Chapter 22

Chapter 22

I froze.

It felt as if I’d been struck by a blunt object.

So that was it?

For a long time after the funeral, Dad didn’t speak to me.

Later, when my younger sister was born, my needs were always pushed to the back of the line.

Once I started university, I had to finish my studies while simultaneously supporting myself.

It seemed there really were no moments where I was looked after like a child.

Because I had no one to rely on, I knew that neither my tears nor my smiles would ever receive a response.

It was better to keep them buried deep in my heart.

I lowered my head, feeling a trace of bitterness.

“Yeah. But I’m all grown up now. It’s even more impossible for me to act like a kid.

“To laugh whenever I want, to cry whenever I want…”

Suddenly, it felt like an electric current shot through my ribs.

A numbing sensation surged up, startling a strange yelp out of me.

I turned my head to look.

It was Ji Cheng, poking me in the waist.

He wore a playful smirk.

“Who says it’s impossible?”

I tried desperately to shrink back, but he caught me.

It was as if there was a switch on my side. Even though I tried my hardest to keep my mouth shut, I still ended up laughing uncontrollably like a leaking balloon.

“Stop!!

“…Don’t poke me! It tickles!

“Hahahaha… please!”

I broke free, only to be cornered by him again.

I laughed until tears were practically flying out of my eyes.

I begged piteously, “Spare me, Doctor Ji!!”

He bared his teeth and reached out his ‘evil claws’ toward me again.

I curled into a ball, but found that the expected tingling sensation didn’t happen.

I peeked through a tiny slit in my eyes.

I saw him holding out his palm toward me.

In his palm sat a piece of candy.

He said with a beaming smile, “Here, a reward for the little one.”

I stared blankly for a long time.

Exhausted, I slumped onto the floor.

I unwrapped the paper and popped the candy into my mouth.

It didn’t taste good.

The cheap artificial fruit flavor spread through my mouth, cloyingly sweet.

Yet, it made my eyes burn with heat.

Ji Cheng leaned down to pull me up and pulled me into his arms.

“Go ahead and cry. It’s okay.

“I know you’re hurting.”

That warm, strong embrace completely shattered my final line of defense.

How long had it been since I felt this way-understood and cherished?

So long that I had started to believe I didn’t deserve it at all.

And yet, here in this foreign land halfway across the globe.

He used a piece of fruit candy to coax me like a child.

I couldn’t hold it back any longer.

The tears I had forcefully suppressed since I was five years old finally came pouring out, more than twenty years later.

He kept gently patting my back, letting me soak his clothes through.

In the end, I didn’t even realize when I fell asleep in his arms, still weeping.