revealing no emotion: “If you don’t leave, there’s still cake left.”
He turned around and saw that the young doctor was holding a paper plate. On the plate was a small strawberry cake, which gave off a rich fruity aroma.
At this moment, Lu Danggui was mentally adjusting himself.
He didn’t intentionally leave it for this person; it was just compensation for locking him in the dark room for so long.
However, this person probably wouldn’t care much for desserts made with cheap cream.
Lu Dangui placed the cake on the windowsill, wiped the cream off his fingertips, and took out his phone from his pocket.
To his surprise, Xing Cheng actually picked up the fork, scooped up a spoonful with his uninjured hand, and began to eat it in small bites.
Looking out the window on the eleventh floor, you could see the bridge spanning the river in S City in the distance. Traffic was heavy on the bridge; no one seemed to remember that just two months ago, a horrific car accident had occurred here.
Death did not come as expected; the dim star was pushed back to earth.
The two leaned against the window, at a distance that wasn’t too close or too far. One was slowly and deliberately eating a cheap cream cake with a spoon. The other, head down, was silently editing his WeChat Moments, welcoming the new beginning of his twenty-eighth year.
The city was still brightly lit, as if it were just another ordinary night. The moon was hidden behind the tall buildings, but its light still shone down.
Their lives had never intersected before, and it seemed unlikely that they would in the future.
The only thing they had in common was that at this moment, the cold wind was howling through the window, and the chill was hitting their faces.
Lu Dangui was unaware that from that winter night onward, the Xing Cheng of the past had already died.
He didn’t know that, because of a word from his master, Xing Shi sat in the car downstairs for several hours without daring to come up.
There was something else that Lu Dangui didn’t know.
This was the first time in Xing Cheng’s life that he had ever eaten a birthday cake.
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