"Mom..."
The young man was still unsure whether to tell her now what his older brother had said with his dying breath or wait a few more days.
He pressed his lips together, torn.
"Is it something you can't tell Mom?"
The woman smiled.
"If you can't say it, then don't."
"It's not that I can't say it."
The young man explained, "It's just..."
"Hard to say?"
The woman's eyes crinkled slightly.
Her face still looked somewhat haggard.
"Is it... about Xiao Hao?"
The young man froze.
The woman smiled. "What else could make you hesitate like this, if not something about Xiao Hao?"
He pressed his lips together.
"Go on."
The woman sat beside her son and patted his hand.
"Your mom isn't that fragile."
The young man steeled himself.
"Mom, actually..."
The woman took the jade ball from her son's hand and examined it closely.
"You said... the last thing Xiao Hao told you was... 'jade ball'?"
"Yeah."
The young man nodded.
"Brother was in really bad shape then. The doctors told him not to speak, but he insisted."
"I listened for a long time."
"Only then did I make out that he was saying 'jade ball.'"
"Later..."
"I forgot."
He lowered his eyes in frustration. "I only remembered when I found this jade ball while helping put Brother's things away just now."
His brother had tried so hard to tell him those two words at the very end...
And yet he...
"It's not too late to remember now."
The woman comforted her son.
She and his dad had seen clearly how heartbroken he had been these past few days.
He had practically watched his brother die with his own eyes.
It was easy to imagine the toll that had taken