Chapter 10
Perhaps it was because he first shared his family stories so openly that I found it easier to speak.
Hesitating, Isl.
My mom passed away, and my dad, like yours, cut ties with me.
That year, at my mots’s funeral, a sea of people came, all dressed in black.
The master of ceremonies gave a long e eulogy, bot 1 conduct fully understand My mind wandered midway.
I remember looking at my boom’s photo, where she seemed to smile at me, and sandled back
The next second, I was slapped to the grid by my father.
He roared, “Your mom’s dead! How can you still smile
Everyone turned to look at me as if I were some kind of monster.
In that moment, I was terrified.
Tears welled in my eyes, but I hit my lips and didn’t dare make a sound.
In the first year after my mom’s passing, my dad often sat in the living room athught, flipping through her letters and photos.
By the second year, he had packed her belongings into a few boxes and pushed them into a dusty corner.
By the third year, he had remarried.
The new stepmom dumped the bones into the yard, saying she wanted to burnthem all.
I desperately rummaged through the pile and saved the camera, holding it tightly to my chest.
I burned myself in the process,
From then on, the camera became the only thing left of my mom
Later, my younger sister was born.
The love and attention of the whole family shifted to her.
1 grew up as if invisible, turning eighteen without anyone noticing
I went to college to study medicine.
On the day of enrollment, my dad handed me a thick stack of money and said,
“You’re an adult now. Don’t come back.”
I nodded and counted it–30,000 yuan
36,000 yuan severed the blood ties between us,
Al university, my teachers and classmates praised me for being well–suited to be a doctor,
saying that I could stay calm no matter the situation.
When I started working, this became my professional strength
Everyone admired my composure, but only I knew–1 was too scared to stop.
Sometimes I wondered if, on the day of the funeral. I hadn’t angered my dad,
Chapter 10
would he still have abandoned me?
Over the years. For grown spedi
believing that if lever langbad feel
inne shed tears recklessly,
Mt this point, Elet out a small
These memories, buried in my heart for so long, had never been shared with your before.
Josephon brows furrowed deeply. The umal faint sale at the corners of his lips had disappeared.
“Zory, have you forgotten? You were only five years old at the time.”
1 free little puzzled. “What?
He said. “Crying and laughing are a child’s privilege.
You’ve been suppressing yourself because no one ever let you he a child.”
Has voor was soft, but it struck me like a thunderbolt.
the funeral my dad stopped speaking to me for a long time.
Later, when my sister was born, my needs were always pushed aside.
At college, I had to juggle my studies and find ways to support myself.
Trying to recall I realized there wasn’t a single moment when I had been cared for as a child.
I knew I had no one to rely on, so I understood that my tears and laughter didn’t matter to anyone.
It was better to bury them deep inside
Lowering my head, I said bitterly.
“Yeah but I’m an adult now. It’s impossible to act like a child anymore.
To laugh when I want to laugh, or cry when I want to cry
I finished speaking, a sudden jolt ran through my ribs, like a mild electric shock.
Startled. I let out a strange yelp and turned to look
It was Joseph puking my side,
With a playful smile, he said, “Who says it’s impossible?”
I tried to dodge, but he grabbed me.
It was as if there was a switch on my waist–I couldn’t stop laughing, no matter how hard I tried to keep my mouth shut,
1 burst out like a deflating balloon
“Stop! Don’t poke met It’s so ticklish! Hahaha I’m begging you!”
Truggled to escape but was cornered by him.
laughed so hard that tears were streaming down my face
Chaplet 10
“Merry, Dr. Joseph Let me go!“ 1 pleaded.
He bared his teeth in a gr
I curled to a ball, bracing myself, but the expected semation didn’t
Perking out cautiously, I saw him extend his hand with his palis apen.
Is it was a piece of candy
smiling, he said, “Here, a reward for the intle one.”
Π
Istared at him, stunned, and then collapsed weakly against the wall.
Unwrapping the candy. I popped it into my mouth.
It wasn’t good–cheap artificial fruit flaven, sickle sweet
But it made my eyes sting, as if burung
Joseph reached down, pulled me up, and held me in his arms.
“Cry,” he said softly. “It’s okay. I know it hurts.”
The warmth and strength of his embrace broke down the last of my defenses
How long had it been since I felt understood, cherished?
long that I had started to believe I didn’t deserve it.
And yet here in a foreign land on the other side of the world,
he used a piece of candy to comfort me,
- e. Just like a child.
In that moment, the tears I had held back since I was five years old finally came pouring out, all at once, twenty years later.
He kept gently patting my hack, letting his clothes soak up my tears.
At some point. I didn’t even know when I cried myself to sleep in his arms.
Chapter 11,
