“I haven’t seen her for nearly half a year. I don’t even know if she remembers who I am. Was she fed well in Rao City? Did she lose weight? Was there anyone beside her whenever she felt down or when there was something to celebrate?”
Then, he sighed heavily, his face filled with guilt. “What a shame! Even when we finally found her, we still did not take proper care of her. How am I supposed to face her mom now?”
He got so worked up that he started coughing again. Seeing this, Jiang Zongnan walked over, gently patted his back, and said reproachfully, “Dad, it’s not that we don’t want to let you go to Rao City. But looking at your health, how are you going to travel there? If you want to go to Rao City, please take care of your body first.”
Half a year ago, Old Master Jiang didn’t care and insisted on flying to Rao City to look for Qiao Nian. Upon returning, he became seriously ill and had to be confined to a sanatorium for three months to recuperate.
He had only just started to recover.
If he was to fly to Rao City again at his old age, his health and body would suffer.
“Nian Nian definitely remembers you. Have you forgotten? She even sent you gifts before.”
Old Master Jiang thought of the box he had received and couldn’t help smiling. “I remember. How could I forget? She sent some candy from Rao City. She’s so considerate! It must be because of Jiang Li, always telling her about how I need to take my medicine daily. Hearing that, she must have sent me candy. In fact, there’s no shortage of candy here in Beijing, she didn’t have to go out of her way to send it to me from so far away.”
While patting his back, Jiang Zongnan also said, “Although candy can be found everywhere in Beijing, you were still very happy when you received candy from Nian Nian, right?”
Silence ensued for a moment.
Old Master Jiang pursed his mouth and stopped talking.
He felt a warm and sweet feeling in his heart.
How could the candy from your granddaughter be compared to ordinary candy bought from any normal store?
The fruit-flavored lozenges sent by Qiao Nian were not packaged. Instead, they were all bottled together in a glass bottle. There were about 20 pills in total. Both the production dates and the name of the manufacturer were not printed on the bottle.
It seemed like an unidentified product.
However, he still diligently took a pill daily. It could just be his own imagination, but he felt as though his body was getting better and better every day. He had more spirit than before, and his appetite had improved!
Old Master Jiang didn’t overthink. He just regarded the improvements as a psychological effect.
His head was filled with Jiang Xianrou’s words. He turned his head and asked her, “By the way, Xianrou, you mentioned seeing Nian Nian in Beijing. What happened next? Are you sure the person you saw was Nian Nian? Could you have made a mistake? The third years at the First High School in Rao City only have Sunday off as their holiday. Today is only Saturday, they should still have classes. Even if she was here to play, she would only come tomorrow.”
Jiang Xianrou listened to them talk about the candy that Qiao Nian had mailed from Rao City as though there was no one around. She found it funny and laughed inside.
Only her dad and her grandfather treated Qiao Nian like a treasure.
She remembered that her dad had said before, that before he left Rao City, he had given Qiao Nian a gold card. The gold card from Citibank had an amount of about 5 million yuan inside.
After taking so much money, Qiao Nian simply gave the Old Master a bottle of sugared candy, which did not even have a packaging date!
If anyone else heard of this, they would also find it laughable.
She took a deep breath and kept in mind the porcelain theory that Tang Wanru had told her. Qiao Nian was like an insignificant rock. She didn’t need to compare herself to her. If she compared herself with Qiao Nian, she would only be lowering her standard!
With such thoughts, Jiang Xianrou didn’t bother mentioning that she had met Qiao Nian in the Beijing snack street. She casually said, “I met her when I was shopping with my friends. When I saw her, she seemed to be alone. She said she was in Beijing for an examination. But she left hurriedly after that, saying that her friends were waiting for her outside.”
