Chapter 3

After leaving the school, I did not go home and instead went straight to the delivery station where my wife worked to find her.

The people at the station said she had not come in today, and her phone could not be reached either.

I panicked a little and rode her electric scooter along the route she usually took.

After searching for two hours, I finally found her in the emergency department of the district hospital.

She was sitting on a long bench in the hallway, with her left hand wrapped in bandages and a scraped wound on her face that had scabbed over with blood.

“What happened?”

She looked up and saw me, then froze for a moment.

“Why are you here?”

“You tell me what happened first.”

“It’s nothing, I was just grazed while riding the electric scooter.”

She lowered her head and looked at her own hand.

“It’s a small injury, and it’ll be fine after a couple of days of rest.”

“Then why didn’t you come to the hospital?”

She said nothing.

I took the phone out of her pocket, and the screen was shattered like a spiderweb, and no matter how long I pressed it, there was no response.

“Your phone broke when you fell?”

“Why didn’t you get it fixed?”

She still said nothing.

A nurse happened to pass by and glanced at me.

“Are you her family?”

“When your wife was brought in, I asked her if she wanted to call someone, and she said no.”

“I asked her if she had medical insurance, and she said no.”

“When she paid, she searched for a long time before taking out two hundred yuan, and it wasn’t even enough for the examination fee.”

“In the end, our director paid the rest for her first.”

I froze.

My wife tugged at my sleeve.

“Don’t listen to her nonsense, it’s fine, it’s really fine.”

I took out my wallet.

“How much is it altogether?”

The nurse looked at the bill in her hand.

“The examination fee plus bandaging comes to four hundred and twenty yuan, and you still owe two hundred and twenty.”

I paid the money and helped my wife walk out.

When we reached the hospital entrance, she suddenly stopped, pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket, and handed it to me.

“What is this?”

She did not speak.

I opened it and saw that it was a fee notice for a tutoring class.

“Student Chen Nuan, after review by our school, you may be exceptionally admitted into our weekend Olympiad math enrichment class, and the tuition is 3,800 yuan, so please pay within three days...”

I looked up at her.

She lowered her head, and her voice was very small.

“Nuan Nuan wanted to go, but I didn’t let her.”

“Three thousand eight hundred is more than I can earn in a month even if I run myself into the ground.”

“She cried at home for several days, and later, she stopped crying and said she would study by herself.”

“I don’t know how she studied either, but anyway, she did pretty well on every exam.”

I pinched that piece of paper and did not speak for a long time.

My wife raised her head.

“You came back at the right time, so talk to her.”

“Don’t let her do problems all day, because she stays up past midnight holding a book and reading.”

“She’s going to ruin her eyes.”

“I told her we should accept our fate.”

“She wouldn’t listen and said the teacher told her that as long as she got into No. 1 Middle School, she wouldn’t have to pay tuition and there would be a scholarship.”

“She said she wanted to attend No. 1 Middle School.”

I looked into her eyes.

There was no resentment in those eyes and no grievance, only deep exhaustion and a tiny bit of light that was almost invisible.

“Do you believe in her?” I asked.

“Believe what?”

“Believe she can get into No. 1 Middle School.”

She was silent for a long time, and finally said, “What use is it whether I believe or not?”

“This world doesn’t let things happen just because you believe.”

Someone beside us shouted, “Lin Aihua!”

“Is Lin Aihua here?”

“A delivery order was sent to the wrong place, and the customer complained!”

She stood up by conditioned reflex, pulled at her wound, and grimaced in pain.

“Don’t move.”

I held her down.

“I’ll go.”

I rode her broken electric scooter and delivered the takeout according to the address.

It was an office building on the twenty-third floor, and I waited five minutes for the elevator, and by the time I finished the delivery and came down, it was already dark.

When I returned to the hospital entrance, she was still sitting there waiting for me.

“Let’s go home.”

I parked the electric scooter.

“Starting tomorrow, don’t do deliveries anymore.”

“How can that be?”

“The mortgage hasn’t been paid off yet, and Nuan Nuan still needs money for school...”

“I said don’t do deliveries anymore.”

She looked at me and finally said nothing else.

On the way home, I rode the electric scooter with her sitting behind me.

It was cold, so she put her hands in my pockets and pressed her face against my back.

“What have you been doing out there these seven years?”

I thought about it.

“Doing experiments.”

“Did you make any money?”

“Some.”

“Enough to pay the mortgage?”

“Enough.”

She did not ask any further.

When we returned home, my daughter had already fallen asleep.

Her homework book was on the table, and when I opened it, I saw Olympiad math problems.

The pages were densely filled with writing, and beside every problem were notes, with each solution written in a different color.

I carefully looked over several problems.

They were at a second-year high school level.