Chapter 340: Childhood Friends Must Be Cultivated from a Young Age (23)

The doctor took off his mask, his expression heavy. “I’m sorry, we did our best.”

Shen Mubai felt a moment of disorientation, while beside her, An Ziyu suddenly tightened his grip on her hand.

It hurt, but Shen Mubai didn’t pull away. Instead, she squeezed his hand tightly, watching as his face turned ashen and expressionless, staring into the operating room, his whole hand trembling.

Shen Mubai’s heart ached deeply. She knew that any words would be meaningless at this moment, so she just gripped his hand more firmly.

Xiao Xueqing and Jiang Chen had already gone inside, and the low sound of sobbing echoed through the cold hospital.

The oppressive atmosphere made it hard for Shen Mubai to breathe, but she knew that the one suffering the most right now was the young male protagonist.

She gently said, “Ziyu.”

An Ziyu seemed to be jolted back to reality by her voice. He turned his head, expressionless, and looked at her.

“Luoluo.”

His eyes were bloodshot as he stared back at the operating room.

“This isn’t real, right…”

His voice began to choke.

“She called me this morning.”

It was as if he was teetering on the brink of collapse, afraid that if he stepped over the edge, his whole world would crumble.

Shen Mubai squeezed his hand harder. “Ziyu.”

An Ziyu looked at her like a lost child.

Shen Mubai took a deep breath.

“Let’s go see Aunt Zhou.”

An Ziyu didn’t speak, tears streaming silently down his face.

That day, the hospital felt like it was submerged by all the rain in the city, filled with a suffocating atmosphere.

The weight of it made it hard to breathe.

Xiao Xueqing and Jiang Chen handled the funeral arrangements, and given An Ziyu’s situation, they called the school to request a few days off for him.

An Ziyu’s mood was very low. He had always been quiet, but now he barely spoke at all.

Xiao Xueqing and Jiang Chen knew he wouldn’t recover quickly, but they worried he might do something drastic, so they tried to console him.

An Ziyu had been staying there for the past few days, and Shen Mubai sometimes stayed with him for hours.

As dusk approached one day, the long silence was broken by the sound of crying. An Ziyu’s suppressed emotions erupted, and he hugged Shen Mubai tightly, his tears soaking her shoulder.

Shen Mubai paused for a moment, then hugged him back firmly.

An Ziyu’s sobs were filled with indescribable sorrow, as if the whole world were crying with him, and even the sky seemed to turn gray.

Shen Mubai’s heart felt like it was being twisted. After a while, she asked the system, “Did you know something like this would happen?”

The system replied, “We are not prophets, and this is not a novel world. These events are real.”

An Ziyu cried for a long time, the two of them sitting by the door, leaning against the wall, in a darkened room.

After an unknown amount of time, Shen Mubai felt a pair of hands tightly gripping her.

“Luoluo, I only have you left.”

His voice was filled with grief as he repeated, “Only you.”

The fear that pulling him away would cause his entire world to collapse made Shen Mubai’s heart clench.

She gently patted his back and whispered, “Ziyu, I’m here. I’m not leaving.”

An Ziyu held her tightly.

After that day, An Ziyu seemed like a different person, becoming more composed and steady.

Word came that his grandparents, whom he had never met, wanted to take him in.