Sun Rain Chapter 32
byIt was evening, and the warm summer breeze made people feel drowsy.
Shi Meng leaned back in his seat, squinting his eyes. He saw a child holding a balloon in the square, looking around as if searching for something.
The scene reminded Shi Meng of his own childhood, when he once got separated from Yang Youlan in a crowded, lively place and couldn’t find his mother.
Shi Meng couldn’t quite recall his feelings at the time, but they were likely dominated by panic. Children view their mother as their sky; if his mother also abandoned him, then truly no one would want him.
For many years afterward, he searched tirelessly for a place willing to take him in.
He went to the Shi family, where, amidst daily neglect and coldness, his initial high hopes gradually cooled; he longed for friends, yet was always left bruised and battered by preconceived prejudice and malice.
He kept searching, kept being abandoned, until he met Fu Xuanliao, the sun in his destiny.
The sun, ah. Shi Meng looked up. He once viewed the long night without the sun as an ordeal, but now he felt it was nothing much.
It was just the absence of light.
Soon, the child, pouting and on the verge of tears, was met by his mother, who called him “sweetheart” and hugged him close. Shi Meng guessed that a mother’s embrace must be warm, even though he had never experienced one.
It reminded him of the embrace he craved when he thought he was dying.
Yet, in the few days he was unconscious, he lost the desire to possess it.
After all, momentary, illusory joy only brought endless pain, and the near-frenzied obsession had turned to dust. The signs of life, revived through breathing and heartbeat, could no longer piece it back together completely.
Watching the mother and son walk further and further away, until even the high-floating balloon was out of sight, Shi Meng exhaled a long breath, letting the wind whistle through his fragmented chest.
Suddenly, he was afraid of nothing. He felt an unprecedented lightness, because a person who has died once has nothing left to lose.
The pain made his blurry vision clear again. He saw the dark clouds gathering over the towering buildings and heard the sound of an impending storm hidden within them.
Look, even the heavens were urging him to hurry up and say goodbye.
Shi Meng had been gone for barely five minutes when the single patient ward area on the top floor of the hospital descended into chaos.
Fu Xuanliao never expected that the person lying in bed, showing no signs of waking, would vanish in the short few minutes he was out buying something.
He turned the ward upside down, even lifting the mattress to search thoroughly. All he found was a crumpled, rain-soaked rabies vaccine injection guide.
Fu Xuanliao tried hard to remain calm. He called the hospital to request security footage while simultaneously unfolding the injection guide.
Noticing that the date for the second injection was yesterday, meaning it was overdue, Fu Xuanliao froze. A heavy sense of powerlessness, the most profound he had felt in days, enveloped him completely.
That day, after hanging up with Gao Lecheng, he rushed here and was met by the cold, stark words: “In Surgery.”
Fu Xuanliao didn’t want to recall it, but he couldn’t forget the sight of Shi Meng being wheeled out.
The person who had been bickering with him just yesterday lay there silently, his face and body covered in wounds of varying depths, so fragile he seemed like he might shatter if touched. Those eyes, which always clung to him, were tightly shut, as if unable to open, or perhaps unwilling to return to this cruel world.
Jiang Xue said she felt something was wrong when she couldn’t reach him. Later, residents near the abandoned factory complex found someone lying by the entrance, clutching a phone. Her call happened to ring through.
By the time the ambulance brought Shi Meng to the hospital, he was barely clinging to life. He had multiple contusions, and a fractured left rib had caused internal bleeding in his chest. Fortunately, no arteries were damaged, and he had been pulled back from the brink of death.
“I didn’t know he went out. I thought he was home drawing,” Jiang Xue took the tissue Gao Lecheng offered, constantly wiping away tears welling in her eyes. “He hates the rain so much, and I let him lie out there for so long.”
Yes, Fu Xuanliao thought, I knew he didn’t like rainy days, yet I made him wait in the rain for so long.
What state of mind was Shi Meng in when he called me? Was that call a plea for help? Was it only after hearing those cold words that he gave up the struggle to survive, not even calling the police?
Even looking back now, Fu Xuanliao was certain that saying “it has nothing to do with me” was partly due to momentary anger, but also intended as a warning to Shi Meng not to constantly use life and death as a bargaining chip—that he should value and cherish his own life. However, under such tragic circumstances, those words undoubtedly became a devastating blow that compounded Shi Meng’s suffering.
Though he resented the constraints Shi Meng forced upon him, he never wanted Shi Meng to die. If only he had known…
If only he hadn’t hung up, if only he had kept asking where he was, if only he had rushed out to find him, if only he had stayed by his bedside until he woke up.
But there is no “if only” in this world. All assumptions are futile.
Forcing down the rampant anxiety and restlessness, Fu Xuanliao called the police.
The police had already launched an investigation into the vicious assault and battery Shi Meng suffered. Now that Shi Meng was missing, Fu Xuanliao naturally suspected the same group of people were responsible.
They had communicated that afternoon, and the police had made little progress. Firstly, the only evidence was a segment of surveillance footage from the group’s building, showing Shi Meng arriving on the first floor at 9:55 AM on Sunday. After speaking briefly with the receptionist, he was escorted by an employee named Zhou to the parking lot entrance outside.
That entrance happened to have no surveillance, and Shi Meng’s car was still parked there. As for how Shi Meng was silently moved from the corporate building to the suburbs dozens of kilometers away, the police were still questioning suspects and gathering evidence.
Secondly, the abandoned factory in the suburbs offered no clues whatsoever. The criminals had destroyed all possible traces left in the warehouse after beating Shi Meng, and then dragged him outside to be rained on, completely washing away the possibility of obtaining live evidence. They were extremely cunning.
Fu Xuanliao had been at the hospital for days and had only heard from the police that the employee named Zhou was tight-lipped, clearly protecting someone.
With the case stalled and the victim now missing, the police took the matter seriously and rushed to the hospital after receiving the call.
Jiang Xue, who hadn’t slept for days and had just gone home to rest, rushed back and glared fiercely at Fu Xuanliao, demanding to know how he could have lost the patient.
While everyone was frantic, the elevator doors opened on the fourth floor, and two people walked out, arguing loudly.
“You want me to see him? Why should I see him?” Li Bihan’s eyes were red. “He’s not my son.”
Shi Huaiyi couldn’t stand the remark: “How is he not your son?”
Li Bihan sneered: “You know perfectly well who his mother is. People outside give you face by not bringing up those messy affairs, but are you really going to blind yourself and pretend nothing happened?”
Shi Huaiyi felt embarrassed by the public confrontation and couldn’t explain himself. He just pulled Li Bihan toward the ward: “We’ll discuss family matters at home, behind closed doors. Let’s go see Mengmeng first…”
Hearing that name, Li Bihan immediately flared up: “Mengmeng, Mengmeng! All you ever talk about is Mengmeng! Shi Huaiyi, have you completely forgotten about our Mu Mu?”
“Why are you bringing him up again…”
“He is my son, why can’t I bring him up?” Li Bihan’s nose twitched, nearly bringing her to tears. “My poor Mu Mu, he got sick and no one cared, no one asked about him. He was only twenty years old!”
“Who said no one cared? Everyone in the family who could do Bone Marrow Matching went!”
“I don’t believe none of them matched!” Li Bihan pulled her arm free from Shi Huaiyi’s grasp, refusing to move another step forward. “Your good son Shi Meng never even went for matching, did he? He lied about not matching because he didn’t want to save my Mu Mu.”
“How many times do I have to tell you, there really was no match.” The constant dredging up of old matters exhausted Shi Huaiyi. “Mu Mu was my son too. How could I not want to save him?”
“Words mean nothing. Show me the lab reports then,” Li Bihan insisted. “If there really was no match, why have you been hiding and dodging for so many years, afraid to let me see them?”
The closer they got to the ward, the higher the volume of their argument.
Fu Xuanliao was watching the surveillance footage with the police. They were seeing Shi Meng turn into the stairwell, and a few minutes later, appear downstairs, walking out of the hospital.
His steps were unsteady. He used the hand he could still move to brace himself against the walls and railings, walking out of the camera’s view without looking back, his solitary figure showing no reluctance.
The surveillance had no sound, so the voices from outside became the only noise in the moment.
The two outside didn’t even know what was happening inside, yet they were arguing about Shi Meng, as if he were a stranger to them, undeserving of basic respect.
Jiang Xue felt distressed and was about to step out to ask them to quiet down, but just as she turned toward the door, Fu Xuanliao swept past her like a gust of wind.
Slamming his palm against the door, Fu Xuanliao roared down the hallway: “If you want to argue, take it outside!”
Shi Huaiyi and Li Bihan were startled. Seeing it was Fu Xuanliao, they both relaxed slightly, then turned their angry gazes back to each other.
“Since we’re here,” Shi Huaiyi reluctantly backed down first. “The child is seriously injured. It’s not too much for us, as elders, to take a look.”
But the mention of her deceased son brought up a wave of bitterness and grievance. Li Bihan leaned against the wall, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes: “Why isn’t his own mother here?”
“You are his mother…”
“Shi Huaiyi, do you absolutely have to force me to acknowledge this son?” Her anger reignited, Li Bihan glared at Shi Huaiyi through her tears. “Then let me tell you, my only son is Shi Mu! The one named Shi Meng in that room has nothing to do with me. Even if he dies here today, I…”
Hearing the ominous word “die,” Shi Huaiyi lost his composure: “How can you curse him to die? He is your son!”
“Ha, the heavens are blind! Why wasn’t it him who died back then? I wish I could trade his life for my Mu Mu’s…”
“Shut up!”
Shi Huaiyi’s face was red with fury. He raised his hand but couldn’t bring himself to strike. Unable to listen to Li Bihan’s continuous curses against Shi Meng, he blurted out: “He is your son! Your biological son!”
Li Bihan froze: “…What did you say?”
The words were out, and there was no turning back.
Shi Huaiyi, fueled by a surge of adrenaline, pointed at the ward and, amidst the stunned gazes directed at him, announced loudly: “Shi Mu is not your son! Shi Meng, the one lying inside, is!”