At this moment, a woman beside them pushed a patient with ALS in a wheelchair past them.

Su mother and Lu Zhe both turned their gazes toward the pair. Only when the woman pushed the patient into a ward did they withdraw their eyes.

Lu Zhe’s pitch-black eyes were cold. His tightly pressed thin lips had lost all color, and his whole body went numb.

The dream was over.

Su mother looked at the silent boy, patiently waiting for his answer.

“Like.”

Lu Zhe’s cool voice was slightly hoarse, “I like Su Ci.”

Su mother seemed unsurprised, as if she had already expected this. There was not much shock.

Lu Zhe’s face was a little pale, making his expression appear even more rigid and cold. “But please rest assured, I won’t think too much.”

He knew better than anyone that his life would not last long. He never dared to hope for anything. And now Su Ci’s mother had personally come to him, begging him to leave her daughter.

Someone like him, standing in the dark, indeed had no right to covet the Su family’s little princess.

Hearing Lu Zhe’s words, Su mother looked full of unwillingness and pity, but she still bit her lip and continued, “Auntie knows you’re a good child, but… you and Cici are not suitable. These words shouldn’t be said to you, but Cici likes you. Although she looks soft and delicate on the outside, in reality, her temper is very proud, and she has her own mind. It’s her first time liking someone. If I forcefully stop her, Cici definitely won’t listen.”

Su mother looked at Lu Zhe, “I came to you because I hope you’ll be the one to reject her.”

Gentle people stab the deepest.

Lu Zhe listened quietly, a bit of emptiness in the depths of his dark eyes. The muscles in his arm twitched, and he let out a powerless sound of acknowledgment.

While Su mother felt relieved, she also became even more grateful and guilt-ridden toward this boy. “The Su family will cover all the medical expenses for treating ALS. You don’t need to worry.”

The cost of treatment was high—something ordinary families could not afford.

Lu Zhe’s thin lips were dry. His throat was parched. His cool voice sank slightly, “I will pay it back.”

“No need to pay it back. You’ve helped the Su family so much—this is what the Su family should shoulder.” Su mother’s nature was soft and kind. For the sake of her daughter, she was hurting another child. She felt this was selfish, and she hated herself for it, but for her daughter, she could become the bad person.

Whether or not Lu Zhe was the Lu family’s child, she had never minded his background. She also believed Lu Zhe was a child of excellent character. If Lu Zhe were healthy, she would never have stopped her daughter from liking him.

But things went against her wishes. For her daughter’s sake, she could only become a villain.

Su mother took Lu Zhe to meet several authoritative experts in ALS treatment.

Lu Zhe underwent a series of neurosurgical examinations, electromyography tests, serum-specific antibody tests, and so on. In the end, the results were the same as before.

After learning her daughter liked Lu Zhe, Su mother had also looked up information on ALS online.

She found that, after onset, ALS patients generally died within three years; a small portion within five years; only a few lived up to ten years; and extremely rare cases could survive up to thirty years after onset.

This meant that Lu Zhe’s life would likely end within three years.

This was also why she could not allow her daughter to keep liking him.

One of the experts, upon learning that Lu Zhe had already been ill for nearly a year, was very surprised.

According to the ALS patients he had encountered in the past, after one year of onset, the symptoms should have worsened compared to the early stage. At this point, patients would have difficulty speaking, their speech would slow, and even when talking, their articulation would become unclear. Some patients would have already shown signs of limb atrophy.

Yet the boy before him had been ill for nearly a year, but only early-stage ALS symptoms had appeared. His speech was clear, his build tall and strong, and there were no signs of limb atrophy at all.

“These are the medications you usually take?” The expert flipped through Lu Zhe’s medical records. These medicines were indeed appropriate for his condition, but other patients also took these medicines and did not show such good results. Clearly, it was not due to the medication.

The experts asked Lu Zhe, “Aside from taking your medication on time, do you regularly get acupuncture or massages?”

Lu Zhe replied, “No, but I exercise every day.”

During the earlier examination, the expert had already noticed the tight, firm muscles on the boy’s arms—nothing like the state an ALS patient of more than a year should have.

Exercise might play a relieving role, but it would not produce results this good. If one could treat ALS simply through working out, ALS would not be one of the world’s five major incurable diseases.

The experts had not expected the boy’s condition to be so different from what they imagined.

In the end, they needed more time to study it, trying their best to keep Lu Zhe’s condition at its current level. Even if they could not, at the very least, they would try to slow the progression.

– – – ˗ˋˏ♡ˎˊ˗ – – –

Su Ci only learned at night that Su mother had taken Lu Zhe for examinations.

She looked at the boy on the screen and said, “If I had known Mom was taking you to the hospital for tests, I definitely would have gone with you.”

Even though she felt that even bringing in a group of authoritative experts would probably not have much effect on Lu Zhe’s illness, she wanted to see him.

However, Su Ci also felt she had not given Lu Zhe any golden cotton candy for a long time now. She didn’t know how well his body had recovered.

Su Ci called Fuguai out. “How many golden cotton candy will it take to cure Lu Zhe’s ALS?”

Fuguai: 【Master, Fuguai doesn’t know either.】

Su Ci began to dislike it. “Why do you not know anything?”

Fuguai’s soft childish voice sounded a bit shy: 【Fuguai’s age in the system is equivalent to a three-year-old human child. Fuguai is still a child.】

It was still a child. The master shouldn’t expect too much from it.

Su Ci’s breath caught. No wonder this little thing was silly and greedy.

Sensing Su Ci’s dislike, Fuguai quickly explained: 【As long as Master gives Fuguai a little more cotton candy to eat, Fuguai can level up and grow.】

Fuguai no longer hoped Master would give it all the golden cotton candy. For it now, even getting a tiny bit deducted from the ones Su Ci gave to Lu Zhe was enough to make it happy.

Su Ci asked, “What functions will you have after upgrading?”

Fuguai: 【After upgrading, Fuguai will be able to see life values within one month.】

Su Ci had already heard this from Fuguai before, but she had no golden cotton candy now, so she couldn’t give it any.

Su Ci let Fuguai return.

She looked at the boy on the screen. “Lu Zhe, how were the test results?”

She felt the golden cotton candy must be useful to Lu Zhe. Otherwise, Fuguai wouldn’t always be coveting them.

Before, she would sometimes see Lu Zhe walking with a slight limp, but now he no longer had that issue. And he also no longer suddenly fell while walking.

Lu Zhe’s expression was faint. “The results were the same as before.” He should be grateful his condition had not worsened.

He knew very well that in the late stages of ALS, his limbs would stiffen, his body would atrophy, and he would become like the patient he saw in the hospital today—paralyzed in bed, unable to eat, struggling even to breathe, and then lying there waiting for death.

Lu Zhe had thought that when he eventually became like that, whether Su Ci disliked him or not, he would leave her far, far away.

He didn’t want Su Ci to become that woman in the hospital pushing her husband’s wheelchair.

However, in the end, he had hoped for too much. Even now, he could no longer stay by her side.

“The same?” Su Ci blinked. She lay on the bed, adjusting herself into a comfortable position, her snowy-white feet raised and occasionally swaying.

“It’s fine. Anyway, you’ll live to a hundred.” As long as she could get more golden cotton candy for him, his illness would be cured.

Lu Zhe let out a faint laugh. Live to a hundred, huh.

He didn’t wish for a hundred years. He only wished for one year by her side, but now even that had become extravagant.

“What are you laughing at?” He had laughed so lightly, yet Su Ci still heard it.

She liked seeing Lu Zhe forced into helplessness and losing control by her. She also liked seeing the shallow dimples that appeared when he smiled.

In any case, she liked every version of Lu Zhe.

The girl on the screen had eyes bright and glistening, her fair and delicate face leaned close to the camera—beautiful yet somehow adorably so. Lu Zhe hooked his lips at her.

Su Ci felt she had no backbone at all. How could just one smile from Lu Zhe make her heart tremble?

But Su Ci had never had any shame. Even with her face red, she still wanted to tease him. “Lu Zhe, I want to lick the little dimple on your face. It must be sweet.”

Lu Zhe looked at her deeply, then reined in the smile in his eyes. “Last time, you asked me whether I liked you.”

Su Ci blinked. He brought this up so suddenly, was he going to confess?

Thinking that, her eyes instantly lit up. Her raised snowy feet stopped swaying as she stared at Lu Zhe with anticipation.

Under the light, Lu Zhe’s cold, pale skin looked even more bloodless, his face growing more rigid. “Su Ci, I don’t like you.”

The smile on Su Ci’s lips faded. She glared at Lu Zhe, fierce like a small cat. “You’re really bad at telling jokes.”

“It’s not a joke.” Lu Zhe lowered his eyes, his brows and gaze excessively cold. “You’re too delicate. I don’t like it. You often hide a bellyful of bad ideas. I don’t like that either. You like to tease people. I don’t like that either.”

Su Ci sat up on the bed, gripping her phone tightly, her black eyes locked firmly on the boy on the screen. “You’re lying. I look this good, my personality is this kind and sweet—there’s no way you don’t like me.”

Su Ci refused to believe she was being rejected. Before transmigrating or after, she had always been the one pursued. Only with Lu Zhe had she fallen headfirst, and now she was being rejected?

Impossible.

Lu Zhe said in a low voice, “Even your narcissism—I don’t like that either.”

Su Ci felt her chest tighten, as if stuffed with a huge wad of cotton. It made her flustered and uncomfortable.

She felt like she couldn’t breathe. She snapped at Lu Zhe, “Did you find a new bunny out there?”

That one line nearly made Lu Zhe laugh. He looked up at her, his gaze deep. “No.”

Su Ci’s delicate brows furrowed tightly. True—if someone like her, with such unmatched beauty, didn’t move him, how could he possibly look at other girls or bunnies?

Su Ci had always been smart. She reacted quickly. “Is it because of whatever my mom told you today?”

Lu Zhe did not respond.

“Mom doesn’t want me to be with you?” Su Ci seemed to have found the reason. “Don’t worry, I’ll talk to her…”

“No.” Lu Zhe interrupted the girl, the darkness in his pitch-black eyes completely dim. “It’s that I don’t like you. It has nothing to do with anyone.”

Su Ci glared fiercely at him. “Lu Zhe, I’m angry.”

She hung up the video call in one motion, unwilling to hear another word that made her feel terrible.

Staring at the screen that had exited the call, Lu Zhe’s face looked even paler under the light.