Chapter 363
Day 15.
Song Xin held the dying Lin Le in her arms. Seeing his extremely weak face, gasping for breath in her embrace, tears once again rolled down her cheeks. This is fine. To be able to meet Lele in my final moments. I’ve walked the world, and compared to those so called righteous people, this silly guy is what a real man should be. “Do you regret? If you saved the water and food for yourself, you could have lived for much longer…”
“You support the school for orphans and the orphanage. Even though I get bullied, and don’t get good clothes, or good food, but Lele still has happy moments. Like when they give out biscuits. Like when Lele is not first from the last in games…” Lin Le said weakly.
Song Xin couldn’t hold back her tears. “They beat you and bully you, don’t you hate them?”
Lin Le weakly but earnestly shook his head. “We’re all orphans. They are suffering too, thrown away by their moms and dads. Little Song looks very mean, but he often cries into his pillow at night, calling his mom’s name. Little Tai is violent, but he’s really good to his little sister. Lele can’t hate them. If bullying Lele can help them feel better, then Lele doesn’t mind…”
Song Xin figured there was no harm in crying now. This would be their final moments anyways. “Lele, you should know, you’re the same as them…”
“Lele wasn’t abandoned. Lele just got lost when he was born. Mom and Dad will definitely come find me. Definitely…” Despite being in a weakened condition, his voice was still firm.
Song Xin was choked with emotion, unable to say anything. She held onto Lin Le tightly. “Mm, definitely…”
“I don’t need you to tell me that, but Lele won’t get the chance, because Lele is going to die. If you survive, remember to help Lele find them. Tell them, Lele misses them…” Perhaps Lin Le was approaching his end, because his happy optimism was replaced with a disappointed expression, looking very sad.
“No, don’t give up. It would have been fine if you didn’t save me. Why… Why…” Song Xin clenched her teeth and looked at Lele, whose breathing was becoming weaker and weaker. Her tears fell onto his dirty cheeks. The moonlight chose this moment to illuminate Lin Le’s sorrowful face. “Lele said already, you’ve helped my family, and you will be more useful than Lele alive. Even though Lele hates when people call me stupid, but Lele knows. Perhaps Lele really isn’t smart. Lele can’t do anything well beside playing Ludo. You’re different. You’re smart, and even beautiful. You can help lots and lots of orphans. To Lele, you are a hero. Lele has been thinking, if Lele tries hard, maybe after 50 years, when Lele is over 60, I can get into college and fulfill one of my dreams. I hear that there are a lot of new things there. Little Song always says, it is the paradise for adventurers, nerds, geeks, and elites…”
“Definitely. Definitely. You’ll definitely…” Song Xin said over and over.
“Hehe… Lele… can only protect you till here… good…b…” Lin Le whispered with difficulty. In the end, he reached out wanting to touch Song Xin’s cheeks, but his hand powerlessly fell before it reached her. Song Xin quickly caught Lin Le’s hand, holding it against her cheek. Her other hand pressed on Lin Le’s chest, not feeling any movement. She felt as if her heart had been torn apart. “No, don’t leave me! Lele! Lele! Aaah! AAAAAHH!!!”
It was at that moment that the room was illuminated. The rescue team had arrived. They looked sadly the wizened middle school child being held by the thin and mournful young lady. Song Xin thought to herself, why was I the one saved, but Lele is dead! He was clearly the one who should have lived. I’m not the outstanding person he thinks I am. I only supported the orphanage for reputation…
The rescue workers looked at Lele’s body and cried out in alarm. “He cut the vein in his own left hand and wrapped it himself. He even tore off chunks of his own thigh with something and disinfected it. His heart has stopped, cause of death is weakening from lack of food and blood loss. This child has already spent 7 days without eating…”
The world almost seemed to turn black and white. It felt like something was clutching her heart. Song Xin was completely frozen. She recall the mice that Lin Le said he found, and that dirty water. That was his own flesh and blood!? She looked at the peaceful Lin Le. It felt like her heart would stop. For me, he… She recalled just a few days ago, Lin Le had said their luck was pretty good with a big smile. I should have suspected when he said he found meat and water! She clenched her fists so tightly, her nails pierced her palm, causing blood to flow. She had already cried all her tears away, so she could only look at Lin Le’s body, as it was slowly placed into a bodybag. Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Song Xin could only keep repeated these words to herself. If possible, she would even trade her life for his. She ignored the pain in her legs and kneeled on the floor. “I beg you! Please save him! Please! Please!”
“Miss, this child is already…” The rescue worker looked at her. Before he could finish, a nurse called out in surprise. “This child’s heart just thumped!”
“Hurry and send him to the emergency room!” The rescue worker quickly brought Lin Le to the car. Song Xing, in her exultation, found that she couldn’t get up. Although she couldn’t feel it, but her legs were still seriously injured. She later heard the rescue works say that she was lucky she had disinfected it, otherwise, she would have had to amputate it.
Song Xin recalled Lin Le’s stinky mushroom. From start to finish, he had always been protecting her. She clenched her teeth and hung her head. She rolled her wheelchair to Lin Le’s emergency room, and waited for the doctor’s news. When she finally heard that he had escaped danger, she sobbed for joy. She went to his ward and watched him breath weakly under the oxygen mask. There were numerous cuts on his wrist, and his thigh was beginning to heal with regenerative therapy. Song Xin watched as those wounds gradually grew new flesh. To be able to tear off his own flesh, she didn’t even know how he had done it. To let someone eat his flesh and drink his blood, just so they could live. She held onto his hand, and guarded closely at his side. When Sun Shao came to visit, she directly burst out at him, forcefully cancelling the marriage. Her family was against her doing this, so she gave up her right of inheritance, leaving it all to her little siblings. She just stayed closed to the weak, blood-deficient, and unconscious Lin Le, taking care of him for a month until he woke up.
Song Xin recalled that when he had woken up and learned he didn’t die, like a child, he touched here and there as if to make sure. When he saw her at the door, she listened to him say with a big smile, “Then, I’m not dead!?”
Song Xin had hugged Lin Le tightly. She continued to take care of him as he recovered. Sun Shao also came back to visit, but she would not reconcile. She even proposed marriage to Lin Le.
Song Xin looked at Lin Le as he tried to cover up his feelings of inferiority. “I have no money, and I’m an orphan. I get bullied by others. No girl has ever liked me, because they think I came from the sewers. I’m stinky. And I really ate a steamed bun that was on the floor once, but… but I was really hungry. I know you’re just messing with me, because Lele is gross…”
Hearing Lin Le’s words, Song Xin choked back her tears and smiled as she hugged him to her chest. Even a thousand words could not express the feelings in her heart. She said gently, “You’ll be my fiancee, and when you get older, we can get married…”
Then, she did everything she could to get Lin Le into Lin Hai college. Although he entered through the ‘backdoor’, if they really waited for him to get in through his own efforts, they might really have to wait until he passed 60 years old. Even now, Lin Le still had some trouble accepting Song Xin’s love, feeling like he wasn’t good enough for her…