Your Distance

81 - Yearning

The day Zhu Ao realised that Ting Shuang was wearing a ring on his hand was the day he was transferred to the general ward. At that time, Ting Shuang was peeling oranges, and the platinum ring kept moving along with his ring finger, its flash catching Zhu Ao’s eyes.

Zhu Ao immediately made a few comments on that ring.

He was speaking a little better than before, but most people still couldn’t understand him. Ting Shuang had been coming to the hospital every night and spending more time with him, so he could understand a little bit better than the average person. His level was around that of the nurse in charge of the ward, but there were often times when he couldn’t understand. For example, now, Zhu Ao was talking about the ring, but Ting Shuang thought he was saying that he didn’t want to eat oranges, so he replied, “I’m peeling it for myself.”

Zhu Ao said, “You come here just to eat fruits every day.”

Ting Shuang half heard and half guessed this sentence, and understood its meaning, “I’ll bring some back home in a while. These days, there’ve been many people coming to see you. If the fruits aren’t finished here, I can bring them back and share them with the neighbors. Don’t waste them.”

Zhu Ao said, “What the hell are you wearing on your hand?”

When that sentence came up again, Ting Shuang once again failed to understand. He stuffed an orange into his mouth and guessed, “Dad, you want to eat oranges now? Then, I’ll peel another one?”

Zhu Ao suspected that his son, that bastard, had selective hearing. He was so angry that he shook his beard and raised his voice, “Ting Shuang, you took the chance to secretly marry someone while I was in the hospital?”

He said that several times until Ting Shuang understood, not allowing the kid to take advantage of the situation and dodge the question.

“Dad, back then the situation was like this.” Ting Shuang put aside the unfinished oranges, and sat properly and respectfully. “At that time, you couldn’t wake up. I didn’t know which god to pray to, which god to beg, or even where to do it. I was really desperate, and wanted to give you a happy occasion to scare away the evil spirits, so I bowed to heaven and earth with my professor(1). I admit that it was superstitious, and I believe in science, so I really shouldn’t have done that kind of thing, but the situation at the time… Even modern science couldn’t say anything for certain. I really panicked, and turned to whatever means I had. I tried everything I could think of. I was afraid that something bad might happen…”

A happy occasion to scare away the evil spirits? Bowing to heaven and earth?

Zhu Ao grabbed a cup at the head of the bed with his non-paralyzed left hand and threw it at Ting Shuang’s head, “My ass!”

It was a pity that he was too weak, so it didn’t hit its target.

Ting Shuang hurriedly caught the cup, scared that his dad would be too angry and aggravate his heart condition. He didn’t dare talk nonsense anymore, “Dad, really, this time our family… went through a lot of changes. I thought about quite a lot, even about all the issues that you told me to consider back then.”

Ever since Zhu Ao transferred to the general ward, Ting Shuang had slowly filled him in about the situation with Weng Yunyi and Yan Liqian. In addition, when someone from the company came to visit, they couldn’t avoid mentioning the company’s current situation, so Zhu Ao also roughly understood what had happened while he was sick. But after all, he’d been through storms and rough waters before. He didn’t have much of a reaction after hearing those things. He was silent for a long time, then asked how Zhu Wenjia was.