The recent news that has captured everyone’s attention in the entertainment industry is the surprising and somewhat disheartening Weibo post by Feng Qi in the early hours of one night. Netizens who were still awake went wild with comments, discussions, and reposts. No one could fathom why Feng Qi, who had been active on the screen until recently, made such a hasty and seemingly thoughtless decision. They flocked to the Weibo accounts of his agent and himself, seeking answers, but neither party responded.
Fans expected that, alongside the brief retirement announcement, Feng Qi would share a reflective piece commemorating his years of work. However, their waiting was in vain, as no such message appeared.
Journalists, of course, couldn’t stay idle when such a sensational story unfolded. Whoever got the first-hand information would be the ultimate winner. However, none of them could track down Feng Qi’s whereabouts. Some journalists even attempted to dig into the lives of Feng Jiu and Yang Wenxin, but it seemed as though they had vanished completely. It was truly a mysterious world when even these gossip-hungry reporters couldn’t uncover the news.
After repeatedly hitting a dead-end, the persistent reporters turned their attention to Feng Qi’s agent, Gao Xuesheng. He ended up busier than any celebrity dodging reporters.
One month passed, then two, and eventually three, but no one had a clue as to why Feng Qi had decided to retire. As the fervor surrounding his retirement began to wane, a blogger suddenly posted a video featuring Feng Qi.
In the video, Feng Qi was seen entering a hospital with a bouquet of flowers. He appeared emotionless as if he had lost his soul. When the person filming caught sight of him, Feng Qi merely glanced dispassionately in their direction, making no effort to stop them.
The person filming the video attempted to catch up, but upon reaching the elevator, they discovered that Feng Qi had disappeared. Nonetheless, this video alone was enough to trend on social media. Weibo even disclosed Feng Qi’s location: the First Hospital of Jingzhou City.
Netizens began speculating, why would Feng Qi bring a bouquet of flowers to the hospital?
㇐Is he visiting someone? A loved one, perhaps?
㇐Why did Feng Qi decide to retire when everything seemed fine before?
㇐Same question. Let’s continue waiting for an explanation.
㇐The 11th unsolved mystery of the world: Feng Qi’s retirement.
㇐[Crying] Does this mean I won’t see Feng Qi in action movies anymore? I loved his action-packed performances; he’s so cool and handsome.
㇐I just want to know why he retired!
㇐
Inside the intensive care unit of the First Hospital of Jingzhou City:
The monitoring equipment beside the hospital bed displayed regular readings as it observed the patient lying on the bed.
At 8 o’clock in the morning, a tall man walked into the room carrying a bouquet of pale white daisies. He skillfully replaced the less lively bouquet in the vase on the bedside table.
This person was none other than Feng Qi, who had decisively retired from the entertainment industry.
And lying on the bed at that moment was none other than Chu Ruochun.
Three months ago, Chu Ruochun had broken the Soul-Eating Formation single-handedly.
According to Chu Ruochun’s initial understanding, the formation relied on his soul as its core, and his death would cause the formation to dissipate.
However, Feng Qi had left a contingency plan. Upon learning that Chu Ruochun would coexist and perish with the Soul-Eating Formation, how could he sit idly by? Even though his junior had calculated extensively, he couldn’t have foreseen that Feng Qi’s return to the Feng family was for the sole purpose of creating a talisman to safeguard his soul.
He was alive, and there was no way he would watch Chu Ruochun disappear after waiting for five hundred years. Their commitment was not for just a month or two of companionship but for a much longer period.
They at least had to live for several decades.
The duration of his awakening was unknown, but it didn’t matter. He could wait, patiently awaiting the day he would wake up.
Chu Ruochun’s soul still resided within his body, albeit weakened and in a state of rest. When Chu Ruochun had fully recovered, he would awaken.
One year, ten years, a hundred years—they were all acceptable waiting times.
He had a pulse, he breathed, but he just couldn’t wake up. According to the doctors, he was currently in a vegetative state.
He missed Chu Ruochun dearly.
After tidying up the freshly purchased flowers, Feng Qi began to give him a full-body massage.
“The doctor told me to give you a thorough massage; otherwise, your muscles might atrophy1a term used in medicine and biology to describe the process of the gradual wasting away or shrinking of a body part, tissue, or organ.”
“Ruolin will come later. He got a perfect score on his exam last week. He’s quite diligent, just like you. He never gives up.”
“The weather is getting colder outside. My parents are already cooking hot pot at home. Can you wake up by New Year’s? We can have a reunion dinner together, stroll through the flower market, and visit the lantern festival. If you’re willing, we can retire to the mountains and forests in the future, away from worldly affairs. I found the place where we used to live with our master. The government won’t allow us to buy the land, so I rented it. At least for a hundred years. But I haven’t found our master’s grave; it’s been too long, and it may have merged with the mountains.”
“A few days ago, a passerby took a picture of me coming to the hospital to visit you. I don’t want them to intrude here. These days, I’ll arrange for your transfer to another hospital. I’ve found a nursing home. Director Jiang knows the head of that nursing home, and they’ve arranged a room for you with a view of the lake and mountains. It’s your favorite place, the purple bamboo forest. I visited the location in person, and the scenery is stunning.”
Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the purple bamboo forest was covered in a layer of white, as winter had arrived.
Feng Qi placed Chu Ruochun in a wheelchair. Despite the indoor temperature being comfortable, he still covered Chu Ruochun with a blanket.
This was the best single-building section within the nursing home.
Today, he had checked Chu Ruochun’s soul. It rested quietly in his dantian, visible as a small cluster. For some reason, he just couldn’t wake up.
Perhaps he had been waiting for so many years that he was tired and needed rest.
“It snowed last night, and the world outside was covered in white. I thought I couldn’t come to see you today, but fortunately, the snow on the ground cleared up quickly, so I made it here.”
“I got you some sandalwood incense, your favorite. How does it smell? Do you still like it?” Feng Qi squatted in front of Chu Ruochun and adjusted the blanket on his legs. “If Ruolin can’t come today, he’s about to enter junior high school. He volunteered to take extra classes, and I couldn’t stop him. He’s grown a bit taller recently. I heard from Bai Yichen that he even received a confession message from a girl not too long ago. Kids these days are not only mature early but also have interesting views on love. If they like someone, they just add them as a friend and confess directly. There’s no suspense, and even if they get rejected, they don’t seem to mind. It feels like playing house, but it’s quite amusing.”
“My parents are coming to Jingzhou for Chinese New Year. They’ve been listening to my advice and aren’t traveling around anymore. They’re settling down at home peacefully. After the New Year, they plan to travel the world and see all the landscapes they missed in the past. However, I’m afraid they can’t resist trying to catch foreign ghosts.”
“What else would you like to hear? I’m telling you everything.”
“Have I ever told you how I met Gao Xuesheng? It’s quite a coincidence. On my birthday, my university classmates dragged me to a bar, trying to get me drunk. You know I can handle my alcohol, and they couldn’t really get me drunk. Instead, I got them completely drunk, and they could barely speak. After sending them off in a car, I was preparing to take a taxi back to school. That night happened to be when Gao Xuesheng had a breakup with his girlfriend and went out to get drunk. He got into a fight with someone and ended up collapsing at my feet. At first, I didn’t want to get involved, but the other guy had been drinking and insisted that we were together, so he wanted to fight me. I don’t know how it happened, but we ended up in a fight, and it escalated. The situation got pretty messy, and we were both taken to the police station for some ‘education.'”
“Long story short, that’s how I met him. After that, we started working together in the film industry, and it’s been like this until now.”
“I’ve had my share of experiences. From now on, I won’t act in films anymore. I’ll be with you full time.”
Feng Qi chatted on and on about various things, many of which he hadn’t mentioned before. When he felt tired, he brewed a pot of fruit tea and sipped it while admiring the snowy scenery outside. His hand held Chu Ruochun’s increasingly delicate fingers. After holding them for a while, he suddenly smiled.
“When you wake up, we’ll date like a normal couple. If you want me to pursue you, I can do that too. Recently, I’ve started watching romance dramas. The couples that fans ship, I have no interest in shipping them at all. However, I did come across people shipping us online, and there are even video edits. It’s quite interesting. I’ve saved them all to show you later. I dislike tragic love stories the most and prefer comedic ones. Fans are really talented; they even create little stories for us.”
No matter how many stories fans create, they pale in comparison to everything they’ve experienced together.
As Feng Qi’s gaze rested on the falling snowflakes outside, he didn’t notice that one of Chu Ruochun’s fingers trembled slightly.
–
As the Spring Festival approached, Feng Qi was called by Gao Xuesheng to handle company matters.
Chu Ruolin was on winter vacation, and he visited the nursing home every day. Sometimes he brought his winter homework, and sometimes he didn’t bring anything at all.
He had grown taller.
He had also grown used to talking to Chu Ruochun.
“Brother, please wake up soon; it’s almost Chinese New Year. Feng Qi gege said that if you wake up, he’ll cook the New Year’s Eve dinner this year, and you just need to wait to eat.”
“He’s really nice to me. When he went on a business trip recently, he took me out to play. Uncle and Auntie are also very kind to me. They bring me gifts every time they go abroad, even Big Fox and Fox Two have them.”
“I actually know that Fox Two is Brother Yichen, but they don’t mention it, so I pretend not to know. I’m pretty smart, right?”
–
On the twenty-eighth day of the lunar calendar, Feng Qi informed the hospital director and took Chu Ruochun home for the Spring Festival.
He brought Chu Ruolin and Bai Yichen to the nursing home and took Chu Ruochun back home.
During the Spring Festival, they needed to be together as a complete family, and no one could be missing, especially not Chu Ruochun.
Over the years, they had all grown accustomed to this arrangement.
With a large family, and to take care of Chu Ruochun, Chu Ruolin also transferred to a school near Feng Qi’s home. This arrangement made it convenient for them to provide care.
Feng Qi lived in a villa with an elevator, and each person had their own room. It was lively and bustling.
On New Year’s Eve, Yang Wenxin and Feng Jiu were arranging for everyone to hang up spring couplets, and those responsible for cooking the New Year’s Eve dinner were busy in the kitchen. No one was left out.
Yang Wenxin shouted from upstairs to Chu Ruolin, who was with Chu Ruochun, “Ruolin, are you available? Help Auntie out; I don’t know where I put the rolling pin!”
Chu Ruolin hurried down the stairs and said, “I’m here!”
Feng Jiu was standing on the ladder, hanging up the spring couplets, and Bai Yichen was holding the ladder for him.
Red Fox was running around behind Feng Qi, keeping a close eye on the plump chicken meant for offering to the gods and drooling.
The downstairs festivities reached Chu Ruochun, who had been placed by the floor-to-ceiling window on the second floor. He slowly opened his eyes, and the green plants on the first floor entered his gaze. The lively atmosphere of the house gradually roused his consciousness.
He heard many voices.
Bai Yichen: “Be careful, I can hang up the spring couplets if you want.”
Feng Jiu: “Don’t underestimate me; I can still do it just as well in ten years.”
Bai Yichen: “As long as you’re happy.”
Yang Wenxin: “Ruolin, did you find the rolling pin?”
Chu Ruolin: “I found it!”
But there was no sound from Feng Qi.
Not until footsteps approached from behind.
Long legs appeared within his line of sight, followed by a light gray sweater, and then an attractive man crouching in front of him.
Chu Ruochun met Feng Qi’s eyes and called out hoarsely, “Senior… Brother.”
But Feng Qi, who had come to see him out of habit, froze.
