“He does, he doesn’t verbalize it but I can see it in his heart.”
“Why are you telling me all this?”
“It’ll be Lin Lin’s 4th birthday soon. If you don’t mind, I would like you to attend his birthday party. I know we’re divorced but I
won’t stop you from seeing our son.”
Mubai told her the same thing when they divorced. From this and other observations, she knew Mubai would be a great father. It
was the main reason she could bring herself to leave her son in his care in the first place.
In the past years, Xinghe had had acute episodes where she yearned to see her son but she stopped herself every time. She
couldn’t bear to let her son know his mother was such a useless person.
But now, things had changed.
“Okay,” Xinghe accepted. For some reason, Mubai felt relieved when he heard her answer.
He thought she would reject him again. He had no idea why he would be looking forward to hearing her say yes.
The rest of the journey was spent in silence.
Soon, they reached the hospital. Xinghe exited his car and walked straight to the entrance, without turning around to meet his
eyes once. Mubai saw her disappear into the hospital and then he drove away.
On the way to her uncle’s sick bay, Xinghe’s thoughts were completely on her child.
She could keep her composure facing anyone in the world but when it came her own son, she was still very nervous…
Would he be able to recognize her?
“Sis, you’re back,” Xia Zhi greeted her happily.
Xia Zhi realized he had become increasingly dependent on his sister over the past few days. He couldn’t sit still the whole
morning she was gone.
Now that she was back, he felt grounded.
“Sis, are these for me? They smell so nice.” Xia Zhi commented after he took the bags that she held in her hands, and sniffed at
the heat-insulated lunchboxes within.
Xinghe replied with a nod, “Yes, it’s for you.”
“Sis, have you eaten?”
“I have.”
Xia Zhi set up his lunch on the small table cheerfully. Xinghe had prepared quite a feast for him, there was even a piece of steak!
Xia Zhi munched on the food with a satisfied glow in his eyes. He asked, “Sis, when did you find time to prepare such a delicious
meal? By the way, how goes the house hunting? Did you manage to find us a place to live?”
“I did.”
“That’s so incredible, I suppose you prepared this meal at our new place. Where is it, how big is it and how much is the monthly
rent?”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full. Regarding the house, you’ll see soon enough,” Xinghe chided him lightly. She didn’t know how to
explain so she opted for an evasion tactic, adding, “How’s uncle?”
“Improving, dad just took the medicine and went back to sleep…” Xia Zhi answered as he took another generous bite of the
steak. There was utter bliss on his face when he said, “Sis, it’s been so long since I’ve had such a delicious steak, I could die this
very moment…”
Similar to Xinghe, Xia Zhi had to watch his meal size due to their budget constraint. Under such conditions, he still managed to
grow to 180 centimeters, but he was all bones and no muscle.
Xinghe looked at him and said gently, “In the future, you can have them whenever you want.”
“Okay…”
Xia Zhi could feel life taking a turn for the better for their family. His sister regained her memory, he would graduate and start
working soon, his father’s health finally stabilized and to his surprise, his sister turned out to be a programming genius.
These few days, everything was moving in a favorable direction.
He believed their life would only get better. The next step would be to save money to purchase their own house, then they
wouldn’t need to stay under other people’s roofs anymore.
Little did he know Xinghe had already helped him fulfill that dream.
One week later, Chengwu was discharged from the hospital. The rest of his recovery was to be done at home.
Xinghe brought them to the villa, their new home.