◎ Reunion ◎

After using all her strength to say those words, the body that had been asleep for five years could no longer handle such intense emotions and shut down again.

The phone slipped from beside her pillow. She could no longer hear the urgent voice on the other end, nor the shrill alarms of the surrounding equipment.

She just felt very tired, so very tired.

Even though she was reluctant, she once again fell into slumber.

For five years, Shi Li’s soul had been constantly wandering. In the underworld, there was no day or night, and spirits did not need rest.

This was the first time she truly slept.

And she slept for two full days and nights.

When she woke up again, it might have been evening, or perhaps early morning.

The orange-yellow light gently shone on her eyelids. Shi Li tried to open her eyes, but her eyelids were heavy.

She vaguely heard people talking at her bedside.

A hoarse male voice, trying to sound calm, yet full of panic.

“Director Jiang, could you please check my wife again? You said she’s asleep now, but why is there no movement at all?”

Then came a calm female voice with a tone of reassurance.

“Don’t worry. The instruments in the observation room are monitoring her twenty-four hours a day. Miss Shi’s brain activity has returned to normal. She’s just too tired and needs rest. Once she’s rested enough, she’ll wake up. I’ve seen you here for two days and nights. Maybe you should go home and rest. If Miss Shi wakes up, we’ll contact you.”

“Thank you… but only when I’m here can I feel at ease.”

The female voice said no more, only left behind a gentle sigh. Then came the sound of footsteps and the soft creak of the door closing.

The chair beside the bed was pulled out. Someone quietly sat beside her.

A pair of slightly cold hands gently lifted her left hand.

Warm breath mixed with a soft kiss fell lightly, and the rough stubble brushed against her, causing a slight prickling pain.

His eyes rested against her palm. His long eyelashes tickled her slightly. In the next moment, her palm was soaked with cold tears.

Shi Li’s heart ached. She struggled to move her fingers and gently caught those tears.

Instantly, the breathing in her palm paused.

The hands holding her left hand stiffened, as if frozen, not daring to move at all.

Shi Li struggled against the heaviness of her eyelids and slowly opened her eyes.

In her vision, a warm yellow halo swayed. She blinked and slightly turned her head to finally see him clearly.

So unkempt.

His hair was messy, his beard was messy, his eyes were bloodshot, and his dry lips were covered in peeling skin.

But even so, Chen Du was still very handsome.

Shi Li greedily looked at him with the eyes that hadn’t opened in five years and tried to smile at him.

He was also looking at her, staring without blinking, frozen in place like caught in a silent dream.

When he finally came to his senses, he suddenly turned around and pressed the emergency call bell by the bed.

Soon after, the attending physician, supervising doctor, intern doctors… almost the entire nursing team flooded into the observation room.

A large crowd surrounded the bed, conducting various tests and diagnoses. Some diagnosed, some observed, some learned.

The interns’ low exclamations filled the room.

“I’ve never seen a vegetative patient wake up after five years.”

“Yeah, my teacher said the probability is extremely low. I didn’t expect to witness this on my first day of internship.”

“The director said this patient had a very strong will to live, that’s why she could wake up.”

“She’s lucky, and so are we.”

“…”

In the light and shadow, the noisy crowd came and went.

Chen Du was left outside the commotion.

Even after the doctors and nurses’ footsteps faded away and the observation room returned to silence, he still stood quietly several meters away, like a statue.

Compared to the earlier excited medical staff, he seemed more like a calm observer.

Shi Li stared at him from a distance, greedily trying to take in the sight of him she hadn’t seen in five years.

After a long while, she raised her hand and tried hard to reach out to him.

Chen Du came back to reality as if in another world. His face still expressionless, he walked step by step to the bedside.

He opened his dry lips but couldn’t utter a single word.

Shi Li raised her hand and gently stroked his cheek, slowly wiping away the coldness from his face with her fingertips.

“Chen Du, long time no see.”

She smiled at him brightly, as clear and radiant as when they first met, “Don’t cry. I’m back.”

But Chen Du was still crying.

His dry lips pressed tightly against her palm. His hands braced against the bed trembled slightly.

Those tears fell onto her palm and then down through her fingers onto her face.

Shi Li sadly curved her lips and asked him, “This crystal hairpin in my hair, did you buy it for me? It’s so exquisite, like one a princess would wear.”

Chen Du still couldn’t say a word.

In the hazy curtain of tears, he stared at her without blinking. The always composed and self-restrained man suddenly lost all control and could no longer hide his emotions.

Shi Li sighed silently, pouted, and teased him like she used to, “Hey, Chen Du, after so long, aren’t you going to give me a hug?”

Chen Du’s body obeyed her voice and slowly bent down, but his hands hesitated, not knowing where to place them.

After a long time, he first carefully touched her hair, then gently rubbed her soft cheek, and finally opened his arms and lightly hugged her once.

So restrained that his chest was trembling, as if afraid to break her.

As if afraid he was still in a dream and would shatter it if he touched it.

“Chen Du.”

Shi Li leaned closer to his ear and softly called him.

“Chen Du.”

“Chen Du.”

“Chen Du.”

Again and again, as if trying to call back all that was lost in the past five years.

Her chest rose and fell slightly as she tried to get closer to his trembling chest. Her warm breath kissed his cheek. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders and hugged him tightly.

She used her own warmth to try to bring him a sense of reality.

“Chen Du, don’t be afraid.”

Shi Li embraced the only person she had in this world, the person she loved the most.

“This isn’t a dream. I’m back, back to fulfill my promise to you.”

“Chen Du, let’s get married.”

—

Later, I learned from Shu Yun that on the night five years ago, while on a business trip, Chen Du came home early, intending to surprise me, but instead saw me collapsed silently on the floor.

It was he who took me to the hospital.

The doctors performed heart surgery on me and restored my cardiopulmonary function, but I showed no signs of waking up.

The ICU costs were too high. A month later, my parents signed a consent form to stop treatment.

At that time, Chen Du was selling his models everywhere. Upon receiving the news, he rushed back desperately and tore up that agreement.

He told my parents that from then on, they no longer needed to worry about my affairs.

He said I was his wife, and whether I lived or died, it would be up to him to decide.

For the sake of taking care of me, he resigned from his company, returned to Lin University to study, stayed on as a teacher, and lived a steady life.

He took great care of me and once believed that life would slowly get better, that one day I would wake up, that one day we would be reunited.

But life was truly making things hard for him…

During the time he was first diagnosed, perhaps because he had too many burdens in his heart, too much despair, he needed an outlet.

—He told me, still lying unconscious in the hospital bed, thinking I couldn’t hear him.

He said he was sick.

He said he might have to leave early and might not be able to take care of me anymore.

But he was also very worried, afraid that after he left, no one would look after me.

Then he told me not to worry, that before he left he would make all the arrangements, he would leave enough money, and that consent form to give up treatment signed five years ago would never be signed again.

He spoke calmly to the me on the hospital bed, more like talking to himself, but those fragments of soul still remaining in my body heard him.

They were nearly torn apart by pain, they were powerless, they watched helplessly as he gave up on himself.

They became the obsession that made me come back.

On the third day after waking up, I persuaded Chen Du to undergo treatment.

I told him, in this world, besides him, there was nothing worth my attachment.

My obsession was him.

I fought so hard to come back to life, not to live a lonely and painful life alone. I said if he dared to leave me, I would dare to go after him.

I guessed he wouldn’t dare.

That night, he called Dr. Liu.

A week later, under my threats and coaxing, we got our marriage certificate.

We truly became a family.

I worked hard to readjust to this world. From being barely able to speak at first, to being able to sit up and eat and drink on my own, and then to getting out of bed to walk and exercise, I only took one year.

My attending doctor described me as a resilient sunflower.

She said Chen Du was my sun, and as long as he was by my side, I seemed to fear nothing.

I told her, Chen Du was the same.

I was also his sun.

The process of treating cancer was extremely painful. During that time, Chen Du was almost tormented beyond recognition.

But he was even stronger than me, even calmer.

On many nights, I held his increasingly thin body, watching the cold sweat soaking his pale face, I couldn’t help but cry silently, afraid he couldn’t hold on.

But he just quietly looked at me and smiled, gently held me, kissed me, and remained unbelievably calm.

He said he wasn’t afraid at all. As long as I was here, he was full of hope for the future.

Surgery, chemotherapy, all kinds of targeted medicines…

He bravely tried everything possible. No matter how painful or humiliating the process was, he wasn’t afraid.

Chen Du, who was excellent at math, the top science student of a small town, a graduate of Lin University’s computer science department, for my sake, calculated the ten percent probability and did everything he could to cooperate with the doctors, pushing that probability higher.

In the fifth year of his recovery, we finally saw the light.

After that check-up, the doctor said the tumor markers and immune system in Chen Du’s body had returned to normal, and there were no signs of metastasis.

After surviving the five-year mark, the probability of recurrence was very low. In the future, regular check-ups would be enough.

That meant he succeeded.

I succeeded.

I kept him.

After coming out of the hospital, I framed that MRI scan.

Chen Du was speechless. He thought the thing looked creepy but couldn’t resist my pestering and helped me hang it at the highest spot in the room.

“How could it be creepy,” I touched his nose and leaned in to kiss him, “I want to look at it every day. I’m so happy, Chen Du.”

Chen Du let out a soft “Mm” and held me in his arms.

“Shi Li,” he paused for two seconds and suddenly said, “I love you.”

This was the first time I heard Chen Du say this “secret” out loud since I woke up.

He had recovered.

So he finally dared to say it.

Even though I already knew.

I smiled and replied, “Oh, then thank you.”

I didn’t say that I loved him too.

Actually, it was a bit hard for me to say. My personality is like that. Saying things like this makes me feel awkward.

But I think he must know.

My secret.

I also love Chen Du very much.

I love Chen Du so much.

I fought so hard to live, for him. I am full of attachment to this cruel world, because of him.

My future is him.

*

Lin University never accepted Chen Du’s resignation letter. After hearing about his illness, teachers and students from the school visited him many times and encouraged him to keep going.

In the third year after the surgery, Chen Du returned to his job.

Colleagues at Lin University said Professor Chen’s temper had improved a lot. He had become more gentle. When students greeted him, he actually smiled back. Even the homework he assigned in class became easier.

Chen Du was no longer the devil professor of the computer department.

Many students knew what happened, and they whispered behind his back—

Professor Chen got married.

Professor Chen is love-struck.

When I heard this, I was quite pleased.

That’s right, Chen Du is totally love-struck. To Chen Du, I am his binary switch.

Another five years passed. I finished my master’s degree and became a newspaper editor—an editor who doesn’t make subordinates revise drafts eight hundred times.

The TimeShip model hit a bottleneck. After many rounds of R&D with no breakthrough, the company specially hired Chen Du as their technical advisor and gave him shares accordingly.

We gained a fortune we never imagined having when we were young.

We bought that house in Jing Shui District, the one I liked from the very beginning.

Chen Du placed a super beautiful and super expensive princess bed in our room.

He pampered me like a princess. At one point, I felt I was getting out of control, my personality becoming more spoiled, more fragile, getting upset over the smallest things.

I thought this wasn’t a good thing, but Chen Du thought it was wonderful.

During that time, we had two children.

One took his surname, one took mine.

Just like that, without any dramatic ups and downs, we lived together for decades.

After surviving cancer, Chen Du’s health was still not great. Even though I always dragged him to exercise, as he got older, his body indeed wasn’t like a normal person’s.

Sensitive to cold, needing to eat bland food, loving hot water…

I accommodated him. I don’t know from which year it started, but our roles reversed. I became the head of the household, and he became the fragile, delicate “child.”

During the rainy season, I would remember to bring him an extra jacket. I even learned how to make porridge, packed it in a thermos for him to take to class.

The winters in Beilin were very cold. Sometimes Professor Chen had late classes, and I would drive to pick him up, taking him for a haircut or to buy clothes on the way.

In our later years, I cared for him the same way he had once cared for me.

After Chen Du passed away before me, I was only briefly sad.

Even though the doctors told me that my so-called “underworld experience” was just brain activity in a near-death state, I didn’t believe them.

I knew it wasn’t a dream.

My 120,000 is still in my underworld account. I don’t need reincarnation qualifications. I plan to hand over that huge amount to the underworld supervisor and ask him to assign me to the same region as Chen Du.

I also secretly burned money for Chen Du. I know he will wait for me in that world.

As long as I live well and happily, without disappointing or worrying him, I know—

No matter how long it takes, he will obediently wait for me.

It’s okay. This is just another separation with an end.

Every day, I carefully tidy my white hair in front of the mirror and pin on the crystal hairclip he gave me.

Secretly looking forward to reunion.

°.✩┈┈∘*┈˃̶୨୧˂̶┈*∘┈┈✩.°

【Author’s Note】

Thank you for reading up to this point.

I’ve never written a short story before. I was nervous before writing it. I started with the mindset of practicing, so in the synopsis, I said it would update at random, and that I was just writing for fun, trying to lower my expectations.

But as I kept writing, day by day, these two people slowly grew beyond what I had initially created for them. Like many of you, I often cried for their love.

Many times I felt I wasn’t good enough, couldn’t write out their souls, but I did my best. I hope everyone enjoyed reading.

This kind of beautiful ending may not be very realistic, but I’d rather write a super unrealistic fairy tale than let them be separated. I feel so soft-hearted toward them.

I believe that in another parallel world, Shi Li and Chen Du will be reunited in every lifetime.