His father snorted coldly. Even though his mother had shown signs of compromise, he still wouldn't let up.
"All you do when you come home is play mahjong. Your wardrobe is stuffed full of clothes while Lin Nan only has three sets. In all these years of marriage, I've barely seen you cook a few times!"
Lin Nan silently rolled his eyes beside his mother. He talked as if he had ever done anything for him—didn't he also just lie around doing nothing whenever he came home?
His parents' quarrel made Lin Nan, who was already emotionally depressed during this period, feel particularly miserable.
But his mother, perhaps out of guilt toward Lin Nan, didn't argue back. She just continued: "Look at the medical report! Nan Nan's!"
Only then did his father shut his mouth and obediently look at the medical report.
This report was from yesterday morning's hospital examination, not Lin Nan's previous comprehensive physical exam, so after just a few minutes, his father had read through it all.
But his education level was even lower than his mother's. She had at least finished fifth grade, while he only had a third-grade education. He could barely recognize half the characters. After reading it, he was too proud to admit he only understood half the words, so he casually tossed the report onto the bedside table.
"Too lazy to read it. You tell me!"
His mother knew his personality and didn't bother arguing. She got straight to the point: "Nan Nan was diagnosed as a girl."
"Pure nonsense! If you want Lin Nan's house, just say so directly!" His father disdainfully threw the medical report on the floor.
Lin Nan felt waves of cold running through his body. His father's attitude was truly incomprehensible to him.
Setting aside his own situation, just looking at their divorce—although he didn't know who was at fault, even considering it as an amicable divorce, his father's approach of planning to give his mother almost no money after the divorce was heartless. And that obvious double standard...
He stepped back two paces and looked up at his father.
Only then did his father see Lin Nan's face clearly. He frowned, realizing that this girl did indeed look extremely similar to his son.
"When did you have another one outside?" he snorted coldly. "I don't care what you do. Do whatever you want. I won't give you a single penny in the divorce!"
His mother pulled Lin Nan, who was hiding behind her, forward: "Look carefully—this is your son!"
"?" His father was stunned.
"Your son was found to have been born with a deformity—he's actually a girl. We've had the examination twice, there's no mistake," his mother continued with a dark expression. "The surgery costs over 100,000 yuan. How much can you contribute?"
"You're just trying to trick me out of money! If Lin Nan is a girl, I don't care about him either. Let him fend for himself!"
Hearing such words, his mother could only look at Lin Nan beside her with heartache, but saw that Lin Nan had pursed his lips and turned his head away.
"Do you have no sympathy?"
"I raised a son! I’m not raising a daughter-in-law for someone else!"
His father frowned and cursed: "Get out of here! I'm too lazy to argue with you!"
"Is that really what you think?" his mother asked in disbelief.
"Of course!"
His mother was about to say something more, but Lin Nan suddenly broke free from her arm and walked toward the hospital room door with his head down.
She frantically tried to follow Lin Nan, but the door was slammed shut as Lin Nan left. By the time she reached the corridor after this brief delay, Lin Nan and Chen Yao had already disappeared.
At that moment, Lin Nan was silently rushing down the stairs, with Chen Yao following closely behind, looking worriedly at Lin Nan's back.
He didn't know what Lin Nan was thinking, but what Lin Nan's father had said earlier was truly heartless.
"Are you okay?" Chen Yao asked with concern.
"I'm fine." Lin Nan's voice was a bit hoarse, with no particular emotion detectable in his tone, but his steps were hurried.
"Where are you going now?"
"Home to get my luggage, then back to school."
"The bullet train is at seven tonight. It's too early..."
"Then I'll wait two hours at the train station."
Chen Yao was distressed. Lin Nan wouldn't listen to any persuasion right now, and he didn't know how to comfort someone about family matters. He could only follow closely behind Lin Nan, trying to help him as much as possible.
"What about your mom?"
"Not for me to worry about." Lin Nan reached the entrance of the inpatient department and looked back, vaguely seeing his mother hurriedly running downstairs. So he grabbed Chen Yao and walked directly into a nearby alley to hide.
Only then did Chen Yao see Lin Nan's eyes, already filled with tears.
Anyone would probably break down after being spoken to like that by their father, right?
Chen Yao tried to pull out tissues from his pocket to wipe Lin Nan's tears, but all he had on him was his phone and house keys.
"He probably doesn't fully understand the situation yet..."
"He made it perfectly clear. Why should I keep throwing myself at him?" Lin Nan leaned against the wall, tilting his head back slightly, biting his lip, trying hard not to let his tears fall.
"He was speaking in anger." Even Chen Yao felt uncertain as he tried to comfort him.
Lin Nan's body gradually slid down the wall until he was crouching on the ground, his head buried between his arms, unwilling to let Chen Yao see his expression.
He clearly didn't have a deep relationship with his father, but when his father said to let him fend for himself, he was still deeply wounded.
The nearly twenty years of father-son relationship was perhaps only about carrying on the family line in his father's eyes, maybe with some element of old-age support.
Now that he was useless for continuing the family line, and as a female wouldn't need a wedding house anymore, his father could completely divorce and find another wife to bear him a son.
Lin Nan hung his head low, his heart aching as if it had been brutally carved open with an awl. Even during the most painful moments of his period, he had never felt such pain that made breathing nearly impossible.
Crouching on the ground, he curled up even deeper, burying his head and letting out low whimpers.
"..." Chen Yao stood beside Lin Nan, hearing these heartbreaking whimpers, and reached out to pat Lin Nan's shoulder.
"Should we change our tickets and go back to school?" He didn't dare say much more, only trying to soothe Lin Nan's emotions. "Your dad just doesn't understand the situation. He was still angry from arguing with your mom. What he said doesn't count.
"If he won't give you money for surgery, your mom will figure out a way. If there's really no money, I'll ask my parents to borrow some. I'll say it's for my future daughter-in-law's expenses.
"Should I transfer you 500 yuan first?"
However, the money-throwing tactic that usually worked brilliantly on Lin Nan had no effect this time. He could still only hear Lin Nan's soft whimpering.
Chen Yao had never been good at comforting people, and with Lin Nan's personality becoming increasingly feminine, comforting a girl was a hell-level difficulty task. This left him completely without a response strategy, so he simply crouched beside Lin Nan as well, occasionally patting Lin Nan's shoulder, hoping this might gradually calm him down.
But with this comfort, Lin Nan's whimpering grew louder instead, though he finally was willing to speak.
"I... I..." Lin Nan sobbed. "I don't want to be like this either... I want to be normal too. I want to find a girlfriend and get married. The family even prepared a house for me..."
"I know, this isn't your fault. It's a congenital deformity, all the hospital's fault." Chen Yao's heart ached. He wanted to hold Lin Nan directly, but felt that would be too intimate.
"Living like this is so exhausting... really exhausting. Sometimes I think about just finding a building and jumping off..."
Lin Nan wasn't someone with a strong inner spirit to begin with, nor was he someone willing to open his heart. When the pressure became too great, he felt like the tightly wound nerve in his head could snap at any moment.