Gu Ge brought a feather duster and began cleaning Xiao Kui’s room.
The room had accumulated a fair amount of dust.
A house, once devoid of people, seemed to lose its vitality.
It felt lifeless.
On the bookshelf, there were still many sunflower leaves.
Xiao Kui had kept quite a few sunflowers in this room back then.
She would bounce on the bed, clamoring to go outside and dig up soil.
Gu Ge picked up the small, rusted shovel from the floor.
The spots on it had been eroded by time beyond recognition.
“It’s so fast… It feels like seeing Xiao Kui yesterday was just yesterday…”
Gu Ge opened the bookshelf and saw a crumpled test paper stuffed in a crack.
Back then, whenever Xiao Kui didn’t feel like doing homework, she would shove the papers into a corner, thinking no one would ever find them.
Sometimes, Gu Ge would find them in the room.
She would hesitate, wanting to say something, but then she’d think of Xiao Kui’s frail health and simply let her be a little willful.
At Xiao Kui’s funeral, many people came.
Her parents, and many parents of Xiao Kui’s classmates.
Her classmates, being too young, didn’t understand what death meant.
They just heard people say Xiao Kui couldn’t play with them anymore.
During the funeral, Gu Ge didn’t cry.
She looked at Xiao Kui before the coffin was closed.
Xiao Kui was smiling, like a sunflower, always turning its smile towards the sun.
At the funeral, everyone else was crying.
Only Gu Ge didn’t.
Some said the child didn’t understand death.
Her mother was watching the pastor chant scriptures.
Others were haggling in private, saying how many words were said and how much it would cost.
The other relatives were curious about how much money they would get this time.
Gu Ge walked numbly through the crowd.
She didn’t particularly like these topics, but she couldn’t say she hated them either.
She just thought this wasn’t the world Xiao Kui had described to her.
At that moment, she somewhat disliked this family.
After Xiao Kui’s death, her own situation indeed started to deteriorate, though Gu Ge didn’t really care about that.
For a long time after Xiao Kui died, she would come to the old house, help clean, and then use the small shovel to dig up the soil bit by bit, planting sunflower seeds, waiting for them to take root and sprout, to greet a sunshine that belonged to them.
Gu Ge emerged from her memories.
Looking at the largely unchanged furniture, Xiao Kui’s words echoed in her mind.
She felt the day had passed so quickly.
She opened her phone and looked at the sticker of Jiang Ran lying down.
“It’s me being too selfish. You are, after all, not a second Xiao Kui.”
Gu Ge sat on the wooden bed that had been abandoned for a long time.
Her mind, in a jumbled mess, recalled the time she first met Jiang Ran.
That figure, that back, had really looked so much like Xiao Kui back then.
For a moment, she even thought it was Xiao Kui.
Maybe Xiao Kui had come back in a different body to save her.
But when she saw that Jiang Ran had the same illness as Xiao Kui, her heart truly ached.
Could it be that even in a second chance, it would still be like this?
But later, she realized Jiang Ran was not Xiao Kui.
Even later, when Gu Ge used her ability, she never once made Jiang Ran act like Xiao Kui.
She knew Jiang Ran was never Xiao Kui, and she didn’t want Jiang Ran to be Xiao Kui either.
So, she wanted to save Jiang Ran.
Even if it cost ancient coins, even if it cost everything she had.
Of course, she knew this was selfish.
No matter what, Jiang Ran could not be forced into the container labeled “Xiao Kui,” nor could she become that container.
She didn’t want Jiang Ran’s ending to be like that.
At the very least, Xiao Kui’s ending was too painful.
She didn’t want anyone to go through something similar.
Gu Ge used a broom to sweep the house clean.
As the dust settled, the entire house became much cleaner.
This cleaning should keep it clean for quite a while longer.
Gu Ge opened her phone and noticed Jiang Ran’s chat history stopped on that page.
She really wanted to hear Jiang Ran’s heartbeat again.
Only by hearing her heart still beating would she feel at ease.
As long as she could feel the boundless vitality bursting from her, she felt as if she could live through her one more time.
She had already suffered enough pain.
This time, she wanted to be selfish and hold onto something.
When she was young, she couldn’t keep her sister.
Later, she couldn’t keep her family.
Later still, she couldn’t keep her health.
Now, she just wanted to keep Jiang Ran.
Perhaps Jiang Ran would also, on some afternoon, pass by a cluster of sunflowers.
Turn around, and call her “Sister.”
But she was so afraid.
If Jiang Ran called her “Sister” again… she didn’t want to lose another sister.
She really wished Jiang Ran could be her daughter.
That way, on the day Jiang Ran was dying, she could donate her heart to her…
But she also really wanted to hear Jiang Ran call her “Mom” one more time.
Because she wanted to see, while she was still alive, that she could have a daughter too.
Even if it was fake.
Gu Ge pressed her aching chest.
She knew her body had just recovered; she couldn’t act recklessly.
And she couldn’t die now.
She couldn’t do anything foolish either.
Right now, only she could save Jiang Ran.
She had to pull herself together.
Gu Ge took a long, deep breath and went to another room.
Compared to the previous room, this one was much messier, as it was basically where Gu Ge used to live herself, so there weren’t many signs of cleaning.
As she tidied up the things on the floor, Gu Ge noticed many scattered photos.
They were still pictures of her and Xiao Kui.
More photos spilled out from the cabinet.
Looking at those photos, she just felt time had passed so quickly.
How could time be so fleeting?
After tidying up a few of the scattered photos, Gu Ge stood up and saw several backpacks scattered on the floor.
They seemed to be ones Xiao Kui had used before.
Gu Ge picked them up, planning to clean them on a suitable day, though that probably wouldn’t be possible anytime soon.
Gu Ge opened the weather forecast.
The reports now said strong convective weather would arrive early, and this time it should last a long time.
The area affected by rain would likely be extensive.
The doors and windows here weren’t exactly sealed tight.
If it rained, some of the old wooden furniture inside would easily get damp.
Gu Ge had noted a few that were particularly warped and deformed from moisture.
The door thresholds and such were highly corroded.
It was only a matter of time before they broke.
Gu Ge looked at these door frames, guessing it would be troublesome to repair them.
It wasn’t that they couldn’t be fixed, but it would definitely be a hassle.
She looked around nearby, took stock of a few broken cabinets, and planned to repair them when the weather was good.
It was probably about time for repairs anyway; the last time these cabinets were fixed was a long time ago.
Gu Ge swept the dust from under the bed as well.
This house had plenty of cockroach and rat poison, so there were almost no cockroaches, though you could occasionally see some ants.
She finally swept around the nearby area, stopping her work only after she was panting and out of breath.
Just then, a new message came through on her phone.
Opening it, she found it was from Jiang Ran.
The content was very simple, with a sticker added at the end.
“Sister Gu Ge, it’s going to rain soon, remember to bring things in. If it’s not possible, you can come back to the hospital for a few days. Take care of yourself.”
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.