Seeing the text message, Lu Yan cried even harder.
She didn't call him back for a long time, until Shen Kuo's call came in, but she cut it off, but then he called again, Lu Yan still cut it off.
At this moment, she didn't know how to face him.
For the third time, Lu Yan looked at his name jumping on the phone screen... She knew that if she didn't answer this time, Shen Kuo wouldn't call again.
The girl kept wiping the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand, and finally pressed the answer button with trembling hands.
Did not speak, even held his breath...
On the other end of the phone, she could hear the noisy background of the hospital.
Chen Kuo was silent for more than ten seconds, and finally said, "Yanyan, I don't mind."
If it bothered, I wouldn't have chosen you in the first place.
Lu Yan's emotions completely collapsed, she panted heavily, and said in a trembling cry—
"But I don't mind!"
Father Shen's life is dying, it's all their family's fault, Shen Kuo is still so kind to himself...
Lu Yan just felt like a knife was piercing her heart.
"Shen Kuo, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry..."
She apologized carelessly to him.
"You didn't apologize to me."
Shen Kuo clenched his fists tightly, and his voice remained calm: "Lu Yan, never say these three words to me again."
Lu Yan hung up the phone, cried for a while, and finally fell into a drowsy sleep.
This time I slept until five o'clock in the afternoon.
For the first time, Lu Zhen didn't bother her. After waking up, she felt limp all over, and walked out of the room with her slippers on.
Lu Zhen was still reading. It was rare to see such a sleepless appearance.
Even Aunt Li, the helper at home, said: "Look at the young master's enthusiasm, he is going to be the champion!"
Lu Yan went to the bathroom to wash her face, looking at her swollen eyes, she was so ugly.
After crying, she felt much more comfortable in her heart. She asked Aunt Li for two slices of cucumber to stick on her eyes. She was hungry, and she gnawed off the remaining half.
Back in the room, Lu Yan closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Children only cry when they encounter things. In front of Shen Kuo, she always looks like a child who can't grow up.
At eight o'clock in the evening, Lu Zhen washes up early and prepares to go to bed for tomorrow's college entrance examination.
Before going to bed, he knocked on Lu Yan's door—
"I haven't 'greeting' to you all day, brat, seeing how hard I am, I don't know how to peel an apple for you."
Lu Yan responded sullenly: "Ang."
"Open the door."
"What are you opening the door for?"
"Let me shake my head."
"I'm not your dog!"
"There is an exam tomorrow, so let's get lucky. Your luck has always been good."
Lu Yan quickly put the cucumber slices back on her eyes, and opened the door of the room.
"Oh my mother, you scared me."
"Apply mask."
"Fine."
Lu Zhen plucked the hair on the top of her forehead vigorously, and muttered to herself: "Bless the Bodhisattva, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Fudan Jiaotong University, Namo Amitabha..."
After murmuring, he patted the back of Lu Yan's head: "Okay, go to sleep."
When he turned to leave, Lu Yan suddenly grabbed the corner of his clothes.
"what?"
Lu Yan hesitated for a while, then said in a hoarse voice, "Dad, work harder tomorrow."
"Well, I see." He touched her forehead, and a rare tenderness flashed in his eyes: "Don't worry."
Watching Lu Zhen leave, she returned to the room, turned her back to the door and took out her phone.
The phone screen showed that there were three missed calls, all from the same person—Shen Kuo.
The time is at 4:00, 4:10 and 4:27 in the afternoon.
She was in such a deep sleep that her phone was on silent so... no answer.
The college entrance examination is coming up tomorrow, no matter how sad she is, she can't make Shen Kuo worry about it.
She cannot influence him.
Lu Yan called Chen Kuo back.
The phone rang for a long time, but no one answered.
Thinking of the three missed calls in the afternoon, Lu Yan suddenly felt something bad, vaguely unable to tell what it was, she walked around the room and decided to go see him.
Lu Yan put her ear to the door and heard Lu Zhen enter the room.
He always fell asleep very quickly. Lu Yan guessed that he was already asleep, so she sneaked out of the house and rode a bicycle all the way to the gate of the Municipal People's Hospital.
There was no time to even lock it, and it was too late to support the bicycle when it fell to the ground. Lu Yan trotted all the way...to the third floor.
Originally, I thought that the figure of the boy could be seen in the corridor.
The corridors were empty.
In the intensive care unit on the third floor, the bed that Shen's father slept on is already empty...
With a "boom" in her head, Lu Yan stood by the window, opened her eyes wide and looked at the empty ward, her blood was cold all over her body.
She seemed to be crazy... She started looking for Shen Kuo in each ward.
It must be that Shen's father's condition has improved, yes, he will definitely be transferred out of the intensive care unit when he recovers, it must be like this!
They must be in the general ward, maybe in the next one...
"Shen Kuo!"
Lu Yan eagerly pushed open the doors of the common wards, and yellow and unfamiliar faces stared at her in surprise.
Finally, the doctor on duty was brought over and stopped her behavior: "This is a hospital, please keep your voice down."
Lu Yan dare not ask the doctor, she dare not...
She could only look for it from ward to ward on her own, hoping to find it, hoping to see Shen Kuo and the awakened father Shen in the next ward.
"You are looking for the boy who was with you today."
The doctor caught up with Lu Yan, he still had an impression of her.
"The patient in intensive care unit 308 passed away this afternoon and has now been sent to the morgue."
Lu Yan's footsteps stopped suddenly.
Seeing that Lu Yan was silent, the doctor shook his head. In the hospital, the doctor had seen this kind of thing too much. Although he sympathized with it, he had no choice but to sigh and said, "Life and death are not in control. He has such a grueling disease. How can he persevere like this?" For many years, God has been extraordinarily merciful.
No, it's not God's special grace, it's Shen Kuo...it's Shen Kuo who is reluctant to let go, it's Shen Kuo's meticulous care every day and seeking medical advice everywhere that keeps Dad for so many years!
With a trembling voice, she asked, "What, when?"
"Did you say the time of death? It was about three or four in the afternoon,"
Lu Yan leaned against the wall and fell to the ground.
At three or four o'clock in the afternoon, he called her three times, but she didn't receive...
Lu Yan clenched her fists tightly, feeling as if she was standing on the edge of a cliff, letting the cold wind at the bottom of the cliff pierce her bones.
Chilling to the bone.
When he was most desperate, he called her three times, but she didn't answer.
She couldn't imagine Shen Kuo's mood at that time, she didn't dare to think, really didn't dare to think...
Lu Yan walked out of the hospital, crossed the road in a daze, and stood in front of the mortuary where the corpses were stored. The long stairs led to the solemn and dark door.
The soles of her feet seemed to be filled with lead, and she could no longer lift a step.
She didn't have the courage to go in.
At this moment, a familiar figure walked out of the mortuary, it was Zhong Kai.
Wearing a black long-sleeved jacket and black trousers, he jumped down the steps out of the mortuary gate in two or three steps, as if he was in a hurry, and hurried out.
Lu Yan hurriedly turned to leave, but he had already seen her.
"Hey, Xiaoyan?" He caught up and grabbed her: "Don't go."
Lu Yan didn't even dare to look at him, she turned her head sideways and asked hoarsely: "Dad Shen..."
"I'm calling you Dad, why don't you go in and take a look? It will be cremated in a while."
Lu Yan raised her head suddenly, in disbelief.
Zhong Kai sighed, and said: "Shen Kuo means to cremate him earlier, after all...his father has also suffered for so many years, let him leave earlier."
Lu Yan's heart was tormented, several times she couldn't speak, she lowered her head, her eyes were foggy.
Zhong Kai saw what she wanted to ask, and said, "He called you this afternoon, but you didn't answer."
"I'm not intentional... "
"Before Uncle Shen left, he woke up for half an hour. Maybe it was a flashback. Shen Kuo knew he couldn't keep it anymore, so he kept holding his hand and talking to him..."
It wasn't until he finished speaking that Lu Yan let out a breath.
Heart like a knife.
"He's calm and not crying, but at times like this, you'd better go in and be with him..."
Lu Yan didn't wait for him to finish, and ran into the morgue in a panic.
At the side of the corridor, the slender figure of the young man was leaning against the wall. Under the overhead light, he pressed the lighter and lit a cigarette.
Under the light of the incandescent ceiling lamp, his eyes were cast into the deep shadow of his eyebrows, and his skin appeared strangely white.
Lu Yan's breathing was half a beat slow, and she stopped hesitantly.
She was suddenly very scared and dared not go over...
As if feeling something in his heart, the boy raised his head and glanced at her.
He put out the cigarette he had only smoked, stood up straight and faced her—
"coming."
His voice is calm.
"Papa Shen...where is he?"
Shen Kuo turned sideways and let the door open.
Lu Yan walked into the empty room in a nonchalant manner. The temperature in the room was very low. She couldn't help shivering. She jumped and saw the cold body covered by a white cloth on the stage...
She walked over slowly, clutching the white cloth with both hands, and wanted to lift it off to take a last look at Father Shen, but Shen Kuo grabbed her hand.
"Don't read it, it's unsafe to die of illness."
Lu Yan's hands froze, and her eyes were sore again.
"Dad Shen." She called softly, then took a breath, as if trying to calm down.
"Dad Shen, don't worry, I will take care of Shen Kuo from now on." She wiped her eyes with her sleeve and continued, "He is not alone."
Shen Kuo took a deep breath, pursed his lips slightly, and walked out of the cold morgue without saying anything.
Along the corridor, a staff member came over to ask Shen Kuo to sign: "Shall we be cremated now?"
"Well, now."
The staff took away the notebook, then entered the room with several other staff, pushed Father Shen's body out, and walked towards the cremation room, still muttering, complaining about working overtime—
"I've never seen it cremated so quickly."
"I heard that he died of illness, maybe I have been looking forward to it for a long time..."
"Now people."
…
When Lu Yan heard this, she almost exploded again, but Shen Kuo grabbed her sleeve and didn't let her go.
"This world is not kind." He said calmly, "Why ask for extravagance."
Lu Yan looked at him in surprise, his eyes were dark, as if shrouded in a thick fog that couldn't be melted away.
He's calm... uncharacteristically.
"Shen Kuo, this afternoon I..."
Shen Kuo interrupted her: "Lu Yan, when a person dies, he dies. There is nothing, and he can't hear what you just said, so... just pretend that you didn't say anything."
Lu Yan's breath was suffocated, and she suddenly looked at him.
Under the dim white light, his face was pale, with a strange cold look in his eyes: "Do you understand what I mean?"
"You want to be with me..."
She still couldn't say those two heart-piercing words.
"It's not a breakup." Shen Kuo said blankly, "Because we've never been together before."
"What, why aren't you together?"
There was a slight smile on the corner of his mouth, he squeezed her chin tightly, and said coldly: "Haven't you figured it out yet? I'm just using you to take revenge on Lu Zhen and your Lu family."
Lu Yan was dumbfounded: "You... what are you talking about?"
"Now that he's dead, I stop. This is your luck, you know."
Lu Yan struggled to free his hand, and said excitedly: "Shen Kuo, you think I'm stupid, don't you? No matter how stupid I am, Lu Yan, I won't be so stupid as to believe what you say."
She's not so stupid... She can't feel a person's sincerity or hypocrisy for her.
Shen Kuo immediately took out his phone and pressed a number—
"Lu Zhen, I, Shen Kuo."
Lu Yan's heart tightened, not understanding what he wanted to do.
He sneered and continued: "Your sister Lu Yan is by my side now..."
"What the hell are you talking about at night!" Lu Zhen was woken up to sleep, very upset: "You must be crazy."
"Go to her room and see if you don't know."
A minute later, Lu Zhen exploded. On the phone, his voice was unsteady: "She...she is not in the room, what are you doing to her!"
"What to do? Fuck her and then dump her, do you think this is a good idea?"
Lu Yan suddenly snatched his mobile phone, smashed it on the ground, and shouted hoarsely: "Are you crazy? You have to take the college entrance examination tomorrow! You say such things..."
God knows how Lu Zhen will react when he hears this outburst of temper.
Shen Kuo picked up the phone, patted the ashes lightly, put it in his pocket, turned and left: "When you become an adult, I will dump you after I fall in love with you. This was my original plan... But now, everything is in vain. It doesn't make sense anymore."
Lu Yan's whole body was cold, and she fell into the ice cave. She remembered Liang Ting's warning...
How deep and how good at disguising this man is, he is the chief culprit who made Lu Zhen go bankrupt after ten years of dormancy!
He said indifferently: "Go away, don't appear in front of me."
Lu Yan seemed to have been emptied of everything in her heart, turned around and ran out of the mortuary gate.
Shen Kuo closed his eyes, trembling all over... clenched his fists tightly.
He thought her heart was broken, he thought she was gone, but he never thought about it, the girl rushed over desperately and hugged his waist tightly——
"I forgive you, Shen Kuo."
She spoke too hastily, with an unsteady cry: "I forgive you for everything you said and did tonight."
Shen Kuo suddenly opened his eyes.
The girl hugged his hand so hard that he lost his courage and was unable to push her away.
"I forgive you for all the lies you have told me, as long as one of them is true, I will forgive you."
With the last sliver of hope and longing, she looked at him with tears in her eyes: "Shen Kuo, do you have any?"
Shen Kuo paused for a few seconds, then said coldly, "No."
Not a word of truth.
He tore away every finger of hers hard, turned around, and scraped off the tear stains on her cheeks with his rough fingertips.
"You see, this is what I want, your tears..."
He smiled and said, "You love me more than I thought."
Lu Yan's chest seemed to be filled with cold air, and with every breath, her internal organs were being torn and ached.
My whole body hurts... it hurts.
"Shen Kuo." She stopped crying, her voice was extremely low: "You know that Father Shen's death was not my fault, nor was it Lu Zhen's fault, why punish me..."
Shen Kuo's heart slowed down and he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Because I am such a selfish and vicious person, someone should have warned you long ago."
Lu Yan took a few steps back.
He looked down at the time: "The urn won't be available until a few days later. I have an exam tomorrow. I'm going back to sleep now."
He turned to leave, but Lu Yan suddenly grabbed the corner of his clothes—
"If you go, I will never forgive you again, never!"
Shen Kuo didn't look back, tore off the corner of his clothes, turned and left.
…
When Shen Kuo walked out of the mortuary, light rain started to fall from the sky, and it fell on his face, which was cold.
It's already June, but it's still cold.
Zhong Kai squatted by the flower table, and when he saw him coming out, he stood up immediately.
"said?"
"Um."
Zhong Kai looked towards the mortuary, sighed deeply, gave Shen Kuo a cigarette, and said, "Calm down."
Shen Kuo took the cigarette, his hands trembling slightly.
"Actually, there's really no need to go this far."
Zhong Kai looked at him: "Didn't you call her back this afternoon?"
"She didn't answer."
"Last night, I kept watch for you all night, and I'm probably tired. Why do you have to do something like this because you didn't receive a call..."
Shen Kuo put out the cigarette butt, and said in a deep voice, "No one expected that she would see the medical record, let alone that Dad would leave so quickly."
"I don't want her to bear such a heavy guilt all her life."
Zhong Kai looked at Shen Kuo in surprise.
The street lamp cast a dark shadow on his handsome and tough face.
"If she stays with me for the rest of my life with the mentality of atonement, I'd rather... let her hate me."
She is innocent and does not need to atone.
At this moment, he is already in hell, and if he is guilty, everything will be borne by him.
Shen Kuo stood up and left, Xiao Suo's back disappeared at the end of the wet street.
…
Lu Yan pushed the bicycle back home, her clothes were soaked through.
After Lu Zhen changed her clothes, she bumped into the cold little girl when she greeted the door.
Her skin was pale, raindrops hung on her face, her hair was all wet, and she looked miserable.
Seeing Lu Zhen, Lu Yan's eyes turned red, and she plunged into his arms, hugging his waist tightly.
"dad... "
Lu Zhen was originally harboring an evil fire that couldn't go away, but seeing the little girl crying like this, his heart immediately softened.
"It's okay, it's okay."
Although he didn't know what happened, Lu Zhen still took her into his arms, gently comforted her back, and comforted her clumsily: "Dad is here, the sky won't fall."
Who is dad.
Dad is the one who can protect you from wind and rain, cut mountains and fires for you, and is willing to pick stars for you.
"I was wrong."
The girl sobbed, crying helplessly: "Dad, I was wrong, I should listen to you... I will always listen to you from now on."
Seeing the little girl's strange appearance, Lu Zhen's complexion became more and more serious, and bloodshot eyes appeared in his eyes: "Shen Kuo... what did he do to you?"
"He lied to me."
Lu Yan said these three words very aggrieved: "I never thought that he would lie to me..."
"I'm going to find him." Lu Zhen was about to go out after speaking, but Lu Yan immediately stopped him.
"Don't go." She gritted her teeth and whispered, "Papa Shen passed away today, so don't go."
Lu Zhen's footsteps stopped suddenly.
The college entrance examination arrived as scheduled.
On the announcement day, Lu Jian did not go to the company as usual, he waited anxiously in front of the school bulletin board.
At that time, there was no online score checking, and the college entrance examination scores were issued by the school uniformly. Each student's score was clearly printed on paper from front to back, and posted in front of the bulletin board.
From six o'clock in the morning, the bulletin board was crowded with anxious parents.
Finally, looking forward to the stars and the moon, the teacher who posted the list came.
The parents' eyes lit up, and they crowded over quickly, surrounding the teacher to ask the grades.
Lu Zhen and Lu Yan did not surround them, they stood and squatted, staying on the grass terrace in the garden in the distance.
Lu Yan was a little nervous, her palms were sweating, but Lu Zhen was uncharacteristically calm...
Since the college entrance examination, his whole personality has become much calmer.
Perhaps it was the sadness and confusion that night when he saw Lu Yan that made him realize that although she always acted like an adult on weekdays, she was always his little girl.
Or maybe it was because he learned the truth and the grievances between the Shen family and the Lu family, he realized that if he couldn't be strong, he wouldn't be able to protect the people around him...
Lu Zhen matured at an unimaginable speed.
The teacher greeted the crowded parents and said repeatedly: "Don't squeeze, don't squeeze, you can see..."
"Our school did well in the exam this year, and the provincial champions are all in our school!"
When the students heard this, they also became excited and agitated—
"Provincial No. 1 Scholar, my mother, that's amazing!"
"who is it!"
"Who else can think of it with his toes, isn't it the one..."
The list announcement was posted, and Shen Kuo's name was bolded and magnified, appearing impressively on the first item on the red list.
So bright red...
Provincial No. 1 Scholar, there is no one else but him.
The students discussed in a low voice: "He can really do it."
Of course, there was a bit of irony in the tone.
After all... my father died the day before, and I went to take the college entrance examination the next day as if nothing happened, and I can still perform so well.
No. 1 in the province and No. 1 in the province.
Normal people who can not be affected.
The degree of Shen Kuo's ruthlessness is simply staggering.
Lu Yan looked around, but did not see the boy.
If he doesn't come... that's fine.
Lu Yan didn't want to see him, not at all... no matter whether Shen Kuo was sincere or not to her in the past. At least, she loved him sincerely. As long as she loved him, as long as she cared about him, she couldn't pretend to be calm when she saw him.
Lu Jian was wearing a suit and leather shoes with a dark red tie, wishing for a good omen.
He huddled together with a group of parents and classmates, rushing desperately to the front row.
Finally squeezed into the front row, Lu Jian started to search from the last list, counting carefully, counting from the back to the front...
The last list did not have Lu Zhen's name, so Lu Jian breathed a sigh of relief.
At least... University should be admitted.
But he still didn't have much confidence in him, let alone the key universities, he was looking forward to it in his heart, and felt that it would be good if he could get a second degree.
However, when he counted the lists one by one, and when he counted the first red list marked red, his expression began to change...
Impossible, it's impossible for Lu Zhen to be on this red list, you know, the students who can stay on this list are all the best in the school.
Seeing that Lu Jian actually went to the red list to find someone, Lu Yan jumped up excitedly and squeezed into the crowd: "Rang Rang, please Rang Rang, hey, thank you."
Lu Yan squeezed to Lu Jian's side, and Lu Jian hurriedly protected her in front of her: "Look, find out where your brother is!"
Lu Jian's voice began to tremble, and it could be seen that he was very excited and pleasantly surprised.
Lu Yan counted down the rankings and found Lu Zhen at the 29th place in her grade!
He scored 632 points in the test!
Lu Yan was very happy in her heart, she kept waving to Lu Zhen, pointed to the position of the red list and shouted to him: "You are here, silly! Come and have a look!"
Although Lu Zhen's eyes lit up, she didn't appear particularly excited.
He walked over slowly and looked at his score and ranking.
"I promised you."
He stood behind Lu Yan, put his hand on her shoulder, and embraced her: "I will do what I promised you."
He wants to be her pride, become her support and reliance, and never let anyone bully her...