“Grandma, drink some honeyed water first.”
Grandma took the cup from her and took a sip of the honeyed water. Then, she looked closely at Ye Tianxin and noticed her red, swollen eyes, and the tear streaks still visible on her cheeks. She must’ve been crying!
Grandma silently let out a long, deep sigh. She was eighty to ninety percent sure that her illness was serious. Why else had she collapsed twice within such a short span of time?
When the doctor had told her that it was nothing serious, he must’ve been lying to her.
At her age, she wasn’t afraid of dying if she were seriously ill.
However, she worried about Tianxin. What would she do?
Tianxin was about to sit for the college entrance exams. What would happen if she got distracted because of her illness and didn’t do well?
Also, if she died soon, how would Tianxin cope going forward?
She couldn’t possibly rely on Lu Jijun, because if he really intended to bring Tianxin back into the Lu family, he would’ve shown Grandma his sincerity a long time ago.
However, throughout the years, what else had he done besides send them money every month?
Furthermore, she could tell from just one glance that Lu Jijun’s daughter definitely wasn’t someone to be messed with.
If she did let Tianxin leave with Lu Jijun, it was very likely that… Tianxin would be disadvantaged.
Grandma wasn’t afraid of dying.
Grandma was just worried that Tianxin would become an orphan after she died.
Left all alone in this world, how would she survive on her own?
“Tianxin, please be honest with Grandma. Is my condition very serious?”
Ye Tianxin shook her head and replied, “No, Grandma. Your blood sugars are low, and your blood pressure is a little on the low side too. But everything else is normal, really.”
“Tianxin, what do you think of that Uncle Lu that we met earlier?”
Ye Tianxin knew what her grandmother was thinking. Grandma was probably taking this chance to take care of some unfinished business before she died.
“Grandma, it doesn’t matter how good he is. He’s still someone else’s father. I don’t like him. And I dislike his daughter even more. Grandma, I want to stay with you. You don’t need to worry about me. I’ll be eighteen and an adult soon. I’m capable of looking after myself…”
Her grandmother didn’t say anything more and quietly drank her honeyed water. She slipped her hand into her pockets, and her fingers brushed against a stiff card.
In actual fact, through all these years, she’d always had Lu Jijun’s phone number.
But she had never called him. Because of her pride, she’d wanted to show him that she was totally capable of raising her granddaughter on her own without depending on him. From her perspective, Lu Jijun was fully at fault for what had happened to her daughter Linlang.
No, she would never hand over her own granddaughter to Lu Jijun.
But… if her condition deteriorated, then what was Tianxin to do?
“Grandma, stop thinking nonsense. Oh, yes, let’s eat.”
“Okay.”
Grandma decided not to think about it for now. She was incredibly reluctant to hand her granddaughter over to Lu Jijun.
She would think about it again another time. There had to be a way to avoid this.
After grandmother and granddaughter had dinner, Ye Tianxin sat by her grandmother’s bed and, holding her hand, said softly, “Grandma, please pass on your embroidery techniques to me. I’ve always thought that your embroidery is really beautiful…”
“Embroidery? Whatever for? In the future, my Tianxin should just buy whatever she likes.”
Ye Tianxin held onto her grandmother’s hands. It was this pair of hardworking hands that had painstakingly raised her from a babbling infant into the young woman that she was today.
“Grandma, I just want to pick it up. Please teach me already!”
Her grandmother gave it some thought before compromising, “Just focus on your exams for now. I’ll teach you after the exams.”
“Okay,” Ye Tianxin agreed in a heartbeat.
The only occupants in the three-person ward were Ye Tianxin and her grandmother, who could be heard quietly chatting away inside.
The doctors and nurses who walked past the ward and heard the pair talking all felt that there was a such wonderful bond between Grandma and her granddaughter.