Your time hasn't come yet

He keeps remembering the events of the evening: Emma's rescue attempt, the killer taking possession of her body, Emma falling over into the void. But nothing could have prepared him for what awaited him when he returned to the present...
 
Everything he saw was red.

Red, like the apples on the coffee table.

Red, like Qiao Ling’s eyes.

Red, like the stains over her clothes and on the knife she’s holding.

Red… Like the blood flowing from Lu Guang’s side and slowly spilling onto the couch.

 
And now, all he could do was to wait there, in this drab, empty hallway. The only trace of color being the green light indicating that the surgeons were still busy in the operating room.

He doesn’t know how much time he stayed in the same position, praying an invisible God for his friend to survive. Qiao Ling had been taken away by the police without him being able to do anything… So, he had no one to lean on, no one to comfort him…

When the surgeon come out from the operation room, panic took hold of him. Looking at his expression, deep down, Cheng Xiaoshi knew… But his heart just didn’t want to believe it, not accept it.

“Cheng Xiaoshi ?”

His voice stuck in the back of his throat, he could only nod.

“I’m sorry to have to tell you… We did everything we could, but… Your friend didn’t survive his injuries…”
He expected it… but the doctor’s announcement hit him like a stab in the heart. Cheng Xiaoshi collapsed to the ground, panting.
 
No… It was impossible… Not him ! Lu Guang couldn’t give up on him !
 
His whole world was collapsing around him. The white-haired young man had been in the center of his daily life for so many years…
_____

The funeral took place a few days later. It was an unpretentious ceremony, completely in keeping with Lu Guang’s personality.

Cheng Xiaoshi stood there in the front of the closed coffin, staring into space. Nothing seemed to be able to pull him out of his torpor. Since the tragic events of that night, a part of him had died with his best friend…

Despite the fact that Qiao Ling was finally released, their relationship with Captain Xiao Li having helped to explain the reality of the situation, he couldn’t find the strength to fight and find the one who was the cause of all his problems.

To do what ? Lu Guang was no longer there to guide him and continuing the missions had simply become impossible ! Without counting on the absence of his partner every day.

More weeks passed and nothing changed. Cheng Xiaoshi spent all his time prostrate on the youngest's bed, giving free rein to his memories, enjoying the last emanations of Lu Guang's scent before it disappeared definitively... Qiao Ling took care of the shop instead. Despite the trauma she had experienced, she wanted to continue. In memory of his friend. As redemption. She had promised herself to watch over Cheng Xiaoshi instead of Lu Guang, although she knew she could never replace him.

Although returned to the photo studio, neither returned to the living room. Of course, the sofa and all traces of the drama had disappeared. They just weren't ready to go back there. Too many memories lay in this place, from the best...to the worst.

One morning, Cheng Xiaoshi fell on a photo hidden between the mattress and the frame of the bunk bed. He recognized it. It was a photo he had taken without his friend's knowledge a few weeks earlier. Everyone knew that Lu Guang was not comfortable with people taking pictures of him, despite the nature of his profession and therefore, pictures of him were rare and could be counted on the fingers of one hand.