A smile in purgatory 火海一笑 (BxB)

A star too bright

Zishu, Kexing, Yang Yang and Tony decided to go to the adult store together, with Zishu driving his car.

Zishu opened the passenger side door for Kexing. After he sat down, Zishuu then closed the door for him. It made Kexing feel extra special. Yang Yang and Tony hopped in the back seats. While driving, Zishu had one hand on the steering wheel, and the other holding Kexing's hand. Kexin was smiling the whole time.

Tony couldn't help but catch glimpses at Kexing through the mirrors. He was happy that Kexing was smiling, but a part of him felt jealous too.

About 20 mins later, they arrived at a 5-point intersection with all stop signs. Since Zishu made his stop, and was the first to arrive at the intersection, he drove into the intersection, but one of the cars on the right side did not do a stop or slow down at all. The driver simply sped through the busy corner, hitting Zishu's passenger side door very violently, crushing Kexing's rib cage.

The impact caused Zishu's car to spin 500 degrees clockwise, jerking Tony's head onto the passenger's seat neckrest, knocking him out. Yang Yang's face hit the window so hard, the glass broke and cut into his cheek and neck artery. Blood splurged everywhere.

Zishu however was unharmed, mysteriously so.

He quickly called the police and within minutes, the Emergency Services arrived and took all 3 victims, along with the driver of the car that neglected to stop at the intersection. The driver actually broke his neck and was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

When the police got to the scene, the damages on the cars looked so horrible, they thought everybody involved in the accident had died or were severely injured. They were stunned to see that Zishu was unscathed.

~ ~

Later that day, at the hospital, Zishu sat by Kexing's bed, holding his hand. Although the doctor said the surgery was successful, and that Kexing would fully recover, he also told Zishu that Kexing should not be doing heavy work after his recovery. Raw Material handling would put too much strain on his rib cage. This meant, Kexing would need to change job.

Tony would require to wear a neck brace for the next 6 months, in order for his spinal injury to heal, in addition to the 2 herniated discs he would have to endure going forward. Yang Yang on the other hand, received 17 stitches, ten on his cheek, and seven on his neck. He also lost a lot of blood and had to get several transfusions.

~ ~

Since Zishu was uninjured, he went home. The hospital did not allow visitors to stay overnight.

Zishu went to Kexing's apartment to take care of Ziggy. He had searched Kexing's pockets and retrieved the keys so he let himself in.

Believe it or not, when Ziggy saw Zishu, he cried. Some dogs could just sense things in ways that researchers still can't figure out. There are dogs that could detect cancers, predict strokes, smell heart attacks. And Ziggy knew that something very bad had happened to Kexing. His nose running, his almond-shaped eyes filled up with tears, each drop rolling down his little cheeks, soaking into his lips, which he licked off along with his snots.

He just sat there whimpering in front of Zishu, who tried to comfort him without success. Zishu gave Ziggy his pill for his skin allergy, but the dog refused to take it. He attempted to feed the dog, but to no avail. He then offered the animal some treats, but Ziggy turned them down. Not knowing what else he could do, he decided to walk the dog around the neighborhood. Ziggy usually wags his tail whenever he goes out for a walk, but tonight, his tail was down, curled in between his back legs.

It was a very dark night, almost pitch black. Extremely quiet for a town that is usually full of people and traffic. There was no moon in the sky. While walking Ziggy, Zishu looked up and noticed only one star, despite it was extraordinarily bright, its shine still could not light up the whole sky.