Editor: Whiteflare

  Even without having to lift his head up, Qi Jing knew that at that instant, all blood left the woman’s face.

  There was no need to look at her, only looking at her legs was enough—the shoes that had just been rubbing away on the floor suddenly stopped, the tendons and veins on her instep showing as her feet flexed, her whole body taut.

  Only after seeing this did Qi Jing decide to continue talking.

  “These years I’m basically all by myself, and I don’t really call them anymore since either way they would hang up after a few sentences from me.” Even if it was to aid his “interview”, what Qi Jing was saying was mostly true, just like his feelings. “To be fair, it’s not like I can’t fend for myself. I have a job, a salary, so I can provide for my food and lodging, I’m not living poorly…… It’s just that during every New Year, when my colleagues go back to visit their families, it would be a lie to say that I didn’t feel pain.”


  Saying this, his right hand rested on the cast on his left arm, reminding his listener of what had happened.

  “You’re also staying in the hospital too, so can you imagine how I felt when after waking up from a narcosis, I woke up on a hospital bed and none of my family came to visit me?”


  The woman’s flexed feet slowly dropped, once again resting on the floor, as if she got captured by his words.

  Qi Jing lowered his head slightly and took a deep breath.

  When he recollected the experiences of that time, even though he did so with a purpose in mind, he still couldn’t help his feelings from getting somewhat affected. He warned himself not to get trapped too deeply in his memories, to not go to the point where he wouldn’t be able to come back.

  “But I’m still quite fortunate, because I had already graduated from college by the time I left my home. After all, I was an adult, so I could still take it, no matter if it were financially or psychologically.”


  At that part, he paused briefly, once again peering towards the woman’s feet.

  “Compared to the children who get abandoned by their parents at a young age, this sort of pain…… it’s not even that much—” Qi Jing said slowly.

  The woman’s legs jerked violently.

  If it wasn’t concrete below her feet but mud, maybe one would see two deep marks gashed into the floor like the scars—just like how those words gashed the scars on the woman’s heart.

  She turned her head away, gasping shallowly without pause, her two hands pulling on one of the knots of her hospital clothes, wrapping her fingers tightly with the cord.

  Then, Qi Jing suddenly smiled calmly, changing the subject as if nothing happened.

  “Auntie, I have a spare breakfast here, would You like to have a bite?”


  The woman was still faltering, staring at him as if she lost her soul, momentarily forgetting how to string words together and thus unable to reply.

  Qi Jing stayed silent, only moving quietly to take out and open the lunch box from his bag.

  The insulation of the lunch box wasn’t bad, so the food inside was still warm. On the top layer, there were a few slices of egg roll, corn and mashed potatoes, as well as a few nutritional cereal biscuits, and under it, there was also half a box of congee with preserved egg and lean meat.

  He didn’t wait for the woman to refuse, passing the box over with a smile as he said, “I just ate a breakfast from a stall outside today. At that time, I didn’t know my friend would come over to bring me breakfast. I didn’t touch the food here, it’s completely clean, so it would be a pity for it to go to waste—auntie, don’t stand on courtesy, take a bite.”


  From his lengthy words, the one that the woman caught was “friend”. Caught by a surprise, she lifted her head quickly to look straight at Qi Jing.

  “Friend……” She repeated mechanically.

  Qi Jing met her eyes without any wavering, carefully analysing the feelings behind that stare.

  He couldn’t judge exactly what feelings they were, the only things he could tell was that they were now in a great turmoil.

  “Ah,” He suddenly exclaimed shortly, making a face as if he had just remembered something, “That’s right, auntie, You’ve seen my friend, it’s the one who helped you yesterday—”


  The woman sucked in a mouthful of breath, almost letting the lunch box in her hands drop to the floor. She got hold of it with much difficulty, but her hands kept shaking.

  “He…… was here?” Even though he knew that she was in the hospital, and even came here, but still didn’t come to see her.

  “Mhm, he came over.” Qi Jing’s expression didn’t change.

  “When……”


  “Probably some half an hour ago,” Qi Jing made up a lie according to the situation, then added a few thought up details, “But he was a bit strange today, he called me to see him at the entrance of the hospital, not wanting to come in himself. Moreover…… his complexion didn’t look good, after passing over the things, he left right away.”


  “His complexion didn’t look good…… what does that mean?” The woman’s voice started to shake along with her hands.

  “His state of mind appeared very bad,” Qi Jing frowned slightly&#k2014;this time, what he said wasn’t a lie, but while narrating, he chose the details selectively, also adding some from himself, “But I don’t know what had happened. Ever since yesterday, he didn’t want to talk and when I asked him what happened, he wouldn’t answer. But&#k2014;”


  He intentionally stopped right there, as if unable to say his thoughts.

  “But what?” The suspense worked very well; the woman quickly raised her head.

  Interviewing was both easy and hard; it consisted of only two things—questions and answers.

  It took great consideration to ask the right questions, and answers didn’t necessarily have to be obtained as a result of the question itself—they could also be drawn out. The woman wasn’t a person who would easily reply to questioning, so he had to change the method a bit, luring out the information he wanted to hear.

  Qi Jing heaved a long sigh. “In the middle of last night, he suddenly called me…… He sounded drunk or something, his mind wasn’t very clear. At first, I only heard him choking with sobs, then later he began to cry hysterically. I got scared to death, but being in the hospital, I really couldn’t do anything besides listening and trying to console him. In the end, he lost his voice from crying, but still didn’t want to tell me what happened.”


  The woman sat like a figurine, moving stiffly as she lowered her head.

  When she actually heard him saying this, she didn’t seem so agitated anymore, her gaze completely empty and hollow.

  Next, she did something Qi Jing hadn’t expected at all—she took a part of the egg roll from the box, putting it with shaky hands by her lips, pushing all of it inside, as if afraid of wasting even the tiniest bit.

  Qi Jing was taken by surprise, for a moment unable to describe what he was feeling at the moment.

  He asked in a low voice, “Auntie, does it taste good?”


  The woman didn’t say a thing, only nodding her head slightly.

  Qi Jing noticed that the moment she nodden, something fell down, flickering in the midair before landing in the lunch box.

  He slowly breathed out, not knowing if in the end, he could say the rest with a clear conscience.

  “It’s very good, right? My friend, he…… honestly, he’s just like his cooking, a very good person. But You probably wouldn’t believe that he had told me before that he went through the same thing as me. I really couldn’t believe him at that time—I couldn’t believe, why would his parents have a heart to abandon such a good person? How could an abandoned child grow up into such a considerate person that would take others in, taking care of them instead?”


  Saying this, he laughed and explained, “Ah, he’s a veterinarian and saved a lot of animals. He’s very compassionate, don’t you think?”


  —He even saved me.Remembering the past, the look in his eyes softened without him noticing.

  The woman slowly lifted her head, not at all bothered that Qi Jing would see two traces of tears on her cheeks, nor did she care about how unsightly, how wretched she looked while crying.

  Qi Jing’s expression was composed as he met her eyes.

  “I just want to know, have those people who abandoned him then…… have they ever felt any sort of remorse. What would You say?”


  The woman blinked, forcing the tears in her eyes back, once again scrutinising the young man before her. The clear rays of morning winter sunlight fell on Qi Jing’s face through the windows, his temperament just like when she met him for the first time. Only the gaze he met her with changed a bit, now more straightforward and penetrating.

  She opened mouth, her voice hoarse, “You, you actually know who I am…… Right?”


  Qi Jing didn’t reply, only giving her a silent, gentle smile.

  A message came with a “ding”.

  Shen Yan trembled slightly. Even though he heard the message notification, he didn’t have the courage to take out his phone and check its content.

  He subconsciously looked at a clock on the clinic’s wall. It was almost noon—there was no one else who would send him messages at this time. But upon remembering that at this time, that person was in the hospital, leading a conversation he had no way of predicting the outcome of, he felt terribly insecure.

  He spent almost all of the morning in the surgical room. Surgery required the utmost attention and his phone, as the only means of contact, was left in the office room, letting him focus on the work, so for a certain amount of time, he didn’t have to think about it.

  Unfortunately, the time would come when he had to face it—


  Hesitant, he paced a few steps around the ward, and suddenly, his gaze landed on that puppy who got abandoned by its owner after getting hit by a car.

  The puppy’s recovery was going pretty well. It spent much more time awake this day than the day before and had gotten its appetite back; it’s just, its ears were still down, drooping listlessly on the sides of its head. But despite that, when Shen Yan reached out to pat it, it still lifted its head, licking his fingers gently.

  As if encouraged, Shen Yan’s eyes flickered slightly, then he chuckled, bitterly and at a loss.

  Finally, he opened the message box interface.

  【Benign.】


  —The result of the pathology report.

  It was just a single-word message, but the emotions it evoked made him choke. His feelings tangled messily and he gripped the phone with both his hands tightly, gasping quietly as he slowly lowered his head against it.

  Even the puppy on the hospital bed looked up at him curiously, woofing at him faintly in dismay.

  “Thank God……” that it’s benign.From the bottom of his heart, he was happy for this result—he couldn’t deny this feeling, nor did he feel ashamed of it.

  It was a fact that he had been hurt deeply by his mother.

  But he just couldn’t bring himself to harbour ill will towards her, to look forward to her getting the malignant result, her struggling alone in pain as she entered the late stage of her life, forever unable to find peace.

  His grandpa wouldn’t want him to become such a person.

  Neither would Qi Jing.

  “Huu……” Thinking of Qi Jing, Shen Yan gradually settled down, his breathing finally reverting to the usual, calm rhythm.

  Since Qi Jing could send him the examination result, he probably had just talked with the doctor or maybe…… talked with his mother herself.

  Just as he was wavering, his phone rang first, scaring him silly.

  “Hello?”


  “Hm?” The nervousness in his voice probably got heard through the call since the caller chuckled languidly, “What happened, are you still restless despite the examination result?”


  Shen Yan shook his head instinctively, even though the other wasn’t even by his side to see. He was still restless about some things, but they were unrelated to the woman’s health condition.

  “Did she……” meet with you?

  “She’s sitting by my side just now,” As if well-versed in mind reading, Qi Jing answered him calmly, and when he heard Shen Yan’s breathing stop momentarily, he added encouragingly with a faint smile, “The breakfast you made…… Auntie already ate it all; she even said it was delicious.”


  Only now did Shen Yan realise why Qi Jing had packed the leftover breakfast.

  But he was unable to react to what Qi Jing had said for quite a while, as if having stepped in a cotton field, walking a few steps ahead in a stupor, unable to tell where he was placed in this reality.

  Not hearing him speak for a long while, Qi Jing continued softly, “We’ve been talking for a couple of hours already, I told her a lot of stuff…… Most of it was about my family, then about all kinds of social incidents I heard in different channels these years, domestic cases and so on. I let her know that she’s not alone in her experiences.”


  A short pause, then he continued speaking. “But, at most I can tell her of myself. Even with my experiences and feelings, I can’t replace you. Only you have the right to voice your real thoughts—in this matter, I’m only an outsider, so the rest will depend on the both of you.”


  “Mhm……” Shen Yan breathed heavily and answered with difficulty.

  “Shen Yan,” Qi Jing said in a low voice, “There are some things she wants to tell you directly, and those things can only be said face-to-face—would you come after you’re off work?”


  Usual enterprises or companies would let their employees clock off earlier on Friday afternoons, but it was exactly the opposite for the veterinarian clinics, since many pet owners would choose this time to bring their “children” over. This meant that it was always the second busiest day of the week for the clinic, just after Saturday.

  Shen Yan had no way of getting off work, moreover there were some surgeries that had already been planned ahead of time, so leaving his post wouldn’t do him any good; he could only leave the work when his shift ended.

  Still, his feelings were more shaken than ever before.

  After 4 o’clock, he was still writing the details for an emergency call information before the ward doors, but Qi Jing had actually already come from the hospital to the clinic. He stood in the corridor, smiling as he waved at Shen Yan, catching him completely off guard.

  “Qi Jing?” Shen Yan called his name in surprise, even thinking that he might have gotten the wrong person.

  “I came early.” Qi Jing replied with a chuckle as he came over. But there were still nurses and clients walking down the corridor, so he didn’t move too close, just stopping by Shen Yan’s side, covertly rubbing against the other’s knuckles with his pinky. “I told her everything I had to say already, plus…… She needed some time alone, so she could prepare herself mentally.”


  Prepare herself mentally.

  Upon hearing this phrase, the light in Shen Yan’s eyes flickered slightly—he himself wasn’t sure whether he was enough mentally prepared or not. After all, Qi Jing clearly wanted them to meet one-to-one.

  Qi Jing cocked his head, observing him for a spell, still smiling. “I found a nice restaurant near the hospital, they have small individual rooms and the food isn’t half bad. I guessed that you would get to the hospital around dinnertime, so I already reserved seats for both of you. I wrote down the address for you, so take your time having dinner with Auntie and talking with her.”


  As he spoke, he took out the memo with the restaurant’s address from his pocket. “And another thing, when I was doing a report in the public hospital, I got to know some of the administrators there. I asked them to arrange a private sickroom for her tonight, then for permission for the family members to stay overnight to tend to her. You stay with her for a night; this way you won’t have to worry about the time limit for family visits or stuff like that.”


  “Qi Jing,” Upon hearing this, Shen Yan said in a hoarse voice, “Thank you. Thank you for everything you’ve done.”


  Qi Jing looked down, half-smiling. Suddenly, he said out of nowhere, “You come closer for a bit, I have something private to tell you.”


  Confused, Shen Yan really lowered his head.

  Qi Jing scanned their surroundings—everyone was busy, no one took heed of them, so all at once, he pulled Shen Yan down by his collar, planting a kiss on his cheek with a “chu”.

  When he lifted his head, he saw Shen Yan making a silly face from surprise—Qi Jing couldn’t help it, he put his forehead against Shen Yan’s shoulder, giggling for quite a while.

  It lasted until the sound of a nurse’s steps came from behind the corner. Only then did he purse his lips, stuffing the paper with the address into Shen Yan’s hand and taking a step back with a smile in his eyes.

  “Good luck.”


  “Mn……” Shen Yan instinctively lifted his hand to touch the place that had just been kissed, replying with a low hum.

  Qi Jing took another three steps back, his silhouette gradually melting into the light coming from the windows at the end of the corridor—no longer so clear, but Shen Yan could still feel his presence there before him.

  In the end, Qi Jing said one thing. “If you want me to go with you, then just say so. I can go there again.”


  Shen Yan held the memo in his hand tighter, keeping silent for a moment, but he still shook his head lightly, “No, I think I’d rather go by myself.”


  Saying this, a bit of dejectedness slipped into his voice without him noticing.

  “I’m sorry, Qi Jing…… I don’t know how far I will go talking with my mom and how long it will take. I’m afraid that for your two auditions tonight, I won’t be able to—”


  “You actually worried about that,” Qi Jing chuckled helplessly, “Dummy, you can listen to the audition anytime you want, this now is more important.”


  Shen Yan hesitated to speak. “When I first registered, I told you that I wanted to win back one round for you, yet in the end, I forfeited.”


  Qi Jing quirked his brow, nudging his chin up as he said in a higher pitch, “I also told you when you registered that I wanted you to go and voice act with no burden on you and not to do it for anyone else. And of course, this ‘anyone else’ also includes me. What’s more, to take care of someone like Bronze Sparrow Terrace, me alone is more than enough.”


  To be fair, if Shen Yan didn’t mention him, he would have completely forgotten about the existence of the Great God Bronze Sparrow Terrace.Of course, those thoughts couldn’t be known to the Great God’s fans. At least he wouldn’t let those fans know before his public “apology” to the Great God. Because a good show needs a grand finale, doesn’t it—Qi Jing looked at the time on his wristwatch, smiling thoughtfully.

  T/N:

  Whiteflare: I’m looking forward to the face-slapping!! I really love how QJ steered the conversation with SY’s mom…… Definitely has some skills from his day job.