Charm point maxed out, inheriting game assets-Chapter 1688 - 583: Illness (5)

Seeing the suddenly appearing cat, Zhou Hui was momentarily stunned.

Zhang Yan quickly picked up the cat and whispered, "This is a stray cat I picked up, named Orange."

"Oh, oh," Zhou Hui nodded, not saying much, just pushed the bag of fruit towards the middle of the coffee table, "I bought you some dragon fruit that you like."

"Thank you."

The air grew quiet, with only the sound of rain outside the window and the soft breathing of Orange.

Between the mother and daughter, there was a silence that was both close and distant.

Zhang Yan lowered her head, her fingers unconsciously stroking Orange’s soft fur, occasionally stealing glances at her mother.

Looking at her mother’s graying temples, a face lined with wrinkles.

Her eyes started to redden, and she quickly lowered her head again, afraid of letting her mother see.

She had been in Yang City for so long, but actually hadn’t met with her mother many times.

One reason was the distance and busy work, the other was... her half-sister who was very unwelcoming of her presence.

She actually could understand, her mother had a new family, and her appearance was inherently a disturbance to that family.

Since the second year of high school, her mother never missed sending her living expenses every month, which made her life much easier, and her treatment at her aunt’s house improved as well.

When she was admitted to college, her mother even secretly went to Jing County and stuffed a thick envelope of five thousand yuan into her hand.

Her coming to Yang City was largely due to a long-held wish to personally confirm how her mother was doing here, if she was suffering or not.

The reality was, it was indeed quite difficult.

Currently, she was working as a cleaner in an office building, earning about 4000 yuan.

Together with the two children from Uncle Chen’s side, she had to take care of a total of three kids, living a tight and exhausting life.

"Are you... is work going well recently?" Zhou Hui finally broke the silence, her tone laced with cautious concern.

"Quite good, colleagues are all very warm, and the boss also values me very much."

"That’s good, that’s good..." Zhou Hui nodded, beginning to show intermittent concern.

After more than twenty minutes.

"Cough, cough, cough—"

A violent and uncontrollable cough erupted from deep within Zhou Hui’s throat.

She quickly covered her mouth with her hand, her body shaking violently because of the force, her face turning red from the coughing fit.

Zhang Yan’s heart clenched tightly, and she immediately stood up, gently patting her mother’s back, "Mom, what’s wrong?"

It was then she noticed that since the last meeting, her mother seemed to have lost too much weight, her whole body had shrunk a lot.

"Noth... nothing!" Zhou Hui hurriedly waved her hand, finally stopping the cough, "It’s just an old problem, seasonal bronchitis."

As she spoke, she struggled to stand up, "It’s getting late, I... I should be going back."

"I’ll walk you downstairs," Zhang Yan said, reaching for an umbrella.

"No need, no need!" Zhou Hui quickly walked to the door, opened it, and then, as if she remembered something, turned around.

In the dim light, she looked at her daughter, opened her mouth, but ultimately said nothing.

She just stepped forward and gave Zhang Yan a clumsy yet firm hug.

This hug came so suddenly, Zhang Yan was completely taken aback, standing there stiffly, at a loss for what to do.

In her memory, this was the first time since coming to Yang City that her mother had hugged her voluntarily.

Her mother’s body was very thin, you could feel the outline of her bones through the clothes, yet the embrace was surprisingly warm.

Then, she also felt that there was something vaguely bulging in her mother’s abdomen, like... it was swollen.

"Are you sick?" she blurted out, her voice carrying an undercurrent of panic she hadn’t realized.

"No, really nothing, just a bit of bloating lately," Zhou Hui quickly released her, directly took the umbrella, and walked out.

"Bang—" The door closed.

Zhang Yan hesitated for a moment, then quickly ran to the balcony, opened the window, and the cold rain instantly hit her face. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

She leaned on the window, watching the entrance downstairs.

She waited for a long while before her mother finally emerged from the building entrance.

As she walked, she began to cough violently again.

The old umbrella above her head shook along with her, resembling a candle flame that could extinguish at any moment amidst the night’s rain.

Zhang Yan’s eyes instantly reddened, her vision blurring.