Chapter 64 Zhang Family
Shanghai Hospital ward.
Taking Xiaoqiu all the way to the hospital, Suning found the bed the old lady mentioned. Hesitantly, he stopped at the door that was only slightly opened.
I looked down at the urn in my arms. If the seriously ill old man couldn't bear the blow and his condition worsened...
"Sister Ningning, I...I'm scared."
Xiaoqiu clenched her hands and tears welled up in her eyes. Having just experienced what happened to her mother, she was particularly afraid of the two familiar words "sick" and "hospital".
Although I haven't met my grandparents yet, I don't feel strange about them as my mother mentions them from time to time. Instead, I have been looking forward to seeing them for a long time.
"Good boy, Xiaoqiu..."
"Who are you? Who are you looking for?"
Before Su Ning could comfort him carefully, a hoarse voice came from behind.
Holding a thermos in one hand and a white porcelain enamel basin with a red bottom in the other, Zhang Qi, wearing glasses, looked gentle and refined, but his bloodshot eyes and newly sprouted stubble made him look a little decadent.
Considering that the brother described by Zhang Qin was extremely consistent with the man in front of him in terms of both body shape and appearance, Su Ning turned sideways and took Xiao Qiu's hand and walked a few steps away from the door and forward.
"Hello comrade, are you Zhang Qi?"
"It's me, comrade. Are you looking for me?"
Zhang Qi was a little surprised. He nodded and looked at the two people in front of him carefully again.
She has a scorpion braid and wears a floral short-sleeved shirt and black straight trousers. She has an exquisite appearance, especially her eyes that are like the bright stars in the night sky. They are so beautiful that you will never forget them at first sight.
The little girl next to her looked even darker and thinner in a pink dress, but her facial features looked vaguely familiar, yet she couldn't remember where she had seen her before.
Such a big novel is for him?
Zhang Qi was very sure that he didn't know her at all.
"I'm Suning, this is Xiaoqiu. To be more precise, your sister Zhang Qin asked me to..."
"Bang--"
"Wait a minute, who are you talking about?"
The enamel basin in his hand fell to the ground with a bang, and the sound spun several times, which was particularly harsh in the silent corridor.
Without caring about the porcelain basin that had been knocked and broken into pieces, Zhang Qi put down the handle of the thermos and asked repeatedly with an anxious look to confirm.
"Comrade, you are talking about Zhang Qin? The Qin in Chinese music, chess, calligraphy and painting? She is now 27, almost 28 years old, tall and thin, with eyes that are like crescents when she smiles, very cute. So... my sister... Zhang Qin?"
He spoke very quickly and incoherently, as if he was confirming something, but all he said was the indelible figure in his memory, so familiar, as if he had said it thousands of times.
It is the hope and joy that turns into sadness and disappointment, and the disbelief after experiencing it too many times.
'Twenty-seven, almost twenty-eight?'
It was dark that night, and relying only on the weak light of the flashlight, Zhang Qin, with a sickly face, looked as old as a middle-aged woman in her thirties or forties.
No wonder I called her Aunt Zhang. Her smile looked so melancholy and self-tortured. She didn't refute or explain. She just smiled and nodded.
What did she experience after escaping from the family in the mountains?
She was supposed to escape and regain her freedom, but she withered rapidly, even with all those injuries...
"It's Zhang..."
The words "Aunt Zhang" on the tip of her tongue made her heart ache. Su Ning pursed her lips and looked with blurred vision at Zhang Qi, who was obviously anxious but forced himself to hold back from saying anything more and could only look at her eagerly.
"Sister Qin, I live at No. 18 Huaijiang Lane. My father is Zhang Fu, my mother is Hu Yingtao, my brother is the gentle and bespectacled Zhang Qi, and my family likes to call her Zhang Qin..."
"It's my sister! It's my sister, woo..."
"Where is she? Why hasn't she come back yet? Did something happen?"
"It's okay, it's okay, as long as she's still here, it's okay. Tell me where she is, even if it's far away, I'll go pick her up! I'll pick her up right now! Take her home..."
The tears of a grown man in his twenties were like a bursting dam, but even though his throat was so sore that his words trembled, Zhang Qi still insisted on asking questions.
"She's back."
"Back...back? Homeward..."
Following her gaze, Zhang Qi spoke with difficulty, but in the end it was difficult to say another word.
Shaking his head, he laughed out loud with tears in his eyes. After a long while, he stopped and muttered to himself, "No one at home will open the door for her. She shouldn't be sitting on the doorstep again..."
"Bang——"
The noise in the ward instantly awakened the people who were immersed in endless sadness.
The half-closed door was opened from the inside, and an old couple, supporting each other, staggered out.
"Girl, you just said that my daughter is back, right?"
The enamel basin made such a loud noise that Zhang Fu, who was lying on the hospital bed, and Hu Yingtao, who had taken care of him all night and was taking a nap, were both awakened at the same time.
But before she could go out to check, she heard her son talking to someone, laughing and crying, and every sentence he spoke was about her daughter's name.
In an instant, it was as if infinite vitality was injected into him. Zhang Fu, who was originally sick and seemed to be dying, immediately struggled to get out of bed.
As soon as they walked to the door, they heard the words of the girl who had their daughter's information. The huge surprise made the two of them so excited that their hands were shaking, their legs were weak, and tears were streaming down their faces.
"I, I am Zhang Fu, Zhang Qin's father. Little girl, is my daughter really back? Where is she? Didn't you say she was back?"
"dad…"
The trembling lips caught drop after drop of tears, so bitter and astringent that it was hard to swallow.
Seeing his sick father and his overworked mother's heads full of white hair, Zhang Qi couldn't help crying like a child who lost his favorite toy.
"What the hell are you howling about? Get out of here, you're useless!"
Although Zhang Fu said these words of disgust, he was actually so excited that he almost burst into tears. It had been seven or eight years since he had finally received accurate news about his daughter.
He could finally rest in peace if he could take one last look at his daughter before he died...
Bah! Bah! Bah!
No, his old bones will have to struggle for a few more years. His daughter just came back and he doesn’t know what happened to her and how much she suffered!
He had to be alive, only then would her father be able to support her!
The sorrow and depression that had been suppressed for many years dissipated, and even the illness seemed to have gone with it. My body felt a kind of relaxation that I hadn't felt for a long time.
"Girl, are you my daughter's friend? She came back with you, so where is that person?"
Hu Yingtao kept wiping her eyes, wiping away the tears that she thought had dried up long ago, as if she was afraid that the tears would block her from seeing her long-awaited daughter who had finally returned home.
“…”
Not knowing how to put it into words, Suning held the urn in his arms with such force that his fingertips turned white.
The pain of seeing a loved one die is so intense that no one else can empathize with it. However, just feeling it can make one's eyes turn red in an instant, and even breathing feels suppressed and uncomfortable.
"Sister Qin... let me say this for her: Dad, Mom, and Brother, Nannan is really back this time!"
"No... No, it can't be..."
"You mean, my daughter is here..."
Shocked, questioning, and then hard to accept.
The old couple covered their chests at the same time, as if they couldn't breathe and were about to faint.
"Dad, Mom!"
Zhang Qi quickly stood up and held the two of them steadily, but the next moment one of his hands was forcefully pushed away by Zhang Fu.
The old man, who was originally so sick that he couldn't even get out of bed, was now walking step by step, slowly but firmly.
"Nannan, Daddy... Daddy is here to pick you up. Daddy is late. This time, Daddy will accompany you. I will accompany you wherever you go. Okay."
"My dear daughter, my poor daughter!"
Unlike his wife who was crying in grief, seeing his sudden calmness and the words he said were even more frightening.
Su Ning looked around, at the old couple who were holding the urn carefully with lifeless eyes and beating their chests in pain, he squeezed Xiao Qiu's hand and gently pushed her forward.
"Xiao Qiu, call someone."
"Grandpa, grandma, uncle." Xiaoqiu obeyed them obediently, looking at them with red eyes and called out.
The clear and childish call made the three of them look at her at the same time, and their grief and sadness stopped.
"What did you call me?"
"Uncle, uncle! Mom said that uncle is the best brother in the world, and he will also be Xiaoqiu's best uncle!"
"You are... Xiao Qiu? My sister's daughter?"
Xiaoqiu nodded, and her tears fell to the ground, forming a flower.
"What on earth is going on?"
Is it because I don't want to cry? Why did I cry myself when I wrote it? Oh, I hate human traffickers the most. What a miserable life!
(End of this chapter)
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