Chapter Sixty-Five — An Unexpected Cause

The inpatient ward was exceptionally quiet after nightfall.

Tang Dai awoke from her heavy slumber, her eyes half-open, gazing up at the ceiling above. She blinked, shifted her body slightly, trying to confirm whether she was still alive. Gradually, a touch of color returned to her face.

The fluid in the IV bottle was down to less than ten milliliters. Tang Chao reached out and pressed the call button by the bed.

“She’s awake, sis,” Tang Chao said, shifting his gaze from the call button to Tang Dai’s face.

Qiao Siming, hearing the commotion, leapt up from the sofa at the foot of the bed and rushed over. “You’re finally awake! Are you feeling better?” During the hours she lay unconscious, his regret had journeyed from Yun City all the way across the ocean, circling the globe and returning again.

The agony of watching disaster unfold, powerless to prevent it, was more excruciating than any torment.

Xu Shixi, hearing the sounds within, pushed the door open and stepped inside. Only then did his wavering heart come to rest.

To avoid provoking Qiao Siming, Xu Shixi, filled with worry and concern, had been slumped on a chair outside the room.

Qiao Siming, like a wolf guarding its territory, barked loudly to drive away any intruder who dared approach.

“What are you doing in here?” As the door creaked open, a question, edged with contempt, shot across the room.

Xu Shixi suppressed his emotions, restraining himself and holding back. Qiao Siming’s hostility made no sense.

Perhaps he was standing up for Tang Dai, feeling she’d been wronged? He knew the reasons they’d been together, and he’d witnessed all that had passed between them—except for the cause of their eventual breakup.

That day, Tang Dai left school without a word—no letter, no message, not even a scrap of paper. It was as if she’d never existed in their lives at all.

Qiao Siming blamed Xu Shixi, but more than that, he blamed himself. The night before she left, he’d gone to her dormitory and waited downstairs for a full hour, yet she wouldn’t come down. He’d wished he could sprout wings and fly straight to her window on the fifth floor. By then, she and Xu Shixi were already quarreling constantly, but to adults, arguments were commonplace—often brushed aside with a few words from friends.

Yet it’s often the wounds we disregard that fester into fatal maladies.

Unaware of the truth, Qiao Siming laid the pain of Tang Dai’s departure at Xu Shixi’s feet. As devoted as he was stubborn.

Xu Shixi had never spoken to a third person about the real reason for their parting. When in love, they’d been devoted, supporting and bettering each other; after breaking up, they wished one another well, each treasuring their own path. If parting is inevitable, let it be amicable.

Before entering the room, Tang Chao paused and said a few words to Xu Shixi. In his memory—he’d only been eleven at the time—Xu Shixi seemed like the best person in the world. If only Tang Jingguo had been half as good, all his childhood’s anxieties and sorrows might have disappeared. Even after Xu Shixi and his sister broke up, he couldn’t bring himself to deny or reject him. Seeing Xu Shixi, he couldn’t help but want to draw near. Perhaps a seed of fondness had been planted in his heart long ago, blossoming into something sweet and good.

Xu Shixi wasn’t in the mood for small talk and sent him into the room to see Tang Dai.

“Qiao Siming, what right do you have to be giving orders here?” Tang Chao retorted, unable to listen any longer. His tone toward Qiao Siming was markedly different from his attitude toward Xu Shixi—one was treated like family, the other like a foe.

He disliked the way Qiao Siming looked at his sister. That icy glint, sharp as a dagger, seemed to radiate from his eyes to his very limbs, chilling the air by a degree or two.

“I’m just worried about her,” Qiao Siming protested, puzzled by Tang Chao’s shift over the years from mere rejection to outright antagonism. Could aversion grow with age?

Tang Chao sneered. “But your concern isn’t what she needs.”

The care she needed was something neither he nor Qiao Siming could provide.

For years, Qiao Siming had numbed himself with indulgence, seeking to heal one heartbreak with countless fleeting romances. The so-called method of distraction failed him every time he tried to focus.

Xu Shixi ignored them, stepping around to the other side of the bed. Looking at her, he was overwhelmed by mixed emotions—so much so that he dared not think too deeply. Since she’d insisted on leaving his life, why couldn’t she be more thorough about it? Clean and without a trace.

Seeing the deep-seated hostility in Tang Chao, Qiao Siming chose to keep his peace for now.

“Are you feeling better?” Xu Shixi bent down to ask softly.

Tang Dai looked at him, speechless, her dark, crystal eyes unmoving.

“I’m much better now.” After a pause, she finally replied faintly.

“Alright then. Since Tang Dai is awake and we’ve all seen her, isn’t it time to leave?” Qiao Siming, adopting the posture of a boyfriend, stood as if issuing commands from on high.

Xu Shixi pulled the thin blanket up to her neck, adjusting it for comfort. Straightening up, he said, “Siming, I understand you’re upset about what happened to Tang Dai, but I don’t know why you’re taking it out on me. Still, I hope you can manage your emotions and calm down. We’re all friends here—can’t we talk things through calmly instead of being so confrontational?”

Qiao Siming glanced at the three of them, biting his lower lip, and stepped back.

Tang Chao placed a hand on Xu Shixi’s shoulder with a friendly smile. “Brother Shixi, I’ll leave my sister in your care.”

Xu Shixi turned his head to look at him, feeling the weight of those words. Given their current relationship, it was inappropriate for the two of them to be alone together.

“Don’t go.” Tang Dai, her arm still attached to the IV, reached out weakly but firmly to grab his sleeve. “Don’t go.”

“You see, my sister can’t do without you right now.” Tang Chao took the opportunity to press his point. “For old times’ sake, if nothing else.”

Xu Shixi admitted to himself that he’d never learned the courage or skill to refuse. Even last-minute cramming wouldn’t help now.

His silence was consent, and he stayed, helpless.

“Go back to your own room. You’re not needed here!” Tang Chao’s face darkened as he turned. “You’re injured too—don't make us look after you as well.”

“I’m fine. It’s just a scratch,” Qiao Siming said stubbornly, almost pleading. “Let me stay. I can only relax if I see she’s alright.”

Tang Chao was about to retort when Tang Dai, from behind, tugged him back and gave him a look.

“Go rest. With them here, I’ll be fine,” Tang Dai said, her gaze unfocused, her eyes lacking their usual vitality.

With all three sending him away, Qiao Siming knew he had no choice. He dragged his weary body from the foot of the bed to the door—a few meters that felt like a lifetime.

“If you need anything, call me,” he said, his tone almost begging.

A few steps outside, he saw a nurse approaching with a chart and retreated to the doorway.

“Are you feeling any discomfort?” the nurse asked, removing the needle and taking down the IV bottle.

Tang Dai closed her eyes and shook her head.

The nurse scribbled a few notes. “Don’t drink water before 2 a.m. If you’re thirsty, just moisten your lips with a swab. The anesthesia has just worn off, so there may be some pain—that’s normal. If it becomes unbearable, press the call button.”

Hearing this, Qiao Siming finally breathed a sigh of relief and returned to his room downstairs.

“What actually happened? Weren’t you supposed to be in Xiamen?” Xu Shixi hadn’t meant to ask, especially after such a major surgery and a brush with death, but concern overcame him. “How did you end up in Yun City? How did the accident happen?”

When he’d rushed to the hospital’s operating room, he’d found Qiao Siming, covered in blood, slumped in a corner, utterly drained. He’d tried to stand and unleash his fury on the guilty party, but an injured tendon made him collapse in failure.

A few drops of blood at his feet had oxidized to a rusty hue.

Qiao Siming had to be helped to the medical room by hospital staff.

Tang Dai closed her heavy eyelids. If he’s gone, what meaning is left for me?

This accident truly had been just that—an accident. Tang Dai had arrived at Yun City North Station, retrieved her red Cadillac from the underground garage, and while turning onto Yangjiang Road, a massive trailer barreled up from behind and swept her car beneath it. Qiao Siming, in the passenger seat, suffered minor injuries. Tang Dai, however, was pinned in the crushed driver’s seat, unable to move, blood gushing from her body.

Her car had been in the truck’s blind spot. By the time the driver realized, he had no time to brake. Even spinning the wheel left as fast as possible, the right wheels couldn’t clear in time.

The trailer sprawled across the road, blocking traffic in both directions.

“It was just an accident. Stop asking—I don’t want to talk about it,” Tang Dai murmured into her pillow.

“If my sister doesn’t want to talk, then let’s not,” Tang Chao said, squeezing Xu Shixi’s upper arm. “Go sit on the sofa. I’ll grab something to eat. You haven’t had dinner yet, have you?”

Xu Shixi, mouth full of bitterness, had no appetite. “I’m not hungry. Eat something yourself.” After a moment, he added, “Siming hasn’t eaten either. Get something for him, too.”

“I can’t be bothered to get him anything,” Tang Chao thought. “He doesn’t deserve it!”

“Don’t be childish,” Tang Dai said, summoning her authority as an elder sister. “Take him something. He did save my life, after all.”

If it hadn’t been for Qiao Siming’s composure, turning the wheel half a turn to the right, Tang Dai might have been lying in the morgue by now.

Unable to argue, Tang Chao snorted, “Fine, I’ll go!”

After Tang Chao left, Xu Shixi suddenly remembered something. He stepped into the corridor, took out his phone, and sent a message.