He thought back to when he was tossing and turning in bed, and his phone suddenly vibrated. Not many people knew this private number of his. After a few rings, he answered, and a strange female voice ca through. At first, he thought it was a misdial.
However, just as he was about to hang up, he vaguely heard a hauntingly familiar voice.
That voice had appeared in his dreams more than once. Despite the passage of many years, the tone and appearance of the other person were vividly etched in his heart.
At the mont the other person spoke, there was an instant where he even thought he was dreaming.
Outside the window, the night was deepening, and the crescent moon, now obscured by thick clouds, was nowhere to be seen.
Tonight, for An Residence, it was destined to be a sleepless night.
***
Morning.
In the crowded ordinary ward, a rich aroma of at filled every corner of the room.
The family on the neighboring bed had brought breakfast, eating heartily and occasionally engaging in conversation.
An Yin’s bed was by the entrance, the door left open, and the noise from the corridor filtered in through the crack of the door.
An Ying originally wanted to close the door, but the attendant of the neighboring bed suggested keeping it open for better air circulation, so An Ying went along with it.
Early in the morning, An Ying went downstairs to the shop to buy so daily necessities.
The bloodstains on the hotel sheets initially scared An Ying a lot. After being admitted to the hospital and erging from the ergency room, it was confird that her period had co. Only then did An Ying’s heart settle, but she was also a bit annoyed, seeing as her period was coming, yet her daughter still insisted on eating flavorful food.
Now look where it got her, rushing to the hospital late at night.
Acute gastroenteritis!
That whole night, An Ying stayed by her side, busily attending to her, occasionally wiping her daughter’s body and feeding her dicine.
The entire night, An Yin was in a daze, only slowly waking up the next morning.
Upon seeing Ms. An sitting on the chair, An Yin, with sleepy eyes, glanced around the room for quite a while before realizing that she had been hospitalized.
"Mom..." She tried to call out to her mom, but her throat felt as if it had swallowed a blade, tugging and aching with pain.
Seeing her daughter’s weakened state, though there was anger in her heart, An Ying felt more pain for her daughter.
An Ying picked up a bottle of mineral water, fed An Yin a sip, and asked, "Feeling better? Is your stomach still hurting?"
"Hmm." An Yin responded softly.
An Yin still felt uncomfortable all over her body. Just as she was about to pull back the covers, she was halted by An Ying’s outstretched hand.
"There’s so many people, be cautious," An Ying whispered to her daughter with a bewildered look, "You’re on your period."
"Well..." An Yin felt her face heat up with embarrassnt.
"I’ve put a pad on for you," An Ying said in a roundabout way. Seeing her daughter’s blushing face, she continued her reprimand, "You knew your period was coming, yet you still ate such greasy and spicy food. At your age, you should know better but still cause worry..."
An Ying was gentle by nature, rarely lecturing her daughter, only standing her ground as a mother when she really couldn’t overlook sothing. However, these instances were few because An Yin was never a rebellious child, and as she grew up, she was obedient and sensible.
"I know I was wrong," An Yin admitted with sha, struggling to speak. At this mont, she felt uncomfortable all over, and at her age, needing Ms. An to personally put on a pad for her was mortifying.
Moreover, the clothes on her body felt sticky and uncomfortable, with no change of clothes available.
An Ying had intended to say more, but noticing people from the neighboring bed looking over, she swallowed her words.
"Buzz, buzz, buzz..."
Just as they fell into silence, the phone in the bag on the bedside table began vibrating.
An Ying pulled out her daughter’s phone from the bag, and upon seeing the na on the screen, her expression paused slightly, but she handed the phone to her daughter’s pillow side, "He called."
He?
Upon hearing Ms. An’s designation, An Yin froze for a mont. When she snapped back to reality, she shyly and timidly took the phone, turned around, and stared dazedly at the lit-up screen.
Seeing her daughter’s coy deanor, An Ying’s weary face showed a trace of doubt, "Why not answer?"
An Yin slowly propped herself up.
Seeing this, An Ying hurriedly went over to support her, watching her daughter, distracted with the phone in hand, as a faint sense of wistfulness flashed in An Ying’s eyes.
An Ying didn’t know to what extent her daughter liked this Mr. Bo. If it was just a simple romance, she would choose to turn a blind eye, after all, she was young once too.
When An Yin turned her head and found that Ms. An was watching her, she guiltily lowered her head and hesitantly said, "He might have dialed the wrong number."
After uttering this sentence, An Yin wished she could smack herself.
Hearing her daughter’s words, An Ying shook her head and sighed, "Are you testing your mom’s intelligence?"
An Yin, "..."
In the already cramped ward, visitors ca and went, quickly making the room noisy.
An Ying noticed that people occasionally glanced over at them and reached out, intending to pull the curtain for privacy.
At this mont, a woman lying next to them blurted out, "The curtain is broken."
An Ying’s hand hung in midair, then she withdrew it, "Okay, thank you for the reminder."
The woman, hearing the soft Wu dialect from An Ying, muttered sothing under her breath, though the man attending to her heard it.
"Say less," the man turned his head towards An Ying’s direction, saw the other party indifferent, and realized she couldn’t understand their dialect.
"Why, am I wrong? Or have you taken a liking to her?" The woman, invigorated by her husband’s tone, lifted her head, glared fiercely at the man next to her, and said, "Didn’t I just say she’s pretentious? Why you defending her?"
The man listened to his wife’s tirade, his face darkening, but knowing her temper, he could only suppress his temper, fearing that the shrew in front of him would throw a fit, disregarding everyone, especially since they were in a hospital room now—best to endure for the mont!
Their commotion attracted the attention of people in the surrounding beds, who quickly fell silent; those who had co to visit kept looking over curiously.
An Ying never thought such a trivial matter could provoke ridicule, looking at the woman’s relentless manner, she chose not to cause trouble.
She had encountered such situations before.
When she first moved to her current ho, the neighbors, especially the won, always looked at her with wary eyes. Several tis, she accidentally overheard their discussions when she happened to pass by, realizing that they called her a fox behind her back, saying her looks were bait for married n, and so even speculated her daughter might be illegitimate.
An Ying had heard all kinds of such comnts before.
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