Alex was woken up by an alluring aroma. Rubbing his throbbing head from the hangover, he opened his eyes and saw Bai Xuanhe walking out of the kitchen with a plate in hand. Bai Xuanhe said to him:
"Go wash your face. It's time for breakfast."
Alex immediately jumped up from the floor in shock. Bai Xuanhe actually made breakfast on his own initiative? Had the sun risen in the west? Or was he planning to poison the food and kill him?
Bai Xuanhe tapped his hand on the table impatiently and said, "What are you standing there for? Hurry up and eat. Then come back to Yuncheng with me."
Yuncheng? Yuncheng!
Only then did Alex come to his senses. He quickly replied, "Oh, okay! I'll be right there!"
After a simple breakfast, the two of them drove to the airport. Bai Xuanhe had bought tickets for the nearest flight to Yuncheng. Not long after they arrived at the airport, the plane took off.
After a three - and - a - half - hour flight, the plane landed smoothly at Yuncheng Airport.
Bai Xuanhe and Alex walked out of the airport, took a car, and finally arrived at a lush, green mountain. At the foot of the mountain, Bai Xuanhe bought two shovels. He gave one to Alex, then carried incense, candles, paper money, and offerings up the mountain.
Soon, they reached the middle of the mountain. Under a tall and straight pine tree, Alex saw the tomb of his teacher's wife, Chen Mei. Not far from Chen Mei's tomb, there was a new tomb.
Bai Xuanhe first lit three incense sticks and bowed to Chen Mei's tombstone. Then he rolled up his sleeves, looked calm, and said to Alex, "Start digging."
It took them an hour to dig out a small urn from the ground.
Bai Xuanhe carefully picked up the urn. Ignoring the dirt on it, he gently wiped it clean with his sleeve.
"Mom, I'm sorry for disturbing your rest. I know you don't actually blame Dad for making that choice. You've always wanted our family to be reunited. Now I'll fulfill your wish."
He walked a few steps forward and came to the new tomb.
Without him saying a word, Alex picked up the shovel and started digging. Soon, three urns buried in the soil were revealed.
Bai Xuanhe bent down, took away two of the urns, then placed the real urn belonging to Chen Mei beside Tang Qian's urn. He and Alex refilled the soil together.
They placed the offerings and burned the paper money they had brought. In the firelight, Bai Xuanhe stared at the photo of their family of three on the tombstone, and his eyes gradually turned red.
When the paper money burned out and the fire went out, Bai Xuanhe stood up and said to Alex beside him:
"Xiaofei, if I die in the future, and if conditions permit, please bring my ashes back here and bury me with them."
Alex was silent for a long time before he replied, "Okay."
The two of them stayed in Yuncheng for a few more days. Alex accompanied Bai Xuanhe to revisit the places where they had lived when they were kids. They also went to the place where he and his mother had been kidnapped.
The river that had swallowed his childhood was now fenced off. There were warning signs and surveillance cameras all around, so no one would throw things into the river casually anymore.
So many years had passed, and everything had changed. Even this river was moving forward, but he alone was still stuck in the past, twenty - five years ago.
After standing by the river for a while, Bai Xuanhe turned around and left.
He didn't know how much longer he could be carefree in this world. He was a criminal, and one day he would go where he belonged and receive his due punishment. But before that, he still had a lot of things to do. He had to cherish every precious moment.
In the evening, the plane took off from Yuncheng Airport and flew towards Fengcheng.
...
The next day, when Bai Xuanhe and Alex walked into the research lab together, he received all kinds of strange looks.
Bai Xuanhe thought it was because Xu Zixi had told everyone his true identity. But the next second, he knew why everyone was looking at him like that.
"Professor He, are you out of the hospital so soon? Why don't you rest for a while longer?"
"Professor He, I've also had hemorrhoids. Nine out of ten people have this disease. It's not a big deal. Don't feel inferior because of it. By the way, I can share some nursing experience with you!"
"Professor He, you've just been discharged from the hospital. Your body is still weak. Don't be busy. Go lie down in the dormitory and rest. We'll take care of things here."
Bai Xuanhe: "..."
Hemorrhoids? When did he get hemorrhoids? Why didn't he know?
Alex beside him was struggling hard not to laugh.
"This should be Beauty Zixi's revenge," Alex said with a smile. "She's really something."
Bai Xuanhe was stunned for a moment, then he couldn't help but smile helplessly. She was so naughty. It was indeed something she would do.
It seemed that she was really angry with him.
"Where's General Manager Xu?" he asked one of the researchers.
"She's observing the data with Mr. Yan in the observation room."
During the days when Bai Xuanhe and Alex were away, Xu Zixi had been closely monitoring the condition of the white mice and recording various data about their bodies.
On the first day, the eyes of the sixteen white mice could already sense the presence of light.
On the second day, six of the white mice could already react to changes in light.
On the third day, the eyes of all the white mice could react to light and shadows.
On the fourth day, a grayish film appeared on the eyeballs of two white mice, and they could even avoid relatively large obstacles.
On the fifth day, the sixth day...
On the seventh day, when Bai Xuanhe and Alex returned to the research lab, the sixteen white mice in the cage that had been used as experimental subjects had completely recovered their eyesight. They were jumping up and down excitedly in the cage, making a lot of noise.
Xu Zixi held the pen in her hand. Looking at the experimental results, she let out joyous sobs.
This time, she cried even more fiercely than last time.
Yan Yincheng was beside her, accompanying her. Hearing her sobs, he pulled her into his arms and gently comforted her.
When Bai Xuanhe came to the observation room, this was the scene he saw.
The woman and the man were hugging tightly, like a perfect and inseparable circle. They looked so beautiful and harmonious.
Maybe it was because of that dream. Seeing the two of them hugging now, Bai Xuanhe no longer felt a strong sense of unwillingness in his heart.
In every dream, it seemed that he and she didn't have a good ending. Especially in the second dream, he had pushed her into the abyss with his own hands. Because of that experience, she had suffered from postpartum depression and committed suicide.
As the culprit, he had no right to be unwilling.
And it was all Yuan Ya'er's fault.
Bai Xuanhe's eyes suddenly darkened. Yuan Ya'er...
It seemed that it was time for him to find an opportunity to "have a good talk" with Yuan Ya'er. He wanted to know why Yuan Ya'er had taken away the opportunity that belonged to Xu Zixi, and why she had used him to kill Xu Zixi's two children, which almost made him make a choice that he would regret for the rest of his life!