Bai Yang got Shao Cheng’s number. Throughout the entire night, he felt a sweet sensation in his heart. Even his colleagues at the restaurant noticed his happiness and asked if he had encountered something good.
After finishing work and returning home, Bai Yang lay on his single bed. He applied a plaster on his back while browsing through Shao Cheng’s social media posts. Mustering up courage, he searched for Shao Cheng’s number and added him on WeChat. He didn’t have much hope, but a few minutes later, the request was accepted. Surprised and delighted, he typed out various greetings in the chat box, but eventually deleted them all.
He couldn’t be too greedy. At this stage, he should be content.
After scrolling through Shao Cheng’s social media posts, Bai Yang’s excited emotions still hadn’t settled. He held his phone against his chest and chuckled softly.
This phone was a gift from his father after he finished his college entrance exams.
At that time, he had successfully been admitted to the best university in the city, S University. The entire family was ecstatic. Bai Yang’s parents were ordinary working-class individuals with modest incomes. So, when his father asked him what gift he wanted, Bai Yang sensibly requested a new phone, something around two or three thousand yuan. However, his parents were always willing to spend money on their children. In the end, they bought him the latest top-of-the-line model for over eight thousand yuan.
After the family faced difficulties, Bai Yang sold whatever he could to pay for his sister’s medical treatment. He even had to sell their house at a low price. But this phone was the last gift his family gave him. He hesitated for a long time, even putting it up for sale online at one point, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Although selling it would have brought in five or six thousand yuan, which wouldn’t have made a significant difference, it was still a tough decision for him at that time when he was struggling to make ends meet.
Whenever he recalled those days of extreme darkness and helplessness, all his happiness and joy receded like a tide.
The sudden turn of events had happened within a day, catching him completely off guard.
His parents had taken his sister for an outing, but he didn’t go because he felt too hot. While taking a nap at home, he received a call from the police.
There had been an accident on the highway. The driver responsible had died on the spot, and the car wasn’t insured. This meant that they would receive very little compensation.
Before Bai Yang could even recover from the shock of losing his parents, he had to face his sister’s medical bills. The overwhelming emotions he felt were like a ruthless hand suppressing him. He dealt with the aftermath in a nearly numb and calm manner, handling his sister’s hospitalization procedures, selling the family house at a low price, and moving into a tiny attic that was only ten square meters.
Everyone, including doctors and nurses, admired his strength and resilience, but Bai Yang knew he wasn’t really that strong.
In the late-night hospital room, as he looked at his sister’s sleeping face that might never wake up, and in the rented attic as he gazed out the window at the distant city lights, the overwhelming emotions that could tear him apart surged uncontrollably. He was engulfed by a tsunami-like wave of emotions.
He had cried countless times during those clear summer nights.
But reality didn’t show him any mercy. His sister’s illness incurred even more expenses than he had imagined. The money from selling the house had mostly gone towards the initial treatment. As her condition stabilized, the hospitalization costs and expensive medications quickly depleted the remaining savings.
So, while other freshmen were busy immersing themselves in university life, Bai Yang had to spend all his free time working to earn money. As a high school graduate who had just entered college, he couldn’t find decent jobs, so he had to exhaust his youthful energy doing various menial and exhausting tasks. His eyes were always surrounded by dark circles during that period, and he barely got a few hours of sleep each day.
Despite pushing himself to the limit, the meager wages from his jobs couldn’t bridge the ever-widening gap caused by rising medical expenses, not to mention covering his own living costs and his sister’s medical bills.
By the summer before his sophomore year, Bai Yang was penniless. Even though the school waived his tuition and provided him with financial aid for impoverished students, he still couldn’t support his own life and his sister’s medical expenses.
Just when he was at his most desperate and helpless point, Shao Cheng saved him.
Bai Yang would never forget that day. He had been at his wit’s end, prepared to sell his organs.
He had reached a point where he didn’t care about anything anymore. There were two ways to make money quickly in the world: to either sacrifice his principles or sacrifice his body. Even in his desperation, he didn’t want to do anything illegal or harmful to others, so he chose the latter. Given his appearance, he could probably earn a considerable amount from certain unsavory jobs, but he was too selfish to compromise. Even in his dire situation, he wanted to live honestly and cleanly.
He had heard that selling organs could earn him hundreds of thousands of yuan. He almost immediately made up his mind.
If sacrificing one kidney could save two lives, and he wasn’t causing significant harm to himself, why not?
Although there might have been other less extreme options, he was truly exhausted. He yearned for a brief respite, a moment to catch his breath from the suffocating grip of reality, a day where he could sleep until he woke up naturally, a day free from worries about money as soon as he opened his eyes.
Even if this money could only sustain such a life for a while, he would be content.
But on the day he was about to sell his organ, he received a call from his sister’s attending doctor halfway there.
He thought something had happened to his sister and answered the call nervously. The doctor’s tone, however, was unexpectedly excited as they exclaimed, “Young man, you’re incredibly lucky! You’ve encountered a benefactor!”
At first, Bai Yang didn’t understand, but as the doctor explained the situation in detail, he stood frozen in place, his heart stopping before racing uncontrollably. He kept asking, “Is it true?” repeatedly, and upon receiving confirmation, he turned and rushed to the hospital as fast as he could.
The benefactor had left the hospital by the time he arrived, but luckily, this was a charity story, and the hospital had filmed the entire process.
He was given a camera, and his hands were shaking so much that he almost dropped it. He managed to stabilize the camera on a table and watched the footage.
A nurse explained to him, “The person in the middle is Director Shao’s son, Shao Cheng. It seems like he goes to the same university as you. Their family is involved in charity work every year. Today, they waived the medical expenses for ten patients in total, all of whom are in difficult situations like you. You’re really lucky.”
Bai Yang only half-listened, his eyes fixed on the person on the screen. Shao Cheng was around the same age, with a cold and refined face, furrowed eyebrows, sharp facial lines resembling carvings, and a tall stature that stood out among the doctors and nurses surrounding him.
After inspecting a few patients, Shao Cheng reached the room where Bai Yang’s sister was. He listened as the doctor explained her condition, his brows furrowing slightly. He leaned down and gently brushed away the stray hairs on her forehead.
The camera zoomed in to give a close-up of Shao Cheng. Bai Yang saw his expression through the screen and felt like his heart had been struck by lightning.
Shao Cheng’s expression appeared somewhat gloomy, but within his obsidian-like eyes, there were layers of emotions: compassion, tenderness, and even encouragement intertwined with softness.
It was as if Bai Tao wasn’t a vegetative patient lying unconscious on the hospital bed, but a young life with a promising future.
Ten minutes later, the video finished playing.
Bai Yang covered his eyes with his hands, tears escaping his grip and wetting his palms. His shoulders trembled violently, and for the first time, he cried in front of others. It was a silent and restrained sobbing, almost choking him.
Everyone knew that Bai Tao might never wake up, including Bai Yang himself. This kind of coma lasting over a year had a minuscule chance of recovery. He hoped for a miracle to happen to his sister, but he couldn’t convince himself that Bai Tao would be the lucky one.
“lucky” hadn’t existed in his dictionary since the accident happened.
Until Shao Cheng appeared.
It was like a brilliant light shining into his dark and suffocating world, dispersing the cold numbness and allowing him to see the direction where hope lay. It let him realize that luck truly existed.
His sister was still alive, he was still alive, and everything would get better.
He could never repay Shao Cheng for the luck and hope he had given him.
