Strange Illness

The An Family Restaurant was not a star-rated hotel, merely an ordinary eatery. Its main hall held more than a dozen round tables of various sizes, each surrounded by a circle of chairs and stools, with hollow-carved screens dividing the space. It was a typical Chinese style.

After taking a window-side table, Zhang Xuan looked around and found that the An Family Restaurant seemed almost unchanged from his memories. Even the tables and chairs had not moved an inch.

"Alex, do you know this place well?" Steve shook off Bucky, who was still pestering him to eat more, then turned to Zhang Xuan and asked casually.

"I lived here for seven or eight years when I was little." Zhang Xuan had pitifully few memories of this place, so after saying that, he changed the subject. "Chinese food takes some time to prepare. We may have to wait a while."

"It's fine, there's no rush. Stark Industries Park is only a few blocks away, so we won't be delayed." Bucky spoke casually, then looked around the restaurant with open curiosity.

"Ah Xuan, come taste the wine Grandma brewed. It's been stored for nearly twenty years!" As they spoke, Old Mrs. An slowly approached, leaning on a cane in one hand and carrying a dark brown, antique-looking clay bottle in the other. Her wrinkled face was lit with a delighted smile.

At the sight of the carved bottle in Grandma An's hand, another string of images surfaced in Zhang Xuan's mind. Memories from his childhood poured out like water from an opened faucet.

"Is this Huadiao wine?" Zhang Xuan hurried forward, supported Grandma An, took the wine bottle from her, and asked excitedly.

Old Mrs. An sat beside Zhang Xuan with a chuckle. Watching him impatiently break the clay seal on the bottle, she narrowed her eyes and said, "Do you remember when you were seven? You weren't even as tall as the table, yet you sneaked into my wine cellar to steal a drink. You got drunk out of your mind, and your mother searched everywhere for you. When you got home, you got a good beating too..."

One story after another that Alex had long forgotten slowly emerged from Old Mrs. An's lips, carrying the dust of history as she recounted his absurd yet beautiful childhood.

The more Zhang Xuan listened, the more awkward he felt. He glanced at Steve and Bucky across from him and found them staring at him in confusion. He quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Good thing they don't understand Chinese, or this would be humiliating.

"In the blink of an eye, more than ten years have passed. Hui Ru is gone, and you've grown up too." Before they knew it, the dishes had already been set on the table. Old Mrs. An let out a long sigh, her voice carrying the particular wistfulness of the elderly. "If your mother knows in the afterlife, she can finally rest easy."

"Eat, hurry and eat!" After sighing, Old Mrs. An immediately regained her spirits and gestured toward the table full of dishes. "Ah Xuan, don't let your friends sit there staring. Eat while it's hot!"

Zhang Xuan composed himself, looked at the two men across from him who were already drooling, picked up a pair of chopsticks, and said with a smile, "Can you use chopsticks? If not, I can get you knives and forks."

Steve and Bucky exchanged a look, then shook their heads with determined expressions. "No need!" Afterward, they carefully watched Zhang Xuan's movements before reaching for the chopsticks on the table. Their attempts were extremely comical. Fortunately, they could hold the chopsticks steadily, though picking up food was another matter entirely.

Without saying anything, Zhang Xuan filled each of their cups with wine. Then he poured a cup for himself and Grandma An and asked softly, "Grandma An, you said before that my mother had a strange illness. Why didn't I know about it?" Zhang Xuan ultimately could not suppress the doubts in his heart and asked. Unless he got a clear answer, he would not be able to eat this meal in peace.

Old Mrs. An froze at his words. After a moment of silence, she said, "Hui Ru never told you because she didn't want you to know."

"Grandma An, please tell me. I can't not know how my mother died!" In Alex's memories, his mother's death had come suddenly, without any warning. Zhang Xuan had not understood before, but after hearing that she had suffered from a strange illness, he immediately realized that her death was very likely related to it.

"Hui Ru was such a pitiful woman. First, she met a heartless man who abandoned you mother and son without a trace. Then she had to suffer that strange illness too. Heaven truly is unfair!" As Old Mrs. An spoke, she struck the floor with her cane, making crisp sounds against the bluestone tiles. "Such a good girl as Hui Ru... why did she have to endure so many disasters?"

Hearing Grandma An's indignant cries, Zhang Xuan felt his chest tighten as well. A surge of anger gathered in his heart, demanding release.

Meanwhile, Steve and Bucky had stopped eating. Seeing that something was wrong with Zhang Xuan and Old Mrs. An, they wanted to say something, but neither knew what Zhang Xuan and Old Mrs. An had been discussing. They could only stare blankly.

"Grandma An, what illness was it? Couldn't it be cured?" Although medical technology in 1940 was not as advanced as in the twenty-first century, many diseases were no longer beyond treatment. There were not many that could truly be called terminal illnesses.

"They said Hui Ru was a monster, but I knew it was an illness. An illness that couldn't be cured." Old Mrs. An's eyes gradually grew moist, and deep guilt filled her clouded gaze. "They wanted to drive Hui Ru out. I tried to persuade them, but they refused to listen. What a sin... In a foreign land, without the care of your fellow townspeople, how much hardship must you mother and son have suffered?"

Listening to Grandma An's incoherent words, Zhang Xuan was completely baffled. Weren't they talking about an illness? How had monsters entered the conversation?

"Grandma An, what exactly happened? What illness did my mother have?" Zhang Xuan grew anxious.

"I don't know what illness it was." Old Mrs. An shook her head, full of white hair, her aged face filled with horror. "Golden scales covered her whole body and face, just like fish scales. It was terrifying to look at!"

"At first, no one noticed. Then someone saw it somehow, and soon the whole neighborhood knew. They said Hui Ru was a monster reborn and would bring disaster, that she had to be driven away." As she spoke, Old Mrs. An raised a hand to wipe away the tears at the corners of her eyes. "I tried to persuade them, tried to stop them, but they refused to listen. They insisted on driving you mother and son away! I truly had no choice!"

"Fish scales?" Zhang Xuan was stunned. He did not believe in monsters, much less think this was truly some illness. This was the Marvel Universe. He thought of one possibility.

Seeing Grandma An crying so hard she could barely speak, Zhang Xuan came back to himself. He gently patted her back and comforted her softly. "Grandma An, my mother wouldn't blame you. After we left Chinatown, we didn't suffer much. We lived well and happily, so please don't blame yourself anymore."

Zhang Xuan was not merely comforting Old Mrs. An with those words. She truly had done it, and that was what he admired most about her. A woman raising a child with her own two hands, supporting him through school, and even saving enough to leave him an apartment—what a great and hardworking mother she had been.

After comforting her for a long while, Old Mrs. An finally calmed down. Supported by Uncle An, she slowly left with her cane. Watching Grandma An gradually disappear into the distance, Zhang Xuan thought that his words should have eased some of the guilt in her heart.

"Alex, what were you talking about just now? Why were you both crying?" Once Old Mrs. An had left, Steve could no longer contain his curiosity and asked.

"Nothing. We were just talking about childhood memories. Elderly people are easily emotional, so she cried." Zhang Xuan made up an excuse to brush it off. Before the two could ask further, he hurriedly urged them to eat. "Are you getting used to Chinese food?"

Steve and Bucky did not think much of Zhang Xuan's explanation. They nodded and said earnestly, "Chinese food is really delicious!"

"Then eat more!" Zhang Xuan laughed. His chopsticks moved like flying blades as he kept placing food into their bowls, while Grandma An's words continued to echo in his mind.

I wonder if I have the X-gene too?