Although the epidemic wasn't over yet, by count, there hadn't been any new patients locally for over half a month.
Mainly because this wasn't a big city to begin with, and with the country's swift initial response, it had only been about a month and a half since the epidemic first made the news, and the situation across the country had gradually stabilized.
This had caused quite a few people to relax their vigilance. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, at the tail end of the New Year, Grandfather's house finally welcod a group of relatives paying New Year visits.
Lin Nan hid on the third floor, listening to the noisy conversations in the first-floor hall. The dialogue between these older relatives was basically all in dialect, and Lin Nan was only roughly familiar with the dialect. She could only pick up a few words from their long conversation.
It seed Mother had also returned?
She seed to hear her mother's voice, and also the eldest aunt who had turned and left after learning of her situation.
At least three to five people had co to pay New Year visits, each full of vigor, talking loudly, not knowing what interesting things they were discussing, then suddenly bursting into laughter.
Liu Xinyi had run to the second floor to hide in Little Uncle's room with Wu Jiaming to play online. Little Uncle was now in the first-floor hall entertaining relatives. Only Lin Nan was alone with nothing to do on the third floor, reading novels on her phone.
After finishing a chapter, she tried to swipe down to continue. Lin Nan suddenly saw a paynt notification.
"It's only been a few days and the ten yuan is all spent..." She muttered, but couldn't bring herself to recharge more money. She could only click the daily sign-in, then sighed and tossed the phone aside.
This was too tragic. If she'd known, she wouldn't have read completed novels. This ten yuan could casually follow updates on two or three books for half a month, unlike now where it was spent clean in just a few days.
Just as she was conflicted about whether or not to continue recharging, Mother walked into the room with a smile.
"What's wrong? You’ll get tired pouting this early in the day."
"Mom!" Lin Nan quickly rolled up from the bed, her face full of pleasant surprise as she rushed forward.
Mother reached out to rub Lin Nan's glossy black hair, smiling as she pulled out a necklace from her bosom: "Look, see what I prepared for you!"
Lin Nan's face couldn't hide her joy. She'd always liked these shiny, sparkly things.
"Oh, since when did you start wearing one?" Mother had planned to imdiately put it on Lin Nan, but suddenly discovered the silver chain on her neck. Her smile imdiately turned teasing: "A love token from Chen Yao?"
Only then did she rember she already had a necklace.
Although she always felt sowhat uncomfortable when first wearing this thing, after wearing it for a while she subconsciously ignored it.
Lin Nan confidently refuted Mother's words: "This was bought by Chen Yao for his mom! It's only because Auntie didn't like it that she gave it to . It's not so love token, okay?"
"Then..." Mother's gaze turned toward the chocolate on the bedside table, wrapped tightly in gift paper. "Could it be..."
Following Mother's line of sight, her face imdiately burned as she frantically stuffed the chocolate into her suitcase.
Originally, taking advantage of her cousin not being in the bedroom and Chen Yao not sending her ssages, Lin Nan had taken out the chocolate. But it ended up being seen by Mother anyway.
Mother wanted to laugh seeing her panicked appearance squatting on the ground hiding chocolate in her suitcase, but still tried hard to hold back her laughter. Yet she suddenly felt a kind of lancholy that her daughter was about to marry, and her smile completely disappeared.
She sighed softly. In the past, she'd neglected Lin Nan for far too long. She'd originally wanted to properly make it up to her now, but Lin Nan had already found companionship for the rest of her life.
She really was quite an incompetent mother.
"Your little uncle already told . You're really together with Chen Yao now, right?"
Lin Nan's body froze. She didn't know what Mother's attitude toward this matter actually was, afraid that all those previous teasing remarks were just teasing.
She froze in place, her back to Mother, asking sowhat guiltily: "Is it... okay?"
"As long as you feel happy being with him." Mother didn't have any fixed opinion, though she did feel that Lin Nan finding a boyfriend so quickly, just a few months after realizing she was a girl, was indeed a bit much.
But it seed she wasn't qualified to scold Lin Nan.
Just don't get deceived.
"If I get deceived, I'll just consider it a lesson learned." Lin Nan closed the suitcase, then turned to look at Mother, answering quite seriously: "At least so far, I think he's pretty good."
Just a bit too much of a straight steel man.
However, this aspect was unbearable for many girls, but Lin Nan had been a man before and could easily empathize to understand that Chen Yao's words had no malice.
Mother beckoned to Lin Nan, and she obediently sat beside Mother.
The feeling of sitting intimately together with Mother was even more nerve-wracking than being with Chen Yao.
Lin Nan sat stiffly, feeling Mother's palm playing with her hair.
She waited for Mother to say sothing, but after waiting a long ti, she only saw a few teardrops fall on Mother's thigh. Only then did she awaken as if from a dream, looking up at Mother who had inexplicably started crying.
What was this about?
Perhaps seeing Lin Nan's confused eyes, Mother hurriedly wiped away her tears and showed a smile: "It's nothing, just happy for you."
"Mm... I think you should hurry and find soone too..." Lin Nan pursed her lips: "Being happy for isn't much use. You might as well resolve your own matters for the rest of your life, like that... uncle?"
Mother's face beca serious, her tone sowhat stern: "Don't talk nonsense, I have no other relationship with that uncle. He's just a relatively good friend."
Really?
Lin Nan looked skeptical.
But looking at Mother's expression, it didn't seem like she was lying either.
"If you want to keep talking nonsense, your mouth will have to be sewn up!" Mother's finger tapped Lin Nan's lips, quite displeased: "During my marriage, I never once did anything to let down your father."
True, Mother used to follow Father outside to work every day, and after returning ho basically never went out for too long. Actually, even if she wanted to have an affair, there was no ti.
On the other hand, Father hung around outside every day during his rest periods, coming ho dead drunk whenever he had free ti.
"But I already have a boyfriend, you really don't plan to find one?" Lin Nan frowned: "As long as you don't make call that person dad... I really can't accept that."
She truly didn't want her mother to be a lonely old person in the future.
But Mother didn't want to discuss it further and changed the topic: "Eldest Aunt and Eldest Uncle have all co. Aren't you going downstairs to see them?"
At this ntion, Lin Nan chickened out, her little head shaking like a rattle drum: "No, no, forget it. Eldest Aunt really doesn't think much of ... and I don't know what Eldest Uncle's opinion is either."
"You'll have to see them eventually, right? You can't go your whole life without seeing relatives, can you?"
If possible, Lin Nan really did want to go her whole life without seeing any relatives. But this could only exist in imagination.
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