Chapter 80: Question
The door to the ward wasn’t closed firmly so she entered directly.
Su Min’s attention earlier was all on his grandmother and the name, so he didn’t hear the door opening.
“Mum, did you remember the wrong person again? You’re like this every time. You don’t remember Su Min?” Mother Su closed the door as she said this.
Su Min didn’t speak.
Mother Su came over and asked: “Why didn’t you let me know that you’re here? Have you eaten? How long have you been here?”
“You were working.” Su Min stood up and explained: “I just came over. It hasn’t been too long.”
The old lady in bed smiled.
Mother Su held a bowl of congee. As she opened the bag she said, “Your grandmother will be discharged the day after tomorrow. That will be a Monday. You probably still have cla.s.s.”
Su Min responded: “En.”
The ward became quiet. There was only the sound of the bag opening.
Before she could start feeding grandmother the congee, Su Min asked the question he had not yet received an answer to: “Who is this Xiao Su grandmother mentioned?”
Mother Su didn’t look up, “Your grandmother remembered wrong.”
Su Min persisted: “Remembered wrong? Then who was it directed at?”
Mother Su opened the lid to the congee and said: “There are many people in your grandmother’s memory and they’re all a mess now. Sometimes I don’t even know who it is.”
She pulled the table over, “Help take the pillow down.”
Although Su Min still had a lot of questions, it was all blocked by that final sentence. He walked over and placed a pillow behind his grandmother’s back.
He was certain the second time she spoke she said Xiao Su.
Could this Xiao Su refer to Chen Su?
Su Min himself could still remember his own childhood very clearly including all the names of his playmates. Li Wenxin would often say that his memory was abnormal.
He knew very well that there was no one called Xiao Su in his memory. As for Chen Su, no one with that name appeared either.
This was also why he had always doubted Chen Su’s true ident.i.ty.
When his grandmother mentioned that name earlier, Su Min found it very foreign. It was only when he thought of Chen Su that he managed to link it together.
If that person was really Chen Su, he should also have memories of him. He found it very strange.
With Mother Su’s att.i.tude, he felt that something wasn’t right.
Even if he continued to ask, he probably wouldn’t find the answer to his questions. He would need to get it out from his grandmother while Mother Su wasn’t around.
But what he didn’t expect was that Mother Su had also taken time off to take care of his grandmother. Several times he even had to leave the room because he was male.
The old lady only spoke nonsense the entire time.
At night, his uncles came to visit. Su Min’s cousin Su Ying also came over excitedly.
Su Min didn’t interact with this cousin much but this cousin of his admired him very much. Every year, she would make a huge fuss about it.
This time she was also very excited when she saw him: “Cousin!”
Su Min suddenly recalled that last time Mother Su had mentioned that she had gone to see the movie. He had a bad feeling.
Sure enough, Su Ying said: “Cousin, I also saw the new movie hehe. I went together with my cla.s.smate and when they found out that you’re my cousin they were all very happy. Please give me your autograph after this.”
All of a sudden, her words caught everyone’s attention in the ward.
Su Min’s eyelids twitched. He pulled her out of the room, “Su Ying, I can give you an autograph but don’t mention anything about the movies in front of the family.”
“Ah, why not?” Su Ying didn’t understand but she agreed quickly when she thought of the autograph, “Okay, okay. Please give me your autograph.”
She had just entered her second year of middle school this year and would often dabble in with the 2D world. She was completely eccentric.
Su Min said: “Promise me first.”
Su Yin pulled out a beautifully decorated notebook, “Yes, yes, yes. I’ll remember and won’t mention it in front of uncle anymore. Hurry and give me your autograph. Also add on a simple comment too.”
With a cousin like this, she felt extremely proud in front of her cla.s.smates.
Although they were young, they knew a lot. They were very open to most things.
Su Min signed his name and added a few words of blessing, “I meant you shouldn’t mention it in front of the relatives, especially my parents.”
Su Ying looked at him sign with bright eyes, “Okay, don’t worry. I am tight-lipped.”
To be honest, Su Min was still a little uneasy.
But he could only do this for now. It was impossible hiding it for an entire lifetime, so this was only a temporary measure. At the very least, it was better than suddenly revealing the truth.
He wanted to find out about Chen Su’s ident.i.ty first.
After signing his name, Su Min returned the notebooks back to Su Min and asked, “Do you know someone called Xiao Su?”
Su Ying thought for a moment and said: “No. Who’s Xiao Su? There’s no one called that in our family.”
Chen Su had only asked casually and didn’t expect her to know the answer, “Remember your promise.”
“I’ll remember.” Su Ying giggled, “Oh that’s right. Cousin, when are you going to the cinema next time? I can’t wait.”
She had wanted to call him after watching the movie last time but she wasn’t allowed to use her phone at school, so she decided to find her cousin during winter vacation.
Just the thought of it was exciting.
Su Min said: “I don’t know. I don’t even know when the next move would be realised. You should be focussing on your studies instead of watching movies.”
Su Ying pouted, “My grades aren’t bad and I want to learn from you but I can’t give up movies.”
Su Min: “..........What is there about it that you can’t give up?”
He really didn’t understand children these days. Their thoughts jump all over the place and sometimes they act like they’re more of an adult than he ever was.
Upon hearing this, Su Ying raised her right hand and said seriously: “Of course I can’t. Us SuMin girls will never give up!”
Su Min: “.............”
What the h.e.l.l?!
After saying that, Su Ying picked up her notebook and ran back into the ward.
Su Min was left alone out there speechless.
When he returned to the ward, the old lady had finished eating her large bowl of congee. She had a good appet.i.te and was actually much better off than most elderly people her age.
His uncle asked: “Xiao Min applied for leave?”
Su Min nodded: “Yeah. I’ll go back in two days.”
His uncle glanced over at Su Ying playing on her phone and patted her head, “She doesn’t learn from her brother and only knows to play.”
The most remarkable person in the Su family was Su Min who has had excellent grades since he was young, has a good personality and was even admitted into a prestigious university. Everyone was proud of him.
Su Ying stuck out her tongue and continued to play on her phone.
Su Min touched her hand, “She’s still young. Don’t worry.”
His uncle had also only said this casually. He smiled and didn’t take it seriously.
Su Min wanted to ask him if he knew who Xiao Su was, but Mother Su was still in the room. It wasn’t good starting something now lest his future endeavours become even more difficult.
***
After staying there for two days, the old lady was discharged.
Su Min returned together with them to their hometown. It was their former family home that was left behind by his grandfather. Because the rest of the family no longer worked nearby and the old lady was unwilling to leave, they hired a nanny to take care of the house and the old lady.
The incident this time was just an accident.
Fortunately, apart from the Alzheimer’s disease, the old lady liked to be taken out by the nanny to wander around. Her bones were still tough, so nothing was broken this time.
The old lady liked flowers so there were flowers on the balcony.
Because she was hospitalised, and the nanny wasn’t around, no one watered the flowers and it didn’t look like it was in a very good state.
While Mother Su and the others were in the room, Su Min went over to the balcony to water them.
He had lived here when he was young, and he could still remember every flower and every plant clearly. He could even remember several of the potted plants on the balcony.
Because it was planted by his grandfather and was cared for until now by his grandmother, it had grown from a small seedling into a large plant. As it was currently winter, it had not yet bloomed.
In Su Min’s memory, their relationship was very good but, because of his partic.i.p.ation as a soldier during his younger days, his grandfather fell sick and pa.s.sed away early. He could still remember the moment all his relatives cried at the funeral hall.
Mother Su’s voice travelled over from the room: “Su Ying, stop jumping around here. Go out and play. Grandmother needs to sleep.”
Su Ying said: “I was just looking around.”
Her explanations were useless, and she was promptly kicked out by mother Su. She then saw Su Min standing on the balcony with this tall and lean figure while looking neat and outstanding.
My cousin really is good-looking.
When she went to the movies together with her cla.s.smates, her cla.s.smates who saw him for the first time thought he was a celebrity. Some even thought that he was better looking than most of them.
Su Ying secretly took a picture with her phone and then remembered the question he asked her earlier. She quickly shuffled over.
Seeing her coming, Su Min gave her his greetings, “Going to school tomorrow?”
“Yeah, I don’t want to go to school.” Su Ying grumbled.
Su Min rubbed her head with his empty left hand and said, “You won’t have to attend cla.s.s often when you’re my age.”
She was still a junior high school, so she had a lot of hair. She didn’t have to worry about becoming bald.
“I hope so.” Su Ying kicked her feet and then proceeded to whisper: “Cousin, I went and asked who Xiao Su is. Guess what grandmother said.”
Su Min asked: “What did she say?”
He unconsciously stopped watering the plants.
“Grandmother actually asked me back who Xiao Su ss.” Su Ying shook her arm, “Did you hear wrong? Grandmother doesn’t know anyone called Xiao Su.”
Su Min hesitated for a moment. He then explained: “Grandmother has Alzheimer’s disease so it’s normal to forget what she had said.”
Even so, he was a little disappointed.
He had thought that he could get an answer from this, but she was sick. If she forgot, no one else would know the answer.
Su Min felt that he probably wouldn’t be able to find out anything from his family.
Su Ying was puzzled: “Then why did you ask that? You don’t know that person, yet you ask about it everywhere.”
Su Min: “Just curious.”
“Curious? Really?” Su Ying shook her finger, “Have you forgotten my ident.i.ty? You still dare hide things from me?”
Su Min was confused, “What’s your ident.i.ty?”
Don’t tell me she’s going to say that she some successor of some socialist party or that she is Princess Mary Sue?
Su Ying patted her arm, “I’m a SuMin girl!”
Su Min: “........Oh.”
She said it as if it was an amazing ident.i.ty.
Su Ying was short and had to look up to look at Su Ming. She moved a stool over, “Sit.”
Su Min placed down the watering can and sat down, “What else do you have to say?”
“Cousin, don’t worry.” Su Ying said. “I will definitely help you ask who Xiao Su is and I’ll let you know as soon as I can.”
Su Min responded: “Okay”
Mother Su was still packing things up in the room so he naturally wouldn’t be able to have any alone time with his grandmother. It might be better letting Su Ying investigate.