Chapter 58: TMS
Lu Ge cheerfully went to buy some yellow croaker.
Half an hour later, he came back with a whole pile of fish—fried, steamed, you name it. Ji Mian suspected he had bought every yellow croaker in the nearby area.
“Where’s Qin Yan?” Lu Ge asked, looking around the hospital room.
When he left, Qin Yan was still standing by the door.
“I sent him home,” Ji Mian replied.
Lu Ge froze, his heart skipping a beat. He grumbled in Ji Mian’s ear, “The young master doesn’t want Qin Yan, so why not keep someone as insignificant as me around?”
…Not insignificant at all. Ji Mian thought this but didn’t respond, instead slowly picking the bones out of his fish.
Yellow croaker is cheap; you can get several fried pieces for just ten yuan, and the bones aren’t that hard to pick out.
He managed to finish four palm-sized fish.
Sticking to his "no waste" policy, Lu Ge finished the rest of the fish, his mouth full of its flavor by the end.
Yellow croaker… the best fish he had ever eaten.
Ji Mian started putting effort into eating regularly and taking his medicine.
Whether it was the food or the medication that worked, over the next year, his health showed signs of improvement. He gained a bit of weight, and his complexion looked much better.
During the period when his weight was at its highest, Lu Ge would sometimes burst into inexplicable laughter.
Then, the following winter, Ji Mian coughed once in the middle of the night, and it spiraled out of control. He coughed all night.
The next day, he was rushed to the hospital with a high fever, where pneumonia led to a series of complications.
He stayed in the hospital for four months, and the progress of the past year was wiped out, leaving Lu Ge’s smugness with a crushing blow.
Ji Mian’s health took a sharp turn for the worse.
He couldn’t eat, but not wanting to worry those around him, he forced himself to swallow the food. However, it wouldn’t be long before he threw it all up.
After this happened a few times, Lu Ge found himself in the Xu family’s bathroom, gently rubbing Ji Mian’s back as he hunched over, unable to stand straight from the retching.
His palm traced along Ji Mian’s protruding spine, inch by inch. Finally, he lowered his eyes and said softly, “Don’t push yourself.”
Ji Mian stopped pushing himself. But they both knew exactly what the consequence of that decision would be.
His clothes grew thicker and thicker, even in the summer, when he had to wear at least two jackets.
It wasn’t out of shame for how his body looked; Ji Mian was just worried that the sight of his exposed arms and wrist bones would frighten others.
Lu Ge began visiting the Xu family more and more frequently, spending almost every weekend there. Eventually, Yi Lan even cleared out a room for him to use on weekends.
This weekend, he came over early again.
Lu Ge rarely showed much emotion in front of Ji Mian. When he arrived, he was all smiles as usual, keeping things light and playful.
Ji Mian, however, was unexpectedly up early today. When Lu Ge walked in, Ji Mian was already downstairs.
Just as he was about to greet him, a cough welled up in Ji Mian’s throat. He furrowed his brows and tried hard to suppress it.
“Wow, the sun must’ve risen in the west. Young master’s up so early?” Lu Ge was quite surprised.
Ji Mian chuckled softly.
He was surprised too. In the two years since coming into this world, this was the first time he hadn’t slept in.
It felt like a sign.
The weather was great today.
Lu Ge had reserved Ji Mian’s time the day before.
Ever since losing the chance to feed Ji Mian, taking him out for strolls had become Lu Ge’s second favorite pastime. In the months after Ji Mian was discharged from the hospital, Lu Ge took him on walks everywhere nearby. They couldn’t go too far—Lu Ge was afraid something might happen to him.
“Where does the young master want to go?”
Under the table, Ji Mian clasped his own wrist, his fingers barely touching, leaving a hollow circle around the bone.
Ji Mian had a vague premonition, a sense that his time in this world was nearing its end.
After a moment, he said, "I want to go visit that store."
It had been nearly two years since Lu Ge last visited the wood carving shop, but when he arrived, the shop owner’s wife recognized her former big customer immediately, greeting him with delighted surprise.
When her eyes fell on the young man carefully led in by Lu Ge, she froze for a moment.
"No need to bother," Lu Ge waved his hand, declining her eager offer to introduce the new stock.
His chair was still in the corner. The chair wasn’t cheap, and because it belonged to Lu Ge, the owner hadn’t dared move it. After two years, it hadn’t aged much.
As the scent of wood filled the air once again, Ji Mian lowered his gaze, his dark pupils, hidden behind his eyelashes, holding a hint of longing.
Lu Ge felt a sharp pang in his heart.
Long ago, he had sensed—vaguely—that it wasn’t Qin Yan. There was someone else… someone unknown to him, someone that Ji Mian had treasured deeply in his heart, so much so that he couldn’t even bear to take them out and look at them.
Loyalty to love—Lu Ge realized for the first time that this quality could be a bad thing in someone.
What he didn’t know was that Ji Mian hadn’t come here out of attachment to a past love.
He came to say goodbye.
He had lingered in the past for too long and needed to move forward.
Ji Mian smiled softly.
Brother, he was ready to move on.
They didn’t stay in the shop for long because Ji Mian started coughing again.
Back in the car, Lu Ge asked him, “Want to come back tomorrow?”
Tomorrow was Sunday, and he was free.
“No need.” Ji Mian slowly shook his head. “This was the last time.”
“Mr. Lu,” Ji Mian called out to him.
There was something he really wanted Lu Ge to know.
“You’re very important to me.”
Lu Ge froze for a moment, then quickly turned his face away, pressing his tongue against his back teeth to stop himself from bursting into laughter. His ears flushed bright red.
After a long while, he turned back, looking deeply into Ji Mian’s eyes, as if challenging another soul across a distance: Did you hear that? I’m important to him.
It was just that his timing with Ji Mian had been wrong.
Because the person in front of him had such a small heart—it could only hold one person for a lifetime.
Lu Ge felt a little unwilling, yet somehow satisfied at the same time.
If only he had come sooner, that place in Ji Mian’s heart would’ve been his.
“I’ve liked him this lifetime… next lifetime, it’s got to be my turn, right?”
At first, Lu Ge was just muttering to himself.
But then, as if he had grasped onto something, he suddenly looked straight at Ji Mian, his expression more determined than ever. “Hey, young master…”
“In the next life, can you like me?”
Ji Mian’s fingers slowly tightened.
After a long silence, he smiled at Lu Ge.
Ji Mian told a lie.
“Okay.”
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