“Chen Xi, you haven’t left your room all day. No matter how busy you are, you should get up and move around.”

Chen Mei pushed open Chen Xi’s door and saw her buried in drawing at her desk.

She walked over and looked at the line drawings Chen Xi had sketched in her notebook, praising them as always.

“So beautiful.”

Chen Xi massaged her sore neck and shook her head, “Still not quite right.”

Chen Mei said, “Get up, don’t keep sitting there. You’ll end up with all sorts of problems at such a young age.”

As she spoke, she shooed Chen Xi outside.

“Go call Dr. Bai and invite him for dinner tonight—dumplings with sand onion and mutton filling.”

Chen Xi glanced at the time—it was already past office hours.

She sent Bai Yuning a message asking if he wanted to come over for dumplings tonight.

Bai Yuning didn’t reply.

Chen Xi remembered he had a major surgery scheduled for this afternoon, which probably wasn’t finished yet.

Even after they finished eating dumplings, Bai Yuning still hadn’t responded.

Chen Mei packed a full thermal container of dumplings for Chen Xi to take to Bai Yuning.

Chen Xi rode her motorcycle to the city hospital.

Carrying the thermal container, she went directly to Bai Yuning’s office with practiced ease.

The computer on Bai Yuning’s desk was still on, with a screensaver showing a photo of him and Chen Xi taken at Singing Sand Mountain.

The chrysanthemum tea left in his thermal mug on the desk hadn’t been thrown out—it looked like the surgery wasn’t finished yet.

Chen Xi placed the thermal container on his desk and was about to leave.

The door suddenly opened, and Bai Yuning walked in wearing blue surgical scrubs.

“Just finished?”

Chen Xi asked him with a smile.

While taking off his surgical gown, Bai Yuning said, “The surgery ended half an hour ago. I was helping Ma Kechang with some hospitalization paperwork.”

Chen Xi immediately straightened up. “Is Uncle Ma sick?”

Bai Yuning shook his head, “His friend—the one you asked me to help find a liver specialist for.”

Chen Xi asked, “She’s hospitalized?”

Bai Yuning nodded, “Yeah, transferred from the county hospital. Her condition is very bad…”

Chen Xi’s heart sank as she asked, “Is Uncle Ma at the hospital?”

Bai Yuning nodded, “Yes, hepatobiliary internal medicine inpatient department, bed seventeen. Do you want to go see them?”

Chen Xi nodded.

Bai Yuning said, “I’ll go with you.”

Chen Xi replied, “You should rest. I brought you dumplings—eat them and wait for me in your office.”

Chen Xi went to the inpatient department alone.

She saw Ma Kechang in the corridor.

He wore a gray jacket and looked gray all over.

Chen Xi approached and called softly, “Uncle Ma.”

Ma Kechang turned around at the sound, and seeing it was Chen Xi, nodded vaguely, “You came.”

Chen Xi glanced into the hospital room, which had two beds.

One bed held a little boy, not yet ten years old, and the other held an emaciated middle-aged woman.

Without looking carefully, she was almost unrecognizable as Teacher Wang.

Teacher Wang was turned toward the little boy, saying something with a hint of smile on her waxen face.

Chen Xi withdrew her gaze and asked Ma Kechang quietly, “How is Teacher Wang?”

Ma Kechang sighed, said nothing, and silently shook his head.

The two stood silently against the corridor wall.

After a long while, Ma Kechang suddenly spoke in a hoarse voice.

“Teacher Wang and I are from the same hometown. After starting work, we were assigned to the same unit and gradually became friends.”

“Later, when she wanted to go back to her hometown to teach, I thought it was too poor there and couldn’t bring myself to go back with her.”

“She left, I stayed in Jiuquan City, and we drifted apart.”

Chen Xi could sense that Ma Kechang felt differently about Teacher Wang than others, but she hadn’t expected such a history between them.

She looked at Ma Kechang in surprise, not knowing what to say.

Ma Kechang seemed to be talking to her, yet also to himself.

“Later, I met your father, my master. He taught me everything he knew, wholeheartedly wanting to cultivate me to inherit his legacy and dedicate my entire life to the Mogao Caves, restoring murals for a lifetime like him.”

“But I thought it was too hard. I couldn’t abandon my family and career to live like a monk with the murals for life.”

“So I used connections to change jobs and have been coasting along carelessly ever since.”

He looked at Chen Xi, his eyes full of bloodshot veins, his lips trembling slightly.

“She, a woman, traveled thousands of miles persuading girls to go to school. Your father, at his age, is still sleeping rough in the wilderness…”

He suddenly slid down along the wall, burying his hands in his hair.

Squatting on the ground with his head down, he began to sob quietly.

“I’m a coward. I despise myself.”

Time was like a rushing river.

He watched them swim upstream with envy, then looked down to see his own humble and cowardly soul reflected.

Chen Xi stared at him, watching him cry quietly with suppressed emotion.

She squatted down and placed a hand on his gently trembling shoulder.

“Uncle Ma…”

She said thoughtfully, “You’re not wrong either…”

Being a hero was too difficult. Most people in this world find it hard enough just to take care of themselves.

There was a commotion at the end of the corridor.

Chen Xi looked over and saw more than a dozen girls in school uniforms insisting on entering despite the nurses’ attempts to stop them.

Chen Xi recognized one of the rosy-cheeked girls whom Teacher Wang had brought to visit the museum.

“Teacher Wang’s students are here.”

Chen Xi stood up and walked toward them.

Ma Kechang wiped his face with his sleeve and followed.

Chen Xi walked to the entrance of the inpatient department and saw faces dusty from travel.

One of the girls recognized her, and tears suddenly rolled down her face.

“We want to see Teacher Wang.”

When she cried, the other girls started crying too.

The entrance to the inpatient department became chaotic.

Chen Xi discussed with the nurse whether these children who had traveled far could go in to visit.

The nurse said there were too many people and it didn’t comply with visiting regulations.

Ma Kechang took the children aside while Chen Xi went to find Bai Yuning for a solution.

Although visiting was a small matter, too many people had come.

Bai Yuning finally found the hospital director and explained Teacher Wang’s situation in detail before coordinating this matter.

After nine o’clock in the evening, Teacher Wang was moved to a single room that the hospital had temporarily arranged.

Chen Xi and Bai Yuning brought the girls to the hospital room door.

The girl walking in front suddenly stopped just as she pressed down on the door handle.

She turned around with red eyes and said to the girls behind her, “No crying. Nobody is allowed to cry.”

There was rustling at the door as the girls wiped away their tears, some even forcing smiles.

Chen Xi suddenly wanted a cigarette, but it wasn’t convenient.

She watched the girls enter the room one by one, then turned to lean against the wall by the door.

Chen Xi no longer looked at the scene inside the room. Bai Yuning walked to the side and silently accompanied her.

Soft voices came from the room, and Chen Xi heard Teacher Wang complaining.

“Liu Qing, why did you come too? How many days until the college entrance exam? Time waits for no one.”

…

Bai Yuning whispered in Chen Xi’s ear, “Shall we go?”

Chen Xi shook her head, “I want to stay a bit longer.”

Bai Yuning sighed softly, “Her condition was delayed—poor medical conditions in small places, and no awareness of regular check-ups. By the time it was discovered, it was already late stage.”

Chen Xi said nothing, looking down at her feet.

Bai Yuning sighed softly, “Good resources all concentrate in big cities, so if you have the means, you should live in big cities.”

Chen Xi glanced at Bai Yuning with a surprised expression, but didn’t speak.

The chat in the room continued.

Although Teacher Wang’s voice was weak, it still carried a smile, with a reassuring calmness and composure.

“Tell me what you want to do in the future.”

Chen Xi heard the girls’ voices chattering.

“I want to get into Peking University.”

“I want to go to university by the sea.”

“I want to start a company and make lots of money.”

“I want to work at the Dunhuang Research Institute.”

“I want to be a teacher too.”

…

Teacher Wang’s smiling voice came through, “Do whatever you want to do. Don’t give up when you encounter difficulties, and don’t let yourself have regrets in this life.”

A small voice asked, “Teacher Wang, do you have any regrets?”

Chen Xi unconsciously straightened up slightly, listening intently.

After a moment of silence.

She heard Teacher Wang say with a smile, “Me? I’ve never been on an airplane in my life. That’s a bit of a regret.”

Chen Xi listened silently.

A moment later, she suddenly thought of something and quickly took out her phone to send Qin Lie a message.

“Are you busy? I have something I’d like to ask you to help with.”

She waited a few minutes without a reply, so she called him directly.

She called several times, but Qin Lie didn’t answer.

She suddenly turned to Bai Yuning, “I’m going out for a bit. You go home first.”

Without waiting for Bai Yuning to ask anything, she strode away.

On her way out of the inpatient building, Chen Xi called Qin Lie several more times.

He still didn’t answer.

She simply rode her motorcycle at full speed to the VR arcade to try her luck.

Unfortunately, the VR arcade was locked tight and pitch black—he wasn’t there tonight.

Chen Xi remembered the address where she had dropped off Qin Lie that rainy night and decided to go there directly.

Arriving downstairs at Qin Lie’s building, Chen Xi looked up at the lit windows, not knowing which one was his.

She called Qin Zhan to ask for Qin Lie’s apartment number.

She didn’t have time to explain to Qin Zhan why she was looking for Qin Lie in the middle of the night and hung up.

Chen Xi took the elevator to the ninth floor and found Qin Lie’s door.

She rang the doorbell and waited, but there was no movement inside, so she knocked loudly.

While knocking, she anxiously wondered if Qin Lie wasn’t home.

Just as she was about to give up, the door suddenly opened.

A wave of humid steam hit her face, carrying the aggressive scent of a man.

It wasn’t the faint scent of gardenia-scented body wash that Bai Yuning had after showering.

Instead, it was the lingering scent of the most ordinary soap from the supermarket, unable to mask his simple, brutal, and sharp masculine smell.

Qin Lie appeared at the door with a towel wrapped around his waist, his upper body bare, water droplets still running down his muscular lines.

He looked at Chen Xi expressionlessly, a barely detectable darkness in his black eyes.

The scene from last night at the VR arcade suddenly flashed through Chen Xi’s mind.

Her forehead was struck by his suddenly heavy heartbeat.

Chen Xi’s forehead inexplicably heated up as she forced herself to speak, “I have something I’d like to ask you to help with.”

Qin Lie seemed amused by this and snorted, “What could stump you?”

He was about to close the door when Chen Xi quickly grabbed the handle.

“I do have something I need your help with.”

Qin Lie raised an eyebrow slightly, “Sorry, I don’t do charity work.”

He closed the door.

Chen Xi stuck her foot in the door crack and had to lower her stance. “Please.”

Qin Lie’s hand paused.

Chen Xi quickly asked, “Do you have flight simulation equipment in your VR arcade?”

“The kind where you put it on and it’s like really being on a plane, flying in the sky?”

Qin Lie looked down at her, silent.

Chen Xi felt he was looking at her like she were insane.

She couldn’t care about that now and continued rapid-fire.

“If you have it, is the equipment bulky? Is it portable?”

“I need to borrow it right now.”

Qin Lie smiled, “Did I say I’d lend it to you?”

Chen Xi asked, “You mean you do have this equipment?”

Qin Lie replied, “Don’t you understand Chinese?”

He unceremoniously slammed the door shut.

Chen Xi clenched her fists and knocked loudly again.

Qin Lie went into the bathroom to put on clothes. When he came out, the door was still being knocked on.

He suddenly pulled open the door with a sarcastic expression, “What trick are you planning to use this time?”

Chen Xi swallowed his mockery and tried to explain.

“I know a teacher—she’s a very good person, with late-stage liver cancer, hospitalized at the city hospital. She’s never been on a plane in her life…”

Qin Lie said, “I told you, I don’t do charity.”

He slammed the door shut expressionlessly.

Chen Xi turned and leaned against the door, looking up at the sky with a deep sigh.

She took out her phone and sent Qin Lie a message.

“She taught in a poor mountain valley her whole life. She’s dying, but still smiles and asks her students what they want to do in the future.”

“What about you? Lying dead on piles of money, feeling life is meaningless?”

After sending the message, Chen Xi put her phone in her pocket and walked away without looking back.

As soon as she left the residential complex, her phone rang.

Chen Xi connected her Bluetooth earpiece and heard Qin Zhan’s confused voice.

“Sister Xi, my brother told me to give you a VR headset. Why did you suddenly want to play VR games?”

Chen Xi’s eyes lit up as she quickly asked, “You have a VR headset? How’s the quality?”

Qin Zhan replied, “I took it from my brother to play with. His stuff is all high-tech—the quality is unbeatable.”

Chen Xi asked, “Are there flight games?”

Qin Zhan said, “Yeah.”

Chen Xi said, “Where are you? I’ll come get it right now.”