Bone Marrow

After finishing his morning class, he turned and went to the laboratory.

Song Shuyi was still not there.

The unease in Cen Zeng's heart grew stronger. Silently, he went to the rooftop and called Song Shuyi.

On the second call, the Senior Brother picked up, saying it was a novelty that his junior brother was actually contacting him proactively.

He was drowsy on the other end and let out a yawn. "What's up? Got something you can't handle and need my help with?"

The junior brother didn't hesitate and asked straight away, "Are you okay?"

"Aren't I still alive?" Song Shuyi chuckled. "What's the matter? I finally got a full twelve hours of sleep. I'm full of life right now."

Cen Zeng looked down, realizing he was uncontrollably considering what it would feel like to jump.

But today was Cheng Shuo's birthday. He couldn't be like this.

"What are you planning to do next?" he asked.

"What can I do?" Song Shuyi asked him. "Do we have many choices?"

"Should we report it?" Cen Zeng asked him. "I can gather more evidence, and there's the evidence Sister Xu has, and maybe what Senior He has..."

Song Shuyi just sighed on the other end.

He said, "Cen Zeng, I'm so tired."

"Let me tell you something." His voice was very calm. "Two years ago, a fifth-year junior from the laboratory jumped off a building. If you count the time, it was right when you were in your third year of high school. He jumped from the most distant unfinished building from our school."

Cen Zeng didn't say anything.

"Sister Xu and I both regret it deeply. We regret not looking out for him, regret not standing up sooner." He sighed. "When his parents came to the laboratory to cause a scene, I was thinking, how could I be so cowardly?"

"It's not your fault."

"I know," he said. "I couldn't do anything. I asked them if they needed help, and they also said it wasn't our fault, telling us miserable students not to get involved. The only thing I could do was bring them into the laboratory."

"Sister Xu took them to the station. After she came back, she asked me, is it really right to remain silent?"

He took a deep breath.

"She asked a question back then that I still don't know how to answer now."

"She said, when the two of us listened to the junior's parents and kept silent, were we secretly relieved inside that we didn't have to stand up? Or were we actually angry that they wouldn't give us a noble excuse to do it 'for the sake of others'?"

"At the time, I said that if they had agreed, I would definitely have stood up. But they were so considerate of us, I really didn't know what to do."

"Later, I was thinking, when people are too kind, they become very afraid of shouldering any kind of debt."

"What are you trying to say?"

"I'm trying to say, Cen Zeng, don't stand up for me. Call me a coward, but I can't bear it. If one day, you feel you can't take it anymore and decide to report it for your own sake, then report it, okay?"

"Then what about you?" Cen Zeng asked him. "What about you?"

He subconsciously tapped the railing in front of him and was surprised to find a few words written on it. The beginning was illegible, but the end read "Peace."

Who were they wishing peace for?

Did it succeed?

Song Shuyi chuckled on the other end. He said, "At worst, I'll just take a leave of absence from school. Dude, back in my hometown, I'm at least a second-generation rich kid."

"I've really had enough of this suffering. Now my parents are always nagging about why I was so stubborn about studying medicine. If I had listened to them, I would have long been in the system, living a stable and peaceful life."

"Instead of being like this, living like a dog, finally getting to do something I'm interested in while working for free, only to be reported by another jealous dog."

His tone carried a rare hint of roguishness. "Back then, I thought studying medicine was so cool, and getting into X University to study was even cooler. To get into this damn laboratory, I beat out at least a hundred people, and in the end, all I want to do is take a leave of absence. It's hilarious."

"Do you want to meet up?"

"Better not," Song Shuyi said. "At least not today, or else I'll cry in front of you. And if you wipe my tears with a straight face, I'll really lose it."

Cen Zeng cooperatively curved the corners of his mouth, then remembered that the Senior Brother on the other end couldn't see.

"Then..." he thought for a moment, "when you come to submit your application for leave, meet with us."

"Of course," Song Shuyi replied. "To see you guys busy as dogs, to soothe the imbalance in my heart."

After he finished, he added, "Tell Cheng Shuo happy birthday for me. It's someone else's birthday, so cheer up. Don't walk around with a long face."

"Mm..."

"Don't just 'mm'..." Song Shuyi's tone held a hint of helplessness. "Our bad luck is our business. Other people didn't do anything to us."

"I know."

"Hanging up now. I'm heading to the City Center for a good meal."

Cen Zeng looked back, finally turning around, no longer looking at the concrete ground more than ten stories below.

Today, he was here to make a frozen section for Cheng Shuo.

After what he said yesterday, Zhang Yuhao would finally no longer block his way. He briskly opened the refrigerator and took out a tube from the box marked "BALB/c mouse bone marrow."

It was freezing. Even wearing double-layered gloves, it was still shockingly cold.

He glanced at the thermometer, confirmed the temperature was barely usable for sectioning, lowered his head, and began to cut.

The first cut was a bit fragmented.

He silently took a light breath and changed to a new blade.

The second cut, the third cut.

The small piece of tissue was finally cut evenly into a thin slice, landing lightly on a glass slide.

Holding his breath, he took the empty glass slides he had prepared earlier. One by one, carefully, he pressed each piece of bone marrow tissue, as thin as a cicada's wing, onto a slide.

He had originally wanted to use the most common Hematoxylin-eosin stain, but now, he just let out a very soft sigh.

It wasn't necessary. The Hematopoietic stem cell itself was essential enough and restored its most primordial, most vibrant form.

He sealed it with a coverslip, added a drop of fixative solution, and then wrapped it in transparent film.

Finally, he placed it in an ordinary plastic specimen box. The outer case was clean. On the edge, with a very fine pen, he quietly wrote, 'To Cheng Shuo.'

The section slowly returned to room temperature, and the internal ice crystal structure of the tissue began to change slightly. But he had already sealed the coverslip, so it wouldn't crack for the time being.

It really wasn't anything precious, just a small piece of fragile yet tenacious life that he had hastily and wretchedly cut.

He had no expectations for anything, but just powerlessly and feebly, like writing "Peace" on the railing, he hoped someone could continue to live well.

Back at room temperature, he carefully tucked the item into the compartment of his backpack, placing it with the still-unopened letter, and turned to leave the laboratory building.

Cooking. Zhang Yijie sent him a message, saying he was picking up the birthday cake and had also brought some balloons, planning to have the birthday boy help decorate his place.

"Okay," he said, then ignored the untimely thought that surfaced in his mind as he held the kitchen knife—how to stab into a heart for a fatal blow.

Author's note:

Some people secretly want to die, and then give others incomprehensible hematopoietic stem cell sections.