I asked you to write a light novel, but you wrote about living?

Yu Wen withdrew his hand and looked back at the camera.

He didn't look at anyone, tilting his head slightly as if he were reminiscing.

Then, he spoke calmly, word by word…

To be precise, it should be read aloud:

After my legs became paralyzed, my temper became volatile and unpredictable. Watching the geese flying north, I would suddenly smash the glass in front of me; listening to Li Guyi's sweet singing, I would violently throw whatever was at hand against the walls.

He read very slowly.

There was no explanation of what "the northward-bound geese" meant, nor was there an explanation of who "Li Guyi" was.

Words that no longer exist in this world flowed from his mouth, yet strangely, no one interrupted him.

What is he reciting?

For some reason, it's become quiet.

My mother quietly slipped out and secretly listened to my movements from where I couldn't see her. When everything was quiet again, she quietly came back in, her eyes red, and looked at me.

"I heard the flowers in Beihai Park are in bloom, I'll push you there for a walk," she always said.

The live chat has stopped.

【…】

【well】

My mom also likes to take me out for walks.

……

"No, I won't go!" I pounded my hateful legs with all my might, shouting, "What's the point of me living!" My mother rushed over and grabbed my hands, holding back her sobs, saying, "We'll live well together, mother and son..."

As Yu Wen read this, he subconsciously glanced down at his legs, which were covered by the blanket and could no longer move.

The movement was very light, yet it silenced the comments section for a moment.

[He couldn't hold back anymore; the hardships he described in Fugui's story were exactly the same hardships he himself had endured.]

How did his mother get through those years?

He didn't stop and continued reading:

That day, I sat alone in the house again, watching the leaves outside the window rustling as they fell.

[The mother came in and stood in front of the window. "The chrysanthemums in Beihai Park are blooming. Let me take you to see them," she said, her face pleading. "When?" she asked. "Tomorrow if you'd like?" she replied.]

My answer had already delighted her. "Okay, tomorrow it is," I said. She was so happy that she kept sitting down and standing up: "Then let's get ready quickly." "Ugh, what's the big deal? It's just a short walk, what's there to prepare!"

She laughed too, sat down beside me, and started chattering, "After we see the chrysanthemums, we'll go to Fangshan Restaurant. You loved their pea flour cakes when you were little. Remember when I took you to Beihai Park? You insisted the poplar flowers were caterpillars, and you ran around stomping them flat..."

She suddenly stopped talking. She was even more sensitive than I was to words like "run" and "trample." She quietly went out again.

When Yu Wen read the words "run" and "step," his voice paused for a moment.

The two million people in the live stream didn't react at first.

But soon after, many people belatedly realized the weight of this seemingly ordinary sentence.

The mother's son can no longer run away, nor can he be trampled...

So she stopped abruptly halfway through her sentence, more sensitive than her son who was lying down, afraid that these two ordinary words might hurt her son's legs that couldn't walk.

So she swallowed her words and quietly slipped away again.

The unspeakable suffering of her son, once it reaches the mother's heart, causes her pain all over again.

[Holy crap... I'm only just realizing that "run" and "step" are different.]

She even has to avoid those two words when she speaks... How much pain must it be for her as a mother?

[The son is paralyzed, and the mother is even more careful than her son; she's really broken down.]

There wasn't a single comment moving in the live stream room.

Two million people, separated by that cold light, listened intently as the young man in the wheelchair calmly continued reading.

But I never knew her illness had progressed to that stage. Later, my sister told me that she often suffered from liver pain so severe that she couldn't sleep at night, tossing and turning.

She went out and never came back.

When the neighbors carried her onto the vehicle, she was still vomiting large amounts of blood. I hadn't realized she was that ill, and watching the tricycle drive away, I never imagined it would be our final farewell.

[I was told that her last words before she fell into a coma were, "My sick son, and my underage daughter..."]

Yu Wen stopped reading at this point.

The live stream room fell silent.

【…】

A sick son, a minor daughter...

I can't take it anymore.

After a long while, Yu Wen slowly raised his eyes and looked at the camera.

I understand what my mother didn't finish saying. My sister understands too. We're together now, we must live well...

……

"You ask me, what does a person who has nothing have left to keep living?"

"I won't say empty words like 'living just to live'."

Yu Wen's voice was soft, yet every word was clear:

"It's this phrase, 'Live well.' It means there's someone who, even on their deathbed, still thinks of you and wants you to live well for them."

He turned his head and looked back at the little girl huddled in the shadows beside him. His usually calm face finally softened completely.

He raised his hand and gently pulled his younger sister closer to him, so that her small body could rest against his wheelchair.

"When I was writing 'To Live,' I couldn't continue writing several times when I got to the part where Fugui was seeing off his loved ones one by one. It was she who would leave me a hot meal every day and stay up with me by the table when I was up until dawn."

Yu Wen looked at her, as if he were speaking to everyone, yet also as if he were speaking only to her:

"I haven't experienced the kind of suffering that Fugui went through, but I haven't been crushed by debt and these useless legs in this basement because I still have her, because there is someone who needs me to live well."

He looked at the camera again:

"Fugui is the same. He lives not because he has figured out any great principles, nor simply 'lives for the sake of living,' but because of Jiazhen, Fengxia, Youqing, and all those who have loved him and whom he has loved."

"They were all ahead of him."

"But have you ever thought that as long as Fugui is still alive, remembers them, remembers the shoes Jiazhen made for him, remembers Youqing running barefoot across the field, and remembers Fengxia's smile, then they have not truly left this world."

"A person dies three times in their life. The first is when their heart stops beating, that's physical death. The second is when they are buried, and from then on, they no longer have a place in this world. But true death is when the last person in this world who remembers them also forgets them; at that moment, they are truly and completely gone from this world."

Yu Wen looked at the camera and said, word by word:

"Therefore, Fugui's life was never just for himself."

"The longer he lives, the more Jiazhen will be remembered. The longer Youqing and Fengxia stay in this world, the more he will be remembered. When he leads that old ox along the ridge of the field, he is never alone. He carries the whole family on his back and lives well for them."

"Those who loved him, even though they are all gone, that love has not gone away."

Yu Wen paused, his voice barely audible, yet striking everyone's hearts with a powerful impact:

"Suffering itself is indeed meaningless. But those who love you and are remembered by you even in suffering, they are the meaning itself."

"When Fugui was living on the ridges of the fields, leading that old ox, he was never alone."

In the video, Yu Yin finally couldn't hold back her tears and nodded vigorously to her brother through her mask.

The live stream room was completely silent.

……

……

P.S.: "Autumn Memories," by Shi Tiesheng, is a text from the seventh-grade textbook published by People's Education Press. I've enclosed the original text in brackets [].