Chapter 64: Waking from the Dream â The Most Familiar Stranger
Jiang Yunian had been frozen on the floor for too long. After the private doctor’s examination, the situation was deemed not optimistic. This persistent high fever was only contained after he was sent to the hospital.
After staying in the hospital for two days until the fever completely subsided, Jiang Yunian gradually woke up, realizing he had escaped that cold, dark golden cage. Knowing this result, he didn’t feel any sense of relief, nor could it be called happiness. Or rather, all of this shouldn’t have happened in the first place. It was just an unexpected calamity, yet it left indelible aftereffects in his heart. After regaining consciousness, Jiang Yunian spoke much less. He often leaned against the headboard looking at the tree outside the window with leaves almost all fallen, staring for a long time.
Occasionally, Hao Meng and Lu Yuanbai would come to visit him. Jiang Yunian was low in spirit and usually couldn’t say more than a few sentences. More often he was sleeping, or zoning out. Regarding his disappearance these past few days, aside from He Qing and the others who knew, few people knew what he had encountered, and no one deliberately brought it up.
As for why He Qing knew, it was thanks to Lu Yuanbai.
After Jiang Yan locked the person up, he used the excuse that his Ge was sick and needed rest to ask for two weeks of leave from the school. Only Lu Yuanbai sensed something was wrong. He went to his house several times in a row and was shut out. Every time, it was Jiang Yan who opened the door; he never saw the person himself. A living person disappearing for no reason raised his suspicions. He spent some effort and found out the last place Jiang Yunian appeared was Tianshan Renjian, so he asked He Qing to help inquire about his whereabouts. It was also at this time that He Qing discovered something wrong with the top-floor suite, thereby discovering Jiang Yanâs secret. But under Zhou Shuâs dissuasion, he didn’t tell Lu Yuanbai the truth, only saying Jiang Yunian had a serious illness and was now in the hospital.
During the two days he was hospitalized, mostly Lu Yuanbai and He Qing took turns taking care of him. Hao Meng occasionally came over to keep him company and relieve his boredom.
Among all the people who came to visit, the figure who should have been there most was missing.
Obviously, everyone discovered something was wrong, but by tacit understanding, no one took the initiative to mention it. Presumably, Jiang Yanâs absence was mostly because Jiang Yunian didn’t want to see him. Only after he fell asleep and the idlers dispersed would a figure quietly appear outside the ward door, greedily yet restrainedly tracing the person on the hospital bed through the glass window on the door, yet lacking the courage to push the door open.
Until Jiang Yunian recovered somewhat and the doctor approved the discharge application, the figure outside the glass window never overstepped. Similarly, during this period of recuperation, Jiang Yunian seemed to have forgotten a certain period of time and a certain person in his life; he never asked a single sentence.
On the day of discharge, Lu Yuanbai came to pick him up. Jiang Yunian was slowly packing his things in the ward when a slight noise suddenly came from the doorway.
“Who is it?”
He put down the things in his hand. His left foot hadn’t fully healed from the sprain, so he walked a bit slowly. After opening the door, he only managed to glimpse a black figure flashing quickly past the corner, disappearing at the end of the corridor. He stared at the empty corridor. The smell of disinfectant permeated the air, slightly cold and cheerless. Quietly looking in that direction for a moment, Jiang Yunian slowly closed the door and continued to lower his head to pack.
Actually, there wasn’t much to pack. Besides the two sets of change of clothes He Qing brought, there were just some fruit baskets friends sent when visiting. Lu Yuanbai was afraid he would be bored and specially brought a few books. Not many things; they were organized quickly.
Just as he zipped up his backpack, the door behind him sounded again. Jiang Yunianâs movement paused. He didn’t look back immediately; his heart tightened for no reason. But it was only for a moment. He turned around and saw Lu Yuanbaiâs peaceful face through the glass window on the door.
Jiang Yunian froze. He couldn’t say what the flavor in his heart wasâsomewhat complicatedâbut he quickly tidied up his emotions and called out, “Xuezhang.”
Lu Yuanbai caught the surprise flashing past his eyes but didn’t ask more. “All packed?”
“Mn, not many things anyway.”
Jiang Yunian shouldered his backpack, lifted a fruit basket, and walked over.
“Let me.” Lu Yuanbai didn’t give him a chance to be polite. He naturally removed the backpack from his shoulder, slinging it over one of his own, and took the fruit basket with the other hand. He looked down at Jiang Yunianâs inconvenient left foot and extended his arm for him to hold, telling him to walk slowly.
Jiang Yunian didn’t act affectedly. He obediently held onto his arm, following with small steps.
At the entrance of the fire escape not far behind them, a figure leaned out. Watching the backs of the two supporting each other drifting further and further away, his lips pursed into a straight line. He just watched silently, doing nothing.
Lu Yuanbai drove Jiang Yunian back to the neighborhood, delivering him all the way to the stairwell entrance. He got out of the car, opened the passenger door, and carefully supported him out. Looking up, they bumped right into Auntie Wang returning from grocery shopping.
As soon as Auntie Wang saw Jiang Yunian, she immediately greeted him, pulling his hand to look left and right, worried sick.
“You child, going out without telling Auntie. If that kid Jiang Yan hadn’t said you were sick, causing me to lose sleep for days. My life is bitter enough already; you still haven’t learned to take good care of yourself, don’t make people worry all the time…”
Auntie Wang couldn’t stop once she got excited, chattering a whole heap. Jiang Yunian hadn’t been nagged at by someone for a long time. A long-lost warmth surged in his heart. He obediently lowered his head, listening silently and accepting it humbly. Auntie Wang nagged for a while before noticing Lu Yuanbai beside him, asking who this was.
Lu Yuanbai greeted politely, saying he was Yunianâs friend. Auntie Wang nodded. “It’s good to have friends looking after him.”
She scrutinized his face for a while, sighing with emotion: “Young man looks really spirited, as handsome as that kid Jiang Yan.”
As soon as this was said, the two people opposite fell silent. Auntie Wang was completely unaware and continued talking to herself: “Don’t know where Jiang Yan went either. Couldn’t be that he knew you were sick and ran off? No wonder haven’t seen anyone for a few days, this stinking brat…”
A trace of embarrassment flashed across Jiang Yunianâs face; he didn’t know what to say. It was Lu Yuanbai who interrupted appropriately, reminding Auntie Wang that Jiang Yunian just got out of the hospital and needed rest. Auntie Wang reacted then, hurriedly telling them to go back quickly.
Lu Yuanbai supported Jiang Yunian as they walked inside, noticing the absent-mindedness on his face. Arriving at the door, he handed the backpack and fruit basket to him, asking, “Can you manage alone?”
Jiang Yunian snapped back to reality, hearing that he didn’t intend to come in. Thinking that the house hadn’t been lived in for a long time and must have accumulated dust, making it inconvenient to receive guests without cleaning, he didn’t insist. He thanked him sincerely, saying sorry for troubling Xuezhang these days, and that he would treat him to a meal another day.
Lu Yuanbai smiled and reached out to ruffle his hair. “Why be so polite with me.”
After seeing off Lu Yuanbai, Jiang Yunian pushed the door open and went in. He originally thought what would welcome him would be a room full of dust and stuffy air. However, the moment he pushed open the door, he froze.
Not only was the room not dirty, but it was unusually clean and tidy. The floors were spotless, the furniture dust-free, even the TV screen and fan blades were wiped shiny. Obviously, someone had cleaned in advance.
Jiang Yunian closed the door and limped inside. From the sofa in the living room to the dining table in the kitchen, everything had been carefully cleaned. He opened the refrigerator; it was empty inside, without any residual vegetable leaves or mold. The bed in the bedroom was also made neatly. From the fluffy quilt, he could smell the dry scent of sunshine. The whole apartment had almost no changes from before he left. Traces of a certain person remained everywhere, only missing that person.
The person he didn’t want to mention again.
After recuperating these days, Jiang Yunian was already able to slowly fade out those unbearable experiences. After all, life was his own; he couldn’t stay in the past forever. He thought he had calmed down more or less, but when he saw the small home meticulously maintained before his eyes, his heart couldn’t help but start throbbing with pain.
Even passing by the kitchen, that tall figure seemed to appear before his eyes again, wearing an apron, busying about methodically inside. Sensing his gaze, he would cast a faint smile. So real, as if within reach. But with a blink, the person in the kitchen disappeared again. Inside was quiet, no smoke or fire of cooking, no sound of running water, and even more so, no man who once washed his hands to make soup for him.
All the past events seemed like a big dream. Now waking from the dream, everything returned to the starting point.
He was still alone.
He didn’t know how long it would take to remove this sense of severance between reality and memory. But he believed there would be that day, there would be a day he could calmly embrace his own loneliness and walk on frankly. Just before that, it was inevitable to be a little unaccustomed. But it didn’t matter. His adaptability had always been strong; taking it slowly, he would get used to it.
It was just returning to his original life, nothing big. Life had to go on, the future was still bright; he couldn’t just collapse like this.
Jiang Yunian took a deep breath, suppressing the sourness in his heart, preparing to organize the things he brought back. He carried the fruit basket to the refrigerator, wanting to put the fruit in. Just then, the living room door was suddenly knocked on.
“Coming…”
Jiang Yunian put away the fruit and walked toward the door, thinking Xuezhang forgot something he wanted to instruct him on, so he turned back.
“Xuezhang, how about you stay…”
Pulling the door halfway open, the rest of the words got stuck raw in his throat.
What met him face-to-face was that familiar face he thought he would never see again.
Jiang Yan stood half a step away from the door. No obvious emotion could be seen on his face, except for the heavy dark circles under his eyes revealing a bit of haggardness. He looked no different from before.
Clearly only a few days had passed, clearly nothing had changed, but Jiang Yunian still captured a trace of unusual undulation from those eyes that always made people unable to see through them.
“What do you want him to stay for?” Jiang Yan spoke, breaking the silence.
Jiang Yunian didn’t speak. The two just looked at each other in silence like this. In the end, it was Jiang Yan who admitted defeat first. His gaze fell on his left foot that didn’t dare to fully touch the ground. His voice softened a bit, asking how his leg was, was it okay? Then he lifted two plastic bags, one large and one small, in his hand, handing them to him. “Bought you some medicine, and some groceries.”
He paused, his voice lowering a bit more. “If it’s inconvenient for Ge… I’ll cook for you.”
Saying this, his hand pressed against the door pushing it open a bit, attempting to put the things inside. The person in front of him suddenly raised a hand, blocking the door gap that was opening wider and wider, blocking him along with it.
Jiang Yanâs hand stopped in mid-air.
Jiang Yunian froze for a good while before realizing this wasn’t an illusion. Jiang Yan really came. He didn’t leave; he had been there all along, following like a shadow in places he couldn’t see.
“What did you come here for?” Jiang Yunian didn’t even look at the things in his hand, turning a deaf ear to his concern.
“…” Jiang Yan was stung by the indifference in his Geâs eyes. Treating him stranger than a stranger; this was something he had never seen before.
“Isn’t it enough?” He lowered his eyes, his expression ashen, revealing a deep sense of powerlessness. “What do you want to do this time?”
Jiang Yunian was stunned, his throat tight. He released the hand blocking the door, took half a step back, and said the words he had never said to a second person.
“I’m sorry…”
Jiang Yunian blinked calmly, gave no response, and pulled the door to close it. Seeing the door about to close in front of his eyes, Jiang Yan pressed against the door again. “Wait.”
He took a phone out of his pocket, held Jiang Yunianâs hand, and stuffed the phone into his palm. “The phone is fixed. There were some calls and texts inside… I replied to some for you.”
Jiang Yunian didn’t fuss about his unauthorized checking of his phone, just silently took the phone back.
“Ge…”
The slender white wrist was pulled away from his palm, taking half his mind with it. Jiang Yan gazed greedily at this face he thought of day and night, emotions surging. He opened his mouth, wanting to ask “Can we still be together?”, wanting to ask “Do I still have a chance?”. The words reached his mouth, but he had no face to beg for forgiveness. Finally, it only turned into a dry and melancholy sentence:
“Can I still call you Ge?”
Jiang Yunianâs heart sank. He didn’t look at him, silently holding the door handle. The door closed slowly before his eyes, until it shut completely.
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