Chapter 3
“Alright, I’ll stay with you a few more days.” After seeing Linda sit down, Hans slowly closed his eyes. In the morgue, the orderly stared at my corpse, troubled, “It’s been two days and no one has come to claim him. What should we do?” Another orderly was cleaning up, “What are you looking at? Finish up quickly and we can leave early.” So the two of them casually threw my body into a bag together. One of them said, “Judging by how miserable he looks, he probably wasn’t a good person anyway.” “Good person or bad, once they’re cremated, they’re all the same.” “True, but it’s still a pity, he was so young.” *** Two more days passed. After seeing Hans mostly recover, Linda finally remembered to check on me. She walked to my hospital room and saw it completely empty. A nurse was tidying up the bed. “Where’s the patient from this bed?” Linda asked. The nurse looked up and saw it was Linda, “The patient was discharged.” Hearing the nurse’s words, Linda felt a bit annoyed. She thought I had just had surgery, yet didn’t stay to recover properly. Where had I run off to? She took out her phone and dialed my number. But the call never went through. “Fine, if you have the guts to die out there, don’t come looking for me.” Linda stormed back to Hans’s ward. Sensing Linda’s anger, Hans spoke up, “Is Herbert very angry, refusing to forgive you? It’s all my fault, I’ll go explain to him right away, don’t let him misunderstand you because of me.” Hans hurried to get out of bed, but Linda immediately stopped him. “Why care about him? What you need to do now is focus on recovering.” “That way, when you’re discharged, Mom and Dad will be happy to hear the good news. As for Herbert, he won’t die, he’s already been discharged,” she said. Linda recalled how I had desperately begged her before the surgery and she still felt upset. She couldn’t understand why I, as his relative, could be so heartless toward my brother. Seeing Hans always thought of me, she felt even more that I wasn’t as good as him. She thought that since I was so stubborn and insisted on leaving, I could just calm down on my own. When Hans was discharged, it wouldn’t be too late to call me back. In the doctors’ office, the colleagues were laughing and chatting. When they saw Linda walk in, they all immediately went quiet. Linda felt something strange. “What were you talking about just now?” No one answered. After a while, a colleague came up and hugged Linda’s shoulder, “What else could we talk about? Of course, we were saying how deep the love is between you and your husband.” Thinking about how I was forced to donate one of my hearts, Linda felt that I truly loved her deeply. Even though it was under pressure, at least I had helped her and saved a life. Thinking of this, she forgave my sudden disappearance, but she was still angry that I wouldn’t answer her calls. A colleague noticed the melancholy on her face, “Is your husband in a bad mood?” Linda stayed silent. The colleague continued, “He just had surgery, feeling down is normal. You should be more understanding, do something to cheer him up.” Hearing this, Linda’s brows gradually relaxed. She thought of how much I loved the pastries from the shop near home, so she decided to go home after work. Linda carried the pastries back to our apartment, “Honey? I bought the pastries you like.” No one responded. She had just set down the pastries when she saw the divorce papers I had placed on the table a week ago. The moment she had asked me to donate my heart, I had already decided to divorce her.