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Translator: Cheese
He was a warm and kind-hearted man.
Song Yuan inadvertently looked down and noticed a bag in Rong Heng’s grasp. It was from the People’s Hospital in this city and looked to be a prescription list.
The two could already be considered friends, so Song Yuan wouldn’t be stingy with her concern. She pointed to the prescription list and asked, “Is someone in your family sick?”
Rong Heng was frozen for a moment before he lowered his head to look at the prescription in his hand. He smiled and shook his head. “Not a family member. It’s for me.”
It was Song Yuan’s turn to be stunned. She let out an ‘a’ and followed up with, “You’re sick? You don’t seem like a patient.”
She was telling the truth; she thought this Mr. Xie didn’t look like a patient. He clearly looked very healthy.
“I’m not really sick.” Rong Heng seemed to be afraid of disturbing others. He couldn’t help lowering his voice with a slight smile on his face. “I had an accident this year and narrowly escaped death. I suffered a serious injury and nearly died. Luckily, some kind-hearted people sent me to the hospital, and I was brought back from the brink of death. But it might be that I suffered a brain injury; I can’t remember a lot of things after waking up. I came here because I heard that a specialist was here, and my family wanted me to come here to relax.”
He spoke lightly1 of his experience.
But Song Yuan felt her heart leap as she listened.
It all felt very thrilling, but for something like amnesia, it was difficult for her to believe it could happen in her life if she hadn’t experienced it herself. After all, amnesia scenarios were only seen in TV shows.
Seeing the sense of loss on Rong Heng’s gentle face, she felt sympathetic. “I can understand. Losing your memories must not feel pleasant.”
“I just feel guilty for making my family worry. After all, I forgot everything after I woke up, even my relatives. My mother suffered for a long time.” Rong Heng added, “Miss Song, it seems that in front of you, I can freely speak my mind without fearing you would laugh at me. The feeling of losing my memories is quite awful. For example, when facing my parents, I feel estranged, as though they are not related to me.”
Was that what happened with amnesia?
This was something Song Yuan couldn’t relate to. The first time she saw Rong Ting, although it felt very odd, she would feel uncomfortable when she saw Rong Ting feel uncomfortable. To like an unknown child from the bottom of her heart… this was probably the bond between a mother and child.
Song Yuan couldn’t help but comfort Rong Heng. “Mr. Xie, it’s okay. Modern medicine is so advanced; maybe it won’t take long for you to remember.”
Rong Heng chuckled. “After these few months, I’ve come to accept it. Of course, it’s best to remember, and it’s okay if I don’t, but the most important thing is to make the best of it. There are times when I think that it might not be a bad thing to forget some unhappy things.”
“It’s best if you think this way.” Seeing that Rong Heng was so open and transparent, Song Yuan didn’t continue to worry for him.
“That’s true.” Rong Heng still held the bag in his hand. He smiled and handed the bag to her. “This is a gift from a friend, but I don’t think I’ll have much use for it. I don’t know if your son is learning calligraphy, but this copybook isn’t too bad. If your son has some interest, you can let him practice with this.”
Song Yuan received the gift. Judging from the packaging and the texture of the copybook, she knew that it was quite valuable. Naturally, she was embarrassed to accept it.
But Rong Heng smilingly said: “I have no children, and there are no children in the house who are learning calligraphy. It’d be a waste for me to have it. Just keep it. Consider it a meeting gift3 from me to your son.”
Since he said this, Song Yuan didn’t refuse. “Thank you. It really is a coincidence. My son likes to write calligraphy with a brush. Not that I’m boasting, but he really does write very well. I took him to a class here, and he said that the instructors here were not qualified enough and refused. My father is in contact with people in B City, and he heard that there was an excellent calligrapher there. When he sees them, maybe he will walk through the door and worship them as his master?”
Rong Heng considered it. “The child definitely can’t be delayed. If you need any help, I can say that my family knows some people over in B City.”
Song Yuan felt that, although the two of them hadn’t known each other for long, she truly had a good impression of him. He was warm-hearted without being rude.
“Thank you.”
“No need to be polite.” Rong Heng glanced at the time on his watch. “My friend should have clocked out. I’ll be leaving first.”
Song Yuan waved to him. “Bye. And thanks for the copybook.”
After watching Rong Heng leave, Song Yuan focused her attention on what Rong Ting was doing in the classroom.
Rong Ting came out of the piano class, and judging from his expression, he didn’t seem that interested in the piano.
Song Yuan led Rong Ting downstairs and asked him, “Gugu, do you like playing the piano?”
“Cannot say like.” Rong Ting answered very honestly.
“Alright.” Song Yuan didn’t feel disappointed. After all, after these few days of going to trial classes, she could see that her son wasn’t very interested in musical instruments, but he was interested in things like ice skating and taekwondo.
“By the way, this copybook is for you.” After getting on the bus, Song Yuan handed the copybook to Rong Ting. “It seems to be a copybook for practicing calligraphy. It’s a gift from a friend of mine. You should use it.”
Rong Ting lovingly held it. After flipping through the copybook, he sighed in admiration. “This is quite good. Gu likes it very much.”
“That’s good. I’ll buy you a new one once you’ve finished using it for practice.”
“Thank you, Empress Mother.”
After returning home, Rong Ting used this copybook, which meant that he was rather absorbed in his task4. After this period of observation, Song Yuan finally decided to wait until they were in B City before temporarily enrolling him in three classes–ice skating, Taekwondo, and English.
It sounded like a packed schedule, but in fact, Rong Ting had to wait until winter vacation before he could enroll in kindergarten. Moreover, kindergarten ended early every day, so he had enough time.
Originally, Song Yuan couldn’t bear to do it. After all, she hadn’t learned this much stuff when she was a child. But then there was one mom in the group chat she had just joined who shared her daughter’s schedule. There were classes from Monday to Friday and piano in the afternoon after school. Then on Saturday, she learned English in the morning and practiced Latin dance in the afternoon. And on Sunday, she had writing class in the morning and Taekwondo in the afternoon. After Song Yuan saw this schedule, her reluctance immediately vanished…
Ji Junpei used to be in the same club as Song Yuan. For his return this time, the club members organized a dinner party and said that it was to celebrate his return to his motherland. The other students took the time out of their busy schedule, making Song Yuan, who had already resigned and was staying at home, unable to think of an excuse, so she could only go to eat.
At the time when Song Yuan joined the club, Ji Junpei was already preparing to study abroad. On the surface, they didn’t seem to have much interaction, but their mutual friends knew that there was something going on between them.
Later on, a continuous stream of new people joined the club, but their group was the closest. Song Yuan was the youngest, so her upperclassmen took very good care of her and gave her a lot of help.
The snow had already melted, so Song Yuan drove to the meeting spot. By the time she arrived, everyone else was already present. Ji Junpei had reserved a large room.
Song Yuan sat next to a female upperclassman. Because she was the last to get there, she was penalized with a glass of juice.
Everyone present had already graduated.
Song Yuan had come because she knew these people’s personalities. They were not the type to love teasing others, and no matter what they thought in their minds, they wouldn’t publicly embarrass her. Last year, when they’d held a reunion, and she and Ji Junpei had had an ambiguous relationship, they hadn’t made any jokes, which made Song Yuan feel safe.
Halfway through the meal, Ji Junpei suddenly asked: “Yuanyuan, I remember that your dad seemed to have bought you a house. What community is it in?”
“I know, it’s Fairview Garden!” an upperclassman said happily. “I’d asked her once whether it was easy to get around there and nearly bought a house there.”
“En, it’s Fairview Garden.”
Fairview Garden was a community that had been established in the city just a few years ago. At the time, since the location and unit layouts were good, the real estate was sold out as soon as it was launched.
“Why, Junpei, you want to rent, or buy?” the female upperclassman sitting next to Song Yuan asked.
Ji Junpei, intentionally or unintentionally, glanced at Song Yuan, then he quickly averted his gaze and laughed. “I’m thinking of buying a house. I’ve made some money doing projects while abroad these past few years, and my parents can provide some support, so there should be no problem to pay the down payment. I just don’t know which communities are good?”
The other people offered suggestions to Ji Junpei.
For a while, the discussion was quite intense. Some of them were already married, but none of them had children, so a house was one of the most important considerations.
Ji Junpei suddenly asked: “Yuanyuan, what do you think? Do you have any recommendations?”
Song Yuan was startled. She’d been in the middle of eating when she was suddenly called out at this moment. Seeing Ji Junpei’s eager gaze, she subconsciously lowered her head and said, “I don’t pay attention to this area, so I don’t know which communities are popular right now, either.”
She didn’t know if she was being too sensitive, but the meal was suddenly not so enjoyable.
Ji Junpei fought with an upperclassman to pay the bill. In the end, Ji Junpei seized the opportunity to pay on the grounds that he would need more help now that he had returned from abroad. He called the waiter to pay the bill, and the waiter came in and told them that someone had already paid.
“Paid the bill? Who did it?” The people in the box looked at each other and shook their heads, indicating that it wasn’t them.
The waiter looked at the billing machine in his hand and said confidently, “Someone did indeed pay the bill. I just confirmed with the front desk, and they said it was Miss Song’s friend.”
Song Yuan was the only one in the compartment surnamed Song. Everyone looked at her.
Song Yuan was also at a loss. “My friend? Who?”
The waiter used the intercom and confirmed with the front desk again. “It was indeed a friend of Miss Song’s, a gentleman. The front desk said that his hair was dyed white, so I had a strong impression.”
Song Yuan’s first reaction was that it was Rong Heng.
Rong Heng seemed to be the only one of her friends with white hair.
Ji Junpei also had a deep impression of the man. After all, only a few days had passed, and the look in the man’s eyes was still fresh in his memory. And now he came to pay the bill…
[1] 轻描淡写: to sketch in light shades; to play down or deemphasize
[2] 心惊肉跳: lit. heart alarmed, body leaping; fear and trepidation in the face of disaster
[3] 见面礼: a gift given when meeting somebody for the first time (in this case, ““““first time””””)
[4] 废寝忘食: to neglect sleep and forget about food; fig. to skip one’s sleep and meals, OR to be complete wrapped up in one’s work
Cheese: ngl, i think by this point id start to be majorly concerned that i was running into someone who was a complete stranger just a little bit ago. miss song, i know he’s handsome and he’s your type, but i think he might be a stalker………
Cheese is right. He is too good to be true. And something so good isn’t that good at all. What kind of acquaintance will pay for your dinner with your friends? If that doesn’t scream some ulterior motive, I don’t know what will. I really feel like Rong Heng is a patient, beast. Slowly watching, slowly observing, slowly closing in to Song Song. I had a chill just imagining it.
Now I can’t get that out of my head. Ugh.
Yes, lol hahaha though he might be subtle with his advances he always seems to be there… Now, I’m thinking he’s like Joe in You (TV Series)… But honestly, he’s the former husband. Who wouldn’t want to locate their wife and be with them ASAP?
Anywho, thanks for the hard work!