My Youth Began With Him

”I know, I’ll do what I promised.” Xue Juan didn’t seem to forget her promise.

”The thing is I don’t think Ni Yang will easily forgive you.”

Worried, Huo Mian said…

Xie Juan froze, and then fell into silence…

”How’s he doing?” Xie Juan rarely asked how Ni Yang was doing.

”He’s doing okay; his symptoms have stabilized… but he’s still depressed… and has no interest in doing anything. I told the company to arrange some easy work for him to do, and he sometimes goes abroad to film so it’s like he’s on vacation… These are trivial, though, you and the fact that you left him for all those years is what caused his depression.”

”I know that I’ve done him wrong, and I will try to make things up to him.”

”Okay, let’s talk about it after Shuai Shuai’s surgery… Once you’re no longer worrying about this, you’ll have time to figure things out between you and Ni Yang.”

”Okay.”

Then, Huo Mian left Shuai Shuai’s room…

”Dr. Huo, someone’s looking for you.”

One of the nurses called out; Huo Mian put on her glasses and headed out to the outpatient clinic.

She saw two skinny people standing from afar, carrying bags on their backs.

”Uncle and Auntie Ning?”

Huo Mian was shocked to see Ning Zhiyuan’s parents here.

”Mian… we finally found you, we went to the First Hospital first, but they said that you don’t work there anymore. We switched a bunch of buses and almost got off at the wrong stop, but we finally found you.”

”Uncle, Auntie, why are you guys here?”

Although Huo Mian and Ning Zhiyuan were complete strangers now…

She had always treated Ning Zhiyuan’s parents with respect, as they were honest people who weren’t picky nor power-hungry.

They were down-to-earth and treated Huo Mian like their own daughter.

”Forget it… it’s a really long story.”

”Uncle, Auntie, you haven’t eaten yet, right? Let me take you guys out for some food.”

She looked down at her watch – it was past lunchtime, but it looked like Ning Zhiyuan’s parents haven’t had the chance to eat yet.

”No, no, it’s okay, we brought with us some bread and will have some later. There’s no need to spend money on us.”

The old couple was embarrassed and unwilling to go…

”Uncle, Auntie, it’s okay. My salary is high now, and I have money to spare.”

In the end, Huo Mian ignored their protests and drove them to a Chinese restaurant nearby.

She ordered them six dishes and two plates of dumplings…

The old couple kept saying that it was enough; Huo Mian was heartbroken by how stringent they were.

”Mian… are you still in touch with Zhiyuan?”

”I’m not.” Huo Mian told them the truth.

”What should we do then?” Auntie Ning began wiping tears off her eyes.

”What’s wrong, Auntie? What happened? Don’t cry, tell me.”

”To tell you the truth, ever since he got married, we barely visited them because we know that the Wu Family looked down on us. They’re right to do so – they bought the condo and the car, and we don’t have to face to come and visit them. When our granddaughter was born, we brought them 200 free-range eggs from the countryside. That day, Zhiyuan wasn’t home, and Xiaoxue didn’t seem happy to see us, so we left after lunch and didn’t stay for the night. I’m old and nostalgic and recently have been really missing my granddaughter, so we thought we would come to visit them. But when we got there, we were told that they sold the condo… Xiaoxue moved, and when we went looking for Zhiyuan at the apartment we bought for your wedding, we realized that it was rented out. He won’t pick up his phone, and I can’t find him. We then went looking for him at the First Hospital and were told that he’d been fired. What in the world happened?”

Auntie Wu said as she cried buckets and buckets…

Huo Mian only listened to them quietly…

It seemed like Ning Zhiyuan’s parents had no idea that Wu Xiaoxue and Ning Zhiyuan got divorced.

Therefore, how would they know that Wu Xiaoxue moved to Seattle?

It was going to be more than difficult for this old couple to see their granddaughter in the future…

Asking a pair of villagers to go to the United States was like daydreaming…

Uncle Ning set down his chopsticks and looked at Huo Mian, ”Mian, you’re a good kid, you must know what happened. Did Xiaoxue get into a fight with Zhiyuan? What happened to them? It’s a long way for us to come visit them; we couldn’t find our granddaughter nor our son, so we had no choice but to come looking for you. Please don’t think of us as a burden.”

”Uncle, Auntie, don’t treat me like an outsider. Even though I didn’t end up with Zhiyuan, you two are still like family to me.”

”Mian… then tell me, what in the world happened to Zhiyuan?”

Faced with the old couple’s repeating questions, Huo Mian didn’t have the heart to tell them what happened, nor did she know where to start…