11 Near Your Home

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“Class monitor, we’ve all got our things. Let’s hurry and start sweeping.”

Jiang Ci nodded. When she looked up again, she suddenly realized that he was looking at her too.

Their eyes met for only a few seconds, yet Jiang Ci could already feel the dampness in her palms.

Jiang Ci led a group of students to their assigned area. Once she had distributed the tasks, everyone began working.

Holding a broom, she swept at an unhurried pace when she suddenly overheard several girls from the neighboring class talking.

“Was that Zhang Heyu who scored the three-pointer on the basketball court?”

“I think so. He’s really handsome!”

“I heard he and Wan Hanqiu broke up not long ago. He’s been single ever since! Why don’t you give it a try?”

“Oh my gosh, now that you mention it, I feel like asking for his contact information too!”

“…”

Jiang Ci swept for quite some time. On top of that, the weather was stifling, and a thin sheen of sweat had already formed on her forehead.

No matter how many people were on the court, Jiang Ci could always pick out Zhang Heyu’s figure with perfect accuracy.

Dressed entirely in black, he was tall and lean. Suddenly, he bent forward, dodged just in time, and dribbled past his opponent’s side with practiced ease. Then, with a quick stop and jump shot, the basketball dropped cleanly through the hoop.

A perfect shot.

Cheers erupted from the court.

Jiang Ci could not help cheering for him in her heart as well. A radiant young man was always full of confidence and spirit.

Hearing wave after wave of cheers from the court behind her, Jiang Ci knew that Zhang Heyu had scored again.

The assigned area was fairly large, and it took the group nearly half an hour of dragging their feet before they finally finished.

Standing beneath the shade of a tree, Jiang Ci smiled brightly. “Give the brooms to me. I’ll take them back to the classroom.”

“All right! Thanks, Class Monitor!” the group replied in unison.

Most of the students who had stayed behind lived in the dormitories and needed to eat, shower, and attend to other things, so Jiang Ci did not ask them to remain.

Only after nearly everyone had left did Jiang Ci slowly finish tidying up and prepare to go.

Just as she turned around, she happened to catch sight of Zhang Heyu on the basketball court.

There was another girl beside him.

With her hair loose, the girl had run onto the court. Now that Zhang Heyu and the others had come off to rest, she walked up to him with a bottle of chilled mineral water in her hand, every movement shy and charming.

Several boys gathered around Zhang Heyu began to jeer playfully, and noisy laughter rang across the court.

The girl handed him the bottle, smiling sweetly. After saying something to him, she watched as Zhang Heyu accepted the water from her.

Jiang Ci was holding several brooms when she saw the scene, and her heart gave a sudden, painful jolt.

She pressed her lips together. The brooms abruptly slipped from her hands and struck the ground with a sharp clatter, jolting her thoughts back into place.

Perhaps the noise had been too loud, because Zhang Heyu glanced toward the source of the sound.

There was nothing there.

He saw no one.

Jiang Ci carried the brooms back to the classroom. After putting everything away, she finally left.

Quite a few people were still wandering around campus, and by the time Jiang Ci left the school, it was already after six in the evening.

She unlocked the door with her key and called inside. Her soft, sweet voice echoed through the living room.

“Grandma, I’m home.”

She paused when she realized that the house was frighteningly silent. No one answered.

Puzzled, Jiang Ci raised her head and glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. It was already six forty in the evening.

She walked into the kitchen to take a look. The light was still on, and the rice in the cooker was done. In the pot, however, the braised pork was still simmering over low heat, bubbling gently.

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Jiang Ci turned off the stove and came out of the kitchen, intending to go next door and ask Aunt Hu whether she knew where her grandmother was.

Just then, she heard a noise coming from her grandmother’s room. Her heart leapt into her throat, and she stopped mid-step.

“Grandma, are you in there?”

Another sound came from the room. This time, Jiang Ci clearly heard that it was coming from beside the cabinet—a knocking sound.

Hesitantly, Jiang Ci walked toward her grandmother’s room and lifted the curtain hanging across the doorway.

The sight before her was an elderly woman with graying temples collapsed beside the bedside cabinet. She clutched her chest, her face tightly furrowed with pain, her mouth slightly open as though she could not breathe.

Jiang Ci hurried forward. Her body trembled as she pulled her grandmother into her arms and supported her against herself.

“Grandma, Grandma, what’s wrong?!”

She suddenly remembered that in her previous life, her grandmother had died not long after Jiang Ci left. The memory jolted her fully awake. Jiang Ci pulled her phone from her pocket and frantically dialed the emergency number.

With a choked voice, she explained the situation in detail to the person on the other end before hanging up and waiting for the ambulance.

Holding her grandmother, Jiang Ci’s eyes burned and swelled with tears. She murmured over and over, “Grandma, please don’t let anything happen to you. Please, Grandma…”

Jiang Ci’s home was not far from the nearest hospital. Five minutes later, the piercing siren of an ambulance tore through the silence.

Jiang Ci watched as her grandmother was carried away on a stretcher. Once the old woman had been loaded into the ambulance, Jiang Ci quickly climbed in after her.

Outside the hospital emergency room.

After her grandmother had been taken away in the ambulance, Jiang Ci dialed the number she knew by heart again and again. The only response she received was the cold, mechanical voice of the automated call system.

Jiang Ci raised a hand to wipe away her tears. At that moment, her phone rang in her pocket.

“Ci, what happened?” The speaker was Jiang Nanyan, her voice gentle and composed, as though she were playing the role of a mother.

Jiang Ci knew it was an act, but she did not expose her.

“Grandma… Grandma has been taken to the hospital.”

“What?!”

Jiang Nanyan froze as well. She glanced at the elderly Mrs. Sun beside her and lowered her voice. “When did this happen?”

Jiang Ci tightened her grip on the phone pressed to her ear.

“At six thirty this evening.”

The other end fell silent. Not a sound came through. When Jiang Ci received no response, she asked again, “Can you… can you come back and see her?”

The instant Jiang Nanyan understood what Jiang Ci had said, the furious voice of Mrs. Sun came from her end of the call.

“You don’t even know how to behave in front of all these people! All you know is how to use those underhanded tricks!”

The voice was loud, and every word traveled through the phone and into Jiang Ci’s ears.

Jiang Ci lowered the phone and collapsed into a chair, her mind a complete muddle.

She had no idea how long she waited. Jiang Nanyan never called back, and Jiang Ci already knew that she would not be coming.

Back then, Jiang Nanyan had left with such ruthless determination, solely to rid herself of Jiang Ci and her grandmother, whom she regarded as burdens.

Jiang Ci’s father had died when she was very young. As far back as she could remember, she had never seen him and did not even know what he looked like.

The emergency room light remained on.

It was like Jiang Ci’s heart, suspended in constant dread that something might happen to her grandmother.

Every passing second dragged on in unbearable torment. At last, the light outside the emergency room went out, and a nurse stepped through the doors.

“Who is the family member of the patient, Zuo Yuhua?”

Jiang Ci rose to her feet. “I am. Doctor, how is my grandmother?”

“Fortunately, she arrived in time. Her condition has stabilized for now,” the nurse said. “You can speak with the attending physician in the office later to learn the details.”

The moment Jiang Ci heard that her grandmother was stable, she could no longer hold herself together. Overcome with bitterness and relief, she burst into tears once more.

Her grandmother was transferred to a regular ward. Standing outside the room, Jiang Ci took out her phone and called Jiang Nanyan again.

Jiang Nanyan: Tell me what happened by message. I have something to deal with lately and can’t come back.

Jiang Ci stared at the message on her screen, and her heart sank.

Jiang Ci: The doctor says the hospitalization and surgery will cost thirty thousand.

The call from Jiang Nanyan came shortly after the message was sent.

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Jiang Ci answered without hesitation. Before she could speak, Jiang Nanyan spoke first.

“Ci, how much are your grandmother’s medical expenses?”

“Thirty thousand.”

“Are you trying to deceive your mother?” Jiang Nanyan suppressed her anger and spoke softly. “Your grandmother has always been healthy. How could she suddenly end up in the hospital? Besides, how could I possibly come up with thirty thousand all at once?”

Jiang Ci pressed her lips together. “I’m not lying to you. Grandma has just come out of the emergency room…”

As she spoke, tears spilled from her eyes again.

“You’re asking me to come up with thirty thousand right now, but I don’t have that much either!” Jiang Nanyan stopped pretending altogether. Her words were cold. “Everyone grows old, gets sick, and dies. She’s already at that age. It’s the same for everyone.”

The same for everyone.

Those three words stabbed straight into Jiang Ci’s heart. After a pause, she stared ahead in disbelief.

“Jiang Nanyan, what are you saying?”

Hearing Jiang Ci address her by her full name, Jiang Nanyan’s heart jolted. She tried to defend herself.

“I’m only stating the facts.”

“Jiang Nanyan, the person in the hospital is your biological mother—the woman who gave birth to you and raised you!” Jiang Ci clenched the fist hanging at her side. “How can you be so heartless?!”

Jiang Nanyan was frightened by Jiang Ci’s anger and no longer wanted to argue with her. In a tone of reluctant compromise, she said, “Fine. I only have twenty-eight thousand on hand. You’ll have to find the rest yourself.”

After she finished speaking, the call ended with a series of mechanical beeps.

Jiang Ci’s heart turned cold.

She took her phone, went to pay the hospital fees, and then returned to find her grandmother’s attending physician.

“Are you Zuo Yuhua’s family member?”

Jiang Ci nodded. Perhaps because she had been crying, her eyes were red and swollen.

“Doctor Shi, my grandmother… What happened to her?”

“We’ve gone over the patient’s condition,” Doctor Shi said. “According to the examination results, your grandmother has coronary heart disease, which is a type of heart disease.”

Jiang Ci instinctively tightened her fingers, crumpling the test report in her hand.

“This condition is fairly common and can be prevented, so there’s no need to be overly nervous,” Doctor Shi continued after a pause. “Regular checkups and active treatment should be enough.”

Jiang Ci nodded and softly agreed.

She folded her grandmother’s test report and put it in her pocket. After washing her face in the restroom, she went to the ward where her grandmother was being kept for observation.

Her grandmother had not yet regained consciousness. Jiang Ci approached, tucked the blanket securely around her, and then turned to leave.

She would probably have to stay at the hospital and keep her grandmother company that night, so Jiang Ci had no choice but to go home and bring over a few changes of clothes.

When she left the hospital, night had already quietly fallen. The entire sky was shrouded in a dim veil.

Jiang Ci folded her arms across her chest, trying to keep herself warm.

With her head lowered, she walked all the way to the entrance of her residential compound.

Suddenly, the phone in her pocket gave a brief vibration.

Jiang Ci paused, wiped the tear tracks from the corners of her eyes, and took out her phone to look.

When she saw the message that had appeared on the screen, her hand trembled.

Zhang Heyu: Are you there?

Jiang Ci stared at the message for a long time. Only when her eyes began to feel dry did she come back to herself.

Why was Zhang Heyu contacting her at a time like this?

Jiang Ci: I’m here.

The moment she sent the message, she watched Zhang Heyu’s name change to “The other person is typing…”

Zhang Heyu: Are you free? I’m near your house.

Jiang Ci’s heart leapt, and the rhythm of her heartbeat instantly fell into disarray.

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