Lian Yu woke with a violent gasp.
Air rushed into his lungs as though he had been drowning, his chest rising and falling rapidly as his eyes snapped open. For a few seconds, he couldn't breathe properly, couldn't think properly. His gaze darted wildly around the room as if searching for something—or someone—that might anchor him to reality.
The ceiling above him was pale and unfamiliar. White. Too white.
The light hanging overhead buzzed faintly, casting a sterile glow across the room. The smell reached him next—a sharp, unmistakable scent that clung to the air and burned faintly in his nose.
Antiseptic.
His heart lurched.
Slowly, cautiously, he turned his head.
The room was quiet except for the faint hum of medical equipment and the distant echo of footsteps somewhere beyond the walls. Curtains hung half-drawn near the window, allowing thin bands of sunlight to slip through and pool softly on the tiled floor.
He was in a hospital.
The realization came slowly, like cold water pouring down his spine. Beside the bed, a figure sat slumped forward in a chair.
At first glance, it looked like someone who had fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion. The person's head rested awkwardly against the edge of the bed, arms folded loosely across the mattress as if they had been holding onto him earlier.
Short hair framed the sleeping face.
A few strands fell messily across the forehead, and when the girl shifted slightly, the light revealed something that tugged sharply at his memory—small, unmistakable canine bangs peeking out of her head, almost reaching to her eyes as she breathed quietly.
Lian Yu stared.
He could tell immediately that it was a girl.
He didn't know if she had truly been asleep or if his sudden gasp had woken her, but after a moment she stirred. Her nose scrunched faintly as she rubbed at her eyes, groggy and unguarded.
She lifted her arms as if about to stretch, but halfway through the motion she froze.
Her eyes landed on him. And widened.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Lian Yu's vision was still slightly blurred, the edges of the world soft and unfocused, but his expression was painfully clear.
Fear.
It was written plainly across his face. Not the fear of pain. Not the fear of hospitals.
Something deeper. More desperate. He was afraid.
Afraid that everything he had just experienced—the past, the second chance, the chance to see people he had buried—had all been nothing more than a dream.
Afraid that the girl who had held his hand while he drifted between life and death had only been part of that illusion.
There were three people in this world Lian Yu would willingly sacrifice his life just to see again.
Three people whose absence had hollowed his world until nothing remained but regret.
The first was his mother.
The woman who had spent her life worrying about him while he chased ambition with blind determination. The woman he had ignored countless times, brushing off her tired voice on the phone because meetings and deadlines felt more urgent. Even when the doctor warned him about the bruises on her body—signs that something was wrong—he had been too busy to look closely.
Too busy to care enough.
She had told him she would return that night. And she did. But only her body came back.
Cold and still. Never breathing again.
The second person was his sister.
The memory of her twisted painfully in his chest.
Their family had been poor—desperately poor—and their father, cruel and useless, never left behind so much as a coin to ease their lives. Lian Yu had believed he was doing the right thing at the time. He had forced her into marriage.
A desperate decision made by a desperate man who believed security was more important than happiness.
Three years later, while he sat comfortably in an important meeting, his phone had rung.
They asked him to come and confirm the body.
He remembered the hospital hallway vividly—the harsh lighting, the cold silence, the doctor explaining something about the cause of death. Words like injuries, complications, investigation.
But Lian Yu had not heard them. His mind refused to understand. It was as if the world had simply decided to erase another person he loved.
And the last one—
The last person whose face haunted him even more relentlessly—
Was Ciao Ren.
If there was a murderer in her story, it was him. He had pulled the trigger himself.
Not with a gun—but with his choices.
Not only had he betrayed her by entertaining another woman's presence in their lives, he had allowed her loneliness to deepen day by day. Allowed Sujiang to circle around them like poison, whispering insecurities into Ciao Ren's heart until the bright girl he once loved slowly faded.
When the accident happened—When Ciao Ren needed him the most—He wasn't there.
He was attending a meaningless baby shower with Sujiang, celebrating with strangers neither of them even knew. And when the hospital called him…
He ignored it.
That single decision had sealed her fate.
The weight of those memories pressed so heavily on him that his hands trembled slightly against the hospital sheets.
He was terrified.
Terrified that if he blinked, the illusion would shatter. That the sterile white walls would dissolve and he would find himself back in that hollow house again—the one filled with nothing but silence and incense smoke.
The house where three memorial photographs stood side by side.
His mother. His sister. Ciao Ren.
Three faces smiling forever from frames while he knelt before them like a sinner begging forgiveness from the dead.
So he didn't blink.
He simply stared at the girl beside his bed, his heart pounding wildly in his chest, afraid that even the smallest movement might drag him back to that lonely, unforgiving reality.
___
"Didi… are you alright?"
The voice cut gently through the haze in Lian Yu's mind, pulling him out of the dark whirlpool of memories he had been drowning in.
He blinked hard.
Once. Twice.
As if sheer willpower might force the world to reveal its truth.
For a moment, he feared the girl beside him would vanish the way dreams always did—like mist dissolving under sunlight. His breath caught in his throat as his vision sharpened.
But when he opened his eyes again, she was still there. Sitting right beside him.
Alive.
Her brows were drawn together in concern, her short hair slightly messy from sleep. The hospital light above them softened the sharpness of her features, but it did nothing to hide the familiar cute bangs that peeked out whenever she spoke.
"Ji… jie?" he asked carefully, leaning forward. "Jie? Is that you?"
Lian Yu stared at her as though she were something impossible.
Then she smiled.
It was the same mischievous smile she had worn since childhood—warm, teasing, a little crooked. Without warning, she flicked his forehead lightly with her finger.
"If it's not me, who else would it be?" she said. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Her tone shifted slightly as worry crept back in.
"How could you suddenly have a cardiac arrest? You weren't born with heart disease."
"Cardiac arrest…?" Lian Yu repeated slowly, the words tasting strange on his tongue.
Cici nodded, her expression tightening.
"Yes. You collapsed on campus. The doctors said your heart nearly stopped."
She hesitated for a moment before asking quietly, "Did something happen to you? Is this about Dad again?"
Lian Yu didn't answer. Instead, he simply stared at her.
Am I really back? What is happening?
His mind struggled to grasp the reality unfolding before him. Everything felt fragile, like a glass sculpture that might shatter if he moved too suddenly.
But sitting right in front of him was his sister.
Alive. Breathing. Real.
If this was some divine judgment waiting to strike him down, he would accept it gladly—because before that judgment arrived, he had already seen the three people he longed for the most.
His mother. His sister. And Ciao Ren.
The three people whose deaths had broken him beyond repair. "Jie…" His voice trembled.
"I'm sorry."
The words came out rough and uneven, as if they had been trapped inside his chest for years.
"I'm sorry for forcing you into that marriage. I'm sorry…" His hands clenched weakly against the hospital sheets. "I was too greedy. Too ambitious. I pushed you into the lion's den. You suffered so much because of me."
The confession left his lips in fragments, each sentence heavier than the last.
Cici looked at him quietly.
For a moment, she said nothing. Then she smiled again.
"It's okay," she said softly. "I understood."
She shrugged lightly, as if the matter were trivial. "You needed money. The bride price helped pay for your education. And Father was useless anyway." She waved a hand dismissively. "Let's not talk about that."
Her casual tone struck him like a blade.
So the marriage had happened after all.
The guilt in his chest tightened until it hurt.
Jie… you really were in trouble back then.
You sacrificed yourself for me. How could I have been so blind?
Before he even realized it, his arms had wrapped around her.
He hugged her tightly. Too tightly.
So tightly that Cici struggled to breathe.
But he didn't let go.
It was as if he were trying to anchor her to this world—trying to make sure she would never disappear again.
Cici froze at first.
Then slowly, her eyes filled with tears.
Because this—
This had never happened before. In all the years she had known her younger brother, Lian Yu had never hugged her.
Not once.
He had never apologized either. Not for small things, not for large ones.
The brother she remembered had always looked at her with thinly disguised disgust.
She was uneducated. Unrefined. Useless compared to him.
He had made her believe those things until she accepted them as truth.
He had even convinced her that marrying a stranger for money was the only way she could ever be useful to the family.
And yet now—
Here he was.
Clinging to her like a frightened child.
Whispering apologies with a guilt she had never imagined he could feel.
Cici had come to the hospital prepared for something else entirely. Her plan had been simple. Sit beside him quietly. Watch over him while he slept.
Then leave before he woke up—so she wouldn't make him uncomfortable.
But he woke first. And now…
Now the dam inside her heart had broken.
Tears slid down her cheeks silently as she gently patted his back, drawing slow, soothing circles the way one comforts a small child.
"It's okay," she murmured softly. "I'm here."
But Lian Yu shook his head violently.
"No… it's not okay," he choked. "I was a terrible brother. I should have protected you. I should have been there for you."
His voice broke.
"I disappointed you. I ignored you when you needed me the most. I'm sorry. If you want to hit me, slap me, curse me—anything. Just do it."
He cried openly now.
Not the restrained tears of an adult, but the raw sobs of someone who had finally realized how much damage he had caused.
Cici sniffled quietly, trying to control her own tears. She was older. She shouldn't cry like this in front of her younger brother. So she swallowed the sobs rising in her throat.
Then she gently pushed him back just enough to look at his face. Her eyes were red and puffy. Her nose twitched as she sniffed again, trying desperately not to snort—because she was still afraid he might look at her with disgust if she did.
"Then promise me something," she said quietly.
Her voice trembled.
"From now on… will you stop treating me like I'm disgusting? Like I'm worth nothing?"
Her fingers tightened slightly on his sleeve.
"Will you treat me like an older sister… or maybe even your best friend?"
She hesitated, embarrassment creeping into her expression.
"I've always wanted a male best friend," she admitted shyly. "Would you be willing—"
She didn't finish the sentence.
Lian Yu pulled her into another fierce embrace before she could.
"I promise!" he said immediately.
His voice was desperate and firm at the same time.
"Even your foolish husband won't be able to take you away from me. If you ever need me—even if I'm a hundred miles away—one phone call will bring me to you."
He tightened his arms around her.
"I'll be your best friend," he whispered. "Just… please forgive me."
Cici laughed softly through her tears.
"Fine," she said after a moment, sniffing again. "It's a deal."
Lian Yu nodded quickly, clinging to her like someone who had just been rescued from drowning.
"It's a deal."
Outside the hospital room, just beyond the slightly open door, another figure stood quietly.
Their mother.
She had come intending to check on her son. But when she heard their voices, she stopped.
Now she stood there silently, tears sliding down her cheeks as she watched the scene unfold through the narrow gap in the doorway.
For the first time in years, she saw something she had never dared to hope for.
Her children—embracing each other like family.
For decades, she had prayed for this moment. And as she wiped her tears with trembling fingers, she thought softly to herself—
Cici is such a pitiful child.
Even something this small… is more happiness than she has ever been given.