I won’t go home. However, this time around, when Yan quit her job, her heart was hollow and empty. Although she was staying in the house Han Muzi had bought, she was the only one left in this house—Little Bean was living with his great-grandfather overseas while Han Muzi was shacking up with Ye Moxuan.
Feeling extremely lonely, she naturally started to miss home. Still, when she thought about how her father had never once given her a call in all these years, her heart overflowed with untold grievances. Thus, despite longing to go home, she stubbornly refused to go home.
Young people were always saying things they did not mean. Those hard-hearted words she said in anger all those years ago were coming back to bite her now. If only my father would give me a call right now and ask me to go home; how great that would be.
Like a loser, she indulged herself in an endless cycle of eating and sleeping. Having never experienced such loneliness before, coupled with her broken heart, she was wallowing in misery; she felt like the world had abandoned her. Nevertheless, it was unrequited love.
Sob, sob. The phrase ‘love is a pain in the butt’ wasn’t just simple hearsay. In the past, if she had not dabbled in something like love, then she wouldn’t have fallen into her current state. If only there was somebody by my side right now, Yan thought.
Rolling over, a ray of sunlight shone through the window and blinded her. Thus, she got up and closed the curtains. Now that light could not enter the room, it fell into complete darkness. That’s much better.
Walking back to the bed, she lay down again. Then, her phone rang. Yan blanked out, who could be looking for her? Was it Muzi, or Little Bean? A wave of expectation washed across her as she took out her phone and glanced at it. However, the caller ID on her phone indicated it was her mother. Mom? Why is she calling me at this time?
Filled with surprise and doubt, she picked up the phone and answered the call. “Mom?”
“Yan!” Her mother’s anxious voice sounded from the other side of the phone; it sounded like there was an emergency. Yan reached up to rub her eyes. “Mom, why are you calling me at this time? I’ve told you; I’m not going back.”
“Yan, you have to hurry back soon.” Sure enough, her mother had called to ask her to return. Yan pouted, refusing to respond.
“Yan? Are you listening to me?”
“Yeah, I’m listening…” she answered apathetically. Lying on the bed, she casually wrapped the blanket around herself.
“No matter what, you must come back. I know you’re still angry after all these years, but it has been five years! You refuse to come home every year; your father and I did not raise you to be so disagreeable.”
Listening to her mother’s nagging, she felt annoyed and tired of it, but in her lonely state, it also felt warm for some reason. In the past, she would have created a random excuse, like she was busy with work, and hung up. However, she did not want to hang up right now, so she lay on her bed and listened to her mother’s nagging.
“It’s not that I want to make you angry, Mom. You know as well as I do how things played out in the beginning. Anyhow, he was the one to break off our relationship. Now that we aren’t even related anymore, why should I go back? If I go back, won’t I just be hated?”
“Your father is getting on in his years; do you actually believe what he says? Even if he did say that, so what? As his daughter, can’t you be more understanding toward him?”
“I want to be understanding, but I can’t do it,” Yan replied.
“Fine, I won’t bring up the past. But speaking of the present, you must come back.”
Yan closed her eyes and rolled over, then gloomily muttered, “I don’t want to go back. Mom, I’ve told you before. Unless he personally calls me and asks me to go back, wouldn’t it be humiliating if I go back on my own accord?”
All these years, her father had been unable to back down on his words, and neither could she. The very thought upset her. If only her father would utter a ‘Yan, come back home’, she would probably rush back home at a drop of a hat without tiring.
The other side of the phone fell silent; her mother heaved a heavy sigh, and the tone of her voice became heavy. “Yan, even if your father wanted to call you, he can’t do it anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“On his way home from work yesterday, he was involved in a car accident. Right now, he is lying in the hospital.”
The news crashed through Yan like a thunderstorm, leaving her completely stunned. For quite a long while, she couldn’t react. Her lips trembled, but she couldn’t get a single word out—her mind was a mess.
“Yan, before your father got into this accident, I let you be as willful as you wanted to be. However, your father is now lying in a hospital bed. If you want to act up right now, don’t blame me if I flip out on you mercilessly.”
“Which hospital?” Yan trembled as she found her voice.
The other party seemed stunned for a moment, then told her the name of the hospital. “I’ll be waiting for you at the hospital.”
After hanging up the call, Yan didn’t think too much about anything else. Grabbing her phone and her keys, she left the house without her bag or changing her clothes. She couldn’t even be bothered to care about the odd glances she was receiving from passersby as she walked onto the main road. Stopping a taxi by the side of the road, she told the taxi driver to head directly to the hospital.
Along the way, she waited anxiously, but they got caught in a traffic jam. Her mood plummeted to rock bottom, and she kept asking the driver what time they would reach and how long it would take. These questions were asked repeatedly. At first, the taxi driver had patiently and politely answered her. At last, he lost his patience when she asked again, and he snapped, “Look at the road; it’s not like I’m intentionally refusing to drive! Frankly, I don’t have any idea when we would arrive!”
Yan seemed to wither after getting snapped at. Pitifully pulling her legs toward her, she lowered her head and hugged her knees to her chest and buried her face in her knees. The taxi driver was dumbstruck. What? Don’t tell me I made her cry because my words were a little harsh?
The taxi driver became embarrassed. Making his voice calm, he said, “Young lady, it wasn’t my intention to scare you. It’s just that traffic is very slow at this time of the day. Don’t worry; we’ll definitely reach the hospital—we’ll just take longer than usual. Besides, traffic might be slow at this time of the day, but it’s not that bad. Soon, it will clear up.”
Nodding her head, she did not reply. Looking at her current state, the taxi driver said nothing more. Soon, the road cleared up and they finally reached the hospital.
As Yan got out of the car and paid the fare, she saw her mother standing at the entrance of the hospital, waiting for her.
