Let Me Meet You chapter 55

Don’t Be Afraid

“Li Xuan, you’re awake?”  

Everything he saw was white, and the faint smell of disinfectant lingered in the air. A man in his thirties eagerly approached. “You’re finally awake! I need to call President Li immediately. He’s been so worried, but he couldn’t leave his responsibilities…”  

“Who are you?” Li Xuan asked, his voice hoarse and his throat painful, as if gravel had scraped across rough sandpaper.  

“What did you say?” The man froze for a moment, his hand suspended mid-air while dialing, his expression confused and stuttering. “I’m Zhou Qi… I’ve been to President Li’s house. We’ve met several times. Don’t you remember me?”  

Li Xuan’s head throbbed as he tried to shake off the pain. Gradually, he recalled dimly that this man was Li Mingge’s secretary.  

“Why am I here?”  

“You were in a car accident and were rushed to the hospital! Wait, don’t you remember? They said everything would be fine once you woke up…” Zhou Qi’s eyes widened in disbelief, trying to confirm it wasn’t a joke. He quickly pressed the bedside call button. “Doctor! Something seems off—please come quickly!”  

A car accident.  

Memories surged into Li Xuan’s mind like a flood.  

A stage, beams of light, a sunrise by the beach, the rich scent of incense in a temple… All of it rewound like an eightfold-speed silent film in his mind. Initially, the colors and lines were blurry, with fragments flashing by too quickly to discern before they vanished. Gradually, the light and shadows faded, and everything froze—focusing on Sheng Min’s face at their first meeting.  

That strange dream surfaced again.  

Realizing Zhou Qi was present, Li Xuan belatedly wondered: did this mean…  

“What did you call me just now?” Li Xuan finally pinpointed the source of his disorientation since waking up. Before Zhou Qi could answer, he snatched the phone from him. On the screen was a familiar face with sharp features.  

He has swapped back.  

Or had there never been a swap at all, and everything was just a dream?  

“What’s wrong? Do you remember who I am? Do you want me to call President Li?” Zhou Qi was startled by his strange behavior and repeatedly questioned him while glancing anxiously toward the door. “Where’s the doctor? Why haven’t they arrived yet?”  

“Where is Sheng Min?” Li Xuan’s fingers trembled as he clutched the phone.  

“Who?” Zhou Qi looked at him, utterly baffled.  

Li Xuan tossed the phone back to him, lifted the blanket, and tried to get out of bed. His body was still weak, and he stood up too quickly, almost falling. Zhou Qi rushed to support him. “What are you doing?”  

“I asked you, where is Sheng Min?” Li Xuan repeated.  

“Which Sheng Min? The celebrity?” Zhou Qi had rushed over from the office after a call from Li Mingge and was utterly clueless about the situation. “What are you even talking about?”

“Move.”

Li Xuan, anxious and frustrated, pushed him aside. He yanked the IV needle from his hand and supported himself against the wall as he headed for the door. He ran into a nurse rushing in, who exclaimed, “You can’t get out of bed! Go back and lie down… Family member, please get him back! How did you let him up?”  

“Where is Sheng Min?” Li Xuan asked in a low voice.  

“You young people… not even fully recovered, and already running around chasing celebrities.” The nurse seemed to misunderstand and impatiently replied, “You’re the seventh person to ask about him… Fine, I’ll help you get an autograph later, okay? Now, go back and rest!”  

“We were together,” Li Xuan pressed. Her response brought him a bit of relief. His back throbbed with pain, but he persisted. “How is he? Which ward is he in?”

“He’s not as badly hurt as you… Go back to the bed! Why are you up at all?”  

Zhou Qi finally grasped the situation and hurriedly steadied Li Xuan’s arm. “Li Xuan, let me handle this. Focus on recovering first. If something happens to you, I won’t know how to explain it to President Li.”  

Li Xuan felt unsettled, unable to calm his thoughts. Scenes of Sheng Min falling in the dream replayed in his mind. The nurse, worried about his emotional instability, went to call a doctor while Zhou Qi tried to hold him back.

Having been bedridden for days and sustained only by IV fluids, Li Xuan didn’t have much strength. Just as they reached a stalemate, the door to the hospital room opened again.

“My, it’s lively in here!” Yang Xu entered with Sheng Min in tow, chuckling foolishly. “Li Xuan, are you breaking out of the hospital?”  

Li Xuan didn’t respond. All the noise seemed to vanish in that moment, and the strength he had been forcing himself to muster dissipated entirely. He simply stared at Sheng Min, the pounding in his chest gradually calming, until Sheng Min frowned slightly.  

“Your hand is bleeding.”  

Blood dripped from the IV puncture, tracing a line down his hand. Li Xuan snapped out of his daze and instinctively hid his hand behind him. “It’s fine.”  

Yang Xu dragged Zhou Qi out of the room, leaving Zhou Qi thoroughly confused but focused on how to report this to the boss. Meanwhile, Yang Xu, surprisingly perceptive for once, even closed the door for them.  

“Let the nurse rebandage that later,” Sheng Min said, sitting by the bed. He sighed softly. “Why did you pull out the IV?”  

“I wasn’t paying attention.” Li Xuan avoided the question and, after a pause, looked up at him. “Are you okay?”  

“I’m fine,” Sheng Min said, shaking his head. “I woke up this morning and came to check on you while you were still unconscious.” He pursed his lips and suddenly apologized. “I didn’t know we would swap back… I didn’t mean for you to get hurt so badly.”  

“It’s not that serious. I’m fine, aren’t I?”  

As with the last time their souls had swapped, their injuries seemed disproportionately minor compared to the accident. Just scratches and a mild concussion. The chain collision caused by a bus malfunction in the old city had resulted in numerous casualties among passengers and vehicles trailing behind. Compared to that, their injuries were practically a medical miracle.  

Still, Li Xuan couldn’t shake the memory of Sheng Min lunging to shield him. There had been no time to push him away. He muttered, “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“But you suddenly turned the wheel to the left,” Sheng Min said, holding the crumpled tissue he had just used to wipe away blood. His words seemed to come out of nowhere.  

Li Xuan’s Adam’s apple bobbed as if he wanted to say something, but no words came. Sheng Min fell silent as well. He wore the same hospital gown, and the thin fabric hung loosely on his prominent wrist bones. Under the overhead light, a tiny mole on his wrist appeared faint due to the play of shadows.  

“I think this is the first time I’ve really looked at you like this,” Li Xuan said absentmindedly.  

Sheng Min paused, then lifted his head to look at Li Xuan seriously for a moment before lowering his gaze again. His voice was soft, “I feel like nothing has changed. You still look the same to me.”  

Li Xuan’s heart trembled at those words. From the side, he could see Sheng Min’s lashes fluttering slightly, like a feather brushing gently against his heart.  

It was true—nothing had changed, Li Xuan thought in a daze. He wouldn’t doubt for a second that even if Sheng Min were to switch into someone else’s body, he would recognize him at a glance. But then, another thought came to him: No, Sheng Min cannot switch to someone else.

This irrational thought filled Li Xuan with an unsettling sense of danger. Or perhaps he already understood the reason, which only made him more uneasy. This was a challenge he had never faced before, one that surpassed the complexity of any program he had ever written. No amount of coding languages could provide him with the right command at this moment.  

He had grown up without parents and was used to being alone. He welcomed anyone into his life because he didn’t care when they left. He could have friends, but he was always prepared to part ways with them at any moment. His life had no room for others.  

But Sheng Min—what about Sheng Min?  

They had come this far. He could no longer tell Sheng Min, Let’s just be friends. He didn’t want Sheng Min to pretend everything was fine for his sake, nor could he bear it. But if not friends, then what? If their lives returned to their original trajectories, without the divine twist of fate, what could he offer Sheng Min?  

Li Xuan rubbed his temples as the seconds ticked by, pressuring him to say something. He glanced at the faint outline of Sheng Min’s collarbone peeking out from his neckline. After a long pause, he asked, “Now that we’ve swapped back, are you….. happy?”  

It was a foolish question, masking his true feelings behind irrelevant words.  

“Of course,” Sheng Min replied, forcing a smile as he tugged at the corners of his mouth. His tone was light and casual, “You can take your exams on your own now, and I don’t have to worry about messing them up.”  

Li Xuan’s expression didn’t soften at Sheng Min’s attempt to change the subject. His lips pressed tightly together. “I…”  

“It’s okay, Li Xuan,” Sheng Min interrupted, raising a hand to lightly press against Li Xuan’s lips before quickly withdrawing it. His gaze was kind and gentle. “You don’t have to say anything now… or at all. Don’t be afraid. Let’s both take some time to calm down first.”  

Author’s Note:

If you find this chapter hard to understand, I recommend starting from Chapter 53. The emotional arc is continuous over these chapters.