Nancheng, late May.
It was an old, walk-up residential building with over twenty years of history. The dim stairwell lights flickered, and the iron handrails below were stripped of paint, mottled with rust.
At this moment, the stairwell echoed with a boy’s breathless and resentful voice—
“That old bastard… found another mistress outside. And my mom, just so it wouldn’t affect my gaokao [college entrance exams], is actually pretending they’re still deeply in love…”
As a fat guy who panted after taking just two steps, Zhou Ze felt like he was going to lose his life by the time he climbed to the fifth floor. Carrying two people’s backpacks, he used both his hands and feet, barely keeping up with the boy in front of him.
“So, Yan Xun, I told my mom I wouldn’t go back before the gaokao and would just stay at your place for tutoring…”
“Fine.”
Yan Xun, walking ahead, sounded completely flat. He was carrying a ten-kilogram bag of rice in one hand, yet his steps seemed much lighter than Zhou Ze’s.
Because his mother was in poor health, Yan Xun took care of all the chores that required physical effort.
Pausing, he added:
“You’re sleeping on the floor. Accommodation is thirty a day, tutoring is twenty a day.”
Zhou Ze used an exaggerated tone: “The top student in our grade tutoring me… pant… for only twenty a day? How about we add two zeros?”
Yan Xun glanced back at him. “If you have too much money and don’t want it, you can donate it.”
“…”
As they spoke, the two reached the sixth floor.
Yan Xun took his backpack back from Zhou Ze and pulled out his keys to unlock the door. At the same time, the latter pinched his voice and started shouting—
“Auntie Lin, I’m here~”
Yan Xun’s mother’s surname was Lin. Or rather, his adoptive mother’s surname was Lin.
Click.
The door opened from the inside. The woman squinted for a long while before recognizing Zhou Ze.
“Oh my, Xiao Ze is here.”
Yan Xun’s adoptive mother was forty-five years old this year. She was very thin, and due to years of excessive overwork, she had grown quite a bit of white hair, her wrinkles deeply pronounced. But you could still vaguely see the delicate beauty of her youth in her features.
Zhou Ze smiled playfully. “Of course, it’s because I missed you~”
Mother Lin was very welcoming: “Come in, come in, quickly. You must be hungry, Auntie will make you some midnight snacks.”
Yan Xun was already used to this. He put down the bag of rice, glanced at the electronic watch on his wrist, and reminded her:
“Keep it down.”
The high school seniors finished their evening self-study at ten, and it was almost eleven now.
“Relax.”
Zhou Ze waved his hand dismissively after seeing Mother Lin enter the kitchen.
“Relax, that guy definitely isn’t asleep right now. He’s a night owl.”
“That guy” referred to Lin Ran, Yan Xun’s older brother. He was twenty-one, and the biological son of his adoptive parents.
Yan Xun thought about it and planned to call Lin Ran out to eat something together.
This old apartment had three bedrooms. Lin Ran occupied the master bedroom with an en-suite bathroom, his adoptive mother lived in the slightly smaller second bedroom, and Yan Xun lived in the smallest room.
Knock, knock.
Yan Xun knocked lightly on the master bedroom door:
“Mom is making midnight snacks, do you want…”
“Don’t bother me, get lost!”
The young man’s angry voice came from inside.
Before he even finished speaking, a heavy crash came from the room.
Bang—!
It didn’t sound like something breaking, but rather the dull thud of a person falling heavily to the floor.
“Xiao Ran—!”
This panicked cry came from Mother Lin, who was about to make snacks in the kitchen, but Yan Xun was the first to rush into the room.
Zhou Ze didn’t get a clear look at what happened inside because Yan Xun closed the door behind him the moment he entered.
Splash…
Inside the damp bathroom, the showerhead was running, spraying water everywhere. The wheelchair had overturned, its wheels still spinning.
Lin Ran lay miserably on the floor, clinging to the sink with one hand. His amputated knees pressed against the ground, the old scars looking hideous and terrifying, rubbed red and raw against the floor.
—He was gritting his teeth, trying to get up on his own.
These two brothers really didn’t look alike.
Yan Xun’s features were cold and clean, his eyes extremely dark, as calm as a deep pool. He had the skeletal frame of a northerner—tall, straight, and broad-shouldered, standing there like a silent cedar tree.
As the older brother, Lin Ran was the exact opposite. The lines of his face were exceptionally sharp. His hair was a bit long, and with half his face hidden in the shadows of his bangs, he looked even more aggressive and gloomy, like a thorn bush covered in spikes.
At this moment, his voice sounded utterly panicked and enraged—
“Get out! Are you fucking deaf, Yan Xun? I told you to get out!”
“Get out!!!”
“…”
His non-blood-related younger brother stood at the door looking at him for a few seconds. First, he went to turn off the water, then righted the overturned wheelchair.
“If you keep throwing a fit, Mom will cry all night,” Yan Xun said, long accustomed to this. “Her eyes are already bad.”
“…”
This sentence was delivered lightly, but it stabbed like a sharp knife right into Lin Ran’s throat. He turned his head away, gritted his teeth, and stopped talking.
Only then did Yan Xun walk over and pick up the soaking wet young man.
Lin Ran had no lower legs and was extremely thin, making him very light to carry. His body was cold, wet, and stiff, like a kitten losing body heat.
Fifteen minutes later, the master bedroom door reopened.
As soon as Yan Xun came out, he met his adoptive mother’s eyes, which were filled with anxiety and worry.
“Mom, brother is fine.”
He lowered his eyes and explained, “He just accidentally knocked over the wheelchair.”
As Yan Xun spoke, he soundlessly pulled the bedroom door open a crack. The anxious mother immediately leaned in—
The eldest son who had just lost his temper was indeed already in bed. As if knowing she would peek, he turned his back to the door, stingily revealing only the back of his head.
But this was enough to put a mother’s heart at ease.
“Oh, he’s asleep…”
“He’s asleep, that’s good… that’s good…”
Mother Lin turned to hold Yan Xun’s hand, gripping it tightly, her eyes red.
“Thank you, Xiao Xun, for troubling you… it’s always troubling you…”
Every time Lin Ran threw a tantrum, she would speak to Yan Xun with this kind of polite, guilty tone.
“But you know, Mom is useless, and your dad is… moreover, your brother lost his legs when he was a kid. This is how his life is going to be.”
Yan Xun stood there, silently listening to the lines he could almost recite from memory—
“But Xiao Xun, you’re different from him. You’ve been smart and sensible since you were a kid, and you’re great at studying. The teachers all say you’ll definitely have a bright future. So don’t hold it against him. In the future, he’ll still have to rely on…”
At this point, it was Zhou Ze who dug at his ear, finding it a bit hard to listen to. He directly pulled Yan Xun away and pushed him toward the washroom.
“Ah, Auntie Lin, let’s skip the midnight snack. I suddenly remembered I’m on a diet. Besides, it’s so late now, we’re going to wash up and go to sleep.”
“…”
Mother Lin’s expression stiffened, seeming like she wanted to say something else, but Zhou Ze had already closed the door.
Bang—
As soon as the door closed, Zhou Ze’s face dropped, but he didn’t say anything. He hurriedly washed up and went straight back to make his floor bed.
Yan Xun’s room was genuinely small. Besides an old, single small wardrobe and a bunk bed with a desk underneath, there was nothing else.
The desk was mostly covered in books. A ten-yuan fluorescent tube taped above it served as a desk lamp, and right in the center underneath lay an old photo frame.
Inside the frame was a family portrait of Yan Xun’s family of four. Zhou Ze had to look at it every time he came over, because in the photo, eight-year-old Yan Xun was bald, wearing a jade Guanyin pendant around his neck, looking fair and clean like a little monk.
The little monk had his hand held by his adoptive mother, but he still stood cautiously a step away. He pursed his lips and smiled at the camera, even the small dimples at the corners of his mouth looking a bit timid, appearing nervous and uneasy.
Meanwhile, eleven-year-old Lin Ran’s trouser legs were already empty. He was being held in his father’s arms, surrounded lovingly by his parents right in the middle.
Even so, Lin Ran was crying endlessly. He lay on his father’s shoulder, revealing only a pair of wet, red, sorrowful, and hateful eyes.
Zhou Ze had disliked Yan Xun’s eccentric brother since they were kids, so his gaze only swept over Lin Ran for a second before returning to the little bald head’s face.
After looking at it for a moment, Zhou Ze couldn’t help but turn back and ask him:
“Yan Xun, were you really never a monk when you were a kid?”
“…I just lived in a temple for a while.”
Yan Xun closed the door.
He had just taken a quick shower. His blue-and-white school uniform had been replaced by a loose black tank top. Just like in that photo from years ago, a small jade Guanyin pendant hung around his neck.
Zhou Ze’s voice sounded quite regretful: “Oh, I thought you were really a little monk.”
“Then I’ll have to disappoint you.”
As Yan Xun spoke, he raised his hand and grabbed the short post at the head of the bed. At the same time, the muscle lines on the teenager’s exposed arm tightened and rippled with the movement, exuding a certain silent sense of strength.
The next second, he silently flipped himself up onto the top bunk.
Zhou Ze was used to this sight. He casually shouted, “Brother Yan is awesome,” and then continued setting up his nest.
This room was too small, so even sleeping on the floor wasn’t very spacious.
But Zhou Ze, who was used to living in a big villa, didn’t mind. He skillfully made his floor bed, turned off the light, and lay down just like that.
There was no air conditioning in the room, just an old small fan whirring and spinning. Light from a billboard outside fell in through the window, casting a thin, mottled layer of light and shadow on the wall.
As well as the shadow of little fatty Zhou’s bulging belly.
Lying on the top bunk, Yan Xun stared at it for a while and finally couldn’t help but say:
“Zhou Ze, you really should lose some weight.”
“…”
Little fatty Zhou felt a bit guilty, but was very indignant:
“Just wait until I slim down, I’ll definitely captivate thousands of young girls. Getting famous all over Asia isn’t impossible either.”
“Sure, wait until you’re famous all over Asia.”
Yan Xun’s tone was dismissive.
“But for now, focus your mind on the gaokao first.”
“So annoying, why are you exactly like my mom.”
Zhou Ze rolled over and immediately changed the subject.
“Hey! Yan Xun, which university are you going to?”
As the undisputed top student at Nancheng Seventh High, basically as long as Yan Xun performed normally, he could pick any university in the country.
“—Capital University, probably.”
Yan Xun didn’t have to think much about this answer; he had obviously decided a long time ago.
“Hmm…”
Zhou Ze wasn’t surprised either, but he suddenly let out a cheeky laugh.
“Hehe, little Xun-xun, do you want to go to Capital University because a certain someone is there?”
Yan Xun’s tone remained unchanged: “What are you trying to say?”
“Don’t play dumb with your daddy! You like that senior who got into Capital U, right? She’s two years older than us. Back when she graduated, she even came to our class to look for you.”
Zhou Ze’s smile grew increasingly wretched, wriggling on the floor like a maggot: “So you’re a sister-con, huh…”
Yan Xun: “…”
Smack!
A book was thrown down from above.
“—If you spout any more nonsense, you can roll back home right now.”
Zhou Ze clutched the bump on his head and finally shut up. But just a moment later, Yan Xun heard his voice faintly drifting up from below again.
“Xun, what do you want to do after the gaokao?”
“Make money.”
Late-night chats with a good friend always made people voice out the things they kept hidden in their hearts during the day.
Yan Xun said, “I want to get Lin Ran the best pair of prosthetics, so he can stand up, walk, run, and go see the outside world.”
“Then take my mom to get her eyes treated, get my dad a grave with better feng shui, and…”
Speaking up to here, he paused and said in a completely serious tone:
“If there’s any money left over, I’ll send you to a weight-loss boot camp.”
Zhou Ze: “…Thanks, but no thanks.”
In the darkness, the teenager on the top bunk laughed silently. He turned his head to count the stars outside the window.
This small city was not very developed in terms of economy and industry, and precisely because of this, its night sky was beautiful.
After a long silence, Yan Xun suddenly asked:
“What about you, Zhou Ze?”
“Me?”
Zhou Ze was brimming with confidence.
“Didn’t I tell you? I’m definitely going to be a massive star famous all over Asia. If you stick with me, you’ll definitely eat well and drink well!”
“…Alright, big star. When we run the 1000 meters in gym class tomorrow, remember to manage your image.”
“No can do. Tomorrow I have to skip class first to find my mom a badass divorce lawyer.”
Yan Xun sneered. “Don’t push your mom to come to school wielding a meat cleaver.”
“She wouldn’t, I’m her biological son!”
“…”
The whirring old fan echoed the cicadas outside the window as the two people in the room chatted randomly, their topics jumping all over the place.
Until the very end, when Yan Xun was so sleepy he couldn’t take it anymore, he put on his eye mask and prepared to actually sleep:
“Alright, go to sleep. We still have to get up at six tomorrow.”
“…”
Zhou Ze yawned, his voice sounding dead tired too, as he mumbled a question—
“Yan Xun, you’re making money for all of them, but what about you?”
“When you grow up, what do you want to do…”
“…”
Me?
When I grow up…
Yan Xun was already too sleepy to keep his eyes open. This question was like a drop of water falling into a deep pool; besides a tiny ripple, there was no other reaction.
·
“Beep… beep… beep…”
The sound of the alarm clock seemed to have been put on slow motion. It didn’t even sound like an alarm clock, but more like some kind of machinery in a hospital.
A faint smell of disinfectant drifted over from who knows where, first entering the tip of his nose, then penetrating deep into his lungs.
This is really a nightmare.
Yan Xun thought.
He tried hard to break free, but his eyelids felt like they weighed a ton, and his head hurt a lot.
It hurt a lot.
Like he had been viciously struck by something heavy.
Maybe he struggled for ten-odd minutes, maybe for a few hours. Yan Xun didn’t know how much time had passed, but when he finally opened his eyes, the ceiling he saw was unfamiliar.
This wasn’t his room, nor was it his home.
Where is this?
“…You’re awake?”
A nurse stood by his bed, her tone filled with astonishment.
Yan Xun felt incredibly dizzy, his vision completely blurred. He couldn’t make out her face at all, but he could hear her particularly excited voice:
“Quick! Go call Dr. Wang, Mr. Yan is awake!”
“The one who was in a coma from the car accident?”
“Yes, yes, yes, he’s finally awake! Hurry, notify the family immediately!”
“…”
Yan Xun heard many people’s voices and heard them say many things. It was just that although he was awake now, his mind was still foggy, and he couldn’t clearly grasp what exactly those people meant.
Yan Xun only knew he was in a hospital.
He thought groggily, maybe he suddenly came down with some severe illness in the middle of the night?
Is the harm of staying up late once really this huge?
Looks like he shouldn’t chat late into the night with Zhou Ze anymore.
Who knows how much the medical bills will be. It’s probably very expensive…
Yan Xun’s mind was a mess, countless thoughts flashing through his head.
It wasn’t until several hours later that he was finally somewhat clear-headed and able to move his limbs—
By this time, Yan Xun’s attending physician had completed a preliminary examination on him.
“For now, your condition looks good, but just to be safe, we’ll need to do some more detailed checkups. Oh, right, the fracture in your left leg still needs time to heal.”
The doctor comforted him gently, “It takes a hundred days for injured bones and tendons to heal, after all.”
“…Fracture?”
Yan Xun lifted his head with difficulty and finally saw his left leg wrapped in a plaster cast.
He broke his leg?
He fell out of bed in the middle of the night???
Yan Xun didn’t realize he had spoken this sentence out loud until he saw the look of sheer astonishment on the doctor’s face.
“What falling out of bed, you were in a car crash!”
Yan Xun: “…?”
Car crash???
Perhaps because Yan Xun’s gaze was too shocked and bewildered, the doctor’s expression turned thoughtful before gradually becoming serious.
“What is your name?”
“Yan Xun.”
Dr. Wang’s expression relaxed slightly, and he asked again:
“How old are you this year?”
“Eighteen.”
“…”
Dr. Wang’s face darkened, and even the expressions of the two nurses behind him grew a bit odd.
He asked, “What year is it?”
Yan Xun answered, “2015.”
Whoosh—
The air suddenly grew quiet, then heavy.
Yan Xun didn’t understand why, but vaguely felt that something was terribly wrong. At this moment, a nurse behind couldn’t help but speak up:
“It’s 2022.”
She even pulled out her phone to show him the date displayed on it—
September 13, 2022.
Yan Xun’s brain crashed: “…”
Perhaps seeing that he remembered nothing, Dr. Wang kindly informed him:
“Here’s the situation: you were in a car accident and have been in a coma. But you’re fine now, and we just called your xiansheng [mister]…”
“Wait!”
Before the doctor could finish, Yan Xun interrupted him directly,
“My xiansheng? Which xiansheng of mine?”
This inquiry sounded as if he were asking, “Which teacher of mine?” or “Which wife of mine?”
The gentle-looking nurse beside them couldn’t hold back a laugh.
Dr. Wang, on the other hand, patiently explained:
“It means your husband.”
“Husband?!”
Yan Xun’s mind went blank for a second.
“What does… husband mean?”
This was simply even harder for Yan Xun to comprehend than the fact that today wasn’t 2015 but 2022.
But just as he uttered these words, the gazes of Dr. Wang and the nurses suddenly unified. They looked at Yan Xun with pity, as if looking at an intellectually disabled patient who had lost his capacity for comprehension after a car crash.
Ultimately, Dr. Wang was kind-hearted, and he still patiently explained it to him in the end:
“The meaning of husband is, well, your hubby.”
Yan Xun: “…………”
i dont like how that friend of his talks abt his disabled brother.. hmmm