Chapter 56: Just One Scar, Yet She Cried Like This
"Who are you talking to? Gu Lin, who are you talking to?"
"Hello?"
Yang Yin's voice drifted clearly through the screen.
The phone felt like it weighed a ton.
Ji Tong didn't even have time to glare at anyone; she grabbed her phone and ran quickly toward the entrance.
“…Hey.” Ji Tong leaned against the wall in the entryway, adjusting her breathing and trying to appear calm.
Gu Lin's family probably already knows that you're living with him. It's just a phone call with your elders, so there's no need to be nervous.
I only see her as my roommate's mother.
Not my boyfriend's mother.
"Hello, Auntie, I am..."
"Tongtong, right?"
After struggling to compose herself, Ji Tong hesitated for several seconds before finally replying, "Mm."
"Auntie, I'm sorry, Gu Lin is currently unavailable, so I'm taking this."
“I heard him, he went to make porridge.”
“Well, if you don’t mind, you can chat with me for a bit…” Ji Tong added, “If there’s anything you need, just say so. I’ll stay here and go to the kitchen to take his place.”
Ji Tong's voice was interrupted by Yang Yin's laughter.
The laughter was not malicious at all; in fact, it was quite pleasant.
“Of course I don’t mind,” Yang Yin said with a smile. “You keep me company and I’m very happy.”
There was only a wall between Gu Lin and Ji Tong.
Gu Lin stood quietly behind the wall for a few seconds, then turned to look at the entrance.
Her boyfriend was leaning there straight, but it looked more like he was being punished than leaning.
I don't know what Ms. Yang Yin said, but he propped up his ears, which were redder than cherry tomatoes, and responded with an "Mm".
"Yeah, I just woke up... I went to a classmate's birthday party last night and got back late, so I woke up late... I don't wake up at this time every day."
Gu Lin chuckled and turned back to the kitchen.
The kitchen door wasn't closed, and Ji Tong's voice, like the smoke from a clay pot, slowly drifted in from outside.
It's raining in Ankyo today.
"Yeah, it's pretty cold."
"Auntie, is the weather nice in Germany?"
"Then please take care to keep warm."
"I went to Berlin when I was a child, and then I went to Munich on the way. I wanted to see the Assange Cathedral."
"Really? He played the violin in front of the Assange church? Video? I want it, I want it!"
"Okay, my WeChat ID is my phone number. I'll send it to you in a bit."
"...Okay, maybe next time."
The two chatted casually for almost twenty minutes.
As Yang Yin recounted Gu Lin's childhood, Ji Tong's brows gradually relaxed, and she became completely at ease, until Gu Lin tapped the hydroponic decorative painting hanging next to the kitchen door with his finger.
"The porridge is getting cold."
Gu Lin didn't lower her voice; she spoke to her boyfriend and also to the person on the other end of the phone.
Ji Tong would never be the one to hang up the phone.
"Auntie, Gu Lin is done with his work. I'll give him the phone so you can chat with him for a bit more?"
"No, it wasn't anything else, I just felt like making a call on a whim."
"戈戈."
"Um?"
There was a sudden two-second silence on the other end.
Even though it was only a matter of a breath, Ji Tong suddenly felt a little nervous.
"Auntie, please speak, I'm listening."
“I know Gu Lin can be a bit reckless sometimes,” Yang Yin said gently. “Please be more tolerant of him in the future.”
"If he does anything to upset you, you can call your aunt."
“I criticized him.”
Please bear with me... in the future...
after?
For the next few minutes, Ji Tong's mind was shrouded in fog, and she couldn't even remember how she hung up the phone.
By the time he came to his senses, Gu Lin had already led him to the dining table.
Ji Tong sat frozen at the dining table for more than ten seconds, then suddenly stood up, walked quickly to the refrigerator, opened it, took out a can of ice-cold beer, opened it, and took a big gulp, so fast that Gu Lin didn't even have time to react.
Ji Tong didn't drink much; he only took a sip. The cool air, carrying the scent of alcohol, went down his throat, instantly dispelling the fog.
No wonder Gu Lin suddenly shoved the phone at me!
No wonder the aunt could chat with him for twenty minutes!
No wonder his aunt kept telling him about Gu Lin's childhood!
He thought his aunt didn't know.
What roommate's mom?
She's basically my boyfriend's mother.
Ji Tong suddenly squeezed the beer can, making a cracking sound, and turned around: "Does Auntie know about us?"
"Hmm." Gu Lin took the beer from his hand and casually placed it on the refrigerator.
"You should at least... at least tell me, you made me so nervous."
"Will you stop being nervous if you tell me?"
"..."
Ji Tong's palms were icy cold from the beer can skin, and Gu Lin raised his hand to warm them.
"Why are you nervous? We're having a great conversation."
"You still dare to say that?"
Gu Lin slowly raised his hand, making a gesture of surrender.
Ji Tong was about to lash out when his phone dinged.
“It’s not mine,” Gu Lin said.
Ji Tong frowned and took out her phone from her pocket.
Whose message delayed his processing?
[Zhiwei has requested to add you as a friend]
[Note: I am Yang Yin]
You have added "Zhiwei" and can start chatting now.
Within two seconds, Ji Tong modified the note, approved the request, added the message, said "Hello Auntie," and then sent a meme of a kitten holding a flower.
Yang Yin did not reply immediately.
Ji Tong typed and deleted on the keyboard, then looked up at Gu Lin, asking somewhat pleadingly, "How do we talk?"
Ji Tong was still hesitating when Gu Lin reached out, took his phone, and pressed the voice message button.
"Mom, it's getting late, let's talk next time."
Gu Lin let go, sent the voice message, and looked at Ji Tong with an expression that said, "Let's chat like this."
Ji Tong: "..."
Ji Tong frantically tried to retreat—
[Gu Lin's mother: Okay, I'm going to sleep now too. Eat your porridge. Tell Tongtong we'll talk again next time.]
[Gu Lin's mother: Kitten holding a flower.jpg]
[JT: Auntie Restwell]
[JT: Kitten Holding a Flower.jpg]
[Gu Lin's mother: Haha, okay]
[Gu Lin's mother: Kitten holding a flower.jpg]
The two of them lifted it back and forth.
After being interrupted like that, Ji Tong looked up at Gu Linshi again, but couldn't bring himself to criticize her... He felt like Gu Linshi was bullying his son behind his aunt's back.
When did your aunt find out?
"What do you know?" Gu Lin looked at him, "know that I like you, or that we're together."
Is there a difference?
"have."
Ji Tong blinked, then suddenly stopped.
The rain outside the window intensified, and the sound of it hitting the glass windows of the tall building was like the friction of wheels crushing stones on the ground.
One after another.
Ji Tong finally realized where the "strange feeling" that had been lingering in her mind ever since she answered the phone came from—
It's too peaceful.
He and Gu Lin have only been in a relationship for half a month.
In the past two weeks, Gu Lin made three phone calls to his family, never avoiding his presence, and each call lasted four or five minutes.
Gu Lin was usually the one responding, and the most frequent words he used were "okay," "um," "I know," and "we'll talk about it later."
He never heard a single argument or a single sigh.
Gu Lin didn't answer, and neither did the person on the other end of the phone.
Even someone as strong-willed as his uncle couldn't sleep all night after learning about his relationship with Gu Lin. He picked up his smoking habit again, smoking pack after pack. For the first time, he spoke harshly, sternly, and called him "Ji Tong." He even lied to him, telling him that Gu Lin should go back to Germany.
The uncle's reaction was normal.
The uncle's reaction was the normal one.
What's abnormal is...
"You told your family about your feelings for me a long time ago, didn't you?" Ji Tong's forearm trembled involuntarily. After a ten-second pause, he voiced his guess, "Your grandfather knows too."
"So that's how the back injury came about."
"So he wants you to go back to Germany."
"You wanted to come back, but your grandfather disagreed, so he beat you and made you return to Anjing alone with a back full of injuries, right?"
From the moment he handed him the phone, Gu Lin knew he would guess and made preparations, but clearly, he hadn't done enough.
"I don't disagree." Gu Lin looked at his red eyes and wiped away the tears that had welled up at the corners of his eyes with his fingertips.
He had no idea that a person could cry so quickly.
Gu Lin did not deny that his grandfather knew about it.
He must have been beaten because of himself.
"You didn't disagree, yet you still got hit?" Ji Tong's tears instantly flowed uncontrollably. The living room lights were still off, with only the pendant light on the island counter shining, making Ji Tong's amber pupils appear as deep as Gu Lin's. His voice began to choke, "One hit would have been fine, but you hit me so many times."
"I'm not going to apply the medicine to you yet, and you've been on a plane all day."
"No, that's not the case."
Gu Lin felt both sorry for him and amused, so he changed his stroking to cupping his face.
"They didn't refuse to apply medicine to me, what are you imagining?"
"Just around."
Ji Tong's voice rose even higher as she cried, as if protecting her child: "Aren't four wounds enough? Do you know how long those four wounds are? Do you know how much it breaks my heart?"
Large tears from Ji Tong fell down, landing on Gu Lin's tiger's mouth, seeping away little by little, like rain melting into the soil.
Ji Tong didn't wipe away her tears, letting them flow freely.
"Okay, since your grandfather agreed, why did he hit you?"
Gu Lin lowered his eyes.
"You won't say, huh? Then I'll call Auntie when she wakes up."
Gu Lin sighed, leaned down and kissed his eyelids: "I called for someone else."
"Who! For whom!"
It's like if he reveals who it is, they'll go and settle accounts with that person.
The next minute.
Ji Tong listened as Gu Lin explained the cause of the four wounds.
Gu Lin's expression was so gentle that it was as if he were talking about someone else's story, as if those wounds did not exist on his own body.
For Gu Lin himself, for Gu Lin's parents, and for his parents, Gu Lin remained calm throughout, except when he was about to say the last word, he stopped.
"Say something for the last time, then."
"In your place."
The last one, the one that left a scar, the one Ji Tong disliked the most, the one that still left a sunken white scar despite applying countless tubes of scar removal cream, was done by Gu Lin's grandfather.
“Who wanted to hit you?” Ji Tong’s tears finally broke free. “Do you know how much I hate that scar of yours? Every time I see it, I get upset. Every time I think about how much pain you were in back then, and how I deliberately made you carry me, I get unhappy.”
"I still don't want you to carry me, because of that scar."
"Because I wonder if it could have been done without, or if it was because of the time I made you carry it that it remained."
"Who's going to hit you?"
Ji Tong forgot all about rationality, composure, respect for elders, and reverence. She just grabbed Gu Lin's clothes and cried until she could barely speak. Even in her anger, the harshest thing she could say was, "How could your grandfather do this?"
Ji Tong wasn't angry at Gu Lin's grandfather; she was angry at herself.
Gu Lin knew.
"I left you with a scar, didn't I?"
The disc is attached to a position near the spine.
It just won't go away.
“No,” Gu Lin cupped his face and kissed his wet cheek, his heart softening to the extreme and only a smile remaining, “You’re so wronged.”
Yes, I feel wronged, so what if I feel wronged? Is that not allowed?
Ji Tong shouted at him in her heart, but because tears were still flowing, her breathing was blocked, and she didn't even have the strength to open her mouth.
"It doesn't hurt."
Ji Tong didn't speak, but Gu Lin "heard" what those eyes said.
It is saying—
You're kidding me, how could it not hurt!
Gu Lin smiled again: "It really doesn't hurt."
"It doesn't hurt on the plane, and it won't hurt to carry you."
"Do you know what I was thinking on the plane?"
"I'm thinking about landing soon, so I can see you soon."
"When I was carrying you on my back, I was thinking, 'Finally, they're paying attention to me.'"
"You only talk to me because of that scar."
"This apartment is what keeps you here."
"What are you thinking about?" Gu Lin kissed away the tear that was about to fall from his right eye. "You're just scaring yourself."
Ji Tong stopped looking at him. She hadn't cried like this in a long time. Her eyelids were red and swollen, so red that they even blended into the mole.
After finishing her porridge, she sat on the sofa and stared blankly at Gu Lin's back.
After staring at it for a while, perhaps because of the excessive emotional exertion, I fell into a deep sleep.
Gu Lin sat down on the sofa, wrapped the person in a blanket, leaned down and placed two kisses on the person's still slightly red eyelids and nose. He looked at the person quietly for a long time, then took his phone and went into the room, opening the text message interface with Yang Yin.
Ten minutes ago, Yang Yin sent him a text message asking him to call her back when he had time.
Gu Lin knew that Yang Yin had called this morning not only to ask about plane tickets, but also to say something else.
Gu Lin sent Yang Yin a text message saying that Ji Tong was asleep and wouldn't call, so he sent a text message instead.
Yang Yin replied to the text message quickly.
[Mom: Didn't you just wake up? Why are you asleep again?]
[Gu Lin: I didn't sleep well last night.]
Clearly unwilling to elaborate, Yang Yin didn't press further and got down to business.
[Mom: How have you been sleeping these past month? Are you still having trouble sleeping?]
Gu Lin: That's all.
[Mom: You haven't been taking your medicine anymore?]
Gu Lin: Hmm.
[Mom: That's good. I've made an appointment with the same doctor for you. You can have another check-up and tests done when you get back.]
Gu Lin: Understood.
[Gu Lin: Mom, he doesn't know I'm taking medicine.]
[Gu Lin: Don't mention it when you're chatting with him.]
Mom: Okay.
After ending the text message call, Gu Lin selected the record and deleted it all.
No trace was left.
Gu Lin walked out, sat down again on the sofa, and looked down at him.
My eyelids are still swollen.
She's crying like this over just one scar.
The rest... how should I put it?
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