"Mom!"
After the impulse came regret. Lin Nan suddenly felt like he wasn't ready to tell his parents about this matter.
His mother looked back at him in confusion: "What? Are you hungry?"
"Um... I want to eat tangyuan." (TN: Gluttonous rice stuffed with different stuff like red bean paste or cabbage.)
Lin Nan lowered his head, not daring to meet her gaze.
"Savory or sweet?"
"Savory, I guess..."
"Then I'll go to the supermarket to buy some. I'm hungry too anyway." After saying this, his mother left the room with the bedding, casually closing Lin Nan's door behind her.
Only then did Lin Nan breathe a sigh of relief, lying down on the bed in mental exhaustion.
Thinking about it, this should be the first time in years he'd talked with his mother for so long, and also the most caring his mother had been toward him in recent years.
In the past, his parents barely communicated with him. When he was home, they would occasionally show concern, but it was truly just occasional.
Things like "don't stay up late" or "take care of yourself."
Lin Nan's heart was full of conflict. His mother didn't seem to have much of an issue with his appearance, or perhaps his mother, facing divorce, didn't have much mental energy to worry about Lin Nan's appearance problems.
So at a time like this, if he told his mother about his physical condition, would she not be able to deal with it either?
His mother's sudden care for him—was it to win his support to get more in the divorce property settlement? Or was it simply wanting to compensate for the maternal love that had been lacking compared to normal families?
Lin Nan couldn't figure it out, but still helplessly got up and took out the medical report hidden in his clothes, placing it beside him.
Regardless of what he was thinking, this matter had to be explained clearly to his parents. Simply telling them the facts would likely get him sent to a mental hospital, so he could only use this medical report to explain the situation.
Soon he heard the sound of his mother returning. A moment later, his mother pushed open the door again and said to Lin Nan in the room: "Come out, they'll be ready soon."
"Mm."
"What's that by your leg?"
Lin Nan immediately perked up, lowered his head, and with a flushed face picked up the medical report and handed it to his mother.
His mother curiously walked into the room, took the medical report, glanced at it first, and said approvingly: "I don't usually have much time, but you know to go get medical checkups yourself. You should get one every year from now on."
"Mm..."
But as his mother examined the medical report from the beginning, at first glance there didn't seem to be any problems—all parts of his body were basically fine, just some mild fatty liver.
But as she continued reading, her brow furrowed more and more. Seeing her expression getting worse, Lin Nan quickly looked around, preparing to find an escape route, but she was blocking the doorway, and the window had security bars...
After looking through it once, his mother raised her head to glance at the slightly panicked Lin Nan, then lowered her head to check again. Finally, she helplessly discovered she hadn't misread due to poor eyesight.
"What this report is saying is that you're actually a girl and need surgery?" His mother's tone was full of confusion.
Lin Nan nodded without hesitation.
"That shouldn't be right... You were premature when you were born. Didn't the hospital examine you properly?"
It seemed he really had undergone a full-body examination after birth.
Lin Nan weakly suggested: "Maybe the examination wasn't thorough enough back then?"
Small hospitals eighteen years ago were certainly much less standardized than now. Back then there were cases of babies being mixed up, and even now there was news of hospitals privately disposing of abandoned babies.
His mother's reaction was very calm, completely different from the hysteria Lin Nan had imagined.
This made his heart ache even more.
His mother sat on the bed holding the medical report, frowning deeply as she said to Lin Nan: "The tangyuan should be ready soon. Serve yourself and eat in the living room."
"Mm."
Lin Nan had wanted to escape long ago. His mother's aura naturally suppressed him, and combined with guilt and various other reasons, staying in the room with his mother felt like torture.
He didn't know what his mother would ultimately want to do to resolve this.
The family had no money now, and his mother was busy with divorce matters. At most she would probably just take him for another medical checkup to confirm the situation, right?
Lin Nan sat at the coffee table with his tangyuan, but had no appetite. He listened intently for sounds from the bedroom.
There was no sound.
He helplessly ate two bites of tangyuan, then took out his phone trying to use novels to divert his attention and relax his tense emotions. But before long, he heard faint sobbing sounds coming from the bedroom.
Lin Nan's heart nearly shattered.
He had thought his view of family relationships was quite indifferent, but hearing such sounds, he still couldn't help but feel his heart tremble.
He had never seen the tender side of his parents in his entire life, let alone heard his mother cry.
Lin Nan couldn't help but feel his nose start to tingle, his emotions gradually becoming more agitated by those crying sounds.
Why was she crying? This was clearly his own problem.
He pressed his lips together, trying hard not to cry, wanting to enter the room as a little man to comfort his mother, but he found he completely couldn't do it. Not just because of his appearance—his personality couldn't do it either.
Where was Lilith's strong personality at a time like this? Did it only appear when playing games and flaming teammates?
He gritted his teeth in resentment toward Lilith. If this person hadn't been bored and decided to run into his brain, his life wouldn't have been disrupted into such a terrible state.
However, before Lin Nan could do anything, his mother appeared before him again with an expressionless face. Looking up, his mother's eyes were clearly red, so he quickly lowered his head and sat up straight.
"Rest well today. Tomorrow we'll go to the hospital for an examination." His mother's tone became somewhat more gentle. "Don't go see your father. If he sees how you look now, he'll scold me along with you."
Lin Nan didn't know much about his father, but presumably he favored sons over daughters.
"Mm." Lin Nan wanted to say some comforting words, but bitterly discovered his head had gone completely blank and he couldn't organize any language.
"The family can't come up with much money now, and there aren't many wealthy relatives either..." Saying this, his mother secretly wiped away a falling tear and changed the subject. "Originally your father and I bought the house intending it as your wedding house. Now he definitely won't contribute his half."
"He might not necessarily do that..."
"He definitely will!" His mother cut off Lin Nan's words decisively, but after a moment her tone softened again. "Finish eating and go to sleep quickly. Tomorrow we'll get up early to go to the provincial hospital for an examination."
Lin Nan felt his mother's attitude toward him did indeed have a compensatory feeling, but he couldn't figure out his mother's psychology. Just as his mother didn't understand him, he completely couldn't guess his mother's thoughts either.
After eating the tangyuan and returning to his room, Lin Nan began worrying about what would come next.
From the current perspective, he had managed to fool his mother, though the deception broke his heart. But what about the surgery afterward?
He could clearly use magic to solve the problem painlessly, but looking at his mother's attitude, she was obviously planning to raise money and arrange surgery for him as soon as possible.