Dream Guide

When Zhao Pengcheng arrived, he was dusty and his shoes were still stained with mud. This room was so clean that he had the urge to change into a surgical gown and put on sterile gloves.

There were no chairs in the room, and he actually felt a little embarrassed standing in it.

After ten years of growing up in prison, he originally thought that he had overcome most of the human emotional troubles and could remain calm no matter what the circumstances. Even if he was suddenly released and saw his comrades at the prison gate, he would hold his hand. He was also very calm when he started saying "We have won".

But he didn't know why, as soon as he entered this clean room and saw the "enemy" lying on the bed who had worried about his life and death for ten years, those emotions that had been washed away suddenly came up like spring water, one after another. Continuously. Perhaps when he desperately wanted to see Aoki and confirm whether this person was alive or dead, the seeds of emotion had already begun to sprout, and eventually grew wildly in the days at the turn of spring and summer.

Bi Shenghua didn't seem to mind at all. She just put the basin on the bedside table, poured some hot water into it, and tested the water temperature with her hand. The water was obviously very hot, so she immediately retracted her hand.

Zhao Pengcheng tried his best to cover up his dilemma and asked hurriedly: "Do you need cold water? I will help you get it."

Lifespan said calmly: "Cold water has bacteria."

Zhao Pengcheng slapped his forehead, feeling annoyed that as a doctor, he had forgotten even basic nursing knowledge. Caring for a vegetative person is a very troublesome thing, especially after a long time, as the body's functions decline, without a good medical environment, it is easy to be infected by external infections.

After the water temperature cooled down naturally, Bi Shenghua began to use a warm towel to scrub Aoki's body.

She wiped her face first, gently, starting from her forehead, to her cheeks, eyelids, nose and corners of her mouth, little by little, carefully and carefully, like an antiquarian wiping a precious piece of ancient jade that was thousands of years old.

Next, she wiped Aoki's hands, and then his feet. After each area is wiped, replace a basin of water and towel.

Zhao Pengcheng discovered that this man-in-law who looked not feminine at all was actually a very delicate woman. Her movements were gentle and slow, her expression focused and solemn. There are many wrinkles between her heroic eyebrows, the bags under her eyes are slightly swollen, and the skin on her hands is very dry with several cracks. These should be the traces of taking care of the man on the bed.

"How long has he been lying here?" Zhao Pengcheng asked.

"Almost ten years." Bishenghua buried her head in scrubbing the towel and continued her work.

"Why not care in a hospital or nursing center? The conditions there are better."

"I was in the hospital at the beginning, but..."

Lifespan paused and did not say any more.

Zhao Pengcheng seemed to hear endless sighs. No matter what the reason was, he could understand it. Which vegetative person would lie in the hospital for ten years?

However, under such simple nursing conditions, it is considered a miracle that he survived for ten years!

After Bishenghua wiped Aoki's hands and feet, she sat down and started massaging Aoki.

Zhao Pengcheng opened his mouth, thinking that he should take off Qingmu's clothes and clean them inside, but suddenly he felt so redundant. How could someone not clean it? It’s just that it’s inconvenient for an outsider like me to be present.

He saw that Yishenghua's massage technique was very professional, so he asked, "Have you ever learned massage?"

Bi Shenghua also seemed to relax. She put Aoki's arm on her leg, kneaded it gently and said, "The doctor at the hospital taught me this after he was in a coma."

"You've been keeping him like this for ten years?"

Zhao Pengcheng never understood where this kind of human emotion came from. From the perspective of racial evolution and continuation, Aoki was already a useless person. His existence had no meaning other than being a hindrance.

Things that have no meaning should be discarded.

He believes that this philosophy of survival is not only found in their race, but should be universal in all corners of the universe.

Even on earth, animal instinct will abandon aging and injured companions, whether lions, bison or hunting dogs, even if it was once the king who helped the group overcome difficulties and brought glory.

Only human beings, this strange race, have actually evolved sympathy, pity and love, as well as some more complex emotions that Zhao Pengcheng still cannot understand.

Just like the woman in front of me, she is in her thirties, but has lost the vitality of life. All her beauty, heroism, straightforwardness, and self-confidence have disappeared in the ten years of caring for a vegetative person. All that remains are the wrinkles and dark spots caused by slow aging.

"Yes, ten years." Bi Shenghua replied.

"Do you live like this every day?"

"Roughly the same."

Bishenghua answered very calmly, as if ten years were just ten hours.

Zhao Pengcheng couldn't ask any more questions. Because he didn't know the point of asking, let alone why he was asking. He just came to see Qingmu, and just wanted to know if the man who almost put him in danger was dead.

Now that he saw it, he didn't have the satisfaction of having his ten-year wish come true. Instead, he felt extremely empty.

Yes, empty.

This is also an emotion unique to humans.

Zhao Pengcheng felt that it was time for him to leave. He looked at Aoki on the bed and straightened his body to show his respect.

But before he could say goodbye, Bishenghua had already stood up, helped Aoki up, held his armpits, and turned around, seemingly wanting to carry Aoki on his back.

No matter how much a woman dresses like a man, she is still just a woman. Aoki is not small. He has been lying in bed for ten years and does not seem to have lost weight.

Bi Shenghua's movements seemed clumsy and laborious, and he managed to get Aoki onto his back. As soon as his hand was loosened, he slipped down again.

There is a saying that it is easier to carry a living person than to carry a dead person.

Zhao Pengcheng heard Yu Jianguo say that carrying the corpses in the morgue is the most tiring job. People are whole, but they are so weak that they can't exert any strength.

He quickly went up to help, and when he touched Aoki's body, the surgeon's hand sensitively felt the weak heartbeat. The thumping rhythm startled him, and he almost thought Aoki was about to wake up. When he realized that this was an illusion, Bi Shenghua had already carried Aoki on her back and walked out with difficult steps.

Zhao Pengcheng looked at Aoki's back lying on the woman, and heard the sound of tapping footsteps in a daze.

He remembered that in that dark, dimensionless corridor, there was a figure wearing a windbreaker walking alone, endlessly...