bet

"Ruoqi?"

"Huh?" I came back to my senses and found that the car had stopped.I couldn't concentrate all the way, no matter what Li Hua said to me, I couldn't listen to it.

"What's the matter?" It's strange that he couldn't see such an obvious distraction.

I took a deep breath and pretended to have a headache and said, "I was thinking about a new article, and I suddenly didn't have any inspiration recently, and I was hunted down by editors every day."

He didn't seem to have any doubts: "Do you want to go to City B with me?"

"Let's not go for the time being. I can't calm down to write when I'm by your side. I'll come to you after I finish my job."

Li Hua didn't show too much disappointment, but he gave a faint "oh", which was enough to make me feel guilty.

"Send you up." He walked around to me and opened the car door for me.

"Kaihua..." I stopped him, saw the soft things in his eyes, but couldn't say anything.

I promised to keep Charles a secret, but I couldn't hide it from Li Hua calmly.He wanted to say it, but was vaguely afraid that Charles would do something more decisive.

Dilemma, I dare not look at the eyes in front of me, close my eyes, and kiss him actively.

After staying up all night, I organized my chaotic thoughts while writing the outline of a new essay for Charles.I don't know him very well, so I wrote a lonely but warm story based on what I heard from Li Hua and my own guesses.The narrator of the novel is a good friend who grew up with the hero in the housing estate. From his perspective, the hero's short but wonderful life is unfolded.

This story is written for Charles and also for Li Hua.

At noon, I typed the last word on the keyboard, and couldn't wait to find Charles' number from the phone and dial it.

"Hello, Ruoqi?" He sounded surprised.

"Can I see you? I finished writing the outline of the novel, and I want to show you. By the way, you can tell me more about yourself." I looked at myself in the mirror, my face was pale from staying up late, and my eyes were slightly dizzy. Red, the shadow under my eyes is very deep, it really ruins the image, but I don't care so much.

He was silent for a long time before speaking: "I have just arrived in Hong Kong, so there is no need to rush to write novels."

"No, I promised you that I would finish it as soon as possible."

"Okay, I'll send you the email address."

"Charles, let Leon tell them..."

"If you think like this again, I'll change the phone. You don't have to tell him, they can't find me," he said with a playful smile on weekdays, but once he became serious, he was very intimidating. "I just said casually about the novel. You don't have to worry about it."

I know he didn't just say it casually.He was afraid that I would not be able to bear this secret, so he deliberately asked me to do something for him to offset my anxiety.

He didn't want novels at all.

"Anyway, I'll write it, and you can send it to me by email."

He sighed: "Okay."

I quickly received his email, sent him the outline, and told him that I would send him the written content every day in the future. If he has time to read it, he can tell me his opinions and ideas.

Since God has made me the only one who knows this secret, I can no longer stand by and do nothing but choose this way to maintain contact with him.

I thought that Charles would not reply me, but I received his reply when I opened the mailbox the next day:

"I read the outline, but I didn't expect it to be very touching. I'm kind of looking forward to seeing this story.

I still believe in love, but I have no luck meeting it. If there must be a heroine, write her more beautifully.

Charles Sung"

I read this short reply letter word by word, and some uncontrollable emotions came out of my heart and flowed to my eyes along the blood.

I've never worked so hard on a story before.For three whole weeks, I didn't go out for a day, except for eating and sleeping, I just stayed in the room and kept typing on the keyboard.Every day, I send the finished content to Charles, and I will soon receive his feedback. The words are still sharp and exaggerated:

"It is true that I spent a lot of time in the library during college, but I probably wouldn't pick up girls who also like to spend time in the library. Usually their faces are inversely proportional to their efforts."

"'It's been so long...'Little girl, don't be too naive, a man won't last long for the first time."

"Seeing the handsome posture of my hero saving the beauty, I really regret that I can't marry myself."

Every time I see such an email, his cynical expression always comes to mind, and his long and narrow eyes always have a casual smile and unshakable pride.

I naively thought that nothing could defeat such a man.

In the past three weeks, I had very little contact with Li Hua. He is so sensitive that it is impossible not to feel the problem. One day he asked me if I would like him to fly back to S City to accompany me for a day.

I always tell him on the phone, give me some time until I finish writing this novel, but I can't answer how long "a while" is.

I hope for a miracle in my heart, but before that, it is difficult for me to face Li Hua.

The story is coming to an end, and I haven't heard from Charles for several days.I opened the mailbox and clicked to receive it continuously, but the number of new emails was always displayed as 0.I tried to call his phone and it was always turned off.

A deep fear gripped me, making it difficult for me to sleep or eat.

When I finally couldn't take it anymore and wanted to confess to Li Hua, I received a call from Charles.

"Charles! Are you okay?!" I eagerly picked up the phone, my heart pounding, afraid that there was a stranger on the other end of the phone.

Then, I heard Charles' extremely weak but familiar Hong Kong voice: "I'm in the hospital, so I haven't replied to you these days, sorry."

"Oh..." I took a long breath and asked worriedly, "How are you doing?"

"I'm still alive," he said easily, but I could clearly hear him struggling to breathe on the phone, "I haven't read the rest of it, please tell me."

I guess, he probably didn't even have the strength to sit up and look at the computer, and his heart became more and more flustered, for fear of hanging up the phone and losing contact with him. "Charles, let me see you."

"no need."

"I won't tell anyone else, I'm here alone... You're so bored living in the hospital alone, you need someone to chat with you, right? And it's almost the end, you've read so much, don't want to Do you want to see the ending..."

Charles quietly listened to me making various excuses incoherently, and sighed softly, "Then you promise me one thing."

"I promise you." I said without thinking.

He smiled: "You are really not afraid of being deceived... You can come, but you are not allowed to cry in front of me, okay?"

"……I try my best."

"Also, you may be very bored, because of my current situation, I can't talk to you all the time."

I wrote down the name of the hospital, looked it up on the Internet, and then booked a flight to Hong Kong at night and a hotel near the hospital.

I tell parents that short notice to go on a college lecture tour may take a while.But I picked up the phone and looked at Li Hua's name, but I still didn't have the courage to dial it.

I don't want to deceive him again and again, so I can only choose to escape.

Late at night, I arrived in Hong Kong.I love this city, but I came here with such a mood for the first time.

I was afraid of disturbing Charles' rest, so I went to the hospital the next morning.

According to the ward number he gave me, I searched slowly, just in time to meet the doctor coming out of his ward.

"Are you Song Jiaheng's family?" He looked at me very curiously, probably because I was the first person to visit Charles.

"I'm his friend, how is he?"

The doctor was silent for a while, and said in a comforting tone: "Try to spend as much time with him as possible, and be mentally prepared."

After the doctor left, I stood at the door for a while, mustering up the courage to knock on the door and go in.

Charles was lying on the hospital bed, so thin that he was almost out of shape, pale and haggard, completely different from the high-spirited man I remembered.

"Help me rock the bed a little bit."

I followed his instructions, and in the silence of the private room, his every breath sounded extraordinarily heavy.

I sat down on the chair beside the bed: "I bought some fruit, what do you want to eat? Get it for you."

"No. Where do you live?"

"The hotel next door."

"How long have you ordered?"

"..." I couldn't say it, it would be cruel to say anything, but his eyes were too straightforward, and I had nowhere to hide, "One week...is not enough, I will continue."

He hooked the corner of his mouth: "It won't take that long, it's a waste."

"Charles..."

"Little girl, you are probably the only one who will see me like this. Let me tell you the truth, I know my own situation very well. Don't have any thoughts, sympathy or self-blame or anything else, you don't need it. I am in pain all over my body now, otherwise I would not have come to the hospital, I just want to get rid of it as soon as possible."

Every word he said seemed to exhaust all his strength, and my whole heart was seized, and I was about to suffocate: "You wait for me, I will finish writing the ending in no time."

"Oh...you promised me, don't cry in front of me."

I quickly wiped away the tears that almost fell out: "Let me tell you about the part I wrote earlier, okay?"

"it is good."

I adjusted my mood and seriously narrated the plot for him. He closed his eyes, pressed his hands on his chest, frowned slightly, and his expression was very painful.

I searched for relevant information on lung cancer patients on the Internet, and the pictures that popped up were shocking.It is said that a large part of lung cancer patients died in pain.I can't imagine what kind of torture Charles is suffering, but he closed his eyes tightly and made no sound.

When I was about to finish speaking, the mobile phone in my pocket kept vibrating. I took it out and glanced at the name on it, and my breath stopped.

Ou Kehua.

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