Wang Xiaoliang said nothing, his left hand resting on the steering wheel, his right hanging over the gearshift.
Luo Bisheng did not press him.
Only after they had driven past two intersections did Wang Xiaoliang speak.
"Is she doing okay?"
"Who?"
"Jiajia."
This was also the first time Wang Xiaoliang had called Tian Jiayi that.
Luo Bisheng rolled up the window, shutting out the noise outside.
"The day word got out that you were in a coma, I told Huanhuan, so of course Jiajia found out. She packed her things and was ready to fly over. Huanhuan told me that."
Wang Xiaoliang said nothing.
"I told her nobody could see you. Liu Xinyu had left instructions: no visitors."
"Then you just wouldn't wake up..."
Luo Bisheng lowered his voice.
"Jiajia... she cried so many times."
An image surfaced in Wang Xiaoliang's mind: Jiajia walking out with a middle-aged man, her eyes red from crying when she turned to look at him.
"She told Huanhuan she knew what that felt like."
"What felt like?"
"Being in a coma."
Luo Bisheng paused.
"She said that while she was unconscious, wanting to wake up but unable to, those words of yours kept running through her mind."
Wang Xiaoliang eased his foot off the accelerator, and the car slowed.
"What words? Something I said?"
Wang Xiaoliang had no idea what he had said. They had not even known each other when she was in a coma.
"It's okay. The ambulance will be here soon."
It's okay. The ambulance will be here soon.
While saving Tian Jiayi, those had been the only words he could think of to comfort her, and he had repeated them many times.
He had almost forgotten them himself.
He had never expected them to mean so much to her.
Luo