1 Prologue: Ruo Yuxia

The gentle hum of a fan reverberated throughout the room accompanied by the steady 'beep' and gentle 'click' of machines crowding the bed. The family of four looked at the woman laying down, who in turn, took the time to smile wistfully at each and every one of them.

Her thin, sparse white hair was pulled into a neat ponytail that somewhat took away from the laugh lines, loose skin and dark spots littering her face. She wore a thick pink sweater with a white snowman on it, trying to give size to the body that had lost 10 kilograms in the past four months. It made her frailness a little less visible to the eyes of her loved ones.

The first one to speak was a red-eyed male, "I'm sorry, truly. I couldn't get the other two to come... And of course 'he' was unreachable." The man who had opened his mouth grasped her veiny hand and squeezed lightly in comfort, his voice breaking at the end.

"Stupid child. It's okay, I didn't expect him to either. I wish they did though. But it's alright. Your mum is a strong woman, I don't need all of them here. You are enough," She with much difficulty, raised her right hand and patted his, once again smiling lightly and acting well put-together. Shao Wu felt his eyes tear up and he quickly blinked them back. For someone who was going to pass away in a few hours, she seemed so calm.

Heaving a sigh, Yuxia didn't know what more to say. Being on her deathbed was so surreal to her, it felt like just a week ago she had been pregnant with her first son and in a loving marriage. Despite these emotions, she wasn't greedy enough to try to prolong her life with a surgery they could barely afford. It was good enough that at least one of her children had come to see her off.

Interrupting her thoughts, the door swung open and a middle-aged male donned in a dark grey suit stepped in. Another smile broke across Yuxia's face as she called out "Old Bo! What kept you? I've been trying to hold out for so long, this old woman might as well have died before you came!"

"Always impatient. Don't speak like this in front of your grandchildren." The man in question, Bolin, smirked and settled on the chair nearest to the bed, resting down his briefcase. He nodded at Shaowu and then his grandchildren, who sported confused looks on their faces.

"Alright, alright, everyone needs to exit the room. We've talked long enough. Let me have a good word with your Grandpa."

They were all dismissed with a wave of her hand.

"Let's get to business."

"En."

Bolin pulled a thick stack of papers out of his briefcase as well as a pen and notepad.

"Make sure to read the will at 8:45 sharp, whether everyone is present or not. Send out notices to my daughter's husband instead of her, I know she won't respond unless coerced by him."

"En. Is that all?"

"Ah! Make sure my ashes are given to the eldest, he may seem cold but he's a big cry baby. I don't exactly know where he is right now though, as he's often with his father…" Yuxia's voice softened towards the end and her eyes turned distant. Her body suddenly felt 3 kilograms heavier.

Wang Bolin tucked away his things into the briefcase again and took off his glasses. He leant forward, lightly rested his head on her abdomen and looked up at her. With all the professionalism gone, it was just a boy and his first love. Bolin heard the sobs shaking his body before he felt the tears streaming down his cheeks. Yuxia brushed the black hair on his forehead back and her hand drifted down to wipe away the tears on his right cheek. A fond smile graced her lips.

"Calm down, stop crying. We all knew that this day would come for me, as it will for everyone else one day, don't be so sad."

"How can you say that? I'm supposed to be your husband but I can't even protect you nor help you stay alive!" He shook off her hand and used his sleeve to wipe the snot and tears off his face.

"It is my choice. All you need to do is take care of the kids for me, watch over the ones that haven't been here and deliver my will as a lawyer. I'll be waiting up there for you when your time comes." She paused then added, "I don't mind if you remarry, but make sure she's a nice person. I'd be ashamed if my old Bo didn't learn anything during the years we were together. You deserve a great person."

Bolin's eyes hardened after cleaning up his face. He bowed his head to the watch on his wrist, sighed, and looked back at Yuxia. "You still have three hours left."

A pause.

"Would you like to speak to him?"

Her eyes that were once teasing narrowed and her voice cracked, "He isn't here. How do you know where he is?"

"I don't, but I have his number."

Silence ensued.

"It's been twenty years. You're leaving soon. Don't you want some closure?" Bolin's voice took on a pleading tone.

Yuxia found it just a tiny bit funny. What kind of husband would beg his wife to call her ex-husband?

The silence continued for another few minutes before she conceded, "Hand me the phone."

And so, Yuxia confronted the memories she had always held back and avoided for the last twenty years.

"Hi…"

A minute-long pause followed the greeting.

"It's Yu'er… I know it has been quite a long time since we last talked or even saw each other." Yuxia paused again, unsure of what to say.

"After all this time... The bitterness… is almost entirely gone. Back then I couldn't say this, but I was very disappointed in you." Her voice went down a pitch, "Very disappointed."

"If I was still young, and we were back to that time, I would've still chosen to walk away but-"

Yuxia felt a pain strike through her chest and her heart began to thud painfully quick. Wang Bolin jolted upright in his chair and screamed for the nurse, not daring to move his eyes away from her.

With one hand grasping at her chest weakly and the other holding the phone, she sucked in a laboured breath and spoke the words she had long wanted to say to him, "I miss you."

A wave of nausea hit her and the phone dropped out of her hand. Ruo Yuxia could faintly hear Bolin screaming for the doctors and nurses from far away. As her consciousness faded from the body that had given up on her, memories of her life thus far flashed before her eyes.

A little boy with a pair of black eyes that stared at her while playing with his toy truck.

A man with a gentle smile and laugh lines all over his face patting her head comfortingly.

A chubby baby in her embrace with someone's thick arms wrapped around her waist.

A happy smile blossomed on her face as she looked up at the man in question, into his narrow black eyes and kissed his cheek, she whispered, "Very Much."

The world became white.

A loud flat beep continued to sound. The nurses released their hands from the bed and body while the doctor turned away and looked out of the window in the door, to the family outside and announced, "Patient Ruo Yuxia, declared dead at 7 pm. Cause of death, SCA (Sudden Cardiac Arrest)."

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HALFWAY ACROSS THE WORLD, THE BAHAMAS

"Drawn out circles form a fingerprint, impressed upon my lips. The kiss marks that are agonizing to recall are the roots of the tree~" A sickly sweet voice rang throughout the room, the phone vibrated furiously. Seven out of eight figures woke up and looked towards the phone on the bedside table. They knew that it was without a doubt a belonging of the man lying in the middle of the bed with his eyes closed.

"The most poisonous hatred in this world is having the luck to encounter one another but not being fated to stay together~" The man's eyebrows furrowed. He brought his hand to his head and pulled the hair away from his eyes, habitually wrapping the long silver pieces around each other into a bun, showing the small dark tattoo of baby's breath at the bottom of his neck.

"Revising separation after separation, I admit that I'd once fantasized about [having something] eternal. It's a pity that there has never been someone to act out this script with me~" The phone rang out for the last time before the man's eyes reluctantly opened. With smoothed out eyebrows, he kissed the lips of the beauty to the right of him and squeezed the bottom of the one to the left. The girls giggled before all rounding up to leave the room.

Once he heard the slides close he picked up the phone and looked at the notification reading: a missed call and voice mail from an unknown number. With a light heart, he began listening to the voicemail.

-

Shortly after the three-minute message ended, the man on the other side of the phone was shaking while sitting on the floor. He had been reduced to a sobbing wreck. Much like Wang Bolin in the hospital.