My niece was diagnosed with a rare disease, and the hospital's consultation yielded no solutions. So, seven years after our breakup, I had no choice but to dial Ethan Walker's number. The top expert in the field was my ex-boyfriend. He was also the boy I personally crushed into the mud on a rainy night seven years ago. 1 "Who is this?" The voice on the phone was cold, tinged with faint exhaustion, as if he had just come out of surgery. "It's me," I whispered. Silence fell on the other end. Afraid he would hang up immediately, I quickly explained my reason: "My niece, Lily, has a rare disease and needs surgery. I checked, and you're the only one in the field who can do it." "Ethan, she's only six... Can you, please, help her?" I waited anxiously for Ethan's answer. I didn't know how long passed before Ethan's voice came again. "Send the address and case file to my email. I have another surgery tonight. I'll come over after I'm done." He agreed. I let out a huge sigh of relief. After hanging up, I collapsed onto the cot, my palms damp with sweat. For a moment, I wanted to thank all the gods that Ethan still retained a doctor's benevolent heart after everything he had been through. 2 I thought since Ethan had surgery at night, he wouldn't come until the next day. Unexpectedly, in the middle of the night, just as I was dozing off, my phone lit up. 【I'm here.】 I was dazed for a moment. Looking up through the glass, I saw Ethan standing outside the ward. There was a girl next to him. I walked out of the ward, closing the door gently so as not to wake the sleeping Lily. Before I could speak, Ethan briefly explained the situation in a few words. "I've seen Lily's case file. We need to wait until tomorrow to have another consultation with colleagues here to further confirm the condition." "Chloe is my colleague. I might be busy in a couple of days. If I'm not around and there's something wrong with the patient, look for her first." Chloe had a high ponytail. Even though there was some fatigue from the long journey on her face, it couldn't hide her bright and capable aura. She smiled at me, greeted me simply and generously, then turned to Ethan. "Senior, you guys talk. I have to go back first; I have a cat to feed at home." Ethan nodded. So in the quiet hospital corridor, only Ethan and I were left. I suddenly felt a little nervous. "You..." "Sarah..." We spoke at the same time and stopped at the same time. "You go first." Ethan took a step back and put his briefcase on the chair. I was speechless for a moment, so I racked my brains to find something to say. "Isn't Dr. Hart your colleague? How come she lives here and has a cat?" ...What a lame topic. Ethan was also silent. Just when I thought he wouldn't answer, Ethan spoke. "Her parents' house is here. The cat is a rescued stray. It loves to go out and isn't afraid of people, so it often follows her around." My heart trembled suddenly. Because of the natural familiarity with Chloe revealed in his words. "Is that what you wanted to ask?" Under the dim lights of the corridor, Ethan looked at me, his gaze obscure. After seven years apart, he looked steadier and calmer. He was no longer the boy covered in mess the year we broke up. I opened my mouth, not knowing what to say. What happened back then has been over for so long. Is there any point in bringing it up now? So I changed the subject. "You just said Lily's condition needs to wait for tomorrow's consultation." "Are you... confident?" Ethan closed his eyes. When he spoke, his voice was calm and distant, completely dispelling the subtle atmosphere lingering between us. "Rare diseases are classified as rare for a reason." "I will do my best." A silent silence spread between us. Ethan gave me a fixed look, turned, and prepared to walk away. I instinctively looked up. My body moved faster than my brain, and I grabbed his hand. Ethan froze. My brain slowly came back online, and I withdrew my hand as if electrocuted. —But he grabbed it. Ethan held my wrist, turned back, his gaze trembling slightly. Then he lowered his eyes, hiding the suppressed emotions, and spoke hoarsely. "Sarah, you dumped me back then. Don't provoke me now." "As a patient's family member, please have some self-respect." My heart instantly ached like it was being cut by a knife. The moment Ethan let go, I fled. I didn't look back, so I didn't know that Ethan stood there for a long time. Nor did I know that he watched my retreating figure, forbearing and restrained, bringing the palm that had held mine to his lips, leaving a very light, very light kiss. 3 I sat by Lily's bed all night. The first person to come in the next day was Chloe. "You and Senior Walker are old acquaintances, right?" She chatted with me while taking samples from the comatose Lily. "...I guess so." "No wonder. I was wondering why he dragged me here in such a hurry last night. I've never seen him care so much about rare cases before." "You guys must be very close, right?" She neatly packed up the instruments and handed them to the nurse, then turned around, looking at me with a mix of nervousness and anticipation. "Um... sis, do you know how to pursue Senior Walker?" "What?" I was stunned. Chloe counted on her fingers and added. "You guys are so close, but you don't seem to interact much usually. I've known him for three years and haven't seen you." "Senior Walker has always been single. His social media and phone screensaver are clean." "So you must be childhood friends, the kind with a very strong bond, right?" Her eyes were bright, like sunflowers blooming in summer. "I've liked Senior Walker for a long time, but he's always been cold, and no one can find a breakthrough point." "Can you tell me about him? Daily hobbies, little things from the past, anything is fine." My thoughts were in a trance for a moment. Memories sealed for too long were opened by Chloe in a few words, disturbing my long-silent heart. Ethan and I met very early. When I moved to South City for school at eleven, he was the first friend I made. Ethan's family was very poor. His parents died early, and he only had his grandmother to depend on. He wore a school uniform washed white, and took the first-place scholarship every year without fail. Consequently, the bullying and isolation from the little hooligans in school also never stopped. As a transfer student from outside, after rejecting their bullying invitations twice, I was also classified as an outcast like Ethan. The leader of this group of hooligans was Brad, whose father was a local tyrant in South City. Ethan, worried about his elderly grandmother, wouldn't fight back even when cornered and beaten. But my parents were alive and well, and I had a sister in the police academy. Growing up, I only caused trouble and was never afraid of it. So when I passed by the alley, I picked up a brick and smashed Brad's head from behind until it bled. The hooligans scattered, revealing Ethan, covered in dust in the corner. The moment he looked up in astonishment, only one thought remained in my mind. —He's damn beautiful. No wonder he's targeted. My whole family is good-looking, and I'm a picky face-judger. So being attracted to Ethan was a matter of course. I cut out the parts about myself and simply told Chloe the story. After listening, the little girl's eyes turned red. "So Senior Walker had it so hard before..." "Yeah, so when he was in school, he worked really hard." Making it so that I spent half my life chasing but could never catch up. When Ethan walked over, Chloe had already wiped her tears. She dutifully reported Lily's condition to Ethan, the conversation mixed with many terms I couldn't understand. The sunlight spilled in from the window, shining warmly on them. They looked perfectly matched. It hurt me extremely too. My chest felt sour and swollen, nearly suffocating. 4 After their handover, Chloe went to busy herself with other things. Ethan walked into the ward with the treatment plan. He frowned the moment he saw me. "You didn't sleep last night?" I closed my sore eyes and shook my head at him, unwilling to talk more. "So Lily..." "The treatment plan is out. Is Lily's guardian here?" "I am her guardian." I said softly. "What?" Ethan was obviously stunned. Counting back from age, I was only nineteen when Lily was born. It was impossible for me to have given birth to her. But in a moment, he realized something. "Your sister..." "Three years ago, she died in the line of duty with my brother-in-law." Following the fragmentation of my happy family, my dearest sister also died the year I graduated. I stated calmly with lowered eyes, my fingers clenched tightly where they couldn't be seen, nails digging into flesh, hurting my palms. "Sarah..." "Ethan." I interrupted his unfinished words, my voice trembling uncontrollably despite my efforts. The emotions stirred up when talking about the past with Chloe finally lost control upon hitting memories of my family. I looked up at Ethan, my throat terribly hoarse, speaking almost chokingly. "Ethan... I know I wronged you before, but I beg you... no matter what, save Lily." She is my only remaining relative. Ethan pursed his lips, squatted halfway, and placed his palm gently on my shoulder. He said: "Okay." "I promise you." He withdrew the original treatment plan and called back the colleagues for consultation again. I didn't know what exactly they discussed, but it must have caused quite a stir within the hospital. Even the doctors looked at me with slightly different eyes. But after the plan was finalized, I barely saw him again. Only on the rare occasions when he needed to observe the patient personally would he come, record, and leave in a hurry. Our communication didn't exceed five sentences, three of which ended with single words like "mm" or "okay". He said he would be busy, but I didn't expect him to be this busy. Instead, Chloe spent more and more time with me to follow up on the condition. She worked very seriously, with steady hands and fast movements. Even though Lily was in a coma almost all day, she tried her best to reduce the pain Lily suffered during treatment. She was an excellent person. Perhaps the single ward was too quiet. Chloe suddenly spoke, like chatting but also probing. "Speaking of which, Senior Walker really cares about this case. He never actively used such a radical plan before." "Radical plan?" I froze on the spot. Chloe seemed to realize something and quickly explained: "Sorry, sorry, you might not understand if you don't know. Basically, the surgery is effective, but the success rate is relatively low, so the hospital usually recommends more conservative treatment." "But for a rare disease like Lily's, the effect of conservative treatment... existing clinical data isn't very good. It just prolongs it a bit." Her voice lowered, somewhat regretful. "You are Senior Walker's friend, so I'm telling you the truth. Even with him as the lead surgeon, only one case of such surgery has been successful." "But that case... didn't survive the post-operative complications in the end." "So..." I opened my mouth, my voice trembling unconsciously. "That's why many people in the hospital disapprove. If something really happens on the operating table... besides the lead surgeon, they will also be implicated." "He was already busy enough, and recently he's been running to other provinces every day to find contacts, begging those retired teachers to help." No wonder he often disappeared recently, coming and going in a hurry. No wonder his face often showed eraseable fatigue, and the faint dark circles under his eyes never faded. I don't remember what Chloe rambled about afterward. I only knew that what Ethan did for me could no longer be covered simply by "a doctor's benevolence." I leaned over the bed, looking at Lily's weak face with the ventilator. Tears fell drop by drop, spreading dark marks on the snow-white sheets. Chloe often chatted with me, fantasizing about what Ethan would be like when he was in love. Would he still be so cold? Would he be a straight man who doesn't even know how to give gifts? Every time I agreed, there was a clear voice in my heart. He won't. The way Ethan loves someone is sincere and vivid, the brightest stroke in the colors of my memory. He would agree to all my unreasonable requests. When he was a class committee member, he turned a blind eye to my skipping classes, and helped me hide my unwritten homework from the teacher. Everyone in the family knew Ethan was a good student. Whenever they asked about my recent situation at school, I begged him to put in a few good words for me. He agreed to everything, never saying no. Although I loved to play and make trouble, I was smart enough. I finally got into the same key high school as him by just meeting the cutoff score. In high school, his grades were still top-notch, so I pestered him to explain problems to me every now and then. I suffered from math for a long time, so Ethan broke down the problems one by one and explained them to me. We gradually became the two who left the latest after school. At first, the homeroom teacher suspected us of puppy love and wanted to catch us in the act. Unexpectedly, he caught us, but instead of love letters, he found stacks of densely written scratch paper. Ethan explained patiently, and I listened seriously, learning by analogy. My grades improved by leaps and bounds. So much so that when we really got together later, the teachers just mentioned it once and let it go. "Ethan and Sarah? Let them date however they want. It won't affect their grades. Breaking them up might actually cause trouble." So throughout high school, we were the only couple in the school who could hold hands openly. Occasionally, a few troublemakers were dissatisfied, but they were all shut down by the teacher's sentence: "If you can stabilize at either Ethan or Sarah's score, you can date freely too." We walked side by side through the hardest winter and welcomed the busy and vibrant summer. My birthday was on the eve of the college entrance exam. That night, Ethan passed me a note for the first time. I remembered the time and place on the note, ignoring the fatigue of finishing the test papers, and quietly sneaked out of the dormitory in the middle of the night. In the midsummer of my eighteenth year, I saw the most beautiful scenery in my memory. It was a sea of blue flowers. In a hidden corner by the playground, Ethan used countless bouquets as a base and caught dozens of fireflies to dance as candles. My favorite blue daisies were woven into the most unique birthday cake by my favorite person, presented on the day I became an adult. The boy stood in the center of the flower sea, his eyes as bright as a thousand stars. He said: "Sarah, happy birthday." At that time, I thought I was the happiest person in the world. At that time, I thought this moment would be eternal. But I was wrong. After the college entrance exam, I returned home. What greeted me was not the smiles of my parents and fragrant meals. —But bright red, dazzling blood in the stairwell. My sister hugged me tightly, her brand-new police badge hurting my cheek. I pieced together the truth of the story from her tearful narration. Cheating father, mother enduring for my exam, pregnant mistress coming to the door... A slip of the hand during my father's shoving, my mother rolled down the stairs and hit a sharp steel pipe in the trash pile in the stairwell. A seemingly happy family was shattered in just a few hours. And the call from the hooligan Brad was the last straw that broke me. "My dad knows about your family's mess." The hooligan laughed carelessly, his tone disgusting. At eighteen, I gripped the phone tightly, trembling uncontrollably. "Your sister just became a little police officer, right? Is she still an intern?" "Well, I'm not a bad person. Dump Ethan hard, and I won't mess with your sister, how about it?" "Oh, didn't that little bastard test out of the province? It's a long way off, and his old hag at home can't reach him, right?" "Step him into the mud alone, or let everyone become stray dogs. You choose." When the phone hung up, I couldn't tell if I was calm or numb. The Ethan I loved would never give up his grandmother, whom he depended on for life. I only had my sister left as a relative. Besides... I looked up at the gray sky. Fine rain hit my face, rolling down mixed with tears. A doctor with a bright future shouldn't have a lover born of a murderer. I didn't want to be the only stain on Ethan. I had an agreement with him, agreeing that we would soar thousands of miles and stand side by side in the clouds. I broke the promise.
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