The only pulse of warmth he could feel was in his right hand. He squinted his eyes to the sharp ray of light escaping through the curtain. His eyes adjusted to the an unfamiliar ceiling. When he gazed at the source of warmth, he found his uncle Song Jiyang clutching to his fist and sleeping to the side of the bed. Song Jiyang Woke up to the movement of Xiao Zhan. 

"A-Zhan!" Song Jiyang hugged him so tight. 

"A- Zhan!" He repeated again and again while holding his nephew in the tight embrace. 

"Uncle....too tight.." Xiao Zhan struggled a little but the warmth soon took away all the cold he had faced before. Instantly  he remembered.

"Where's A-Cheng and Little Star?" Xiao Zhan asked looking around. Now that he had taken a good look, he realized that he was in a hospital. The beep of the machine attach to his heart and drip drop of the glucose pined to his arm brought him back to his sense. 

"A-Cheng and the other boy are safe but...." Song Jiyang lost his will to continue. The tears started to form in his eyes again. From the looks of it, he had been crying a lot. His eyes  were already swollen. 

"Uncle what happened? "Xiao Zhan placed his hand over his uncle but before he could ask anything further, his grandma stepped inside the ward.

"Grandma!!" the little boy immediately lit up. Liu Tingyu tried to smile but her painful expression couldn't fool Xiao Zhan. He started to worry about the two kids. What if they got severely sick? What if they got Hypothermia and their organs got affected?

 Liu Tingyu sat next to her grandchild and hug him gently while caressing his silky hair. 

"Grandma how long was I asleep?" Xiao Zhan asked hugging back Liu Tingyu. 

"5 days." Liu Tingyu stated.

"That long?"

"Your breathing became unstable and doctors had to put you in ICU." 

"What about the others?" 

"A-Cheng had a fever but recovered in 3 days." 

"And the little sta- Yibo?" 

"That boy is with his family now."

"Did he meet his brother?" 

"I think it was his brother and uncle who picked him up." 

Xiao Zhan heaved a sigh of relief. Despite how Wang Yibo was totally uncooperative, he really loved his brother and Xiao Zhan could feel the loneliness of the boy. If they ever had a chance, Xiao Zhan would like to meet with the boy again and become friends.

"Where's mom and dad?" Xiao Zhan asked and the two halted at once. Song Jiyang who had stopped crying moments ago started to tear up again. Xiao Zhan was confused, he was ready to be scolded by his parents for staying out for too long but that sound never came.

Liu Tingyu kissed Xiao Zhan's forehead and said, " A-Zhan, They're in a better place." 

A better place?

Back at the inn, Wu Hao noticed the change in the weather and saw the forecast to confirm a storm. 

"A-Liu, Kids aren't back yet?"  

"Zhan Zhan said he had to say goodbye to his new friend. He wanted to give him something and even took money from me." Cici Liu said smilingly while packing their bags. It was the last week of their holiday and they had to go to Jiujiang first to drop Wang Zhuocheng then back to their own hometown in Chongqing. 

"The weather is bad, I should go check on them." Wu Hao said wearing his rain coat. 

"Zhan Zhan is a big boy, let's wait till the sun set." Cici Liu suggested. Wu Hao agreed. Because if anyone it was Xiao Zhan who had always been demurred. If he could get to play with a kid of his age maybe its for the best. 

The sun had fallen along with the heavy rain but there was no sign of Xiao Zhan or Wang Zhuocheng. The couple started to worry a lot when Wu Hao finally decided to step out.

"Be careful, it's a  bad storm out there." Cici Liu handed Wu Hao the rain coat which he had taken off previously. 

"I will call you right away once I find them." Wu Hao said while stepping out.

"Be safe." Cici Liu prayed as she watched her husband stepped  into the menace.

Beep 

Beep

Beep

The number you have dialed is not answering, please try again later

No matter how many times, she had called the response was the same.

Hours later, there was no sign of her husband or children. Cici Liu had been trying her best to calm her self down. The weather forecast warned people to stay away from the coastal  areas as the waves might rise too high.

Cici Liu put her rain coat on and charged straight into the rain. Sitting at home waiting was too difficult for her. The atmosphere was really heavy with lightening and wind gust. It was just 9 PM but it looked as if the night had conquered the world. There were barely any people and few cars trying to get out of the storm. 

"Zhan Zhan!" Cici Liu shouted helplessly as she searched every nook and corner of the street. She made her way to the Luo River, the waves were high. She stayed as far as  possible and even clung the tree when one of the wave hit the coast. When the wave died down it revealed something half buried into the sand. 

Cici Liu's heart dropped like a bomb when she saw what the content was. It was the phone which she was desperately trying to reach. 

"A- Hao!!!" Cici liu shouted on the top of her lungs  but there was only the sound of angry waves. 

"A Hao!!!" She broke down right there and then when she called the phone one last time. It really was Wu Hao's phone. 

"Zhan Zhan, A Hao, A Cheng come back." She cried as she clutched the phone in an embrace. A sudden lightening brightened the dark sky when it revealed  small closed streets. 

Hope was not lost!

Cici Liu shouted at the mouth of each street, calling for her family. The wind would take control sometime and push her away slamming her onto objects. But she carried on, searched in the lurking streets. 

And there it was, her hope dying in front of her. She spotted them! The children! but it was too late that Xiao Zhan had finally fallen down. The unfamiliar boy who she assumed was his newest friend tried to drag him under the roof of lids they had created. 

Cici Liu dashed towards his sun and embraced him into a hug. She took off her rain coat and covered Xiao Zhan with it,  His body temperature was already pretty low. 

"Zhan Zhan stay with me! " She carried Xiao Zhan in her arms and gestured the unknown boy to take Zhuocheng's hand. 

Xiao Zhan was already having trouble breathing and his body felt too cold, his heart beat was the exact opposite of his mom. Cici Liu wanted to run but the boys couldn't keep up with  her pace. The time was running out, if Xiao Zhan didn't get warmth soon then he could die, like his...

The thought was enough to terrify her when she carried his cold body tightly in her embrace running towards the nearest hospital on the wet roads.

All it took was one  hit when everything got dull!

Xiao Zhan didn't realize that the tears were already falling from his eyes. He looked up to see his grandma's face, if there was the slightest possibility of it being a bad joke, he was ready to take it. But it wasn't! In the slippery road, a car lost control and hit Cici Liu. Despite that she dragged her injured body over Xiao Zhan to give him all the little warmth possible till her last breath.

Xiao Zhan was looking for a reason, a loop hole, anything if reality could be altered. He didn't realize the sound of the machine was beeping fast when his breath was running short. The sweat beads formed on his face and his nose  started to bleed. Song Jiyang ran to call the doctor while Liu Tongyue tried to calm Xiao Zhan down.

With the blink of an eye, he had lost everything!

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Sorry for the errors and thank you for reading.