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My mother's face was severely swollen, her complexion waxy yellow, and her eye sockets deeply sunken. She looked worse than when she had first been admitted to the hospital. It was a struggle for her to open her eyes; her lips moved slightly, as if she wanted to say something but hesitated.
I glanced at my father, whose eyes were red-rimmed, unable to hide his sorrow. Li Tong was nowhere to be found, and the thermos was empty, still carrying the faint smell of moldy leftovers.
"You must be her son!" A middle-aged woman in the bed next to us pointed at me, her eyes filled with reproach. "They say once you marry, you forget your mother. You sons—look at your mother like this, and you're still busy with work! Always busy, busy, busy! Your mother is sick like this, and you're still preoccupied!"
"And your daughter-in-law is no better! She claims she's cooking, but it's hit or miss! She's practically starving the poor woman! The doctors have said countless times to pay attention to nutrition; if you don't, it only gets worse!"
"I really don't understand how you sons can be like this! It's truly a sin!"
She sighed heavily and was about to continue when a middle-aged man beside her interrupted. He was feeding her porridge spoonful by spoonful; he must have been her son. I looked at him and felt an overwhelming sense of shame compared to myself.
"Mom, I'm sorry. I haven't been a good son." My knees buckled as I knelt by the bed, letting my tears fall freely.
A flicker of panic crossed my mother's eyes as she hesitated to speak. After seeing me kneel, she turned her face away without saying a word. I knew she was hurt. My heart tightened even more.
That day, I hired another caregiver and went home to gather some clothes. The trees longed for stillness but the wind would not cease; a child wishes to care for their parents but they may not wait. I couldn't afford to wait until my parents were gone before regretting that I hadn't treated them well!
The wardrobe emitted a musty smell; Li Tong had not returned for many days. I tossed my clothes onto the floor, feeling increasingly frustrated. In the farthest corner of the wardrobe, there was an unfamiliar box that I had never noticed before.
I reached out to take it, but it was locked. What other secrets does this woman have that she doesn't want me to know? I struck the lock a few times with a hammer, and it finally gave way. Inside the box were stacks of photographs.
They were pictures of her and Li Xiang!
Each photo made my blood boil!
Li Tong and Song Xiang's love memories:
October 2008, at Love Sea;
August 2012, at Shangri-La;
June 2018, at Dali, Yunnan;
July 2020, at Mount Fuji.
The timeline astonishingly overlapped with my business trips!
So his name wasn't Li Xiang; it was Song Xiang. They had both been deceiving me all along! No wonder their relationship felt strange—they weren't biological siblings!
This explained why they chose to go on a date on May 20th!
My hands trembled with rage, and I wanted nothing more than to tear all the photos to shreds! Halfway through ripping one apart, reason took hold of me—I had to keep this evidence!
The phone buzzed in my pocket.
I impatiently answered the call. "Hello!"
The other party seemed taken aback. "Wei Xuan, are you okay?"
It was Brother Wang.
I quickly apologized.
"Wei Xuan, it's nothing serious. I just wanted to let you know that I found out about the matter you asked me to look into."
"You need to prepare yourself."
"Okay." I forced myself to remain calm, but deep down, I already knew the answer.
"They're not biological siblings."
Just as I suspected.
"Li Tong and Li Xiang—no, Song Xiang—are siblings from a blended family."
"Li Tong's mother remarried Song Xiang's father shortly after her ex-husband passed away."
"Later on, for some reason, Song Xiang changed his surname to Li."
"It seems they have known each other for quite a long time!"
I momentarily lost my train of thought.
"Hello? Wei Xuan, are you listening?"
The urgency in Brother Wang's voice snapped me back.
"Yes, I'm here."
The knuckles holding the photo began to turn white.
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