Chapter 56 - 1#

Movie Release#

Mo Xuzhi had lost contact.

His social media messages stopped on March 14th, and his phone had been turned off since then.

Xue Feng hadn’t been able to reach him since their brief exchange of messages.

Initially, he didn’t care. He thought it was just Mo Xuzhi playing some little trick again.

When Mo Xuzhi was messaging him, he was in San Francisco on a business trip. There was a jewelry exhibition nearby, so he had asked Mo Xuzhi about it.

Even though Mo Xuzhi said he wasn’t interested in anything he sent, he still bought a wristwatch.

Mo Xuzhi liked sparkling jewelry; he felt that Mo Xuzhi should like this watch.

The business deal was successfully concluded, and he returned to the country.

After returning, he found that he still couldn’t reach Mo Xuzhi. He thought that perhaps Mo Xuzhi was throwing a tantrum, so he searched for traces of him online.

The internet was buzzing, no longer with curses directed at Mo Xuzhi, but with increasing curiosity and affection. Netizens were also speculating about where he had gone.

He never liked wasting time on such things and ignored most of the reports, focusing only on one key point.

Mo Xuzhi had left the entertainment industry, leaving the vanity fair he once claimed he would never leave. He liked money but had no other skills; the entertainment industry was the fastest and only way for him to make money.

It felt like an announcement.

Since his return, it seemed everything was constantly changing.

He truly couldn’t reach Mo Xuzhi. He asked those who had contact with him or might know his whereabouts, but without exception, everyone shook their heads.

It was like the first small pebble thrown into a calm lake.

Xue Feng repeatedly read Mo Xuzhi’s reply from the 14th.

[There’s a gift for you in the house at Xinghai Community.]

Xinghai Community was where the apartment he gave Mo Xuzhi was located.

Mo Xuzhi’s own apartment was in a very old neighborhood; given that person’s nature of not being able to endure even a bit of hardship, he should have moved in long ago.

He understood.

Mo Xuzhi had been staying in Xinghai Community during this time. The message was a reminder for him to go there to find him.

So he went to Xinghai Community, bringing the watch he bought.

He was stopped at the entrance of the community.

The system hadn’t recorded his face, and he didn’t have an access card. The security guard didn’t let him in.

He called Mo Xuzhi, but as always, it was turned off.

Finally, he got in using his status as the developer.

As the elevator slowly rose, Xue Feng’s emotions grew involuntarily excited.

He would see Mo Xuzhi soon.

It was almost lunchtime; Mo Xuzhi might be preparing to cook as before. He had to suggest going out for lunch before Mo Xuzhi entered the kitchen.

The door lock recognized his fingerprint, and Xue Feng easily opened the front door.

Stuffy air rushed out, clearly carrying the scent of dust.

It was completely different from what he had imagined.

There was no one in the room, nor any traces of anyone living there.

The furniture and decorations in the room were still covered with dust sheets as they were when the renovation was first finished, and the sheets were covered with a thick layer of dust.

Naturally, the cups, bowls, and plates in the kitchen showed no sign of having been moved.

He didn’t see Mo Xuzhi, nor did he see the so-called gift.

He searched room by room.

He didn’t know what he was looking for; he just felt that doing this would at least make him, who had been faintly anticipating something on his way here, look less foolish.

Finally, in what was likely a storage room, he found the gift Mo Xuzhi had sent him.

On the cabinets, on the stools, and even on the floor, there was a large pile, arranged conspicuously enough.

Not only were they conspicuous, they were also very familiar.

These gift boxes were all custom-made, each with a different color, pattern, and shape.

He was very familiar with them and knew them clearly.

Because these were all things he had given to Mo Xuzhi.

On top of a larger gift box in the center, a piece of paper was pressed down by a small box.

A white A4 piece of paper with writing on it.

Xue Feng moved the small box aside and picked up the paper.

It was a property transfer contract.

At the very bottom of the contract, Mo Xuzhi had already signed his name.

His handwriting was beautiful, with sharp strokes, like a swimming dragon.

This was the first time Xue Feng had seriously looked at Mo Xuzhi’s handwriting.

As the saying goes, handwriting is like the person; he could even imagine the carefree manner in which Mo Xuzhi signed it.

Mo Xuzhi wanted to transfer this house back to him.

The feeling of anxiety in his heart grew heavier. Xue Feng set the contract aside and began to open the gift boxes one by one.

None of the boxes were empty.

These were all things Mo Xuzhi had once asked for, or jewelry and watches he had sent on a whim. They were all here, not one missing.

Everything looked brand new; the jewelry appraisal certificates were still in their original state, and the labels on various items showed no signs of being moved.

What did this mean?

Xue Feng swept the boxes onto the floor and started calling Mo Xuzhi again.

Still turned off.

Things began to spiral out of control. The whole world began to feel surreal, yet it made one feel that this might be the real world.

A doctor at the hospital asked if he could come over, saying there were matters regarding Mo Xuzhi he wanted to discuss with him.

This was the first and only person who had proactively called to tell him about Mo Xuzhi.

Xue Feng went to the hospital.

It was still the same hospital where Mo Xuzhi had stayed before, and the same attending physician.

The physician’s surname was Deng. When Xue Feng arrived, he was sitting in his office staring at the corner of his desk, looking somewhat listless, as if deep in thought.

Noticing Xue Feng’s arrival, he took several forms out of a drawer, straightened them on the desk, and handed them to Xue Feng.

Xue Feng took the forms and found a chair to sit down.

Before even reading what was written, the first thing Xue Feng noticed was that the paper looked like it had been flipped through thousands of times; it was already wrinkled.

He looked down and read slowly.

Rrip—

The sound of paper being torn echoed in the quiet office.

Dr. Deng looked at Xue Feng.

Xue Feng slowly placed the torn fragments on the desk. He leaned back in his chair, his expression impatient: “You asked me here just to see this kind of thing?”

He didn’t believe the words on the paper.

Mo Xuzhi couldn’t be dead.

How could there be such a coincidence as a March snowfall, and how could Mo Xuzhi have coincidentally gone to Rongcheng, and how could he have coincidentally been near a snow slope, and even more coincidentally, someone was shouting?

Xue Feng said, “How can everything be so coincidental?”

“Mr. Xue, the document was issued by the Rongcheng Municipal Public Security.” Dr. Deng wiped his face and said, “This is real.”

Until the moment the document arrived, he was still thinking of ways to persuade Mo Xuzhi to return for treatment.

Although the situation was irreversible, he could at least live for another day or two, perhaps a month or two. He was still thinking that if a miracle occurred, Mo Xuzhi might live for another two years.

“If only I had been more determined before, if only I had been firmer,” Dr. Deng’s brow furrowed deeply, his eyes reddening. He said, “If I had been firmer and insisted he stay for treatment, he wouldn’t have gone to Rongcheng, he wouldn’t have…”

A doctor’s heart is filled with benevolence.

Dr. Deng never thought of giving up on any patient. He had been trying to find a way to get Mo Xuzhi to accept treatment.

Even though Mo Xuzhi never agreed to receive formal treatment, he had been constantly developing and perfecting a personalized treatment plan for him.

But in the end, he was no match for natural and man-made disasters.

“Treatment?” Xue Feng asked. “What treatment?”

Dr. Deng handed Xue Feng a thick stack of documents.

“See for yourself, Mr. Xue. No need to look at the ones in the back; they are useless now.”

The ones in the back were the treatment plans he had developed for Mo Xuzhi. Now that the person was gone, the plans had become a pile of waste paper.

Xue Feng first scanned the test reports at a speed of ten lines at a glance.

Then he slowed down and re-read the report word by word.

He had studied medicine in university; he knew exactly what the things written there represented.

The report was marked with a date; he saw it, but he still asked, “Was he diagnosed three months ago?”

“Did he know?”

“He knew from the very beginning.”

Dr. Deng could not forget the look in Mo Xuzhi’s eyes in that ward when he first learned he had cancer.

Indifferent, calm, and even faintly carrying a sense of relief.

Xue Feng felt that he couldn’t stay in this office any longer.

He gripped the documents in his hand and asked, “Can I take these with me?”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Xue.” Dr. Deng shook his head. “You can’t take any of these.”

If it were before, Xue Feng could have kept a copy of everything except the death certificate.

But not anymore; he no longer had the right to take them out.

Previously, Mo Xuzhi had no relatives, and Xue Feng had a close relationship with him and could proactively provide medical expenses, so he was allowed to exercise some relative rights.

But he had just checked and found that a person had been added to Mo Xuzhi’s relative column. That person was now the sole legal relative. All of Mo Xuzhi’s test reports were private; no one other than him could check or move them at will.

This test report came out before the legal relative appeared. At that time, Xue Feng was responsible for relevant matters, so he had the right to see it.

But it was only limited to seeing it.

Xue Feng didn’t know where he had walked.

He walked on the street, people passing by incessantly, the crowd surging, but he seemed oblivious, staring at the ground without focus.

His mind was a mess, alternating between the blood-stained white shirt when Mo Xuzhi was stabbed in the chest and the test report he had just seen, interspersed with the unopened gift boxes piled in the room.

And that death notice.

He began to think.

Xue Feng remembered the time Mo Xuzhi drove him home.

He remembered saying that Mo Xuzhi wouldn’t leave him.

How did Mo Xuzhi reply then?

Xue Feng’s pace gradually slowed.

What Mo Xuzhi said before leaving—he said not to take things for granted.

He said he should learn to live alone.

At that time, he already knew he had cancer.

Small details he had never paid attention to began to surface, piling up into a mountain.

Mo Xuzhi’s distancing from him, his advice to him.

He thought these were caused by Shen Le’s return, but looking at it from another perspective, everything changed.

It didn’t start with Shen Le’s return, but from the moment the cancer was diagnosed.

Xue Feng later met Shen Le once.

Shen Le had successfully made a name for himself online by binding himself with Mo Xuzhi on trending searches, entering the public eye.

At that time, he had just finished an audition for a TV drama. When he came to meet him, he was followed by a group of assistants and a manager.

Xue Feng knew that manager.

That was Mo Xuzhi’s previous manager. He forgot the name, but he still had some impression of his skills as a pimp.

Only then did he learn that Shen Le had already signed with an entertainment company after returning to the country—the same company as Mo Xuzhi.

Participating in the same variety show as Mo Xuzhi was never an accident; it was planned by the company early on.

Shen Le’s face was made up; he followed a pure and innocent route. His face was powdered, and he probably wore light pink lipstick. He wore a pink and white hoodie, and his smile looked sweet. He was impeccable from head to toe, a qualified celebrity appearance.

Xue Feng stared at him for a long time.

This was the person he liked.

This was the person he originally liked.

In that instant, he suddenly felt a bit of incomprehension.

He didn’t understand why he would fall in love with Shen Le. Or rather, he didn’t understand why he thought he loved Shen Le.