Chapter 18 Spring Day Green (1) They all smiled at the same time...
September 2, 2009, cloudy
"The train is running to Gongzhufen Station ahead. Passengers getting off please prepare in advance. Gongzhufen Station is a transfer station. Passengers transferring to Metro Line 10 please get off here..."
Lin Xia had been listening to the broadcast very attentively along the way, fearing that she would miss her stop. As soon as she heard the key words, she quickly stood up from her seat and walked to the door to wait.
This is Beijing.
Lin Xia has been in Beijing for training for more than two months.
Despite this, she hardly ever went out, and this was only her second time taking the subway in her life. She was not very familiar with the process and was a little nervous.
There is no subway in Wangchun, nor in the provincial capital. Lin Xia has only seen the subway on TV since he was a child. Although this may be just a common means of transportation for many people, it is a symbol of a prosperous city in Lin Xia's mind. It is clean, civilized, fast and convenient, which are the signs that belong only to big cities.
She got off the bus with the crowd, changed lines according to the signs, rode one more stop, got off the bus again, went upstairs, swiped the card she borrowed from a classmate, exited the station, went out from the southeast exit C, took the long escalator, and finally reached the ground.
Feeling the hot air outside, Lin Xia breathed a sigh of relief and found a deserted place to stand. She took out her cell phone, sent a text message, and then waited for Lin Xuedong to arrive.
The roads were so wide, the cars so numerous, the buildings so tall—everything about Beijing was different from Wangchun. While waiting, Lin Xia couldn't help but look around. The unfamiliar streets and scenery filled her with curiosity, yearning, timidity, and excitement.
Beijing's latitude is much lower than Wangchun's, and its summers are much longer than those in the Northeast. It's already the beginning of autumn, but the weather is still very hot. Luckily, today is cloudy, with no sun. If it were the stifling heat of a while ago, standing outdoors for just a few minutes would have given her heatstroke. This was the first time Lin Xia felt the horror of summer, and also the first time she realized how much she feared heat.
Lin Xuedong didn't ask her to wait any longer. About seven or eight minutes later, he came to meet Lin Xia. The father and daughter walked along the street until they arrived at the inpatient department of the Facial Tumor Hospital.
Lin Haisheng was diagnosed with stomach cancer earlier this year and recently underwent resection surgery here. He is currently recuperating and awaiting the next phase of chemotherapy. Lin Xuedong came to Beijing to accompany him. Now that Lin Haisheng's condition has improved, Lin Xia took a day off to visit her grandfather.
Entering the ward, Lin Haisheng was half lying on the bed. He Ping was carefully feeding him egg custard. More than ten days after the operation, he could now eat liquid food.
Lin Xia hadn't seen Lin Haisheng for a long time. In the past two years, he and He Ping had been going out very frequently, going everywhere, giving lectures or participating in exhibitions, and they were very busy.
After the operation, Lin Haisheng lost a lot of weight and his complexion was not very good, but he looked energetic. After all, for a man of such an old age, a laparotomy operation would always take a lot of effort.
"Grandpa, Aunt Ping."
Lin Xia greeted politely.
Lin Haisheng nodded, as indifferent as ever.
"Xia Xia is here, come and sit down!"
He Ping was very enthusiastic when she saw her. Since she couldn't get away, she told another person in the room:
"Xiaochuan, go wash some fruit for Xia Xia!"
Yes, in addition to Lin Haisheng, Lin Xuedong and his daughter, and He Ping, there was a fifth person in the ward, He Chuan.
Lin Xia didn't expect to see him here. She was unprepared, sudden, and unexpected, but also reasonable.
They hadn't seen each other for two whole years. He hadn't looked back at Spring in those two years. They hadn't seen each other since the summer after their junior high school graduation. Two years, for an adult, is but a fleeting moment, a repetitive and boring seven hundred days and nights. But for a teenager, it's enough to turn the world upside down, to completely transform him.
In two years, Lin Xia grew 6cm taller and gained 12kg from junior high school to high school. She hadn't read comics for a long time. Because of her busy schoolwork, she was forced to give up her hobby of watching TV. She went out in a hurry this morning. Her hair was not dry yet, so she tied it into a ponytail hastily. She wore a black T-shirt that was resistant to dirt, a pair of canvas shoes, and a pair of washed jeans with traces of paint on them from who knows when.
And what about He Chuan? Lin Xia didn't know how he'd been doing in the past two years, but outwardly, he'd changed a lot. He'd grown taller, gotten a bit tanner, and his hair had grown a bit longer and become a bit more fashionable. He wore rimless glasses and a beige polo shirt with a collar, appearing more refined and scholarly, more mature and reserved. From high school to college, from Wangchun to Hong Kong, it wasn't surprising that his entire demeanor had changed so drastically.
So, did he still remember her? And... remember everything that had happened between them?
When Lin Xia walked in, He Chuan didn't look at her. It was not until He Ping spoke that he turned his gaze to her, as if he had just seen her.
He smiled at her politely, then stood up to take a few bags of fruit from the table and walked past her out the door.
He didn't pause at all when passing by.
When Lin Xia sat down on the sofa, He Ping jokingly said:
"Xia Xia, weren't you having a great time with Xiao Chuan when you came to our house before? It's been a few years since we last met, so you don't recognize each other anymore?"
Lin Xia smiled shyly and said nothing.
Sometimes when adults speak, they are not asking for an answer, but just want to make conversation. Just listen and smile, that's enough.
This ward was a single room. Although small, it had its own bathroom, a sofa, and a coffee table. It shouldn't be uncomfortable living there, and the accompanying family members also had a place to sleep. It looked like there had been quite a few visitors recently. Flowers and a variety of nutritional supplements were placed on the coffee table. Regardless of whether the patient could eat them right now, the thoughtfulness was there.
That's how visiting a patient really is. Besides the patient's genuine desire to see and need for companionship, the rest is simply a matter of socializing and courtesy, offering no real help and tiring both to the patient and the patient. Although Lin Xia and Lin Haisheng are grandfather and grandson, they aren't particularly close. Lin Xia believes her presence won't bring any spiritual comfort or support to her grandfather, merely a formal act of filial piety. So, after dinner, Lin Haisheng chatted briefly with her, and then He Ping stepped in to chat with Lin Xuedong about Lin Xia's recent situation, just to keep things moving.
Lin Xia ate the fruit that He Chuan had washed, and answered obediently when she was asked to.
The fruits must have been bought by someone who visited the patient to comfort the family. There were mangoes, star fruits, papayas, which are not common in Northeast China, as well as beautiful-looking snake apples and oranges.
Except for the snake apple, He Chuan washed the rest for her. The mango was peeled, cut into pieces, and placed with toothpicks in a bowl.
She doesn't like eating red apples because they are too soft. She likes crisp apples. She is not allergic to mangoes, but her skin is allergic to them. She can only eat them by cutting them into small pieces. She cannot peel them with her hands and chew them with her mouth, otherwise she will get red and swollen. But she still likes to eat them. Every time, she has to ask others to cut them into small pieces and then she can carefully put them into her mouth.
This physique is very strange, she told him two years ago.
Lin Xia picked up a piece of mango and put it in her mouth, secretly looking at He Chuan beside her.
After he came back from washing and cutting the fruit, he moved a stool and sat aside, not too far from Lin Xia, without looking at her. He listened to everyone's conversation in silence without saying a word.
Suddenly, his cell phone rang, startling Lin Xia who was staring at him. She quickly looked away and accidentally dropped the mango in her hand on the ground. She didn't dare to pick it up with her hands, so she could only take a piece of tissue on the table and put it on her hand to wipe off the marks on the ground.
He Chuan walked out of the ward and answered a phone call, then came back and said:
"Uncle Lin, Mom, I have to go."
Lin Haisheng nodded, and He Ping also said:
"Go ahead, before it's too late."
He Chuan said goodbye to the two of them, then nodded to Lin Xuedong and Lin Xia to avoid the awkwardness of addressing them, and then left.
With his departure, Lin Xia's mood couldn't help but become depressed, and she didn't pay much attention to the conversation between He Ping and Lin Xuedong.
After an unknown amount of time, when they talked about Lin Haisheng's condition, Lin Xia subconsciously asked:
"When will grandpa be discharged from the hospital?"
Lin Xuedong said: "The doctor said that if all the tests are normal, I should be able to be discharged next week."
"Can the wound heal so quickly?"
"Almost, but it needs some more time to fully heal," He Ping explained, and then she said to Lin Xuedong:
"Xuedong, thank you for your hard work during this period. I will be the only one to take care of the teacher after you are discharged from the hospital. You still have work to do over there, so don't delay it."
This should be the first time they discussed this issue. Lin Xuedong frowned when he heard this:
"You won't go back to Wangchun?"
"Not going back. I'll have to go through the next treatment soon. My body can't handle the constant back and forth. Kairen helped us find a house here. We'll move there after we're discharged from the hospital."
Lin Haisheng also spoke up, "Xuedong, don't worry. That's my senior brother's relative's house. They'll take care of you if anything happens. I know you can't take any more leave. I won't be able to recover from this illness anytime soon. I know you're concerned."
Lin Xuedong seemed to disagree. He turned cold and was about to speak, but suddenly realized that Lin Xia was still here. So he controlled his emotions and said to Lin Xia:
"Xia Xia, go back to school first. Dad won't send you off. Can you find the subway station by yourself?"
Lin Xia was stunned for a moment, but she still followed Lin Xuedong's arrangements, put down the things in her hands, stood up and said goodbye to everyone.
Did she say something wrong? It seemed that because of her words, they had a conflict, but their conflict seemed to have nothing to do with her words.
Lin Xia walked out of the hospital building, feeling confused and bewildered.
Lin Xuedong said it was unlucky to visit a patient in the afternoon, so she took the whole day off today and left early in the morning. It’s not even noon yet. Is she going back to school like this?
As she stood there in a daze, she caught sight of a familiar figure sitting in the shade of a flower bed not far away. At first, Lin Xia wasn't sure, but once she got a clearer look, her heart suddenly began to beat violently.
Didn't he leave a long time ago? Why is he still here?
Her intuition told her that he was waiting for her, but her reason told her that it was just a coincidence.
Emotion and rationality were fighting each other, but before they could decide the winner, she could no longer control her legs and walked towards him step by step.
He Chuan just looked at her silently, without moving or speaking. He watched the long-lost little girl come from far away and walk all the way to a place three steps away from him. She stood there with dignity, with a look of expectation and temptation.
So he stood up, brushed the dirt off his pants, took two steps forward, and filled the last distance.
One step away, they looked at each other.
"Did it rain in Hong Kong during the Mid-Autumn Festival two years ago?" she asked.
"It's raining. Where's Wangchun?" he replied.
"It's down too."
"Was the weather clear during the winter solstice?"
"By the time of the winter solstice I had forgotten..."
"Actually, I forgot too."
Then they all laughed at the same time.
In an instant, two years of time and space disappeared.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
