Chapter 175
At night, Cheng Lydia rummaged through the bottom drawer and pulled out a picture she’d never dared to open in three years, a photo of her and Shen Ron taken at the An City Resort.
When she left LS City, she decided to seal Shen Ron away in the depths of her memory and ruthlessly threw away everything related to him, but took this photo with her.
She wanted to forget him, but was afraid that she would really not even remember what he looked like, a feeling that nagged at her. After coming to An City, she had pressed the photo to the bottom of her box and had never turned it over in three years.
If she hadn’t seen him on TV today, she wouldn’t have turned the photo over.
The photo shows him smiling with a charming, happy face, almost a world away from the melancholy-looking man he just saw on TV.
“Mom, who is he?” Isaac had somehow gotten up from the bed and sat down on her side to survey the man in the photo.
Cheng Lydia replied almost mechanically, “He’s Isaac’s dad.”
“Really?” Isaac grabbed the photo from her hands and gleefully surveyed it, “Mom, when did Dad say he’d be back?”
When she saw that all the other children had fathers, but not him, Isaac asked her where his father was, and Cheng Lydia didn’t know how to answer him, so she just lied and told him that his father had gone abroad to make money and would not be back for a long time, and Isaac believed him.
“I don’t know.” Cheng Lydia shook her head, a mist of tears staining her eyes.
There had been countless times, and she didn’t know whether she was thinking of Lim Toby or Shen Ron, so much so that tears rolled down her face like broken beads.
“Mom, what’s wrong with you?” Isaac concerned, using his own little hand to wipe the tears from Cheng Lydia’s eyes.
“Mommy’s fine.” Cheng Lydia put the photo back in the drawer and hugged Isaac to the bed, patting his back gently, “Good boy Isaac, go to sleep.”
Isaac dutifully closed his eyes and went to sleep, while Cheng Lydia herself had a nearly sleepless night and didn’t fall into a shallow sleep until almost dawn.
When she woke up the next day, Cindy had already made breakfast, and Cheng Lydia casually ate some, and left for work in a hurry after telling Cindy to take good care of Isaac.
Cheng Lydia works at a medium-sized private hospital. She has submitted numerous applications after landing in An Cheng three years ago, but they all keep coming back because she is pregnant. Only the director of the hospital, Lian Ai, saw her qualifications and hired her regardless of her pregnancy.
The dean had taken good care of her over the years, not only providing her with a free hospital stay to deliver her baby when she went into labor, but also giving her six months of paid leave.
She had just walked into the office when she heard a nurse lady say that the dean was looking for her.
She put her things down, changed into her work clothes and headed for the Dean’s office.
The dean, a woman in her forties, was sitting in her chair at the moment with a sad thought.
“Dean Chen, you wanted to see me?” Cheng Lydia asked politely as she walked in.
When Dean Chen saw her, he immediately got up from his chair, came over and pulled her down on the couch, staring at her with a heavy face, “Lydia, it’s like this, another attending doctor at the branch over in LS City has resigned.”
Cheng Lydia gave a ‘hmm’, mentally guessing what Dean Chen had come to her for.
The LS City branch was newly opened three months ago, and at that time, President Chen wanted Cheng Lydia to help out and lead the hospital staff. But Cheng Lydia flatly refused, and when President Chen saw her determination, he didn’t give her a hard time and sent another staff member over.
The hospital is not a large hospital, and its benefits are not comparable to those of Yarn or the People’s Hospital, and since it is newly opened, the medical and nursing staff in the hospital are highly mobile.
“You say the hospital has obviously raised its salary, how come it still can’t retain people?” Dean Chen sighed helplessly.
Cheng Lydia smiled and said, “Dean Chen, why don’t you send Doctor Zhang over to help out for a few months?”
“Doctor Zhang can’t, her mother-in-law is not well, and her two children are small, so she simply can’t leave.” Dean Chen took her hand and gazed at her with a begging face and said, “Lydia, it’s better for you to go, I’ll offer you double pay.”
“Dean Chen, it’s not about the money.” Cheng Lydia apologized and distanced her head.
How could she walk back again when that city held so many sad memories of the place she had escaped from?
“And because of what?”
“It’s … my personal problem.”
“Lydia, it’s only a month or two away, we’ll transfer you back as soon as HR recruits, okay?”
Looking at Dean Chen with a begging look on his face, Cheng Lydia couldn’t really say no.
When Dean Chen had taken care of her so much when she was in trouble, now it was Dean Chen’s turn to need her help, and it was only for a month or two, so if this wasn’t agreed to, it would be too cold-blooded.
“Don’t worry, the hospital will take care of your food and accommodation over there, just take the kids and the nanny and go straight there.” Dean Chen said.
Cheng Lydia nodded, “Okay, I promise you Dean Chen.”
“Really? That would be great, thank you so much.” Dean Chen smiled joyfully.
Cheng Lydia, however, smiled a little bitterly, and if Dean Chen had not begged her so much, she would have been truly unwilling to step into LS City again.
As the plane landed at LS City Airport, her body bathed in the sunlight that belonged to Bin Sung, Cheng Lydia instantly felt an aura of sadness sweeping over her.
To her, LS City was a wounded city, a wounded city she didn’t want to touch anymore.
“LS City is much warmer via Ann City.” Cindy smiled brightly, “This is a beautiful city, I haven’t been there in over ten years.”
“I haven’t been there in over ten years either.” Isaac said as he leaned over the car window and looked out at the skyscrapers.
Isaac’s words finally made Cheng Lydia laugh out loud.
Cindy smirked, “Little fool, your mother was a child over ten years ago, where did you come from.”Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.
“But I’ve really never been here before.”
“It’s not coming now.” Cheng Lydia said as she stroked his little head.
Dean Chen really made thoughtful arrangements, not only did he send a driver to the airport to receive her, but he even helped rent a house. The driver received her from the airport and took her directly to her residence.
To Cheng Lydia’s surprise, the house the hospital rented her was a condominium inside Tai On Residence, and next door to the one she used to live in.
It’s still too much of a coincidence to be true.
Standing at the entrance on the first floor, Cheng Lydia unconsciously glanced towards the entrance of the next block, wondering if that house had been sold by Shen Ron? Had Shen Ron lived in it all these years?
“Doctor Cheng, it’s this building.” Driver Jerry reminded with a smile when he saw that she kept staring at the next block.
Cheng Lydia grinned back at him, embarrassed, and stepped inside after him.
It was a two bedroom, two bathroom apartment, the house was not big, but it was brightly lit, chicly decorated, and looked clean and tidy. The layout … was the same as the one next door.
“Doctor Cheng, if there’s nothing else I’ll go back first.” Jerry said politely.
“Okay, thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Doctor Cheng just call me directly if you need anything.”
“Okay.”
Once Jerry was gone, Cheng Lydia began to put together her line.
Isaac looked extra happy in her new surroundings, running around the house. Subconsciously, she
No work the next day, Cheng Lydia took Isaac and Cindy to familiarize themselves with the neighborhood in the morning, and stopped by to buy ingredients for lunch.
On her way back downstairs, Cheng Lydia’s gaze unconsciously fell back to the E building next door. Subconsciously, something inside seemed to be tugging at her.
Knowing there was no point in doing so, she let Cindy take Isaac upstairs first, entering the doors of Building E alone, stepping into the elevator and pressing the floor she had once been on.
Standing in front of the gate, she hesitantly lifted her finger and pressed a series of codes on the cryptograph and the door actually opened. She stayed in the doorway for a moment in surprise before she stepped inside and
The house was cleaned up, but every trace of the life she had lived remained. Bags of household items she had used, clothes and shoes she couldn’t take with her.
When she had moved from here to the beach house, the house had looked like this, and it was still the same. The only difference was that there was an extra trace of a man inside the house.
From the clothes in the closet and the shoes on top of the shoe closet, it was clear that the man was none other than Shen Ron.
Before she married Shen Ron, this was the place where Shen Ron lived occasionally, only so many days a month. Now it also seemed to be a place where he would only occasionally come to live.
Because she saw that the instant noodles on the table that she hadn’t had time to clean had started to grow mold.
How can he eat junk food like instant noodles?
The faint scent of rosebuds hit her, and Cheng Lydia froze, taking a step in the direction of the terrace. The next moment, she was surprised by the rosebuds that were blooming all over the terrace.
Both sides of the terrace were planted with roses, each one in extremely, extremely good bloom.
He had actually planted so many roses here, and something moved in Cheng Lydia’s heart.
Shen Ron … Why are you doing this? Why?
Gently closing her eyes, the mist of tears became beads and spilled out of the corners of her eyes.
After a few moments in the house, she pulled a garbage bag from inside the cupboard, packed the box of instant noodles that had started to grow mold, pulled the door open and walked out.