By the time Zhou Wan ran home, the rain had stopped, but she was completely soaked.
Several neighbors were chatting under a tree in the garden outside the complex. Seeing her drowned-rat appearance, they immediately exclaimed, “Oh my! Wan Wan, did you fall in a river!?”
Zhou Wan smiled: “Forgot my umbrella.”
“You should’ve waited for the rain to stop.” As she spoke, the woman cursed the weather, then handed over a kraft paper bag from the table, “Take this home to share with your grandmother.”
Inside were still-warm mung bean cakes.
Zhou Wan tried to refuse, but the woman forcefully pushed it into her hands: “They’re still warm, hurry home and eat them, they’re not as good when they’re cold.”
This was an old residential complex of nearly thirty years, where all the neighbors were ordinary people who knew each other and always exchanged greetings.
Naturally, they all knew about Zhou Wan’s family situation. Zhou Jun had been helpful when alive, so now the neighbors often helped out where they could, considering it repayment.
Zhou Wan thanked them and walked inside.
Behind her came the women’s sympathetic discussions—
“Poor child, I hear she’s especially good at school. If Old Zhou were alive, she could have grown up without worries.”
“Who told her to end up with such a mother, an ungrateful wretch, completely worthless! Pah!”
“No use cursing her now, she’s flown up to become a phoenix, almost forty, and landed such a wealthy man.”
“You think rich people are stupid? Maybe it looks good on the surface, but I don’t believe wealthy men are foolish enough to marry that kind of woman.” The woman’s tone was full of contempt, “Besides, the Lu family’s son isn’t someone to be trifled with.”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t you understand? The Lu family only has one son, such a large family fortune will all go to him in the future, only a fool would let their father marry a poor woman.”
…
The stairwell light was broken.
Zhou Wan climbed the stairs in darkness, fumbling with the key at the lock for a while before managing to open it.
“Grandmother.”
“Ah.” The white-haired elderly woman was in the kitchen, smiling kindly, “Wan Wan’s home.”
Zhou Wan dropped her backpack on the table and ran to the kitchen: “Grandmother, I told you to rest early.”
“I’m making you a bowl of wonton soup.” Grandmother smiled and patted the back of her hand, “Look, they’re floating now.”
“Let me serve it.” Zhou Wan took out a bowl and brought the wontons to the table outside.
She took out the medicine from her backpack and poured a glass of warm water: “Take your medicine first.”
“Alright.”
Zhou Wan sat down to eat the wontons, watching her grandmother across the table take her medicine, and noticed her constantly scratching her skin.
“Itchy again?” Zhou Wan asked.
One symptom of uremia was dry, itchy skin.
This manifested particularly severely in her grandmother.
Her arms were already dry, and now covered in white scratch marks and dense, granular red spots.
Zhou Wan quickly finished her last wonton and brought the medicinal cream.
“I can apply it myself.” Grandmother said, “Go rest, you have school tomorrow.”
“I’ll go to sleep after I apply this for you.”
Zhou Wan spread the cool cream on her grandmother’s arms, bending down to carefully smooth it out, then blew on it, “Still itchy?”
“Not itchy anymore.” Grandmother smiled, “Quick, wash your hands and go to bed.”
Zhou Wan knew that if the cream were truly effective, her grandmother wouldn’t be kept awake scratching for several nights in a row, with several spots where she’d scratched through the skin.
Only one lamp was lit in the bedroom.
Zhou Wan took out her homework; she’d been busy working part-time and going to the hospital over the weekend and still had some test papers to complete.
As she wrote, the scene from the street earlier floated back into her mind.
In her ears was the sound of her grandmother’s coughing from the next room, coming from deep in her lungs, each cough so heavy it seemed like her internal organs might come up.
Her nose caught the unique dampness of rainy days.
A sudden, dark thought pushed its way into Zhou Wan’s mind—
What if, she could prevent Guo Xiangling from getting married?
No, not just prevent the marriage, but make her leave the Lu family, unable to enjoy that wealth and luxury. She had betrayed Dad, abandoned her, and watched Grandmother suffer without helping – what right did she have to enjoy life without guilt?
Zhou Wan harbored hatred for Guo Xiangling.
Usually, it was manageable, but in the exhausted deep night, this hatred grew like vines from the bottom of an abyss, wrapped in dark mist, completely entwining her heart.
Even now, she still remembers her father’s memorial service on the twenty-first day after his death.
Many neighbors came to pay respects and help, giving as much funeral money as they could.
That day everyone wondered, where was your mother?