Present. In the middle of the wild.
"I’m assuming you two did end up taking the so-called shortcut, after all?" Tentatively, Hu Lijing inquired, his voice low and slow at the sa ti.
Li Xinyuan tilted his head backwards, his eyes fluttering shut as he took a deep breath before exhaling deeply. "Yes, unfortunately as it is, I was not able to dissuade him strongly enough."
"I would say that you physically couldn’t do that either." Hu Lijing responded, his words were in the defence of Li Xinyuan from Li Xinyuan himself.
"Yes," the surgeon agreed tonelessly as he hugged his knees closer to his chest and sighed. "But if I was fine enough to argue with him over mundane things, I should have been fine enough to dissuade him thoroughly."
Hu Lijing opened his mouth as if to answer that, but then closed it slowly as he realised the truth behind them. Really, Li Xinyuan was not wrong about that one.
The surgeon bowed his head as he buried his face between his knees and grumbled to himself.
"Then we walked out of the cafe after getting our beverages," he paused, taking a deep breath to compose himself and gather his thoughts before continuing. It was a mory so hard and painful to recall, but he wanted to do this. Not to ntion that it would not be the first ti for him to do so. "Everything seed normal, deceptively normal. But... But ever since I had joined the institution everything was normal. For more normal than I was used to. It led to lowering my guards. Which—" he took a deep breath "—had been the biggest mistake of my life." In a low voice he admitted, eyes downcast as he pursed his lips into a tight line.
Silently, Hu Lijing shifted closer to himself a little more, hoping that his presence would be able to provide Li Xinyuan with so sort of comfort and relaxation, if at all.
The latter had held him in his arms, he had comforted him and consoled him when Hu Lijing had been hysterical in his grief whilst recounting his own shitty life. Now, it was his turn to be that sort of support for him.
Licking his lips, Hu Lijing opened his mouth, lips parting slightly as he whispered. "How did it all go down, after all?" He dared to ask but did not have the heart to turn to look at the surgeon’s expression.
He was deathly afraid of turning to look at Li Xinyuan only to see the boy’s — man’s? — face absolutely crumbled in grief.
"I had received a missive from my father through this magic like small rectangular shaped object that we called phone at that ti," Li Xinyuan murmured, his voice dropping low as he spoke, the very air around him seed to have turned frigid, the pressure surrounding him going extrely low. "But because I was in so much pain, I ignored the missive without properly checking it. Which was a big mistake on my part and led to the ruinous event."
Hu Lijing listened attentively, his attention rapt on Li Xinyuan’s words as he all but hung on them, anticipating his next statent with excitent and dread filling his heart in equal asure.
The sheer magnitude of regret, of remorse that filled the surgeon’s voice, dripping down his words as though bleeding through the crevices of their wounds was enough to let Hu Lijing know all he needed to know.
Li Xinyuan blad himself for everything that happened. He blad himself for whatever the events were that may have unfolded that day and led up to his best friend’s death. It took no genius to be able to figure that out, not to ntion that likelihood of it. Even if he didn’t — or no longer — fault himself about that matter completely, he still did bla himself for them. To a degree.
Hu Lijing was no judge of its severity, however. Given his own attitude towards the things he himself had gone through, what could he even say to denounce Li Xinyuan to begin with?
It wouldn’t even be good if he were to scold the latter for having such a mindset when he had a similar one for himself, if not many tis worse than whatever Li Xinyuan did.
"You still bla yourself for whatever that happened next." The nine-tailed fox pointed out, his words more a matter of fact statent rather than a simple question.
"Of course, I do." Li Xinyuan agreed for a second, a trembling smile blooming on the beautiful garden of his lips as he shook his head. "If only I had checked the missive, if only I had picked up the calls I had been given for days on end."
"But you did not." Hu Lijing completed his sentence for him.
"Yes... I did not." Li Xinyuan smiled helplessly as tears filled his beautiful eyes once. "It annoyed to no end, leading to ignoring all of those signs out of spite."
Against his better judgent, Hu Lijing let out a quiet snort. Of course. How could he forget? Li Xinyuan and not doing sothing out of sheer spite.
"If only I had seen the frantic waterfall of missives that had filled the phone, I would have been able to prevent the death that happened subsequently." Li Xinyuan lanted, his voice carrying a gentle yet hoarse tone of utter remorse. "I would not have left the cafe had I known."
Hu Lijing pursed his lips. When an individual had lived an extrely long life, there were bound to more than a few regrets. Li Xinyuan — the reborn man he was — had them too.
It was only natural, in fact.
Li Xinyuan once again buried his face in his knees as he took a deep, heavy inhale. "We walked down the alley, him pulling in tow and suddenly, a group of n poured in and cornered us. Now, I would have been able to escape by the skin of my teeth if I was in the optimal health or if I was alone." He paused, sniffling gently. "And they did not have guns."
While Hu Lijing knew what he was supposed to be focusing on, curiosity still got the better of him and before he could think, he blurted.
"Gun?" Was it a weapon of so sort?
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