Return to The Holy City from Imperial.


    Arriving at the hospital entrance.


    Pa Rouco sat in the car, didn’t get out right away, and asked, “Do you … you have to take me to the hospital?”


    Severo Laris took a deep breath and reached out to take the girl’s hand in hisp, gripping it firmly.


    He looked at her with a deep, soft gaze, reached up to pull her hair behind her ear, and said with a slight smile, “When you are well, we can go climb Mount Pullo, teach that believer a lesson, and next spring, in March, we can go to the Holy Family to see the cherry blossoms, and all the things I promised you and have not done will be fulfilled. But the prerequisite for the realization of those good things is that lita be healthy.”


    “Is it unhealthy for me . to see little bean sprouts …?” Pa Rouco looked at him usingly and childishly.


    Severo Laris took her in his arms and gently stroked her back, closed his eyes and said in a mute voice, “There is nothing wrong with seeing the little bean sprout, but you always hurt yourself for her safety. lita, this moment now that you are lying in my arms, with me holding you and you holding me, is the real thing. The little bean sprout doesn’t exist, you can see her, but stop hurting yourself for her, okay?”


    “It’s not your fault you lost Ramo Laris, Ramo Laris just came at a bad time, we all have to move on and learn to forgive our past selves, huh?”


    Pa Rouco tilted her little face in his arms, “But I… I don’t want to part with you.”


    “I promise you that this is thest time we part, and as soon as you can find the difference and contradiction between reality and the little bean sprout, Albarran Bail will surely not stop me from seeing you again. lita, I would love to help you, but this is something only you can face bravely and alone.”


    Pa Rouco’s eyes reddened slightly at the corners, “I … What if I don’t find him?”


    Severo Laris lowered his gaze and kissed her lips, smiling faintly with determination, “Mi lita is very smart, she’ll make it.”


    Pa Rouco sniffled and gagged, slightly squishing her little mouth.


    Severo Laris took her small hand, rubbed the wedding ring on her ring finger and said, “We’ll get married when you get out of the hospital. I hear Aracely Belmonte is doing well and looks like she’s getting out, and there are ns to marry Frisco Fontan. But I hope we can get married before they do. So, lita you have to work a little more and the date of our wedding, it’s up to you.”


    Pa Rouco was in tears.


    Severo Laris wiped her tears and said with red eyes but a smile on his face, “I can’t… wait to marry you and be happy, so…. lita, don’t make me wait too long, okay?”


    Severo Laris does his best to talk about kindness, to make her feel something for the world, for him, to give her hope and aspiration for life.


    …


    Pa Rouco was readmitted to the hospital.From N?velDrama.Org.


    This time there was no resistance, no struggle, a very calm cooperation.


    Albarran Bail finds that Pa Rouco has be increasingly aware that she is ill, but still does not find a point of contradiction or conflict with reality regarding the small outbreaks of soybeans.


    Adam Rouco and Estre Berrocal visited her once a week during the half month of intensive treatment, and Lucio Rouco staggered his visits with theirs, also once a week.


    But Severo Laris, alone, had not been to the hospital even once in thest half-decade.


    One afternoon, Albarran Bail came to see the room.


    After the consultation, he smiled kindly and said, “Paulita has been in good shapetely, in a week’s time you can reduce the dosage at your discretion, but you still have to be good and take the medication, no cking off understood?”


    Pa Rouco nods with good humor.


    Albarran Bail was recording the patient when Pa Rouco suddenly asked, “Dr. Bail, can I borrow your phone?”


    Albarran Bail froze, looked at her, and asked, “What do you need a phone for?”


    Pa Rouco blushed slightly, a rare shyness, “Well … Severo Laris hasn’t visited metely … I wanted to call you.”


    Albarran Bail smiled, unlocked the phone from his white coat and handed it to her.


    “You have ten minutes.”


    And then Albarran Bail and the paramedics left the room.


    It was then that Pa Rouco called Severo Laris.


    The phone rang for a while before Severo Laris answered on the other end.


    At first, Severo Laris thought it was Albarran Bail and, without waiting for the person on the other end of the phone to speak, he asked with concern, “How is lita now, can you tell that the little bean is a hallucination?”


    Pa Rouco caressed her lips and said in a leisurely voice, “Why don’t you …e see me?”


    Severo Laris was slightly taken aback, not expecting Pa Rouco to be on the other end of the phone.


    “Lita, why are you calling me from Dr. Bail’s phone?”


    Pa Rouco smiled slightly, “I borrowed it from Dr. Bail. It’s been too long since I’ve seen … you … I was afraid you were out there goofing around.”


    The tone is yful and soft, very cute.


    Severo Laris couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle, “Looking good, flirting skills are growing.”


    Pa Rouco’s little smile faded and she asked seriously, “Dad, Estre, Lucio … they all came to see me, even Rufio and Susana came once, why didn’t you . . why didn’t youe to see me?”.


    Severo Laris sighed softly and said with sincerity, “I was afraid that if I went, you would ask me to take you out again, you know, I have a hard time resisting when you vent, but I wouldn’t dare be capricious and do that, it would be a sign of irresponsibility towards you.”


    Pa Rouco remains silent.


    Severo Laris confessed again, “I have been half a month without going to see you, I have lost sleep every day, I wanted to ask Albarran Bail about you but I did not dare, fearing to hear some bad news and fearing that my lita would be left alone in the hospital crying her eyes out, but I reassured myself thinking that you were braver than I thought. It’s been half a month with this torn mood, and before I knew it, it was already half a month too.”


    Even Severo Larisughed a little at himself, for he had never been so undecided.


    “Hearing your voice now, hearing you joking with me, I know I’ve made the right decision.”


    “Trying to give you a little more time to think, fearing that if I leave, you’ll start cking again, thinking about me and refusing to turn your head.”


    Pa Rouco bit her lip and broke into a smile when she heard him say she was toozy to turn her head. “Am I … really thatzy in your mind…?”


    Severo Laris’ eyebrows blushed fondly, “You want to hear the truth?”


    “Hmm.”


    “Pa Rouco is really theziest girl I’ve ever met in my life and yet so smart.”


    “Are you …plimenting me or scolding me?” How he couldn’t hear any hint of thanks.


    Severo Laris: “You even look like one of thezy ones I like, and it’s my fault for spoiling you so much.”


    Pa Rouco: “Hmm.”


    Severo Laris was silent for a moment and said, “lita, hang up the phone, we’ve been on the phone for almost ten minutes.”


    Albarran Bail’s cell phone, before he lent it to her, must have said something like ten minutes maximum to call.


    Pa Rouco: “Then I hang up.”


    “Well, think well, don’t bezy, don’t always sleep in your hospital bed, even if it means walking around the ward more.”


    Pa Rouco frowned: “I don’t like it when you be so … nagging like Dr. Bail. ”


    Severo Laris curved his lips into a warm smile, “No more chitchat, hang up.”


    Pa Rouco hung up the phone.


    Severo Laris, hearing the busy tone after hanging up, holds the phone to his ear for quite a while.