Chapter 28: Complete Healing of Past Traumas
The resounding success of Paris Fashion Week gave Su Lingwan and Luminance a boost. Orders poured in, and media acclaim poured in. She firmly established herself in the international jewelry design world, becoming a sought-after rising star. After returning to Hong Kong, her life was filled with interviews, collaborations, and brand management meetings—a busy yet fulfilling experience.
Huo Linshen remained her staunchest supporter, as always. He was genuinely proud of her success, but even more so, he felt a sense of comfort and protection, a sense of "my daughter has grown up." He didn't interfere with her specific work, but behind the scenes, he shielded her from the most direct and covert attacks from within the Huo family and other business forces, ensuring a clear and cloudless future for her.
However, Su Lingwan keenly sensed that beneath the tranquility Huo Linshen had created for her, he himself seemed to be haunted by some invisible shadow. He would occasionally fall into long silences, gazing out the window at the nightscape of Hong Kong, his eyes empty and distant. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, he would wake from nightmares, covered in cold sweats, and hold her tightly in his arms, as if this was the only way to confirm her existence.
Su Lingwan knew that the car accident that had happened years earlier, and the related memories of his mother's early death and his father's indifference, had always been a wound in his heart that had never healed. The splendor of Paris had temporarily illuminated the darkness, but the deep-rooted trauma had not disappeared.
The turning point came one weekend evening when Huo Linshen received a call from the housekeeper of the old house saying that his father Huo Zhenting had collapsed in the study at home and had been sent to the hospital.
Huo Linshen was cutting fruit for Su Lingwan when he received the call. His hands paused imperceptibly, his face expressionless. He just said "hmm" to indicate that he understood, and then hung up the phone.
But Su Lingwan saw his jawline tense instantly and the complex emotions that flashed across his eyes—there was concern and worry, but more of it was a forcibly suppressed struggle mixed with resentment and alienation.
"I'll go to the hospital with you." Su Lingwan put down the magazine in her hand, stood up, walked to his side, and gently held his hand holding a fruit knife with white knuckles.
Huo Linshen looked up at her, his eyes deep and with a hint of vulnerability that was barely perceptible. He was silent for a moment, then finally nodded: "Okay."
Outside the hospital's VIP ward, they ran into some other members of the Huo family who had rushed over after hearing the news, including Huo Zhenbang. Seeing Huo Linshen, Huo Zhenbang greeted him with a forced smile, "Linshen is here. Big brother just woke up. Nothing serious. Just a little high blood pressure, an old problem."
Huo Linshen nodded expressionlessly, ignoring the other implications of his words, and pushed open the door of the ward and walked in.
In the ward, Huo Zhenting leaned against the bed, his face pale and wearing an oxygen mask. He looked much weaker than his usual majestic and cold image. When he saw Huo Linshen and Su Lingwan come in, his cloudy eyes moved.
Huo Linshen stood at the foot of the bed, keeping a distance, and asked about the patient's condition in a flat tone, as if he were asking about an ordinary subordinate. The conversation between father and son was dry, full of formulaic courtesy and a deliberate sense of alienation.
Su Lingwan stood beside Huo Linshen, clearly sensing his stiffness and the frozen desolation within his heart. She looked at her elderly, lonely father lying on the hospital bed, then at her equally lonely son, armored in his indifference, and a pang of bitterness welled up within her.
When we left the hospital, it was already late and a light drizzle was falling.
After getting into the car, Huo Linshen didn't say a word. He just looked out the window at the neon lights blurred by the rain, his profile cold and hard.
Su Lingwan gently placed her hand on the back of his hand on his knee.
Huo Linshen's body stiffened slightly and he turned to look at her.
"If you want to talk," Su Lingwan's voice was soft and soothing, "I'm always here."
Huo Lin looked at her deeply, his eyes filled with indescribable emotions. He held her hand with his backhand, very tightly, as if drawing strength from it.
The car did not drive back to the Repulse Bay Villa, but drove in another direction - the old house that carried his mother's brief happy memories.
Entering the house again, Huo Linshen's expression was even more solemn than before. He didn't turn on the lights, relying on the faint light filtering through the window as he walked to the fireplace. There was a box there again, but this time it wasn't a cardboard box containing dolls, but a wooden storage box that looked much older.
He squatted down and opened the box.
There were no jewels or documents inside, only some small objects that carried the test of time - a slightly old wooden comb, a few piano scores with yellowed pages, and a black-and-white photo with worn corners.
In the photo, a gentle and beautiful young woman sat at a piano, her face tilted back and a faint smile on her face. Her features bore a resemblance to Huo Linshen. Behind her stood a similarly young man, with a serious face but gentle eyes. His hand rested gently on the woman's shoulder. It was Huo Zhenting in his youth, and Huo Linshen's mother.
Huo Linshen picked up the photo and gently stroked his mother's smile with his fingertips. His eyes were filled with deep sadness and...admiration that Su Lingwan had never seen before.
"My mother... loves playing the piano." Huo Linshen's voice rang out in the quiet and empty house, carrying a hint of distant memories and hoarseness. "This house is the only place where she can feel a little freedom after she married into the Huo family. My father... back then, he would occasionally come here to listen to her play the piano."
Su Lingwan listened quietly without interrupting him.
"That car accident..." Huo Linshen's Adam's apple rolled, and his voice became more hoarse. "That day, they had agreed to come here together... Because my birthday was coming up, my mother wanted to personally choose a new piano for me. But my father had an important meeting at the last minute... My mother insisted on going alone... And then..."
He didn't say anything else, but his clenched fists and slightly trembling shoulders said it all.
A car accident, caused by a change in schedule due to an "important meeting," took his gentle mother away and completely froze the already fragile relationship between him and his father. He blamed his mother's death on his father's broken promises and indifference, and he closed himself off in resentment towards his father and fear of losing his mother.
"Over the years," Huo Linshen said, his voice almost inaudible as he stared at the photo, "I've always felt that he wasn't worthy of being my father. All he cared about was the Huo family and their own interests... He never truly felt any sadness for my mother's passing."
Su Lingwan's heart tightened. She walked forward, squatted beside him, reached out her hands, and gently hugged his tense body.
"Lin Shen," she said softly, her voice like warm spring water, trying to melt the ice in his heart, "Perhaps... there is more than one way to express pain."
Huo Linshen's body trembled and he looked at her.
Su Lingwan's eyes were gentle and tolerant. "Some people choose to vent, some choose to remember, and some... choose to turn themselves into a block of ice, thinking that this way, they won't feel the pain of loss again." She paused, looking into his eyes. "Your father... maybe he just doesn't know how to express himself, or how to face... the world after losing your mother, and... you, who are filled with your mother's shadow."
Huo Linshen was stunned. Su Lingwan's words were like a key, gently prying open the cognition he had held on to for many years.
He had always thought his father was cold and heartless, but he never considered that his indifference might also be a form of extreme pain and escape.
Just then, Huo Linshen's phone rang. It was a message from the hospital nurse, with a photo attached. In the photo, Huo Zhenting leaned against the headboard, holding another photo of him and Huo Linshen's mother. The old man's fingers gently stroked the woman's face in the photo, his eyes filled with undisguised, deep grief.
That photo and the one in Huo Linshen's hand were obviously taken at the same time.
Looking at the fragility and sadness of his father in the photo, which had never been revealed in front of him, Huo Linshen's always strong defenses collapsed at this moment.
It turns out... he is not without pain.
He simply buried all his pain deep down where no one could see it.
A huge wave of relief, sadness, and understanding surged into Huo Linshen's heart like a tide. He closed his eyes, rested his forehead on Su Lingwan's shoulder, and his body trembled slightly.
Su Lingwan patted his back gently, silently giving him comfort and support.
After a long time, Huo Linshen slowly raised his head. His eyes were a little red, but his gaze was no longer as cold and desolate as before. Instead, it was like the night sky washed by rain, still deep, but much clearer.
"Lingwan," he looked at her, his voice hoarse but filled with a sense of relief and calmness, "thank you."
Thank you for her company, thank you for her understanding, thank you... for guiding him to see the truth that was obscured by resentment.
A few days later, Huo Zhenting was discharged from the hospital and went home to recuperate.
On a sunny afternoon, Huo Linshen once again came to the main house of the Huo family's old house. This time, he did not bring Su Lingwan with him. He needed to face it alone and complete this long-overdue reconciliation.
He walked into his father's study. Huo Zhenting was sitting in a rocking chair by the window, basking in the sun, a thin blanket covering his knees. He looked older and more tired than before.
Seeing Huo Linshen come in, he was a little surprised. He moved his lips as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he just looked at him silently.
Huo Linshen walked up to him, not keeping his distance as usual. He stood in silence for a moment, then took out the wooden storage box from his pocket, opened it, and handed the photo of his parents to Huo Zhenting.
Huo Zhenting's gaze fell on the photo and froze in an instant. With trembling hands, he took the photo, and a layer of mist quickly filled his cloudy eyes.
"...You still keep it..." The old man's voice was choked with incredible excitement.
"Yeah." Huo Linshen responded in a low voice, "I found it in the old house...my mother's house."
Huo Zhenting raised his head and looked at his son with a complicated look in his eyes, which showed guilt, sadness, and cautious expectation.
Huo Linshen looked at his father's aged face and the tears in his eyes. All the resentment and accusations that had accumulated over the years suddenly became speechless. He took a deep breath and spoke in an extremely difficult, yet unprecedentedly frank tone:
"Dad," he called out this long-lost name, "What happened back then... I..."
He paused, as if trying to organize his words, and finally chose the most direct way: "I miss you very much... and I miss her too."
This sentence seemed to have exhausted all of Huo Linshen's strength and instantly shattered all of Huo Zhenting's disguises.
The old man couldn't hold back his tears any longer and rolled down. He stretched out his wrinkled hand and held Huo Linshen's hand tightly, tears streaming down his face, sobbing uncontrollably.
There were no extra words, only tightly clasped hands and hot tears, telling the story of the twenty-year-long estrangement and misunderstanding between the father and son, and the love and longing hidden deep in their hearts that never disappeared.
Huo Linshen watched his father crying like a child in front of him. The wasteland in his heart, which had been frozen for too long, finally felt the warmth of the sun, the ice and snow melted, and all things revived.
He knew that the traumas of the past had truly begun to heal at this moment.
The one who brought this ray of sunshine was the jewel in his life - Su Lingwan.
It was she who used her warmth, her wisdom and her love to illuminate his dark past and guide his future.
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