The woman came to her bed, looking at her calmly: "This is my private hospital, and the doctors checked your body when you were unconscious."
Yao Mingyue's words got stuck in her throat. She showed a bitter expression, clutching her suffocating chest: "It's still better than having no options, it's a bit bad... but at least it's still usable, isn't it..."
"His damaged organs are more than one place. If I replaced yours, you would be the one who dies."
The woman lowered her head to look at her, and she always spoke , no matter how great the joy or sorrow, her words were always calm and directly pierced the heart.
Yao Mingyue covered her chest and her gaze turned to Xu Musen, who lay beside her relying on machines to sustain his life, her eyes welling up with tears.
"Anyway... this life of mine was already picked back up, I was not meant to live long, this is what I owe him..."
Yao Mingyue stared at Xu Musen, all tubed up, biting her lips hard, at this moment, she truly regretted.
But it was really too late now.
The long-haired woman watched her, then chuckled: "Do you finally feel like letting him go?"
That phrase was particularly grating to Yao Mingyue, as if unveiling the most painful scar in her heart, but at this moment, she had no strength to argue back.
"I used to want everything, greedily wanted to completely control everything in my own hands... But when I truly realized he was about to leave... I understood, I actually couldn't keep anything..."
Yao Mingyue looked sideways at the unconscious Xu Musen, it was just like that rainy night years ago, her father also lay in a pool of blood, and she was equally powerless, only able to watch helplessly as he left.
The heaviness in the room could only be broken by the beeping of the machines.
The long-haired woman silently watched her, and then suddenly laughed: "Compared to me, you've already got enough."
The reluctance and regret in her laughter, felt like an old friend entangled with them for a long time.
But Yao Mingyue was certain she had no connections with this woman, nor did she recognize this impeccably beautiful woman in front of her.
Yao Mingyue couldn't help but ask: "Who are you exactly?"
The long-haired woman paused for a moment, her clear eyes slightly shifting, looking at Xu Musen on the adjacent bed: "A coward, who never dared to express her feelings."
The regret and admiration in her eyes almost turning tangible.
Yao Mingyue opened her mouth: "You, liked him... since when?"
"Yao Mingyue, I am very envious of you, because you were his childhood friend, so from the beginning, you were rightfully and completely justified to be with him, to be liked by him, to share his life... These, I never had."
She began speaking slowly, but then changed her tone: "But the one you truly like in your heart is not actually him, but your childhood friend, your safe haven, your spiritual support, but distinctly not him, Xu Musen."
Yao Mingyue's face turned even paler, these words seemed to forcibly rip open the most vulnerable part of her heart, yet she couldn't refute.
Her voice continued: "So you're not so impressive, rather you are pitiful, the two of you have always been together, yet your hearts have never truly opened to each other.
The most familiar strangers, you are pitiful, and so is he."
The long-haired woman's tone was gentle, but each word was cutting like a knife, as if speaking out for Xu Musen.
Yao Mingyue breathed heavily, but her chest felt oppressively painful, tears slowly falling as she bit her lip, her gaze still on the unconscious Xu Musen.
"You ask when I started liking him, I myself have forgotten..."
Her gaze also turned to Xu Musen, her clear eyes full of reminiscence: "From that stormy night in the summer when I was twelve, until now, I've waited for him for twenty-one years. I have never even spoken to him once, never met him face-to-face, but I have never missed out on any aspect of his life with you. I have seen every joy, every tear of sorrow, every breakdown of grievance... and even some things, that he himself didn't know, as an outsider, I have witnessed them all, for a full, twenty-one years."
Spanning almost one-third of a human life, she just watched him silently, waiting for him, daring not to disturb him.
Yao Mingyue fell silent; indeed, she had never really seen Xu Musen cry, or break down...
He was always so gentle, always so compliant towards her, that sometimes she forgot that he was also a person, a living, breathing person who could be happy and get angry.
"Yao Mingyue, do you really think that he doesn't know what you're actually thinking? Do you really think he's that foolish, not seeing through your schemes at all?
He was just willing to do so."
Yao Mingyue didn't answer, only the tears slid down.
"So, I'm very envious of you, but I also pity you. You and him have spent more than thirty years together, yet never truly understood each other.
Although I never truly interacted with him for even a day, I have seen his most real and entire self.
He liked you the most, and I liked him the most, but you, you don't know what your own heart really loves, in this respect, Yao Mingyue, you're not so impressive."
Her words were light, yet each one weighed like gold, her pride and affection had not a hint of hesitation or the shyness of holding back.