Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Lu Cheng’an and I had held a wedding and exchanged rings.

Before I died.

Back then, long-term chemotherapy had left me pale, thin, and weak, but Lu Cheng’an watched me in my wedding dress with complete focus, then told me I was truly beautiful.

He kept looking at me with a tender, lingering smile, but the despair and sorrow around him still could not be suppressed.

There were only the two of us at that wedding. After we finished the ceremony, Lu Cheng’an held me by the floor-to-ceiling window and looked out at the peach blossom tree in the courtyard.

It was the tree Lu Cheng’an and I had planted with our own hands on our first day together.

When I died, the peach blossom tree had only just formed its buds. Lu Cheng’an had someone build a glass room around the tree and warm it with heating, wanting me to make it in time for the blossoms.

I asked Lu Cheng’an, “Do you think I can make it to the blossoms?”

He lowered his head and pressed a gentle, tender kiss to the top of my forehead. “You can.”

Every few hours, I would struggle awake from unconsciousness and ask Lu Cheng’an whether the flowers had bloomed. Each time, he reassured me right away, saying, “Soon.”

But before the flowers bloomed, I couldn’t hold on any longer.

I said to Lu Cheng’an, “I’ll sleep for a little while first. If the flowers bloom, will you call me?”

The arms holding me trembled faintly, but they were steady. His voice was steady too. “Okay.”

I said, “If I don’t wake up tonight, remember to eat.”

Please don’t end up like me, getting sick because of your stomach.

His tears fell silently onto my face, one large drop after another. He said, “Okay.”

After that, I never woke up.

What a shame. I still hadn’t seen the flowers bloom.

We had been through so much together.

So I don’t understand how Lu Cheng’an could treat someone else as me.

To be honest, at first I didn’t take Su Luo seriously.

Even though I was heartbroken, hurt, and angry.

But Su Luo’s face truly didn’t pose any real threat to me. It only reminded me that Lu Cheng’an still couldn’t let go of the dead me.

I had not given up on that bet with God.

First, although Lu Cheng’an had betrayed me, Su Luo really did look far too much like me.

Second, he could find anyone he wanted, but I couldn’t just watch him deceive himself like this.

Elementary students have a required text called “The Dream of Yellow Millet.” Right now, he was immersed in his own yellow millet dream, deceiving himself.

One day after work, I passed by the office on the 31st floor and saw Lu Cheng’an and Su Luo together.

At the time, Su Luo was at the desk, working on documents at the computer. Lu Cheng’an stood a long distance away from her. He did nothing, only watched her quietly.

His gaze passed through her face and landed on the pothos not far away, as if he were looking through her to remember the lover he could never get back.

He would never know that the lover he could never get back was standing right behind him.

Quietly watching him.

I sighed, looked at Lu Cheng’an, and thought to myself: Do you know I don’t have much time left?

I didn’t know why Lu Cheng’an would treat Su Luo as my substitute.

Aside from that face, we had nothing in common. Su Luo’s personality was very soft; she was extremely introverted, possibly because she couldn’t speak.

However, everyone in the company seemed to like her quite a lot, because she was kind and gentle, always wearing a slight smile when she met people, very likable and obedient.

With a personality like that, I believed even my mother, after spending an hour with Su Luo, would be able to completely separate the two of us from that face.

The gap between our souls, as vast as north from south, was enough to make people overlook that identical face.

I didn’t know what Lu Cheng’an was really thinking.

That incomprehension intensified on the 28th day after my rebirth.