TSFLIP Chapter 455

Wang Ci, feeling guilty, turned to leave—but not before stomping hard on Xia Chao’s foot with her high heel. “You are cold-blooded. Fengguang’s like this, and you can still think so rationally.”

Xia Chao watched her walk away, letting out a long, exhausted sigh. “With a stomp that hard, who’s the cold-blooded one here…”

That Monday, Ji You couldn’t come to visit Fengguang—she had to go back to school. Fengguang, on the other hand, was taking a leave of absence for the semester due to the incident. Unless her eyesight recovered, she wouldn’t be returning. Ji You had already taken a week off to stay with her at the hospital; she didn’t have a reason to miss more school.

Fengguang sat upright in her hospital bed, her eyes closed, looking as if she were drifting off to sleep. When she heard footsteps nearby, she opened her eyes—though they no longer held any light—and said pitifully, “Auntie, I don’t want to drink Mom’s chicken soup anymore.”

A large hand gently ruffled her hair, and a familiar, warm male voice replied, “If Fengguang doesn’t want to drink it, then you don’t have to.”

“Big Brother?”

“It’s me.” Ji Mian sat down next to the bed, and she instinctively reached out, fumbling until she found his left hand and held it with both of hers.

Fengguang blinked. “Why haven’t you visited me these past few days? Have you been busy with school?”

He had come every day—he just never entered. He’d always stand by the door, and seeing how there were always people in her room, he chose not to disturb her.

“Does it still hurt?” Ji Mian lifted his right hand and gently touched the corner of her mouth, where the bruising had already faded to a dull purple.

“It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“But it must have hurt a lot at the time.”

“…Yeah.”

“Did you cry?”

“No!” she said proudly, but then added a bit sheepishly, “Well… when I first woke up and realized I couldn’t see, I cried just a little. Just a tiny bit.”

Ji Mian gave a short, low chuckle. “I believe you.”

She smiled brightly at that.

But then, Ji Mian’s smile slowly faded. His fingers moved to the corners of her eyes. “Fengguang… what are we going to do? Your eyes… You can’t see anymore.”

“It’s okay,” she said softly. “Even if I can’t see, I can still feel a lot of things.”

The wind stirred the white curtains. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I can hear the breeze… and I can smell the fresh grass outside that the wind carried in. It smells way better than the disinfectant in the hospital.”

Though her eyes had lost the light of the sun, the warmth of it still lived in her smile. She seemed just like the usual her.

She couldn’t see Ji Mian’s face, and so she didn’t know that his expression had darkened to the extreme. But his voice remained just as gentle as always when he asked, “That night… You could’ve run away and left Xiaoyou behind. Why didn’t you?”

“Because a long, long time ago, you and I made a promise. Xiaoyou is my little sister, so I have to protect her.”

Just as he’d expected.

He slowly withdrew his hand from her cheek. His voice, though calm, carried something deeply restrained. “Do you realize… You almost died?”

“But I didn’t. I’m still here, aren’t I?”

“Have you thought about what might’ve happened if Fu Yang hadn’t shown up that night…”

“But… even if Brother Fu hadn’t appeared, I still had to help Xiaoyou escape.”

“Why?”

“Because… if something had happened to Xiaoyou instead of me, you would’ve been even more heartbroken.”

Ji Mian opened his mouth but couldn’t say anything. After a long pause, he finally managed to speak, his voice hoarse and dry.

“Xia Fengguang… you are a fool.”