C1 The Wind Whimpers

"Is it serious?" Xia Qingning asked. She could guess more or less what the doctor was thinking from the expression on his face.

"It's not too late for chemotherapy right now," the doctor said, looking down at the report in his hand.

Xia Qingning thought about it for a while. She said, "You should prescribe some medicines for me. Chemotherapy would be too painful."

The doctor looked at her unusually calm face and frowned slightly. "It's better to discuss this with your family first."

Xia Qingning nodded. "I know. That would be the case, but I don't have any family."

Family? What about Hsu Mochen? Could Xia Qingning discuss the illness with him?

Xia Qingning could almost imagine Hsu Mochen's face. He would say, "Really, blood cancer? Do you think I believe you? Who are you fooling?"

Walking out of the hospital quickly, Xia Qingning wrapped herself in a tight coat. The weather was incredibly cold.

She returned home and stood in her giant room. The wall in front of her felt like a silent ghost, staring back at her. After a while, she turned around and took fresh clothes to the bathroom.

Warm water slid down her snow-white neck. She suddenly felt her nose heating up.

Two drops of bright red blood fell on the floor of the bathroom, slowly turning transparent as the water chased them away down the drain.

Xia Qingning was stunned for a moment. She wiped herself with a towel and walked out of the bathroom. She took out the medicines in her pocket and put them in a small bottle on the table. There were some uneven marks on the small bottle, carved by Hsu Mochen.

She had been the young lady of the Xia family, and he the young master of the Hsu Family. Their backgrounds were similar and their ages too. She had fallen in love with the handsome young man in no time at all.

"Xia Qingning, keep it carefully. This is unique."

Xia Qingning remembered that when he said these words, he did not display the shyness that an ordinary young man would have felt. He was proud of being the young master of the Hsu Family.

She had rubbed the carvings and muttered to herself, "Hsu Mochen, aren't these three words so special..."

Xia Qingning looked out the window and thought of the day they got married. She had shyly and timidly walked into their marriage room, only to hear Hsu Mochen's cold words: "Get out! Xia Qingning, so you are the same as those other women!"

That night Xia Qingning found out that the happiness her grandfather put so much effort in to give to her was just a means to save the Xia family from impending crisis.

Xia Qingning sighed deeply. Just as she was about to take her medicines as per the doctor's instructions, a sound came from the direction of the entrance. A man walked in through the door, his features cold.

Xia Qingning looked at Hsu Mochen with some surprise. It seemed like a lifetime had passed between them.

The last time he came home was a month ago.

Hsu Mochen was looking indifferent. He glanced at the white pill in her hand and entered the study without saying a word. After a while, he walked out with a folder in hand, about to go out again.

Xia Qingning could not help but pull at his sleeve as he brushed past her. She asked, "Mochen, can't you stay here with me?"

Can't you spend the last few days of my life with me?

Hsu Mochen stopped in his tracks at the question. When his indifferent eyes swept across her thin figure, he could not help but be startled for a moment.

When did Xia Qingning become so thin?

After that, he retracted his gaze. What this woman looked like had nothing to do with him.

Hsu Mochen clenched his fist and shook off Xia Qingning's hand forcefully. "You want me to stay with you? Why? What right do you have to ask that of me?"

Xia Qingning was stunned by his question. She suddenly wanted to know if Hsu Mochen's attitude would be different if he knew that she had a terminal illness.

"Mochen, I went to the hospital today..." Xia Qingning had just opened her mouth when she was interrupted by the phone ringing. Hsu Mochen quickly picked up the call and said in an unprecedentedly gentle voice, "What's wrong?"

Xia Qingning clearly heard the lovely female voice from the other side. There was no one else besides Lau Ying who could make Hsu Mochen speak so gently. Xia Qingning's heart could not help but feel dull pain when this thought crossed her mind.

"Are you coming back tonight? I'm a little sleepy."

"Take rest. I'll be right back," Hsu Mochen hung up after saying this and walked out of the door without wasting another moment. His footsteps were hurried and he did not even look back at Xia Qingning.

"Hsu Mochen, I went to the hospital today to see a doctor. He said that I have an incurable disease..."

Xia Qingning trailed off stubbornly, facing the empty room in his wake.

It was quiet all around her. The only thing that responded to her was the sound of the wind and snow from outside. She heard the wind blow past the window sill. To her ears it sounded as if somebody was whimpering.