"What is this?"

I want to change the subject. On the small table next to the bed, there was a glass ball like a crystal. If you look closely, there is a small home in the crystal ball, which is a Western-style wooden house. The flickering light in the window makes people feel a little bit of life.

"Ah, this one is called a crystal ball. I love it. ”

She put down the confetti, reached out to me, and said, "Give it to me." I handed her the crystal ball.

"Look, there's snow here."

I looked into the glass ball. The floor of the home is covered with a layer of crumbs used to mimic snowflakes, like a courtesy flower.

"That's right."

"The best is yet to come. Shake this, like this—"

Then she shook the crystal ball and showed it to me. As soon as he shook it, debris flew in the glass ball. I don't know what the principle is, the confetti flies into the sky and slowly falls.

"How? It's like snow. ”

Indeed, the same as snow.

"This is a gift from my father before...... Although I can't see my father anymore. So, I especially cherish this. ”

Are the parents divorced? Although I thought so, I still didn't ask.

"When I look at this, I start imagining. I live in a snowy country, and in the winter, the snow falls. The breath exhaled is pure white. I was burning a fire next to the stove and reading a book. It's fun to imagine such a scenario. ”

In the crystal ball, the snow is still falling.

After that, she continued. Maybe it's because I've always longed for someone to talk to her, and the way she speaks makes me think so. But I wasn't particularly bored. On the one hand, the topic is not that boring, and on the other hand, I don't hate the way she speaks.

It wasn't until dusk that we finished speaking. So I was going to go back.

She said to me on the way back.

"Now, Xiaotian. Will you come back to me after that? ”

I was a little confused when she said that to me. But seeing her somewhat lonely look, "No, I don't plan to come a second time" I couldn't say anything.

"I'll have time."

Instead, I gave her a vague answer.

"And then, I have one more request."

"What?"

"I want Dove's white chocolate."

She said a little shyly.

"Chocolate?"

"Actually, it stands to reason that I can only eat hospital meals. And my mother is a very strict person, even if she asks her, she won't buy it for me. ”

After that, she glanced at me with her eyes and begged me to say, "No."

"Well, okay, I see."

I didn't think much about it, answered her directly, and walked out of the room.

"Tang Ling, how is she?"

After school the next day, while eating ice cream in front of a convenience store on the way home, Wu Jie suddenly asked this question. Maybe you want to thank me, my ice cream was treated by Wu Jie. As I ate my ice cream, I thought about what happened yesterday.

"Indeed, a beauty."

Even though I didn't think it was the question he wanted to ask, I replied anyway.

"How's it going?"

"Who knows?"

I don't think that's a good thing to say, but I still say it.

"Wu Jie, do you know her?"

"I've met a few times before."

Wu Jie said very vaguely.

"Speaking of which, her parents are divorced."

I was a little concerned, so I asked Wu Jie.

"Ah, not very clear."

We can't just eat ice cream all the time, and then we go to the station and wait for the bus.

There was only one empty seat on the bus, and I sat on it. Wu Jie grabbed the handle and looked out the window very lazily.

"There's one more thing I'd like to ask you."

Outside the window, the green trees and the residential street retreated.

"Can you see her again?"

"Huh?"

"Help me ask when she'll get better."

What is this guy talking about? From the moment I was asked to go to the ward, it was already very inexplicable, and it was really confusing.

"Ask for yourself."

I said to him with some annoyance.

While we were talking, the bus arrived at the nearest stop at Liwujie's house.

"Also, don't mention me to Tang Ling."

Wu Jie finally left such a sentence, and got out of the car and left without hesitation.

"Hey, wait. What the hell, really. ”

Just as I was saying this to his back, there was a snap, the door closed with a sound like a carbonated drink deflates, and the tram started.

…… Still the same as before, I couldn't understand what he was thinking.

It was still some distance before I got out of the car and I started to feel a little lethargic. I leaned back in my chair, closed my eyes, and my consciousness sank.

By the time I came to my senses, the bus had already arrived at its final stop. In front of the station, there are signs of old-fashioned coffee shops and self-owned bookstores. Casually cut street trees add a bit of green to the streetscape. This idyllic scenery is very much in the style of the terminus of a small local town. The sight is familiar. Then I immediately remembered.

This is a stop at the hospital where Tang Ling is located.

The station in my house is seven stops away. I've completely oversat it. As if pushed by the announcement, "This bus will return to the starting station later", I went to the platform and found a kiosk in the station. There are all kinds of snacks on the storefront, and the Dove white chocolate that Tang Ling mentioned before is also there. By the time I came to my senses, I was already standing in front of the store and saying to the old lady in the store, "Please get me one of this." Putting the goods in my bag, I walked towards the exit.

Anyway, it's already here, and it feels like it's okay to get a chocolate.

I came to the ward, but there was no Tang Ling in it.

The quilt is like an empty shell that has fallen off.

"Miss Tang Ling is being examined."

I hurriedly looked to the other side of the voice, and the old woman who looked nice in the same ward said to me.

I don't know when she'll be back, but she's already here anyway, so I'm going to wait.

On the small table next to the bed was a crystal ball.

I took it in my hand and tried to shake it like she did yesterday.

In the crystal ball, snow drifted up. It was as if there was some secret in it, I thought to myself and stared at it for a moment. Of course, no matter how long you look at it, you don't see anything famous.

I tried to shake the crystal ball hard. There was a snowstorm inside. I continued to shake and shake.

In the next moment, I didn't hold it.

The crystal ball fell to the ground. Falling vertically, hitting the floor of the ward.

Smack!

A loud voice echoed.

Oops, it's dark in front of me.

"Hey, Xiaotian."

Tang Ling's voice came from behind, and I turned my head in surprise.

It's the worst time to be.

"Ah......h

Then she quickly noticed the shards of glass at my feet. It was the wreckage of a torn apart, crystal ball. I could clearly see that her expression was clouded.

"Xiaotian, are you alright? Didn't get hurt, right? ”

As she spoke, she hurried to my side.

"I'm fine...... I'm really sorry, I'm sorry. ”

I don't know what else I can say.

She reached for the shard of glass.

"It hurts!"

She let out a brief cry of grief. The shards of glass seem to have been cut into their hands. Soon, red liquid flowed down the wound.

"Don't panic, I'll go get a band-aid. I'll clean it up here, you go back to bed first. ”

I hurried her on, and she wordlessly climbed into bed and sat down against the wall.

I went to the desk, took the band-aid from the nurse, and handed it to her. After that, I just silently picked up the shards of glass.

When I was almost done, I threw the shards of glass into the trash bin outside the room.

When I got back to the room, she looked at the contents of the crystal ball with a blank face. All that remains of the crystal ball is the pedestal and the small wooden house. She was holding a crystal ball that would never snow again.

"There's no way. Tangible things are always going to break...... It's like there are no undead creatures in this world. ”

With that, she placed the crystal ball in her hand on the table at the head of the bed.

"Maybe it's better to break down."

This sentence sounds like burying your own heart.

"Why do you say that?"

I asked if I had smashed the crystal ball.

"Because I think that if there is nothing important, you can die without worrying."

She gave a subtle answer.

"Now, Xiaotian. How long do you think I'll have to live? ”

Even if she had asked me that, I wouldn't have known. To be honest, I've barely heard of luminosis patients living long. Even so, at least outwardly, she doesn't look like someone with an incurable disease.

"I don't know."

Gave up thinking and replied like this.

"My time has come."

Her voice has always been steady and calm.

"It's like a ghost. This time last year, the doctor said I would have another year to live, but the year passed without incident...... Actually, I should have died. However, I am still quite energetic, why is that? ”

Her tone was like she was talking about someone else's business.

Why would you say such a thing to me who I haven't met a few times? I think so.

"When am I going to die?"

She said, her voice still a little cheerful.

At that time, I suddenly felt a sense of unease in my heart.

I don't understand why it was so suddenly so shaken. I'm just thinking about what this feeling is. But no matter how I think about it, I can't understand it myself.

After returning home, I was still thinking about Tang Ling. I lay in front of the altar in the corner of the living room and kept thinking.

I couldn't figure out what she was thinking, I couldn't figure out her heart. No matter how much you think about it, you don't have a clue.

She's only, only a teenager.

Ordinary people, when they are about to die, will despair. Will be pessimistic. Will be hopelessly sad. Then, he will accept his own doomed fate and fall into a deep sense of powerlessness. The whole person will become in a trance. Even when my eighty-year-old grandfather died, I felt like that. However, listening to her tone, it was as if she was looking forward to death.

Why? I thought.

Later, driven by an unknown feeling, I lit the incense and tried to ring the metal bowl that I didn't know what it was.

In front of the Buddhist altar, the sister in the posthumous photo was wearing a school uniform and smiling brightly.

Long Xiaoyan. He was 15 years old.

She was my sister who died in a car accident when I was still in my first year of junior high school.

Speaking of which, I don't know when, like Sister Xiaoyan, I have been promoted to the first year of high school.

Sister Xiaoyan, what was she like when she died?

What are you thinking about in the end?

It occurred to me that these things came to me.

Now, Sister Xiaoyan.

I met a man named Tang Ling. Although she seems to be very delicate, she seems to be completely unafraid of death.

But, yes.

Sister Xiaoyan, what did you think at that time?