Chapter 92: Just Once, Just This Once
Time went back to three days earlier.
A single phone call made the divorced couple meet again after many years.
One person lay on the bed, while the other stood beside it.
They looked at each other without speaking.
After a long while, Mu Rufeng covered his forehead and tried hard to suppress the anger in his heart before saying, “Tang Ruomei! You misunderstood that child. Things are not as simple as you think.”
“I misunderstood? What did I misunderstand?” Tang Ruomei turned her head with a bitter laugh. “I saw everything with my own eyes!”
She could not help repeating everything that happened at the hospital that day.
The more she remembered it, the more unwilling she felt inside. The child she had carefully raised had actually become like this. If he had stayed properly by her side, he should have become someone outstanding above everyone else!
Her child, Mu Yi, should have become a pianist beyond anyone’s reach.
But now? Look at what he had turned himself into?!
A man who no longer looked like a proper man, and even staying together with another man. The current him had become a joke to others and a shame to the family.
She could not bear to see her child become like this...
Thinking of this, Tang Ruomei clenched her fists in anger, hating that she had not forced Mu Yi to stay back then.
“No, no, things really aren’t like that. Listen to me—”
Mu Rufeng was also getting angry, but he still tried his best to speak calmly.
“Something happened to Mu Yi that ordinary people can’t understand.”
“It’s hard to explain directly, so I brought a comic book. You’ll understand after reading it.”
He handed the two-finger-thick comic book to his ex-wife. His expression carried a humble and pleading look, hoping she would seriously read it.
After receiving the call, he had rushed to finish drawing the comic in a little over ten minutes.
Naturally, the drawing quality was not very good, but everything he wanted to explain was inside it.
“A comic book?”
Tang Ruomei glanced at the sketchbook in Mu Rufeng’s hands and instinctively wanted to refuse.
But after seeing how humble her former husband looked, her heart softened a little. She slowly sat up on the bed and took the book.
After flipping through it for a while—
Tang Ruomei’s expression became serious. She could not help flipping back a few pages again, and then her whole face tightened.
After staying silent for a moment, Tang Ruomei raised her head and looked at Mu Rufeng uneasily for confirmation. When she saw him nod, she could not help taking in a cold breath, and her whole body started trembling.
Should she really believe something this unbelievable?
………………
After explaining the situation to Su Yu,
Mu Yi and Gu Zhiren got into her car and sat in the back seat. As the sound of the engine started, they got closer and closer to Hospital No. 13.
During the whole trip, no one spoke.
The girl frowned deeply.
The man tightly held one of the girl’s hands.
From the driver’s seat, Su Yu watched everything through the rearview mirror, and many thoughts appeared in her mind.
………………
By the time they arrived at the hospital, it was already close to sunset.
The moment the door opened, Tang Ruomei inside the room quickly looked over.
“......”
Mu Yi stayed silent.
“Go in. I’ll wait for you outside.”
Gu Zhiren gently pushed Mu Yi’s shoulder forward in encouragement.
But before Mu Yi could even take one step forward, Tang Ruomei, who was sitting on the bed, shook her head and softly said,
“Since you already came, you should come in too.”
Gu Zhiren stayed silent. He originally did not feel comfortable letting Mu Yi go in alone anyway, so since Tang Ruomei had spoken, he did not refuse.
The hospital room door closed.
The three looked at each other.
Once again, silence filled the room.
A week had already passed since Mu Yi last came to the hospital, but what happened that day was deeply burned into all of their memories. It even felt as if the pain from that slap was still left on the girl’s face.
Mu Yi and Gu Zhiren could not forget it.
Tang Ruomei could not forget it even more.
Closing her eyes, Tang Ruomei took a deep breath. She no longer cared about pride or saving face anymore, and directly asked with concern:
“Mu Yi... does your face still hurt?”
Hearing this, Mu Yi did not answer. She only shook her head.
“I see...”
Tang Ruomei frowned, wanting to say something but not knowing where to begin. After thinking quietly for a while, she patted the space beside her bed, looked up at Mu Yi, and said,
“Come sit here.”
But after she finished speaking, Mu Yi still did not move at all.
After hesitating for quite a while, and only after Gu Zhiren gently encouraged her with another push, she finally gathered her courage and walked over to sit where Tang Ruomei pointed.
“You’ve really changed so much. So much that Mom can barely recognize you anymore. If I remember correctly, the last time before this that we met was when you were still in middle school, right?”
As she spoke, Tang Ruomei narrowed her eyes and carefully looked at her child’s current appearance, comparing it to the image of the young boy in her memories.
Even after so many years, the memories had not become blurry because she still kept photos of him.
But because of that, those memories stayed forever frozen at the age shown in the photos. They never slowly changed as her child grew older.
Before she even had the chance to witness his growth, her child had already been forced to become someone even more unfamiliar to her.
Mu Rufeng’s story sounded far too unbelievable. Most people would never believe it. But Tang Ruomei chose to trust him, because no one understood Mu Rufeng better than she did.
She knew very clearly that he would never joke with her about something like this.
“Do you remember that one time when you suddenly started practicing piano much harder? Later, when I asked you about it, you finally admitted it shyly and told Mom that you had fallen for a girl at school...”
“Huh?”
The moment Tang Ruomei brought this up, Mu Yi looked like she wanted to say something but stopped herself. Instinctively, she suddenly had a very bad feeling.
Then Mu Yi secretly glanced at Gu Zhiren in panic, while Tang Ruomei continued speaking,
“For that girl, you practiced piano from early morning until late at night. You even listened to her request and wore a skirt while playing piano for her.”
“Guh...”
Mu Yi pressed her lips together and noticed that Gu Zhiren’s expression had become strange, as if he had many things he wanted to say.
She immediately could not hold back anymore. Widening her eyes, she looked at her mother and anxiously said,
“Mom! Did you ask Dad to call me here just to talk about these old stories?!”
“......”
When Tang Ruomei suddenly heard her call her “Mom,” she froze for a moment. She even wanted Mu Yi to call her that once again.
“If that’s really the case, then we should—”
“No.”
Tang Ruomei interrupted her softly.
“What Mom really wants to say is... it’s been a very long time since I last heard you play piano. Could you play once for Mom too? Just once. Any song is fine!”
This time, Tang Ruomei’s attitude became humble instead. She truly let go of all her pride, reached out to tightly hold Mu Yi’s small hand, and looked at her pleadingly with mist forming in her eyes.
“Can you do it, Mu Yi? Just once... once is enough.”
Seeing Mu Yi remain silent, Tang Ruomei carefully asked again.
“I...”
Mu Yi had already made her decision.
But before she could speak, a familiar ringtone suddenly interrupted her.
It was that piano duet again!
“Auntie, this is the song Mu Yi and I played together before. You can listen to it for now. Although my piano playing isn’t very good, so please ignore those parts if possible.”
That was what Gu Zhiren said.