Chapter 112: Waiting

What does waiting taste like?

Tang Yunle remembered a book she had once read. She had forgotten the title, but a certain passage was still fresh in her mind.

“—”This person may never come back, or he may come back tomorrow.”

The afternoon sun was scorching. She stood in the main hall of the building, holding Yanhuo in her arms, her gaze fixed on the distance.

In the small church in the distance, wisps of white smoke were drifting. From time to time, female pets in nun’s habits would walk in silently, praying piously.

“Yanhuo, do you think Ah Liang will come back alive?” Tang Yunle gently pressed her fragrant forehead against the cat’s, closed her eyes, her voice trembling. “He’s having surgery today. Should I also change into a nun’s habit and go pray?”

“Although the success rate is seventy percent, I’m so scared… so scared of an accident.”

“Meow~” Yanhuo seemed to be spiritual. Its fluffy little paw rubbed against her cheek, as if it were comforting her.

Tang Yunle reached out and poked the cat’s head, trying to squeeze out a smile, but her tone was heavy. “That sexually repressed b*stard who would even lay a hand on his brother. If he doesn’t survive, who will I settle the score with in the autumn?”

“Forget it, I’ll go and change into a nun’s habit.”

“Who made me his good brother?”

Holding Yanhuo, she ordered Xiaolan to prepare a suitable nun’s habit. After changing, she walked into the church.

The spire pierced the clouds. Two rows of straight Roman columns supported the entire building. The columns were carved with intricate vine patterns, and the top supported a dome. The dome was painted with murals of Bible stories. The angels’ wings seemed to be on the verge of flapping and flying in the light and shadow.

The dome was very high. The stained-glass windows filtered the scorching afternoon sun into mottled patches of light, red like blood, gold like broken mercury, falling on the cold marble floor, floating with the light and shadow.

The altar in the front was covered with a dark-patterned brocade, and a dozen or so offerings were stacked in layers. The cross and the portraits of the Three Pure Ones were not standing, but next to the jade-like glass memorial tablet was an artemisia shrine, with bronze sacrificial vessels.

Three tall incense sticks were burning in the incense burner, the smoke rising straight up and coiling into a light mist at the dome.

“If there is a spirit, then believe. If there is no spirit, then seek peace of mind.”

In the church, the gods were gathered. God, the Three Pure Ones, Taiyi, and the Jade Emperor were all in the same hall. It was a case of “the more gods you worship, the more paths you have.”

Hundreds of nuns were kneeling on the futons, their plain white skirts spread out like a silent snow.

Most of them had their eyes lowered, their hands clasped and pressed against their foreheads, their lips moving but no sound coming out, only the rustling of fabric.

Tang Yunle found a futon in the most corner and knelt down. She clasped her hands and pressed them against her forehead, closing her eyes, just like the others.

In the past, she had not believed in gods, but only in the existence of supernatural forces and those who controlled them.

But now…

She was willing to believe in gods for once.

Her fingertips touched her slightly cool forehead. The stagnant scent in the church filled her nostrils—the deep and rich scent of sandalwood, the clear and moist scent of frankincense, mixed with the slight sweetness of melting incense oil.

Yanhuo moved in her arms, its fluffy ears twitching, as if it were also trying to distinguish the mixed but strangely harmonious scent of incense in the hall.

The sandalwood was mixed with a bit of the Taoist scent of mugwort, as well as the aged smell of wine remaining on the bronze sacrificial vessels.

Tang Yunle’s eyelashes trembled slightly. She could hear her own breathing, exceptionally clear in the silence, like a drop of water falling into an empty urn.

“If you are truly spiritual,” she said softly in her heart, her voice as fine as a spider’s thread, “I am willing to exchange my most valued money, all of your wealth, my lifelong wealth, the wealth I can have in my life.”

“Let that sexually repressed b*stard who would even lay a hand on his good brother get through this. Let me settle the score with him in the autumn.”

At the same time, in a high-spec hospital thousands of miles away, the lights in the operating room were dazzlingly bright.

Qin Liang was lying on the operating table. The anesthetic was slowly spreading through his nerves. His consciousness was like a piece of driftwood wrapped in a tide, swaying and sinking.

The white mist from his breathing mask instantly dispersed in the cold air.

In a daze, Qin Liang seemed to see a figure in the light. That figure was not his parents or his brother, nor was it Tang Yunle, whom he liked. It was a person he had once met in his life.

A boy holding a big white cat, with ice-blue pupils.

The former him…

Qin Liang felt his lips move, and his voice was as soft as a wisp of smoke.

“I will win, right?”

The boy holding the big white cat looked at him quietly, his ice-blue eyes meeting his. There was no warmth, but they were like a mirror, reflecting the flickering light in his currently dilated pupils that refused to be extinguished.

The white cat lazily wagged its tail.

After an unknown amount of time, as if the sun had set in the west, and the light from the stained-glass windows had moved to the hem of a certain nun’s skirt, she vaguely felt her knees go numb.

What is waiting?

Tang Yunle thought, it was a very torturous thought. Every moment, every second, she was thinking of him, and every hour, every moment, she was praying and hoping.

The sun outside the church should be setting even lower, and even the patches of light were tinged with a warm orange.

She gently moved her numb knees and didn’t feel it was that unbearable. Perhaps waiting should be like this, silent, but in her heart…

Until one day, she heard familiar footsteps walk in, and all her thoughts would be like spring shoots breaking through the soil, instantly filling her entire heart.

Or perhaps, her phone would suddenly ring, and she would find a letter from the other party in her email, telling her that he was safe. Then she would feel that the world had become brighter.

Or perhaps, a piece of bad news would come, making you realize that for the rest of your life, you would be all alone. You would no longer be able to be silent, no longer be able to be calm, and could only rush to the door in a panic.

Until late at night.

Tang Yunle had no appetite today. After a few simple sips of porridge, she washed up but did not go to bed early. Instead, she moved a chair to the balcony and lay there, looking at the moon and quietly waiting for news.

Her phone was set to ring, and the volume was at its maximum. In theory, if there were no accidents, the surgery should have been completed today.

But until now, the friend she had marked as a special concern had not sent a single message to tell her that he was safe.

On the one hand, she comforted herself that the surgery might still be in progress. On the other hand, Tang Yunle herself couldn’t help but let her thoughts run wild, and she was flustered.

Could it be that Qin Liang…

No, impossible!

He would be fine!

The success rate of the surgery was as high as seventy percent!!

On the one hand, she was stopping herself from thinking of the worst outcome. On the other hand, she was worried and even couldn’t sleep.

Until…

“Ding-dong!”

An email was received in her inbox. Tang Yunle quickly clicked on it.

The electronic envelope opened, just like someone had written a letter by hand.

—”If the program I set up is not wrong, when you receive this message, it should mean that I am already dead.”

—”I’m sorry, Ah Le. I didn’t make it.”