Chapter 1286: The Fool’s Daughter (65)

After spending more than half a year exposed to the elements, the two had become gaunt and sallow from hunger.

Not once had anyone from the Tang family or the Song family remembered to ask how they were doing.

Winter had arrived. Their hearts had long since crumbled in despair, and their bodies could no longer endure. One night, both of them came down with a high fever at the same time.

In their haze, they vaguely heard voices around them and felt as though they had been moved somewhere.

When they finally woke up, they found themselves in a hospital.

The moment they opened their eyes, they saw Tang Guo sitting nearby, her head lowered as she looked at her phone.

Seeing their daughter after so long, both their eyes reddened. They wanted to say something, yet didn't know where to begin.

“Dad, Mom, you're awake?”

“Xiaoguo, I…”

Their voices choked with emotion, but no words came.

“I've already contacted the best retirement home in the province for you,” Tang Guo said with a smile. “Once you've recovered and are discharged, I'll send you there. I've already paid for twenty years. Food, clothing, housing, and transportation are all included. If you live longer than that, I'll renew it for you. From now on, you can just live there peacefully. Until you start receiving your pensions, I'll give you spending money every month. However much you gave me each month during college, that's how much each of you will receive.”

“I've already ordered food delivery for you. Someone will bring it later. I need to go to work now.”

“Xiaoguo…” Song Jinghua called after her. “I…”

Tang Guo turned around and looked at them. “Dad, Mom, take care of yourselves. I've said it before—because you gave birth to me and raised me, I naturally have a duty to support you in your old age.”

They had given birth to her and raised her?

And she had a duty to support them?

Was that all?

Nothing more?

The two stared blankly at Tang Guo's departing figure, unable to call her back.

They remembered how they had treated their only daughter.

When she was little, they fed her, clothed her, and paid for her schooling.

Beyond that, there had been nothing.

All of their remaining time and energy had been devoted to their relatives, while their own daughter had been neglected.

Back when she was in college, they had only given her eight hundred yuan a month and told her that she was already an adult. Parents had no obligation to provide her with a luxurious life. If she wanted anything, she would have to work for it herself.

After she started working, she had saved money and borrowed funds on her own to buy a car, despite the fact that their family still had substantial savings at the time.

But all of those savings had been lent away or handed out, leaving them in their current state.

The more Song Jinghua thought about it, the harder she cried.

Tang Lide sat beside her, trying to comfort her, but she simply couldn't stop crying.

Even the two elderly women in the neighboring beds couldn't help asking what had happened.

“Your daughter is so filial. Why are you crying?” one auntie said. “Look at my son. He's always saying he's busy, busy, busy. Even with his mother in the hospital, never mind paying for treatment, he can't even be bothered to visit me. Bringing me two pieces of fruit is already too much to ask. He won't even make a daily phone call.”

“That's right,” another chimed in. “Didn't your daughter just say she'd arranged the best retirement home in the city for you? I know that place. The scenery is beautiful, with mountains and rivers. So many people dream of living there.

“One month there costs over ten thousand yuan. Yet your daughter actually paid for twenty years! If my children were willing to send me there, I'd feel like I'd burned incense to the ancestors for generations.

“And don't think retirement homes are unpleasant. That place is different. The staff are incredibly patient. Someone takes care of you every day. Everyone living there says it's like enjoying the life of a lord or lady.”

Song Jinghua froze.

More than ten thousand yuan a month?

Then twenty years…

Wouldn't that amount to several million yuan?

Was her daughter really that capable?

But why…

Why did her heart hurt even more?

A pain she couldn't put into words.

Why?

Fragments of the past kept surfacing in her mind.

Once, when her daughter had wanted to eat some candy she had brought home, she had told Tang Guo,

“These are for Tang Zhiming.”