Sheng Sibai never thought his illness would recur. Just before Sheng Yan's wedding, he suddenly found that his legs seemed to lose the strength to stand again. He had no choice but to rely on a wheelchair once more.
Sheng Yan explained the situation to him, so even though he wasn't invited to the wedding, he said he understood.
Sheng Qingran didn't know what was on his mind. Since he wasn't invited, he really didn't plan to go.
But considering his physical condition, not knowing how much longer he had left and realizing this might be the last chance to see Jian Jiaojiao, Sheng Sibai decided to go against his younger brother's wishes and attend their wedding.
He wore a new suit and combed his hair carefully. He looked quite a match for Jian Jiaojiao in her bridesmaid dress.
Unable to walk, he could only rely on his wheelchair. He wheeled himself into the church alone and stopped at an entrance. He watched his younger brother and sister - in - law's sacred wedding ceremony. He also saw Jian Jiaojiao smiling genuinely beside them.
It had been a long time since he last saw Jian Jiaojiao, and he couldn't remember when he last saw her smile like this. He looked at her longingly, watching her smile through her tears, and his heart ached.
If only he could give her such a wedding.
Before, perhaps he had the courage and was ready to spend the rest of his life begging for her forgiveness, hoping that one day she would forgive him. They could be as happy as they used to be, bringing joy to each other.
But that was before he discovered that his body was having problems again. Now he could only sit in a wheelchair, not knowing what the future held. He didn't dare let Jian Jiaojiao see him like this. He was even afraid that she would think he was faking his misery.
After realizing that Jian Jiaojiao might have noticed him, Sheng Sibai endured the reluctance and decided to wheel himself away alone before she could react.
What he didn't know was that just as he disappeared at the end of the corridor, Jian Jiaojiao chased after him. He didn't know that she might still have expectations and was also looking forward to seeing him again.
He didn't know any of this. All his awareness stopped the moment the wheelchair rolled out of the church. When going downhill, he was absent - minded and forgot to apply the brakes. The wheelchair rushed forward uncontrollably. Soon, it lost balance and tipped over after running over a stone, and he fell to the ground.
His head hit a rock. He couldn't even see the blinding sunlight above his head clearly before his eyelids closed.
He had a long dream. In the dream, he returned to his high - school days.
In high school, he was the captain of the school basketball team and often played against teams from other schools. At that time, it seemed that there were always many girls coming to cheer for them.
Where there were many girls, it was easy to get distracted. Among the crowd, the most eye - catching ones were always the prettiest. He wasn't interested in things other than basketball, so he naturally didn't pay attention. But occasionally when he glanced at the spectator stands, he always saw a girl with a blank expression looking at the stands. She didn't seem to want to watch the game, yet she still held up a sign cheering for the school team.
It wasn't until many years later when he met Feng Qing again that he knew the girl who had been disturbing people's minds in the crowd back then was his sister - in - law Feng Qing.
And he hadn't noticed before that there was another girl beside her.
That girl wore glasses and had thick bangs. She held up a sign with his number on it and cheered for him hoarsely.
It was a pity that Feng Qing was too dazzling, and no one noticed the girl beside her.
He had seen her a few times, but because the impression Feng Qing left on him was more profound, he ignored her.
Suddenly, he remembered that once, when he was resting on the sidelines, a thin arm reached through the crowd and handed him a bottle of water while complaining.
He turned around and took a look. After taking the water, he couldn't find that person again.
Now, it seemed that he saw her. She was so close to him, and her features weren't ordinary. Under her glasses for myopia, she had a pair of beautiful eyes.
Those eyes, with a smile but a hint of shyness, overlapped with Kristen, who he thought had first appeared in front of him a few years later.
That ordinary 'fan', who would be forgotten at a glance and had once cheered for him hoarsely, was actually Jian Jiaojiao.
Their story didn't start as employer and employee but as a young man sweating on the basketball court and a young girl cheering for him.
Their fate had started so early that if it weren't for this dream, he might never have remembered it in his life.
Sheng Sibai still didn't wake up. The medical equipment beside the hospital bed showed that his vital signs were stable.
But the tear that fell from the corner of his eye seemed to be struggling stubbornly.
"How is Big Brother?"
After the wedding, Sheng Yan received a call from Sheng Qingran. Worried that Sheng Qingran was lying to him, he came alone without bringing Feng Qing.
When he appeared, Sheng Qingran looked behind him. Not seeing Feng Qing following, his expression didn't change much. He just blinked his eyes and soon looked elsewhere.
When Sheng Yan asked him, he just shook his head seriously. "Not good."
"What do you mean? Is it still because of the previous illness? But wasn't it cured before? Why did it recur?"
"No one thought it would recur before it did."
In his life, Sheng Qingran had no other glory except that his two sons were his pride.
Even when they went against him before and didn't treat him like a father, he was still proud to have two such children.
They had completely inherited his mantle and even did better than him.
But he didn't understand why Sheng Sibai had to be tortured by such an illness. Before, the doctor had told him that although Sheng Sibai's illness was cured, there was still a possibility of recurrence. That's why he asked Jian Jiaojiao to abort the baby.
Later, Sheng Sibai recovered well. He even suspected that the doctor had made a wrong judgment. So even though Sheng Sibai blamed him for privately depriving the baby of its life, he never told Sheng Sibai that the illness might recur.
Now, of course, he wouldn't say a single word about it.
"What are the doctors for? Don't they know about such a problem? Didn't the doctors in America keep his pathological samples? Sheng Qingran, can you at least think before you lie?"
Sheng Yan didn't even want to call him 'Dad' anymore. This father of theirs could be said to be quite heartless to both him and Big Brother.
Especially when Sheng Qingran fell silent, he was even more certain that Sheng Qingran had been hiding this from everyone.
"Do you know how happy Big Brother was that he could finally live like a healthy person? By hiding this from all of us, you're depriving Big Brother of his life! If anything happens to Big Brother, you're the one who killed him!"
"No one can be sure about such things. Whether I said it or not, would it change the result?" Sheng Qingran still refused to admit that he had done anything wrong.
"When did you know?" Sheng Yan took a deep breath, trying to convince himself that maybe Sheng Qingran had just found out and maybe he just didn't have time to say it.
After all, they were father and son. Sheng Qingran couldn't be so heartless as to ignore his own son's life.
"The doctor told me when he was still in America."
Sheng Yan frowned and looked at Sheng Qingran in disbelief. "So you still haven't told Big Brother until now?"
Sheng Qingran fell silent again, and Sheng Yan knew that was a tacit admission.
"After you found out about this, you made Jian Jiaojiao abort the baby, depriving Big Brother of the right to be a father. You've been hiding this from Big Brother until now, depriving him of his life and everything he could have cherished more!"
Jian Jiaojiao still couldn't forgive Big Brother even now.
If Big Brother... it would be unfair to Jian Jiaojiao.
He walked out and was grabbed by Sheng Qingran.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to call Jian Jiaojiao. We can't hide this from her."
He had only experienced pain a hundred times lighter than this and already found it hard to bear. But if they didn't tell Jian Jiaojiao, she might have to bear a hundred times more pain in the future.
"You're not allowed to go!"
Sheng Qingran tried to stop him.
He shook off Sheng Qingran's hand, his expression cold.
"You have no right to stop Jian Jiaojiao from knowing this. This is what you owe her!"