Chapter 87 Chapter 87 Yu Yilin
One year later.
In a private hospital in W City, a new life was born.
Xitong successfully gave birth to a daughter, who was small and soft, but her cry was particularly loud.
Yu Sixie held her daughter carefully in her arms, and looking at Xitong, who was weak after giving birth but had a satisfied smile on her face, her heart was filled with indescribable emotion and fulfillment.
He lowered his head, gently touched his daughter's tender cheek with his fingertips, and said softly:
"Let's call her... Yilin, okay?"
"Yilin..."
Xitong repeated the name softly, and her eyes instantly turned red.
She understood the meaning of the name, and also understood the deep affection and consideration of Yu Sixie's action.
She nodded vigorously, tears mixed with smiles, "Okay, let's call you Yilin."
Let’s go back to three months before the child was born.
The atmosphere in the ward of Jing City Hospital was solemn.
After a period of stability, my grandmother's cervical cancer suddenly worsened rapidly, with multiple metastases occurring and her physical condition taking a sharp turn for the worse.
The attending physician called Xi Tong and Yu Sixie to his office and told them with regret that the existing treatment methods could no longer control the disease. Continuing with strong chemotherapy or radiotherapy would only increase the elderly's pain and prolong the torture.
"Perhaps... hospice care can be considered to improve the quality of life in the remaining stages of life and allow the elderly to pass away peacefully and with dignity."
The doctor suggested gently.
This news was like a heavy hammer, hitting Xitong's heart hard.
She felt so heartbroken that she couldn't breathe as she looked at her grandmother in the ward, who was becoming increasingly thin due to illness but still trying to smile at her.
Without much hesitation, Xi Tong and Yu Sixie made a common decision.
They discontinued all active, invasive treatments and only provided necessary pain relief and nutritional support.
Then, they took their grandmother and left the hospital filled with the smell of disinfectant and returned to W City - the city that carried most of their grandmother's life memories and also Xitong's childhood and youth.
They settled down at their grandmother's house in W City.
Yu Sixie transferred most of the work to online processing and stayed by his side as much as possible.
Xitong put aside all the things at hand and accompanied her grandmother wholeheartedly.
In the final moments, there was no painful chemotherapy and no cold instruments.
There was the familiar scenery outside the window, the warm sunshine in the yard, the soup cooked by Yu Sixie himself, Xi Tong's patient company and the sound of her reading the newspaper, and the hope brought by the little life in her belly that was quietly growing and kicking from time to time.
Grandma's spirit seemed to be better after returning to her hometown.
She often touched Xitong's bulging belly, her eyes filled with love and reluctance, and murmured, "It's great... Our Xiaoxi is going to be a mother again..."
Although in the end, grandma closed her eyes forever peacefully before her great-granddaughter was born, with love and reluctance for everyone.
But at least, she spent the last journey of her life with dignity and relative comfort, accompanied by her loved ones, in a land she was familiar with.
Therefore, naming my daughter "Yilin" is not only a commemoration of my grandmother, but also a remembrance of the last and most heartwarming time I spent in W City accompanying my grandmother...
Three months ago.
Grandma's hometown in W City is full of vitality again because of the return of the owners and the upcoming new life.
Xitong's pregnant belly is already very obvious, and her movements are clumsy and gentle, which is unique to pregnant women.
Instead of living in a more convenient large flat, they chose to stay in this old house that carried too many of Xitong's childhood memories and was full of the atmosphere of her grandmother's life.
The afternoon sun was shining brightly, shining through the old-fashioned glass windows, casting mottled light and shadows across the living room.
Xitong was feeling a little sleepy. She leaned on the sofa, covered with a thin blanket and took a nap, breathing evenly.
Yu Sixie sat on a rattan chair beside her, processing emails on his tablet, and looked up at her from time to time with gentle eyes.
Grandma's spirits were sometimes good and sometimes bad, but this afternoon, she was unusually lucid. Leaning back on the recliner, her eyes kindly swept across Xitong's bulging belly, then fell on Yu Sixie, with a gentle smile on her lips.
"Si Xie," Grandma's voice was a little weak, but it was filled with distant memories. "Come here and talk to Grandma."
Yu Sixie immediately put down the tablet, moved a small stool and sat next to his grandmother's recliner, his attitude respectful and serious: "Grandma, please speak."
Grandma looked out the window, as if she could see through time and see that little figure from many years ago.
"When Xiaoxi was little, she was so naughty, not like a girl at all." Grandma's voice was filled with a doting smile. "There's a crooked tree in the small park in front. She climbed up while I wasn't paying attention and sat on the branch, swinging her legs. It scared her mother. And guess what? She kept shouting from up there, 'Look, Mom! I'm taller than the house!'"
Yu Sixie imagined that scene, and the corners of his mouth rose unconsciously. He looked softly at Xi Tong who was sleeping peacefully on the sofa. It was difficult to connect the naughty boy in the tree with the calm and elegant her now.
"She looked quiet and had a very righteous mind," the grandmother continued, her eyes a little hazy as she recalled. "When she was little, her parents were unreliable. Sometimes they promised to take her out to play, but suddenly couldn't go. She didn't cry or make a fuss, but would just move a small stool and sit at the door waiting. She could wait all day. She wouldn't listen to anyone's advice and was very stubborn."
Grandma paused and sighed softly, "Then her parents passed away suddenly... leaving behind a huge mess... The child became even less talkative. So much pressure was placed on a little girl like her, and I, an old woman with no education and no skills, couldn't help at all... It really took a toll on the child."
Yu Sixie listened quietly. These past events, in which he had never participated, pieced together a more complete and three-dimensional Xi Tong in his mind bit by bit.
The seeds of her independence, her tenacity, and her stubbornness were planted as early as her childhood.
"She first learned to ride a bicycle in this yard."
Grandma pointed to the small courtyard outside, which was now filled with flowers and plants. "I don't know how many times he fell, his knees and elbows were all bruised, but he didn't cry. He got up by himself, picked up the bike and continued riding."
Grandma said this with tears in her eyes, but with pride: "This child can hold things in his heart and can handle things. It's just... sometimes he is too strong-willed and works too hard on himself."
Her gaze fell back on Yu Sixie's face, and she gave him an earnest exhortation: "Si Xie, Grandma can see that you are truly good to Xiao Xi. In the future... if she gets stubborn again and gets stuck in a rut, you should give in to her and help her more. She's actually a softie at heart, but she just won't admit defeat..."
Yu Sixie held his grandmother's skinny hand, nodded solemnly, and said in a low and firm voice: "Grandma, don't worry. I will. I will take good care of her and won't let her carry it alone anymore."
The sunlight moved slowly, lengthening the figures of the three people.
Xitong might have dreamed about something while sleeping, and the corners of her mouth curled up slightly.
Yu Sixie held his grandmother's hand and listened to those trivial and warm fragments about Xitong's childhood, his heart filled with indescribable tenderness and responsibility.
These memories told by his grandmother herself were like the most precious gifts, allowing him to enter Xitong's world more deeply and making him more determined to protect her and the unborn child.
…
The VIP delivery room of W City Private Hospital is filled with the faint scent of disinfectant and new life.
Xitong's face was pale, with the weakness and fatigue of postpartum childbirth, but her eyes were bright. She carefully held the little baby wrapped in soft swaddling clothes in her arms.
Her fingers gently brushed across her daughter Yu Yilin's tender and almost transparent little face, feeling the faint but real breathing. A complex emotion mixed with great joy, deep longing and irreparable regret, like a surging tide, instantly broke through the dam she had held up.
Without any warning, tears rolled down my cheeks.
It was not a howling cry, but a silent, suppressed sob, and the tears quickly soaked her sweaty temples and the front of her shirt.
"Grandma... Grandma couldn't see Linlin..."
She choked with sobs, her voice broken and filled with unspeakable pain. "She was so looking forward to it... She touched my belly and said it was so nice... She said she was looking forward to holding her great-granddaughter..."
The arrival of this child is hope and continuation, but it is also like a key that more clearly opens the wound of loss that has never healed.
The passing of my grandmother means that the closest elders in this world who are connected to her by blood and have witnessed her entire growth process are no longer here.
Her parents died young, and now her grandmother is gone too. A huge, duckweed-like sense of loneliness wraps her tightly at this moment.
Yu Sixie stood by the bed, looking at Xi Tong crying. His heart felt like it was being tightly grasped by an invisible hand, and he felt extremely distressed.
He leaned over and wanted to hold her and the child in his arms.
At this moment, Yu's father and mother, who had hurried from Beijing after receiving the news, walked into the ward.
Their faces were filled with joy at having a new baby, but the moment they saw Xi Tong in tears, that joy immediately turned into deep heartache and understanding.
Mother Yu walked over quickly. She didn't embrace the child first, but reached out her hand and gently wiped the tears from Xitong's face with her warm palm. Her voice was so gentle that it could drip water: "Good child, don't cry. Crying during the confinement period is not good for your eyes. Your grandmother... although she didn't see it with her own eyes, she must be watching from heaven. Seeing our Linlin born safely, she must be happier than anyone else."
Father Yu also walked to the bedside and looked at the tiny granddaughter in the cradle, whose features were similar to his son's. His eyes were full of love. He said in a deep voice, "Xiao Xi, your grandmother taught you very well. Seeing how happy you are now, with Xiao Zhi and Lin Lin, she passed away with peace of mind."
Mother Yu tightly grasped Xitong's hand that wasn't holding the child, looking at her sincerely and firmly. She spoke clearly, word for word, "Xiaoxi, remember, you are our daughter, our own daughter! We can't change the past, but from now on, you have Dad, Mom, Sixie, Xiaozhi, and now Linlin. We are your closest family!"
These words, like the warm sunshine in winter, penetrated the gloom and loneliness in Xitong's heart caused by the loss of her loved ones.
She raised her tearful eyes and looked at the unpretentious love in Yu's mother's eyes, the calm care on Yu's father's face, and then looked at Yu Sixie who was holding her hand tightly beside her.
Looking down, I see my daughter's peaceful sleeping face in my arms. Her little eyes and eyebrows seem to bring some kind of comfort that transcends time and space.
Tears are still flowing, but it is no longer pure sadness, but more of a sense of relief and emotion wrapped in warmth.
She nodded vigorously, her voice still choked but with strength: "Yeah... I know... Thank you, Dad, thank you, Mom."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
