Jiang Cheng glanced at the pink and white building from the bus.
This was a famous sanatorium located on a mountain in the Suburb of Beijing, secluded and quiet, usually accessible by only one bus route.
After getting off the bus, Jiang Cheng tightened his backpack straps and silently started up the mountain road.
The gatekeeper of the sanatorium was surprised to see him and hurried over.
"Chengcheng? Why have you come today? It’s been over half a year since I last saw you."
Jiang Cheng smiled politely, "Uncle Wei, I’m in my senior year now, and I’ve been busy with schoolwork. Now that it’s summer vacation, I have time to come over."
The gatekeeper smiled and opened the door to let him in.
"Don’t worry, your mother has been in good spirits lately, even Aunt Li has been praising her."
Since Wei Dong’s daughter was a special consultant here, his whole family worked here.
Wei Dong’s wife, Aunt Li, was a caregiver here, specifically taking care of his mother.
Upon hearing this, a barely noticeable shadow crossed Jiang Cheng’s eyes as he followed Wei Dong without a word.
Wei Dong exchanged a few more pleasantries and then found his wife in the yard, leading Jiang Cheng to her.
"Dear, look who’s here?"
Aunt Li turned around and upon seeing Jiang Cheng next to Wei Dong, her face lit up with surprise, and she hurriedly set down what she was holding.
"Oh my, Chengcheng is actually here, let Auntie have a good look at you... Oh, you’ve grown taller but you’ve lost quite a bit of weight, school must have been very hard recently, huh?"
Jiang Cheng smiled obediently, "It’s okay."
Seeing that his wife was about to start a long conversation, Wei Dong quickly gave her a look.
Aunt Li took the hint and closed her mouth, then changed the subject, "Chengcheng, let’s go, I’ll take you to see her."
She then took Jiang Cheng’s hand, and the two of them headed together toward the hospital’s residential building.
Her room was on the top floor.
Even though it had been half a year since he had last been here, Jiang Cheng was still very familiar with the surroundings.
From every floor to the trash cans in the corners, each flower, each plant, each tree was etched in his heart.
And she was even more so.
Arriving at the white door, Aunt Li sighed and crouched down in front of Jiang Cheng.
"Child, don’t be afraid, she is still your mother no matter what, and her condition has been good recently. She won’t do anything to you, Auntie will be right outside, remember to call me if anything happens."
Jiang Cheng smiled and nodded, then turned the door lock and went in.
Despite it being a midsummer afternoon, the inside was as dark as an ice cellar.
The room was unlit, even the windows were tightly closed.
The door that hadn’t fully shut behind him was the only source of dim light.
But as that glimmer of light disappeared, the surroundings plunged into complete darkness.
The smile disappeared from Jiang Cheng’s lips.
With a "snap", he emotionlessly pressed the light switch on the wall, and the entire house lit up instantly.
The woman sitting by the window also came into his view all at once.
The woman was very beautiful, with a melon-seed face, romantic eyes, delicate features, and flawless fair skin.
Perhaps unaccustomed to the sudden brightness, the woman immediately shouted and covered her face as the light turned on.
"Ruofang, Ruofang, quickly turn off the light for me!"
Ruofang was Aunt Li’s name.
Hearing the woman’s sharp voice and her commanding tone, Jiang Cheng couldn’t help but let out a cold laugh. freēwēbnovel.com
After all this time, she was still as unapproachable as ever.
Then, he walked over expressionlessly, completely disregarding the other’s state, and squatted in front of her.
"Dear mother, I came to see you."
Only then did the woman slowly lower her hand from her face, carefully sizing up the young man in front of her.
Jiang Cheng’s lips curved up slightly, revealing another standard smile.
"Mom, it’s Xu Cheng."
The woman seemed to recall something, her pupils suddenly dilated, and then she let out a piercing scream.
"Ah!!! It’s you, it’s you, you bastard!"
She stood up, running frantically around the room, then started throwing things from the bed at Jiang Cheng one after another.
"Get out, get out quickly! Disgusting wretch, get out!"
Jiang Cheng took a deep breath, enduring the malicious insults in his ears, and the pain from the objects hitting him.
Outside the door, Li Ruofang heard the commotion inside and knocked on the door with some concern.
"Chengcheng, are you okay? What happened?"
Jiang Cheng picked up a broken cup from beside his feet and slowly put it back together.
"Aunt Li, I’m fine, it’s nothing, you go ahead."
"Really, it’s nothing? I thought I heard—"
"It’s really nothing, please go ahead."
The sound gradually faded from outside the door, and then Jiang Cheng walked up to the woman with the shards in his hand.
She seemed exhausted from her outburst, leaning motionlessly on the sofa.
He spread the pieces one by one in front of her, his lips curving up again.
"Mom, do you know? I’m doing very well now. Jiang Family’s grandfather likes me a lot, Mrs. Jiang is also very kind to me, we have endless servants at home, and I go to school in a luxurious car every day, all my schoolmates know I come from a wealthy family."
"I don’t have to squeeze into a filthy basement every day, I don’t have to rummage through garbage heaps for plastic bottles after school, I don’t have to fight beggars on the streets for fifty cents, and I’m no longer laughed at as an orphaned bastard."
"And all this... it’s all thanks to you, my dear mother. If it weren’t for you, the Jiang Family wouldn’t have found me, wouldn’t have discovered I survived eight years under your abuse, and wouldn’t have taken me in out of pity, or sent you to this place."
The woman screamed again, hitting Jiang Cheng frantically.
"I should never have given birth to you! You ruined everything for me! You wretch! You should never have been born!"
"Why didn’t I strangle you at birth? Why? Why?!"
She picked up a shard from the ground and viciously smashed it towards Jiang Cheng’s head.
The loud noise triggered an alarm, and soon three or four medical staff rushed in to control the hysterical woman, while Jiang Cheng was tightly held in Li Ruofang’s arms.
"Chengcheng, Chengcheng, are you alright?"
Jiang Cheng shook his head, but his forehead was already drenched in blood.
Xu Ruofang didn’t dare delay any longer, quickly sending him to the medical room, watching as the nurse treated his wounds.
Standing by, she was filled with self-reproach:
"I should never have left him alone. I thought her mood had been better recently, I didn’t expect... ah, how could this happen?"
Jiang Cheng didn’t speak, but silently opened his cellphone and entered the chat box with his pinned contact.