Peach-Orange! – Chapter 158 – After Her Departure, Only Darkness Remains Ahead

“Eh… eh?

“No… that can’t be right. Xiaocheng… Xiaocheng is dead?”

Su Tao lowered her head, staring at her trembling hands as she instinctively murmured Chi Xiaocheng’s name.

Her gaze darted anxiously around the hospital room like a psychiatric patient with erratic pupils, her hands clutching her head tightly as her dark eyes trembled in their sockets.

She seemed afraid of something, or perhaps searching for something.

In her mind, images flickered between Chi Xiaocheng’s smiling face and her lifeless expression.

The pain had been too much, so she had chosen to forget.

But now, those memories were forced back into her consciousness.

After her suicide attempt, Xiaocheng had been so well-behaved. Su Tao had only felt relief that she had survived, never considering how someone who could write such a suicide note could act so normal afterward.

Those three days in the “dark room”… she had treated it as just a game, thinking that as long as she stayed by her side, everything would return to normal.

She never realized that if Chi Xiaocheng could calmly say the words “dark room,” her mind was already far from normal.

The daily glasses of crimson “orange juice” were manifestations of her obsession. Su Tao had only seen them as the source of her own suffering, never understanding they were Xiaocheng’s way of trying to keep her close.

Dream after dream had warned her. Forcing a different ending with Xiaocheng would lead to a bad ending. Yet she had paid no heed.

Si Chen and Dongfang Yang had both told her: accept her, force yourself to love her.

And still, she had run away.

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By the time she finally stopped running… it was too late for Xiaocheng to hear.

The final image burned into her mind: Chi Xiaocheng resting in her arms, lying in a pool of crimson “orange juice,” like a river woven from the petals of spider lilies.

Su Tao stood on one side of the river, while Chi Xiaocheng had already stepped onto the flower-covered Naihe Bridge.

No matter how desperately she called out, even with the confession Xiaocheng had longed to hear, the girl she yearned for never looked back.

Only a lock of tea-colored hair fluttered in the wind.

Memories turned into scattered petals, gently brushing against Chi Xiaocheng’s hair before carrying fragments of their past happiness back to Su Tao.

As Xiaocheng walked step by step toward the other side of the bridge, the vibrant red spider lily petals gradually withered and faded.

After her departure, only darkness remained ahead.

Regret. Collapse. And then, the inability to accept reality.

Su Tao looked up at Professor Su, tears streaming down her face again.

She cried… then suddenly laughed. “Professor Su… Xiaocheng promised she wouldn’t leave me, right?”

Professor Su stayed silent.

Su Tao stepped closer and weakly punched Professor Su’s shoulder. But in her frail state, there was no strength behind it. Her fist landed softly before her body slumped against the professor.

Her sobs were relentless. “Please, Professor Su… tell me this is all fake. Tell me it’s just a joke, a prank you and Xiaocheng planned together. Please… I’m begging you….”

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Her mind hadn’t shattered from the overwhelming grief, but the emotions she had instinctively locked away couldn’t withstand this devastating news.

“Where is Xiaocheng?”

Su Tao pushed past Professor Su and stumbled toward the door.

“Professor Su, tell me where Xiaocheng is!”

She reached the doorway, gripping the frame for support. “I need to find her… I need to find her. She can’t wake up without me there. I have to stay with her….”

But the moment she stepped outside, she saw Dongfang Yang standing in the hallway.

Just as she was about to reach for him like a lifeline, he suddenly shouted, “Su Tao, snap out of it!

“Chi Xiaocheng died protecting you! She wanted you to live, so what are you doing?

“You ran from her when she was alive, and now that she’s gone, you can’t accept it? Look at yourself! How are you any different from those deranged women out there?”

Dongfang Yang grabbed her shoulders tightly and yelled, “What are you planning to do now? Kill yourself to chase after her? If you can’t even take care of yourself, what right do you have to face her in the afterlife?!

“The person who killed Chi Xiaocheng is still out there, maybe drinking fine wine, maybe surrounded by beautiful women. Shouldn’t you be avenging her?!”

Perhaps his words struck a chord deep within Su Tao. For Xiaocheng’s sake, she should keep living.

Or maybe it was the word “avenge” that snapped her back.

The girl who had been collapsing under the weight of reality slowly quieted.

Her arms fell limply to her sides as she stood in silence.

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Only when Dongfang Yang was sure she had calmed slightly did he release her. “Even now, you’re still running from the truth? Chi Xiaocheng is dead. She died protecting you. What good does denying it do besides making her restless in the afterlife?”

Su Tao lowered her head, her voice hoarse. “Where is Xiaocheng?”

Dongfang Yang exhaled and pointed down the hall. “First room past the corner at the end.”

That was where her body lay.

Su Tao finally stopped resisting. She only limped forward in the direction he had pointed.

But it was clear her “soul” hadn’t yet returned.

Professor Su stepped out of the room and sighed heavily. “Getting her back to normal will be difficult. ‘It takes the one who tied the bell to untie it,’ but the one who tied it is already gone.”

Dongfang Yang’s eyes were full of helpless pity. “Look at her state. How could I possibly become her emotional anchor like you suggested earlier? Right now, we can only hope hatred will give her some semblance of willpower back.

“At the very least, she needs to recover physically first.”

Professor Su was silent for a while. “Actually, when Miss Su first woke up, she had selective amnesia. She’d forgotten about Miss Chi’s death. But I told her directly. Would it have been better to hide it for a while?”

Dongfang Yang gave her a look. “You’re the doctor. You can’t tell?”

Professor Su’s expression was complicated. “Whether it’s ‘bitter first, sweet later’ or ‘sweet first, bitter later,’ as long as there’s still sweetness, there’s a choice. But for Miss Su… only bitterness remains. I thought, why leave this pain for the future?”

Reality had to be faced sooner or later.

Just like Su Tao, now standing frozen in front of a hospital room door, staring blankly at Chi Xiaocheng lying on the bed, her body covered with medical equipment.

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A glance at the monitor confirmed it. The electrocardiogram was a flatline.

But whether to comfort her or because they hadn’t truly given up, the doctors had kept life-support machines attached to Xiaocheng’s body.

As if to say, even though her heart had stopped, there was still a chance.

What a ridiculous, cruel joke.

Su Tao pulled up a small stool and sat beside the bed.

Her hands trembled as she reached out, clutching Xiaocheng’s delicate, cold fingers.

No warmth remained.

She held on tightly, desperately.

As if she could transfer some of her own heat back into that lifeless hand.

But no matter how hard she tried, the girl on the bed didn’t respond.

In the end, all she could do was let her tears fall onto that pale skin.

Droplets rolled down, then splashed onto the floor.

“Xiaocheng….” Su Tao kissed her hand softly before breaking down completely. “I want to drink your orange juice again. Can you wake up… please?”

It was time for her to face reality.