Rebirth: He Decides to Lie Flat-Chapter 122 - 119 Suicide

Chapter 122: Chapter 119 Suicide

Chapter 122 -119 Suicide

Ever since seeing that girl at the café yesterday morning, Yu Heng had been restless for the past two days.

The girl’s face was etched into his mind, impossible to shake off.

School officially started tomorrow, and that evening, Yu Heng went to the library to prepare for his lessons, but he couldn’t concentrate on a single word of the teaching plan in front of him.

At half past eight, Yu Heng packed up his things and left.

Downstairs in the library, Lu Mingtao was holding up one of his senior friends from the art academy, gesticulating as he described, “…thin and tall, almost 1.7 meters, with a high ponytail, skin so pale it shined, eyes black and large, eyelashes long and curved, nose perky, lips full, but her entire demeanor was cool and aloof…”

“Are you talking about the new girl in our academy?”

“Definitely, she was over at your South Square the other day, sketching away. My goodness, she was so skilled, even better than you. Don’t believe me? Look, this is the drawing she did of me, doesn’t it look just like me?”

“Hmm, it’s indeed good. Huh? …Xiaosi? Is this the signature?”

Lu Mingtao cleared his throat awkwardly, “Well, that, I was going to ask for her name, but instead, she wrote these two words. Understandable, being so beautiful, she must get harassed every day. To think of this trick to reject others shows she’s smart.”

His friend laughed at him, “If she already rejected you, why are you still looking for her?”

“Love at first sight, don’t you know? I can’t just give up so easily. Help a brother out, find out which freshman class she’s in?”

“Didn’t you go to the freshman class meeting this afternoon?”

“How could I not go.”

Talking about this, Lu Mingtao was virtually at his wits’ end. With a total of eight freshman classes in the Fine Arts sketching major, he had started from class one and searched them all during the class meeting, only to come up empty-handed.

By now, he was starting to doubt, could she not be a sketching major?

The two were discussing this downstairs, not noticing that Yu Heng, who should have walked away after passing them, had strangely stopped at a shadowy spot not far from them.

Hearing Lu Mingtao’s description, the image of the girl’s delicate, cool face naturally came to mind for Yu Heng.

Xiaosi…

Was she the one who had drawn for Lu Mingtao and signed with those two characters?

The serendipitous name, the familiar sensation…

Yu Heng’s heartbeat suddenly started racing “thump, thump, thump”, and after two seconds of confusion, he turned decisively and approached Lu Mingtao.

“You said you went to the art academy today but didn’t find her?”

Lu Mingtao, still pestering his friend from the art academy for help, nearly jumped when an unexpected voice spoke up from behind him.

Turning to see it was Professor Yu, he became even more afraid, and rather puzzled.

He stammered, “Wha-, What? Professor Yu?”

Yu Heng patiently repeated his question, “The girl who gave you the drawing, signed Xiaosi, you didn’t find her at the art academy?”

“Ah?”

Lu Mingtao wanted to explain that he didn’t get the drawing as a gift but had bought it for two hundred.

But his head was quicker than his thoughts, grasping Professor Yu’s question and nodding, “Didn’t find her, so she might… not be a sketching major.”

Yu Heng nodded and walked away.

Only after Yu Heng’s figure had vanished did Lu Mingtao come back to his senses, feeling a deep sense of loss, “Could it be…”

Professor Yu couldn’t have also fallen for that girl, could he?

The art academy friend beside him looked at him disdainfully, “And to think you’re a math genius… with your brain… Alright, hurry back and study, you’ve got grad school exams in a few months, haven’t you?”

Meanwhile, Yu Heng returned to his apartment.

He took out his phone from the drawer and, unsurprisingly, there were more than a dozen missed calls and countless unread text messages.

He didn’t bother with these and went straight to find a name to dial.

The waiting beeps seemed to drag on until the call finally went through just as it was about to disconnect—

“Xiaoheng.”

“Mom, where are you now?”

The voice on the other end was slightly tired, “A small mountain village. There are a few girls here who were trafficked. I’ve reported it to the police, and they are dealing with it right now. I’ll leave with their police car later.”

Yu Heng calmed his excited heart and said softly, “Mom, Beijing University has invited you to be the dean of the School of Fine Arts. Please accept it.”

“Why bring this up all of a sudden? I still want to keep looking…”

“I met a girl yesterday. She’s very pretty, can paint, and she even signed her name ‘Xiaosi’ in the bottom right corner of her painting.”

“….”

“I don’t know if I’m overthinking, but she felt really familiar the moment I saw her, especially her eyes. Xiaosi’s eyes were so black and bright, and so are hers. Mom, I know we’ve mistaken many times before, been disappointed so often we’re almost hopeless. But haven’t you always kept on searching? If that’s the case, please come back and see this girl. Just in case…”

Just in case she really is Xiaosi!

It took a while before a hoarse response came from the other side, “I understand, I’ll return to Beijing tomorrow.”

After hanging up the phone, Yu Heng let out a long sigh of relief.

As he turned to put down his phone, a red ribbon peeked out from the open drawer.

December 1st was Xiaosi’s birthday; she would have turned forty-eight this year. He had bought the ribbon early in the morning to write on, intending to go back to Jade City on her birthday and tie it to the jujube tree.

In the past, although he had been abroad, he would rush back every year on this day, no matter what!

That year, she was three years old, he was fifteen, and he climbed the jujube tree to tie three red ribbons for her. Then he told her, “From now on, every year on your birthday, Big Brother will tie one for you.”

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But he hadn’t expected that not long after he said this, the three-year-old little sister disappeared….

His mother had hired many detectives over the years, but as decades passed, there had been no word.

Yet she had never given up, returning from abroad each year for two months to search across the country. But in the vast sea of people, it was never easy.

Suddenly, a gentle tune started playing, pulling Yu Heng out of his memories.

He picked up his phone and saw a familiar name on the display, and he pressed the answer button—

“Second Brother…”

“Big Brother, Yu Xin has attempted suicide; she’s now in the hospital.”

Yu Heng: “…”

He frowned and rubbed his temples, asking, “Did they revive her? Is it serious?”

“Can’t say it’s serious, but Dad found antidepressants in her room. How did she get depression? When did this happen? Do you know?”

“I don’t know. Have you informed Uncle and Aunt?”

“Pfft, those two. What’s the use of informing them? When they heard there was no danger to her life, they made excuses saying they’re busy now and can’t come, that they’ll find time to see her tomorrow. Can you believe that? To those who don’t know better, they might think Yu Xin was picked up off the streets, not their own daughter.”

After finishing, he asked Yu Heng, “Are you free right now? Come and see her; you know she’s always listened to you since we were kids. She’s been through two hours of resuscitation and still refuses to eat; her physical condition isn’t really good.”

Without hesitation, Yu Heng said, “If it’s nothing serious then I won’t come. Classes resume tomorrow; I have two graduate classes to teach in the morning and I’m still at the school discussing the curriculum with two other teachers. You’re a doctor, so please take the trouble to look after her more. I’m hanging up!”

Tomorrow is the new students’ military training, and he needs to find that girl who looks so much like Xiaosi.