132 Orchids

*Flashback Still Continues*

"We have shifted the patient to the room, you can see her now." Getting the doctor's approval, both of them made their way inside the private room.

Xiao Zhi Ren was the one who walked inside first but as soon as his eyes fell on her cleaned up face, he was stunned. He ran to her side and rubbed his eyes trying to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. But even after that, he could see her.

Her eyes had a thick gauze around them while there were other small scratches on her face that were disinfected.

"Bro, let's go to the hotel after this." Ji Syaoran stopped talking when he saw the tears in his brother's eyes. "Bro, what's wrong?" He was alarmed immediately.

Xiao Zhi Ren lifted his finger to point at Ru's face but Ji Syaoran couldn't understand what he was trying to show him. "She... It's her. The one in the bar." Xiao Zhi Ren managed to stammer out his words.

Ji Syaoran finally looked carefully at Ru's face. He didn't know what to say at all.

"She's the girl you have been looking for a year?" Xiao Zhi Ren nodded his head. "She's the reason you came to Thailand?" Xiao Zhi Ren nodded again.

"A colleague of mine came to Thailand for vacation. In his vacation pictures, she was captured unintentionally but it was the only lead that I got. So, I came." Xiao Zhi Ren explained in a solemn manner.

"I'm still surprised that you fell for someone at first sight." Ji Syaoran mumbled unbelievingly.

"Don't you think you're too young to teach me about love? You're only 15. Act like you are fifteen and not twenty-five." Xiao Zhi Ren glared at him while Ji Syaoran quietened up. He was a teenager, not a kid!

"Bro, you're also only 20. And she..." He looked at Ru as he stated, "She looks like a teenager as well."

"She's 19."

"And how do you know that?" Ji Syaoran retorted.

"When we met she was 18. She told me herself." Xiao Zhi Ren hurridly got up and turned back to him saying, "Let's take her out of here."

"Where?"

"China would be better. You and I both have a lot of connections there. This is still a foreign land for both of us." Ji Syaoran agreed and went out to arrange for everything.

Behind him, Xiao Zhi Ren held her gauzed wrapped hand in his own and whispered, "You told me that fate likes to play jokes with us. But I sure as hell am not laughing right now."

*End of Flashback*

Even though that incident happened when he was only fifteen, Ji Syaoran could recall it vividly even at the age of twenty-three. He had seen the way his brother stayed by her side for eight months only to be left behind.

As they say, people can leave but they always leave something behind. She also left her silhouette behind for Xiao Zhi Ren.

"Bro, can she recognize you?" Ji Syaoran asked after spending a long time reminiscing about the past.

"No."

"What? Why?" As if it suddenly hit him, he himself answered, "Right, she couldn't see back then. But can she see now?"

"She can see very clearly."

"Huh? How?"

"I was curious about that too and I asked around. Professor Robert from Chicago told me that Optical nerve damage doesn't necessarily lead to blindness. Most of the time, because of timely treatment one can save the light of the eyes. So, it's possible that she got the surgery to fix her visual impairment." Xiao Zhi Ren told him what he found out.

"She sure is stubborn like you said. Going through repeated surgeries is a pain in itself." Ji Syaoran cringed at the thought of suffering that kind of pain.

"Stubborn... But also lost."

"What do you mean?"

"I can't find the girl I fell for. She seems to be lost somewhere in her." Ji Syaoran didn't understand but he didn't question either.

As for Xiao Zhi Ren's meaning... For him, the girl he met all those years ago had a bright aura and fiery look. She was like a flame that could burn you with a single touch.

But today's Ru was nothing like that. Pure darkness was enshrouding her soul and she seemed lost in that darkness. Her fiery flame was nowhere in sight. Instead, there was a cold chill that could devour you whole.

The gird in his memory was like Dahlias- open to life's possibilities with her innocent and happy self. While the girl he found is more like orchids- pure, honest but running after perfection. The innocence was lost somewhere in the trail of time that crumbled her.