She tried calling again, but the call was directly hung up.
She waited with her phone for a while, but received neither a reply nor a call from Jiang Wan. She tried contacting her one more time.
In the past, if Jiang Wan didn't answer her calls, she would never have called again.
But this time, she didn't know what had gotten into her. It was as if she were possessed, stubbornly calling her again and again.
She couldn't remember how many calls she had made, only that when her phone was about to run out of battery, Jiang Wan finally answered: "Speak."
A very cold word.
Without any emotion, devoid of any sentiment.
Lin Jing pursed her lips, holding her phone, and remained silent.
Jiang Wan waited on the other end for a few seconds. Seeing that she wasn't going to speak, she said nothing and hung up the call.
Lin Jing listened to the dial tone in her phone, her eyes blinking in disbelief. As if she were determined to confront Jiang Wan, she dialed again.
After hanging up twice, Jiang Wan finally answered impatiently: "Lin Jing, what do you want? If you have something to say, just say it. I answered the phone, and you don't speak—"
Lin Jing, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly spoke: "Where are you?"
Jiang Wan paused: "At home."
Lin Jing asked: "Didn't you say you were coming to Beijing on a business trip today?"
Jiang Wan said "oh" and calmly replied: "It was canceled at the last minute."
A very simple sentence, yet Lin Jing found it hard to comprehend. She was lost for a moment, then blinked: "I'm at the airport. I've been waiting for you for four hours."
Jiang Wan: "Then you can go back now."
Lin Jing thought she had misheard: "What?"
That casual, matter-of-fact sentence, when understood, made Lin Jing almost laugh at herself on the spot.
The entire week she had been excited since receiving Jiang Wan's call last week about meeting her in Beijing, now felt like a joke.
Lin Jing looked up, holding back the tears welling in her eyes: "Why didn't you tell me you weren't coming?"
Jiang Wan didn't hesitate. Her tone was faint as she said two words: "Forgot."
Forgot...
Lin Jing was completely at a loss for words.
She couldn't understand how something like this could be forgotten. She couldn't remember how many times she had questioned if she was truly Jiang Wan's daughter.
She felt that even if she wasn't her biological daughter, even if she had been adopted after being found, after so many years, there should be some affection.
Even stray cats and dogs found on the street, after being kept for a while, would develop some bond.
What's more, she was her own flesh and blood. How could she be so cold-blooded and heartless towards her?
Lin Jing held back her tears, her fingertips gripping the phone starting to tremble slightly. So many words came to her mind.
She desperately wanted to ask her: Do you remember how many times you haven't replied to my WeChat messages? Do you remember how many days it's been since I last saw you? Do you remember how long it's been since you last asked your daughter how she was doing?
These words were on the tip of her tongue, but she was not given a chance to speak them before the phone was coldly hung up again.
Lin Jing completely lost the courage to call again.
Looking at the many calls she had made to Jiang Wan this afternoon, over these past few hours, a certain string that had been taut in her heart for years suddenly snapped.
She felt incredibly wronged, overwhelmingly wronged.
The tears she had been holding back rolled down from the corners of her eyes.
This beginning caused her to be like a broken dam, tears pouring down like they cost nothing, one after another.
She was at the airport exit. Flights were arriving periodically, bringing waves of people.
Her rational mind told her that even if she lost control of her emotions, she should find a place to do so. But she had no mind to follow her rational thoughts. She raised her hand, wiped her tears, and as more tears flowed, she could no longer bear it and slumped onto a table, sobbing.
She cried heartbrokenly, so much so that her shoulders began to shake.
Another flight arrived, and the exit became noisy, with many footsteps approaching.
The Starbucks, facing the exit, was open-plan. Lin Jing vaguely heard someone say: "Is that person crying?"
She knew they were talking about her, but she really didn't have the energy to care.
She felt that if she stubbornly held on, she would truly break down and die.
Someone stood beside her. She felt their presence but didn't look up.
"Sheng Kuang, why are you walking so fast?" Chen Jing's voice called from not too far away.
Lin Jing's crying paused. Then she heard a sound like a zipper being pulled, and then a jacket was draped over her head.
The jacket was large, covering her upper body, almost completely hiding her.
The scent of the jacket was familiar; it was Sheng Kuang's signature light fragrance.
In the darkness, Lin Jing opened her mouth and then heard Sheng Kuang's voice from beside her: "You guys go ahead."
"Ah? Why? Aren't we going together?" Chen Jing asked.
"No," Sheng Kuang said again, as Chen Jing's group seemed to be approaching, "Don't come over."
Then Lin Jing heard Sheng Kuang's footsteps recede, followed by faint whispers between Sheng Kuang and Chen Jing. Chen Jing's voice was a bit loud, and she heard, "Who is that?" Then, Sheng Kuang said something, sounding a little impatient, and Chen Jing replied with a few "Okay"s and left.
After a moment, Sheng Kuang returned.
Lin Jing, hidden under his jacket, gradually stopped crying.
She couldn't see what was happening outside. She choked back sobs for a while, then noticed the jacket being lifted slightly. Sheng Kuang's fingers held a tissue and quietly reached in.
Looking at the tissue, Lin Jing remembered years ago, in the wind and rain on a busy road, when she cried the hardest, he had given her his umbrella.
This was the second time in her life she had broken down emotionally, and both times he had witnessed it.
She didn't take the tissue. Perhaps her mind was a little deranged from crying, or perhaps she felt she was too pathetic and desperately needed some comfort. After looking at the tissue for two seconds, she suddenly stood up and hugged the person standing beside her.