Lin Ting is a twenty-nine-year-old single mother with stage IV lung cancer.
In her final three months, what could she possibly leave for her daughter? Try to save as much money as possible for her? Take countless photos with her? Write letters in advance? Record many videos?
Or take her daughter to find her biological father—Jiang Yu?
But Jiang Yu is about to marry another woman…
A four-year-old girl, if no one takes her in, would not only face bullying and cold stares but might even struggle to survive.
In the end, Lin Ting returned to Pengcheng.
With over twenty million people in Pengcheng, finding someone who had moved and completely blocked her was no easy task.
Lin Ting pleaded with Jiang Yu’s good friend Jiang Shuchen for several days.
A few days later, she finally met Jiang Yu in an antique-style villa.
At that moment, the man who once held ginger tea and blew on it to cool it for her was now chatting and laughing as he gently combed Lin Weiwei’s freshly washed long hair.
When the conversation grew emotional, the man paused, twirling a strand of Lin Weiwei’s hair between his fingers.
His gentle, doting eyes were fixed solely on Lin Weiwei.
It wasn’t until Lin Weiwei saw Jiang Shuchen standing there with Lin Ting and her daughter and exclaimed in surprise, “Sister!” that Jiang Yu finally followed her gaze.
Jiang Shuchen, standing nearby, explained the situation. “Ah Yu, Xiao Ting has been looking for you these past few days. She seems to have something urgent. Would you like to talk?”
Jiang Yu remained silent, his gaze fixed intently on Lin Ting and her daughter.
Finally, his eyes settled on Lin Ting’s daughter, that tiny figure.
Jiang Yu’s breath hitched, memories flashing back.
Wasn’t she the adorable little girl he had accidentally encountered a few days ago?
She was Lin Ting’s daughter?
Seeing Jiang Yu, Youzi greeted him politely and cautiously, “Hello, Uncle!”
Lin Ting hadn’t intended to bring Youzi to disturb Jiang Yu.
A few days earlier, they had arrived at Pengcheng Airport.
While she was retrieving their luggage, Youzi’s cries echoed from a distance.
Following the sound, she saw a man carefully picking up Youzi, who had fallen.
As he knelt on one knee, wiping away Youzi’s tears, Lin Ting’s entire world seemed to freeze—it was Jiang Yu, the man she never wanted to see again in her life.
While applying a bandage to Youzi, Jiang Yu’s handsome face was filled with gentleness.
Only after escorting Youzi to the ground service desk and hearing the broadcast announcing the search for her guardian did he wave goodbye to Youzi with a warm smile.
Watching all of this silently from afar, Lin Ting was deeply moved.
Jiang Yu didn’t know Youzi’s true identity.
Yet he could show such care and concern for a stranger’s child. If he learned that Youzi was his daughter, surely he would love her even more.
Thus, when seeking Jiang Yu’s help, Lin Ting felt a glimmer of hope.
With trepidation, she mustered her courage and stepped forward, holding her daughter’s hand.
“Mr. Jiang, could I trouble you for a few minutes?”
Mr. Jiang?
Her pleading voice seemed to tear through the cold night.
Along with it, it tore open Jiang Yu’s heart.
In the past, when they were in bed, she would wrap her legs around his waist, cling tightly to his neck, and call out his name over and over: Ah Yu, Ah Yu!
He suppressed the surging emotions.
He no longer looked at Lin Ting, nor at her daughter.
Instead, he picked up Lin Weiwei’s hair again. “Weiwei, let me continue drying your hair.”
About a minute or two later, Lin Weiwei suppressed the unease in her heart, took Jiang Yu’s hand, and gently reminded him, “Jiang Yu, stop drying her hair. Sister is still waiting.”
Lin Weiwei was dressed in bright clothes, her face radiant.
As for Lin Ting, the dark cotton coat she wore had been washed until it was faded, making her look wretched, haggard, and utterly destitute.
Her face held only the lifeless gloom of despair.
Like withering, decaying branches and leaves on the verge of collapse.
Jiang Yu didn’t even glance at her, only looking tenderly at Lin Weiwei. “You’re still on your period. If your hair isn’t dried, you’ll catch a chill. If you get cold, your menstrual cramps will get worse.”
How familiar those words were.
Jiang Yu had said them to Lin Ting too.
But the deep affection and sweetness of the past had long since ended.
Today, she had only come to see Jiang Yu to settle matters regarding her daughter.
Bearing the sharp pain in her heart, she waited!
She had thought that once Jiang Yu finished drying Lin Weiwei’s hair, he would give her some time.
But that wasn’t the case.
Jiang Yu unhurriedly put away the hairdryer, then ruffled Lin Weiwei’s hair, gently saying he was going to make her some ginger soup before heading to the kitchen.
Leaving Lin Weiwei to give Lin Ting an apologetic look.
“Sister, wait a moment. Jiang Yu might still be angry with you over what happened five years ago. I’ll go talk to him.”
“Thank you.”
A short while later, only Lin Weiwei came out.
“Sister, could you wait a little longer? Jiang Yu, he… anyway, don’t take it to heart. After all, he has his reasons for being angry.”
“It’s fine, I’ll wait a bit longer.”
From the kitchen came the faint sound of Jiang Yu leisurely slicing ginger.
Lin Ting could only continue waiting.
After a few minutes, Jiang Yu came out with the ginger soup, not looking at Lin Ting, then sat down beside Lin Weiwei, blowing on the steaming ginger soup for her again and again.
Lin Ting and her daughter stood there until their feet went numb, but Jiang Yu treated them as if they were air.
Even Jiang Shuchen couldn’t stand it anymore. “A-Yu, Lin Ting and her daughter have been waiting for you for over half an hour.”
“If they don’t want to wait, they can leave. No one asked them to wait.” Disregarding his good friend’s feelings, Jiang Yu’s voice turned cold.
He had never let go of what happened back then.
Looking at Lin Ting and her daughter again, his handsome face darkened.
“Mr. Jiang…” Lin Ting wanted to say it was okay, she could wait a little longer.
Jiang Yu abruptly set the soup bowl down on the coffee table.
Soup splashed out.
The sharp sound cut off Lin Ting’s words and startled Xiao Youzi, who shrank tightly against her.
Not long after giving birth to Xiao Youzi in prison, the child caught a cold. Due to delayed treatment, it developed into encephalitis.
The inflammation then caused damage to the auditory nerve.
Missing the best treatment window, Xiao Youzi lost hearing in one ear.
With her hearing aid, any sound Xiao Youzi heard was much louder than normal decibels.
The sharp noise and Jiang Yu’s sudden cold expression made her small body tense up tightly.
Her big eyes were filled with fear.
“Mommy, I’m scared.”
Lin Ting’s heart felt as if it had been violently tugged.
She quickly picked up her daughter and gently stroked her little head. “Let’s go wait outside.”
As the mother and daughter left, their thin, shrinking figures did not bring Jiang Yu any satisfaction.
Instead, his expression grew even darker.
Outside, the cold wind howled freely.
Lin Ting took off her cotton coat and wrapped it around Xiao Youzi.
Xiao Youzi tried to take it off and give it back to her, but Lin Ting pressed her daughter’s hand, softly stopping her. “Mommy isn’t cold. Mommy is fine.”
For my daughter, enduring this bit of wind and cold is nothing at all.
If cancer couldn’t break her, what did a little hardship like this matter?
Inside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the heating was turned up high.
Under the bright lights, Jiang Yu was tenderly urging Lin Weiwei to drink her ginger soup.
But in the icy, bone-chilling night wind, Lin Ting could only hold her daughter tightly.
Half an hour later, Jiang Yu finally called her alone into the study.
Before going, she brought her daughter to the living room, crouched down, and softly instructed her to wait.
In the study, Jiang Yu stood with his back to Lin Ting.
His figure was as cold and distant as the waning moon outside the window. “Five minutes at most. Keep it brief.”
Since he wanted it brief, Lin Ting pushed aside the painful memories of the past that pierced her heart.
She got straight to the point.
“Mr. Jiang, the reason I came to see you so suddenly this time is to entrust my daughter to you. She is actually your daughter too.”
She didn’t have much time left.
She had to state her purpose directly.
Jiang Yu turned around, his eyes filled with coldness and suspicion.
“Lin Ting, was it you who made your daughter deliberately trip in front of me a few days ago?”
“I didn’t. That day was truly a coincidence.”
“Coincidence? With tens of millions of people in Pengcheng, how many accidents happen every day? Why did your daughter just happen to fall right under my nose?”
“A one-in-a-million coincidence like that—do you think I’d believe it?”
“Lin Ting, five years ago when you were pregnant, you tried to pin it on me. Now you want to try it again? What’s the rush to entrust your child? What, have you got a terminal illness? Are you dying?”
This icy voice, mixed with the damp chill of the winter night, tore Lin Ting’s heart to shreds.
She didn’t know what kind of mindset Jiang Yu had, to so casually utter such cruel words about her having a terminal illness and dying.
Even though she really was dying.
Enduring the pain that radiated from her very core, she spoke with difficulty:
“I have stage IV lung cancer… I have less than three months left…”
She had thought that upon hearing she was dying, even if he didn’t care, Jiang Yu would at least consider it seriously.
But he didn’t at all.
All he gave Lin Ting was a tone of faint, cold mockery.
“Lin Ting, have you forgotten what you did to me five years ago?”
“What scheme are you planning against me this time? You dare even lie about cursing yourself?”
“Aren’t you afraid heaven has eyes and actually gives you a terminal illness, taking your life?”