562 To Have That...
"Brother Kuan, stop being babysitter. Do your job," Xin Zimen was really annoyed to see how Xin Kuan was standing right beside him without any inclination to leave. In his presence, Xin Zimen wasn't even able to heave a sigh of relief.
"Your wife left me with you to take care of you. I honestly don't mind being a babysitter." Xin Kuan's words were precise without any change in his expressions. Seeing him, Xin Zimen really wanted to question people who thought he was the real poker face. Because to Xin Zimen, this Brother Kuan was the real poker face with no expressions at all.
Xin Zimen rolled her eyes at that answer. Wasn't he tired of repeating the same words? He really made Xin Zimen wish to find his dead wife to ask what really was she thinking when she left this man on his side?!
"Dad!" Ah-Si came back to see his father with a worried expression.
"You didn't go get my granddaughter? Where is my granddaughter?"
"I didn't go to pick up Ava. With your condition, I couldn't think of anything else."
Xin Zimen shook his head saying, "It's just a fever. Why are you all acting as if I got some incurable disease?"
"DAD!" exclaimed Ah-Si. "Can you please watch your words?"
Xin Zimen's eyes softened as he patted his son's hands, "But I'm really fine. It really is just a fever. The weather is changing, it must be because of that."
Ah-Si looked down as he said, "But you don't even get a fever that easily."
"I'm not omnipotent, son! And as a human, these things are unavoidable." He took a pause and added, "Now, go and ask someone to make me some congee with chicken shreds. I'm hungry."
"You just drank the soup an hour or so ago," reminded Ah-Si.
"I couldn't taste that bland thing," answered Xin Zimen. "Now, go and get me something." Ah-Si nodded hesitantly. "You also leave the room, Brother Kuan," he turned to Xin Kuan. "I want to take some rest."
When the two people left one after the other, the familiar silence engulfed his surroundings. He pulled the photo frame from under the pillow and continued to look at it for who knew how long.
Bzzz...
It was his cellphone's ringtone that broke his train of thoughts. He didn't see who was calling as he spoke in a slightly hoarse voice, "Hello!"
There was silence at the other end before a small voice came, "Ah-Xin, are you sick?"
Xin Zimen's eyes widened as he pulled away the cellphone to look at the caller id before replying, "No. Not at all."
"But your voice," said Xiu thoughtfully.
Xin Zimen cleared his throat as he answered, "I was sleeping. That's why my voice sounds so different."
"Why are you sleeping at this time?" asked Xiu.
"Oh, I called to say thanks to you," Xiu's attention was successfully diverted.
"Thanks for what?"
Xiu facepalmed herself saying, "Obviously for everything you did for me. I had no problem getting my marriage certificate. It was such an easy process."
"Congratulations on getting married!" said Xin Zimen with a genuine smile on his face. "May you forever be of one mind and have a harmonious union that lasts one hundred years."
"Why only a hundred years?" grumbled Xiu unhappily. "I want it to continue even in the next life."
Xin Zimen chuckled at her response and said, "Then I wish you both find each other in each life with the same love and respect for each other."
"That sounds better," she sounded pleased to hear this. "Thank you so much for your kind words!" Taking a pause, she added, "Oh, and thank you so much for the big feast. I enjoyed every dish. But I couldn't finish it all. I feel so bad for not being able to eat it all."
"It's alright. We can get you more whenever you want to eat it. No need to feel bad about it."
"Hmm..." Xiu hummed in reply. She waited for a minute as she hesitated before asking, "Ah-Xin, can I ask you something?"
"Sure," replied Xin Zimen in a casual tone.
"Why are you so good to me?" After asking this, she felt like she said something wrong so she rephrased her words, "I mean, you are a good person. But I feel like you're especially good to me. However, I'm not able to understand why?"
Xin Zimen looked at the photo in his hand and his lips curled up slightly as he said, "Who told you to have that..."
"That? What? What do I have?" she was baffled and very curious to hear what he had to say.
Xin Zimen took a deep breath as he said, "I mean who told you to have that kind of charm? Who can possibly resist that?"
Xiu chewed on her bottom lip. She could feel that he wasn't telling her the truth. "So, it's not because I'm your niece?"
Xin Zimen's eyes widened. It only struck him now that she was indeed his niece. How strange that he had completely overlooked this fact.
"Little lass, even if I'm especially good to you because of this, what's wrong with that? In fact, I only have one niece. So, it's not wrong that I want to take good care of her."
Xiu smiled at his reply and said, "Then I am very grateful to have Ah-Xin. Thank you so much again! I'll talk to you later. Bye!"
Even when the phone was hung up, he couldn't help staring at the screen for a long while. He felt bitter at the reminder that she wasn't his own daughter. But the only satisfaction was that she was at least his niece. At the end of the day, she was still a family member.
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