Giegie Says
The setting sun was blood-red, and the evening clouds streamed across the sky.
Before the floor-to-ceiling windows, amid the deepening twilight, Tong Hua sat leaning against the sofa facing the elevator, her expression dark and solemn, as dignified as an oil painting.
Neither the fragrance of tea in the air, the game sounds from the television, the short videos playing aloud from the elderly phone, nor even the snack rack in the corner could shake her focus any longer.
After bathing, fasting, calming her mind, and concentrating, she had entered a state of unity between man and heaven—without sorrow or joy, utterly tranquil in her heart.
If she had to put it into words, she had only one feeling at that moment.
—Right now, I'm terrifyingly strong!
Amid all that noise, her heart remained as still as water. She delicately held a petal of bougainvillea plucked from downstairs, her gaze distant.
Waiting quietly for the wind to rise.
"What's wrong with her?" Lao Zhang slurped his tea and looked doubtfully at Little An.
The boy, whose wrist still bore scars, paused his game. He turned back to look at her, hesitated for a long time, then lowered his voice. "She's been like this since this morning. I looked up the symptoms on a search engine... I think it might be a terminal illness."
"Don't believe everything you read on search engines!" Lao Zhang said helplessly. "Could she have taken the wrong medicine again?"
"Impossible." An Ran shook his head firmly and corrected him, "Brother Ji Jue told me that the symptoms of taking the wrong medicine are having red eyes and being unable to stop calling out someone else's name. I've seen it with my own eyes—it's real!"
"..."
Lao Zhang fell silent, unable to refute him.
Tong