Dominate the Super Bowl

Chapter 781: 780 Covered in Blood
 

A gust of wind, hitting the face, the bitter cold penetrating the pores, freezing the blood sans temperature into ice, goosebumps emerging.

However, Li Wei didn’t notice at all, his mind completely oblivious to these sensations, simply hurrying forward, stumbling into the night.

It wasn’t until Li Wei caught a glimpse of a shadow out of the corner of his eye, a figure like the Grim Reaper, quietly waiting at the hospital’s entrance, that it seized his heart.

“…Who, who’s there?”

In the dim night light, the figure curled up beside the steps at the hospital’s entrance, the frail body seeming unable to bear the weight of the night, nearly crushed and swallowed by it, shivering slightly, as if its life force was fading bit by bit in the darkness, like a candle in the wind.

That, clearly, wasn’t the Grim Reaper.

Coming to a halt, Li Wei turned around and carefully discerned the figure in the blurry glow of the hospital lights and moonlight.

He couldn’t help doubting his own eyes.

“…Felix?”

No sooner had he called out than the image in his mind became clear.

“Felix!”

Li Wei quickly approached, looking around but not seeing Karen’s figure; Felix didn’t even bring his wheelchair, simply sitting on the cold steps.

How had Felix gotten here?

But now Li Wei had no time to think about this as the sight of Felix shivering before him was much more worrying, his heart contracting violently.

A feeling of unease quickly filled his chest.

“God, Felix, are you okay?”

As he approached, he took off his own coat, wrapping Felix up tightly, then looked up, ready to go into the hospital to find a wheelchair.

Felix couldn’t stay outside indefinitely.

“Why are you sitting here alone, let’s go inside…”

But unexpectedly, Felix grabbed Li Wei’s arm, stopping him.

Li Wei, confused, sat back down and looked at Felix.

Felix lifted his head, tugging at the corner of his mouth to show a smile, uglier than crying, “I… I’m afraid.”

Afraid?

Afraid of what?

Li Wei didn’t understand.

Felix took a deep breath, “It should have been mine. It shouldn’t be Annie, it should have been me.”

“She… how could she… no, this isn’t right, it should be me.”

His words trailed off, Felix’s hand, like a withered branch, clung tightly to Li Wei’s arm, staring blankly at him with the desperation of clutching at a lifeline.

Then, he broke down.

Without expression, without words, tears simply burst forth from his eyes, plopping onto the back of Li Wei’s hand, almost scalding him.

That despair, that pain, swept through destructively, all resilience and courage completely shattered, their defenses completely lost.

Li Wei couldn’t breathe, “No, Felix, it’s not like that.”

However, there wasn’t a hint of sparkle in Felix’s eyes, just a gentle shake of his head.

“It’s unfair.”

That one sentence, like a hammer, fiercely struck the chest.

“This, it’s not fair. It should have been me. Annie was getting better, wasn’t she? Annie was always cooperating with the hospital treatments, right? The doctors said that this round of chemotherapy had shown results, didn’t they?”

“But why… why?”

Each a rhetorical question, each an accusation, hammering down, but Li Wei had no answers, mute and dumbfounded like a fool.

“It shouldn’t have been like this, she’s only eleven, her twelfth birthday is in two weeks. We were still discussing how to celebrate it; I was thinking about what birthday present to give her, but now it can’t be given.”

“Li Wei, tell me, how about I give Annie a signed jersey as a birthday present? Not just from you, but from all fifty-three players on the team, and Coach Reed, and Veach, everyone, not one less, how about that? Because all of us are with her.”

“She would like it, she definitely would.”

“It shouldn’t have unfolded this way, it shouldn’t have ended like this. No!”

One sentence, then another.

Felix plunged into deep anger and despair, staring blankly at his rigid hands, his muscles tense to the limit as if his hands were stained with blood.

That pain, heart-wrenching.

The guilt of a survivor, truly cruel.

But what’s even more cruel is that Felix himself was also struggling on the brink of life and death, the invisible shadow of death still throttling his throat.

Even though Felix hadn’t done anything wrong, not only that, but he himself was enduring great pain, having narrowly escaped death’s door; now the fact of his survival tortured him, as though it was he who had taken Annie’s life, making each breath a torment.

Such a struggle, indescribable with words.

Li Wei took a deep breath but tasted only bitterness, unable to utter a word.

Seeing Felix fall apart before him, Li Wei also sat down on the steps, sitting beside Felix, providing him with a small haven.

Felix carefully hid behind Li Wei’s shoulder, sheltering in the shadows, unable to control himself any longer, he sobbed quietly.

He bit his mouth, lips tightly clamped, trying with all his might to control himself, crying silently, because of the intense pain and the effort, he curled up, emitting no sound.

“I can’t… I don’t dare…”

“Sorry, I don’t dare.”

“I can’t face her, in front of her, I’m like a coward, I don’t even dare to fight properly…”

As he spoke, tears drowned his voice, Felix buried his face in the palms of his hands, hiding all his pain, all his struggle.

Mahomes, rubbing his eyes, followed Kelsey who had suddenly stopped in his tracks, and Mahomes stopped too, looking in the direction of Kelsey’s gaze.

He saw the two figures on the steps at a glance, “Li Wei…”

The next second, Mahomes noticed Felix beside him, the muffled and suffocating sobs tearing through the air, striking straight at his heart.

Mahomes opened his mouth, but before he could make a sound, his eyes moistened again with tears, and he turned away in disarray.

Memories of the living funeral flooded his mind, those scenes still vivid, with Felix thinking he might be Death’s next target.

Little did he expect that the girl with the brilliant sunny smile, the girl who said with strength and confidence, “I hope people will forget me,” the girl who was worried her parents might never recover, the girl who kept talking about wanting to go to Arrowhead Stadium to watch a game…

unexpectedly departed first.

Kelsey kept telling himself to move forward, to take a step, that there was nothing to be nervous or afraid of, to go and offer some comfort to the boy.

But his feet remained rooted to the spot, motionless as if a grand chasm lay before him, and he finally stopped, too timid to move.

He didn’t like such cowardice. More precisely, he despised it.

Today, they’d experienced too many such moments, those sorrows, those pains, those angers, reminding them time and again:

In truth, they weren’t that powerful, even superheroes couldn’t defy fate, let alone them, because they were not superheroes.