The Stranger’s Homeward Journey

In just a few seconds, Luo Shaoheng’s hand had clenched and unclenched, and even twitched as it bent.

–It’s okay, he doesn’t remember me anymore, it’s normal.

He tried to convince himself in his heart, tightly closed his eyes, said “I know,” and turned back to the room. Shen Yu noticed that there was something wrong with his complexion and quickly caught up to him and said, “Mr. Luo, please don’t misunderstand. This doesn’t mean that Boss is going to leave you behind. As there were some temporary emergencies, he had to go back to deal with them. But he told me to tell you something.”

Luo Shaoheng’s steps stopped abruptly and looked at him eagerly. “What did he say?”

“He asked for you to rest well, he will come to pick you up as soon as possible.” Shen Yu replied. He just didn’t expect Luo Shaoheng to react so strongly to the boss’ return to China and was somewhat shocked, that was why he didn’t tell him in time.

“What did you say?” Luo Shaoheng felt unconvinced. “Did he really say that?”

“Yes, so please take care of your health.” Shen Yu nodded his head.

After receiving the confirmation, joy spread from his heart. His astonishment was just as heartfelt as his disappointment. Luo Shaoheng felt that his heart almost exploded because of the words “he will come back to pick you up”. He pursed his lips to stop the cheer that was about to rush out and showed a heartfelt smile to Shen Yu. “Okay. Thank you.”

Just a moment ago, he looked like the sky was collapsing, but just because of one sentence, it looked like he had the chance to live again. Shen Yu could not understand why he had changed like that, but he was still influenced by his smile and smiled back at him. “You’re welcome. I’ll ask someone to prepare some food for you, go back to your room and wait for a while.”

“Okay, sorry for troubling you.” Luo Shaoheng went back to his room after he nodded and thanked him. Because of the sudden surprise, he felt that his feet that were initially heavy became lighter, and the fatigue of his body was half gone.

After Luo Shaoheng got back to the room, he sat down for only two minutes and stood up again, pacing back and forth in the room, as if this could calm the happiness in his heart that was like water ripples expanding circle by circle. 

He paced back and forth several times and only stopped when his heart had calmed down. The corners of his mouth could not be suppressed as they rose up slightly. He reached out to press his throbbing left chest, feeling his heartbeat ebb away to his fingertips, bringing about a tingling throb.

— No matter whether he has memories or not, he’s still Shen Mucheng. I should believe him. 

After eating the porridge, Shen Yu sent someone to fetch the doctor again. Although Luo Shaoheng was drowsy these two days, he knew that the other party was a doctor who had been treating him for the past two days, so he thanked him very seriously.

“You’re welcome, your body is the most important thing.” The doctor smiled amiably, carefully took his pulse, and said after asking some questions, “It’s better if you rest for a period of time. Your body has received a large amount of damage, if you’re careless, the condition may become more adverse and also leave after-effects.”

Chen Zhan had also told Luo Shaoheng these problems before. When he was facing Chen Zhan, he could still act dumb to fool him, but facing the old doctor in front of him, he can only remember them one by one. “I know.”

“In addition, I would like to ask if you were or are taking some drugs like tranquillisers, sleeping pills or something like that?” The doctor asked.

Luo Shaoheng didn’t expect him to ask this and obviously froze for a moment. Indeed, he had taken them before, and it was a history of taking them on a long-term basis. He just didn’t expect the doctor to be able to know about it. 

“As I said, your body has taken a lot of damage. It has to do with the medication you take and also the knot in your heart. I, as a doctor, think that I should warn you about this.” The doctor saw him speechless and said with a very serious expression. “You probably know about your body, your mental illness still needs its medicine to cure. There is no hurdle in life that you can’t overcome, don’t gamble with your life.” He was very angry at these younger people who didn’t know how to love and cherish themselves.

Looking at the doctor’s serious expression, Luo Shaoheng was grateful and answered, “I know, thank you.”

The doctor nodded and said nothing more, but only advised him about certain health precautions on his body that needed to be paid attention to and left. If Luo Shaoheng understood it himself, then there was no need for others to remind him, but if he didn’t pay attention or didn’t want to save himself, then it was useless to say more.

After the doctor left, Luo Shaoheng thought about what he just said and fell into deep thought. He had an emotional breakdown that year, and sank into a cycle of reality and hallucinations for days and nights. He could do nothing other than relying on drugs to suppress the hallucinations. Over time, he then became dependent on these drugs.

Every medicine has its side effects. Although the medicine had effectively improved his condition at that time, it had also left after-effects.

At this time, a cell phone placed beside rang, interrupting him recalling his memories. The caller was Chen Zhan, and he picked it up. “Hello.”

“You finally picked up the phone.” Chen Zhan who was on the other side of the phone sighed in relief. “Still in Switzerland? Why didn’t you answer the phone yesterday?”

“Hmm? I didn’t pay attention, what’s wrong?” Luo Shaoheng concealed the fact that he was sick, so as not to worry him.

“Nothing, it’s almost New Year’s Eve. I wanna ask when you’ll be back.” Chen Zhan said.

“I’ll go back in two days, don’t worry.” Luo Shaoheng said. He initially said that he would be going back today, but he met Shen Mucheng and got sick, so it was delayed. 

“Okay, be safe. I still have patients here, we’ll talk later, give me a call when you get back.” Chen Zhan said.

“En, okay.”

Luo Shaoheng hung up the phone and pressed the screen to find two missed calls from Chen Zhan. He slept drowsily yesterday and didn’t notice. The screen showed that it was already the 2nd of February, one week before the Chinese New Year. He had calculated and planned to go back in two days.

After taking the medicine, Luo Shaoheng went to the side room to find a book to read, and in the afternoon, he went to the small park next to the hotel for a walk. After lying down for two days, he felt he should relax his muscles and bones, and Shen Yu went with him.

“You really don’t need to accompany me, I’m much better now. I’ll go back after a casual walk, you should be quite busy, right?” Luo Shaoheng asked Shen Yu, feeling apologetic for taking up all of his time.

“Boss asked me to take care of you more, that’s why this should be the most important task for me right now.” It was rare for Shen Yu to make a joke. He looked at Luo Shaoheng, whose mood had obviously become much better because of his words. He suddenly felt that it wasn’t bad to coax people.

“Is Shen Mucheng very busy?” Luo Shaoheng asked, since they reunited a few days ago, the other party seemed to be busy all the time.

“Yes, but you don’t have to worry, Boss will not go back on his word.” Shen Yu advocated for his own Boss.

Luo Shaoheng knew that he was talking about Shen Mucheng coming back to pick himself up, so he couldn’t help but smile. “I’m not talking about that.” After saying that, he felt that his words were unconvincing, so he simply shut up.

Shen Yu smiled without saying a word and followed him as he slowly strolled.

At this moment, there were many people in the park out for a walk in the sun. Young mothers were playing games with their children in the field, old people were chattering under the trees, and many students were feeding pigeons near the lake. There was spring-like laughter everywhere, which was very refreshing.

Luo Shaoheng walked half a round of the park and he became a lot more energetic. Looking at the surrounding scenery, his footsteps paused slightly, and suddenly had an itch to draw.

Shen Yu thought he was tired, he said, “Why don’t we go back first? It’s also time for dinner.”

“Hmm? That’s fine too.” Luo Shaoheng didn’t want to waste Shen Yu’s time with him, so they went back to the hotel together.

After dinner, Luo Shaoheng went back to his room. Shen Yu saw that he was still in good spirits, so he put his mind at ease and returned to the branch office of the company.

Because of the medicine, Luo Shaoheng felt a little sleepy just after reading a book for a while, so he washed up and then went to rest on the bed.

He didn’t know how long had passed when he was awakened by the ringing of his cell phone. After seeing that it was an unfamiliar number called from B City, he accepted the phone call in his semi-conscious state. “Hello?”

The other side was quiet for two seconds, and then a voice he was very familiar with rang out, “Sleeping?”

Luo Shaoheng’s brain paused for a moment, then his whole person instantly energised. He grabbed the phone and jerked up from the bed. “Shen Mucheng?

“It’s me,” Shen Mucheng’s faint voice echoed out. “Did I wake you up?”

“No, I’ve been waiting for you.” Luo Shaoheng said without thinking.

Shen Mucheng fell into silence again for a while before asking, “Feeling better?”

“I’ve recovered!” Luo Shaoheng lied through his teeth. 

Shen Mucheng had just called Shen Yu to understand the situation and knew that he was better, so he said, “Rest well.”

Luo Shaoheng heard him say this as if he was about to hang up, so he quickly asked, “Are you already back at home?”

“En.” The sound of closing the car door came from the other side of the phone.

“Then you go back early and rest.” Although Luo Shaoheng did not want to hang up the phone, he knew that it was already late at night in China.

“If there is any problem, just tell Shen Yu. Take care of yourself.” Shen Mucheng said.

“Okay.” Luo Shaoheng answered in a lively tone.

“I’ll hang up now.” Shen Mucheng said and was about to hang up the phone, Luo Shaoheng suddenly said before he hung up, “Kiss you.”

“……” There was a pause on the other side of the phone. It was hung up afterwards.

Luo Shaoheng looked at the call history on the screen and smiled. He saved Shen Mucheng’s phone number and habitually typed a heart after his name. After saving the phone number, two identical names appeared in the contact list. Even the heart-shaped symbols behind them were the same.

The other number was Shen Mucheng’s previous caller ID. It had already been a decade since Shen Mucheng’s accident, but he had retained this number. He had also been paying the phone bill, so that it wouldn’t become an empty number. Although he knew that he wouldn’t use it again, he wanted to at least keep it as a memento.

Even now when Shen Mucheng was back and a new number was available, he still didn’t have the intention of deleting the old one. The old number and his number were bound as family numbers, as long as there were things related to the past, no matter what they were, he was unwilling to erase them.

“Welcome back.” Luo Shaoheng looked at the number and said in a low voice. The corners of his mouth rose slightly.

Luo Shaoheng stayed in Switzerland for two more days. When he almost recovered, he booked a ticket back home. He was not going to meet Shen Mucheng directly this time, instead, he was going back to City A. Since he decided to be with Shen Mucheng, he still had to make arrangements for the resort first.  

Shen Yu knew that he had to go back first, and after reporting to Shen Mucheng, he personally sent him to the airport.

“Sorry for troubling you these few days. Remember to come to the resort to enjoy when you have the chance.” Luo Shaoheng said to Shen Yu.

“Okay, have a safe trip.” Shen Yu nodded as he watched him go through the security check before leaving.

The plane slowly took off. Luo Shaoheng looked out of the window. His heart was calm. He reached out and covered the window, and whispered a word.