Standing Next To You-Chapter 430: Don’t leave me

"Under one condition," Bei Sangyun added.

Fei Chuan looked at her incredulously.

She was making all the decisions one-sidedly, and now she was demanding something completely unreasonable. She wanted to break up out of the blue, and when he asked for an explanation, she still imposed a condition?

Frustration rose in his heart.

"...Why are you..." Fei Chuan took a deep breath to calm himself. "...Fine, let’s do it your way."

Fei Chuan went along with Bei Sangyun’s absurd demands, but as he complied, his incredulity only grew.

"Why do we have to talk like this?" he asked through the phone, dumbfounded.

Several meters away, Bei Sangyun stood with her phone pressed to her ear. The condition she had set was to maintain a distance and speak over the phone.

"...You’ll understand soon enough. Anyway, it’s better than you clinging to me and tripping over," she replied.

Fei Chuan wanted to retort, ’Whose fault was that?’ If Bei Sangyun hadn’t said such ridiculous things, he wouldn’t have been so taken aback and lost his balance.

"...Are you hurt?" Bei Sangyun asked softly through the phone.

Fei Chuan’s thoughts came to a halt. He gazed at her from afar. Due to the distance between them, he couldn’t quite make out her expression, but he couldn’t mistake the hint of concern in her tone.

"...I am hurt," Fei Chuan replied, his eyes never leaving her.

Bei Sangyun fell silent.

Fei Chuan’s indignation grew, "...Keeping me at a distance like this hurts me, Bei Sangyun."

From a distance, Bei Sangyun only looked at him, not replying.

Fei Chuan badly wanted to close that distance, but he feared that if he did, she would run away and never reveal her reasons.

After a moment of silence, Bei Sangyun spoke, "...I...I didn’t plan to tell you like this. But you appeared so suddenly, and I had to keep it brief and quickly distance myself from you. So...I had no choice but to quickly make a decision."

Fei Chuan couldn’t understand why she needed to keep her distance. But he felt a small relief hearing that she didn’t mean those words.

She wasn’t breaking up with him... what a relief.

"...But why do you need to stay away from me?"

Bei Sangyun was silent for a few seconds before responding. She didn’t answer his question directly and instead said, "...I heard that your strange illness first appeared when you were young. I’ve learned the rest of the story from Head Master Fei."

Fei Chuan frowned. Why was she bringing up his illness all of a sudden?

"...I see. But what does that have to do with this?"

"...Do you remember how and when your illness first appeared?" Bei Sangyun avoided his question again, asking her own instead.

Fei Chuan grew more uneasy. This conversation was veering off course. "I have vague memories of that day."

"I see. I remember vividly when and how my first illness appeared."

Fei Chuan froze. His eyes widened. "....Are you sick?"

He had never heard Bei Sangyun mention being ill—but then a thought struck him. Hold on— freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

"My strange condition appeared when I was young. The first symptom was the loss of taste. Gradually, as time passed, I began to lose my other senses."

Fei Chuan remained silent, his mind flashing back to the times when Bei Sangyun casually mentioned not finding food appetizing. Then there was her odd habit of having him taste everything before she did. She had said that she could only taste food that he had touched.

He had thought it was just one of her eccentricities, but... she was actually sick.

"For years, I couldn’t taste anything. Whether it was water or porridge, everything tasted like mud and clay to me. But for some unknown reason, whenever you touched my food, I miraculously regained my sense of taste. And the most effective method to recover my senses is through intimate contact with you."

Across from Fei Chuan, Bei Sangyun took advantage of the distance between them and conveyed her longing through her gaze.

"That’s why I feel so alive when I’m with you. You are my miracle. My cure. I thought we were destined to be together, like pieces of a puzzle that fit perfectly."

Fei Chuan remained silent, wondering where this conversation would lead. Bei Sangyun saw him as her miracle, but she was also his. As she said, he truly only felt complete and alive when she came into his life.

"But I was wrong." Bei Sangyun laughed bitterly, not at him, but at herself, for falling prey to what she now believed were heaven’s cruel tricks. "...It turns out you’re not curing me. You’re losing your life... because of me. I’m like a parasite, draining your life away."

"What nonsense." Fei Chuan vehemently denied it. "How could you possibly be draining my life away? Where did you even get that idea? Don’t tell me you want to keep this distance because of such nonsense?"

"’Two dragons cannot exist under the same sky.’ Those were the words of the great monk who read your fate back then." Bei Sangyun carefully told him about the dragon’s fate, the divination, their destiny, and their strange illness that couldn’t be cured.

Fei Chuan suddenly understood where Bei Sangyun was coming from.

She was scared. He had scared her.

Seeing him vomit blood for days and appear as if he were on his deathbed, Bei Sangyun must have thought he was dying. So she grew desperate and began to believe that the strange events surrounding his birth were connected to all of this. So she went to his grandfather for that story?

He had heard that Bei Sangyun went on a trip to some mountains before returning to River Village. Perhaps she had met that monk there.

"...Did you talk to that fraud?" he asked, feeling anger start to rise within him.

"...He’s not a fraud, Fei Chuan. What he said—"

"He made my family turn their backs on me! I was abandoned to die because of his words! He condemned and ruined my life. How could you even think of seeking him out for advice?" Fei Chuan’s anger was growing. "What, did he tell you to leave me too?"

"Fei Chuan, listen. It might sound unbelievable, but it’s all true—"

"What truth? That I’m destined to die young? My grandfather believed his words more than he believed in me and pushed me away. And now you’re doing the exact same thing. I don’t know what kind of nonsense he’s feeding you, but that fraud is lying to you."

Fei Chuan wanted to drop the phone and run to her, to shake her by the shoulders. "Don’t believe him. Believe in me."

"Fei Chuan, I don’t want to believe him. But there are mysterious things in this world that we can’t comprehend. Believe me, I tried not to listen to him, but your condition only got worse. And when I did distance myself from you, you got better. It seems impossible, but it’s the truth."

Fei Chuan’s gaze darkened. "So you believe him? You really think that staying away from me, leaving me, is going to make me better?"

"I do. It’s the only thing we can do right now—for your sake... and mine."

"Ha." Fei Chuan laughed bitterly. He ran a hand over his face in frustration. "Bei Sangyun, you’re not a coward. So why are you choosing to run away and hide because of some nonsense?" His gaze hardened.

He stopped listening to Bei Sangyun, and like a rebellious child, started walking toward her at a fast pace.

Bei Sangyun was stunned. She stepped back. "I told you to keep your distance!"

Fei Chuan ran toward her. Bei Sangyun turned to run as well, but within moments, Fei Chuan’s long strides closed the gap. He grabbed her and pulled her into a tight embrace.

His heart pounded from the heavy run. He hugged her tightly, refusing to let go. "I don’t believe it. Because it’s all nonsense. You’re smart enough to know what desperation can do to people." Fei Chuan held her waist tightly, resting his head on her shoulder. "Don’t be scared, Bei Sangyun. I won’t die so easily."

Bei Sangyun, held tightly from behind, struggled against him. She counted the seconds frantically in her mind.

Close contact, deeper emotions—these could all trigger a relapse of Fei Chuan’s illness and make it worse.

He had just recovered from his illness. He couldn’t afford to get sick again!

"Let me go, Fei Chuan! I’m serious!"

Fei Chuan was deeply hurt by how desperately Bei Sangyun struggled to escape his embrace. He held her even tighter, as if his life depended on it. "...Don’t leave me... Don’t leave me like they did... I won’t be able to bear it... Not you too..." he muttered weakly.

Bei Sangyun paused in her struggles, her eyes welling up with tears.

This was why she wanted to end it quickly—because the longer it dragged on, the harder it would be for both of them.

She didn’t want to leave him either. But what choice did they have? It wasn’t just about any matters; it was about life and death.