Municipal Hospital, inpatient building.
Room 108.
On the hospital bed, the man who had grown pale and frail from prolonged bed rest fluttered his lashes.
Then he slowly opened his eyes.
His vision sharpened from a blur.
Ning Ke stared blankly at the hospital's stark white ceiling, his mind still struggling to catch up.
What... had happened to him?
Why did his body feel so heavy, so weighed down?
He had no strength.
Was this sleep paralysis?
His eyes shifted, taking in his surroundings.
Was this... a hospital?
Why was he in a hospital?
He'd gone to sleep and ended up in a hospital. How did that make any sense?
Thud-
A noise came from the doorway.
Ning Ke turned to look and saw the bottle of water in his younger sister Ning Xiao's hand crash to the floor as she stared at him in a daze.
Her beautiful, wide eyes blinked twice, and then tears began rolling down her cheeks.
"Ning Ke!"
Ning Xiao rushed to his bedside, tears spilling freely.
She gave Ning Ke quite a fright.
"Xiaoxiao, why are you crying...?"
His voice was terribly hoarse from his long sleep. He mustered all his strength to lift a hand and wipe away Ning Xiao's tears.
"Don't cry, sweetheart. I'm fine. I'm all right..."
His mind still hadn't caught up, but his body remembered to comfort his sister.
Hearing Xiaoxiao cry made his chest ache.
Yet looking at Ning Xiao's face gave him a strange feeling.
It was as though... another little girl had once cried like this in front of him.
Who was she?
He couldn't remember.
After Ning Ke woke up, his recovery accelerated.
Ning Xiao told him what had happened over the past month or so.
A gas pipe had exploded in a neighbor's