One More Day Off After Mid-Autumn Festival

I'm taking another day off today. I'm terribly sorry!

It's the day after Mid-Autumn Festival, and I'm shamelessly asking for one more day off.

Dear Tomato readers, it feels like we've just seen each other. I'm the author who posted a leave notice yesterday and has turned up in the "Author's Note" again today. By rights, with Mid-Autumn Festival over, I should be posting chapters again. But sitting in the courtyard of my childhood home, watching my mom bustle around the kitchen and my dad repair that old chair, I decided to take one more day off. Yes, one more day, even though it's already the day after the festival.

I know that's asking a lot. I missed an update yesterday, and now I'm missing another. Readers following along will drift away, my book will sit untouched on shelves, and the comments may already be filling up with "The author's disappeared." I know better than anyone that a Tomato reader's patience is precious, and nothing wears it down faster than waiting. You open your bookshelves every day, see there's no update, grumble a little, and feel disappointed. I get it. So I'm not here to act entitled to a day off. I'm here to apologize and explain.

Why do I need another day? Because coming home this time made me realize my parents had aged faster than I'd imagined. My mom's hands shook a little when she chopped vegetables. My dad had to stop and rest twice on the stairs. They told me, "You're busy. You don't need to come back." But by the day I arrived, my mom had stuffed the fridge full, and my dad had swept the courtyard three times. I ate with them on Mid-Autumn Festival, yet even at the table I was thinking about the