Jinhai understood she is referring to the person whose name is inscribed on the tombstone.
“Yu Tengfei. My adoptive father. That day in the car you wanted to know more, right? When I told you that I was adopted. But you didn’t probe further. I could tell.”
Of course, he remembered it. He had the urge to know her past but he didn’t know why. It felt like he just wanted to know it. He needed to know it. He felt like he wished to learn more about her.
“My father Yu Tengfei fell in love with my mother Yu Ichika when he was on a business trip to Tokyo. She was working as a waitress in a well-known hotel. He met her there. He fell in love with her. Even after his stay got over, he increased it to spend a few more days. He pursued her and eventually, she fell in love with him too.”
She smiled and continued, “He asked her to marry him and come with him to Beijing. It was a little difficult at first. She spent her whole life in Japan and now suddenly she was settling in a different country. But, she did it. She had lost her parents while she was young and she had no other relatives there. So, she agreed. They came back to China and got married here.”
She looked at him and said, “Everything worked out so nicely, isn’t it?”
He kept quiet. He figured that that was the time when things started to go downhill.
“Everything was going quite well for the first few years. They were happy in their marriage. But then there was a problem. Even after five years of their marriage, they didn’t have a child. They didn’t notice at first because they didn’t want a child in the beginning. They wanted to enjoy their time together. But when they decided to have one, my mother was unable to get pregnant.”
“Finally they decided to go for a check-up and found out that my mother was unable to conceive. Her womb was very weak and even if she did get pregnant, it won’t be able to hold the child. She would eventually miscarry. They were devastated. Especially her. She felt terrible for my father.”
Jinhai silently kept listening to her.
Nana didn’t know why she was telling all this to him. She was unable to share it even with Serena who grew to be her best friend. She got to know from the twins.
After that incident, this was the first time she had opened up about this. That she was willing to share it with somebody. But she couldn’t find the answer why was it Liu Jinhai.
She continued, “It took two years for her to come out of it. It’s horrible and the worst nightmare for a woman to know that she cannot have a child, that she cannot become a mother. But my father was very supportive and patient to her all this time. He said that he didn’t mind not having one.”
The rain showed no signs of stopping.
“Then one day while they were out to cheer her up, they came across an orphanage. That was when I met them for the first time. I was three years old.”
Jinhai felt somber. As I thought, she doesn’t have her real parents. Then he realized how blessed he was to have a complete family.
“I am also a Japanese, so we instantly warmed up to each other. Father found that she was finally smiling and laughing; after such a long time.”
Jinhai also faintly smiled.
“Father thought that since we are both Japanese, it will be good if they adopt me. She would feel more comfortable and closer to home, and the same with me. Mother happily agreed with tears in her eyes. They finally had a daughter.”, she looked at him and smiled, “I became Yu Nana from there on.”
He smiled but then something came in his mind. Why does she never introduces herself as Yu Nana? Why only her name?
“I know what you are thinking.”, she looked at the name on the tombstone. “Now everyone was finally happy. We were a complete family. We loved each other like any other family. We wanted nothing more. But then good news came after two years. My mother got pregnant, with twins. It was like a miracle. We were all so happy. They thought of me as their good luck. Her pregnancy was difficult since she had a weak womb and we were scared of a miscarriage but we made it through. And that’s how Yu Yukito and Yu Yukira were born. Father let my mother name them because he knew she had suffered so much more than him, and that’s why they also have Japanese names.”
She smiled remembering the first time she saw them. They were so cute and adorable angels. Yu Ichika’s happiness knew no bounds.
“I started to take care of them and we were just like any other biological siblings.”
“Wow Nana, you can already make such fine dumplings.”, Yu Ichika praised.
The twins would always stick to her.
“Look how they are attached to her. We have become secondary for them now.”, she giggled.
Nana continued, “Time passed by and as I started to grow, I noticed my father behaving oddly. He avoided looking at me. He even started not to stay in the same room as me. I didn’t understand. He behaved normally with me in front of others. So, Mom didn’t find anything wrong or different.”
Liu Jinhai was just as sharp as Father Liu. He slowly widened his eyes in possible realization. No…it cannot be…
