Chapter 1: Who Remembers You Anymore

The anticipated pain caused her to instinctively clutch the quilt. Out of habit, her hand sought to grasp something; her fingers, thin as a chicken’s claw, opened and closed repeatedly.

Suddenly, a warm hand took hold of hers. She gripped it instinctively—the more it hurt, the tighter she held on, and the more it hurt, the less she could bear to let go.

A tear rolled from the corner of her eye. Her long lashes fluttered, but she never opened them.

The door outside opened, followed by a few uneven footsteps, and then a faint, yet hauntingly familiar sigh.

"Are you still not going back?"

"Mm, I’m not going back. I want to stay with her for these last few days. The doctor said it’s only a matter of days now."

"You’re certainly kind-hearted." The person walked over, their voice drawing nearer.

"You know full well that it was her own mother who intentionally crashed into your car just to collect that insurance money. Even if she dies, it has nothing to do with you. Sigh... it’s all the fault of poverty."

As he spoke, he glanced at the half-dead woman on the hospital bed. "Tell me, isn't this retribution? She abandoned her own mother to slave away for that family, yet that family never once treated her like a human being."

"She fell ill, and the one who served her, watched over her, sold everything she owned, and even risked her life for that insurance money was the mother she had abandoned. Yet, not a single person from that family she gave her heart and soul to has come to see her, let alone paid a cent for her medical bills. Tell me, what was she hoping for?"

"And another thing..." The man shook the object in his hand. "I’ve already retrieved the insurance money. You were willing to carry the weight of a human life just to get this. What for?"

I don't know how long the silence lasted, or how long the stillness hung in the air, but finally, a voice drifted out.

"She is her mother..."

He did not know that beneath the quilt, her hand remained tightly clenched, and the pain racking her body came in wave after wave. She had no reason left, no spirit, no faith, and no life.

She also had no mother...

Only the insurance report lay beside her hand. She pressed her palm against it, gripping it tightly, never letting go.

***

A lonely grave, a single tombstone, standing desolate in the rain.

A man in black walked over, holding an umbrella. He placed a bouquet of flowers at the base of the tombstone, then rested his hand on the black-and-white photograph. Only in that photo could one see that she, who had been reduced to skin and bone, had once been in the prime of her youth, once beautiful and vibrant. Now, all that remained was this bleak tombstone.

"You don't have to suffer anymore, and you don't have to be in pain. Your mother is by your side; she will protect you and watch over you. In the next life, you will be mother and daughter again. But please, treat her well, okay?"

The wind blew, and a few droplets of rain landed on his face. He turned his head, but the vast space before him held nothing.

There was only the desolation woven into the sound of the rain, and the stiff, cold name carved upon the tombstone.

Liu Liang.

"Liangliang, that’s what your family called you, isn't it? You must have been very beautiful when you were young."

"Just pretend this rain is weeping for you, because the only person in this world who would have wept for you has already gone before you."

The dead cannot return to life.

When a person dies, it is like a lamp being extinguished.

Some say: "A person dies three times. The first time is when your heartbeat stops and your breath fades, and you are declared biologically dead. The second time is when you are buried, people wear black to attend your funeral and remember your life, and you are declared socially dead. The third death is when the last person in this world who remembers you forgets you, and then, you truly die."

Who is left to remember you? Who is left to think of you? Who is left to remember your name?

Only that soul has faded, drifted away, and seemingly vanished...