CHAPTER 307: CHAPTER 307: I’M ASKING YOU

Mrs. Xu had an accident? Xu Xiuxiu was shocked and wide-eyed.

"What happened? How is mom? Si Ya, calm down and tell me." Xu Xiuxiu was both surprised and taken aback by the news. How could something have happened so suddenly? And it was serious enough to be a cerebral hemorrhage, which was utterly unexpected!

"Second elder sister called and said that last night, after mom had dinner, she suddenly felt uncomfortable and said she wanted to lie down in her room. Then, she passed out and was rushed to the county hospital. Her condition was not good when they tried to save her, and the doctors said it was an acute cerebral hemorrhage. She is still in the county hospital being resuscitated and hasn’t woken up yet!" Xu Jingjing choked up and struggled to get the story out.

After clearly hearing what Xu Jingjing had said, Xu Xiuxiu felt as if her head had exploded.

A cerebral hemorrhage! How could it be a cerebral hemorrhage? Mrs. Xu’s overall health had been quite good! The suddenness of the event caught Xu Xiuxiu completely off guard, and it took her a good while to regain her composure.

"Let’s go! Jingjing, go pack your things right now. We’re going back to our hometown, and we’re leaving today," Xu Xiuxiu hastily decided, and Xu Jingjing nodded immediately, then they went inside to pack their things together.

There weren’t many trains from Z city to the county of their hometown, but there were a few passing through every day. It was possible to buy tickets at the train station on short notice, but by the time Xu Xiuxiu and Xu Jingjing had packed their things and boarded the train with the boy and girl twins and Song Chengguang, it was already noon. Because of the hurry, Xu Xiuxiu hadn’t prepared much, and the lunch they had was hastily bought at the train station entrance.

Xu Xiuxiu had wanted to give Song Yuanhuan a call, but he had been on the train for only a few hours, and even if she had called him in Imperial City, he wouldn’t have been able to receive it, not to mention that she didn’t even have a phone to make the call. She could only wait for him to call her after arriving in Imperial City. Yet, she didn’t know if he would worry if she failed to answer his call. Thinking about this, Xu Xiuxiu couldn’t help but curse. This damned era, where one basically had to travel on foot and communications were so backward, was truly cursed.

"Sis, do you think Mom will be okay?" Xu Jingjing sat by the window, looking at the rapidly retreating scenery with a particularly complex and worried mind.

She actually had deep feelings for Mrs. Xu, for she was the youngest child in the family and quite pampered from a young age. However, after Xu Fangfang’s harm, her feelings towards Mr. and Mrs. Xu had grown strangely complicated. In front of her elderly parents, she was no longer the innocent child, and even phone calls sometimes felt annoying, due to the emotional barriers she felt towards them. She believed that their hesitancy and partiality had led to her miserable fate.

If only her parents had put a bit more heart and effort into their parenting, she wouldn’t have ended up in such a state. She blamed them, yet the bonds of kinship made her suppress even blame and resentment because they were her parents.

However, when she received the phone call from her second elder sister and heard her crying on the phone, her mind went blank. She had never before contemplated the fragility of life and the inevitability that her aging parents would one day face the cycle of life and death.

"It will be okay, the virtuous will have God’s protection," Xu Xiuxiu said, her mood slightly complex as she tried to comfort Xu Jingjing.

In fact, compared to Xu Jingjing’s panic, Xu Xiuxiu’s emotions were fluctuating quite heavily. She wasn’t the original soul; the kindness shown by Mr. and Mrs. Xu was only what she experienced later on. All the past kindness to the original soul was stored in her memory, but those memories were not clear. As time passed, many things and feelings had changed. Xu Xiuxiu felt as if she was sincerely caught up in someone else’s story. Yet, she was very clear in her heart that she was just a passerby in this story.

Mr. Xu and Mrs. Xu were, by the standards of the times, quite competent parents. They treated their four daughters as fairly as possible and didn’t harbor the severe preference for sons over daughters that was prevalent, although Xu Xiuxiu might not have been aware of it—if it existed at all. She always felt that they were fairly good parents, and she merely did what a daughter should do, striving not to give people something to criticize. She was smooth in her dealings, quite exceptionally so.

If she had not been so smooth, perhaps she wouldn’t have found herself in her current situation. She was indeed smooth, smoothly a little selfish, making sure to live her own life comfortably. However, when it came to being smooth, she couldn’t truly say she was, as she often hesitated in making decisions. She knew exactly how to handle things well, when to be ruthless without hesitation.

She understood many things and knew how to resolve issues for a better outcome, but she allowed her own emotions to get in the way, and that made her less than smooth.

Reflecting on it now, she recognized that she had been quite selfish. Apart from the beginning when she genuinely wanted to integrate into the Xu Family, she gradually became aware of the Xu Family’s lousy traits. She quietly wished to dissociate, or at least to do what should be done and avoid what shouldn’t. She analyzed the Xu Family’s affairs with clear and rational judgment, then proceeded to resolve them.

As Xu Xiuxiu, as the daughter of Mr. Xu and Mrs. Xu, she was truly too selfish.

...

When the train arrived at the county during nightfall, around eight or nine, the station outside had quietened down considerably. Unlike during the day, there were hardly any auto-rickshaws waiting to pick up passengers. Xu Xiuxiu, holding Little Baby, and Xu Jingjing, holding Little Moon, carefully assisted Song Chengguang with their luggage and made their way to the exit.

Thankfully, the weather wasn’t too cold. After waiting for about fifteen minutes, they eventually found an auto-rickshaw. The driver, boldly asking for five yuan right off the bat, left Xu Xiuxiu without a haggle.

"Take us straight to the county hospital," Xu Xiuxiu instructed the auto-rickshaw driver, while holding Little Baby and making sure Song Chengguang was situated comfortably. She waited for Xu Jingjing to settle in with Little Moon before giving the command.

"Sure! Everyone, please sit tight!" The driver was enthusiastic about such generous passengers. Not every customer would agree to the price without a word, so when he did manage to charge a bit extra, he made sure to drive more steadily.

"Luckily, the boy and girl twins are well-behaved. They haven’t fussed at all on the way here," Xu Jingjing murmured, holding the sleeping Little Baby and looking out at the county roads, which were still somewhat familiar, with a bittersweet feeling.

They had hurried back, uncertain about the situation. That morning, the patient was still unconscious at the hospital; presumably, they were still hospitalized—going home wasn’t frequent.

The auto-rickshaw rumbled its way to the county hospital, and Xu Xiuxiu, holding Little Baby, walked up to the duty nurse’s desk. There weren’t many people awake at this hour in the hospital, as country folks were accustomed to an early night, and given that it was a hospital, most would have already been resting.

"Hello, I’d like to inquire about a woman from Xu Village who suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was brought in for emergency treatment last night. Could you tell me which ward she’s in?" Xu Xiuxiu politely asked the duty nurse.