Butterfly and Whale - Chapter 18

With the end of the music, there was a moment of silence in the venue, and everyone’s eyes stayed on the slender and beautiful figure on the field.

Shao Yun stood up and threw out the doll in his hand first, followed by one, two, three, and various dolls gradually fell on the ice.

The applause became more enthusiastic as Hu Die bowed to thank them, Fang Jiayi booed and whistled wildly.

Jiang Man covered his face and turned his back amidst the applause. The suppressed crying fell into the ears of the people around him, which was heart-wrenching reluctance and sadness.

Hu Yuanheng walked over and held her in his arms to comfort her.

Jing Yu took a long breath, waited until he stabilized his emotions, then pushed open the entrance door, and slid in front of Hu Die unskillfully on his skates.

He raised his hand to wipe the sweat off her face, and asked softly, “Are you happy?”

“Happy.” Hu Die’s cheeks were red and her eyes were bright: “Brother Jingyu, thank you.”

Jing Yue smiled and didn’t speak, but reached out and took out something from his pocket, Hu Die looked along, his eyelashes trembling.

is a gold medal.

“This is the first championship medal in my life.” Jing Yu looked down at the medal in his hand, rubbing it lightly with his fingertips, “I went back to City B last month, and Shao Yun listened to some When I left, I took this medal with me.”

“After the injury, I once felt that swimming was an extremely wrong thing for me. It took up almost all the time in my life. I even missed the last time before my mother died because of swimming. My father also because of He passed away on the way to training. The glory and championship it brought me in the past seemed like irony at that moment.” He raised his eyes and met Hu Die’s eyes: “Until I met you, it was you who made me face up to Not only my timidity and cowardice, but also let me know that I have always been the pride of my parents. Swimming brings me not only pain and parting, but all the glory in my life comes from it.”

“I’m giving you this medal today.” Jing Yue raised his hand and put the medal on Hu Die’s neck, “I also hope that I can be your pride.”

Hu Die couldn’t help her nose sore, and tears fell down the moment she blinked, her voice choked up: “It’s always been.”

Jing Yue’s eyes were hot, and he raised his hand to hug her, and there was another round of warm applause from the audience.

Hu Die leaned in his arms, tears kept flowing, and said in a voice that only the two of them could hear: “Brother Jingyu, no matter how far I go in the future, I can see all the glory in the rest of your life.”

The sky is high and the sea is wide, and the green mountains and roads are far away.

We never end.

After coming out of the ice rink, Jiang Man and Hu Yuanheng invited everyone present to have dinner at the open-air restaurant by the sea.

A large group of people ate lively and did not leave until night fell.

In the colorful night, Jing Yue walked along the street with Hu Die on his back, passing by a fruit stall along the way, Hu Die jumped off his back and bought half a watermelon.

While walking, she dug watermelon with a small spoon, and gave Jing Yu a mouthful from time to time: “Is it sweet?”

Jing Yue looked indifferent, nodded and said, “Sweet.”

“wrong.”

“what?”

“You should say that watermelon is not sweet, because it is sweet because you feed it.”

“…” Jing Yue frowned, as if he was choked by her earthy love words, and pointed out: “I ate a lot tonight.”

“So what?”

“So—” Jing Yu looked down at her, “Be careful with what you say, I don’t want to spit it out.”

“Jing Yue!” Hu Die was annoyed, and stuffed the watermelon into his arms, “I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”

Jing Yue laughed happily, and didn’t care that when she stuffed the watermelon over, the white T was splashed with watermelon juice, so he quickly followed her footsteps: “Are you angry?”

Hu Die ignored him.

“Okay, I know I was wrong.” Jing Yue touched her arm: “Don’t be angry.”

“Humph.”

“You give me another bite.”

“don’t want.”

“Hey, hello.”

“…” Hu Die couldn’t help rubbing her arms, “Speak well.”

“no.”

“…” Hu Die covered her ears and trot forward, while running, she was still chanting: “God, help me!”

Jing Yue couldn’t help laughing, and followed with a watermelon, “I’ll take Shao Yun and the others to the airport tomorrow morning, and come over to have dinner with you at noon, what do you want to eat?”

“It’s so hot, I don’t have anything to eat.” Hu Die asked him to pick up the watermelon and started eating it again. When feeding him, he still didn’t forget to say: “Don’t talk, just eat.”

Jing Yu pursed his lips, nodded, and waited until he swallowed before saying, “Then I’ll make some porridge for you?”

“Well… that’s fine too.” Hu Die said, “I still want to drink lotus seed lily mung bean soup.”

“it is good.”

At the entrance of the hospital, Hu Die didn’t let Jing Yu take him upstairs: “It’s so late, I just go in by myself, you go back quickly.”

Jing Yue didn’t insist either, and said, “Then I’ll watch you go in.”

“What are you doing?” Hu Die didn’t say much, walked two steps in and turned around to see him still standing there, smiled and waved to him, walked backwards and said, “Go back quickly.”

“Let’s go right away.” Jing Yu warned, “Walk carefully, don’t fall.”

“Got it!” Hu Die looked at him and smiled, “Brother Jing Yu, see you tomorrow!”

“See you tomorrow.”

Jing Yue stood where he was, watching her figure gradually being swallowed up by the night, for some reason, his right eye jumped suddenly.

He didn’t take it seriously, turned around and walked back, looking back as he walked.

Inside the courtyard wall, the red logo on the emergency building was particularly glaring in the night wind.

On the way back, Jing Yu stopped by the supermarket and bought some lotus seeds and mung beans. When he got home, he went to the kitchen to soak the porridge and mung bean soup ingredients in cold water.

Shao Yun came in from the outside when he heard the movement, and seeing his posture, he couldn’t help but joked: “What are you doing? You’re so polite, you still give us supper in the middle of the night.”

Jing Yu smiled lightly: “If you can’t fall asleep, go out and run for a couple of laps, what are you thinking about?”

“Oh, you are amazing if you have a partner.” Shao Yun leaned against the refrigerator, watched Jing Yu busy, and asked, “When are you going back to school?”

“Let’s wait a while.” Jing Yu washed the mung beans, found a clean big bowl, filled it with cold water again, and put the mung beans in.

Shao Yun asked again: “Then you and Little Butterfly are going to have a long-distance relationship?”

Jing Yu made a “hmm” sound, and raised his chin lightly: “Let me take things.”

Shao Yun took a step to the side, wanting to say something, but in the end he didn’t say anything, “Go to bed early, we’ll see you off tomorrow.”

“I said—” Jing Yu stopped him.

Shao Yun turned around: “What?”

“Can’t you go to the airport by yourself?”

“roll.”

Jing Yu smiled lowly, turned his head and quickly processed the remaining things, put the porridge in the rice cooker and set the timer, and then went back to the room.

Shao Yun slept with him in the same room, and when Jing Yu came out of the shower, he lay on the bed in a large shape, taking up three-quarters of the seat.

It took Jing Yu a lot of effort to push him to the side, and just lying down on his side, he raised his leg again, almost kicking Jing Yue out of bed.

“Damn…” Jing Yu rubbed his sore calf, got up and went downstairs to the living room with a blanket.

The sofa in the living room can sleep people, but there are many mosquitoes at night. Jing Yue lit a coil of mosquito coils and put them on the coffee table, and sat on the sofa with his mobile phone.

Hu Die sent him a message half an hour ago.

Butterfly: Are you home yet?

Butterfly: Hey hey hey! What about people?

Jing Yue: Here we are, I was just packing up.

After waiting for a few minutes, there was no reply. Jing Yue guessed that she had fallen asleep, so he typed two words and sent it.

Jing Yue: Good night.

This time, he didn’t know whether it was because the living room was too hot or there were too many mosquitoes, Jing Yue didn’t sleep well, he dreamed of a butterfly.

It was the time I camped by the sea.

In the dream, Hu Die was bleeding profusely, no matter how much he yelled, he didn’t respond. He watched her being pushed into the emergency room, with her arms hanging on the edge of the bed, blood dripping down her fingertips onto the floor tiles.

He took a step forward and tried to hold her hand, but he couldn’t hold her.

“Butterfly…”

“Butterfly!”

Jing Yue woke up suddenly, sweating profusely, and panicked like never before.

He rolled his Adam’s apple, picked up his phone and looked at it. It was already past four o’clock in the morning, and it was close to five o’clock. After a while, it would be almost dawn.

Jing Yue clicked on WeChat, and the conversation with Hu Die was still on last night. His hand rested on the screen, and his fingertips trembled slightly.

He typed a few words and sent them over.

Jing Yue: I just had a nightmare.

But soon, he withdrew the message and sent something else.

Jing Yue: I dreamed about you just now.

At this point, Hu Die’s reply was naturally not received, Jing Yu put down his phone, rubbed his face, lifted the blanket and got up to go to the toilet.

He came out after washing his face, walked to the sofa and sat down, picked up his phone habitually, and saw a missed call.

Caller.

Hu Yuanheng.

Jing Yue’s hands trembled, he turned on the phone and went back. During the long beep, the unspeakable sense of panic restrained him again.

No one heard.

While comforting himself that Hu Yuanheng might have accidentally dialed the wrong number, he called Jiang Man regardless of the time.

Same no answer.

Jing Yue found Hu Die’s number and dialed it. While waiting for the connection, he even thought about how to apologize to Hu Die for waking her up so late.

But the phone was never connected, and she didn’t even give him a chance to apologize.

Jing Yue ran out of the house.

On the street in the early morning, there were no cars. Under the rows of street lights, a figure ran quickly, and the silent moonlight fell on the long street behind him.

The hospital is not far from Hairong Street, but tonight Jing Yue felt that the road seemed endless. He was breathing rapidly in the wind, as if he had returned to that night again.

He carried the weak butterfly on his back, praying for a miracle to come, and praying that God would not deprive him of the only goodness left in his life so early.

But in a long life, a miracle will only happen once.

At 3:57 in the morning, Hu Die suffered a sudden severe bleeding, accompanied by hemoptysis, and fell into a coma. After being sent to the emergency room, at 5:16 in the morning, the rescue failed and he passed away.

Only eighteen years old.

That talented girl who had been praised by countless reporters completely fell to the ground that night.

When Jing Yue rushed to the hospital, Hu Die had just been pushed out of the emergency room, and Jiang Man was lying on the bedside crying heartbreakingly.

The nurse wanted to push her away, but Jiang Man grabbed the railing of the moving bed and cried loudly, “Yueyue, Yueyue…”

Hu Yuanheng tightly supported his wife’s body that was almost collapsed on the ground, and tears fell drop by drop on the white cloth covering her daughter’s body.

Jing Yue stopped not far from them, for a moment he seemed to be unable to hear all the sounds, even his heartbeat seemed to have stopped.

There she lay, her arms dangling from under the white cloth, as her mother cried and tugged.

It was exactly the same as in the dream.

Jing Yue suddenly laughed, as if he had found something to rely on, and said in a low voice, “So I’m still dreaming, you scared me to death.”

He turned and walked back, as if he didn’t look or listen, none of this happened.

The nurse pushed the mobile bed and walked past him, unwilling to let her daughter leave like this. Jiang Man followed from behind. She lay on the mobile bed, crying out of breath.

While struggling, the white cloth covering Hu Die’s body slipped down, revealing her quiet and pale face.

Jiang Man shook his hands to touch, his voice was already hoarse: “Yueyue…”

The corridor was shrouded in heavy sadness, and Jing Yu stood aside with his hands clenched tightly, not even knowing when the tears would fall.

The two nurses looked away with red eyes. Hu Yuanheng supported his wife and comforted him with a choked voice: “Don’t cry, let’s let Yueyue go away with peace of mind…”

Jiang Man covered her face and leaned against her husband’s arms, almost fainting.

The nurse pushed Hu Die into the elevator leading to the mortuary downstairs, turned around and saw Jing Yue who followed in, one of them was about to remind: “Hey—”

The other nurse knew Hu Die well and knew her relationship with the boy in front of her. She didn’t let her say anything, but looked up at Jing Yue: “Come in, we’re sending her away, it’s better if you accompany her.”

Jing Yu wanted to say thank you, but his throat seemed to be full of stuff, and he couldn’t make a sound. He tried to swallow a few times, and finally said vaguely: “…Thank you.”

The elevator seems to be going down very slowly.

Jing Yue looked at Hu Die, who was only a short distance away from him, and suddenly felt like he was about to suffocate. He didn’t dare to look any more, and turned his eyes away to look at the beating floors beside him.

Just looking at it, the vision was blurred by the water vapor.

…

After the elevator arrived at the first floor, the nurse sent Hu Die to the venue and left. Before leaving, she asked Jing Yue not to stay too long. The hospital has its own rules and regulations.

Jing Yue nodded, but still didn’t make any sound.

He walked into the small room, there were no windows around, only a small vent for the exhaust fan, and the incandescent lamp was brightly lit.

“Butterfly.”

He called her name softly.

Jing Yue approached the bed, and the white cloth was covered back up again, but he didn’t have the courage to open it, but squatted by the bed, holding her cold hand.

“You lied to me.” He lowered his head, tears fell into the palm of her hand, and his voice seemed to be squeezed out from the depths of his throat: “I didn’t say that I would see you tomorrow.”

No response.

There were no more voices in the empty room, only the suppressed and broken cry remained.

It won’t be daylight.

We won’t see each other again.

Hu Die’s funeral was three days later, and the pain of losing her daughter made Jiang Man and Hu Yuanheng seem to be more than ten years old. Jiang Man even cried and passed out at the funeral.

After Shao Yun and the others learned the news of Hu Die’s death, they all stayed behind, busy with Jing Yue.

While waiting for the cremation, Jiang Man and Hu Yuanheng held on to their grief. From sending their daughter in to picking them up, they didn’t dare to shed tears.

On the way to the cemetery, Shao Yun brought a bottle of water to Jing Yue. He didn’t eat or drink all day, and didn’t even say a word, “If you don’t eat, why don’t you drink some water?”

Jing Yue just shook his head in silence.

“You are like this, how can Xiao Die feel at ease.” Shao Yun said in a low voice: “You are also considered half of her parents’ son. If you fall down, what will the two old people do?”

Jing Yue closed his eyes, his breathing became short of breath, and tears rolled down the corners of his eyes.

Shao Yun turned his head, his eyes were red.

After the entire funeral, Jiang Man fainted before he walked out of the cemetery due to lack of energy and was rushed to the hospital.

Fang Jiayi and Shao Yun looked at the figure still standing in front of Hu Die’s tomb, and he couldn’t help sighing: “If he is like this, can he go back to school?”

“He will.” Shao Yun lowered his head and bit an unlit cigarette, “Even if it’s not for himself, he will go back for Little Butterfly.”

“Hey.”

Jing Yue stood in front of Hu Die’s tomb for a long time, looking at the face on the tombstone with a lively smile forever, recalling the past when he met her in his mind, he felt full of regrets.

He squatted down slowly, took out a tattoo sticker from his pocket and pressed it in front of the grave: “I promised to buy it for you, but you left before I had time to give it to you.”

“I’m going back to City B. I may not be able to visit you for a long time. If you miss me, come and find me in your dreams.”

Jing Yue talked a lot intermittently, and it took a long time until night fell before he stood up, raised his hand to caress the photo on the monument, and said in a low voice: “I promised you, I will not break my promise, I am leaving.”

After the words fell, a gust of wind suddenly blew.

He closed his eyes, raised his hand to feel the wind blowing through his fingers, and asked softly, “Is that you?”

The wind is still there.

Just in a trance, Jing Yue seemed to hear that familiar voice, with a little smile, it sounded in his ears: “Brother Jing Yu, goodbye.”

He still closed his eyes, his Adam’s apple rolled slightly, he swallowed the surging emotions, endured the soreness in his nasal cavity, and replied very gently: “Goodbye.”

After coming out of the cemetery, Jing Yu didn’t follow Shao Yun and the others back, but went along the road to the place where he and Hu Die met for the first time.

Standing on the shore of the rocky reef with rough waves, he jumped straight into the turbulent sea water.

Shao Yun and Li Zhi who had been following him were taken aback by his actions, and ran over in a hurry, only to see him swimming in the sea like a whale under the moonlight, with a nimble figure, swimming forward quickly .

Jing Yue didn’t know how long and how far he swam.

He swam to exhaustion, backstroked the surface of the sea, the sound of the waves filling his ears.

Jing Yue remembered the first time he met Hu Die, his eyes were filled with hot flashes, and he was swept away by the sea.

Under the moonlight, he raised his wet hand, and in a daze, he seemed to see a butterfly resting on his fingertips.