Chapter 104 Playing parents

If you ask An Qinyan about what happened today, she wouldn’t be able to answer it.

One minute, she was breaking the news to her daughter about Lu Xuan returning home and the other minute, she found her daughter lying there unconscious.

She didn’t understand what had happened to An Xiulan but she knew that she was scared. She felt as if she was back to months ago when she received the call that her daughter was in the hospital. She didn’t think she could bear seeing her baby girl in hospital once again.

“Doctor, how is my daughter? Why is she not conscious yet?” An Qinyan asked as she saw the doctor leaving her daughter’s ward.

“President An, it seems your daughter is in a semi-comatose state,” The doctor replied and An Qinyan stilled as she didn’t know how to react at this time. “We have noticed some activity in her brain but she is not responding to our treatment.”

“I don’t understand,” An Qinyan whispered.

“Usually, such conditions are common with people having mental trauma or other psychological problems,” The doctor informed. “And your daughter has a history of PTSD. Her semi-comatose state could be because her trauma is triggered. I have read her medical history and the questionnaire filled by you suggests that your daughter must be facing the aftereffects of PTSD like building her own world, partially remembering things, running away from the truth etc. You said that she was behaving differently since her accident?”

An Qinyan nodded her head. Her daughter had been behaving weirdly ever since she woke up from the coma after the accident. She was told that An Xiulan would be facing the situation differently than she usually did as the trauma caused by the accident would be lasting. For example, An Xiualn was afraid of water bodies. She had noticed how her daughter would stand away from water bodies.

“President An, would you tell me what triggered your daughter to fall into a semi-comatose state?” asked the doctor.

“We were talking about her twin brother who she had not met for more than three years,” An Qinyan replied.

“Does she share some kind of bad history with her twin brother?” The doctor asked.

An Qinyan was about to shake her head but then she recalled how her children shut out each other three years ago. She didn’t know what had happened between the two of them but they never tried to talk to each other. Whenever she would ask An Xiulan to talk to Lu Xuan, the girl would ignore her for days. After An Xiulan’s accident, she tried to not force the former into doing something that she didn’t like as she was afraid of triggering her.

Lu Xuan was her trigger? He couldn’t be her trigger. An Xiulan had always loved her brother even when she was mad at him.

“President An, after the accident did your daughter try to talk to you about her twin brother?” The doctor asked.

As An Qinyan heard the question, she felt as if colour was drained from her face. She looked as pale as the sheet of paper. She didn’t know why she never noticed but An Xiulan never talked about her twin brother or his family. It was as if they didn’t exist for her at all. Initially, her daughter used to ask her when she would be going to visit him but after the accident …

How could she miss such an important detail?

An Qinyan felt like slapping herself for being such a careless mother.

“She never talked about him. Now that I think about the matter, it was as if he never existed for her. Doctor, it couldn’t be that she forgot about him?” An Qinyan added the last part in almost a whisper.

The doctor smiled a bit as he didn’t know what to say. It was such a weird case. He looked at the unconscious girl and then at her mother who was barely holding herself.

An hour later, An Qinyan was sitting outside An Qinyan’s ward when her phone rang. She picked up the call without seeing the caller.

“Hello? An Qinyan? It’s Lu Zhaolin, “The man from the other side spoke. “I called to inquire about Lu Xuan. How is he doing?”

“I’m at the hospital, “An Qinyan said in a hoarse voice.

“Is Lu Xuan alright?” Lu Zhaolin asked in a panicked voice. “Did he get into a fight again? Is he hurt? Please tell me if he is okay.”

An Qinyan bitterly smiled as she glanced at her baby girl through the glass. Her baby girl had nobody in this world except for her. What if she died today? Who would look after her Lanlan?

“It’s An Xiulan, “An Qinyan replied.

Lu Zhaolin fell silent for a moment and then asked in a soft voice, “Is she alright?”

“Alright? I don’t know,” An Qinyan replied. “She is in a comatose state.”

“Which hospital are you in?” Lu Zhaolin asked before disconnecting.

Half an hour later, Lu Zhaolin appeared with Song Yifei and little Lu Xun. They found An Qinyan sitting there with Grandpa You.

Grandpa You had gone out of the city for an important matter but when he heard how An Xiulan was admitted to the hospital, he left the matter and ran to see his granddaughter. As his eye fell on Lu Zhaolin and his wife, he snorted and looked away. As much as he hated Lu Zhaolin, he wouldn’t disrespect him. After all, the man was the father of the little girl lying on the hospital bed. And he would never do anything to put An Qinyan in a tight spot at such a tough time.

“How is Xiulan?” Lu Zhaolin asked as he saw his ex-wife sitting on a bench. She didn’t resemble the calm and collected woman that he met in court. She appeared as if her whole world had shattered.

“You guys are here, “An Qinyan merely said as she glanced at them for a moment before turning her eyes to the girl on the hospital bed.

When Song Yifei saw that An Qinyan wasn’t in a condition to answer questions, she gestured to him to not ask her any more questions. Later, he has a talk with the doctor and as he knew about the matter, his expression deteriorated

Never had Lu Zhaolin thought his absence in An Xiulan’s life would have such a deep effect on her life. He thought he was saving her from the psychological burden of having a father who lived oceans apart from her. But he didn’t know he was further hurting her to the point of no cure.

When An Qinyan chose An Xiulan and left Lu Xuan with him, he had called An Qinyan selfish for leaving their child behind. He was mad and enraged. It took him years to see the reason behind An Qinyan’s step. He was of the view that since An Qinyan chose An Xiulan she should play parent to their daughter while he would play parent to the motherless kid.

Never had he ever tried to understand that both Lu Xuan and An Xiulan were in the same boat.

In the end, Lu Xuan received the love of both parents as An Qinyan didn’t back off from caring for him but An Xiulan had only known An Qinyan as family. She was like a guest whenever she would visit the Lu family with her mother to see her brother.

Lu Xuan was a member of the An family as well as the Lu family but An Xiulan only had An Qinyan.

It took Lu Zhaolin sixteen years to see the daughter he had neglected and the daughter who no longer held him in her memories. He had no place in her life and this was hurting him. He felt breathless as he realized how wrong he had been.

“Zhaolin?” Song Yifei whispered when she saw the look of devastation on her husband’s face. She didn’t need to think about what he was thinking. Oftentimes, we take years to make a single decision and when we make the decision, it is already too late. For years, she tried to make Lu Zhaolin see the mirror but he had tied the cover on his eyes and all he wanted to see was how wrong An Qinyan had been by choosing only An Xiulan.

She knew that her husband was hurting but she knew too that he had brought this on himself.

“I will be back, “Lu Zhaolin said as he walked out of there to have fresh air.

Song Yifei glanced at the quiet An Qinyan and then at the baby boy in her arms as she said in a low voice, “Xiaobao, let’s pray for your Jiejie to wake up soon. Don’t you don’t want to play with your Jiejie?”

Xiaobao, who loved to shout Jiejie all the time, looked at his mother and laughed, touching her face and screeched, “Jiejie!”