…

“Xiao Tangqiu!”

Xiao Tangqiu woke up suddenly, only to realize he was lying on the table in an internet cafe.

…Wait, on a table in an internet cafe?

Why was he in an internet cafe?

Xiao Tangqiu looked around in a daze, suddenly meeting the eyes of the boy who woke him up. The boy had fair skin, beautiful features, and a tear mole on the corner of his left eye.

He was in a trance for a moment, and called out unsurely, “…Meng Xinghe?”

“Hey, hey, what’s with that uncertain expression on your face? You don’t remember who I am after you fall asleep?” Meng Xinghe stretched out two fair and slender fingers and pinched Xiao Tangqiu’s cheek.

“Ow, that hurts!” Xiao Tangqiu yelled, dodging Meng Xinghe’s pinch attack, “Why are we in the internet cafe?”

“You slept yourself muddled! Did you forget that we ran away from home after school let out in the afternoon!” Meng Xinghe hmphed and reached out again to ruffle Xiao Tangqiu’s hair.

Xiao Tangqiu ducked but his shoulder was pressed by Meng Xinghe again. He could only accept Meng Xinghe’s playful attacks. He asked in a daze, “Running away from home? Since school let out in the afternoon? We are running away from home right now?”

Meng Xinghe pursed his lips, “Yeah! We’ve been in the internet cafe all night. I played games all night, and you slept all night… Speaking of, you can really sleep! The internet cafe is so loud yet you were able to fall asleep!”

Xiao Tangqiu looked dazed, “I seem to have had a… long, long dream…”

“A long, long dream?” Meng Xinghe asked curiously, “What dream?”

Xiao Tangqiu thought hard, but couldn’t remember anything, “…Forgot.”

“Nevermind, since you can’t remember it, it’s probably not a good dream,” Meng Xinghe yawned, “Our internet money is almost exhausted, let’s go to a park to sleep.”

“Go to the park to sleep? Sleep where?” Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t react for a while.

“Sleep on a park bench,” Meng Xinghe said with a righteous look on his face.

Xiao Tangqiu, “This is too sad…”

“We don’t have any money!” Meng Xinghe pinched Xiao Tangqiu’s cheek, “We left right after class, there was no time to go home and get money!”

Xiao Tangqiu then remembered that it was indeed the case. He touched his pocket and found only a few bucks, “How much money do you have on you?”

Meng Xinghe patted himself casually, “A few dozen or so left. Even adding it up, it’s not enough to stay in a hotel. Why don’t we stay in the internet cafe all night?”

Xiao Tangqiu shook his head and looked at Meng Xinghe seriously, “It will be your birthday in a bit, right? Why not buy a cake for your eighteenth birthday?”

Meng Xinghe paused for a moment before scratching the back of his head, “Should we buy a cake? I don’t really care, but after buying a cake, we’ll be completely out of money.”

Xiao Tangqiu shook his head, “It’s more important to celebrate your birthday. Let’s go and buy a cake.”

Meng Xinghe laughed, “I see that you are the one who wants to eat cake! Okay, let’s go! Let’s go buy cake!”

The two teenagers left the Internet cafe and went to the nearest cake shop only to find that it was closed. They went to several cake shops in succession, and finally successfully bought a small cake at a 24-hour convenience store, the kind for one person.

“It’s so small! It’s not enough for the two of us! We should’ve just gotten malatang!” Meng Xinghe muttered while looking at the cake in his hand.

Xiao Tangqiu grinned, “But birthdays are all about eating birthday cakes!”

Meng Xinghe hmphed, “That’s the tradition of Westerners, we don’t like it.”

Xiao Tangqiu smiled, “Alright, it’s already bought. Let’s find a place to sit down and eat. Let’s go to the park you mentioned.”

Meng Xinghe nodded. “It’s actually pretty cool to sleep on a park bench.”

Xiao Tangqiu was speechless, “How cool is it to sleep on a park bench, only homeless people sleep on park benches…”

He hesitated and said to Meng Xinghe, “Let’s go home tomorrow morning, Meng Xinghe.”

Meng Xinghe suddenly paused, “Go home? You’re kidding!”

Xiao Tangqiu frowned, “But we are broke now, and we can’t even buy food, so how can we run away from home?”

“Stop joking, we agreed to run away from home so we will run away from home!” Meng Xinghe insisted, “Are you going to betray me?”

“Where did I betray you? Didn’t I run away from home with you for a day?” Xiao Tangqiu bit his lip, “We don’t even have a minute now, if we don’t go home, do we really have to live on the streets? “

“I can go find work!” Meng Xinghe gritted his teeth, “No matter what, I won’t go back!”

Xiao Tangqiu hesitated for a moment, “Meng Xinghe, don’t be like this, your mother is only trying to care about you. You’re her only son…”

“She just wants to control me!” Meng Xinghe’s eyes darkened, “She wants to control me as a person, control my life, impose her subjective will on me, live vicariously through me with no regard for my personal wishes! I will never go back!”

He looked at Xiao Tangqiu and asked, “Are you already afraid? You want to betray me?”

“How can this be considered betrayal? I have kept you company wandering outside all day! My parents must be worried about me now!” Xiao Tangqiu also got a little angry.

“Kept me company all day? Company?” Meng Xinghe suddenly laughed, “You are just pitying me. Have you never regarded me as a friend? You just feel sorry for me and pity me?”

“What pity or sorry!” Xiao Tangqiu was completely angry, “Forget it! Do whatever you want! I’m going home!” He turned his head and started walking back.

He was in a rush and forgot to check the surrounding street for cars first, so naturally he didn’t see a car coming straight for him.

“Careful!”

Meng Xinghe dashed over and shoved Xiao Tangqiu away.

After a shrill and piercing braking sound, Xiao Tangqiu was pushed out far away.

He laid on the ground in a daze, and at this moment, countless terrifying images flashed across his eyes in an instant. Destroyed cakes, bloody Meng Xinghes, icy morgues…

Xiao Tangqiu immediately got up from the ground and threw himself towards Meng Xinghe, shouting, “Meng Xinghe! Meng Xinghe!”

The next moment, he saw the ruined cake on the ground and Meng Xinghe with blood all over his face…

His heart almost stopped, and he cried and screamed, “Meng Xinghe! Meng Xinghe! Don’t die… don’t die!”

At this moment, Meng Xinghe slowly opened his eyes, and his voice was very weak, “Qiu… Qiuqiu… I’m not dead yet…”

Xiao Tangqiu grabbed Meng Xinghe’s wrist excitedly, “Great! Don’t die! Don’t die! Ambulance… Yes! Ambulance! I’ll call an ambulance right now!”

The driver who accidentally hit someone got out of the car and almost fell to his knees. After realizing that Meng Xinghe was not dead, he immediately took out his mobile phone and called an ambulance.

“Don’t die… don’t die…” Xiao Tangqiu clung to Meng Xinghe’s hand tightly and murmured repeatedly, “Don’t die… don’t die…”

Meng Xinghe’s voice was weak, “Hey, I just had a little nosebleed, it’s not that serious…”

Xiao Tangqiu shook his head desperately with red eyes.

Moments later, the ambulance came.

After hesitating for a while, Xiao Tangqiu finally found someone to borrow a phone and called both his parents and Meng Xinghe’s mother to the hospital.

As soon as Xiao Tangqiu’s parents arrived at the hospital, they immediately scolded Xiao Tangqiu, but Meng Xinghe’s mother comforted Xiao Tangqiu after knowing that there was nothing serious with Meng Xinghe, “It’s fine.”

“You brat, you’re really promising! You even learned to run away from home!” Mother Xiao pointed at Xiao Tangqiu’s nose and scolded, and then came over to comfort Mother Meng.

Xiao Tangqiu was still in shock, his spirit elsewhere.

After a while, Meng Xinghe came out. His face was covered with bandages, wrapped like a mummy. He said in a muffled voice, “I just finished getting stitches. I will stay in the hospital for a day’s observation and then be discharged tomorrow.”

The three parents breathed a sigh of relief and Xiao Tangqiu immediately said, “I’ll stay with you.”

“You brat, you have class tomorrow!” Mother Xiao glared at Xiao Tangqiu.

“Meng Xinghe became like this to save me so I’ll stay to take care of him,” Xiao Tangqiu gritted his teeth, “Once he’s discharged from the hospital, I’ll go to class with him.”

Mother Meng smiled helplessly, “If my Xinghe can go to class obediently from now on, it will be a blessing in disguise.”

Mother Xiao shook her head and sighed, but Xiao Tangqiu was indeed responsible for Meng Xinghe’s accident. In the end, she had to let Xiao Tangqiu go. The three parents and the perpetrator discussed all the procedures and paid the fee before leaving.

In a blink of an eye, only Xiao Tangqiu and Meng Xinghe were left in the ward.

Meng Xinghe laid on the hospital bed, bored. Looking at Xiao Tangqiu’s dazed expression, he couldn’t help raising his eyebrows, “Why are you looking like I’m dead. Don’t worry, I’m still alive and well.”

Xiao Tangqiu looked uneasy, “For some reason… I feel like this car accident has happened once before…”