Chapter 3

Chapter 3

I opened the woman’s obituary.

It was just a few short sentences.

I read them over and over again, truly unable to understand how these few lines of text could signify the loss of a whole person from this world.

Pinned to the top of the obituary were eight photos.

They were all different, nothing like the polished, professionally produced shots from before.

The composition was poor, the lighting was terrible, except… her smile was still quite beautiful.

She wasn’t even wearing makeup.

The ninth image was just a blank white square.

The only thing different about it was an ellipsis in the center.

It looked as if she were waiting for someone.

By now, the comment section had reached over a hundred thousand entries, filled with things everyone wanted to say to Zhu Xiali.

Cheh, it’s not even that many.

I only spent the entire night scrolling through them.
“You’re staying up late every single night. Just how much money are you actually making?

“I’m telling you, if you don’t give me three thousand yuan this month, there’s going to be trouble.”

My foster mother was clattering around in the kitchen early in the morning.

Five o’clock.

That was when she prepared the supplies for her wonton stall.

Because she couldn’t afford a storefront, she could only push her little cart and wait on the street corner.

Due to her job as a hospital cleaner, she only had one day a week to sell breakfast; the rest of the time, she only did dinners and late-night snacks.

“Get your ass out of bed early and stop being lazy.”

With a whirlwind of movement, she finally left.

I slept for a little while longer. When I woke up, there was a tray on the table containing twenty small wontons-raw.

Today, she probably forgot to tell me: “If I didn’t prepare this for you, you’d deserve to starve to death.”

Practiced, I boiled the water and dropped the wontons in, eating them mechanically.

After eating them for over a decade, I wasn’t exactly tired of them, but I had long since become immune to the taste.

Having stayed up too long, my temples throbbed with a dull ache.

She didn’t know I had just quit my job.

I pretended I was still working, leaving and returning home right on schedule.

I don’t know how, but I ended up wandering over to the hospital.

The nurses had changed shifts, but the topic of conversation remained the same: “This little girl’s bill has been overdue for a long time. If she still can’t pay…”

In the past, feeling penniless was at most a source of regret.

This was the first time I felt that being broke was so humiliating.

I really needed to find a job.

Clutching the items in my hand, I slipped quietly into the ward.

The girl was still as prone to dazing off as ever.

“Good Samaritan Sister? You’re back?”

I had two avocados in my hand, which I stuffed into her grasp.

She was so noisy, making a fuss again: “Did Sister Zhu Yuan know I love avocados again?”

“You…”

I thought about it for a moment and finally sighed. “If you say so.”

“They’re expensive, right?”

I was a bit impatient. “How should I know? It’s not like I bought them.”

“Mm. Good Samaritan Sister,” she said, still smiling sweetly, “then help me cut them open.”

She really was the type to give an inch and take a mile.

She ate happily, sending spoonful after spoonful into her mouth.

I really wanted to ask if they tasted good.

Suddenly, she switched to a plastic spoon, scooped a bit out, and shoved it into my mouth. “Good, right?”

“Not good. No flavor.”

“I don’t think they’re good either,” she agreed, nodding.

“Then why do you still want to eat them?” the words escaped me.

“Sister Zhu Yuan always loved eating these. I just wanted to taste what her favorite flavor was like.”

Zhu Yuan, Zhu Yuan. But she was already dead.

“Even if it’s not good, you have to finish it for me,” I glared at her fiercely. “They were expensive.”

“Okay,” she said with a smile. “Since it’s a gift from Sister Zhu Yuan, I’ll definitely finish it.”

I suddenly thought of the message I’d found while scrolling through the night-the one a Nurse Jiejie had left for Zhu Xiali.

[Zhu Xiali, there’s a girl in our hospital with bone cancer who was abandoned by her parents. She waits for death every day. She likes you very much. If she ever goes to where you are in the future, could you please treat her to some avocados and little cakes?]

I hid the cake in my bag a little deeper.

Forget it, I’ll give it to her next time.

Giving it all at once would seem a bit fake.

As I left, my chest felt tight and stifled.

Because before I had entered the ward, I had heard her asking the nurse:

“Nurse Jiejie, can I stop the treatment?

“Mom and Dad said they’d come pick me up in a few days. I want to go home.”