The train was nearly empty and very quiet late at night. Yao Jingjing sat by the window, watching the lights outside rush past, her heart sinking into the darkness ahead with the train.
Darkness does not represent the unknown; it is merely a journey to another brightly lit city.
Yao Jingjing was just going back to visit her mother and would be back at work the day after tomorrow, continuing to greet every passenger boarding the plane with her standard smile. But she felt like she was saying goodbye to a certain kind of life. Life might not change much, but from now on, she would have to give up some things she had long insisted on and compromise with other things.
The journey from Spring City to Cuanzhou is not far; it takes less than an hour by high-speed rail and only two hours by regular air-conditioned train. However, it felt like Yao Jingjing had been on the train for half a century. When she stepped out of Cuanzhou Station and smelled the familiar fog of her hometown in the dead of night, she should have been excited to be home, but instead, she suddenly felt as if her legs were filled with lead, and her steps were incredibly heavy.
The brightly lit plaza lamp facing them cast long shadows of her and her suitcase behind them.
After what happened in Spring City, she dared not call a ride-hailing service again, and the Cuanzhou subway, after being planned with great fanfare for several years, had vanished without a trace. She simply pulled her suitcase and slowly walked along the familiar road. Although it was late at night with few pedestrians, it was still safer than sitting in a stranger's car.
Besides, her slow pace seemed more like a futile struggle, like a fallen leaf struggling in the wind, no matter how much wind blows or how much it rises and falls, it will inevitably fall to the ground and become dust.
Just as dawn was breaking, Yao Jingjing arrived at the hospital. Her mother's illness had flared up again, and she was hospitalized; otherwise, she wouldn't have been in such a hurry to come back. She checked the time; although her parents were used to waking up early, it was still too early to go up now, and the inpatient department hadn't even opened for visiting hours yet.
Yao Jingjing thought for a moment and then sat down on a bench in the hospital, intending to wait until it was completely light before going upstairs. She didn't notice, however, that two suspicious-looking people had been following her since she left the train station, all the way here.
"Hey, is this the girl?"
"That's right, the train number Brother Eight Fingers gave us is correct, and the person and photo match up."
"I heard she's a flight attendant?"
"That should be right. Look at her, she's just as good-looking as our TV presenters."
"Hey, if I could just have a taste, it would be worth three years!"
"Forget about it. I heard it was ordered by Brother Eight Fingers ' boss. Be careful, or Brother Eight Fingers will skin you alive!"
Who is the boss of Brother Eight Fingers?
"How would I know!"
As dawn broke, caregivers and family members began to emerge from the building and head to the cafeteria for breakfast. Only then did Yao Jingjing get up and enter the inpatient building.
Wearing a hospital gown Mama Yao looked quite well. Seeing her daughter, she beamed even more, though she scolded, "Didn't you say you'd be back yesterday with _tu_shu? Why are you only here this morning? Tell me, did you go on a date yesterday?"
"Mom!..." Yao Jingjing had called home to tell them after changing her train ticket, but she didn't say she would be back in the middle of the night so they wouldn't worry.
Papa Yao said, "Oh dear, look at you! Our daughter just got back, she hasn't even had breakfast yet, and you're already asking about boyfriends!"
Mama Yao said, "Breakfast is necessary, and so is finding a partner! How many more days can I live in this state? If I don't hurry, forget about having a grandson, I might not even know what my future son-in-law looks like!"
"Mom... what are you saying!" Yao Jingjing's nose tingled, and she hugged her mother tightly. "May you live to be a hundred! You'll see your son-in-law and grandson, and even your great-grandson!"
Mama Yao laughed and said, "Don't try to comfort me. Don't I know my own illness? I'm telling you, you absolutely have to go to your blind date today!"
Yao Jingjing said, "Mom, I'd like to take you to Capital for a visit. Someone at my workplace introduced me to a very skilled doctor Capital."
Papa Yao also said, "Yes, the medical standards in Capital are high. Why don't we go and get it checked out?"
Mama Yao said, "We've been to Spring City and Yangcheng, spent so much money, and it's all the same as the hospital in Cuanzhou. I don't believe that doctors in Capital are any better than those in Yangcheng, that they can conjure up a matching bone marrow for you. Besides, how much money have we already spent on this illness? Even if a bone marrow transplant were possible, we couldn't afford it. The most important thing now is our precious daughter's marriage. As long as I can see her married, I can die in peace."
Papa Yao said, "You really are something! Talking about death in front of the child, and not even asking Jingjing to pay for anything, we still have the house!"
Suddenly Mama Yao exclaimed urgently, "Don't you dare sell the house for me! Let me tell you, that house is meant for my daughter's wedding. If she gets married and is mistreated by her in-laws, her family won't even have a house. Where will she go? If you dare sell the house, even if I recover, I'll kill myself!"
"Mom! Dad!" Yao Jingjing said quickly when she saw her mother was anxious, "Don't worry about the money, I'll figure something out."
Mama Yao laughed and said, "Alright, alright, I know you mean well. We'll talk about money when we need it. Your job right now is to find me a boyfriend."
Yao Jingjing knew she couldn't escape today's blind date.
When the doctor came to make his rounds in the morning, he saw Yao Jingjing and asked Yao Jingjing to come to his office in a little while. It was rare for a doctor to be so proactive in asking a patient's family member to come to his office, Yao Jingjing felt a little uneasy.
When she arrived at the office, the doctor said to her, "Now you have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"
Yao Jingjing thought for a moment and said, "Let's listen to the good stuff first."
The doctor said, "The good news is that your mother is a bone marrow match. We can prepare for surgery anytime, provided you agree."
"Really?" Yao Jingjing was overjoyed; this was the best news she had heard in a year. She almost jumped up and rushed out to tell her parents, but she quickly calmed down. "So, the bad news you mentioned refers to money? How much money is needed?"
The doctor said, "Given your mother's condition, the total cost of the surgery and subsequent rehabilitation will likely be around one million yuan. Your mother's medical insurance can only cover less than a third of that, so you should prepare 500,000 yuan first. You need to act quickly; the longer you delay, the higher the cost will likely be. However, the bad news I have to tell you today isn't about money."
"Huh?" Yao Jingjing exclaimed in surprise, "What's that?"
The doctor said, "It's like this: two weeks ago, when we were examining your mother, we found some strange lesions in her brain. At first, we suspected encephalitis and consulted with a neurologist. Now, the basic results are in."
"What is it?" Yao Jingjing asked.
"We can't determine what it is; I can only describe the symptoms to you," the doctor said. "Your mother's cerebral gray matter, also known as the cerebral cortex, has shown signs of fibrosis and necrosis. Although the area of necrosis doesn't appear large at the moment, it's showing a trend of gradual expansion."
Yao Jingjing asked, puzzled, "What do you mean? Is this related to leukemia?"
The doctor shook his head and said, "Leukemia can cause central nervous system and cerebrospinal fluid lesions, which we call cerebral leukemia. But the symptoms are completely different from your mother's, so we can't be sure if it's a complication, nor do we know if it will affect the bone marrow transplant surgery."