TIL - 60

Chen Cheng was rescued but remained unconscious. He had used a knife to stab himself in the head. He was so smart that he even knew where to stab himself to die, yet he hadn’t anticipated that Wen Huo would still come back for him and couldn’t bear to leave him. He had suffered brain damage, intracranial hemorrhage, and a persistent high fever, which led to a brain herniation warning. Later, he developed a lung infection, and the hospital told Wen Huo that he might remain in a persistent coma. In other words, he had become a vegetable.

The Chen family was in chaos. The whole country was discussing the incident, and Wen Huo and Chen Cheng’s relationship was also exposed. During this time, Wen Huo never left his side. Chen Cheng was always in her line of sight. Even when Ruan Lihong came back, Wen Huo never left him for a second. She ran around, followed the doctors’ instructions, and never gave up on looking for a better hospital and medical team. But the answers she got were always that the chances were slim. This was because Chen Cheng himself had no desire to wake up. This meant that life held no appeal for him anymore. He had no more hope, not even for Wen Huo.

Wen Huo didn’t give up. She had lost a lot of weight in two months but still insisted on eating. She prepared every meal herself to be very nutritious. She would eat and throw up, but she would still persist in eating. When Chen Cheng’s secretary came, she was eating. She had just finished taking care of Chen Cheng’s tracheal tube and took a break to eat. She was also looking up information online as she ate. The secretary handed Wen Huo a crystal box, which was clearly a ring box. Wen Huo, whose eyes had been swollen for two months, almost couldn’t hold back her tears again. She slowly opened it. It was a huge, beautiful diamond.

The secretary said, “Teacher Chen had it custom-made. It’s so intricate that it took them this long to get it done. There is only one diamond like this in the world. It was crafted by the world’s largest brand, and their head designer...” Wen Huo didn’t hear the rest of what he said. She just stared at the diamond, and her tears fell continuously.

After the secretary left, Jin Ge and Ruan Lihong arrived. In just two short months, Jin Ge looked as if she had aged ten years. Her usual dignity and elegance were gone, and she looked just as disheveled as Wen Huo. With Chen Cheng’s incident, the entire Chen family seemed to have been cut off and was about to disappear into the river of history.

Jin Ge spoke, “Huohuo.”

Wen Huo looked at her.

Jin Ge and Ruan Lihong exchanged a look, as if this decision was also a huge burden for them. “Your uncle and I have talked about it. We can’t hold you back. You’re still very young, and your future...”

Wen Huo didn’t let her finish. “Mom.”

Ruan Lihong answered instinctively, but then she realized that Wen Huo was calling Jin Ge. Jin Ge was stunned, and tears fell from her eyes. Wen Huo opened the ring box the secretary had given her and put the ring on herself. Then she showed it to them with a crying smile. “It’s pretty, isn’t it? Chen Cheng has really good taste.”

Ruan Lihong broke down. “Huohuo...”

Wen Huo asked them, “Is there any way for me to register our marriage at the Bureau of Civil Affairs even if my husband can’t wake up?”

Ruan Lihong called her again. “Wen Huo!”

Wen Huo acted as if she hadn’t heard. She put her hand on her stomach. “When the baby is born, it needs to be registered. I have a husband, so I don’t want to be a single parent.”

Her words were the death of Ruan Lihong. “Huohuo... Do you want to kill your mom?”

When Jin Ge heard Wen Huo’s words, her eyes fell on Wen Huo’s stomach. She slowly approached, and her hands trembled as she reached out to touch it. “So that’s it.” That’s why Wen Huo had been throwing up and her emotions had been so unstable. She was pregnant.

Wen Huo shifted a little to make it easier for her to touch her stomach. “It’s a boy. I pestered the doctor, and they gave me a hint.”

Jin Ge touched Wen Huo’s stomach and was suddenly very moved. If Chen Cheng knew he had a child, he would be so happy, right? He loved Yi Yi so much. But, but this was so unfair to Wen Huo. She was only in her twenties. How could they be so selfish...

Wen Huo looked at her tear-streaked face and seemed to guess what she was thinking. She said, “I, Wen Huo, will either never marry or I will marry Chen Cheng. If you don’t agree to me marrying Chen Cheng, then you can just watch me grow old alone.”

She was so determined that no one could persuade her. Jin Ge and Ruan Lihong ultimately left, disappointed. Of course, it was mostly Ruan Lihong.

Tang Jun’en and Cheng Cuo came in the evening. Wen Huo told them not to speak loudly, saying that it would affect Chen Cheng’s rest. Tang Jun’en could no longer tease her as he used to. He lowered his voice, which was full of apology for Wen Huo. “I didn’t know back then...” He had said it many times since he found out about Su Di. Wen Huo didn’t blame him. How can a piece of paper cover a fire?

Cheng Cuo patted Tang Jun’en on the shoulder. “My cousin has bipolar disorder. When he gets depressed, all he wants to do is die. If we’re going to blame anyone, we’re all at fault. As the people around him, we didn’t realize how much he was struggling.” After he found out about Chen Cheng’s illness, he slapped himself twice and locked himself in his studio to reflect for days. He had noticed that something was off with Chen Cheng before, but he hadn’t taken it seriously or pressed him about it. If he had been a little more observant, all of this could have been avoided.

Wen Huo didn’t have time to talk to them for too long. She had a lot of work to do. She had found many ways to treat Chen Cheng, and she needed to verify them and then present the feasible options to a professional medical team to discuss whether they could be implemented. She shooed them away. “Let’s talk about it later. Don’t disturb us. We just got married today. We need to consummate our marriage.” As she said that, she showed them her ring. “My husband bought it for me. It’s pretty, isn’t it? It’s the most beautiful one in the world.”

Cheng Cuo and Tang Jun’en felt sorry for her. How could she say such sad things in such a lighthearted tone? How sad must she be herself? They were already having such a hard time. How was she holding on? Wen Huo really didn’t want to waste any more time with them. She pushed them out and closed the door to the hospital room.

Once the door was closed, she leaned against it and slowly slid to the floor, crying her eyes out for what felt like the millionth time. She wasn’t afraid of the hardship. She was wondering if it was right to force a person who had no will to live to stay alive. Chen Cheng didn’t want to live anymore, so her persistence seemed very selfish. She didn’t dare to cry loudly. She was afraid of disturbing Chen Cheng and her son. She touched her stomach and whispered to him, “Mommy feels like she can’t hold on. Mommy doesn’t want your daddy to suffer.”

As a girlfriend, she was a complete failure. Chen Cheng was sick, and she didn’t find out until he tried to kill himself. How much pain and sadness must he have been in? He must have really wanted her comfort, and yet she was always arguing with him. She was so selfish.

She could actually come to terms with Su Di’s situation. She had been with Chen Cheng for so long. She wouldn’t hold a grudge against a living person for the sake of someone who had passed away. She was very sad about Su Di’s passing, and she still was, because she wasn’t as heartless as she thought, but she loved Chen Cheng more. How could she deny Chen Cheng’s meaning in her life for the sake of Su Di? It was the pregnancy that had completely changed her personality and made her overthink things, making it impossible for her to process things calmly.

Chen Cheng was also sick, and his mental state had deteriorated, so he couldn’t think straight about some things and refused to be honest with her. In hindsight, she should have realized that when she wanted to leave, he must have felt so helpless and pained. She hugged her arms. “Mommy was blind. Mommy couldn’t see anything was wrong with your daddy.”

He was like a candle flame, bringing light wherever he appeared. How could she have been so blind and heartless that she couldn’t see how this candle, despite its scarred base, desperately protected its wick and kept its flame steady to light her path and warm her fragile body? Why had her life been so smooth? Wasn’t it because Chen Cheng had always been by her side? How could she have been so blind and ignorant?

She sat by the door for a long time, until she felt cold and was afraid of getting sick and affecting her son and Chen Cheng. She quickly got up and returned to the hospital bed, looking at the man who was full of tubes but was still handsome. She gently leaned in, took off her shoes, and lay beside him. She hugged his arm and kissed it. “Honey, today is our wedding night.” She started to cry again. Her voice was shaking, and her words were full of sobs. “Do you really not want to wake up?”

No one answered her.

She slowly wrapped her arms around his waist. “I know you’re very disappointed in me, and you don’t want to see me anymore, but I miss you so much. Can you have mercy on me? Can you just wake up? I promise I’ll never make you angry again...”

After she had learned more about Chen Cheng’s bipolar disorder, she felt she was no longer worthy of saying anything. While she had been suffering from insomnia at night, he had been struggling with his illness. He wasn’t a cold-hearted person. He hadn’t been able to move on from Su Di’s passing for many years. He had never intended to harm Su Di. Wen Huo didn’t want to think about this, so she often tried to avoid the fact from entering her mind.

The more she thought about how many misunderstandings she had about Chen Cheng, the more she could understand why he didn’t want to wake up. The more she understood, the more she had to force herself to face reality—she couldn’t hold on to him like this anymore. If he really wanted to leave, she should let him go. But she couldn’t bear to. This was like digging her heart out.

She hugged him tightly and, despite the pain, finally said, crying so hard she could barely breathe, “I’ll wait for you for one more month. If you still don’t want to wake up, I’ll let you go...”

She said those words with a shattered heart and gritted teeth. The pain was unimaginable for anyone who hadn’t experienced it firsthand. From then on, there was no longer a god who had descended to Earth. Chen Cheng had become a beautiful swan song.

Chapter 61

Even though Wen Huo had set a one-month deadline, she never gave up on finding a way to cure Chen Cheng. Time flew by, and the deadline was getting closer. There was no sign of Chen Cheng waking up. His condition was getting worse every day, and Wen Huo found it harder and harder to hold on. After crying her eyes out for so long, she thought her tears had dried up, but every time she saw the lifeless Chen Cheng, she couldn’t help herself.

Chen Cheng had to be clean, so she would wipe him down, brush his teeth, and wash his face every day. She felt like she could do it for a lifetime. She started to regret giving him a one-month deadline. She didn’t want to be separated from him. At least now she could still see him. If she really let him go, she wouldn’t even be able to see him...

After washing his face, she told him a story. Today, she could only tell one for an hour because she had to go ask how she could successfully register her marriage without a groom present. Jin Ge had pulled some strings for her. She told Chen Cheng a story about a mentally ill person and how the protagonist overcame their mental illness to be reborn. Because of Chen Cheng’s illness, Wen Huo had become the second Cheng Cuo, studying psychology and mental illness thoroughly. She had also founded a free counseling center for teenagers, focusing on their mental health and training parents and educators to correctly guide and teach children.

She had done something Cheng Cuo had never thought of and had become someone who moved people to tears. But she publicly said that she wasn’t great. She just wanted fewer people to experience her husband’s pain. Also, she wanted to accumulate more good karma so that God would see her efforts and give her husband back to her. She could try even harder. As long as society needed her, she would go through fire and water. Just give Chen Cheng back to her... But God was probably dead; they couldn’t hear her. Chen Cheng still lay there quietly. No matter how many people she helped or how many contributions she made to society, he would only lie there quietly.

After finishing the story, Wen Huo gently touched Chen Cheng’s face and said, “Wait for me to show you our marriage certificate. Then we’ll be legally married, and I’ll be your wife.” After that, she gently kissed Chen Cheng on the lips, put on her bag, and left.

Wen Huo’s lab was also about to open. She had many new ideas. Without Chen Cheng to help her, she could still do it, but the process would be a little more difficult. She was willing to carry on Chen Cheng’s ideals and continue her physics research until her life ended, and then she would go to see him with her achievements. She would tell him that his taste was excellent and that his wife was amazing. Her picture would be hung in classrooms a hundred years from now, and her legendary life would be in encyclopedias. Everyone would recognize her as one of the greatest physicists of the 21st century. The fact that she had a handsome husband would also be passed down by word of mouth. She touched her seven-month-old stomach and wondered, would her son also like physics? She smiled faintly. It seemed that only her son could make her smile now.

At the meeting place, Wen Huo saw that the person was already there and apologized, “I’m sorry, I’m a little late.” The person smiled. “It’s okay.” Wen Huo didn’t waste any time. “Director Jin should have told you about my situation. Do you think it’s possible?” The person was regretful. “Article 5 of the Marriage Law states that marriage must be completely voluntary for both parties, and no party or third party is allowed to force the other. A person in a vegetative state cannot express their will to marry...”

Wen Huo knew. She had looked up the information and asked people, but it was not possible. She had to marry Chen Cheng. “Is there any way we can make it happen? Please, I can provide whatever you need. If not, can we pull some strings? I’m willing to pay.” The person shook their head. “I’m sorry, but it’s really not possible.” Wen Huo got anxious, and her voice became desperate. “Please, my son is about to be born, and I need to register him. I, I, I can’t let him be without a father... Please.” The person said, “You can still get a household registration as a single parent. It’s quite easy.” Wen Huo, of course, knew. She just didn’t know what to say to get him to help her.

After countless “I’m sorry’s” from the person, Wen Huo returned to the hospital like a zombie. At the door to Chen Cheng’s hospital room, she saw Jin Ge and other members of the Chen family, including Chen Huaiyu. Tang Jun’en and Cheng Cuo were also waiting at the door, and their expressions were somber when they saw her. She was confused. “What’s wrong?” No one answered her. She pushed the door open, and the person on the hospital bed was gone. She turned around in a panic, tears welling up in her eyes. “What happened to him?”

Jin Ge reached out her hand. “Huohuo.”

Wen Huo dodged her, walked inside, and after confirming that Chen Cheng was indeed gone, she turned around again and screamed at the top of her lungs, “What did you do to him? How dare you! He’s my husband! How dare you! How could you?!” She ran over and pushed each of them. “Murderers! Executioners! Give him back to me! Give him back!” She yelled so fiercely and was so emotional that she fainted after a few minutes.

Even though Wen Huo had been taking good care of herself as a pregnant woman, she couldn’t control her emotions whenever she missed Chen Cheng, so her condition wasn’t good. After this faint, the doctor gave her an ultimatum: she couldn’t keep treating herself like this. She acted as if she were dead, ignoring everyone and everything. Under the care of three or four people, she still managed to sneak out of the hospital to ask around about where they had taken Chen Cheng. No one would tell her. She just walked the streets alone, her steps slow and dragging. She was swaying and looked like she was about to fall. The lane to her left was full of speeding cars.

It was two days before Chinese New Year, but it was strange. There was no festive atmosphere at all. It wasn’t strange, though. How long had it been since there was a festive atmosphere? The happiest New Year she had spent in her twenties was the one she had spent with Chen Cheng. Chen Cheng had made dumplings for her and even fed them to her. She started crying again. She wanted to eat dumplings, but they wouldn’t taste good if Chen Cheng didn’t make them. She would never be able to eat dumplings made by Chen Cheng again. She took a step toward the center of the road. She had forgotten that she was pregnant with Chen Cheng’s child. All she knew was that if she took one more step, she would be able to see Chen Cheng. She slowly walked forward.

The car horns became more and more frequent and louder and louder, but all she could hear was Chen Cheng calling her name. He called her by her last name, “Wen.” She answered, walking forward. Just as she was about to get hit by a car, someone grabbed her from behind. Her arm was pulled so hard that it felt dislocated. She then crashed into a pair of arms with a familiar scent that made her feel calm and peaceful, like she was in a church. She thought she must have died and was starting to have hallucinations. Then, the person holding her grabbed her shoulders and checked if she had been hit. Then he yelled at her, “Can’t you see the cars? Are you doing this on purpose? Wen! Are you trying to rebel?”

Such a familiar voice. Wen Huo looked up. Such a familiar face. She must have died. She was seeing Chen Cheng. It was his face. He had a particularly beautiful face that men and women alike loved. She herself was tempted by it. She couldn’t be wrong. She hugged him and cried loudly and ugly. “They took you away... I didn’t even get to say goodbye... I don’t want to say goodbye... Can we never say goodbye again?” She was incoherent, but she held him very tightly.

The person holding her stroked her hair and stopped yelling. “Okay, no more goodbyes.” Wen Huo held on to him tightly, not even thinking about her son. Her husband was more important than her son. The two of them just held each other until Tang Jun’en drove up in his sports car, stopped in front of them, and honked his horn. “Aren’t you going to the Bureau of Civil Affairs? Are you still going? Can you get the certificate first and then be lovey-dovey at home? You’re not being discreet holding each other on the street.”

Wen Huo poked her head out and was a little surprised to see Tang Jun’en. With blurry eyes, she instinctively asked, “Did you die too?” Tang Jun’en’s face turned green. “Can you not curse me? I haven’t even married my wife yet and haven’t had an heir for the Tang family. How can I die? My mom would kill me!”

Wen Huo slowly came to her senses. If she wasn’t dead, then, then she suddenly looked up. It was Chen Cheng’s face. She blinked several times. He was still there. She finally realized that God had given Chen Cheng back to her. She burst into tears again, throwing herself into his arms, wanting to hug him and also hit him. “Are you even human? Do I even look human right now? How could you bear not to wake up? Do you know I became a widow? And I have a child...” When she mentioned the child, she stopped hitting him and showed him her stomach. “Look, your son. He’s over seven months old. He’s about to be born.”

Chen Cheng looked at her, filled with emotion. It was so good to see her. He felt like he had a long dream. He couldn’t remember what happened in the dream, but he remembered a little crying girl who cried for him every day. Everyone told her to give up, but she seemed to not understand Chinese and just wanted to stick by him. He was a severely ill patient in a deep coma. With a professional medical team and Wen Huo’s dedicated and meticulous waking and rehabilitation therapy and functional training, his three months in a coma had no significant impact on him. The doctor said this was related to his physical fitness. Because he had always taken good care of his body, the side effects of waking up from a coma were minimal.

When he woke up, he underwent a checkup. The Chen family came over, and then he went home, took a shower, changed his clothes, and got ready to go to the Bureau of Civil Affairs when Wen Huo came back. In the time he was in a coma, the most frequent words he had heard from Wen Huo were about getting married. He owed her a formal identity, and he had to give it to her and announce it to the world. Who knew that Wen Huo would come back early? He was still at home when she came back, and then Wen Huo thought he was dead and didn’t want to live anymore, so she secretly ran away. When he heard about it, he immediately rushed over and stopped her before she did anything foolish.

He hadn’t wanted to live, but he couldn’t bear to leave Wen Huo. No one knew how he had fought with the Grim Reaper to come back to her. Everyone would only know one thing: that he had woken up. He had fought for his life because life was too long, and he couldn’t let Wen Huo go on alone. This was the first time his feelings for Wen Huo had triumphed over his depression, but it wouldn’t be the last. It turned out that there was a feeling like this that could make a person wave a flag, shout, and stand on a cliff alone in a place no one could see, facing hurricanes and sandstorms and a thousand armies, just to go home.

He didn’t care about the son; he only cared about this little girl. He held her face, wiping away her tears with his thumb. “Huohuo.” Huohuo. Wen Huo thought she would never hear him call her name again. She quickly answered, afraid that the voice was a hallucination. “Yes, I’m here!” Chen Cheng said softly, “Will you marry your Teacher Chen?”

Wen Huo cried, but she nodded repeatedly. “Yes! I’ll marry you! Now! Right now! I’ll marry you! I’ll only marry you!” Tang Jun’en had already gotten out of the car and threw the keys to Chen Cheng. “Hurry up, or the Bureau of Civil Affairs will close.” Chen Cheng picked up Wen Huo, didn’t open the car door, and just put her in the car. He then got in and sped away. The only thing left on the street was the roar of the engine, which also announced that the only car of its kind in Beijing was back on the streets. Why? Because Chen Cheng was back.

After getting their marriage certificate, Wen Huo looked at her slightly swollen face on the certificate and then at Chen Cheng’s face. She was a little upset. “Why do you still look so good after being in a coma for three months, while I got ugly?” Chen Cheng held her hand. “Because you’re pregnant.” Wen Huo looked down at her son. “Does being pregnant make you ugly? Can I not have the baby?” Chen Cheng nodded. “If you can bear it, I have no objections.” Wen Huo looked at him. The fact that Chen Cheng was moving and alive touched her so much. She had to accumulate more good karma and repay society. “How can I be so heartless? I’ll have the baby! I’ll have it even if I’m ugly!”

After saying that, she remembered that Chen Cheng had just woken up and asked him anxiously, “Did you see a doctor? What did the doctor say? Is it okay for you to be out here like this? Let’s go back to the hospital! Or let’s go get a full checkup, and then...” Chen Cheng leaned in and kissed her, cutting off her endless chatter. The kiss was familiar and gentle. As he kissed her, Wen Huo’s eyes turned red again. She missed him so much. She grabbed his clothes, and her voice trembled as she pleaded, “This time, can we be together for a hundred years?” Chen Cheng kissed away her tears. “More than a hundred years. We’ll be together in our next lives, too. Every life, every world.”

...

Later, Chen Cheng held a grand wedding for Wen Huo and announced to the world that he had preyed on his student. He was shameless, despicable, and deserved to be reviled by everyone. But no one did. The story of his and Wen Huo’s love became a popular tale during the time of his accident.

Later, their son was born. Wen Huo named him Chen Baobei, which means “precious treasure.” Chen Cheng and the Chen family had no objections. It was only when she was registering his birth that she had a moment of clarity and worried that her son would blame her later, so she insisted on calling Chen Huaiyu to give him a name on the spot. Chen Huaiyu named their son Chen Tingwen, the meaning of which was self-explanatory.

Later, Chen Cheng’s bipolar disorder was never cured, but it didn’t matter. Wen Huo would never let go of the rope in her hand. She would never let Chen Cheng fall. Wen Huo’s insomnia, on the other hand, was cured. But it was hard to say if it was truly cured or if it was because she got to sleep with Chen Cheng every night.

Later, Chen Cheng bought the lab where Su Di had worked and took in students in his name. He gave the lab to these students to manage, and he and Wen Huo guided and collaborated with them, gradually achieving success. Wen Huo had such an amazing husband. It would have been a waste of resources not to use him. With his help, she truly became a physicist. Of course, she had the talent and just lacked the opportunity. Chen Cheng only gave her the opportunity; whether she could seize it was up to her.

Later, Chen Cheng took Wen Huo on a motorcycle ride in the mountains. They went back to the restaurant on the mountaintop. The owner brought out a plate of grilled fish and lit the charcoal fire. The fish soup was simmering and bubbling. The owner asked them why they named their charity organization for mental health patients “Blind Light.” Wen Huo looked at Chen Cheng and said, “I am the blind one, and he is the light.” The owner didn’t understand. “What do you mean?” Neither of them said another word.

The owner later found out that their charity work was extensive and covered various fields, including a foundation dedicated to charity. One of the projects was particularly interesting. Chen Cheng had installed streetlights on a dozen bridges, in over thirty areas, and on hundreds of roads. The slogan for that project gave him goosebumps. He couldn’t help but sigh that perhaps only a person like Chen Cheng could return to the mortal world after a trip to the underworld. The words were few but very powerful—”A myriad of lights, a fire to light the world.”