Bertie was standing by the door and heard what the doctor said. His frowned deeply.
He ran after the doctor when the doctor left the wardroom, only to see Joseph waiting for the doctor in
his office already.
“Mr. Joseph, are you sure you want to hide it from Miss Kathy, the fact that her brain tumour is
spreading?”
“You should know that the success rate for the surgery for brain tumour doesn’t even exceed 5%.”
Bertie froze up listening to their conversation from outside the room. He heard everything clearly and
his body started to tremble violently.
Kathy was…
He abruptly rushed into the room, the two of them were surprised to see him.
Bertie grabbed Joseph by the collar furiously, “Joseph, you were lying to her this whole time!”
Joseph was wearing a heavy expression and there was a glint of anguish in his eyes.
He just didn’t know how to tell her.
It was a fact so cruel that even he couldn’t accept it.
Let alone Kathy.
She just fulfilled her dream and had just started her postgraduate. He didn’t want the illness to take
away everything from her.
“What will happen if she doesn’t undergo surgery?” asked Bertie bleakly.
The doctor shook his head and answered, “Best-case scenario, she’ll have three more years to live.”
Bertie let go of his hand frustratedly after hearing what the doctor said and punched the wall as hard as
he could.
Kathy was standing outside of the door. She was initially here to get her medical record from the doctor
and the news came like a bolt from the blue.
She laughed bitterly, that was the reason why.
No wonder her head would hurt so badly for no reason and her health was steadily deteriorating, and
that she would pass out every so often.
Three years…
And three years was the best-case scenario.
Kathy didn’t know how she walked back to the ward. She lied down on the bed and closed her eyes,
she felt very sorrowful, but she couldn’t seem to cry.
She covered the blanket over her shoulder as if the sadness would go away being embraced by the
blanket like this.
She only came back to her senses when she heard footsteps coming in from outside.
It was Bertie.
He looked at Kathy solemnly.
He wanted to tell Kathy the truth, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
He finally understood how Joseph felt. Maybe he felt the same, they just didn’t have the heart to tell her
the truth.
“I bought you some porridge.” Bertie inched closer to Kathy.
He opened the table, and his hands were slightly trembling.
He was distracted and spilt a bit of the porridge.
“Sorry…” Bertie quickly cleaned up the mess.
Kathy shook her head plainly, “It’s okay. You should head back, I’ll be fine by myself.”
Right now, she didn’t want to be with or talk to anyone.
“Let me accompany you, I will be sitting on the sofa and will not bother you.” Bertie sat down and never
came closer after that.
Kathy knew how persistent Bertie could be and she probably couldn’t make him leave. She quietly ate
the porridge.
At night, she was reading comics on her phone. It was something brutally hilarious, but her tears
started to fall.
“Bertie, I would like to be alone.” Kathy sounded a bit bitter.
Bertie looked at her and tried to read her expression, he frowned.
“Go back, please,” Kathy repeated herself.
Bertie could see the determination in her eyes and hence he didn’t say anything back this time.
He shouldn’t bother her if she wanted to be alone.
Bertie closed the door and saw Joseph standing outside the wardroom.
He was leaning against the wall and there was a lit cigarette between his fingers.
“Do you have another one?” Bertie walked up to him.
Joseph threw a box of cigarette to him. Both of them who would only ever talk about business started
to talk about private matters in the corridor.
“Can she undergo surgery?”
“Yes, but the success rate is nearly zero.” Joseph had a heavy expression on her face.
“You plan to hide it from her forever?”
“She will find out sooner or later herself.”
“Is there really nothing else we can do?” Bertie looked down, his eyes were filled with anguish and
sorrow.
Kathy was still so young, how could she accept a cruel fact like that?
“I will think of something so that she won’t die,” stated Joseph clearly and sonorously.
Kathy was discharged from the hospital the next morning.
Some medicines that the doctor gave her had their labels ripped off.
Kathy knew that these were probably medicines to control her tumour from spreading.
Bertie drove her to the university and on the way, he kept reminding her to eat her meals on time, rest
well and to not work too hard.
Kathy said yes, but she looked indifferent.
The days at the university were as usual. It was closing in to the exam period and everyone was
preparing for their exams.
Joseph held his classes every Friday. Kathy sat down in the last row and listened intently to his lecture.
She was hospitalized for quite some time. She couldn’t catch up and the class was hard to understand.
She flipped open the lesson plan and frowned feeling upset.
There was a pop quiz during the class and a few including Kathy failed the quiz. They were summoned
by Joseph to go to his office together.
Kathy was a special case. She was absent for a while and hence Joseph asked her to stay after
everyone else left.
“Do you need me to give you extra lessons?” asked Joseph.
He frowned after looking at Kathy’s results, it was worse than what he expected.
“No need, I will study up on my own.”
“I mentioned before that to pass my class, one had to pay full attention in every class. If you can study
it up on your own, then there’s no need for me to hold lectures.”
It was true that it was going to be hard to self-study for Joseph’s class.
Kathy knew that very well, but she didn’t want to trouble Joseph.
He had to manage the Joseph’s Group and had to deal with a lot of stuff every day.
“I can manage it myself.” Kathy was being stubborn.
“Kathy, you can’t do it yourself.” Joseph sounded colder than before.
He was always patient and gentle when talking to Kathy, but for some reason, he felt cranky and
grumpy right now.
He didn’t like to hear her saying no to him.
“Fine, what’s your plan then, Mr. Joseph?” said Kathy while looking straight at him.
“Come here in the night and I’ll give you extra lessons.”
Kathy stared at him, she didn’t think that Joseph had so much free time on his hands.
“Don’t worry, I’m not that busy recently.”
Kathy couldn’t believe his words.
“Kathy, you are my student, and you cannot reject my offer.”
“Okay.”
“The extra lesson starts tonight,” said Joseph.
Kathy felt a bit annoyed, but he was her professor!
Kathy slammed her books on the table angrily when she got back to her dorm room.
Zofia was already there and she looked at Kathy worriedly, “What happened?”
“Nothing.”
She sat down and then said, “Well, Joseph wants to give me extra lessons in the night.”
“Hoho,” Zofia laughed, “Not bad.”
“I don’t really want to be alone with him.” Kathy was upset about the situation.
She wanted to just quietly live the remaining of her time.
“Why? Mr. Joseph is nice to look at, or are you afraid that you cannot control your feelings after being
alone with him?” Zofia walked over to Kathy.
Kathy grabbed her own hair, she knew how much she was still attracted to Joseph.
The closer she got, the more she sunk.
And she felt like she wouldn’t be able to control herself now after knowing the truth.
She didn’t have much time left, could she maybe be a little more willful?
She didn’t know if it was okay to do so…
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