Back when Sheng Jingchu was just sixteen, he wowed everyone by wearing nothing more than a white shirt. That appearance is still fondly remembered in the Go community.
So Xiao Qi couldn’t understand what Sheng Jingchu was so worried about.
In the end, Xiao Qi helped Sheng Jingchu choose a handmade shirt paired with a black suit.
Since it was the weekend, Cheng Liao didn’t have work. She started her preparations early. Jiangcheng, being close to the river, had a lot of fresh seafood, so she picked out the freshest catches at the market, bought vegetables, and replenished various seasonings.
On her way back, she ran into Grandpa Xu.
Usually, Grandpa Xu would jokingly say to Cheng Liao, "Little Cheng Liao, when are you going to marry our Xu Chi?"
Today, Grandpa Xu was still cheerful, but for the first time, he didn’t mention marrying Xu Chi. Instead, he said, "Little Cheng Liao, make sure to invite Grandpa Xu to drink at your wedding."
Cheng Liao was momentarily stunned. She realized how quickly people’s thoughts could jump from learning she was in a relationship to thinking about the possibility of marriage.
Grandpa Xu wasn’t even the most extreme—Grandma Zhou went as far as to eye Cheng Liao’s belly and enthusiastically suggest, "You should consider having a second child soon."
Cheng Liao loved cooking but didn’t enjoy the preparation process—washing, peeling, and chopping vegetables could easily take half a day. Her father had promised to come home early to help, but it was already close to 5 PM, and he was still nowhere to be seen.
The restaurant’s business was better on Sundays, so she figured her father must be busy.
Her phone rang in her pocket, and when she saw the caller ID, she quickly answered, thinking it was her dad.
"Are you on your way, Dad?"
But the voice on the other end was unfamiliar. "Are you the daughter of the phone owner? Your father was in a car accident and is currently in emergency care at Jiangcheng Hospital. You should come quickly!"
Cheng Liao’s mind went blank, and she quickly tried to get more details, but the caller had already hung up.
She didn’t even have time to change her clothes. Worried that her grandmother couldn’t handle the shock, she kept quiet and flagged down a taxi to rush to Jiangcheng Hospital.
By the time she arrived, her father had already been taken into the emergency room, and she only saw the traffic officer.
The officer noticed her trembling and waited for her to calm down before speaking.
Cheng Liao barely managed to suppress her fear and asked, "What happened?"
"We’re still waiting on the forensics report, but preliminary investigations suggest it was a hit-and-run. The victim was severely injured and was unconscious when we brought him in."
Sweat began to pool in her palms. She leaned against the wall, sliding down until she was almost sitting on the floor.
"Oh, and this—was this your father’s?" The officer handed her a jar.
Cheng Liao looked at it. It was shrimp paste.
The jar was wrapped in a cotton cover, so it hadn’t shattered, but the lid was dented from the impact.
She took the jar and held it tightly against her chest.
Her father’s shrimp paste was famous throughout Tian Shui Lane for being incredibly delicious.
He always claimed to have a secret recipe, one he even kept from Cheng Liao. She had tried sniffing it many times but could never figure out the special ingredient.
Last night, she had asked her father to bring home a jar of shrimp paste from the shop so she could make shrimp paste tofu.
Her father wasn’t happy about it, saying it was the last jar, and the type of shrimp used for the paste was only available in the spring. If she wanted more, she’d have to wait until next spring, and his restaurant’s reputation depended on that shrimp paste.
Cheng Liao had spent half the night trying to flatter him, giving him back massages and pouring him tea, but he never gave in.
Yet, somehow, he had brought it after all.
Cheng Liao sat down on the ground, resting her chin on the jar, her mind a complete blank.
She felt so cold, unbearably cold, and couldn’t stop trembling. Her eyes were glued to the light above the emergency room.
She didn’t dare think, but she couldn’t stop the thoughts from coming, and the buzzing noise in her ears reminded her of when she was a child when her mother passed away.
People said, "Poor kid, losing her mom at such a young age."
Others added, "Her father will have to remarry. If she gets a stepmother, won’t she suffer?"
At the time, she didn’t really understand, but she curled up in a corner, biting her sleeve, wanting to cry but not daring to.
Finally, the light went out, and her father was wheeled out.
Cheng Liao scrambled over, looking up at the doctor.
The doctor reassured her, "He’s out of danger, but he’ll need some time to recover."
She let out a sigh of relief and held her father’s hand. His hand was big and rough, with calluses built up from years of holding a knife.
Her father had supported her all the way through college with those rough hands.
Meanwhile, Sheng Jingchu arrived at Tian Shui Lane after getting off the plane.
The Cheng family’s door was tightly shut, and despite knocking for a long time, no one answered.
A passing neighbor said, "The second son of the family had to go to the hospital. Everyone went over there."
Sheng Jingchu grew anxious, unsure of who they meant. "What’s his relation to Cheng Liao?"
The neighbor replied, "That’s her father."
Sheng Jingchu tried calling Cheng Liao repeatedly, but each time, it went straight to voicemail.
When Sheng Jingchu arrived at Jiangcheng Hospital, he happened to run into Xu Chi, who had also just arrived. The two exchanged glances but didn’t feel like talking. They both took the elevator to the inpatient department.
Cheng Liao was waiting outside the hospital room. Fortunately, her father was no longer in immediate danger. She had already spoken to her third uncle, who couldn’t keep the news from her grandmother. Despite everyone’s insistence, even her eldest uncle and aunt came rushing to the hospital.
Since it wasn’t visiting hours and the patient hadn’t woken up yet, the family was not allowed to enter the room. After confirming multiple times that her father was out of danger, Cheng Liao finally managed to persuade them to leave.
Although the hospital provided a caretaker, so there wasn’t a need for the family to stay, Cheng Liao refused to leave. She insisted on staying, even if just to take one more look at her father. The nurse tried to convince her to go home, but when she wouldn’t listen, the nurse allowed her to peek through the door.
Her father was in the bed by the window, a good spot where he could look out at the view if he felt lonely. He remained asleep, still under the effects of the anesthesia. The doctor said it would be a few more hours before he regained consciousness.
Cheng Liao clung to the doorframe, peering in. She felt dizzy and nearly stumbled, but someone caught her from behind.
She turned around to see Xu Chi.
She asked him, "Why are you here?"
It was a long story. Today was Qiao Fei’s birthday, and the Qiao family had invited many guests. Feeling stifled, Xu Chi had stepped out into the garden to call his grandfather.
Grandpa Xu had just learned about the accident and was sighing over the phone, "They say it was very serious. If anything happened to him, how could Cheng Liao bear it?"
So Xu Chi rushed over, and thank goodness, Cheng Liao’s father was going to be okay.
Sheng Jingchu had arrived a little later because he had stopped to speak with the doctor in the inpatient department. Cheng Liao’s father had suffered a severe leg injury, and it so happened that Sheng Jingchu knew a specialist in orthopedics.
He called this expert, who was already in his seventies and was a fan of Sheng Jingchu’s Go games. The old doctor had retired but was rehired by the hospital and only saw patients twice a week. When he got Sheng Jingchu’s call, he was thrilled and said that as long as Sheng Jingchu was willing to play a game of Go with him, he would be happy to take a look at Cheng Liao’s father’s scans.
When Sheng Jingchu arrived, he found Cheng Liao and Xu Chi standing face-to-face, both silent.
Finally, Cheng Liao sighed and said, "Thank you, anyway."
Then she looked up and saw Sheng Jingchu.
She gave him a weak smile, her face as pale as a sheet of paper. "You’re here."
Xu Chi couldn’t help but feel a pang of discomfort. Why did Sheng Jingchu get a warm "You’re here," while he only got a cold "Why are you here?" In just a few months, he had become a complete outsider.
Cheng Liao walked over and took Sheng Jingchu’s hand. "You must be tired, right?"
Japan wasn’t far, but the journey from the airport to the hospital had taken at least four hours.
Sheng Jingchu shook his head. "Actually, it’s not too bad."
He knew she had been through a huge shock. It wasn’t just fear; it was terror. When faced with the possibility of losing someone, there isn’t much room for any other emotion.
Pain, sadness, regret—those come later. He had been young when he experienced it, but the memory was enough to last a lifetime.
He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, holding her tightly. He knew her fragility, and all he could offer her now was a comforting embrace.
Only then did she start to cry, like a small animal separated from its mother.
At first, the crying was soft, but it quickly grew louder, eventually turning into sobs.
He gently patted her back, and though it seemed to comfort her, it also seemed to make her feel more vulnerable, causing her to cry even harder until she was reduced to hiccuping sobs.
Xu Chi stood at a distance, watching them. A mix of sadness and frustration welled up inside him, but he forced himself to suppress it. When he saw that Cheng Liao had been called away by the nurse, he finally approached Sheng Jingchu.
"We need to talk."
Xu Chi had known Sheng Jingchu for a long time, but because of the distant family ties, he wasn’t sure how to address him.
At the celebratory dinner for his return, Xu Chi had been surprised to see that his mother had invited Sheng Jingchu.
He still remembered the expression on his mother’s face when she mentioned "that boy who plays Go" when Sheng Jingchu was sixteen. To outsiders, it might have seemed like sympathy, but Xu Chi knew his mother well enough to recognize the mix of pity and a sense of relief that it wasn’t her child in that situation.
Xu Chi had only seen Sheng Jingchu once when they were both very young, back when Sheng Jingchu didn’t even go by that name.
The small Sheng Jingchu wore a clean shirt and carried himself with a certain pride, quiet and aloof, with eyes that seemed to look down on everyone.
People around them praised the boy’s looks, and Xu Chi felt a twinge of jealousy. He had a new Rubik’s cube and tried to show off to Sheng Jingchu.
He remembered Sheng Jingchu asking him, "Can you solve it?"
He couldn’t, no matter how much he tried, and his face turned red with frustration.
Sheng Jingchu took the cube, twisted it a few times, and solved it effortlessly.
Xu Chi felt humiliated and, in a fit of childish spite, burst into tears.
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