After another sound of doors opening and closing, Zhen Yu forced herself to stand up in the darkness, only to sit on a bus again...
How long has passed, she didn’t know, as various noisy sounds kept coming through the period.
Until the ’bus’ finally stopped, a long sigh reached Zhen Yu’s ears.
"Ah! Ming Yue... Mom has brought her to see you," Mrs. Han’s voice was filled with sorrow and the despair of an elder bidding farewell to a younger one.
"Han Ming Yue?! Where is this?!" Zhen Yu imdiately pounced on the walls of the dark room, desperately wanting to see where she was outside!
"Ming Yue! Before you left, you kept talking about her, wanting but afraid to see her! I even wanted to go look for her, but your dad wouldn’t allow it! In the end, neither of you saw each other for the last ti!"
"He wanted to see ? He wanted to see !" Zhen Yu knew that it was all in the past, yet she was heartbreakingly sad.
Almost the instant Mrs. Han’s words ended, Mr. Han’s voice began to rise.
His speech was full of self-reproach, "How could I have known! That Xiao Yu, ah! If only I knew..."
"Yes! Who could have predicted! In the end, these two children left on the sa day."
"Why did Xiao Yu choose that day..."
"She saw my brother’s obituary." This should be Han Jiayang’s voice, unfamiliar yet sowhat recognizable.
"You said what?"
"What obituary?"
Mrs. Han and Mr. Han almost asked at the sa ti, each in a different tone.
"I looked at Sister Xiaoyu’s phone! Besides making calls, the only active app was a web literature app. And... it was on the announcents page."
"Is it an obituary or an announcent after all?"
"The announcent is a section of the app, where they had my brother’s obituary, visible to everyone who used that app. The ti the obituary was posted... was a little past eight in the morning, which was exactly when Sister Xiaoyu had her car accident."
"This! This! Ah..." Mrs. Han could not finish her sentence and ended with another helpless long sigh.
Zhen Yu had not expected the truth to be guessed by the Han Family, and she slowly crouched down, silently burying her head in her arms.
——
After a long while, Mr. Han spoke.
"This child, Ming Yue, insisted on having her ashes scattered here! While there’s no one around, let’s scatter Xiao Yu’s as well! They can at least keep each other company..."
"Okay!" Mrs. Han said with a choked voice, "I’ll do it!"
Zhen Yu suddenly felt a shake, but it quickly stabilized again.
A flash of insight struck her mind, and she instantly understood where she was.
"Ming Yue! You and Xiao Yu were ant to be this lifeti but ended up not together; I hope in the next, you can be a couple till you grow old together."
"Definitely! There’s an old saying, ’to share the sa blankets in life, to rest together in death!’ We’ll do it the other way around! This lifeti they rest together, next lifeti! Our son will definitely marry Xiao Yu!"
"Ha! Hahaha... Ming Yue! Xiao Yu! If you’re aware there beneath the spring, rember! Be brave in the next life! Clearly liking each other, how could you have missed out! Ha! Hahaha..."
Mrs. Han laughed and laughed, then started to wail uncontrollably, with Mr. Han’s comfort unable to stop her.
Inside the box, Zhen Yu was also in a flood of tears, crying as though her heart was breaking, "Han Ming Yue! He liked ? Did he really like ?... Ming Yue, Ming Yue..."
As Mrs. Han’s crying gradually faded away, Zhen Yu heard an unusual sound from above. She quickly looked up.
Through her tearful eyes, it was as if she had returned to the day she was about to die in her previous life, that mont when she gently lifted her head.
It was the sa bright sunny day, the sky a clear blue, the sunlight dazzling.
Suddenly, Zhen Yu felt light as she floated upwards.
Then she saw Mrs. Han, Mr. Han, Han Jiayang, a red wall hidden amidst the green grass, along with a small iron gate and a playground...
The last thing she saw was Mrs. Han scattering her ashes into the air, mingling with light and dust. Beneath the stunning blue sky, they turned into a cloud.
In her ears, she could faintly hear Han Jiayang’s voice, "Sister Xiaoyu! Please bless my brother. In the next life, he must be healthy and live a long life! This is all I ask!"
Then, her consciousness dissipated with the wind.
——
When she regained consciousness, she was lying on Han Mingyue’s back.
Almost the instant she heard his voice, Zhen Yu exclaid excitedly, "Ming Yue!"
This was the first ti in her past and present life that she called his na in front of him.
After calling out, her heart felt a fleeting sweetness, followed by deep sorrow, as she rembered what had just happened inside and outside the box.
To prevent herself from bursting into tears in front of everyone, she dared not look at Han Mingyue.
Once she was put onto the bed, she forced herself to stare continuously at the ceiling and pretended to be mute.
As she stared, she recalled the last sentence she had heard Han Jiayang say, "He only asks for this!"
The emphasis in his voice was on "only"...
She understood why he would ask her to bless Han Mingyue with health and longevity, but why the stress on "only"? For most people, shouldn’t it be the more, the better?
Health, longevity... Zhen Yu’s mind buzzed like a swarm of bees, incessantly whirring, making it impossible for her to concentrate or think.
Soon after, Mr. and Mrs. Han returned, and then ca the dizziness and nausea...
After Mr. Han finished bandaging her, he helped her to lie down slowly and instructed her not to move carelessly—especially when turning her head, she must do it slowly.
Only after she promised to comply with each instruction did Mr. Han leave the room.
Having had to sit up for the bandaging, Zhen Yu’s head felt even more dizzy now, but thankfully, she didn’t feel nauseous as long as she lay still.
When Mr. Han left the room, he didn’t turn off the light. Zhen Yu found it too bright to lie flat, so she closed her eyes.
——
But as soon as she closed her eyes, all the experiences from "ascending" out of the box rattled through her mind fra by fra, a myriad of emotions flooding in.
"You kept talking about her before you left, wanting to see her, yet afraid to see her!"
"Ming Yue insisted on scattering the ashes here!"
"You must rember! Be braver in your next life!"
"How could two people who liked each other miss each other like this!"
"Please bless my brother, he must be healthy and live a long life in the next life! This is all I ask! He must be healthy and live a long life! This is all I ask! This is all I ask! Only this!..."
Without warning, Han Jiayang’s last plea suddenly resonated like a devilish whisper in Zhen Yu’s mind, incessantly circling.
"Ah!" Zhen Yu’s head hurt so much she abruptly covered her face with her right hand!
All the voices in her head vanished in an instant.
The room was left with nothing but the sound of Zhen Yu’s breathing, in and out, heavy and uneven.
After a few breaths, it nearly stopped! Zhen Yu’s head fell limply to one side on the bed, and she fainted again.
——
Zhen Yu suspected she was in a dream since she had just been lying on the bed.
But there was nothing in the dream, just a blank expanse of white.
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