ng Renshu arrived at the hospital in an hour. Not only because the traffic delayed him, but because this place brought unpleasant mories to him.
This was where he saw Li Caiyi for the last ti.
At that ti, she was scolded and beaten severely by his mother-in-law, yet he didn't move forward to help her. All because he didn't believe her words then. A decision he would regret for the rest of his life.
However, he gritted his teeth and went inside eventually. He knew where Li Junjie's office was, and the front desk allowed him to wait inside easily.
ng Renshu took a deep breath before entering his best friend's place after a while. Inside, there was a desk, a couch, and bookshelves arranged neatly.
Li Junjie sat on the sofa with his eyes glued to the book in his hands. He didn't even notice ng Renshu's presence.
"Junjie, I'm here."
The young doctor raised his head when he heard it. He put the book away and gestured for him to sit on the couch.
"It's been a while. How are you?" ng Renshu smiled awkwardly while plopping himself on the couch.
"I'm doing well. As for you, I can see you are not by your face color, so don't bother telling otherwise."
ng Renshu chuckled. The previous tension on his shoulders left him, and he felt a lot more relaxed at his friend's blunt way of speaking.
"Alright, I won't lie, then. I'm doing pretty bad these days. I can't sleep and eat well, so I work myself so hard to increase the pain. Are you happy now?"
Li Junjie sighed. "I want to tell you not to punish yourself that hard, but I doubt you will listen to ."
"That's right. I thought you would be more distraught after you punished Un–, I an your father. But you seem to carry yourself as usual. As expected of you."
"I don't have ti to deal with your sarcastic remark. And I didn't punish him because of Xiaoyi's matter. It was sothing he deserved to receive after mistreating all of us throughout the years."
Li Junjie noticed how ng Renshu's countenance beca rigid at the ntion of Li Caiyi, so he chose to divert the topic.
p
ng Renshu stared at the book in Li Junjie's hand in puzzlent. "Solitude and Happiness? No, I don't think I ever heard about this book. What book is this?"
"I happened to hear one of my colleagues ntion it before. He said his wife liked it a lot, and it's currently the most popular book right now. Out of curiosity, I bought it. I was shocked when I read it."
Li Junjie's expression was clearly disturbed and uncomfortable. That was a big reaction coming from him, who rarely showed his expression at all.
"Is there sothing particularly shocking from this book?"
"Yeah, it's shocking and painful to read. But I can't tell you. Read this by yourself, and you'll see what I an." Li Junjie uttered before showing the book to ng Renshu.
"I still have so business I need to attend to. Take your ti reading it. I'm sure you will have a lot to ask afterward but try not to cause a commotion."
ng Renshu didn't have the chance to ask before Li Junjie had left the room in haste as if running away from sothing.
"He is so strange today." ng Renshu comnted before looking down at the book in his hand. One thing for sure, this book had seriously made him curious. There were only so many things in this world that could incur any reaction from Li Junjie.
He had completed an entire month's work, so nothing could stop him from reading. Brimming with expectation, he opened the first page.
"There are tis when you are still not good enough no matter how hard you try."
ng Renshu caressed the book's first line as he read the rest of it.
***
"Make sure to monitor this patient. He will have this surgery tomorrow. Pay attention even to the tiniest change." Li Junjie said as he gave the file to the nurse in front of him. The nurse nodded and left, carrying the file in her hand.
Li Junjie massaged his tired shoulder as he checked the ti on his phone. It had been 6 hours since he left ng Renshu at his office. He ant to return after an hour or so, but the work delayed him.
"I'd better check just in case." Li Junjie mumbled before walking to his office.
When he opened the door, he was half-surprised to find ng Renshu still sitting on the sa spot when he left him, imrsed in the book in his hand. Judging from how little the number of pages left unread, it seed he had been reading that non-stop.
ng Renshu closed the book not long after that. He looked down in a daze, trying to digest everything he had just read.
Li Junjie understood his confusion because he was also like that when he first read that book.
If it were only one or two instances, then he would only think of it as coincidences, but almost everything written in the book was scarily accurate to the reality he knew. It was more like a diary rather than a book of fiction.
"Junjie… As you said, I have a lot of things I want to ask you right now." ng Renshu said tensely.
"Sure, ask everything you want to ask."
"Did she…write this book?" ng Renshu's voice trembled as he clenched his hand.
"I don't know. However, it wouldn't be weird if it is. After all, many instances in that book were heavily similar to what we knew. The author could even describe the first gift you ever gave to her in such detail."
"The keychain…which she lost."
Li Junjie nodded. "The one you chose for her because you think it resembled her. And the one you picked up after she lost it but forgot to give it to her."
ng Renshu rembered how Li Caiyi went into panic mode when she lost that keychain. Everyone helped her to find it but still couldn't find it. In the end, she could only let the matter go.
However, ng Renshu couldn't bear to see her sad, so he secretly asked soone to make the sa identical one. When he was about to give it to her, he found that she had used another keychain in her bag, so he thought she didn't need it anymore and kept it with him until today.
"I thought the sa as you. This book is surely sothing Xiaoyi made. If it is, then everything would make sense. Why did she disappear without words, and why did she choose such drastic asures?"
ng Renshu heard what Li Junjie said, but there was only so much his brain could process.
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