My grandma still found out about her condition.

It was also my fault for being cheap—I notified my dad about this. In Grandma’s heart there were only two people total: me and my dad.

As a result, he flew into a rage, roaring and making a scene in the hospital corridor:

“Do you have any brains! She’s so old and you’re making her have surgery! She won’t even make it off the operating table!”

“I already asked around—this disease can’t be cured at all. It’s just burning through money!”

“She’s already so old! Aren’t you just making her suffer for nothing!”

I said: “First, the doctor said her physical condition can handle surgery. Second, I have money. I can afford it.”

Grandma was in the hospital room, her face pale, shrinking into herself.

I walked in, held her hand, and said: “I’m telling you two things. First, I have several million in my hands. If you pull through, we’ll spend it all we want. Second, I’m not leaving. I’ll stay with you. Do you want to see me get married? Do you want to see your great-grandchild? If you do, then let’s get through this hurdle.”

Grandma remained listless and didn’t say a word.

When I went out, Yu Shixuan was standing by the window. The new spring greenery made her face look like peach blossoms, but her words were quite hurtful.

She said: “Even a three-year-old knows how to choose. You’re really too stupid, Ren Dongxue.”

I walked over, rested my head on her shoulder, and said: “Shut up. Let me rest for a bit.”

Actually, I was completely out of options.

How should I put it? This world gives poor people only this many choices.

Grandma ultimately still chose to have the surgery.

Before entering the operating room, her withered hand grabbed mine and said: “Xue, you need to get married. Find a good person.”

“When you come out, I’ll get married.” I said.

She grabbed my dad again and said: “Don’t let your heart grow crooked. Xue is also your daughter. If you don’t feel sorry for her, who can she count on to feel sorry for her?”

My dad’s eyes reddened and he said: “Mom, don’t worry.”

I watched as she was wheeled into the operating room, then suddenly broke into loud crying, tears and snot flowing, with no regard for appearance.

“Grandma—”

“Grandma—”

My heart-wrenching cries echoed through the entire corridor. My dad held me back saying: “You’re wailing like at a funeral. Stop crying. It’s bad luck.”

I knew that too, but I couldn’t not cry.

But it hurt too much. I didn’t know how to swallow this enormous sense of grievance and pain.

The surgery was successful.

What this meant was that she didn’t die on the operating table and the diseased tissue was successfully removed.

However, once it metastasized, these hundreds of thousands would be equivalent to throwing money away.

Beijing had no hospital beds. She could return to a local hospital for treatment. She could go home.

“Where are we going back to?” She was still weak, asking drowsily.

“Where do you want to go back to?”

“I… want to go back to my hometown.”

“Then we’ll go back to your hometown.”

We returned to the Northeast. Grandma’s old rundown apartment had long been sold. My dad couldn’t possibly let us stay with him. So I rented a place for one thousand yuan a month with a small courtyard.

My dad asked: “You should go to work too. I’ll take care of your grandma. You give me six hundred yuan a month.”

This wasn’t asking for much money, but I still didn’t give it.

I said: “No need. I’ll take care of her myself.”

After all, I had resigned.

My dad’s eyes went round as saucers: “What did you say? You resigned from such a good job?”

He scolded me for a full hour, then slammed the door and left.

Those were dim and dark days.

The smell of medicinal plaster, old person smell, stuffy air smell, disinfectant smell…

And night after night, Grandma couldn’t sleep from the pain, unconsciously moaning, the sound infinitely amplified in my eardrums.

After the final checkup, she could finally be discharged.

Every day I fed her a big handful of medicine, helped her massage her body, personally cooked meals for her, took her to walk little by little in the courtyard.

Sunlight shone on her pallid face. Passersby said: “Old lady, your granddaughter is so good to you!”

A bit of rosiness would appear on her face: “Me, I’m blessed!”

In summer, the courtyard grew full of weeds, lush and verdant. I bought a large vat, raised koi fish and lotus flowers for Grandma to look at and enjoy.

She smiled and said: “This courtyard is nice. When I get better next year, I’ll fix it up properly.”

“Okay.”

In autumn, the ground outside the complex was covered with drying napa cabbages. I also bought a hundred jin, dried them in the courtyard, and following Grandma’s instructions stored them in a large vat—authentic Northeast pickled cabbage.

Winter snow covered the courtyard. The window ledges were full of icicles. Grandma tremblingly pasted paper cutouts on the glass window, saying they were quite pretty.

At first, my phone was full of all kinds of messages.

Countless people from my former company were looking for me, including people who didn’t know I’d resigned, flattering me with one “General Manager Ren” after another.

By winter, there was no more sound.

Only Bao Long, Li Gong and a few others wished me a happy new year, agreeing that when travel became convenient, they’d come to the Northeast to see me.

I replied to each one.

Finally in the spring of the second year, during the follow-up examination, the doctor told me there was no metastasis.

Ah.

I had built skyscrapers, ventured through Africa, led projects worth tens of millions.

But I knew this was the first miracle of my life.

Grandma, as she said she would, began to fix up this small courtyard. I didn’t stop her.

I hired a caregiver who had been a nurse, and also gave my dad five hundred yuan a month.

Then I started interviewing for jobs.

The industry wasn’t good. The entire market was depressed. Although my resume was still considered impressive for my hometown, I was still nitpicked in various ways.

“You worked at S Construction—why did you leave? I heard it’s not easy to get in there!”

“Fallen leaves return to their roots!” I said with a smile: “We Northeasterners can’t stay in the South.”

The other person sneered and said: “More like a tiger fallen to the plains… Hahaha just joking, don’t take it personally!”

Some minded my education level.

“This—you don’t even have a bachelor’s degree! Then you might have to start from the bottom. You’ve been a leader before, can you handle it?”

I still smiled: “If there’s work, we’ll do it.”

Others minded that I was unmarried.

“You’re already this old… When are you getting married and having kids?”

“I can choose not to.”

Finally, just when I was about to despair, I suddenly received a phone call.

It was Ba Te. He was on a business trip in the area and stopped by to see me.

We met at a Northeast restaurant. As soon as I entered, I saw Ba Te’s bear-like frame—truly blocking out the sky and sun, making even the beer-bellied uncle next to him look delicate and handsome by comparison.

Ba Te introduced us, saying: “This is General Manager Ren from S Construction. This is General Manager Wang from Xinsheng Architecture.”

As soon as General Manager Wang saw me, he gave a thumbs up: “Heroine! We’ve always wanted to meet you. Finally caught the opportunity.”

This meal was quite painful to eat, because General Manager Wang wanted to show off that he understood everything, from enterprise management to macroeconomic regulation. But his mind was so empty that even someone like me, who was good at flattery and fawning, didn’t know what to say.

The ending was that he raised his wine glass and said: “General Manager Ren, if you don’t mind, I have a vice president position open. Let’s work together to revitalize the project.”

He was a branch company affiliated under a certain large construction company, having just won the bid at a low price for a municipal engineering project—starting a company was all for this dumpling wrapped around that vinegar.

After the meal, I saw Ba Te back to his hotel.

My impression of him, aside from his plaintive “the county is so poor,” was his scholarly air.

You could kill me and I still wouldn’t have expected he would step in to help me.

“It’s deserved. Without you, there wouldn’t be Wuleji Village’s today.” He said: “Actually many people have been asking who did this project. I’m just making an introduction for you—if it weren’t for the overall environment being like this, you wouldn’t worry about work at all.”

I smiled but didn’t respond.

After a long while he said another sentence: “Why did you resign from S Construction? It’s really quite a pity.”

I smiled and said: “It’s alright. Last month I heard S Construction had major layoffs. If I hadn’t resigned, I probably would’ve had to leave anyway.”

“How is that possible? They’re not stupid. You’re so… so capable.”

“Hahaha, thank you for thinking so highly of me.”

“Really.” He looked at me very stubbornly and said: “You’re the most capable person I’ve ever met.”

I just felt like something was stuck in my throat—couldn’t spit it out, couldn’t swallow it down.

I avoided his bright eyes, said goodbye cheerfully, then on the way back, bought another small bottle of baijiu.

Northeast spring still carried biting cold air. I sat on the roadside, drinking the liquor in small sips, my whole person warming up in a dizzy haze.

I remembered that a year ago, I had also drunk liquor, then tremblingly signed my name on a contract.

I knew that refusing overseas projects plus frequently requesting leave—being fired was only a matter of time.

But at that time, I needed money, a lot of money.

I could only sell that house—my six years of savings from Africa, plus the mortgage I’d desperately worked a full year to pay off. In exchange for this beautiful, warm home that matched my dream of being “high-class.”

I finally didn’t have to pay the mortgage anymore.

I had nothing left.