Inside the room came the scraping sound of a stool being dragged across the cement floor.
Gao Wu stood up and walked over to Chen Meili. He leaned down, looking at her from above.
Chen Meili refused to back down and glared up at him. “You good-for-nothing, Gao Wu…”
Her words completely enraged him. He reached out, gripped her chin, and forced her to raise her head. His gaze was dark, and his voice was frighteningly cold.
“I’m warning you one last time. Give her job back. Otherwise, if this gets out in the open, it won’t do you any good.”
Frightened by the look in his eyes, Chen Meili didn’t dare move. Gao Wu stared at her for several seconds before releasing her. Then he turned and headed for the door.
Two red marks remained on Chen Meili’s chin. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she clenched her back teeth.
“Gao Wu, don’t push me…”
Gao Wu stopped with his hand on the door. Chen Meili’s body flinched backward in fright.
Without turning around, he let out a cold snort.
“If you dare tell anyone, we’ll both be finished. So you’d better take that matter to your grave.”
The door slammed shut with a bang. The room fell silent for a moment before Chen Meili’s stifled sobs rang out.
Xiao Mandong stood outside the window for a while. Once she was sure Chen Meili wouldn’t suddenly come out, she patted her chest, slipped out through the back door, took the long way around, and entered the hospital through the front.
Hearing too many secrets did no good. Although she was curious, she had no desire to become someone’s target again.
Xiao Mandong went to the cafeteria first. She bought some congee and a steamed white-flour bun, then got two dishes. When she arrived at the ward, Auntie Gao was still staring at the ceiling, her eyes rimmed with red. The eggs from that morning were still sitting on the table.
Xiao Mandong set down the food and tidied the table a little.
“Auntie Gao, I bought you some food. Eat it while it’s hot. I’m not good at persuading people, but I do know this: people live more comfortably when they’re a little more selfish.”
She understood Auntie Gao’s situation all too well. In her previous life, she had been the same way, spending her whole life sacrificing for those two ungrateful, heartless children. And what had she gotten in return?
Auntie Gao sat up and leaned against the hospital bed. She took the lunch box from Xiao Mandong.
“Thank you, Doctor Xiao…”
Her throat was dry and hoarse. Apart from saying thank you, she didn’t know what else to say. She had never imagined that after devoting her entire life to her son, the person caring for her in the end would be a stranger.
Knock, knock, knock!
There was a knock at the ward door. A moment later, it was gently pushed open, and a man in his fifties appeared in the doorway.
“Miss, is Tian Xiufen staying in this room?”
Xiao Mandong didn’t know Auntie Gao’s real name, so she instinctively glanced over at her. Following her gaze, the man spotted Auntie Gao on the bed and immediately walked in with a cheerful smile. He was carrying pastries and canned food.
Auntie Gao froze when she saw him. Her tone was neither warm nor cold.
“Uncle Fang, what brings you here?”
The man set the things on the cabinet and rubbed his reddened, cold hands.
“I heard from Uncle Yu that you’d been injured. I happened to be passing by, so I came to see you. How are you? Is the injury serious?”
“I’m fine. I just barely escaped with my life.” There was a self-mocking note in Auntie Gao’s voice.
Realizing the two of them knew each other, Xiao Mandong hurriedly stood up.
“Auntie Gao, I’ll be going now. I’ll come visit you again when I have time.”
Auntie Gao hummed in acknowledgment and gave Xiao Mandong a slight nod.
Once the door closed, the ward fell quiet. The only sound was the faint scrape of a spoon against the lunch box.
Fang Guodong sat beside the hospital bed in heavy silence. After a long while, he finally spoke.
“Xiufen, I heard you were recovering and planned to return to the old house to recuperate. I went back to take a look a while ago. The place is in terrible shape—the walls are cracked, the rafters have rotted, and if a heavy snowfall settles on the roof this winter, it could collapse at any time.
“How can you recover in a place like that? Going back would only make you suffer.”
He paused, as if it had taken all his courage to continue. Then he lowered his voice.
“I’m all alone these days too. My house has a spacious, quiet courtyard. Why don’t you move in with me? We could keep each other company. I’ll take care of you…”
Auntie Gao lowered her head, staring at the food in the lunch box. The spoon in her hand rested motionless on top of the rice.
Her heart felt painfully constricted, a wave of bitterness rising into her throat. She had lived for most of her life, yet now that she was old, she didn’t even have a place to go. After a long silence, she finally spoke in a hoarse voice.
“Stop saying things like that… We’re both getting on in years. We still have to preserve our dignity. What if the neighbors gossip and point fingers behind our backs?”
Fang Guodong shot to his feet, his voice urgent and full of heartache.
“Can dignity feed you? You’ve been a widow all these years. Every time I tried to help, you avoided me because you were afraid of what people would say. Now that your son can’t be relied on, what are you still afraid of? We don’t have many years left. We can’t spend our whole lives living according to other people’s tongues.”
His tone softened.
“I don’t mean anything else by it. I just think you’ve suffered too much. You’re fifty-two years old. You’ve lived for your son for thirty years. You don’t owe him anything anymore, and you certainly don’t owe the Gao family.”
As soon as those words fell, Auntie Gao could no longer hold herself together.
Her stiff shoulders trembled. She could no longer suppress the grievances in her heart. She lowered her head, unwilling to cry out loud. Decades of poverty and hardship, raising her posthumous son as a widow, pouring her entire heart into him—all the suffering and heartbreak she had endured came rushing back in that moment.
She wiped the tears from her face. Her voice was so hoarse it was almost inaudible.
“What was the point of my whole life?”
Fang Guodong took four ten-yuan bills from his pocket and placed them on the hospital bed.
“Take this money. Starting today, I’ll bring you your meals…”
The moment he finished speaking, the ward door was pushed open. Fu Ying and Mrs. Fu walked in empty-handed.
Mrs. Fu approached the bed with a broad smile and took Auntie Gao’s hand.
“Oh, would you look at that! What rotten luck—of all places, it had to hit you right on the head. You’re really unlucky. Still, you’re a good person, so good things come to good people. You survived, at least. We ought to have a little celebration meal.”
Just then, she noticed the forty yuan on the bed and casually picked it up.
“There are lots of thieves in the hospital at night. You can’t leave this money lying around; it isn’t safe. Let Ying hold on to it for you. She’ll give it back when you return to your hometown.”
As she spoke, she moved to hand the money to Ying. Auntie Gao glanced at Fang Guodong.
“Uncle Fang, you’d better take the money back. It isn’t safe here…”
Fang Guodong understood what she meant. He snatched the money from Mrs. Fu’s hand and tucked it back into his own pocket.
Mrs. Fu’s expression darkened. When she met her daughter’s warning gaze, she pursed her lips and swallowed her retort. Her daughter had told her to watch what she said—to coax the woman into leaving first.
Just then, the ward door was suddenly thrown open, and a young nurse stuck half her body inside.
