Chapter 1047 – The Distance Between Life and Death

　　”Are you alright?” Chen Ge helped Du Ming open the lid of the water bottle, “Do you want some water?”

　　Du Ming was lying on the table, burying his face in his textbook and covering his stomach with both hands.

　　”I didn’t do it on purpose, I didn’t expect it to turn out like this.”

　　”What exactly did you do?” Chen Ge didn’t get angry, he looked at Du Ming with more sympathy in his eyes.

　　Du Ming didn’t speak again, he just shook his head slightly, his mental state was very poor, it seemed that he was about to reach his limit just like Chen Ge.

　　……

　　After the fourth class, Chen Ge came to the rooftop of the teaching building when no one was around, and Zhang Ya was standing next to the railing.

　　He silently walked to Zhang Ya’s side, and the two of them looked at the entire Liwan Town together.

　　The school building was considered a relatively tall building in the town, and this moment made Chen Ge couldn’t help but think of Liwan Town after the small cloth door.

　　That time Zhang Ya agreed to his request and has been inseparable ever since.

　　Cold wind mixed with rain fell on his face, Zhang Ya lifted her wind-blown hair behind her ear, she suddenly spoke, “Teacher may have to leave after a while.”

　　”Is it because of me?” Chen Ge had already guessed the ending, he had rehearsed this scene in his mind countless times all morning, but when Zhang Ya actually said it, he couldn’t say a single word he had thought of.

　　”It has nothing to do with you.” Zhang Ya shook her head, “The reason lies in me, I always think that I have stepped out of the past and can start a new life with a smile on my face, but this is nothing more than fooling myself and others. Being busy, working hard, all of it is an excuse used to escape, in fact, after so many years, I feel like I’m still trapped in that dimly lit dance studio.”

　　Standing beside Zhang Ya, Chen Ge gripped the fence, he was able to understand Zhang Ya because he was the only person in this world who knew Zhang Ya’s past.

　　Regardless of reality, or the world behind the door, Zhang Ya had only told him the secret.

　　”The ones who made the mistake are those who started the rumor, give me some time, I will find out everything and let everyone know the truth.” Chen Ge had always wanted to do this, even in the World Behind the Door, even if everything was his own memories, he still wanted to go and help Zhang Ya, and give the nightmare of the beginning a new ending.

　　”It doesn’t matter what the truth is, what matters is you, I’m afraid that what once happened to me will happen to you again.” Zhang Ya cared a lot about Chen Ge, when the whole town was rumoring all kinds of rumors, Chen Ge still stood with her and trusted her unconditionally, a feeling that had never been felt before.

　　Even though there was a huge age difference, one thing was undeniable, she did feel a hint of something different in this man.

　　”I can leave and escape, but you can’t.” Zhang Ya stood in front of Chen Ge, her face was very close to Chen Ge: “Your father is still hospitalized, you still have a younger sister to take care of, in the future, all of these responsibilities will be pressed on you, you absolutely can’t be affected because of what happened to me.”

　　”I probably already know who the rumor spreader is, we can ……”

　　”Chen Ge.” Zhang Ya raised her arm, her slender fingers reaching out to the cloudy sky, “Leaving doesn’t equate to never seeing each other again.”

　　Zhang Ya seemed to have made up her mind that staying strongly would still be talked about behind her back.

　　In fact, Chen Ge also knew that it was not easy for Zhang Ya to make this decision, she must have thought about it for a long time.

　　The hand that held the railing twisted white, Chen Ge’s eyes surfaced blood, he took a deep breath, “Sometimes, I feel that the world is very bad, it will always grab those gentle people and bully them vigorously.”

　　”The world is not divided into good and bad, but the more gentle people there are, the gentler the world will become.” Zhang Ya reached out to help Chen Ge straighten his wind-blown hair, her cold fingertips rested on Chen Ge’s face, “In the future, you should be a gentle person as well, go back, you still have to cook for your family, don’t waste too much time here with me.”

　　Retracting her arm, Zhang Ya silently looked at the campus that she had only just familiarized herself with, not knowing what she was thinking.

　　Standing beside Zhang Ya, Chen Ge looked at Zhang Ya’s back and raised his hands, then lowered them again.

　　He left the rooftop to go to the hospital, and after delivering a meal to his father, he bought another meal on the side of the road to prepare to bring to Luo Ruoyu.

　　Returning to the neighborhood where he lived, Chen Ge stopped in front of his house, normally as long as he heard his footsteps, Luo Ruoyu would run over and open the door, but today Luo Ruoyu did not appear.

　　”Nothing could have happened, right?”

　　Chen Ge shouted Luo Ruoyu’s name, and he vaguely heard crying coming from the house.

　　”Ruoyu?”

　　Opening the door to the house, Chen Ge smelled a pungent odor of coal, and he couldn’t care less about following the rules and rushed straight into the house.

　　The kitchen floor was covered in water stains, and pieces of thermos pot liner could be seen all over the floor.

　　He rushed into the kitchen and saw Luo Ruoyu curled up in the corner of the kitchen, her hands covering her ears, and in front of her was a broken thermos.

　　Her clothes were wet, and her neck, arms and fingers were all burned, with teardrops hanging on her face.

　　”Who told you to start the fire!” Chen Ge kicked the broken thermos away, he had never been so angry as he was now.

　　Hearing Chen Ge’s angry shout, Luo Ruoyu cried even harder, her scalded red arm resting in front of her face, her tears could not stop flowing down.

　　Turning off the gas, Chen Ge didn’t think much, picked up Luo Ruoyu and ran towards the outside.

　　Walking out of the room, a new day began, but Chen Ge didn’t care about this at all, he carried Luo Ruoyu and took a cab to the hospital.

　　The burn area wasn’t too big, it was mainly concentrated on her arms, the doctor applied ointment to Luo Ruoyu, but the little girl was still in shock, she seemed to be terrified.

　　”There are no major injuries, but your family must pay attention, mentally disabled children are best not left alone at home, it’s too dangerous.” The doctor left, leaving Chen Ge and Luo Ruoyu alone in the ward.

　　The ointment was smeared on the wound, at first it hurt, and gradually it would produce an icy cold feeling.

　　Luo Ruoyu’s arms were placed on both sides of her body, she didn’t dare to look at Chen Ge, her head was lowered, and she cried in a very small voice.

　　After standing in the hospital room for a short while, Chen Ge put down his backpack, sat on the edge of the bed, and gently hugged Luo Ruoyu: “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have disturbed you.”

　　The body of the girl in her arms was trembling, she seemed to have suffered a great deal of aggression and cried loudly on Chen Ge’s shoulder.

　　”I know that you want to help, I know that you don’t want to drag others down, and I also know that you work very hard, I understand all of it.” Chen Ge slowly hugged Luo Ruoyu tightly, “We are each other’s most important family.”

　　In the world behind the door, Luo Ruoyu represented her family, as well as the employees of the haunted house who used to have nowhere to go, and the obsessions of those who used to hide in the deepest part of despair and were “picked up” by Chen Ge and brought home.

　　No matter what happened, Chen Ge would always be at the forefront, overcoming physical deficiencies in training, late-night companionship, never stingy encouragement.

　　Chen Ge didn’t ask for anything in return, he did it only because he treated them as family.

　　Luo Ruoyu fell asleep after she was tired of crying, but even though she fell asleep, her hand still grasped the corner of Chen Ge’s coat.

　　After covering Luo Ruoyu’s bed, Chen Ge quietly left the hospital room, the blood in the bottom of his eyes was getting more and more bloodshot, and the comic book in his backpack had also changed in some way.

　　”Calamity is approaching step by step, the dream woven with my memories, let me end it myself now.”

　　It was already a new day because of the reason that he went back home once in the middle.

　　When Chen Ge arrived at school, he was halfway through the first period.

　　He returned to his seat and realized that Du Ming, who was never late, hadn’t come to class today.

　　When the first period was about to end, the teacher even specifically ran over and asked Chen Ge if he knew why Du Ming hadn’t come.

　　As an honor student, Du Ming would actually miss class, which was something Chen Ge hadn’t expected.

　　The second class of the morning began, and after only ten minutes, a woman’s slightly harsh voice suddenly came from the hallway: “What else do you want to do if you don’t want to go to school? What else can you do? Go back to me right now!”

　　The woman seemed to be reprimanding someone, but the voice of the person she was reprimanding could not be heard, it was just a one-sided reproach.

　　The voice slowly approached the classroom, immediately after the front door of the classroom was opened, a woman appeared in the doorway, she was in the middle of her anger, her expression was a bit scary: “Still not coming over?”

　　She yanked fiercely behind her, Du Ming was pulled into the classroom by her.

　　This little fatty was very haggard, he lowered his head, not daring to look at anyone.

　　”Hurry up and get in!” After the woman said this, she owed towards the teacher who was teaching the class, her voice was much softer: “This kid slept through the night, he was afraid of being punished, he was too embarrassed to come over.”

　　”It’s fine, it’s fine, Du Ming, go back to your seat.” The teachers who were teaching seemed to be a little afraid of that woman.

　　”That’s troublesome teacher.” The woman’s face changed at the drop of a hat, revealing a very fake smile before leaving in a hurry.

　　After she left, the students in the class began to talk.

　　”That’s Du Ming’s mom? So strict, no wonder Du Ming studies so well.”

　　”I thought his mom would be as fat as him.”

　　”Looks a bit familiar, right! Isn’t she the parent who ran to the teacher’s office and made a scene last time?”

　　”I remember too, it’s awesome, it scared Director Shi so much that she didn’t dare to speak.”

　　”Being disciplined by a mom like that, it’s pretty scary to think about, Du Ming’s lack of talk and such a bad personality might have something to do with his family.”

　　The voices of discussion reached Du Ming’s ears, he buried his head even lower, not daring to look at anyone, he seemed to be afraid that he would look up and see everyone staring at him.

　　”Don’t take it to heart, these guys will just talk behind their backs, if you really stood in front of them, they wouldn’t even dare to let out a fart.” Unlike the other students who whispered, Chen Ge’s voice was so loud that everyone, including the teacher, heard it.

　　It could be that the words had an effect, or it could be that people didn’t expect Chen Ge to say such things, in short, the classroom slowly quieted down.

　　Classes started normally again, Chen Ge didn’t bother to ask Du Ming why he was late today, after he helped Du Ming with his words. Instead, Du Ming would look at Chen Ge intentionally or unintentionally, as if he wanted to say something to Chen Ge, but didn’t have the courage to open his mouth.

　　The bell rang for the end of class, the third period was English class, Du Ming took out his English textbook as usual, but Chen Ge just leaned against the wall and stared.

　　Chen Ge, who was usually the most active in English class, was uncharacteristic today, and Du Ming had a bad feeling in his heart.

　　The bell rang, but after five minutes no teacher came over.

　　Chen Ge was as if he already knew all this and turned his head to look out the window.

　　”Chen Ge …… “After several days, Du Ming finally spoke to Chen Ge again, “Does Ms. Zhang have something to do today? Usually she always comes over early.”

　　”Zhang Ya was dismissed from school.” Chen Ge withdrew her gaze from looking out the window and swept Du Ming back, “She won’t be coming back to teach us anymore.”

　　”Dismissed?” Du Ming stood up at once, everyone in the classroom was supposed to be studying and it was very quiet, everyone heard Du Ming’s voice.

　　”Obviously it was all my fault, but she was apologizing non-stop all the time, and in the end, she still wasn’t forgiven.” Chen Ge stared at Du Ming’s eyes, “I had complained to her about why the world always goes to bully those gentle people, and she gave me the message that the world is not good or bad, and that as long as there are more gentle people, the world will become gentle, and will go on to treat more gentle people well.”

　　”Why didn’t you tell me earlier? Did you already know the result?” Du Ming’s eyes were swollen and his face was suffocatingly red.

　　”I learned about it yesterday.” Chen Ge paused, “Did it help to tell you?”

　　”She just walked away and you’re still sitting here? Didn’t you like her? Shouldn’t you stand up and do something for her?” Du Ming became emotional as he grabbed Chen Ge’s collar, “Why didn’t you stop her? You ……”

　　”Boom!”

　　Du Ming hadn’t finished speaking when the left side of his face was hit hard by Chen Ge’s fist, and before he could react, he received another kick from Chen Ge on his stomach, and his whole body fell to the ground.

　　”Who is the class president? Come out and organize everyone for self-study.” Chen Ge held his bag in one hand and dragged Du Ming out of the classroom by his collar.

　　”Do you know who that teacher is? Do you know what that person represents to me? Do you know what she has been through?” Chen Ge slammed his fist on Du Ming, “You don’t know anything.”

　　Pushing open the iron door on the roof of the building, Chen Ge flung his hand and lowered Du Ming to the ground.

　　”She trapped herself in that blood-red world of despair, she hasn’t seen the light for so long that she may have even forgotten her true self.”

　　”Because of that, I want to leave her a beautiful memory, even if I know it’s a dream, I still try very hard to weave it more beautifully.”

　　Chen Ge grabbed Du Ming’s shoulders and slammed him against the wall, “But you guys won’t even give me a chance to weave a dream.”

　　”I don’t understand what you’re saying, but I know that you claim to care about her, but you haven’t done anything for her! You don’t love her at all! You’re just lying to her and putting her through all the pain!” Du Ming’s face was livid as he swung his hands to hit Chen Ge.

　　”Is this love in your mind?” Chen Ge didn’t fight back, “Do you know that love requires qualifications. A seventeen year old student, even if you long for it and want to get close to it, you have to have to understand one thing, your adoration will most likely become a nuisance to her.”

　　”Love can make a person sparkle or fall into the abyss.”

　　”If I were really you, I would keep a suitable distance until the day I can take responsibility and be able to take responsibility for myself and for her.”

　　Du Ming’s emotions grew more and more agitated, he had completely lost control, as if the deepest secrets of his heart had been discovered, “You’re not me, you don’t understand at all.”

　　He struggled desperately, Chen Ge came down hard this time and kicked him to the ground.

　　”Pah!”

　　When Du Ming fell, his cell phone fell out, the screen shattered, and through the cracked screen he was able to see that the desktop background of the phone was Zhang Ya.

　　The photo seemed to have been taken secretly, on the photo Zhang Ya had a faint smile on her face and was talking to someone.

　　”Do you like her too?” Chen Ge looked at the shattered cell phone screen and took out the skull crushing hammer from his backpack.

　　”Don’t use the word ‘also’, you don’t even deserve it, where were you when she was being blamed by everyone? What did you do for her while she was being tormented by rumors?” Du Ming wiped the blood off his face and rose from the ground, “You did nothing, you even chickened out and backed off because you were a student and she was a teacher, you didn’t even have the courage to speak up for her!”

　　Du Ming roared hysterically, he seemed to be deploring not Chen Ge, but his former self.

　　”Perhaps in your opinion, the distance between teacher and student is far enough to make you despair, but have you ever considered it? There is another kind of distance in this world called life and death.” Chen Ge figured out all the problems when he saw Du Ming’s cell phone, “You like your teacher, you can put in all your efforts, spend three years, five years, and come back to her when you can take that step. But the distance between life and death may take a lifetime to wait.”

　　Picking up the cell phone on the ground, Chen Ge looked at Zhang Ya in the background, “Love, from the moment you meet it, death doesn’t end it, only when one party chooses to leave.”