Chapter 66: The Pain of Parting, The Joy of Reunion (Asking for Follow-up Reads)

"Ah, forgot you don't smoke anymore, sorry sorry."

Zhou Zhenyu was just about to pull back his cigarette-offering hand when Uesugi Toru took the Liqun Cigarettes Cigarettes from his hand.

"Liqun Cigarettes Cigarettes, Liqun Cigarettes Cigarettes — smoking alone is 'selfish', only when everyone smokes together is it 'Liqun Cigarettes Cigarettes'."

Uesugi Toru smiled at him, seeing that old wrinkled pack and the single cigarette left inside,

"Right?"

Zhou Zhenyu gave him a thumbs up, revealing a mouthful of white teeth: "Fellow countryman, solid."

"But you can't smoke in the hospital, and it's not good to just light up on the roadside either." Zhou Zhenyu shrugged, pointing at the smoking room not far away, "The little devils do details pretty well, all systematic and proper."

The two walked into the smoking room, Zhou Zhenyu lit a cigarette for Uesugi Toru first, then lit one for himself.

In his view, it didn't matter if Uesugi Toru lit up but didn't smoke — he'd been saving this Liqun Cigarettes Cigarettes for a friend anyway.

And the person standing before him was a compatriot.

In a foreign land, the word 'compatriot' is far more intimate than a few friends, not to mention he'd saved him too.

He took a deep drag and exhaled, and Zhou Zhenyu's gaze grew complex along with the rising smoke.

He thought for a good while before finding a conversation entry point,

"Actually my return flight is the day after tomorrow at dawn, Spring Airlines — if nothing goes wrong I should be staying a night in a budget room near the airport by now."

Uesugi Toru: "Airborne green train, have to say it's still a bargain."

Zhou Zhenyu raised an eyebrow, showing him his screen: "199 yuan special price ticket, how's that for evaluation?"

"— At this price I'd feel guilty even if I had to stand the whole way."

"Haha, that's the logic." Zhou Zhenyu grinned, then continued, "Came to the hospital because my ex-girlfriend suddenly got a new terminal illness that appeared recently, said she has only a few days left."

The smile on Zhou Zhenyu's face disappeared.

"Her parents died early, grandparents' generation also passed away in recent years, so last night she called hoping I'd come see her one last time."

The previously cheerful atmosphere vanished abruptly.

Zhou Zhenyu continued: "She's a good person, back then she despised her own low education and dead-end job, didn't want to burden me so we broke up — so don't say I'm spineless or not, I know a thing or two about the domestic public opinion environment."

Uesugi Toru sighed: "How could that be."

But a new terminal illness, and one that appeared recently at that...

Uesugi Toru asked hesitantly: "Can I go see her together with you later?"

"She'd definitely be happy."

Once off the heavy topic, Zhou Zhenyu became animated: "That little girl said early on she wanted to meet a compatriot besides me, said whenever I talk to others I nod and bow, looking no different from locals.

I said impossible, bro I'm a native-born compatriot through and through. This is just going with the flow, but she'd just smile and not speak every time."

Zhou Zhenyu took a heavy drag: "Usually at this point I'd 'educate' her good and proper."

Speaking of the past, the smile on Zhou Zhenyu's face obviously became gentle and lively.

He casually tossed the finished cigarette butt into the trash can.

"And even at this terminal stage, she hasn't given up hope of living."

Zhou Zhenyu said seriously: "So I feel I can still fight a bit more, the matter of going home to lie flat can be put aside for now."

Walking out of the smoking room together with Uesugi Toru, the cold wind sweeping through the doorway instantly blew away the smoke smell on them.

Zhou Zhenyu shrank his body, pondering,

"But I also know the current employment situation is severe, loads of college and grad students can't find work, let alone me with just a high school diploma."

Uesugi Toru followed behind him into the hospital, suggesting: "Factory work and delivery have no future, both industries treat people like screws — why not try education/training? Big bro you do have overseas student status after all."

"Has some merit, can also do self-media on the side." Zhou Zhenyu nodded thoughtfully.

The two reached the sixth floor nurses' station, and after a round of inquiries Zhou Zhenyu confirmed the room number.

On the short corridor to that hospital room, Uesugi Toru noticed Zhou Zhenyu's little movements had clearly increased, breathing became rapid, both hands couldn't stop trembling.

When they reached the tightly closed hospital room door, Zhou Zhenyu stopped his steps.

He turned his head to look at Uesugi Toru, tugged at his cheap clothes that added up to less than two hundred yuan: "Bro, is it okay seeing her dressed like this?"

Uesugi Toru patted his shoulder: "She definitely won't mind that. And don't wear a gloomy face — she's suffering enough already, what's the meaning of you putting on a bitter melon face."

"Makes sense."

Zhou Zhenyu fell silent, patted his cheeks, took a deep breath.

He placed his slightly trembling hand on the cold doorknob, and after summoning his former sunny smile, forcefully twisted it downward.

Pushed the door and entered.

Thick disinfectant smell wafted out, accompanied by a girl's weak sobbing.

Uesugi Toru could see, on the snow-white hospital bed, sat a girl with pale skin, skinny bones, sunken eye sockets, yet still retaining jet-black long hair.

Even though she just sat there crying, Uesugi Toru could clearly feel the dense and profound fear, anxiety, sorrow, and pain continuously emanating from her...

Incomparably complex negative emotions intertwined all at once on the girl, constantly torturing her spirit and soul.

Uesugi Toru merely stood at the doorway watching, yet couldn't help feeling a thread of deep sorrow.

Zhou Zhenyu's face was for an instant filled with sorrow and anger, but in the next moment he squeezed out a gentle warm smile.

He carefully stepped forward, as if afraid of disturbing something, and said softly: "Yumeko, long time no see..."

On the hospital bed, the girl named Hoshino Yumeko stopped crying abruptly, she let out two flustered 'ah's, fumbling to find something to cover her ugly face and exposed body.

Zhou Zhenyu examined his former girlfriend in detail, that girl who once stood on the rooftop with him vowing to gain a foothold in Tokyo.

Hoshino Yumeko hurriedly covered her face with both hands: "Don't look, don't look..."

"Yumeko, after so long no see, you're still this easily shy."

Under the girl's helpless blocking, Zhou Zhenyu pulled her into his embrace.

"I'm sorry."

He closed his eyes and said softly, "I'm back."

The girl's sobbing stopped at once; she raised her thin, trembling hands and embraced Zhou Zhenyu as well.

In that instant, a sound of something opening rang out in the room, like an auditory hallucination.

Yet the next moment, an incomparably genuine smile appeared on Hoshino Yumeko's face, growing richer at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Uesugi Toru's pupils contracted slightly.

The scene before him was clearly lovers reunited after a long parting, a warm and beautiful sight.

He ought to have applauded and congratulated them.

But compared to congratulating them, Uesugi Toru felt more horror at this moment.

——Hoshino Yumeko's every negative emotion vanished in an instant. At the same time, one surging, rich joy after another arose within her, intertwined—happiness and delight…

This uncanny sight before him almost made Uesugi Toru step forward immediately and separate the two.

"Wait a moment; as long as nothing affecting the external world has appeared, don't startle the snake."

Drawing a deep breath, Uesugi Toru, who had forcibly calmed himself, thought—this was absolutely not a normal emotional change for Hoshino Yumeko.

It was more like… something was using her as a culture dish for extreme emotions.

He silently gazed at the pair in the hospital room, weeping and embracing each other, lovers about to be parted by life and death.

Uesugi Toru could feel Hoshino Yumeko's joy at reuniting with her lover before death, and could see clearly the pain of parting that Zhou Zhenyu was desperately suppressing.

And whether it was the joy of reunion or the pain of parting, both were probably just a handful of nourishment in the culture dish.

Love had become an accelerant for death.

The change he had just witnessed was the best evidence; under such violent and extreme emotional changes visible to the naked eye, Hoshino Yumeko might not even see tomorrow's sun.

Uesugi Toru closed his eyes.

For the first time, he felt genuine anger and murderous intent.

Uesugi Toru's face was unprecedentedly calm, merely reciting that name word by word in his heart:

"Love Separation."

Please keep reading, next week there's a PK with Sanjiang, everyone please keep reading orz





End of Chapter