bet

I get up, and Charles grabs my arm.He looked at me with obvious meaning in his eyes.

I nodded to him and went to answer the phone outside the ward.

"Are you home?" Li Hua asked me

"Yeah." I didn't want to lie to him, but I had to lie to him, so I didn't dare to say a word.

"Go downstairs, I'm downstairs at your house."

"Eh?!!!" My mind went blank for a moment, I faltered and lied, my palms were sweating, "That... I'm with Mo Xiaoyun..."

"Ruoqi," his voice was cold, "where are you?"

"I... I really..."

"Kevin took Mo Xiaoyun home tonight, that's why I came to pick you up."

I've never heard Li Hua speak to me in such a terrible tone, it's like being drenched in a basin of cold water, trembling all over, but the palms of the hands are constantly sweating, and I can't even hold the phone: " Kaihua...you trust me...give me some time...I have something to do..."

"how long?"

I don't want to and can't put a time limit on Charles' life, so I'm at a loss for words.

"Fang Ruoqi..." He gritted his teeth and called my name.

I bit my lip to keep my tears from falling, my heart was beating violently in my chest, if he broke up the next moment, I didn't know if I would break down.

But for a long time, he didn't say a word, and the silence on the other end of the phone was like the end of the world.

The call was silently terminated.

I didn't know what this meant, I just calmed down my emotions, opened the door and went back to the ward.

It's not that I haven't thought about telling the truth, but Charles trusts me so much, I can't let him down.

I can only accompany him through the last part of his life for Li Hua, and one day Li Hua will understand all this.

"Don't worry, I didn't tell him."

Charles nodded reassuringly: "Sorry for embarrassing you, you don't need to wait too long, Leon will understand."

Things were really bad for Charles.Many times he does not speak, and lies on the bed with his eyes closed, looking pained.He listened when I spoke to him, but it was getting harder and harder to speak.

I gradually understood the reason why he didn't want to tell Li Hua them, how could a proud man like him have the heart to let his best friends see his current appearance, how would he be willing to let them put down everything in their hands and stay behind him for thousands of miles around.

It took me three days to write the whole story, and I sat by the hospital bed and told him the ending.

The narrator takes his wife and children back to the housing estate where he was a child, and meets the hero by accident.The male protagonist gave up his successful career and decided to return to the housing estate to live. They sat and chatted in the courtyard where they used to play together, watching the narrator's children run wildly, and what appeared in front of them were the laughter of childhood.

"That's great," Charles said slowly, "I want to go back too, but unfortunately, it's no longer there."

He stretched his eyebrows, as if recalling his youth.

I didn't dare to disturb him, and sat silently aside.

"In high school," he said suddenly, "I took Leon home to play."

I never said that the narrator was Li Hua, nor did he ask, but we all know it well.

"Ah."

"Let me tell you something about him, some things he probably won't tell you."

I really want to know, but every sentence Charles said is painful, and I can't bear him to suffer more: "It's okay, save it for later and talk slowly, you have a good rest."

He grabbed my wrist: "There is no future, listen to me."

His hands trembled because of too much force, and the cold palm brought me strong fear. I restrained all the bad premonitions, forced a smile: "Well, you say."

"In the first year at Penn, I fell in love with a Chinese girl. She knew I liked her, but she didn't reject me. I introduced her to Leon, and the three of us often had dinner together and went to the library together. Singing to her with Leon. Sigh...you think I'm stupid, don't you? I was young at that time, and I was a child from a poor family. In such a place, how could I dare to chase girls casually? Of course I had to encourage my brother. As a result, on Leon’s birthday, we celebrated his birthday together, and she confessed to Leon in front of me...God knows how embarrassing I was at the time, and I just wanted to beat Leon to death to vent his anger. Leon, on the spot Stand up from the dinner table and say, I want to know you because you are Charles' friend, but now, you will no longer be Charles' friend, so there is no need for us to sit here, Song Jiaheng, let's go. "

The last few words were spoken in vivid Cantonese, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"I went to high school with Ou Kaihua." He used the Chinese name Hu Lihua for the first time in front of me. "I know he is very polite to everyone. I have never seen him embarrass a girl like this. At that time, I felt quite useless. Yes, it's very relieved to be protected by him like this, and I think it's worth it to be able to hand over this brother in this life."

"Because of this incident, I didn't take any girls I met later on too seriously, let alone let them blend into our circle easily. As for Leon, he has always been a man of the moment in school, and there are too many women who succeed him, but he behaves like They are all indifferent. I always thought that he, like me, had no great desire for love, until I saw him with you."

"Didn't he have a girlfriend before?" I asked curiously.

"Amy? It can only be said that she is very smart, she is not as stalking as other women, she is too obedient, treats you well, does not disturb your life, and does not ask for anything in return - at least it seems so , It’s not easy to persist for three years, even a hard-hearted heart will be moved, but they broke up after less than a year together, so don’t force some things.”

As I listened to Charles narrating Li Hua's past, I was filled with longing.

"I'll tell you a secret. That day in the clubhouse, before you came, we made fun of Leon, saying that he had never seen any kind of woman before, and why he was chained by a little girl. He said that he couldn't say no. Qing, I only know that this life is you. Are you moved? I have known him for more than ten years, and I have never heard such words from his mouth. Unfortunately, I cannot attend your wedding. "

I had mixed feelings, squinted my eyes and smiled, not letting my tears flow: "Charles, when I saw you for the first time in Hong Kong, I thought you...don't be angry, I didn't know you well at that time, I just thought you He is a scumbag. But Kaihua told me very seriously that you deserve everything you have. No matter how hard he works, you will work a hundred times harder than him. Not only when you were in school, but until now, he has I take good care of you."

He moved the corner of his mouth, revealing a smile that contained many meanings, like a timeless slow motion: "So I say, in this life, it's worth it to have this brother."

After speaking, he slowly closed his eyes.

I didn't feel right, so I called him a few times, but he didn't respond again. I pressed the call bell to call the doctor in a daze, stood outside the ward and looked at the chaos inside, and signed the A critical illness notice.

The emotions that had been supporting me for a month suddenly collapsed at this moment, I tremblingly picked up my mobile phone and dialed Li Hua.It was as if my heart was no longer mine, and I didn't even dare to think about what I would do if he refused to answer my calls anymore.

After more than a dozen beeps from the dial, the phone was picked up, and Li Hua was silent on the other end, as if silently condemning me.

"Kaihua..." As soon as I opened my mouth, my tears became more violent, and all the words were choked in my mouth, and I couldn't say a word.

"Ruoqi, what's wrong?" He finally softened his heart.

"You come...you come to Hong Kong," I cried out of breath, "Hurry up, Charles is dying...lung cancer...I just signed a critical illness notice..."

He was silent for two seconds, as if he was confirming that he had heard correctly, and then there was panic in his voice: "Okay, I'll come right away, Ruoqi..." He paused for a while, and finally just said, "Wait for me."

The doctor said that Charles' condition is very dangerous, maybe he won't make it through the night, and asked me to be mentally prepared.

Before I came to Hong Kong, I thought I was mentally prepared enough, but when the worst happened, I realized that there were some things that I couldn’t prepare for.

The entire floor is a single ward, so quiet that time seems to be frozen. I sit helplessly at the door of the ward, not daring to leave.

A few hours later, the sky outside the window was completely dark, and Li Hua and Danny arrived almost at the same time.

I hugged Li Hua tightly, weeping in his arms, all the pressure and emotions were released in his arms.

I told them in bits and pieces everything that had happened since I stumbled across Charles vomiting blood that day in the clubhouse.

"...I've been hesitant to tell you, but Charles said that if I told you, he would make it impossible for anyone to find him, so I didn't dare. I don't know if it's the right thing to do... If I told you sooner ..."

"Thank you, Ruoqi," Li Hua hugged me tightly, his voice no longer as calm as usual, "Thank you for being with Charles for us these days,"

"Well," Danny nodded in agreement, "Let's go in and see him."

There was a dead silence in the ward, and Charles on the bed had his eyes closed tightly, lifeless.

"Charles." Danny stood by the bed and called him softly.

The man who was extremely noisy in the past just lay there motionless.

"Heh..." Danny chuckled lightly, his eyes full of sentimentality.

"Charles," Li Hua's voice was hoarse with sadness, "wait for Allen, he's on the plane."

"Yeah," Danny said, "at least, let the four of us get together again."

---