The next morning, Li Zhengshen finally replied.

Li Zhengshen: “I was busy last night. When should we reschedule?”

Li Yunhui was lying in bed with huge dark circles under his eyes when he received the message.

He stared at Li Zhengshen’s reply for a long time, then, without warning and with a blank expression, sent Li Zhengshen a video invitation.

The ringtone sounded for three seconds before the other side picked up.

In the video, the familiar man walked hurriedly into the video-dedicated room. He closed the door and strode towards the sofa, simultaneously lowering his eyes to look at the phone.

Li Zhengshen was a little surprised. “Where’s Shuyun?”

Li Yunhui didn’t answer immediately.

His gaze was sharp, carefully and thoroughly examining the man on the phone screen from top to bottom. He said, “Turn around and let me see.”

Li Zhengshen frowned, looking like he wanted to say something.

But he hesitated for three seconds and didn’t say it. He turned around with a blank expression, then quickly turned back and asked concisely, “What for?”

Li Yunhui didn’t see any serious new wounds on Li Zhengshen.

The anxiety that had kept him on edge all night finally calmed down a little.

Only then did he answer, “Shuyun isn’t awake yet.”

Li Yunhui paused, his expression slightly tense.

He asked, “Shuyun’s condition isn’t good right now. When are you coming back to see him?”

Li Zhengshen was silent for a while, lit a cigarette, and held it between his index and middle fingers.

He said slowly and calmly, “I can’t go back now.”

Li Yunhui frowned, raising his voice. “But Shuyun is already in the late stage of cancer! If you don’t come back, aren’t you afraid…”

His voice struggled in his throat for a moment, then gradually faded into silence. He didn’t finish the sentence. Perhaps even he himself was unwilling to think about such a possibility.

Li Yunhui wearily lowered his eyes and said, “…He’s your son, Li Zhengshen. He’s sick now, and he’s in pain every day. He needs you by his side, and you need to spend more time with him.”

Li Zhengshen was silent.

He slowly tapped the cigarette on the ashtray twice, shaking off a complete section of ash. He didn’t answer the question directly, but said, “The headquarters always needs someone with sufficient authority to hold the fort. Besides me, no one can.”

These days, because of his brother’s situation, Li Yunhui couldn’t sleep well, couldn’t eat well, and was in a bad mood, which bred even more irritable and sullen emotions. Not to mention that last night he had stared at the ceiling all night.

So much so that when he heard Li Zhengshen say this, Li Yunhui was instantly ignited!

Li Yunhui asked sarcastically, “Guarding the headquarters? And for that, you can let your little son suffer from illness alone in the country? You can let him lack family care for a long time?”

“…You have to be in the line of fire every day for that money?!”

Li Zhengshen didn’t get angry. He shook his head and said, “I am responsible for the lives of everyone in the company. Unless I find a successor, I cannot go back.”

Li Yunhui laughed in anger. “You haven’t even prepared a successor? Then on what grounds did you keep not letting me… not letting me go over to find you…”

But as he spoke, Li Yunhui’s voice became weaker and weaker.

In the end, he simply fell silent.

On what grounds?

…Before, this question might have indeed been a lingering doubt in his heart.

But now, as long as he put his brother in his position and thought about it, all the questions disappeared.

Li Zhengshen said lightly, “I had one before.”

He paused. “But he died two years ago.”

Li Yunhui: “…”

Li Yunhui completely stopped talking.

The man in the video finished the whole cigarette but didn’t take a single puff from beginning to end.

Li Yunhui thought for a long time and finally asked again, “Then when will you be able to find a new successor?”

Li Zhengshen twisted the cigarette butt in the ashtray and said, “If things go smoothly, three to five years.”

Li Yunhui asked with a blank expression, “And then you can come back?”

Li Zhengshen glanced at him and couldn’t help but say what was on his mind, “You have a lot of questions today. What stimulated you?”

Li Yunhui was slightly annoyed. “You’re the one who’s stimulated!”

He didn’t want to talk to Li Zhengshen anymore. He simply turned over and got out of bed, turned off the speaker, and turned the phone’s volume to the lowest. He said with a blank expression, “I’ll take you to see Shuyun. Don’t thank me. He’s not awake yet. Don’t make a sound later, and don’t disturb his sleep.”

Li Yunhui felt that his adaptability was probably quite strong.

Just like he had gotten used to Li Zhengshen’s infuriating mouth, his temper when facing Li Zhengshen had clearly been getting better and better.

And when facing a certain Cheng family young master who came to visit his brother every few days, his temper was also slowly easing.

Li Yunhui once again brought Cheng Huanzhen into the ward.

The ward was very quiet, with only the occasional soft sound from the medical equipment on the side.

The two tiptoed to the bedside.

The thin and pale young man was sleeping—as the treatment progressed, his energy had become more and more depleted, and it was often difficult for him to even maintain a state of consciousness.

Li Yunhui said to Cheng Huanzhen in a low whisper, “Shuyun just had surgery the day before yesterday. His condition has been very poor since then. He might not wake up for a while.”

Cheng Huanzhen replied in the same soft volume, “It’s okay. I’m just here to see how he is.”

Cheng Huanzhen quietly replaced the bouquet of flowers he had brought into the vase on the bedside table. It was a bouquet of fiery red and gorgeous hibiscus flowers.

Every time he came to visit, he would politely bring a bouquet of flowers.

Red, yellow, green, all sorts of colors.

After placing the flowers, Cheng Huanzhen sat by the bed and quietly observed and watched the young man on the hospital bed.

He was like this every time.

He did nothing, and didn’t care whether Shuyun was awake or not during the visit.

It was as if he was simply here to see, to observe, and then to change the bouquet of flowers on the bedside table—the latter even seemed to be more important.

If it were at the beginning, Li Yunhui would still compete with Cheng Huanzhen, openly and secretly, for the spot at the head of the bed.

But as his brother’s condition gradually worsened, he finally lost the energy to fuss over such small things.

Similarly, he was not in the mood to investigate why Cheng Huanzhen always came here to visit his brother.

He slowly and in a low voice told Cheng Huanzhen about his brother’s condition these past few days.

He talked about what medicine he took, what treatment he received, what kind of surgery he underwent, and what kind of changes had occurred in his body.

Cheng Huanzhen would always listen to him seriously, but would not give him any emotional feedback.

This still made Li Yunhui not like him very much.

Time thus slowly walked into February.

The weather outside was still cold, and occasionally a heavy snow would fall.

Li Yunhui liked snow very much. He always loved to go out for a walk on snowy days, to take a stroll in the snow.

But this winter, he no longer had the time or energy to do such a leisurely thing.

He was once again sitting outside the operating room.

He could no longer remember how many days he had been accompanying his brother for treatment.

His brother’s condition was getting worse and worse.

By now, it was difficult for Li Yunhui to fool himself into saying that his brother would definitely survive the cancer.

Whether it was the increasingly grim expressions of the team of doctors during their meetings, or the way the attending physician would always hesitate and then let out a light sigh every time he saw him, or his brother’s almost depleted physical state…

Everything seemed to be pointing to a desperate and unbearable ending.

Li Yunhui stared blankly at the heavy snow drifting outside the hospital, the vast white color covering his eyes.

His mind was chaotically thinking about various things. One moment it was the scene of his brother first coming home, the next it was the image of his brother, when he was healthy, tugging on the corner of his clothes and acting coquettishly in a gentle and warm way.

Just then, the red light on the operating room door suddenly flickered.

From the other end of the corridor, the sound of messy and hurried footsteps could be heard.

Li Yunhui suddenly looked up.

He saw two doctors and several nurses. The nurses were pushing a machine, rushing towards his brother’s operating room.

…What was going on?

What happened?

A common-sense thought entered his mind.

Li Yunhui suddenly felt his hands and feet go numb.

The blood in his whole body was so cold it almost froze into ice.

Shuyun, he, Shuyun, he…

Could it be…

Li Yunhui didn’t know when he had stood up.

He wanted to grab a nurse and ask him what had happened to his brother.

But, what if the little time he delayed the nurse would become the cause of Shuyun’s death?

Li Yunhui’s hand froze stiffly in mid-air.

The red light outside the operating room flashed, and flashed again.

Like a sharp knife, it stabbed into his heart, again and again.

He didn’t know how long had passed.

He also didn’t know how long this emergency rescue had lasted.

Li Yunhui only knew that when the chief surgeon came to him with a tired face, his feet were already numb and had lost all feeling.

Li Yunhui spoke hoarsely, “Shuyun, he… is he okay?”

The doctor said tiredly, “We saved him.”

There was no joy on the doctor’s face. He sighed and said, “But… Young Master Li’s current condition is very bad. It’s hard to say if he can last for a few more days.”

A few… days…?

Li Yunhui could hardly believe the words he heard.

He staggered back two steps, his back hitting the wall heavily.

He suddenly felt a strong wave of dizziness, and his hands and legs instantly seemed to lose all strength.

The doctor’s mouth was opening and closing, still saying something to him.

But Li Yunhui couldn’t hear a single word. He even felt that everything before him was so unreal.

Shuyun, Shuyun, his Shuyun…

Only… a few days… to live?

The butler couldn’t bear to watch and pulled him up from the wall.

He shouted in a low voice, “Eldest Young Master! What are you doing? Stand up! Young Master is going back to the ward. Don’t you want to go see him?”

The words “Young Master” barely pulled Li Yunhui out of the vortex of despair.

Li Yunhui: “That’s right… go see Shuyun… see Shuyun!”

His legs finally regained some strength, and he stumbled and trotted towards the ward.

He almost fell into the ward.

Shuyun’s hair hadn’t been managed during this period and had now grown past his shoulders. The newly grown hair at the top of his head was ink-black, making Shuyun’s face look exceptionally pale.

The ward was still the same ward.

The familiar layout, the familiar smell of disinfectant, but the strange tubes and oxygen mask on his brother were so unfamiliar that Li Yunhui’s heart ached.

His brother was awake now.

His eyes were tiredly open a crack, his eyes unfocused, gazing blankly into the void somewhere.

Li Yunhui tiptoed forward, squatted by the bedside, and held his brother’s cheek with heartache, calling out in a low voice, “…Shuyun.”

His brother’s gaze slowly returned, his focus slowly falling on him.

A smile appeared on his brother’s face, and he called him softly, “Brother… you’re here.”

His brother’s voice was very, very light.

Like the purest snowflake outside the window being held in his hand, about to melt, and also like a clean and pure dandelion facing the breeze, about to scatter everywhere.

Li Yunhui looked at his brother’s weak appearance, his eyes uncontrollably blurring, and warm liquid slowly slid down from the corners of his eyes.

His brother blinked slowly twice. “Brother, why are you crying?”

His brother tried to raise his hand, but only his palm lifted slightly from the hospital bed. His arm had no strength to lift up at all.

Li Yunhui held his brother’s hand with both hands and held it in his palms.

His voice was extremely suppressed, as if he were forcefully holding back a monstrous emotion, his voice trembling slightly. “Shuyun… Shuyun… does it hurt now, are you in a lot of pain? You, you tell brother…”

His brother’s gaze was gentle and lingering. Under the misty oxygen mask, his brother’s faint smile was vaguely visible.

His brother said slowly, “Brother, it doesn’t hurt. Don’t cry.”

Li Yunhui, suppressed and choked with sobs, “I’m not crying. I, I just got chili powder in my eyes…”

The hand held in his palm weakly and gently extended its fingers, gently stroking his palm.

His brother said, “Brother, how is our project doing recently? I really want to see what it looks like. Brother, haven’t you gone racing for a long time? How about Shuyun goes racing with you? Right now, let’s go together, okay?”

His brother was tired from speaking.

After saying one sentence, he had to stop and rest for a while to catch his breath.

Li Yunhui said in a hoarse voice, “Don’t mess around, Shuyun.”

His brother said, “I’m serious, brother.”

His brother smiled gently, a light and shallow smile, with no fear and no despair. He said, “Let me accompany you one more time, brother. Otherwise, I’m afraid I won’t be able to accompany you anymore in the future.”