Chapter 1

John and Mina were talking about work. Jiang Qi was confused by the large number of professional terms and could only wander around John's house.

It can be seen that John's career was indeed going well in the years before he was sent to prison. High-end apartment, large flat, floor-to-ceiling windows, open kitchen, cloakroom that is standard for successful people, various styles of suits, and neatly arranged ties.

The general configuration of the male protagonist's home in idol dramas is just like this.

Jiang Qi slowly walked to the study. There were three photo frames on the desk, all of which were photos of him and Mina. The notebook he used for work was still open, with analysis reports that Jiang Qi couldn't understand. There were many large books on the bookshelf, and each book was very clean without dust, which seemed to be often read or wiped.

Jiang Qi looked from left to right, "Structural Dynamics", "Basic Mechanics", "Basic Bridge Structure", "Basic Machinery"...

Jiang Qi:?

Isn't John a biology student? Why is he reading this kind of book when he has nothing else to do?

It's quite mixed.

Jiang Qi walked around the house and found that the young version of John was indeed a winner in life and a successful person.

The house is luxurious, beautifully decorated, and tidy inside. It is equipped with a wine cabinet and a model display cabinet. The rackets, skateboards and other sports items placed in the storage room demonstrate the rich hobbies of this successful person.

xy

Back in front of the open kitchen in the living room, John and Mina were chatting about something Jiang Qi could understand.

"It's such a pity this year. I thought I could go to Country Y with you during the Christmas holiday, but it turns out you don't even have a Christmas holiday." Mina was waiting for the roast turkey in the oven to come out, leaning against the kitchen counter and muttering.

The aroma of turkey has already filled the house, and the Christmas atmosphere is extremely strong.

"The boss said that he will give us a long vacation after the development of the new drug is completed. We can go back then." John untied his tie tiredly and was about to go back to the house to change into more comfortable clothes when Sunny called.

"Merry Christmas." Sunny's voice was equally gentle, but a little deeper than Mina's. "I haven't looked at my phone since I got off the plane. I just went to the supermarket to buy some food and was about to go to my dad's place. Is there anything you want me to tell Dad about?"

John, who was originally smiling, instantly retracted his smile and said lightly: "No need."

"I knew it." Sunny on the other end of the phone looked helpless. "You haven't been back to China much in recent years. In fact, they have always missed you. Mom even said she missed you very much last week. She said she hasn't spent Christmas with you for more than ten years, and she also wants to see your beautiful girlfriend."

"Missed me?" John's voice was full of sarcasm. "I'm afraid it's just a polite remark. Or maybe she's overwhelmed by her three newborn daughters and misses a child who can help her with housework and won't rebel against her."

"Don't say that." Sunny said softly, "She has gotten a lot better over the years. At least she's better than when we were kids, isn't she?"

"Of course, is there a worse mother in the world than she was? I will never forget her curse that I would not live past the age of 28."

"John..."

"Okay, I'll shut up." John paused, but couldn't help but speak, "But you really shouldn't raise..."

Sunny interrupted John: "She is our sister too, she is only 14 years old."

"She's only 14 and she's already a drug addict! Alcoholic, uneducated, just a..."

"I was like that once," Sunny said, "but not as bad as her. John, you can't expect every child who grew up in the same environment as us to be like you. You can live well with your talents, but we are not as smart as you. We can often only rely on luck."

"Just like when I was a kid I really hoped there would be a kind person to help me. I am her sister. Isn't it my duty to help her once when she makes a mistake?"

John was obviously not convinced, but he couldn't refute it either, so he could only whisper: "This is not your responsibility."

“But I have the ability.”

John shut up completely and gave up arguing.

"So, don't always be prejudiced against your father. Although he is not a qualified father, believe me, he likes you very much and he would not do such a thing to you."

"He doesn't like me."

Sunny chuckled a few times: "You really look like my son. I hope he is as smart as you."

John hung up the phone decisively. Jiang Qi seemed to hear Sunny laughing while holding the phone thousands of miles away.

When John hung up the phone, the roast turkey was successfully baked. Mina was excitedly adding various side dishes to the plate of roast turkey. When she saw John hung up the phone, she asked, "Sunny's call, right? Tell me the secret recipe of apple pie quickly. There is still time to bake a pie."

John: …

"I forgot to ask." John said a little embarrassedly.

He just had an argument with Sunny and forgot about the important business.

Mina: ?

Mina spread her hands and took off her apron: "Well, although I want to cook a sumptuous Christmas dinner today, it is obvious that some people don't want to eat dessert, so there will be no dessert today."

Just when Jiang Qi thought that the two were going to have a fight on Christmas Eve, the young couple suddenly showed their affection again.

The dishes were served, John pulled out a chair for Mina, and the two sat at the table, enjoying their Christmas dinner.

Jiang Qi:?

The Christmas atmosphere is in the air.

John and Mina drank a few glasses of red wine, and Mina's cheeks were slightly red. Under the dim light, the young couple sat next to each other and whispered incoherently. Mina laughed and fell into John's arms, which made Jiang Qi turn his head away silently.

Wait a minute...

Is there anything that cannot be broadcast?

"Want to watch a movie?" Mina asked with a smile, lying in John's arms and acting coquettishly, "I want to watch... science fiction..."

Before he could finish his words, John's cell phone rang.

It's Sunny's video call.

"Wait a minute." John sat up straight, and Mina also sat up straight away from his arms.

"It's a video call from Sunny," John explained, answering the call.

Instead of Sunny's face, the screen on the phone showed clean tiles.

"Sunny?"

A few seconds later, Sunny's face appeared on the phone. Her hair on both sides was slightly wet, her eyeliner was a little smudged, and there were still unmelted snowflakes on her shoulders. The background was a white wall, and she looked very disheveled.

"Have you arrived home? Is it raining outside? Are you at the station now?" John asked.

"I'm in the hospital." There was some noise in the background from Sunny's end. "Wait a moment. I'll find a quiet place."

"Hospital? What happened to you? Are you sick? Or your son..."

Mina came over after hearing this and asked, "Sunny is sick?"

Sunny found a relatively quiet window. It was snowing heavily outside the window, which was very suitable for the mood of Christmas Eve.

"Today is Christmas Eve. There are not many doctors and nurses in the hospital. Everyone is very busy," said Sunny.

"Is it your son..." John could already see that Sunny was in good health.

Sunny sighed, "It's Dad."

"Him?" John's tone was a little colder. "It's normal for him to get sick living in a place like that."

"He's very ill." Sunny looked at John helplessly, her tone sounding a little sad. "He fainted when he went to the supermarket to buy groceries this morning and was sent to the hospital."

"The community contacted my mother, but... you know her. I just went to his house and found no one there. I called my mother and found out..."

"What's wrong with him?" John interrupted Sonny. "Anemia? Enteritis? Gastritis? Broken bones?"

“Those are minor ailments.”

Jiang Qi saw John's face turn pale.

"It's pancreatic cancer. The doctor said he was diagnosed three months ago."

"Brother, Dad won't live for a few more days."

John looked at Sunny on the screen in his hand, looking at her expression, trying to find some clue on her face that would prove she was lying.

"Pancreatic cancer." John repeated, his mouth twitching slightly, trying to force out a sarcastic smile but failing. "So, he didn't tell anyone about this serious illness, and he didn't want to contact us even if he needed money for treatment, right?"

"No." Sunny shook her head. "I checked his medical records. He didn't receive any treatment."

"Is he crazy?" John raised his voice. "He obviously has medical insurance. I bought it for him! As long as he asks... He doesn't receive treatment, so what has he been doing these days? Sitting at home waiting to die?!"

"Calm down." Sunny seemed to have expected John to lose control like this, and said gently, "I don't know why he did this. Dad is sleeping now. You can ask him in person when he wakes up."

"sleep?"

Sunny sighed, "The doctor said he hadn't taken any painkillers. He came to the hospital for follow-up visits several times, and each time he asked himself how long he could live. He refused treatment and refused to take medicine. He hadn't slept well for a long time, and his body was too tired. The nurse gave him a painkiller injection. No matter what, let him get some sleep first."

"I didn't know how painful pancreatic cancer is. The nurse just told me that some patients in the advanced stage can't sleep all night because of the pain. Even the maximum dose of morphine is useless. They are in so much pain that they don't even have the strength to talk while holding their stomachs. They dare not even breathe hard. The nurse asked me how my father walked to the supermarket. I couldn't even imagine it."

"He's torturing himself."

"I always feel like he has been punishing himself for something all these years. He could have lived a good life, but he chose to live in that small house. He was even sweeping the streets yesterday."

"You are really alike. You always complain to me about how weird he is and how much you hate him. You get upset every time he's mentioned. But it was you who bought him expensive medical insurance and asked me to install heating in his house."

"Do you remember the police academy I attended? I didn't get any scholarship at all. I didn't get a single cent of scholarship. I really wanted to go to that school, and I went to beg my mom, but she told me to get out. She said it was expensive enough to raise me, and she wouldn't help me out with any more money. I had already given up, but then I went to beg my dad again."

"I don't even know where he got the money. He gave me all the tuition fees in one go and told me not to bother him."

"Even the living expenses I gave you when you were in college were given by Dad. You have been my favorite child since you were a child. He was able to pay all my college tuition, so how could he just ignore you?"

"He is really a very strange person. He has no past, no friends, no relatives, and he even won't let us inherit his last name. I have lived with him for nearly ten years but I know nothing about him. Although he has never supported me for a day after divorcing my mother, I can't hate him."

"You're the same as me, aren't you?"

John moved his lips, but no words came out.

"Is he awake?" John asked after a long silence.

"Not yet. The nurse will tell me when you wake up."

"Tell me when he wakes up." John hung up the video call.

He and Mina were still sitting at the dining table. The sumptuous meal on the table had already gone cold. The scene was exactly the same as it was a few minutes ago, except that the festive atmosphere had long since disappeared.

John stared at the dishes on the table in a trance, not knowing what he was thinking.

Mina didn't dare to speak, and didn't know what to say. She just sat quietly beside John and accompanied him.

Suddenly, John spoke.

“When I was little I felt like I was his most special child.”

"He would attend my parent-teacher conferences, buy me my favorite sandwiches, walk me to the block, and answer my questions, albeit reluctantly."

"Although he won't tell me bedtime stories, won't participate in parent-child activities at school, won't accept the first gift I gave him, and won't attend my graduation ceremony, I always feel that he is special to me."

"I hate him and my family. For so many years, I have always felt that if Sunny and I were born in a normal family, our lives would be better than they are now. But I have to admit that my intelligence is inherited from him and my looks are inherited from my mother. These are all given to me by them."

"I hate my mother, but I don't seem to hate him that much."

"I hate that I'm not his most special child. I don't even know now whether he likes us or not."

John just wanted to find someone to talk to and tell them about his years of confusion and puzzlement.

Mina held John's hand and said soothingly, "My dear, although I don't understand it very well, I know that if a father doesn't love his children, he won't remember what his children like to eat."

"My dad never remembers what I like to eat, even if I tell him many times. He never takes me to school, he always asks the driver to do it. He doesn't chat with me, he is busy, you see, he doesn't even spend Christmas with me."

Mina got up and poured John a glass of water: "When he wakes up, have a good chat with him. You can take a few days off to go back and visit him. The boss will agree. If you don't mind, I can take a leave to accompany you back."

With Mina's comfort, John's mood was obviously much better. Mina smiled at John and began to help him collect the plates. John also stood up to clean up. Just as John picked up the roast turkey that he had only taken a few bites of, Sunny called again via video.

John quickly put down the plate of turkey and answered the phone.

Sunny was in the ward. The phone didn't capture her face. John could only see the open door of the ward and the hurried nurses.

"Is Dad awake?" John asked.

"No." Sunny choked, "He was too tired."

"What?" John didn't come over.

"He's dead."

John and Mina were both stunned.

Mina stood in the kitchen, feeling somewhat helpless. She wanted to go over and hug John, but she stopped moving after taking a step. Although Jiang Qi already knew the ending of the story, she felt inexplicably sad when she saw John's expression at that moment.

"I want to see him," John whispered.

The picture on the phone was shaky, and Sunny's hand holding the phone kept shaking. In the picture, the old man on the hospital bed looked like he was asleep. A nurse was calling other nurses by the bed, waiting for a cart to come and take away old John's body.

Old John has become very thin.

His gray hair was very sparse, his face was sallow, and his body was covered with age spots. Because of the pain, the fat he had lost could not support his skin, so his face was loose, and his appearance, which should have been very ferocious, now looked a little kind.

"He's so thin," John said.

"Yeah." Sunny sobbed, "He has lost a lot of weight in the past few years. Many of his clothes look like elephant skin on him."

"I haven't seen him for many years. The last time I saw him he didn't have so many spots on his face."

"My hair isn't gray either."

"The suit I bought him must be too big for him now."

"If only he had worn it then."

"I had saved up the money for a long time, he would definitely like it."

As he was talking, John looked at his phone and burst into tears.