Let's Do Some Questions - Chapter 67

After Song Man finished eating, the weather was too cold for a walk, so she wandered around the living room for a bit before going upstairs with Chu Fengqiu.

“It’s already 8:30, why hasn’t Lingnan shared an update? Did she forget? I’ll send her a private message to ask,” Song Man muttered, sending a message in the Question Bank private chat.

【A Man】: How are you? Happy today!

Still no response, her online time was the same as before.

“Hey, Lao Chu, you said… Lao Chu? Why do you have that expression?” Song Man turned back to talk to Chu Fengqiu, only to find Chu Fengqiu holding her phone, her lips tightly pressed together.

“She won’t respond anymore,” Chu Fengqiu said.

“What response? Who…” Song Man asked subconsciously, then quickly reacted, her eyes widening. “No way… How could that be?”

Song Man’s expression also turned grim. She looked at the message she had just sent on her phone, suddenly feeling an unspeakable chill.

“She just said her health was slowly getting better. She was happy today, saying she was going to see Ke Lingyu. It was clearly a happy thing, how could she not be able to respond anymore?” Song Man murmured, not knowing if she was asking Chu Fengqiu or the person who couldn’t answer.

“Did Ke Lingyu say that?” Song Man looked at Chu Fengqiu, watching her nod. “She sent me a message, saying she didn’t make it for the last meeting.”

“Why?” Why! Lingnan waited so long for forgiveness, finally got Ke Lingyu’s release, why didn’t they get to see each other one last time? This was too ironic, too heartless, too regrettable.

“Why?” Song Man asked again. She took Chu Fengqiu’s phone and saw the message.

“How could this happen?” That ache climbed into her nasal cavity, forcing tears to well up in Song Man’s eyes.

Song Man took a deep breath and spoke to Chu Fengqiu, “Can I send her a message?”

“Okay.”

【Chu Fengqiu】: You didn’t meet?

【Ke Lingyu】: No

【Ke Lingyu】: It was very dramatic. I even feel like God played a huge joke on me. I even feel like it’s not real.

【Ke Lingyu】: I saw her, across two roads. I couldn’t see her face clearly, but I felt it was her.

【Ke Lingyu】: I was waiting for the red light, and I just watched her suddenly collapse on the other side of the road, without any warning.

【Ke Lingyu】: If I hadn’t kept my wits, I might have rushed over.

【Ke Lingyu】: It was only a thirty-second red light, but it felt as long as a century.

【Ke Lingyu】: Can you understand that feeling? I knew she needed me, longed to see me, and I could only watch helplessly from another intersection of fate.

【Ke Lingyu】: It was only thirty seconds. By the time I rushed over, her body was still warm, but she couldn’t open her eyes again.

【Ke Lingyu】: I never thought such a scene would happen. In that instant, my hands and feet went cold. I felt like there was always just this little bit missing between us.

Song Man looked at the text on the screen with a heavy heart, feeling a lump in her throat.

Chu Fengqiu held her hand, silently comforting her.

【Ke Lingyu】: I used to wonder, why me? Why did she like me? I just wanted to be good friends with her forever, but things went off track like this.

【Ke Lingyu】: Her love was too heavy, something I couldn’t reciprocate. I couldn’t comfortably accept her kindness, even though I knew she might not expect anything in return.

【Ke Lingyu】: But how could I do that? Sometimes I was happy, sometimes I was in pain. I tried my best to show my worst side to push her away, but she endured it.

【Ke Lingyu】: At that time, I was very angry, angry that she still liked me even though I was so terrible. Why couldn’t she love herself more?

【Ke Lingyu】: But I know some things can’t be controlled. I couldn’t bring myself to love her without reservation, just like I couldn’t make her give up on me.

【Ke Lingyu】: Sometimes I felt she was too much. She barged into my world, made me feel like a stranger, then left my life so decisively. When we met again, she told me she didn’t have long to live, and then she died in front of me.

【Chu Fengqiu】: If only you could have met.

This was what Lingnan had always hoped for, and what Song Man had hoped for too. If they had just met, perhaps they could both have found peace. For it to happen so suddenly, how much regret would Lingnan have, and how much more regret would Ke Lingyu have?

“Why?” Song Man sniffled, her mood very low.

【Ke Lingyu】: Her auntie told me that when she collapsed, she was holding her hand and kept saying sorry, saying she was going to break her promise, saying she might not make it.

【Ke Lingyu】: Why couldn’t I have come back sooner? Why did I delay for so long? Why did I run away? I desperately blame myself, but it’s no use.

【Ke Lingyu】: Her auntie gave me a letter she wrote earlier.

【Ke Lingyu】: I thought she would tell me a lot, about our past, our present, but after I opened it, I found there was only one sentence inside.

There was a pause on the other side. Song Man thought it might be an apology.

【Ke Lingyu】: She wrote ‘You are my once-in-a-lifetime encounter, impossible to seek.’ I used to think that was a romantic phrase, but now, every word pierces my heart.

Ke Lingyu put the paper back in the envelope and carefully placed it on her person. They had already returned from the hospital. She had lost vital signs in the ambulance, but they insisted on going to the hospital anyway, though it was already decided. The girl lay in her room from when she was alive, eyes closed, looking like she was asleep.

“You’re really too much.” Ke Lingyu’s face was tired, and her not-yet-healed wound throbbed faintly.

“But I was too much too.” Ke Lingyu leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on Lingnan’s forehead.

“Don’t meet someone like me in your next life.” She had always hoped she would live well. She hoped that in her next life, she would meet someone who was both ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ and ‘possible to seek’.

She stood up and saw the photo of her and Lingnan on the table. In the photo, they were still young, and their eyes shone when they looked at each other. Ke Lingyu picked up the photo frame and gently brushed her fingers over it.

She opened the door and saw the uncle and auntie outside, their eyes red from crying.

“Auntie, can I take this?”

“Of course you can. Nannan missed you the most. Take it, she’ll definitely be very happy,” Lingnan’s mother wiped her eyes. “Although I don’t know what bad things Nannan did to you before, Auntie apologizes on her behalf, and hopes… hopes you can…” She choked up, unable to speak. She often went into her daughter’s room in the middle of the night to check if she had kicked off her blanket, and so she heard her daughter’s tearful sleep talk. She didn’t dare to think about it too much, nor did she dare to mention it in front of her daughter, only watching her pretend to be happy during the day, and feeling heartbroken with her husband in private. They also knew that time might really be running out, so they still subtly revealed the news to Ke Lingyu’s parents, hoping Ke Lingyu would hear about it and get in touch. If they couldn’t wait, they would go and beg Ke Lingyu directly. Thankfully, the child did get in touch, but how could they have missed each other by just that little bit?

“It’s okay, Auntie. I… I don’t blame her… I’m also very sorry.” She gave her a sincere heart in a despicable way, and she couldn’t reciprocate.

“Auntie, I’ll go back in and stay with her for a bit. If you need anything, just tell me.” Ke Lingyu went into the room, looked at the person lying quietly on the bed, and silently shed tears.

On the other side, Song Man was utterly devastated by the phrase ‘once-in-a-lifetime encounter, impossible to seek’.

“Why are there always so many imperfections in the world?” Song Man put her phone aside and looked at Chu Fengqiu with a very bad mood.

Chu Fengqiu used her finger to wipe away the tears on Song Man’s eyelashes and gently stroked her back.

“Life is unpredictable.” Four simple words, seemingly lightly encompassing all sorrow and misfortune.

Song Man buried her head in Chu Fengqiu’s neck, hugging her waist to draw strength. Death is a painful yet commonplace existence. Natural disasters and misfortunes, no one knows what will happen in the next second.

“But why is it so full of regrets? It’s too annoying.” Just thirty seconds! If Lingnan could have seen Ke Lingyu before closing her eyes, that would have been good too.

Song Man sniffled, her emotions very low.

“If only they hadn’t been like that from the start.” If only Lingnan hadn’t been so extreme. With her approach, it would have turned into deep hatred if the other person wasn’t open-minded.

“Is all same-s3x love this hopeless?” Not recognized by mainstream society, Song Man had never encountered such things before. It seemed in her understanding, girls should be with boys.

“It’s not like that.” Chu Fengqiu shook her head. She held Song Man’s shoulders, making Song Man look her in the eye.

“It’s not all like that.” Chu Fengqiu looked into Song Man’s eyes, repeating and emphasizing.

Chu Fengqiu’s gaze was burning hot, seemingly overflowing with something, making Song Man feel a bit flustered and uneasy. How could…

“I know.” Song Man turned her head away, no longer looking into Chu Fengqiu’s eyes. Her thoughts were a bit messy, so messy that she didn’t dare to meet Chu Fengqiu’s gaze. She was afraid of seeing the emotions in those eyes, which made her heart pound.

“You don’t know.” Chu Fengqiu cupped her face, her voice gentle.

“Actually, I didn’t plan to say it so abruptly. I even thought about how grand the scene or how solemn the ceremony should be on the day I confessed, or maybe we’d walk past a tree full of blossoms, you’d stand under the tree, and I’d brush the petals from your hair, and then tell you I like you the way I like all beautiful things in the world,” Chu Fengqiu’s lips curved into a light smile, “Or rather, I love you more deeply.”

With her face cupped, Song Man could only stare at her with wide eyes. When her gaze met Chu Fengqiu’s affectionate eyes, she immediately looked away as if she had been electrocuted.

“When I realized I liked you, I had already thought about how to spend my life with you in my mind, but I didn’t know if your future needed me, I didn’t even know if you could like girls…” Chu Fengqiu’s hand slid down from Song Man’s cheek, her fingertips leaving a shiver on that patch of skin.

“You… when… I… I didn’t know at all.” Song Man spoke like a broken record, not even realizing her face was red. What the heck! How could she secretly like her!