Last Love chapter 48

Wen Ke quickly walked into the bathroom, swiftly turned around and locked the door as if escaping. Only when he found himself alone in the confined space did he seem to recover a bit.

Silently, he gazed at the large mirror above the sink in the bathroom, revealing a face that appeared pale and weary. At the age of 28, he wasn’t old, but the past ten years had burdened his life with too much helplessness.

He truly loved Han Jiangque, so sometimes, he couldn’t help but wish he could be a completely new Wen Ke. Perhaps, being together with Han Jiangque would be purer and happier that way.

Without so much sorrowful past, without those mutual wounds known only to each other.

Wen Ke wasn’t sure what to do. Although he intended to take a bath, he felt too exhausted to undress. So, he stood there for a while, eventually turning to open the hotel bathtub’s faucet.

Even in this situation, there was a certain string in his mind, thinking about letting Han Jiangque, who had just finished the match, relax in a hot bath later.

When the tub was filled with water, he sat on the bathroom’s chilly floor, lost in thought.

Amidst the sound of gushing water, he suddenly heard two very soft knocks on the door. Han Jiangque’s voice came from outside, “Wen Ke…”

He looked up at the door, hesitated, neither opening it nor responding.

“Wen Ke,” Han Jiangque’s voice sounded more distant, the tone increasingly muffled, but his frustration was still evident. Pausing for a moment, he spoke through the door, “I’m sorry.”

Wen Ke couldn’t help but inhale sharply.

For some reason, whenever Han Jiangque apologized, his heart would fill with infinite self-blame and pity, pushing aside his own grievances completely.

He couldn’t bear to let Han Jiangque feel like he had “done wrong.”

Wen Ke took a deep breath, rubbed his eyes forcefully, and then reluctantly stood up to unlock the door.

Han Jiangque was waiting right outside. Though his tall figure stood straight, he resembled an abandoned large canine.

“I’m fine,” Wen Ke struggled to maintain composure, attempting to explain, “I was just running water, and I didn’t hear—”

“I’m sorry.” Before he could finish, Han Jiangque tightly embraced him. His deep voice was filled with regret and pain, repeatedly saying, “I’m sorry, Wen Ke. I was wrong, I was wrong. Don’t ignore me, don’t leave me.”

Their hearts pressed against each other, as if they could hear each other’s heartbeat.

Wen Ke reached back, encircling Han Jiangque’s neck. He could almost feel the unusual fear in Han Jiangque’s voice, whispering softly, “I’m not angry. It’s okay, Han Jiangque. I’m still here, everything’s okay.”

The Han Jiangque of his teenage years would never have acted like this—apologizing weakly, almost begging for forgiveness as if he had lost all his pride.

In an instant, Wen Ke understood. Han Jiangque used to be different because back then, he believed that he would always be there, even if they argued or got angry, things between them wouldn’t change.

But that incident ultimately altered everything.

Perhaps the ten years of separation had robbed Han Jiangque of his confidence in Wen Ke’s presence, so now, even the slightest disagreement made him fearful to this extent.

He was genuinely afraid of Wen Ke leaving.

Feeling his heartache, Wen Ke’s breathing trembled. He was no longer concerned about anything else; he just wanted to reassure Han Jiangque.

They stayed embraced like that, not knowing when they transitioned from standing to sitting on the bathroom floor, comforting each other with touches on their backs and hair. They stayed like that for a long time, until both gradually calmed their emotions.

Wen Ke still gently caressed Han Jiangque’s hair. The tall Alpha seemed a bit embarrassed by his earlier display of vulnerability, deliberately pointing at the nearly full bathtub, trying to shift the focus, “Wen Ke, do you want to take a bath first?”

“It’s for you.” Wen Ke said softly, “You fought all night, your muscles must be sore. I just thought… you could take a hot bath before sleeping.”

“Is it… for me?” Han Jiangque’s long eyelashes trembled with the blink of his eyes.

Even in that situation, Wen Ke still thought about drawing a bath for him.

This thought made him feel a mix of bitterness and incredible happiness. It was as if his heart had suddenly eased from extreme panic.

He kissed Wen Ke’s forehead and whispered very softly, “Then let’s bathe together, okay?”

“Okay, sure…”

Although a bit shy, Wen Ke also wanted to be with Han Jiangque, to embrace him, and he didn’t want to be separated even by an inch.

After Han Jiangque lay down in the warm water, Wen Ke straddled him on his waist, a position so intimate that it felt a bit shameful.

“Han Jiangque,” Wen Ke leaned against Alpha’s chest, holding Han Jiangque’s hand. Perhaps it was because he didn’t make eye contact, but suddenly, he felt an unprecedented urge to confide.

He murmured, “My mom… back then, she got breast cancer.”

“The incidence of breast cancer in women in the country is quite high, probably between 25% to 30%, especially among middle-aged women between 45 and 60. This age range is considered a high-risk period for breast cancer.”

Wen Ke spoke slowly, “My mom happened to turn forty-five that year.”

Han Jiangque silently tightened his embrace around the Omega in his arms. Hearing Wen Ke talk about this, he suddenly felt a deep heartache.

Perhaps it was because he had thought about it countless times in his mind, so even after ten years, he could confidently state those related statistics.

“She actually had a mastectomy first. At that time, we all thought it would suppress the spread of cancer cells. After that surgery and being discharged, she didn’t dare to look at her own body. I changed her medicine for her. That wound… Han Jiangque, that wound…”

He restrained his tone, preventing himself from losing control.

Life’s immense pain is more challenging to narrate than the trivial.

This was the first time he spoke about it. During this narration, he seemed to become that young man who had been greatly frightened all those years ago.

“It was bald there.”

Wen Ke eventually said calmly, “When young, it’s an organ used for breastfeeding, but after aging and getting sick, it was removed, leaving nothing, just a bald area.”

“It’s really cruel. After getting sick, it seems like nothing else matters. Beauty, dignity, a complete body – everything is gone. It’s just about surviving, and it must be very painful.”

Wen Ke raised his head, his eyes red. He held Han Jiangque’s hand and placed it on his petite nipple, saying very softly, “Sometimes, I can’t help but touch it, even though I know I’m a man. Still, I feel scared and… very sorry for my mom.”

Han Jiangque couldn’t imagine how Wen Ke, who was not yet eighteen at the time, managed to bear such a blow. Even now, when he heard these words, he felt his chest almost suffocating.

He couldn’t help but ask softly, “And then? What happened afterward?”

“Even after the surgery, the cancer cells spread rapidly to the lymph nodes. Because the situation was already very bad, chemotherapy had to start immediately, although even that might not have prolonged it for long. But at that time… we really had no money left. After my mom received the report at the hospital, she asked me, ‘Should we just give up?'”

Wen Ke held Han Jiangque’s hand, repeating, “She held my hand like that and asked me very cautiously.”

“Han Jiangque…”

Wen Ke looked up at Han Jiangque’s face, his lips trembling intensely. Even though he tried hard to suppress it, tears still rolled down his face.

“Han Jiangque, she didn’t say not to treat her. She was asking me… asking me if we should give up. In her heart, she also wanted to live, wanted to live no matter what, do you understand?”

Wen Ke said through tears.

“I understand, I understand…”

Han Jiangque’s eyes also reddened slightly.

After ten years, those thrilling moments seemed to reappear before him.

The choices people make before death are truly sad and moving.

Only at this moment did he truly understand what kind of 18-year-old Omega he held in his arms.

In such a situation, any choice made was understandable.

Even if it was just to survive, it was already a miraculously tenacious persistence.

“Later, she couldn’t speak before leaving. But she just kept looking at me, looking very worried. My mom was a very gentle person, afraid of burdening others. She must have felt very sorry for me. But actually… even if a hundred times were to start again, even if knowing it would end like this, I would still make the same choice. To treat her, even if only to live one more month, one more week, we had to treat her.”

“Han Jiangque, I miss her so much.”

Wen Ke buried his face in Han Jiangque’s chest, “Even now… I still think of her every day.”

For the first time, he cried like a child. In comparison to love, the tragedies of life—birth, aging, sickness, death—are the most helpless.

At the age of 18, he had already experienced the heaviest loss a person could bear, so in comparison, the blows of love seemed small.

Those overly heavy things were buried in his heart for a long time, and this was his way of keeping himself alive—isolating himself from his true emotions with a layer of safety film, numb and dull, but he survived.

Until now, in front of Han Jiangque, he finally tore off that layer of film.

He finally shed the tears that the lonely teenager, who had watched his mother leave by the sickbed, had never shed.