Jiang Yu did not answer.
Outside the long row of windows in the corridor, dark clouds loomed heavily overhead.
The rain seemed ready to intensify at any moment.
The gloomy sky cast an even darker shadow over Jiang Yu’s face.
The wind howled and rattled, unsettling Jiang Yu’s mind.
He looked at Lin Ting, “…Lin Ting, I never wanted to hurt you. Don’t force me to act against you.”
Lin Ting, whose heart had long been torn and bleeding, was already numb.
Propping up her shattered body, she said weakly, “Do as you please! I won’t leave Pengcheng anyway.”
There were still many things she hadn’t finished.
In Pengcheng, even if she raced against time, she might not be able to settle Xiao Youzi properly.
How could she manage if she had to move around constantly?
With that, she turned to leave.
Jiang Yu called out to her from behind, “Lin Ting, must you be so irreconcilably opposed to the people who were once closest and dearest to you?”
Lin Ting’s back, which she had been forcing to stay straight, slumped weakly. “…It’s you who want to be irreconcilably opposed to me.”
It was them, leaving her no way out.
When she returned to the classroom to take Youzi home, the small figure at the building block table was nowhere to be seen.
Lin Ting quickly searched the entire classroom but couldn’t find Xiao Youzi anywhere.
Outside the classroom, Jiang Yu hadn’t noticed that Xiao Youzi was missing.
Jiang Yu left.
Teacher Li, seeing his retreating figure, rushed forward to stop him.
“Youzi’s dad, wait a moment.”
Jiang Yu stopped. “I’m not Youzi’s father.”
Teacher Li ignored this—to her, he was Youzi’s father. “Youzi’s dad, Youzi’s mom is dying of cancer. Why won’t you acknowledge Youzi? Isn’t Youzi adorable and likable? Do you want her to become an orphan after her mom dies?”
Teacher Li wanted to stand up for Youzi and her mother.
“Youzi’s mom is so beautiful and kind. She couldn’t possibly be that Jiang Shuchen’s mistress or someone who would break up another family.”
“Is that why you won’t acknowledge Youzi?”
Jiang Yu replied calmly, “Teacher Li, this is my private matter. I’m not obligated to answer you.”
With that, Jiang Yu walked away coldly under the dark, overcast sky.
When Teacher Li turned back, she saw Xiao Youzi, her eyes brimming with tears.
Her small figure looked like a porcelain doll on the verge of shattering.
“Teacher Li, is my mom really going to die?”
Teacher Li’s heart ached. “…Youzi, did you hear everything?”
Tears streamed down Youzi’s small, palm-sized face.
They also dampened Teacher Li’s heart.
Teacher Li quickly crouched down to wipe Youzi’s tears.
“Youzi, your mom isn’t sick. You heard wrong. Teacher misspoke earlier.”
“You’re lying. Mom lied too. She was bleeding so much, and she switched her medicine for vitamin C. Mom’s medicine is so bitter…”
Youzi seemed on the verge of breaking.
In the end, Youzi and Teacher Li made a pact.
They wouldn’t let Mom know that she already knew about her impending death.
Because she didn’t want Mom to feel even sadder.
When Lin Ting found Youzi and they headed home together, it was still raining outside.
The rain was neither light nor heavy.
Fortunately, there was no wind.
Lin Ting dressed Xiao Youzi in her Princess Elsa raincoat and drove away from the school on her electric scooter.
The figures of the mother and daughter, fading into the rainy, overcast day, looked especially lonely and desolate.
A complex gaze lingered on the retreating backs of the mother and daughter as they disappeared into the rain.
Out of sight, Jiang Yu in the car still gazed in the direction the electric bike had departed, his eyes lingering for a long time.
A continuous drizzle fell over the entire city.
And it fell just as heavily over Jiang Yu’s heart.
As Jiang Shuchen had said, Lin Ting had spent years raising Xiao Youzi alone, with one of the child’s ears deaf—life had indeed been hard.
But wasn’t this the retribution she deserved?
She had done so many despicable and vile things. Even now, despite his repeated attempts to persuade her to turn back, she remained determined to oppose Lin Jiang Pharmaceuticals, refusing to let go of him, refusing to let go of the Lin family, and even refusing to spare Jiang Shuchen, the neighbor’s older brother who had always protected her, throwing his marriage into chaos.
The wheel of fate turns, and heaven spares no one.
Lin Ting would face retribution.
But why did he feel no joy at all?
The rain continued to fall.
By the time Lin Ting and Xiao Youzi returned to the foot of their rented apartment building, it had grown even heavier.
Mother and daughter hurried back home.
Once inside, Youzi immediately dried her mother’s hair with a hairdryer.
A dozen minutes later, Youzi had not only dried her mother’s hair but her own as well.
“Mom, look, I can use the hairdryer now. From now on, I’ll dry my own hair. You don’t have to worry about me anymore.”
Such a sensible child, yet Lin Ting couldn’t find it in herself to feel happy.
That evening, Youzi was especially enthusiastic about cooking. Unafraid of knives or fire, she stir-fried tomatoes and eggs that turned out surprisingly perfect in color, aroma, and taste.
But when Lin Ting took a bite, she found it hard to swallow.
Youzi could already cook—she wouldn’t starve. Lin Ting should have been happy.
Yet the taste of the tomatoes and eggs in her mouth stirred up a storm of emotions.
Thinking that her mother was going to die, Youzi, her eyes brimming with tears, dared not look up.
Across from her, Lin Ting also dared not look up.
Afterward, Youzi washed the dishes alone, bathed alone, and went to bed alone, no longer bothering her mother or asking to be held.
Because Teacher Li had said that if she were more sensible, more obedient, and made her mother happier, her mother might live a little longer.
Late into the night.
Lin Ting was writing a letter to Youzi.
One letter for each birthday, and one each for Children’s Day, Spring Festival, and Lantern Festival.
She needed to write at least until Youzi turned eighteen.
Today’s letter was for Youzi’s eleventh Children’s Day.
[Youzi, in three more years, you won’t be a child anymore—you’ll be stepping into adolescence.]
[Soon, your body will undergo many changes. Mom has already taught you that no one should look at or touch the areas covered by your underwear. I’m sure you remember.]
[If one day, blood suddenly appears on your underwear, don’t be scared or panic! It means you’re growing up, becoming a young woman.]
[Physiologically, this is called menstruation. It happens once a month and lasts for 3 to 7 days. During this time, you’ll need to learn to use clean sanitary pads.]
What would Youzi look like at eleven?
Would she still love wearing princess dresses like Elsa’s?
Lin Ting longed to hold Youzi on the day she got her first period, to buy her the softest and safest sanitary pads.
To brew her ginger and brown sugar water, to tell her not to engage in strenuous exercise, to rest and lie down.
But she couldn’t wait for that day.
…
The next day, the rain stopped.
After dropping Youzi off at kindergarten, Lin Ting went to the Lin family villa.
Lin Jianguo and Lin Zhenyu were not home that day.
The butler, Uncle Cao, stayed with her in the living room, waiting.
He had prepared the fruits Lin Ting liked.
He brewed the red date and ginger tea she liked.
He also cut a bouquet of her favorite purple eustoma from the greenhouse in the backyard and handed it to her.
“Xiao Ting, these flowers were planted by your father. He knew you liked eustoma and has been growing them all along. The other day when you returned to Pengcheng, he mentioned seeing you and your mother living frugally and wanting to bring you back to the Lin family. Actually, your father…”
“Uncle Cao, let’s talk about something else,” Lin Ting placed the eustoma in her hand on the table.
She loved eustoma, almost to the point of obsession.
Even though she was no longer the Lin family’s young lady, she would often buy a bouquet of eustoma, arrange it in the vase in the living room, trim it carefully, and make her small home warm and bright.
But since these flowers were planted by Lin Jianguo, she didn’t give them another glance.
Lin Jianguo, who had just walked back in from outside, felt a pang of discomfort seeing her cold expression as she set down the eustoma.
Accompanying Lin Jianguo on his return were Jiang Yu and Lin Weiwei.