You Are Still Here

Chapter 41

Yun Jin continued to stumble in the desert. There was sand all around her and it seemed to go on forever. The heat was so unbearable that she felt she would turn into ash at any moment. She was also parched and her head hurt. She didn't want to continue forth any longer and would much rather transform into a cactus. But something in the distance was calling out to her so she had to plod on ...

"Cheng Zheng ... Get me some water ..." Yun Jin uttered subconsciously as she slowly came. She was only half-awake. Then, she smiled bitterly as she touched her cracked lips which elicited a stabbing pain. She was mistaken; it was no longer back in the past when the two of them lived and breathed the same air. Why would that person be present to pour water for her? The name had come to her so naturally. Even worse, she was conjuring up his image lying next to her.

As she was trying to support herself and her heavy head up, a glass of cold water was thrust into her hands forcefully.

"You're such a princess. The moment you're awake, you're ordering people around." Such annoying jabs could only come from him.

Yun Jin stared at him for a few seconds as her memories played back slowly. Yes, it was in the hospital when she and her uncle had just sent her mother off. When the nurses pushed her mother's body away, she had crouched in that position till the day slowly brightened. Then he appeared and said "Yun Jin, let it out." She had actually laid in his embrace and sobbed till all her energy was spent. She had once again been thrown into the familiar abyss of grief of losing a loved one.

The person she was staring at unwaveringly started to feel uncomfortable "Has your brain been fried? Why are you ... you staring at me?"

Yun Jin was in no mood to tease him at his sudden stuttering. She looked around the room and enquired "Where am I?"

"My place." He answered so readily as though there was nothing strange about it.

"Which of your homes is this?" Yun Jin wrinkled her forehead slightly.

Cheng Zheng stared at the ceiling before answering "I'm not an orphan. I only have one set of parents and one home."

Yun Jin's response was to flip herself off the bed immediately despite how weak she was.

"My house isn't haunted. What are you frightened of?" Cheng Zheng said huffily as he reached out to support her.

Yun Jin sighed "I have to get to the hospital. My mom just passed away; there's a million and one things for me to see too ... Oh right ... Where's my uncle?"

"Oh so now you remember about your mom after sleeping so soundly for one whole day. If it were left to you, it would have been too late. You can relax, your uncle has seen to all the administrative details. As for your mom ... according to your uncle's wishes, he'd like to cremate the body in the provincial crematorium. He'll see to the rest after returning to the county." She didn't know if he was sparing a thought for her feelings over her mother's demise, but his tone became gentler towards the end.

Yun Jin lowered her gaze; so she had been asleep for that long. Now that she was awake, she felt acutely that her mother had truly left her forever.

"Where is uncle now?" she asked again.

"He went home first. You were nursing a high fever and even stayed in the hospital for half a day. Seeing that you were otherwise okay apart from being unconscious, I decided to bring you to my place to rest."

Yun Jin combed through her hair with her fingers "Oh I see. Thank you. I think I better head back first. It might not look too good if your parents were to return and see me."