Chapter 23 Sour Oranges

Chapter 23 Sour Oranges

Suddenly the phone rang, and Jiang Nuan said that she could come and stay in the dormitory.

She gave a faint, listless "hmm," and then another phone call came in.

It was a call from the hospital. The doctor's voice was calm, almost indifferent: "Your grandmother's condition is stable for now. Prepare 50,000 yuan for the surgery as soon as possible, and pay it in full by next week at the latest, otherwise she will miss the best time for treatment."

Lin Mianmian's fingers gripping her phone clenched instantly, her knuckles turning white. The 50,000 yuan felt like a mountain, pressing down on her and making it hard to breathe.

After hanging up the phone, she hurried back to school and lay down on her dormitory bed.

She only had a few thousand yuan left, which wasn't enough; she needed to earn more money.

Because of the stress, she didn't sleep well. The next day, she quickly packed a few changes of clothes, put on her part-time apron, and hurriedly left the house.

She dared not miss a single class during the day, as scholarships were an important source of income for her.

During the ten-minute break between classes, while others were napping or chatting on their desks, she was squatting in the stairwell of the teaching building with her laptop in hand, her fingers flying across part-time job apps, her eyes glued to the words "daily pay" and "high salary" on the screen, afraid of missing any opportunity.

During her free time in the afternoon, she would run to a Chinese restaurant near the school.

The fumes from the kitchen made her throat hurt. She wore a greasy apron and carried heavy plates as she moved between the crowded tables.

Scalding hot soup splashed onto her hand, leaving a red mark, but she just frowned, rinsed it with cold water, and continued working.

The landlady saw how hard she worked and would occasionally give her a few extra dollars. Each time, she would clutch those crumpled coins and carefully stuff them into her inner pocket, as if she were clutching her grandmother's lifeline.

It was already late at night when I got back to the dormitory building.

The dormitory building was quiet. Afraid of waking her roommates, she took off her shoes and walked barefoot on the cold corridor tiles, slowly making her way back to the dormitory.

She struggled to even turn over in her cramped bed, yet she still forced herself to turn on her computer and do online typing work.

The sound of keyboard typing was particularly clear in the quiet night. It wasn't until one or two in the morning that she dragged her tired body to bed, still calculating in her mind how much more money she needed before closing her eyes.

The intense workload left her breathless, and her already thin face looked even more haggard, with her chin becoming thin and pointed.

What she didn't know was that, in a corner she couldn't see, there was always a gaze following her every step of the way.

A black sedan was parked under the shade of a tree not far from the Chinese restaurant. The window was half-rolled down, and Xie Lin sat in the back seat, his gaze fixed on the slender figure moving between the tables.

He had been discharged from the hospital not long ago, his face still pale from illness, and his injuries had not fully healed. Even the slightest movement caused a dull ache in his ribs.

He woke up in the hospital that day and learned that she was gone. He endured the pain and ran to the school like a madman, questioning her with a sob in his voice. She was nowhere to be found, so he knelt down in front of the dormitory building and begged her, getting soaked in the rain all night.

She didn't visit him even once until he collapsed, developed a fever, and was rushed to the emergency room.

Watching her carry the tray and berate the difficult customer, her head bowed and silent, his heart felt like it was being cut by a dull knife, aching terribly.

He hated her. He hated that she left without a word.

He hated that she would rather bear all the suffering herself than turn back to him.

She hated that even though she had knelt all night, she wouldn't give her a glimmer of hope.

He didn't understand why things had to come to this point between them.

He hated her as much as he hated her, but he couldn't bear to see her suffer.

If he doesn't want to see her, then he will become her shadow and haunt her.

Lin Mianmian works at a Chinese restaurant and notices that recently, the heavy bags of rice piled up in the kitchen have been inexplicably moved to the top shelf.

When she went to the hospital to deliver meals to her grandmother, she would always find some expensive nutritional supplements by her grandmother's bedside. When she asked the caregiver, the caregiver would just shake her head and say that she didn't know who sent them.

Lin Mianmian had her doubts.

She always felt that there was a pair of eyes watching her, and someone silently helping her. But she dared not think too deeply about it, much less investigate it.

She was afraid that person was Xie Lin, afraid that once she turned back, she would never be able to bring herself to leave, and afraid that she would become his weakness again.

That night, a torrential downpour began. Large raindrops pounded on the ground with a loud patter. Lin Mianmian finished work at the Chinese restaurant without an umbrella, so she could only cover her head and rush into the rain.

The icy rain instantly soaked her clothes, making her shiver. She hunched her shoulders and staggered as she ran towards the school.

Just then, a black umbrella was placed over her head.

Lin Mianmian stopped abruptly, slowly raising her head and meeting a pair of familiar eyes.

Xie Lin stood before her, his black clothes soaked through by the rain, water droplets still dripping from his hair. His face was still pale, but his brows and eyes still held that familiar roguishness. However, his peach blossom eyes were churning with too many complex emotions: heartache, anger, and a hint of grievance that she couldn't understand.

The rain was still falling, pouring down, as if it were going to drown the whole world.

The two stood under the dim streetlights, silently gazing at each other through a curtain of rain.

Xie Lin's Adam's apple bobbed, his voice hoarse and trembling slightly: "Lin Mianmian, do you really not want to see me?"

Lin Mianmian's eyes instantly reddened, tears mingling with the rain, sliding down her cheeks, burning hot as if they were about to scald her skin.

She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but found her throat was so blocked that she couldn't utter a single word.

She could only turn around and run forward desperately in the rain, as if she were running away from something.

Xie Lin stood there, watching her figure disappear, the umbrella in his hand falling to the ground with a "thud." He let the cold rain pelt him.

He slowly squatted down, burying his face in his knees, his shoulders shrugging slightly.

The soreness and pain in his chest surged up like a tide, completely engulfing him.

He loved her so much, so much so that he was willing to risk his life for her, but why wouldn't she turn around and look at him?

The streets, washed clean by the torrential rain, were still wet the day after the rain stopped.

Lin Mianmian clutched her phone. The KTV manager said they were short-staffed tonight, and the night shift staff could earn two thousand yuan a night if they were willing to cooperate.

These two thousand yuan could buy Grandma a week's worth of imported medicine, so she had no choice but to accept.

After changing into her cheap work clothes, Lin Mianmian lowered her head and carried the fruit platter to the innermost private room.

The moment the door to the private room was pushed open, deafening music and the smell of smoke and alcohol hit her, almost making her cough.

She didn't dare to look up, only wanting to put down the fruit plate and leave quickly, but she bumped into Mr. Wang, the man with a fierce face next to the main seat on the sofa, who was also Xie Lin's business partner tonight.

"Hey, this new student is quite pretty." Boss Wang reached out to stop her, his greasy fingertips almost touching her cheek, his tone flippant and lewd.

Lin Mianmian hurriedly stepped back, and the fruit plate crashed to the ground with a "bang," splashing bright red juice all over President Wang's trouser leg.

The private room fell silent instantly, all eyes fixed on her. Mr. Wang was taken aback for a moment, then burst into a shrill laugh.

"You little brat, so clumsy. How about this, you perform a trick for me, bark like a dog twice, and I won't hold you accountable for breaking things, plus I'll give you five thousand yuan, how about that?"