Chapter 38

The moment Xie Yiling stepped through the gates of the Cheng family's house at No. 5 Napa Valley, her initial excitement turned into panic. Although Cheng Shi and Huang Ruoyu greeted her with polite smiles, she felt like an intruder.

Xie Yiling originally thought that Cheng Shi and Huang Ruoyu would be as clumsy and flustered as they always were when they saw her. For example, the two of them would speak at the same time, or they would be busy tidying up this and that around her, or they would rush to throw some toy on the chair just as she was about to sit down... In short, in the past, these two always acted like good children who had been caught doing something wrong by the teacher in front of her.

But the atmosphere at No. 5 Napa Valley was different today. Cheng Shi and Huang Ruoyu calmly received Xie Yiling. Huang Ruoyu didn't repeatedly emphasize that the house wasn't ready as politely as usual, and Cheng Shi didn't ask her "Would you like something to drink?" before rushing into DK and slamming the refrigerator door shut. Tea and drinks were already laid out on the coffee table. Clearly, Cheng Shi and Huang Ruoyu had been sitting in the living room, chatting and drinking, waiting for Xie Yiling before she arrived.

However, Xie Yiling couldn't help but feel that although Cheng Shi and Huang Ruoyu had shown proper hospitality towards her visit, they would have been even more content in their own little world if she hadn't come—which deepened Xie Yiling's anxiety about her intrusive identity.

"Thank you, this tea is really good." Xie Yiling elegantly picked up the teacup, took a sip, and exclaimed, "Oh dear, I was just thinking that my Japanese friend gave me some sencha, and I was going to give it to you, but I forgot as soon as I stepped out the door. Look at my forgetfulness!"

So Huang Ruoyu and Cheng Shi thanked her politely again. Then, Xie Yiling heard her own voice say, "I hope you don't think I'm asking you a big favor, uh...it's related to my son, Zhizhi..."

Xie Yiling keenly observed that Cheng Shi and Huang Ruoyu's facial muscles twitched very slightly at the same time. She felt as if she had been slapped hard across the face. She couldn't help but think that Cheng Shi and Huang Ruoyu must already know everything about her son! Xie Yiling had anticipated all sorts of changes in this plan, but she hadn't considered what would happen if Cheng Shi and Huang Ruoyu already knew the truth about Hu Zhizhi.

So, who told them about Zhizhi's situation? And how much did they actually know? Did they know that Zhizhi had even brought the police to their door during the Spring Festival? Xie Yiling wore a polite smile, but her mind was racing through these questions.

But since the words were already spoken, there was no going back. So Xie Yiling murmured to Chengshi and Huang Ruoyu that her son, Hu Zhizhi, was not doing well. Due to academic pressure and other reasons, he had suffered a mental breakdown. She told them that she had been very worried about her son being sick so far from home, but thankfully he had returned. However, his condition had not improved since his return, which greatly worried the couple. Xie Yiling told Chengshi and Huang Ruoyu that Hu Zhizhi's attending physician had advised him to find a place to recuperate properly, so he was temporarily…

“Uh… actually,” Xie Yiling said, her face flushed, and she mustered up her courage to say, “he is currently staying at the Sixth Hospital, but only temporarily.”

After saying this, Xie Yiling felt her whole body go weak. So she went on to assure Cheng Shi and Huang Ruoyu that the Sixth Hospital was excellent. Whether it was the medical staff or the facilities, it was a very professional hospital, even better than hospitals in the United States.

Xie Yiling continued muttering something, but her voice grew weaker and weaker. Finally, she got to the point of her visit to the Cheng family: "Some weekend…no rush…just some future weekend…would Xiao Cheng and Xiao Huang be willing…?"

“We have no problem, Ms. Xie,” Huang Ruoyu said considerately, seeing Xie Yiling hesitate. “We would be very happy to meet your son.”

“We are very happy that you thought of us,” Cheng Shi said as he poured tea for Xie Yiling.

In fact, Cheng Shi had been fascinated by psychiatry for a while when he was in school, which is why he felt that he, his family, and Huang Ruoyu all had some tendency toward mental health issues. But since none of them were real cases, and Cheng Shi had never observed real cases up close, he thought Hu Zhizhi would be a very interesting person.

"So, how about next Sunday?" Huang Ruoyu asked, "if it's convenient for you."

"Next Sunday?" Xie Yiling pretended to be counting the days and said in a pretentious tone, "Hmm... let me think about it, I'm not very sure... Oh, okay, let's settle on that."

Xie Yiling knew she should be happy because she had achieved the result she wanted. But now she just wanted to leave the Cheng family and go home as soon as possible, so she said to Huang Ruoyu, "Actually, there's no rush. If you have plans for next Sunday, we can discuss something else..."

"It's alright, Mr. Xie, next Sunday is fine."

"Alright then," Xie Yiling said. "It's settled then. Oh dear, it's so late! I'm afraid I have to... Oh right, Xiao Huang said he had something to ask me, right? Look at me, I was so busy talking to myself. Don't mind me, that's how it is when you get old."

As she spoke, Xie Yiling disregarded etiquette, picked up her teacup, and took a big gulp. However, the tea tasted bitter in her mouth, as if her tongue had swelled up. She could no longer feel the sweet aftertaste she had experienced when she first drank the tea.

"Well, Ms. Xie, it's like this..." Cheng Shi said, looking at Xie Yiling, "There's something we'd like to tell you in advance..."

Half an hour later, Xie Yiling was already driving home. During this short drive, her eyes were wide open, and she couldn't recover from the shock for a long time. She couldn't wait to tell Hu Yu the news! However, Hu Yu was probably already in bed. Every night at 9 pm, Hu Yu would go to bed with his phone and continue watching videos.

When Xie Yiling arrived home, she found Hu Yu not in bed, but sitting on the massage chair in the bedroom watching videos. Unlike before, he wasn't wearing headphones, and a woman's shrill laughter blared loudly from Hu Yu's phone.

"Old Hu," Xie Yiling said, patting Hu Yu's shoulder as she came out of the bathroom after removing her makeup and washing her face. Then, she sat in front of the vanity mirror, doing her daily facial care routine, and said to the man in the mirror, "Do you know what those two kids told me?"

"What child?"

“Sung-shi and Hwang Jo-yu, who live at No. 5 Napa Valley, are the couple I just met. You know them, right? I think Zhi-zhi would like them.”

"Oh, I don't know them. What did they say?"

"Actually, I know their family's situation quite well. These two kids basically have no financial means. They even borrowed money from their family for the down payment on that small apartment. I reckon their monthly mortgage payments are enough to keep them broke. They're probably living paycheck to paycheck. And also..."

Hu Yu did try to listen to what Xie Yiling was saying, but his eyes couldn't help but dart towards the funny videos on his phone.

"...So I asked them, why are you selling this house? The market isn't good right now, secondhand prices are very low, not to mention the prices in Phase 3 have never gone up. And I told them, when you come back from your trip, you'll definitely still have to live here, so why sell? And do you know what Chengshi said to me? He looked at me with a shifty look in his eyes and said, 'Uh...we don't plan to come back.' So I asked him, 'Have you found jobs in Yunnan yet?' And the kid actually told me no. Then I asked them if they had any relatives or friends in Yunnan or anything, and he said no too!"

At this point, Xie Yiling mimicked the demeanor of those petty thugs in TV dramas, adopting a nonchalant attitude, and said to Hu Yu, "'No, we don't know anyone here. We just want to go to Dali to live, there's no particular reason.' Old Hu, you have no idea how embarrassing that moment was! Can you imagine? The whole thing was so absurd, how can this be the attitude of parents?"

Hu Yu rubbed his sore eyes and then asked Xie Yiling, "Is this just unbelievable? Why do you say that?"

Hu Yu knew he hadn't kept up with Xie Yiling's pace. He also knew that she had initially talked about someone going to Yunnan, but now she had obviously moved on to something else.

"Why do you say that? Isn't it obvious?" Xie Yiling retorted to Hu Yu. "Two people burdened with debt, raising two young children, one in elementary school and the other in kindergarten. I don't think any normal person would have such thoughts, let alone actually do it, unless they're trying to escape something! I don't know what to think of young people these days; they're completely different from us back then. Actually, they seemed like the kind of couple who could live a peaceful life, but who knew...? And what's most embarrassing is that I had already told them about Zhizhi's situation before they revealed their mess. Now I'm completely stuck, and I can only leave according to plan, even though it's pointless now."

"What plan?"

"Take Zhizhi to their house and let him meet them. Are you even listening to me? Turn off that crappy phone!"

"I'm listening, of course I'm listening. What I mean is, why is it meaningless?"

"Because!" Xie Yiling replied impatiently, "because they're going to Yunnan before the start of the fall semester and they're never coming back. What's the point of me introducing them to Zhizhi then?"

"value?"

"What I mean is, Zhizhi needs people he can build long-term relationships with. Of course, letting them meet, and taking Zhizhi there once or twice before they leave, wouldn't hurt. Sigh, Lao Hu, this all happened so suddenly, I still can't understand why some people just can't..."

At this point, Xie Yiling no longer knew what she was saying, or what she wanted to say. To her surprise, she found herself tearing the tissues on the dressing table into small strips as she spoke.

"Sigh, in the end, you can only know a person's face, not their heart!" Xie Yiling crumpled up the little notes and threw them into the trash can, summarizing it that way. Then she stood up and walked quickly to the dressing room, intending to find a comfortable set of pajamas to change into.

As soon as Xie Yiling entered the dressing room, she saw herself in the full-length mirror. Looking at herself in the mirror, she thought proudly that she still looked like a graceful young woman—at least from a distance.

However, the brightly colored clothes hanging in the closet, clothes that only older people would like, pulled Xie Yiling back to reality. She couldn't help but berate herself: How silly of me! How could I be so prone to overthinking! A young girl, indeed! How pathetic!

Then, after taking off her clothes and sitting on the stool in the walk-in closet, Xie Yiling finally broke down. Looking down, she saw a pair of legs with varicose veins and deformed feet. Because of years of wearing high heels, the big toes on both her feet were turned outwards to varying degrees—feet like those of a young girl were completely unrecognizable! Xie Yiling quickly slipped her unsightly feet into slippers, then rummaged through the pajamas to change into. Then, holding onto the closet doorknob with one hand and covering her mouth with the other, she began to cry silently.

Xie Yiling cried because she had placed high hopes on Cheng Shi and Huang Ruoyu that night, but the result left her extremely, extremely, extremely disappointed; she cried because she realized she was already 60 years old and her feet had become so ugly and unsightly; she cried because her female classmates didn't like her when she was in school, but now men didn't like her either; she cried because she suddenly remembered her first love who was far away in Japan; she cried because Hu Yu was the only person who agreed to marry her after a blind date, but he didn't love her; she cried because their only son was mentally ill.

However, these emotions quickly passed. Xie Yiling quickly stopped crying, walked briskly into the bathroom separated from the dressing room by a wall, blew her nose, washed her face, and then finally cheered herself up. She then returned to the bedroom and sat down in the armchair opposite Hu Yu's massage chair.

"I'm much better now. Lao Hu, you have no idea how confused I was after talking to that Cheng couple! You can't imagine how disappointed they were in me! I always thought they were the down-to-earth, hardworking young people. I thought all young married couples naturally longed for a stable life. What do you think? Especially young couples living in a neighborhood like ours! It's unbelievable. I used to hear that people from other places would do anything to settle down in Beijing, even pay money to buy a Beijing hukou (household registration) because they wanted their children to have one..."

Xie Yiling stood up as she spoke, walking around the room as she talked. Hu Yu scrolled through his phone, nodding occasionally and muttering a few words with a smile. Xie Yiling, who was getting more and more excited as she spoke, was completely unaware that Hu Yu had put on another pair of bone conduction headphones.