Work Text:
Wei Ying's day hasn't been the best, he missed the train to uni this morning and was late to his morning class, plus he forgot to buy himself breakfast so he was starving.
9:15 am his watch read. "Finalllyy! More than 2 hours before my next class, I can still walk to that café nearby."
It would take about 5 minutes to get to the café, but before he could even see the cafe's sign he saw it a man glad in white hovering over the bridge. He was leaning on the rails of the bridge and looked so deep in thought but you can see it in his face he was not having a great day. Wei Ying took a moment and stared, he wondered if he should approach the man and ask. But he had his doubts I mean it was 9 am on a Monday maybe he was just tired. But deep in his gut he knew something was wrong. So he slowly walked towards the man.
"Hello, I'm sorry to approach you all of a sudden but are you okay?"
a moment of silence passed
"Yeah I'm fine just leave me be, go." the man answered curtly almost defensive and slowly turned back around. Wei Ying took a second befire he started walking away, but he couldn't. Something wasn't right he's heard that tone and those same words, this isn't good.
"Hey mister!" he hesitated "Are you thinking about jumping?" That seemed to trigger the man. "Shut up! Leave me alone!" "Look I know what you're about to say, I know that I don't know what you're going through or what you've been through and I also know I probably look like a jackass prying in your life but can we just talk for a moment" Wei Ying's voice getting softer and softer by the end.
That seemed to calm the man a bit, but he was still in a defensive stance "Who are you?" , "I'm Wei Ying, can we talk for just a moment?" As he said that the man in white finally sat down and leaned his back on the bridge railing. Wei Ying went closer and sat next to him.
"Can I just tell you a story for a moment?" the man nodded.
"Well I once knew this guy, he was always happy, always smiled everyone thought he was a golden child. He was intelligent, funny, talented, and even well-loved by his peers. But unknown to everyone else he suffered on the inside. He'd lost his parents, his adoptive parents hated him too and constantly beating him up and they've always made him feel terrible, and although people tried to hide it he also knew he was constantly the topic of rumors around school. He felt so constricted by the world to him it seemed like his only option was to leave the world. He started planning on killing himself the last day of their senior year, leaving nothing but a note behind. He went through with it suffered for 2 more years and as he tossed his graduation call as the valedictorian of their highschool in his mind he knew it was the day everything will finally go away. After putting the note in his room he left for the bridge, he'd make it quick he'd jump and the deep and cold water will just do so as they please with the body. He was already there standing on the outside part of the railing and was counting before jumping but then he heard it was a scream"
~~~~~
FLASHBACK
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING GET OUT OF THERE"
Huh he turned around their stood a man and a woman wearing purple.
"Are you insane you could've died!" The woman exclaimed as they both pulled him out. They sat him down by the bridge's
railing and they sat next to him. "We're you trying to jump?" The man asked. "Leave me alone, please" his voice was pleading and sad. "No you don't understand you have so much to live for." The woman said "NOOOO! You don't understand" The man cried and then he broke he wailed and pleaded for his dead parents, pleaded for the rumors and his adoptive parents to stop and the man and the woman was still there comforting him not once prying about what happened and just letting him cry. In the end the man told them everything and then "Hey you don't have to worry I'm Jiang Yanli you don't have to worry anymore, we're here we'll help you". The woman said with tears in her eyes "An I'm Jiang Cheng you can come with us first to the café let's talk there". As they sat in the café the woman said "You don't. have to come back home you can come stay with us. We have an extra room and you can start fresh" The man though about it but he really had nothing to lose so he agreed.
FLASHBACK ENDS
~~~~~
"They were right he was able to start fresh getting into college was easy because of his intelligence and was even able to get a scholarship. They started treating each other as siblings and he was finally able to start healing from the past. Because of the note he left his adoptive parents assumed that he was dead and never tried to contact police to look for a body. But in the end it was for the better he was finally happy, he was finally free." Wei Ying finished the story.
The man in white stopped crying, eyes puffy he looked to be contemplating.
As he was about to stand the man spoke "Wait! can you please stay?" and with that Wei Ying sat back down. As he did so the man started "It started with my mom, she was the only person I've really ever considered being close with aside from my brother. She was my sun, for every recital my dad missed she was there, for ever wound I got she was there to kiss it better. But she passed away when I was 16. Things slowly went downhill from there. I was not close with my dad but our relationship got even worse when she died. He started blaming me and my brother, he hurt us although not physically but definitely mentally and emotionally. It got so bad we had to start living with our uncle. He wasn't as bad as dad, he was actually nice he left me and my brother to do our own things and even enrolled us in music classes to help sooth our minds. But then my dad passed away last month and our uncle was now even more resigned from us. Even though I disliked dad it still hurt that now it was now really just up to us. I've lost my parents and my brother stopped eating and started keeping to himself. It sucks I just feel so alone."
The man cried and cried on Wei Ying's shoulder but he dare not say anything but instead silently comforted the man as tears had started to fall from his eyes too. They sat there for what felt like hours until the man in white looked back up at Wei Ying and said "The man you talked about, was it you?" "Yes" he shortly answered. "I know that it's hard thinking about how we're gonna get past the hurdles thrown at us, but I know you can do it, I know that you're strong" Wei Ying said. The man said "And how do you know that?" "You've overcome so many things and managed to last this long that takes strength and courage. That fleeting moment of hesitation before you jumped just showed you still think there is something worth living for. You still have your brother, your uncle, and most importantly you still have yourself. You still have time to change things. Life is literally a shit show sometimes but there are also times that make us realize that life is worth living, that the uncertainties is what makes it so great. If I had jumped that day I would've missed so much things in life, my last was horrible but I will never let it define me." "Was it hard?" "Of course it was, it takes time to heal but it was worth it." As they sat there again in silence for a few moments the man in white said in a soft voice "Thank you, I'm Lan Zhan" Wei Ying smiled "Nice to meet you I don't know if you heard me a while ago but I'm Wei Ying." he hesitated for a moment "Do you wanna head to the café?" "Don't you have something else to do?" 11:45 am his classes was about to start in 15 minutes "No I don't have anything else to do, so would you want to come with me?" Lan Zhan simply nodded and they both headed to the cafe.
Wei Ying forgot about his growling stomach instead the only thing running through his head at the moment was
𝓗𝓮𝓻𝓮'𝓼 𝓽𝓸 𝓫𝓮𝓽𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓭𝓪𝔂𝓼 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓾𝓼 𝓛𝓪𝓷 𝓩𝓱𝓪𝓷. 𝓜𝓪𝔂 𝓯𝓪𝓽𝓮 𝓫𝓮 𝓷𝓲𝓬𝓮 𝓽𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓫𝓸𝓽𝓱 𝓾𝓼 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓵𝓮𝓽 𝓾𝓼 𝓱𝓮𝓪𝓵