Outside, the rain was pattering, getting heavier and heavier. Along with the rumbling thunder, half of the sky was illuminated like daylight. The curtains were not drawn in the bedroom. Chi Qiu passed through the window and saw dark clouds covering the sky, like a rolling vortex, sweeping into Chi Qiu’s eyes.
“Boom—”
A thunder flashed past the window, close to Chi Qiu, as if it struck right in front of him.
He had never been so afraid of the sound of thunder. His heartbeat rose rapidly, as if his heart was hanging in his throat. He gasped and clutched the ring box in his hand, falling on his butt.
Lu Ming anxiously tried to help him, but he was waved away.
Chi Qiu resisted Lu Ming’s approach. He hugged his knees and curled himself into a ball, burying his head in his lap with fine sweat covering his forehead.
“Chi Qiu.”
“Chi Qiu!”
“Chi Qiu——”
Regardless of Chi Qiu’s refusal, Lu Ming insisted on picking him up and putting him on the bed. Lu Ming kept calling him, wiping away the cold sweat at the corners of his forehead and holding Chi Qiu’s hand tightly.
Chi Qiu whimpered. His head was spinning and he felt nauseated. He begged Lu Ming to stop caring for him, to stop pretending to approach him.
Deception was a sharp blade that had already cut him sore. Fearing another pain, Chi Qiu desperately resisted. Even under the shock of thunder, he had the illusion of unconsciousness.
Suddenly, he heard a teenager’s shout in his ears, with a clear and crisp voice.
“Chi Qiu——”
Chi Qiu lifted his head and he remembered the light ten years ago.
It was also such a thunderstorm day. In the clinic, seventeen-year-old Lu Ming carried him all the way towards the front, shouting as he ran: “Chi Qiu, you hold on to me, don’t fall!”
The fifteen-year-old Chi Qiu held onto his folding cane, leaning on Lu Ming’s back obediently. The rain poured down and the fierce raindrops were like rocks, hitting his fair skin to the point it hurt him. But he was not afraid at all, the corners of his mouth pursed into a beatiful arc.
The sudden rainstorm caught them off guard.
Lu Ming was tall and long-legged so he carried Chi Qiu into the clinic in a short time. When Luo Yun saw that the two children were drenched, she hurriedly sent them to Chi Qiu’s room to change clothes and had her assistant prepare ginger soup to send to them.
It was the first time Lu Ming entered Chi Qiu’s room so he was a bit shy. After taking the clothes and pants that Luo Yun handed to him, Lu Ming took off his sneakers and foolishly stood in the doorway of the room: “I…”
Luo Yun, who was helping Chi Qiu drying his hair, thought that Lu Ming was embarrassed and didn’t want to change his clothes in front of them, so she pointed to the bathroom in the room and said, “The bathroom is there, you go take a shower first.”
Lu Ming politely thanked her. But, just after taking a step over, he honestly retreated: “Chi Qiu, you wash first.”
Luo Yun said with a smile: “My room is next door, Chi Qiu can go to my room to wash. You go in quickly. Otherwise, you’ll catch a cold.”
Lu Ming nodded and hurriedly went into the bathroom.
About ten minutes later, Lu Ming had changed into clean clothes and pants. These clothes and pants appeared to be Luo Yun’s nephew’s, but they fit him just right. His hand was on the door handle, about to go out, but the bruises on his arm stopped him.
Lu Ming did not want to be seen by Luo Yun, so he dawdled in the bathroom for a long time, so long that Chi Qiu had come back from the shower next door and called him: “Lu Ming, Auntie Luo has gone to work, are you still not done?”
Only then did he hurriedly step out of the bathroom and stared at Chi Qiu carefully.
In front of him, Chi Qiu was wearing pajamas and his hair, which had just been blown dry, was soft and draped on his forehead. The fifteen-year-old Chi Qiu was so young, he was cuter than the unripe fruit hanging on the branches.
Looking at him, Lu Ming blushed awkwardly.
Chi Qiu sat on the carpet and blinked in confusion. Lu Ming took a look and immediately sat his butt down next to Chi Qiu, close to Chi Qiu.
Chi Qiu nudged him: “You’re squeezing me.”
Lu Ming scratched his head. His ears were very red as he cheekily said: “Squeezed? I don’t think so.” After saying that, he embarrassedly changed the subject, “Your, your room is quite clean.”
“It’s not my own room.”
“Oh…” Lu Ming was lost.
Hearing his upset tone, Chi Qiu touched his arm intimately with his elbow, deliberately avoiding Lu Ming’s bruises: “Next time you go to my house to play, I have many, many books in my room, I can…can teach you Braille.”
“Okay!” Lu Ming’s enthusiasm was easily ignited. After he was invited by Chi Qiu, the whole person was like a star rising into the night sky that even the light at the bottom of his eyes was fluttering.
Seeing him happy, Chi Qiu also laughed. As a result, there was a thunderstorm outside the window, and the bright light of lightning made Chi Qiu’s eyes very uncomfortable. He quickly shrank his shoulders and hid behind Lu Ming.
Just this one action and Lu Ming misunderstood him.
When the next thunder sounded, before Chi Qiu raised his head, he was hugged by Lu Ming and shoved into his arms awkwardly.
Chi Qiu gasped, stunned by Lu Ming’s boldness. He carefully poked Lu Ming’s back with his finger and called him: “Lu Ming?”
Lu Ming hugged him tightly and made Chi Qiu turn his back to the window. At the same time, Lu Ming gently patted his back with a particularly gentle tone, like a child pretending to be an adult: “It’s okay, don’t be afraid.”
The next thunder sounded again.
Lu Ming let go of the hand holding Chi Qiu and covered Chi Qiu’s ears as soon as he was face to face with Chi Qiu. The close distance made Lu Ming’s cheeks warm so he lowered his eyes, not daring to look directly at Chi Qiu. So Chi Qiu looked at him boldly until Lu Ming’s face was getting redder and redder, as red as a tomato.
Chi Qiu thought to himself: It’s so interesting.
Lu Ming was still playing it cool, lowering his head and saying, “Don’t be afraid, I’m here.”
“…”
“I, I was also afraid of thunder when I was a child, so my mother would hold me like this and cover my ears.”
Chi Qiu wanted to say, I’m not afraid. But after a while, he also was infected by the gentle Lu Ming. He pursed the corners of his mouth and slowly touched the back of Lu Ming’s hands with both hands, saying softly: “Well, I’m really not afraid.”
Lu Ming breathed a sigh of relief and revealed a smile that was like the sun.
Chi Qiu could not afford to look at more, for fear of turning himself into a fool. So he put his head against Lu Ming’s shoulder, and the two lonely children embraced together, snuggling with each other on this thunderstorm day.
Chi Qiu couldn’t help rubbing Lu Ming’s clothes, curiously and innocently asked him: “If there is a thunderstorm in the future, will you stay with me like this?”
Lu Ming vowed: “Will, ah.”
Chi Qiu said dejectedly: “Liar, you are going abroad soon. It will take a long time for you to come back.”
Hearing the loneliness in Chi Qiu’s words, Lu Ming unconsciously hooked the corners of his mouth and hugged him tightly, “Didn’t I say when I return to China, we will move out together? I will definitely stay with you.”
“Do we really live together?”
“Are you going to go back on your word?”
“No! It’s just that…I, I can’t cook, I can’t clean, and I can’t make money. If I want to move out and my mom gets angry, she won’t give me pocket money. So what will I do?”
How were they going to live? The little boy, who had never seen anything in the world since he lost his sight, was afraid of everything and did not dare to take a step outside. In his head, he still had such a childish idea of ‘pocket money’.
The outside world seemed to be full of difficulties.
Lu Ming, who had already made up his mind, saw his concern: “I have money, I saved all the money given by granddad1paternal and grandpa2maternal. In the future, I will try to earn more money.I will take you to treat your eyes first and when your eyes are healed, we will travel around the world and play wherever we want.”
Chi Qiu was very excited, but also a little worried: “Then… you’ll not lie to me?”
“I won’t lie to you even if I lie to anyone.” Lu Ming saw that the lightning outside the window had disappeared. In order to make Chi Qiu hear more clearly, he let go of his hand and hooked Chi Qiu’s little finger with his little finger, earnestly saying: “I swear I’ll never lie to you.”
The pure Chi Qiu’s heart secretly blossomed, re-engraving the spring day and treasured it.
He hooked Lu Ming’s little finger as he pursed the corners of his mouth and nodded his head forcefully: “En!”
Now, ten years later.
Chi Qiu was in a cold sweat, he was wearing a thin coat, his fingers were cold, and every breath was as numb as stepping into a cold winter.
He missed Lu Ming ten years ago so much.
He had relied on these thoughts to get through his most difficult time.
Since losing his sight, he was completely trapped in a small space, unable to get out, and not many people were willing to come in and make friends with him. His life was so monotonous and empty that even the fairy tales he wrote had the shadow of his longing for freedom and light.
It was this dull and lonely life that made him pine for the only first love that shone like the sun and encouraged him, and made him pine for this short spring day for ten years.
Therefore, even though Chi Qiu’s heart was dead, he still had a trace of fantasy.
Under Lu Ming’s care, Chi Qiu gradually calmed his breathing. He clutched the wedding ring box, his tone no longer strong, but sounded a little pleading: “Lu Ming, have you really loved me?”
The question was different from that of Chi Xia, this was a question that Chi Qiu had wanted to ask for a long time.
Lu Ming hesitated for a moment, but this moment of hesitation completely killed Chi Qiu’s expectations. The eyes of the two were opposite each other, each was different. In one eye was the wood ashes burned by the fire, and in the other was the dead silence of the glacier.
“…”
Have you ever loved me?
Such a simple question opened a crack in Lu Ming’s heart. Lu Ming fingertips were numb, but he could not feel the pain, so he did not know that his wounds that had long been bleeding and scabbed, automatically healed ten thousand times. Just like when he was abroad, he silently missed Chi Qiu’s ten thousand times.
Thinking about it one time and you would suffer one time.
Lu Ming clenched his palm tightly and pinched himself. He looked at Chi Qiu who was desperate and knew that he shouldn’t lie to him anymore. After a long while, he opened his mouth, only to answer truthfully: “I do not know what it is like to love someone.”
Chi Qiu shivered. In fact, how he wished Lu Ming could say: “Although I lied to you, but I do love you.”
Even if he didn’t believe it, just lied to him. He had been lied to so many times, what was the difference this time?
It was a pity that Lu Ming was so mean to him.
Chi Qiu was stunned but finally understood. After all, whether it was Chi Xia or him, they were all pawns in Lu Ming’s hands to compete for the family property. Chi Xia’s chess piece was already an abandoned piece. His own chess piece was an important ‘blind chess’ that Lu Ming held in his palm.
If it wasn’t for the Lu family’s property, he and Lu Ming would never meet again anyway. Being apart for ten years, the first love had become a rotten fruit that fell on the ground. Only the hungry would pick it up and eat it, chewing it sweetly.
What was even more tragic was that the moment he knew the truth, his ‘chess’ piece had long since become a potential risk and lost most of its value. Businessmen understood the benefits and losses best, and so did Lu Ming.
Chi Qiu had a belated realization that Lu Ming might have stopped loving him a long ago.
The Lu Ming who promised not to deceive him ten years ago no longer existed. The sincerity of the past had been wiped out by the long time. Lu Ming had long since left the garden in his memory and had ‘grown up’ through and through. He left him stagnant, drawing a circle on the ground and confining him.
![The Rebirth of the Last Days and Return to [Fang] Hao](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/image_2021-09-11_143139.png "The Rebirth of the Last Days and Return to [Fang] Hao")
