Chapter 100: Don't be at a loss

YunJing International Airport.

Sare packed up Jiang Bie's violin for him, still mumbling, "You should have given it to him just now, when it was so ready. Your friend would probably have been happier with two presents."

Jiang Bie did not withdraw his eyes until Sheng Mingzhi was no longer visible.

He was about to have a little chat with Sare when he felt a hot stream of air in his nose, and he quickly realised what it was.

Sare turned his head, screaming, "Jenson!"

Jiang Bie's face was horribly pale by the time the airport staff noticed them, and he was holding the lower half of his face, blood spilling from his fingers in stark contrast to his white complexion.

"Are you all right, this gentleman?"

Jiang Bie waved his hand and turned away the wet wipes Sare handed him, "It's nothing. It's just that the air in the north is so dry that I got a nosebleed."

The aircraft crew will leave in disbelief.

Sare turns over the pockets of medicine, white, different types of medicine with different effects in different jars, but Jiang Bie can steadily tell which ones to take and which ones to take in case of any emergencies.

Jiang Bie finished swallowing a handful of pills and reassured Sare: "We have a Chinese saying that a long illness becomes a cure, and it's true."

Sare's eyes were red: "Your doctor told me that your body could no longer cope with the long journey."

Jiang Bie laughed: "Alex said last year that I wouldn't live to see New Year's Eve, but I'm fine now, Sare, you look much better when you smile than when you cry."

It was only his character that could say something so out of character when he was in pain all over.

Sare worried about him, "I shouldn't have promised you that you would return."

Jiang Bie smiled and said, "Give me a break, Sare, I don't want to leave with regrets."

Alex is right.

He would not even have lived to see this year.

In January, Jiang Bie's vital signs reached a critical point and he spent a week in the intensive care unit.

Subsequent resuscitation and conditioning gradually brought it back to a stable state.

Alex asked him how it felt to have taken a trip through the ghost gate.

When Jiang Bie thinks about it, all he remembers is the blinding surgical lights overhead.

"There's no feeling." Jiang Bie remembers responding, "Just suddenly remembering a friend whose birthday was coming up."

"I was planning to die this winter, but remembering that his birthday is in spring, I thought I'd wait until spring anyway."

He realised.

He also wanted to see Sheng Mingzhi again.

Jiang Bie was first checked for medical problems in his senior year.

On the day he turned 18, he won one of the country's most prestigious racing championships.

He had everything that day.

Trophies, championships, dear friends and a bright and shining future.

He stood on the podium, hooked Sheng Mingzhi's shoulders and solemnly blew off steam.

He said Shu, take a world championship to show you!

That is why God could not see fit to deprive him of his young life.

From that day onwards, Jiang Bie began to have fever from time to time.

At first no one cared, but after frequent fevers, the first person to notice him was his father.

Jiang Bie's mother had the same symptoms at first, with unprovoked fevers and coughing up blood, which eventually turned into a terminal illness that could not be treated.

Vaguely remembered.

His mother's illness is somewhat hereditary.

The doctor said the odds were slim.

But fate has a way of playing tricks on people, and the odds are so small that he'll run into them.

It is clear that God is jealous of talent.

God is jealous of handsome men.

Sare whispered, "But Alex said you ......"

"It won't." Jiang Bie warms up, "I promised Sheng Mingzhi that I'd text him this New Year, so I'll live to see it, okay."

YunJing's flight to the UK landed in Hong Kong.

Jiang Bie made a rare trip back to China and took half a day to visit his mother.

Hong Kong has not changed much over the years and the Peak is not much different from his childhood memories.

Mother Jiang's tomb is at the highest point on the Peak, where you can see every sunset over Victoria Harbour.

Jiang Bie placed the white chrysanthemum in front of the headstone and smiled, "I'm coming to see you for the last time."

After a moment's thought, a wisecrack was made, "Next time I come to see you, I'll be able to meet you face to face."

Sare said sharply, "Jenson!"

"Okay, okay, I know, no morose words." Jiang Bie winked and said, "You're more superstitious than I am, and I'm just saying it off the top of my head. Besides, we don't always see each other, my mother might have been reincarnated already."

Sare was amused and entertained by him.

In the end it all dissolves into a hint of sadness.

He stood up just in time to catch the sunset at the top of the Pacific Ocean.

The evening breeze of the winter night blew on his face. Even the wind was gentle on the southern island, not unlike the sternness of the north.

"When I leave, bury me in a place where you can also see the sunset."

The wind was the only thing left in the field, and Jiang Bie's voice was heard.

"Sare, if I die, you can be sad for a little while, but don't cry and don't be sad for too long. You know, all partings in this world are for reunions."

Sare covered her mouth as tears swished down her face and she took two steps forward and hugged him from behind, "No, Jenson, you'll be fine."

Jiang Bie lowered his eyelashes, "Don't tell him either, okay, because I don't want him to cry."

He paused and sighed, "If I don't make it to New Year's, you must remember to wish him a happy New Year, I promised to send him a message." -

After returning to the UK, Jiang Bie's condition began to deteriorate.

Alex said he was all ready to give up on himself mentally so that the physical deterioration had become so fast.

Sare doesn't know what it means to give yourself up.

But she knew that Jiang Bie had made all the arrangements for his return to China.

One quarter of the property in his name was left to Sare and one quarter to Jiang's father.

The rest of the money was donated anonymously to domestic charities.

My sister-in-law also died when Jiang Bie was at university.

He has come so far as to claim to be all alone.

The only thing I regret is that I didn't get to say goodbye to Sheng Mingzhi in my senior year.

At that time, Jiang Bie was reluctant to tell Sheng Mingzhi the truth, for some unknown reason.

All he knew was that he had suddenly become somewhat unwell.

On the night she filled out the application form, Jiang Bie had already packed her bags for her trip abroad.

The villa is empty and the suitcases are blindingly obvious in the living room.

One second, Sheng Mingzhi was calling him on the phone, excitedly asking him what major he was going to fill in at YunJing University.

Jiang Bie stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, his tone relaxed: "What did you fill in?"

"Finance."

Jiang Bie said, "Then I'll fill in the same as you."

"Don't push yourself. Weigh up what you've got, and how well did you get that crap grade?"

"Don't I have you to fill in for me."

"I'm giving you a tutorial, not a brain makeover." Sheng Mingzhi 俨然很不自信对他的成績，促他："你填了什么冷門点的专业吧，好入点。 When you come in and then take the exam to change your major, the postgraduate will definitely be read in Jingda anyway ......"

On the other end of the line, Sheng Mingzhi is rarely too talkative.

He was tempted to deceive himself that Sheng Mingzhi had planned himself all into his future, and that he wasn't, well, not entirely out of the question.

But unfortunately, his rhetoric is absolutely identical to that of Shen Ling.

He knows Sheng Mingzhi, who is typically cold on the outside and hot on the inside. Strangers will find him bad-tempered and difficult, but when it comes to his friends, he is extremely protective.

Speaking of remedial classes, Jiang Bie recalls another funny incident.

In their second year, Jiang Bie and Shen Ling's grades had fallen so low that it was basically impossible for them to be in the same class as Sheng Mingzhi.

Sheng Mingzhi was so angry that he decided to give them both lessons himself, starting with both of them and ending up with only Jiang Bie.

-- Shen Ling couldn't stand the learning atmosphere and found an excuse to run away halfway through the tutorial.

Whenever she got a question wrong, Jiang Bie would copy it onto a sticky note and fold it into a paper plane.

Before we knew it, there were over sixty paper aeroplanes in the glass jar.

Jiang Bie's grades are still not improving, which has a lot to do with the fact that his mind is not in the right place when it comes to tutorials and he is always looking at the teacher's face.

After the placement test, which coincided with the anniversary of his mother Jiang's death, Jiang Bie booked a flight back to Hong Kong and left the same day.

It was the day of Sheng Mingzhi's competition, so Jiang Bie didn't tell Sheng Mingzhi for fear that he would be distracted.

As a result, Sheng Mingzhi heard rumours from somewhere that he had been sent back to Hong Kong by his father because of his poor results, and after the morning competition, Sheng Mingzhi took a taxi to the airport.

He's not in the least bit affectionate, he's 100% just here to settle a score with Jiang Bie.

Sheng Mingzhi hates betrayal and hates leaving without saying goodbye.

Jiang Bie remembers the day when he saw Sheng Mingzhi at the airport and thought his eyes were blurry.

Sheng Mingzhi was standing outside the ticket gate, staring at him with red eyes, and at that moment, Jiang Bie felt that it didn't matter if it was the end of the world.

The young master didn't seem to get the picture and grabbed him by the collar and punched him.

Only after he was beaten up did he ask him angrily, "It's not like you don't have any books to study, you can study in other classes if you can't get into the experimental class, why do you want to go back to Hong Kong?"

Jiang Bie was confused.

Amidst the upside-down insults, he finally figured out what was going on.

It turns out that Sheng Mingzhi thought he was going back to Hong Kong to study.

He could have explained, but the moment he saw Sheng Mingzhi's eyes, the words changed: "So you want me to stay?"

Sheng Mingzhi thought he had been kicked in the head by a donkey: "Can you stay when I tell you to?"

Jiang Bie nods, "Yes."

Then there was a brief silence.

Sheng Mingzhi hesitated, "So are you coming with me now?"

Jiang Bie nodded: "Go, definitely go."

All you have to do is wave, and I can go with him without a care in the world.

Sheng Mingzhi was angry with him for a week after it turned out to be an oops.

Jiang Bie knew it, the man cannot be amused.

There is a heavy price to pay for teasing.

He assured Sheng Mingzhi that he would never go back on his word again, and the young ancestor reluctantly bowed his noble head to show his generosity and forgave him for once.

But it didn't take long for Jiang Bie to break his promise once again.

On the eve of the entrance exams, Mr. Xu suddenly made an announcement in front of the class.

Jiang Bie will no longer sit the GCSEs, he will be leaving the country within the next week, smashing the class.

Jiang Bie waited for Sheng Mingzhi to come to him, perhaps making a scene and beating him up.

But Sheng Mingzhi has not been there since.

They are all grown up.

Bickering and fighting are no longer their way of solving problems; the adult solution is time.

Time will fade everything.

Whether it's friendship or love.

After Jiang Bie left the country, time started to fly by.

He underwent conservative treatment and still retained the habit of recording sunsets.

Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, he photographed three hundred and sixty-five sunsets.

Each one is uploaded to social media platforms and he is unable to share it to those who want to share it, so he simply shares it to everyone.

In 2020, a long-dormant high school group of friends came alive.

Sheng Mingzhi is married.

The group was in an uproar, as if they hadn't expected him to get married so early.

It seems that the partner was introduced by the family, and although no one said so, they knew by heart that with such a family background, it was basically a business union.

Whether sincere or not, everyone has blessed.

"Happy Newlyweds!"

Jiang Bie swiped through the messages, one after another.

After a long time, Sheng Mingzhi popped up in the WeChat group.

"Thank you all."

Jiang Bie's heart skipped a beat.

The presence of the main character mobilised the group with another row of blessings.

Jiang Bie repeatedly looked at the four words posted by Sheng Mingzhi, and more than that, his heart felt like it was being shattered.

It turns out that what he thought was becoming and accommodating was all about growth after being killed over and over again.

He hid in the midst of all the well wishes and sent, "Happy Newlyweds."

But I couldn't resist and added, " YunJing, it's cold, take care of yourself."

So many messages and blessings that he doesn't always see.

Sheng Mingzhi replied again in the group.

"Thank you all for your concern, I will."

Like a reply to him, it stopped his breathing.

In the end, Jiang Bie gave a self-deprecating laugh.

From that day onwards, Jiang Bie stopped recording sunsets -

At a later stage of treatment, Jiang Bie was admitted to a private hospital.

Sare acts as a chaperone and looks after him moment by moment.

Alex says he won't make it to the end of the year.

Sare's heart was pounding as she listened to all this, and she cried as she asked Alex why. Jenson was now in a much better state of mind than before, and was able to eat and enter food, and had not been in a coma for a fortnight.

Alex said he only had one breath to hold on to.

Sare's grip on the doctor's arm suddenly loosened, she knew what Jenson's breath was about, he had promised his friend that he would send him a message on New Year's Eve.

Jiang Bie has recently started collecting Chinese New Year cards and has cut out over eighty of them.

Sare was a little relieved to see him energetic, sitting on the hospital bed and asking him, "Why do you have to write so many cards?"

On closer inspection, she noticed that each greeting card also had a different year.

Starting from 2024 and counting backwards, Jiang Bie finished the first one and chewed on his pen cap, "Just the thing to ask you, Sare, send me a New Year's card to this address every year from now on, okay?"

Sare shook his head, "I'm not sending it, I won't promise you that, you have to get better and send it yourself."

Jiang Bie knows that she has a hard mouth and a soft heart, and that she will do herself a favour when she leaves.

After an afternoon of hard writing, and probably exhausted energy, the red light went on in Jiang Bie's ward at night.

In the midst of the chaos, he was taken to the resuscitation room, where Sare woke up from a dream and ran out with his jacket on, Jiang Bie was no longer conscious and his face was covered in blood with a breathing mask.

The doctor held his head up for fear that the blood in his mouth would back up and block his airway, causing him to suffocate.

Sare broke down and cried out, not understanding why God would take such a young life.

He was only twenty-five, still so young, so young.

In mid-December, Jiang Bie was admitted to the intensive care unit again.

His big greeting card project turned out to be only one, so he had to call it quits for now.

Jiang Bie is in a severe coma and is receiving daily fluids to maintain his vital signs.

ALex says his desire to live is so strong that it's a miracle he hasn't died by now.

After two months of racing against death, Jiang Bie miraculously came to his senses on February 1.

He was in such good shape that he was released from the intensive care unit the same day and was able to walk on his own without even using a wheelchair.

Sare was overjoyed and didn't know what to do. Having heard that this year was Chinese New Year, the ward was empty and she wanted to go home and prepare some ingredients to spend a simple New Year with Janson in the hospital.

While packing his backpack, Jiang Bie suddenly spoke up: "Sare, I had a dream while I was lying in the ICU."

Sare wondered, "What dream? Can you share it with me."

Jiang Bie did not look at her, but looked out of the window.

A snowy winter in England.

As dusk falls, the sun sets and casts a warm glow over the windows.

His voice was brisk: "I dreamed that my hair had gone grey with him, and in the dream he asked me if I still wanted to go with him."

Sare stopped moving.

Jiang Bie whispered, "I said I wanted to. I told him I'd like to."

"All these years, all the time."

There was a sudden silence in the ward.

After a while Jiang Bie turned his head and said with a smile, "Sare, I don't like onions, you know, don't add them at night, okay?"

Sare swallowed back her tears and nodded, "Okay."

New Year's Eve 2015 has arrived.

Jiang Bie finished watching the last sunrise and counted the time, almost at zero hour in China, and sent a message to Sheng Mingzhi to pay tribute to the New Year.

"Shu. How have you been? Happy New Year to you."

He read it over several times to make sure there were no typos or punctuation marks before clicking send.

Watching the text message indicate that he had sent it successfully, Jiang Bie placed the phone on his lap and waited quietly for his reply.

Somehow, he remembered a question he had asked his sister-in-law many years ago.

On the day of his mother's funeral, he found a large number of sunset photographs among her belongings.

He knew that the sun would rise and the sun would set every day.

But he knew that the sunset at the top of Taiping was different from the sunset at YunJing, made different by the presence of a certain person.

He asked his sister-in-law if his mother was watching the sunset every day or if she was watching her father.

Now, he thought he knew the answer.

He, like his mother, had not learned how to love himself in this short lifetime.

Sare pushed open the door with a sweaty paper bag in her arms and grumbled, "Jenson, can you give me a hand? God, I've bought so much stuff, I swear I'll never buy so much next time ......"

Without waiting for an answer, Sare's heart stopped for a beat and his eyes fell subconsciously to the window.

Jiang Bie sits quietly in his chair, his eyes closed as if he were asleep, his eyelashes slender and beautiful, his face as young as ever.

Food and fruit tumbled to the floor without warning.

Sare went into cardiac arrest, his lips trembled and then his whole body started shaking, "Jenson......no......"

The last of the heavy snowfall in London has stopped.

Jiang Bie's phone buzzed and the only special note on WeChat replied with a message.

Late arrival.

Sheng Mingzhi: [Happy New Year ^O^! - [Happy New Year

Although fireworks have been banned in YunJing, the countdown to the New Year's Eve gathering is still a lively affair.

Sheng Mingzhi had to drag Lu Jiayan to a crowded city centre to celebrate New Year's Eve.

Sheng Xu rolled her eyes and continued to harass her friends on WeChat.

Lu Jiayan indulgently lets him pull along, driving is definitely not an option at this point, three minutes walking, three hours driving.

Sheng Mingzhi, wearing a couple's scarf of the same style as his, had just stepped out when his legs hurt and asked Lu Jiayan to carry him for a while.

It was only when we got to a crowded place that we felt ashamed and quietly came down to walk.

Afraid of getting separated, Lu Jiayan always holds him by the fingertips.

Get to the city centre just in time for the countdown.

They both arrived late and there were no good seats left, so they had to stand at the outermost edge to soak up the atmosphere.

Everyone at this moment began to shout at the top of their voices.

"Ten-"

"Nine..."

"Hachi-"

......

Sheng Mingzhi was also infected by the atmosphere, holding aloft an electronic firework wand and smiling with fox eyes curved into crescent moons: "I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this.

"Three..."

"Two-"

"A-"

He suddenly made a trumpet-like gesture with his hands and shouted in Lu Jiayan's ear.

" Lu Jiayan - Happy New Year -"

The electronic fireworks explode instantly.

Carbon-based creatures on a blue planet at the edge of the third spiral arm of the Milky Way are celebrating the completion of another revolution of their planet, in that star system.

Lu Jiayan dropped a kiss on his lips, hugged him tight and smiled, "Happy New Year."

On 11 February, Sheng Mingzhi visited Qiu Yu once.

Many new headstones have been added to the YunJing cemetery, showing the signs of time.

Sheng Xue put down the flowers and suddenly noticed a tombstone with no photo next to it and was surprised, "Brother, this tombstone doesn't have a name."

Sheng Mingzhi claps his hands and turns his head, and sure enough there is no name or photograph on the headstone, only a sentence written in English.

Translated as.

"Here lies my dear young boy sleeping his young life away."

What an eccentric person.

Sheng Mingzhi belaboured a remark.

He turned his head and found a position that just overlooked the whole of YunJing.

One look up and it's a magnificent sunset.

It was only on 17 February that Sheng Mingzhi received a New Year's card from Jiang Bie.

There are only eight words on it.

"I would like to be a river and meet you."