"Zhuang Zi'ang, you jerk! We agreed to be best friends forever, and you're ditching me halfway," Lin Mushi sobbed uncontrolbly in the hospital's main hall.

  Zhuang Zi'ang felt a pang of guilt and sorrow, but he was also profoundly helpless. He hadn't known his "forever" would be so short.

  Crying wouldn't change anything. It would be better to spend their remaining time together happily.

  "Mushi, I'm starving. Let's grab some lunch. How about you treat me?" Zhuang Zi'ang said, forcing a smile.

  "Okay, whatever you want to eat."

  Lin Mushi agreed without hesitation and suggested a fancy Western restaurant. Zhuang Zi'ang declined, opting for the fast-food joint outside the hospital. Fifteen yuan per person, all you can eat.

  They carried their trays and found a quiet corner. Zhuang Zi'ang ate with gusto, but Lin Mushi had no appetite.

  Learning that her best friend had an incurable disease was a devastating blow. To make matters worse, because of Little Butterfly, she felt a twinge of jealousy, perhaps a sign that her feelings for Zhuang Zi'ang weren't entirely ptonic.

  No matter what, it was too te now.

  And I can't tell if what I'm feeling is friendship, or the love that I missed out on. (This is a lyric from a popur Chinese song, "Later" by Rene Liu)

  "Mushi, from now on, just treat me like a normal person," Zhuang Zi'ang said between bites. "Otherwise, I'll feel like you're pitying me. I want to live out my st days with dignity."

  "You have to keep this a secret for me. If our cssmates find out, they'll all treat me the way you are now."

  He had almost broken down when the whole css voted for him to resume his position as css president. If they found out about his illness, he didn't know how he would face them.

  Lin Mushi nodded, her eyes red and swollen. "What about that girl? Don't you like her?"

  "What's the use of liking her?" Zhuang Zi'ang said with a wry, helpless smile. "Who would date someone who only has less than three months to live?"

  Lin Mushi was at a loss for words, and fresh tears welled up in her eyes.

  Zhuang Zi'ang's talk of a moth flying into a fme was something she couldn't yet comprehend.

  Right, who would start a retionship with someone who's only going to live for three more months?

  As the school beauty, Lin Mushi had no shortage of admirers. But she had never truly understood what it meant to like someone.

  Especially when a time limit was added to life, it gave the love an added yer of tragic beauty.

  Seeing Lin Mushi's troubled expression, Zhuang Zi'ang patiently expined, "Mushi, I don't have much time left. Just let me be willful for once."

  "That girl's name is Little Butterfly. Meeting her made me realize what it truly feels like to like someone."

  "But it's such a shame. I won't even have the chance to date her."

  Zhuang Zi'ang had made up his mind. No matter how much he liked Little Butterfly, he wouldn't confess his feelings.

  With so little time left, this love was only fit to be buried deep in his heart. Otherwise, what would happen to Little Butterfly after he was gone?

  A love destined to have no conclusion should never begin.

  He would be content to just be friends for this short time they had left.

  Anyway, she wouldn't even remember that kiss.

  "Is that Little Butterfly really that amazing?" Lin Mushi asked, a hint of unwillingness in her voice.

  "She gave me happiness that was within reach," Zhuang Zi'ang said frankly.

  Being around a girl like Lin Mushi, one might feel a sense of distance due to her beauty and aloofness. But being with Little Butterfly allowed him to forget all his troubles.

  Lin Mushi saw the sincerity in Zhuang Zi'ang's eyes. She took a moment to compose herself, then asked her final question. "If, and I mean if, you and I were a couple, what would you do if you met Little Butterfly?"

  "Then I would have kept my distance from her. We wouldn't have had the chance to get to know each other," Zhuang Zi'ang replied without hesitation.

  If he had been in a retionship that day under the ginkgo tree, he wouldn't have gone to the snack street with her, and there wouldn't have been any story to tell after that.

  Lin Mushi asked this question to understand what kind of retionship she and Zhuang Zi'ang could have had.

  Could there have been even a sliver of romantic love between them?

  From Zhuang Zi'ang's answer, she understood that he was a truly good guy - honest, kind, and responsible.

  She was incredibly lucky to have him as a friend.

  Back home, Zhuang Zi'ang crumpled up the examination report and tossed it carelessly into his closet. He took the peach blossom Dr. Chen had given him, found an empty Coke bottle, filled it with a bit of water, and stuck the branch inside.

  This simple act added a touch of spring to his otherwise drab and lonely room.

  Then, he sat and stared bnkly at the two goldfish in the tank.

  Without Little Butterfly, his life felt empty, and his heart felt hollow.

  After a while, Zhuang Zi'ang's gaze fell on the bamboo flute beside the fish tank. It was the only thing he had taken with him when he fled his former home.

  To pass the time, he picked up the flute and began to py, letting the music flow from his heart.

  Music had a way of calming the soul.

  La, sol, sol, do, si, , sol, , si, si, si, si, , si, , sol...

  He could only remember this part of the prelude. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't recall the rest of the melody.

  It was as if pying it perfectly would somehow magically bring Little Butterfly back to him.

  Exhaustion crept in, and he y down for a nap.

  Half asleep, half awake, he heard his phone ding.

  Zhuang Zi'ang instinctively grabbed his phone. A single line of text on the screen jolted him fully awake.

  A new message, from "Little Butterfly."

  He immediately opened the message and saw just four words and a punctuation mark:

  "I miss you so much!"

  Zhuang Zi'ang quickly typed a reply, his hands trembling slightly.

  "I miss you too. Where are you?"

  He sent the message, but once again, it was like a stone dropped into a bottomless well - no response.

  Zhuang Zi'ang was anxious, but there was nothing he could do. When he tried calling, he got the same frustrating "out of service area" message.

  He could only repeatedly reassure himself.

  She'll reply when she sees the message.

  Music can calm the heart. Let's listen to a song.

  In this state, there was only one song that fit the mood.

  Turned on the lights, the scene before my eyes.

  A spacious room, a lonely bed.

  Turned off the lights, it's all the same.

  The pain in my heart, I can't share.

  Life, flows away with the years, growing old with white hair.

  With your departure, happiness is nowhere to be found.

  Fading with the past, falling asleep with the dream.

  With a numbed heart, gradually drifting away.

  ...

  The internet's reputation for inducing mencholy was well-deserved. Zhuang Zi'ang hadn't even made it halfway through the song before he was a sobbing mess. His heart was anything but calm.

  He knew that Little Butterfly must be hiding something from him. But wasn't he doing the same, keeping a huge secret from her?

  He was a grown man, and crying so much was hardly appropriate, but he simply couldn't hold back the tears.

  The past decade or so of his life had been shrouded in darkness. Now that a ray of light had finally shone through, it was already time for the curtain call.

  Zhuang Zi'ang thought to himself, Little Butterfly has only been gone for a few days, and I'm already this much of a wreck. If I die, how heartbroken will she be?

  What felt like a century ter, his phone finally dinged again.

  "Dummy, wait for me."