The Thirty Days After His Return

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Gentle and reserved x passionate and outgoing

In the final month before the college entrance exams, Ji Songwei's childhood sweetheart returned to school.

Covered in needle marks, thin and pale, he still smiled with spirited confidence and told her that his terminal illness had been cured.

She believed him, until she accidentally overheard her parents talking.

Her childhood sweetheart had less than a month to live. The day after she learned the news, she came down with a high fever that wouldn't break. He stayed by her bedside and promised to be with her for the rest of her life.

She didn't want him to worry, so she pretended to believe him.

By day, she laughed and joked around with him. At night, she caught him calculating how many days he had left to live;

She went to a temple to pray for him to live to a hundred, but all he wished for was her happiness and peace;

She watched him collapse in front of the entire school, and when she impulsively confessed her feelings, he calmly turned her down;

The day before the college entrance exams, she shared one last meal with him. He held her tightly, his tears soaking through her clothes.

His voice trembled as he choked out, "Weiwei, I don't want to die."

-

Xie Siyu had known for a long time that he wouldn't be able to take the college entrance exams alongside Ji Songwei.

But her future was so bright. It shouldn't be affected by his absence. So he insisted on leaving the hospital, and, as if he were a healthy person, stayed by her side so she could focus on her studies.

He wanted her to be happy, to feel at ease, and to stop worrying about him, yet selfishly, he also wanted her to remember him forever.

He arranged everything for after he was gone, but before they parted, he never got to see her one last time.

The keepsakes he left her were simple: a graduation certificate, a gravestone, a box of birthday gifts that would never be given,

and herself.

"People should be allowed to dream about love and forever." - Passing Through the World

Theme: Cherish the present