Chapter 1284: A Shocking Secret! Absolutely Explosive!
Lin Lang huddled against the wall, the chill on his back unable to suppress the churning pain in his chest.
After an unknown amount of time, Lin Lang's crying gradually subsided, with only his shoulders still trembling and the sobs escaping his throat carried away by the evening breeze.
He raised his hand to wipe away the tears on his face, his eyes red and swollen, his mind filled with memories of his parents.
One is the sky that holds up the family, and the other is the earth that warms the family. Without either one, the family is no longer a complete family.
Lin Lang bit his lower lip, and only when he heard Guan Tingmei's high heels clicking as she walked out of the alley did he manage to calm his turbulent emotions.
Lin Lang took a deep breath and staggered to his feet, leaning against the wall for support.
The system's words were like a thorn in his heart. It was fate, there was no choice, and he couldn't gamble. He couldn't afford to gamble on the outcome of losing both his parents.
The evening breeze carried a slight chill, but it couldn't dispel the sadness in Lin Lang's heart.
He raised his hand to wipe away the tears on his face, his gaze darkening, his heart filled with a bitter resignation and a heart-wrenching pain.
Lin Lang took out a coin from his personal space and tossed it into the air, thinking that heads would save his father and tails would save his mother.
The coin tumbled in the air, its silvery arc carrying a gentle breeze, and it also tugged at Lin Lang's heart, which was taut to the extreme.
He stared intently at the light, holding his breath. Those few seconds felt longer and more agonizing than any other moment in his life, and it was also the most difficult decision he had ever made.
Lin Lang's mind went blank, with only two thoughts, positive and negative, swirling around in his head.
With a soft "ding," the coin hit the blue brick ground, spun twice, making Lin Lang's heart tremble, and gradually slowing down as the speed of the spin decreased.
But the next second, he froze.
The coin didn't fall over; instead, it happened to get stuck in the crack between the bricks, standing upright with its edges firmly embedded in the gap, neither tilted nor up.
This instantly broke Lin Lang's defenses.
A surge of bitterness, resentment, and frustration welled up inside me. I was angry at the injustice of fate, at this damned choice, and even more so at this mediocre ending.
He let out a low growl, clenched his fist, and slammed it hard against the brick wall beside him.
With a loud thud, the force was so great that the wall trembled, and bricks and stones flew everywhere. Lin Lang smashed a large hole in the thick brick wall, and broken brick fragments fell all over the ground.
"Oh shit!"
Lin Lang let out a rough curse, his voice hoarse and filled with barely suppressed despair, "This is too hard for me!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Lang's eyes reddened again.
He was clearly willing to accept this damned fate, willing to gamble his remaining years of guilt to make a choice, and even resorted to the absurd method of flipping a coin.
In the end, he didn't even have this much "luck," and even God wouldn't give him a quick death.
Feeling suffocated by helplessness, Lin Lang stared at the coin still standing upright in the crack between the bricks, and finally gave a bitter smile.
Since we can't escape this situation anyway, rather than letting a coin to decide our parents' life or death, we might as well face our true feelings and make this last rational choice.
He composed himself, and with heavy, leaden steps, returned to his front door.
Lin Lang used the wall-passing technique once again, staggering back to his home from 20 years ago in an invisible form.
The room was quiet. Xiao Linlang was hunched over his desk, his back ramrod straight, writing his homework stroke by stroke with a pencil. The pencil tip made a soft rustling sound as it glided across the paper. He was incredibly obedient.
Little Jasmine had already gone home to do her homework after having dinner with someone else.
At this moment, only the mother, who was busy in the kitchen, and Lin Lang, who was engrossed in doing his homework, remained in the room.
Lin Lang moved with extremely light steps, like a ghost, slowly to the kitchen doorway. He immediately saw the familiar figure busy in front of the sink, and tears instantly blurred his vision.
The warm yellow light shone down and fell on the mother, Shen Cuiping. She was wearing a floral apron and standing in front of the sink, her hands immersed in the cool water, scrubbing the dishes over and over again.
The water was gurgling as Shen Cuiping moved quickly and carefully. She sorted the washed dishes and put them into the cupboard, and even wiped the oil stains on the stove with a rag until they were completely clean.
Lin Lang watched his mother's retreating figure, a surge of bitterness welling up in his heart.
He knew all too well that his mother was a hard-working woman who managed the household well, was capable and thrifty, and never wanted to see anyone in the family suffer.
She's the one who does all the mending and patching at home.
She provides all three meals a day.
She also took care of his and his father's daily needs.
She scrimped and saved herself to buy him books and snacks, never hesitating to spend.
She works during the day, and then does housework until her back aches and she's exhausted. At night, she still has to get up to leave a light on for her father, who is returning home late from his night shift at the hospital, and warm a bowl of soup for him.
This is his mother, who has spent her whole life revolving around the family, hiding all her tenderness and hard work in the daily mundane details of life.
Watching his mother's busy figure, Lin Lang couldn't stop his tears from falling.
It is said that sons are closest to their mothers. How could a son bear to not choose to save his mother, who loves him so much?
But how could he bear to abandon his father, who loved him just as much?
Shen Cuiping quickly finished cleaning the kitchen, dried her hands, and took off her apron.
She didn't sit still for a moment. She turned around and pulled a bamboo basket from the top of the bedroom wardrobe. Inside were balls of yarn and a few bamboo needles.
She moved a stool to sit at the desk, knitting a sweater while tutoring Xiaolin Lang.
The "click-clack" sound of knitting, accompanied by the scratching sound of Xiaolin Lang's pen as he wrote, sounded surprisingly harmonious.
Shen Cuiping glanced at Xiao Linlang's homework out of the corner of her eye, occasionally offering a few words of advice.
"There's a mistake here. Let's take another look at it carefully."
"Make sure you hold the pen correctly, otherwise you'll become nearsighted when you grow up."
Her tone was as gentle as ever, with a hint of unmistakable precision. As the bamboo needle flew, the soft yarn gradually took shape, the stitches fine and neat, clearly the hands of someone accustomed to needlework.
Lin Lang, who was hiding to the side, looked at his mother's hands as she knitted a sweater, and his eyes welled up with tears.
Those hands weren't particularly beautiful; their skin had a yellowish tinge from years of housework, yet they possessed a nimble resilience and were exceptionally dexterous.
It was his mother's hands that knitted every sweater Lin Lang wore from childhood to adulthood.
When I was a child, it was cold, and there was no heating in Shanghai.
Lin Lang always loved to stay in bed, so in winter his mother would warm his sweater by tucking it into her bosom and then put it on him when he woke up.
A mother's love is like a series of hand-knitted sweaters, warming Lin Lang's entire life.
In the past, Lin Lang thought it was just an ordinary sweater. When it got old, he even complained that the style was no longer good-looking. He envied his classmates who could buy ready-made clothes from clothing stores.
Even now, watching my mother bent over knitting, seeing her occasionally raise her hand to rub her sore neck, and then immediately pick up her bamboo needles to continue working.
Lin Lang suddenly realized that the warmth he had received since childhood was all woven by his mother, stitch by stitch.
It was woven by her love, bit by bit, through countless hours of sacrificed free time.
A mother's love is never about grand, earth-shattering things, but it is hidden in the small details of life.
Lin Lang was young when he was young and only cared about playing as he grew up, never appreciating the deep affection hidden in the details.
Looking back now, I feel a pang of sadness and unease in my heart, filled with guilt and deep emotion.
It turns out that the greatest love in the world is not a grand, dramatic love, but rather a love that is deeply rooted in the everyday moments of life, year after year.
Lin Lang quietly entered the kitchen. The leftovers from dinner were still on the counter. The braised pork in the porcelain plate was glistening with oil, each piece perfectly square, a testament to his father's usual skill.
With tears in his eyes, Lin Lang picked up a pair of chopsticks, his fingertips trembling uncontrollably as soon as he grasped the wooden chopsticks.
He shakily picked up a piece of fatty and lean meat with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth. He chewed it gently, and although the braised pork was cold, it still tasted like it did when he was a child.
This flavor is so enticing, and so heart-wrenching.
Lin Lang couldn't help but reach for his chopsticks again, picking up another piece of braised pork and stuffing it into his mouth. His chewing slowed down, but he could no longer hold back his scalding tears, which fell onto the clean stove, leaving a small wet stain.
He cried even harder, his throat choked with sobs, and even his chewing movements trembled.
No matter how delicious the meat in my mouth is, it can't suppress the tearing pain in my heart.
Having to choose between his father and mother is not a choice at all; it's like having a knife ripped out of his heart.
The pain and swelling in his chest surged to its extreme. With a thought, Lin Lang's superpower of time travel was suddenly triggered, and he felt a flash of light before his eyes.
The next second, a distinctive hospital smell of disinfectant wafted over, and Lin Lang had already appeared at Shanghai Central Hospital.
My father clearly said he was on night shift tonight, and he should be in the duty room at this time, but his colleagues were sitting in the duty room. My father was nowhere to be seen in the emergency room or the nurses' station.
Just as Lin Lang was feeling anxious and confused, a system notification suddenly sounded in his mind.
"Ding! Friendly reminder to the host: there are some things you'd better not know. Go back now."
Lin Lang was stunned and completely puzzled. He immediately asked himself, "What's going on?"
"System, you've always been so open and honest, why are you being so blunt this time? What happened? Where did my dad go?"
The system replied: "Host, do you really need to know?"
"Stop talking nonsense and get to the point!" Lin Lang's tone was somewhat impatient.
"Ding! Your father is in Dean Li Xiulan's office. After tonight, he will be promoted to associate chief physician and become the head of the department. I don't need to spell it out, do I?"
"Uh..." Lin Lang's face changed instantly in shock. He was stunned for a long time before asking incredulously in a trembling voice, "You mean my dad was sexually harassed by the female dean?"
The system replied: "Those who know, know. But is it possible that your father offered himself up voluntarily in order to climb the social ladder?"
"Fuck!"
"This...this is truly my dad's earth-shattering secret!"
Just as Lin Lang was stunned and at a loss, a system notification sounded in his mind again.
"Friendly reminder to the host: Li Meili, the head nurse of the orthopedic ward, Zhang Jing, the pharmacist in the pharmacy, and Liu Xiaomei, a female cadre of the Municipal Bureau of Culture, are all having affairs with your father, as well as your female neighbor Zhang in the same alley..."
"Stop! Stop talking!"
"Now I finally understand, my womanizing ways are inherited from my dad." Lin Lang scratched his head, looking both amused and annoyed.
Hearing this, he finally understood the system's good intentions: it didn't want to ruin the positive image of his father in Lin Lang's mind.
Lin Lang desperately wanted to storm into the dean's office and vent his anger for his mother.
But he himself was a scumbag with many wives and concubines, so where did he get the courage to question his father about why he betrayed his marriage and mother?
Twenty years later, fate's boomerang suddenly struck Lin Lang squarely between the eyebrows.
Although he was a scumbag, Lin Lang could understand that his father was a womanizer, but he was always very family-oriented and hid his affair very well, so his mother never knew until her death.
But at this moment, Lin Lang felt so sorry for his mother.
However, at this moment, an even more heartbreaking reminder came.
"Ding! Friendly reminder to the host: Is it possible that your mother has always known that you have another woman outside, but has chosen to turn a blind eye because she deeply loves your father and doesn't want to divorce you so that you can have a complete family?"
Upon hearing this, Lin Lang fell silent, tears streaming uncontrollably down his cheeks.
Lin Lang finally made his final choice: choose one of two options to save his mother's life!
It doesn't matter if it's not your father.
It wasn't that Lin Lang stopped loving his father because he found out his father had cheated on his mother; it was simply that he felt too sorry for his mother!
Who can live a life without regrets?
Perhaps it was the father's secret of his philandering that led to his death in the car accident after Lin Lang's college entrance exams, a final act of respect for the family.
This choice was like a knife, stabbing deeply into Lin Lang's heart. Every time he thought about it, he felt an unbearable pain.
Lin Lang raised his hand and pounded his chest, murmuring softly, "Dad, I love you! I'm sorry..."
His trembling voice echoed through the hospital corridor, filled with endless guilt and helplessness.
As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Lang sniffed absently, then turned and left Shanghai Central Hospital with tears in his eyes.
His silhouette looked so tragic.
