Looking at Xiao Youzi’s little face flushed red from fever, her voice hoarse.
Jiang Yu felt terrible inside.
Even though this was Lin Ting and Zhou Ziheng’s child, Jiang Yu still wished her to be free from illness and suffering, happy and joyful.
He cared about Xiao Youzi too, so he once again offered the cup of warm water in his hand.
The icy and venomous tone he had used when speaking to Lin Ting just moments ago instantly turned incredibly gentle:
“Youzi, the water Uncle poured is the same as the one Mommy poured.”
“Drink it quickly. Once you drink it, your throat won’t hurt anymore. Uncle will feed you, be good!”
He even gently patted Youzi’s head with his warm, large hand.
But her tiny hand lightly pushed his cup away.
And pushed away his large hand resting on her head.
When her long eyelashes lifted slightly to look at Jiang Yu, her eyes were filled with dislike.
She disliked Daddy.
Whenever Daddy appeared, Mommy would become very sad.
And even though she was clearly Daddy’s child, Daddy refused to acknowledge it.
She didn’t need a father like this either.
Nor did she need the warm water he offered.
“Thank you! The water you poured doesn’t taste good. Only the water Mommy poured tastes good.”
Youzi’s voice remained polite, yet distant and indifferent.
As if trying to create distance between her and her bad father.
Then, looking at her mother, she revealed a happy smile, “Mommy, Youzi wants to drink the water you poured!”
The smile Youzi only showed to Lin Ting pierced Jiang Yu’s heart intensely.
Why did this child look at him with such coldness?
Lin Ting knew that Youzi disliked Jiang Yu.
She quickly poured another cup of warm water for Xiao Youzi and watched as she drank more than half of it in one go.
Taking the cup back, she anxiously asked about Youzi’s condition.
Behind her, Jiang Yu still held the cup of water he hadn’t managed to give away, suddenly feeling out of place standing there.
So he said, “I’ve already paid for Youzi’s medical expenses, Lin Ting. I hope you spend more time taking care of the child and less on scheming and plotting.”
Youzi looked at Lin Ting, “Mommy, can we return the medical expenses? I don’t want to use his money.”
Lin Ting knew Youzi didn’t want any connection with Jiang Yu, so she nodded, “Okay.”
Standing by the hospital bed, Jiang Yu couldn’t understand why Youzi resisted him so much?
He didn’t mind that she was Zhou Ziheng’s daughter, and he even cared about her deeply.
Lin Ting deliberately walked Jiang Yu out.
Jiang Yu stood at the doorway, speaking coldly and indifferently, “I’ll upgrade Youzi’s hospital room. I’ll go pay for it in a moment.”
Lin Ting: “That won’t be necessary.”
Jiang Yu: “I’m doing it for Youzi’s sake, hoping she recovers soon.”
Lin Ting: “Youzi won’t like it. I don’t have cash on me, and I don’t have your WeChat, so I can’t transfer the money to you. For the medical expenses you advanced for Youzi, I’ll ask Shu Chen to help transfer the amount back to you.”
Just as she turned around to push open the hospital room door and go back inside, Jiang Yu sneered coldly behind her:
“Lin Ting, you’ve already accepted two million. Why pretend to return these two thousand yuan in medical expenses?”
“You truly make me sick.”
Lin Ting offered no explanation.
The two million Jiang Yu had Jiang Shuchen give her—she was keeping it for Youzi.
Lin Ting’s hand on the door handle paused slightly.
Even if she explained a thousand times, he wouldn’t believe her.
Then there was no need to explain.
She pushed the door open again.
When she pushed the hospital room door open a crack, Jiang Yu’s cold voice came from behind her again:
“Lin Ting, you shouldn’t have put my name and contact number on Youzi’s family information form.”
“I am not Youzi’s father.”
“When are you going to correct the family information at Youzi’s kindergarten?”
Lin Ting did not answer.
If she hadn’t been driven to desperation, how could she possibly have filled in Jiang Yu’s contact number?
She never wanted to have anything to do with Jiang Yu again in her entire life.
But she was afraid that after she died, Youzi would have nowhere to go, so she would not change it.
Yet she replied with a tone of assurance, fueled by resentment: “Don’t worry, Teacher Li won’t call Mr. Jiang again in the future.”
Unless she died.
Then she pushed the door open and walked in.
“Mommy, what happened to your hand?”
Seeing the bloodstains on her mother’s hand and the IV needle marks, Youzi immediately felt heartbroken.
Holding her mother’s hand, she blew on it gently, “Hoo hoo, Youzi will blow on it for Mommy.”
Lin Ting withdrew her hand, “Mommy is fine, Mommy just caught a cold and fever like Youzi did. It’s the peak season for cold viruses lately, so it’s too easy to catch a cold!”
Little Youzi found it strange, “Mommy has had a cold for a long time recently, why isn’t she better yet?”
Lin Ting patted little Youzi’s head, “It’ll be better soon, don’t worry, Youzi.”
Around six in the evening, Lin Ting, carrying little Youzi on her back, made a phone call to Teacher Li outside the hospital room.
Teacher Li expressed concern with a few words.
Lin Ting got straight to the point, “Teacher Li, there’s something I’d like to ask of you.”
Teacher Li: “I’ll help with whatever I can. Jin Yi’s mom, go ahead, what is it?”
Lin Ting: “…I have, I have advanced-stage lung cancer, and the cancer cells have spread to my liver and stomach. I may not have much time left…”
On the other end of the phone, Teacher Li, who had her hair in a fishtail braid, had just gotten into her boyfriend’s car to pick her up.
She had been smiling brightly.
But her smile immediately froze, “Jin Yi’s mom, how could that be? You’re still so young.”
In Teacher Li’s memory, Lin Jin Yi’s mother was young and beautiful, a bit thin, but very elegant.
With a face that radiated peace and stability, compared to the current internet-famous and surgically altered faces, it was too memorable, so refined that even she, as a girl, adored it immensely.
Teacher Li murmured in repetition, “Jin Yi’s mom, how could this be?”
Lin Ting had no time for melancholy; she stated directly:
“Teacher Li, Youzi was born while I was in prison. At that time, I had a huge misunderstanding with Youzi’s father, Jiang Yu.”
“To this day, he still refuses to acknowledge that Youzi is his daughter.”
“But I have no choice. After I die, Youzi…”
At this point, she choked up uncontrollably.
She paused for a moment before finding the strength to continue:
“Teacher Li, while I’m still alive, please don’t call Youzi’s father. If I find a suitable adoptive family for Youzi, I will let you know.”
“But if I don’t manage to find a suitable adoptive family for Youzi, and one day if I suddenly can’t come to pick up Youzi, and you can no longer reach me, please call Youzi’s father, Jiang Yu.”
The length of her life was not something she could control.
She couldn’t predict when she might suddenly pass away.
“Teacher Li, I beg you!”
“Jin Yi’s mom, you’re still so young, there must still be hope for a cure. Surely you can…”
“I understand my own condition.”
…
For the next two days, little Youzi remained in the hospital to continue receiving IV fluids.
Lin Ting was also hospitalized for treatment.
However, she was in the oncology inpatient department.
After finishing her IV drip and treatments, she would go to the pediatric inpatient department to take care of Xiao Youzi.
On the day Youzi was discharged, the fluid in her lungs from a cold infection had also been drained, and the doctor prescribed her a great many medications.
She replaced all the medicine bottles with vitamins and cold medicine.
Back at home, someone called her.
“Lin Ting, have you no shame?”
“You seduced Zhou Ziheng, and now that Zhou Ziheng is in prison, Jiang Yu doesn’t want you either, so you’re trying to seduce my husband next?”