SM Chapter 32

Chapter 32: We Can Look Forward to Next Spring Together…

“So, you’re a boy.” Before Sheng Mingqian could say anything, the nursing assistant couldn’t help but exclaim, pointing at him, her tone several notches higher.

Sheng Mingqian also hadn’t expected it. That day, he’d touched the boy’s long hair near his ear, and naturally assumed he was a girl.

For this whole time, he’d been under the impression that he was a girl, so he always kept a normal and appropriate social distance, afraid she would feel uncomfortable.

Now that he knew he was a boy, the initial reserved distance vanished, his arm brushing against the boy’s as they lazily basked in the sun together.

“What happened to your eyes…?” the boy tilted his head to ask him.

“I was in a car accident a while ago.”

“Will you be blind forever?”

“The doctor said it’s temporary.”

“That’s good…”

Sheng Mingqian smiled at the boy. “How old are you this year?”

“Eighteen, almost nineteen, soon…” The boy’s voice was even more hoarse. Just listening to his voice, it was hard to tell his exact age, but it carried a sense of weariness.

Sheng Mingqian didn’t know what had happened to him before, but he could sense the energy of people. Even though he couldn’t touch or see it, it was tangible. He could feel the despondency emanating from the person next to him, like a setting sun in the west. But within that despondency, there was a faint red glow, like a desperate struggle before falling, wanting to grab onto something to avoid sinking into eternal night.

“My name is Sheng Mingqian. What’s your name?” Sheng Mingqian asked him, trying to understand a little more.

The boy remained silent. Sheng Mingqian heard the sound of fingernails scraping against the wooden planks of the bench. He didn’t push, just waited quietly. When you can’t see, time stretches out, like a ribbon without beginning or end, with a section in the middle pulled taut.

Sheng Mingqian felt like he had waited a long time before the boy finally spoke, “My name… isn’t very nice…”

Since the boy said that, Sheng Mingqian didn’t ask him again.

Half an hour later, the nursing assistant urged Sheng Mingqian to go back inside, afraid he would catch a cold from the wind.

As soon as the boy got out of the sixth-floor elevator, he was called away by a nurse in a white coat. Sheng Mingqian heard the nurse’s urging, saying that someone was looking for him.

“I wonder who it is,” Sheng Mingqian thought. “Perhaps his family.”

The elevator doors opened and closed, and the sounds outside disappeared completely. The elevator reached the seventh floor, and the nursing assistant helped Sheng Mingqian back to his ward.

As soon as the nursing assistant entered the room, he couldn’t hold back anymore and kept talking about the boy.

“That boy is quite pitiful. I didn’t expect him to be almost nineteen. He must be malnourished. He looks like he’s only fourteen or fifteen, all skin and bones, with no meat on his arms. He always hunches his back when he walks, making him look even shorter. His hair always covers his face, and his cheeks are sunken in, like he’s just been pulled out of the ground. He also has an earthy smell about him…”

“I didn’t smell any earthy smell on him,” Sheng Mingqian said in his heart.

Listening to the nursing assistant’s description, Sheng Mingqian roughly pictured the boy’s appearance in his mind: a thin, emaciated figure due to malnutrition, overly long hair always covering his face, dull and somewhat vacant eyes, a scarred nose, and dry, chapped lips making him look very haggard. His back was also always bent, like a dead branch in winter that would break in two with a gust of wind…

Precarious.

“I don’t know what happened to that boy. I heard the nurses say that the police have come several times, but he hasn’t said a word, doesn’t answer anything they ask. Everyone thought he was mute, so I was so shocked to hear him talking to you. The director had the neurology and psychiatry directors give him a joint examination, and they said he doesn’t have any mental illness…”

As the nursing assistant spoke, he pointed to his head, wanting to gesture to Sheng Mingqian, but then realized he couldn’t see, so he lowered his hand and continued, “But I always feel like there’s something wrong with him here. Sheng, tell me, if he doesn’t have a mental illness, why does he keep his hair so long?”

Sheng Mingqian just thought that this nursing assistant talked too much, constantly chattering in his ear, too noisy. He raised his hand and waved at him, signaling him to stop talking.

“I want to rest,” Sheng Mingqian said, feeling for the edge of the bed and sitting down.

The nursing assistant shut his mouth and hurried over to help him onto the bed, then tucked him in after Sheng Mingqian lay down.

After dinner, the nurse came to give him his medicine. As soon as Sheng Mingqian finished taking it, that boy came again. He must have changed his shoes, as he no longer shuffled when he walked, but you could still tell that his footsteps were heavier than others.

This time, he was here to return Sheng Mingqian’s down jacket. He draped his clothes over the end of the bed. “Sheng…”

Perhaps not knowing how to address him, the boy paused for a moment before continuing, “Mr. Sheng, your clothes, thank you.”

Sheng Mingqian sat on the edge of the bed and touched the clothes at the end of the bed. Even though it was a bulky down jacket, the boy had folded it neatly.

“You’re welcome. It hasn’t been so boring these past few days. I should be thanking you.”

…

–

–

That boy still went to Sheng Mingqian’s ward every day at noon, staying for only an hour each time. Several times, he saw Lin Han inside the ward and waited until Lin Han left before going in, when only the nursing assistant was in the room.

Lin Han ran into him several times in the hallway. The boy always kept his head down, and he couldn’t make out what he looked like at all from his long hair.

The nurses talked about that boy less and less frequently. After the weather cleared up, everyone had new things to focus on.

Suddenly, starting from one day, the boy stopped coming to see Sheng Mingqian. Some nurses said he had been discharged, while others said the police had taken him away, and no one knew where he went.

The topic of “that boy on the sixth floor” was concentrated in the hospital for two more days, and then it completely disappeared.

Sheng Mingqian stayed in the hospital for more than a month. There were only three days left until the New Year. Although he still couldn’t see, after the examination, the doctor said that the blood clot in his brain was slowly dissolving and he was recovering well. As long as the blood clot slowly dissolved, his eyes would be able to see again.

On the morning of New Year’s Eve, Sheng Mingqian was awakened early by the continuous sound of firecrackers outside. Lin Han and a group of friends came to the hospital to see him during the day and had lunch with him at noon. After the visiting hours were over in the afternoon, they all left again, leaving only him and the nursing assistant in the ward.

Sheng Mingqian preferred the quiet.

That boy came on the evening of New Year’s Eve.

“Mr. Sheng…” That boy must have been running, standing there panting, his voice still hoarse.

Sheng Mingqian wasn’t surprised. He’d always had a feeling that he would meet that boy again. The TV in the ward was still on, and the song and dance performances of the Spring Festival Gala sounded very lively.

“You’re here. Are you better? I heard them say you were discharged.”

“I’m better. I just came to see you… Happy New Year…”

“Happy New Year…” Sheng Mingqian smiled. “Is it cold outside?”

“Cold.” The boy took a few deep breaths and rubbed his hands. “What did you eat for New Year’s Eve dinner?”

“Friends brought it over.”

The boy straightened his body. “I’m sorry, Mr. Sheng…”

Sheng Mingqian paused. “Why are you suddenly apologizing to me?”

“It’s nothing. I just wanted to say, Happy New Year, be safe. I… I’ll go now.”

The boy came in a hurry and left in a hurry. After saying that, he didn’t stay any longer and turned to leave.

The water dispenser in the ward was out of water. The nursing assistant came back carrying a bucket of water. The boy bumped into the nursing assistant’s shoulder as he went out, and the bucket of water on the nursing assistant’s shoulder fell to the ground with a thud, scaring them. Fortunately, the bucket wasn’t broken.

“Sorry, sorry…” The boy took a step back and bowed repeatedly to the nursing assistant, holding onto the door frame.

“Why are you running around blindly? Watch where you’re going. It’s New Year’s…”

“I’m sorry…” The boy said “I’m sorry” again, righted the bucket of water that had fallen on the ground, and ran away like a wisp of smoke.

Sheng Mingqian wanted to call him back, but in those few seconds of hesitation, he could no longer hear the increasingly distant footsteps in the hallway.

The nursing assistant changed the water and rubbed his shoulder. “Sheng, please wait a moment. I’ll pour you some water after it heats up.”

“Okay, thank you.” Sheng Mingqian casually replied, his ear still listening to the hallway.

He had an uneasy feeling in his heart. That boy ran over on New Year’s Eve and only said “Happy New Year” and “I’m sorry” to him. The first sentence was understandable, but the “I’m sorry” was too inexplicable and without reason.

The water dispenser was heating up, and the buzzing sound of heating was very clear.

“Mr. Sheng, does your family have any customs for the New Year? Our family eats dumplings on New Year’s Eve.”

“We also eat dumplings on New Year’s Eve.”

“The hospital cafeteria is open all night tonight. I’ll get you a portion of dumplings to eat later.”

“Thank you.”

“What kind of filling would you like to eat?”

“Anything is fine.”

“Pork and cabbage?”

“Okay…”

The water heated up, and the nursing assistant poured him two cups of water and went out with the lunchbox to buy dumplings.

The more Sheng Mingqian thought about it, the more he felt that something was wrong. He felt for his cane and left the ward. The nurse in the hallway saw him and wanted to come over to help him, asking him where he was going. Sheng Mingqian asked the nurse if she had seen “that boy on the sixth floor” before.

The nurse had long forgotten about “that boy on the sixth floor” and didn’t know what Sheng Mingqian was talking about. She even asked him which boy he was and offered to help him find him.

Sheng Mingqian sighed, leaned on his cane, and walked forward by himself, not letting the nurse follow.

Just as he reached the stairwell, Sheng Mingqian heard a flurry of footsteps. He quickly recognized that it was that boy. So he hadn’t gone far after all.

“So, you haven’t left.”

The sound of footsteps descending the stairs stopped. Sheng Mingqian felt his way to the doorway and entered, then felt for the railing and went down the steps.

“Be careful…” that boy reminded Sheng Mingqian, his voice hurried.

Sheng Mingqian stopped and didn’t go down any further, holding onto the cane with one hand and the stair railing with the other. The fire window in the stairwell was open, and cold wind blew in.

“It’s cold here. I’ll help you back to the ward,” the boy said.

He was coming up the stairs too fast. Before Sheng Mingqian could wait for him to get closer, he heard a few crashing sounds, followed by a few painful cries.

“What’s wrong?” Sheng Mingqian quickly went down the steps. The boy was lying between the two landings.

“It’s nothing. I was walking too fast and fell down the stairs,” the boy’s voice was twisted in pain. “Don’t come down, there are steps below. I hit my instep on the steps. I’ll be fine in a moment.”

Sheng Mingqian frowned. He smelled a bloody scent, a very strong bloody scent. It was the boy’s scent. He hadn’t smelled it in the ward, and he hadn’t smelled it when he was standing on the stairs just now. There was only one possibility: he had accidentally gotten it when he fell just now.

Sheng Mingqian was a little nervous. He probed forward with his cane, went down the steps, and helped him up. He reached out and touched the boy’s hair, discovering that his long hair had been cut and was now only ear-length.

After the two of them stood still, Sheng Mingqian’s hand inadvertently touched something in the boy’s hand, his fingertips touching a thin, metallic, cold feeling.

“What are you holding in your hand?” Sheng Mingqian asked.

The boy hurriedly retracted his hand, hiding it behind his back. “No, I’m not holding anything.”

“Is it a knife? Or something else?” Sheng Mingqian wasn’t fooled. “What were you originally planning to do with the knife? To hurt others? Or to hurt yourself? But I don’t think either of those options is advisable…”

The boy suddenly burst into tears, sobbing intermittently, biting his teeth. “Bad people, deserve to die!”

Sheng Mingqian sighed and reached out to touch his head. “Let’s go upstairs first and have the doctor treat your injury. Did you eat dumplings tonight?”

“No.”

“Do you want to come back to the ward with me to eat dumplings? With pork and cabbage filling.”

The boy’s eyes were red. He nodded and choked out a “Okay.”

The doctor treated the boy’s wound. After the nursing assistant came back, he recognized that the person he had bumped into just now was actually the boy with the long hair from before.

He told Sheng Mingqian that the boy only had one shoe left on his foot and that the other shoe had fallen off in the hallway. The boy’s instep had been cut with a large gash, and the boy had thrown the knife into the trash can.

The dumplings were very delicious. The boy ate a whole plate, gobbling them down. With his mouth full, he spoke indistinctly, “Mr. Sheng, I’ve seen the movies you made before.”

Sheng Mingqian raised his eyebrows, thinking that he really did recognize him. That might have been the reason why he suddenly appeared at his ward door that day. He also wondered how he knew he was in this ward. He might have heard the hospital doctors and nurses talking about it.

“Which movie of mine have you seen?”

“I’ve seen them all.”

Sheng Mingqian smiled. “Which one do you like?”

“《Animal Instinct》, 《Sunset》, and 《Fireworks》…” The boy said all the movies he had made in one breath.

At that time, he had only made three movies, and all three were very famous.

Because there was back-and-forth conversation, Sheng Mingqian listened to the sound of firecrackers and fireworks outside and suddenly felt that the white ward had a little more of the New Year’s spirit.

The boy finished eating the dumplings. “I remember, you said something before, that the sunlight must be reached out and grabbed to get into your hands, but I can’t catch it…”

Sheng Mingqian was stunned by what he said. The way the boy said this felt like duckweed floating on a lake, duckweed after a flood.

He suddenly didn’t know how to reply to the boy’s words. He seemed to be reaching out a hand to him, like helplessness, also like a cry for help on the verge of danger.

In the end, Sheng Mingqian still replied with very weak words that carried hope:

“If you can’t catch it, you can wait a little longer. The sunlight will fall on its own, will fall on your head, your body, like the sun we basked in in the garden that day. This winter always snows, but the sun will still come out in the end. We can look forward to next spring together. After a cold winter, there will definitely be a very warm spring.”

“Really?” the boy asked uncertainly.

“Really,” Sheng Mingqian replied to him.

The boy’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “We can look forward to next spring together…”