Fu Yanhe helped Shen Huai change his clothes and supported him as he walked out of the restroom.
Seeing Ye Min, Shen Huai revealed a smile and called out crisply, "Grandma! Look at ! Handso or not?"
Ye Min’s eyes reddened imdiately at the sight of the neatly dressed Shen Huai, but she held back tears, smiling and nodding vigorously, "Handso, so handso, just like your father when he was young."
Shen Yanhe didn’t speak, stepped forward to straighten Shen Huai’s collar, and helped him sit down in the wheelchair, "Let’s go, I’ll take you out to have fun and eat delicious food."
Shen Huai sat in the wheelchair, full of excitent, nodding happily, "Let’s go!"
For the next two days, Shen Yanhe took Shen Huai all around Hai City to play.
They rode on every amusent park ride he could handle.
Ate everything he could eat.
And she played gas with him.
Even as she desperately wished for ti to slow down, even more, the mont of parting still arrived.
On the last day, Shen Huai suddenly ntioned wanting to go back to their old ho to take a look, so Shen Yanhe took him there.
However, what was once called ho had been demolished for redevelopnt into a wetland park, deliberately landscaped with greenery, and the scenery was quite nice.
Shen Yanhe pushed Shen Huai to the artificial lake, in the place where their old house filled with the scent of ho-cooking once stood, and sat down on a bench next to him, both watching the glistening lake surface.
Shen Huai’s complexion was very pale now, yet his eyes were bright. He looked at the sunset connected with the lake surface and chatted to Shen Yanhe about their childhood occurrences.
"Sister, do you rember? I was playful and hid from you during hide-and-seek, not letting you find . You couldn’t find and were almost crying."
"Of course, I rember." Shen Yanhe chuckled, the corners of her eyes brimming with a hint of red, "You even got spanked by mom because of that."
Shen Huai giggled, "You were mad at for several days. I gave you all my candies, and only then did you stop being mad. I secretly called you a little stingy."
Shen Yanhe smiled and did not reply.
She couldn’t speak; her throat was tight as if it was blocked by sothing.
Her chest felt as if it was weighed down by a heavy stone, making her extrely uncomfortable.
Shen Huai spoke wistfully, "Childhood was so good."
Mom and Dad were still around, he hadn’t fallen ill, life was mundane, yet warm and happy.
But now, he was going to see Mom first.
Leaving his sister behind, he felt truly heartbroken and reluctant to let go.
Shen Huai blinked away the moistness in his eyes and turned his head with difficulty to look at Shen Yanhe, who was forcibly holding back her tears next to him. He couldn’t help but smile, but his vision began to blur.
His voice grew faint, "Don’t cry, sister. I don’t like to see you cry."
"I like to see you smile, to see you happy and well."
Shen Yanhe closed her eyes, clenched her fists on her lap, her nails digging into her palms, her knuckles turning white, and her body trembling slightly.
She swallowed the acidity rising to her throat, and with an ugly smile on her face, she said, "Who’s crying? I’m not crying."
"Good, if you’re not crying." Shen Huai suddenly felt very tired and wanted to sleep. His eyelashes fluttered slowly like butterfly wings, his lips curled in a smile, speaking softly, "Sister, after I’m gone, don’t be mad at Grandma. She didn’t an it; it’s my body that’s failing ."
"Sister, you need to get along with Grandma..."
"These past two days I’ve been very happy, I got to eat lots of delicious food, experience many things I’ve never encountered before... I’m very happy..."
Shen Huai’s vision started to blur, and his consciousness was fading away bit by bit.
Staring at the shimring lake, in a daze, he saw a gentle and dignified woman standing in the light, smiling as she outstretched her arms towards him, "Little Huai."
"Mom..."
Shen Huai’s eyes slowly closed, and his face bore a radiant smile.
Mom had co to pick him up.
The lakeside was deathly silent, with only the sound of insects.
A gentle breeze blew softly as Shen Yanhe’s tears kept falling. She turned to look at Shen Huai in the wheelchair, who had already stopped breathing. With a smile on her lips, she reached out and gently held his emaciated wrist.
Her voice was so soft it seed to dissolve in the wind.
"Goodnight, little brother."
For years, Shen Huai had been tornted by his illness to the point of no longer looking human, not having a single good night’s sleep for many years.
Now, he was finally free.
He could finally have a good sleep.
Ye Min, watching from a distance, wept until she nearly fainted, supported by the silent Fu Yanhe, who helped her retreat back to the car.
Hua Tuo, looking at the lakeside, saw the apprentice holding Shen Huai’s hand, unmoving, with eyes that did not even blink. He sighed, moved forward, and gently patted her shoulder in a soft tone, "Yanyan."
Shen Yanhe’s eyelashes trembled. She raised her swollen eyes to glance at Hua Tuo. "Master."
Then she looked down again at the peacefully "sleeping" Shen Huai and said softly, "I still couldn’t save little Huai."
Her initial intention to learn dicine was to follow in her mother’s footsteps; later, it was to save Shen Huai.
After years of hard study and trying every thod, she still couldn’t keep him.
Her dical skills were already so advanced.
Why couldn’t she save her own brother?
Hua Tuo sighed and, knowing the knot in her heart, gently consoled her, "You have to know, you’re human, not a god."
"Even gods have things they can’t do, much less humans. The severe combined immunodeficiency that little Huai had is one of the world’s top ten incurable diseases, and the road to treatnt was always full of thorns."
"If it weren’t for you, he would have died at eight years old. You’ve extended his life, you’ve done everything you could; there’s no need to carry a burden in your heart any longer."
Shen Yanhe humd softly in agreent. She sat with Hua Tuo for a while before standing up to take Shen Huai away.
There were not many who knew Shen Huai in the hospital, so the arrangents for his funeral were relatively simple.
The young man of one ter seventy turned into a small handful of ashes, stored in a tiny box.
Shen Yanhe purchased a new plot next to her mother’s grave and buried him together with their mother.
On the day of the burial, the sky was incredibly somber, with howling winds and a fine, steady rain falling.
Ye Min, overco with grief, had been admitted to the hospital, leaving only Shen Yanhe, Fu Yanhe, Hua Tuo, and the nurses from the hospital who had cared for Shen Huai to attend the graveside.
Shen Yanhe personally covered the grave with the last handful of soil.
She had sent off her mother, and now her brother.
Now in this world, it was just her left alone.
-
anwhile.
Across the distant ocean, in a secretive laboratory.
Shen Zhong, who was ticulously mixing a dicine, suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his chest. The pain ca so unexpectedly and was so intense that he couldn’t help but bend down, his breathing becoming progressively more labored.
He haphazardly placed the dicine on the table, clutching his chest in agony as he slowly crouched down. His throat was filled with an extre sourness, making him want to sob out loud.
Shen Zhong’s forehead throbbed with bulging veins, panic spreading in his heart.
Sothing had happened.
Yanhe and little Huai must have had an accident!
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