Chapter 235: Chapter 232: The Door of the Operating Room

As they reached the door of the operating room, and the stretcher was about to enter, separating the family from the operating room, Ling Chengyan suddenly grabbed her father’s withered hand tightly and said, “You’ve left me alone for over a decade. Are you going to abandon me again? If you leave me one more time, I will never, ever forgive you!”

The doctor was a bit taken aback, paused for a moment, and then continued with the stretcher, “Family can wait outside. Professor Qi is the best at this, don’t overthink it.”

Her father squeezed his daughter’s hand and tried to smile, “Don’t worry.”

Don’t worry, he wouldn’t leave his daughter alone again. God knows how he spent these years, living each day with guilt and worry, afraid that he might never see his daughter again, afraid that she would hate him as a father…

The doors of the operating room closed in front of them, as if separating two worlds.

As the doors closed, Ling Chengyan felt a wave of anxiety welling up from the bottom of her heart, rushing into her nose and eyes, and then she felt like she had been punched in the nose, completely losing control as her nose tingled and her eyes reddened.

The two brothers of the Ling Family were even less composed than their sister; as soon as the doors closed, they were shedding tears.

After all, Ling Chengyan was an outsider, and didn’t have deep feelings with her father or even with the Ling Family. The two brothers were different; they were older and remembered clearly. Their mother died early, and their father, who was just in his thirties, raised the three siblings, playing both the role of father and mother, working hard to help them grow up… it was their father who painstakingly supported this family through hard times and turbulent years, giving them a stable and warm home.

Even later, when he had no choice but to hurriedly arrange the marriage for their sister and then lead the brothers to the west, it was a plan their father had long arranged, a temporary compromise made primarily for their sister’s wellbeing.

Back then, when they headed west, their future was uncertain, and there was even the risk of losing their lives.

The father and sons chose to remain silent about the crises and hardships of those years; their wives and children were also unaware of their real situation at the time.

When Ling Chengyan turned her gaze from the illuminated surgical lamp, she saw her older brother lying on the window sill, and her second brother squatting on the ground, hands supporting his forehead, covering his face…

Ling Chengyan paused, secretly sighed, and walked over, pulling the second brother up from the ground: “Second brother, look at the older brother!”

After some time together, Ling Chengyan had a rough understanding of her brothers’ personalities.

The eldest brother was honest, steady, and quiet; the second brother was more lively and talkative.

At this moment, it was most suitable for the second brother to comfort the eldest brother, as she herself really didn’t know how to console people.

Sure enough, the second brother wiped his face as soon as he heard his sister’s voice and stood up.

His eyes were obviously redder, but he still managed a smile to comfort his sister, “Don’t worry, Dad will be fine. He is a man of his word; since he promised you, he will keep it.”

Ling Chengyan nodded and motioned for the second brother to check on the eldest brother again.

The second brother went to the eldest, and the two stood together, speaking in low voices, but Ling Chengyan didn’t make an effort to listen because Wang Liansheng had come to her side.

“I just asked the doctor, it can be quite cold when they come out of surgery. I will go get a quilt…”

Ling Chengyan had regained her composure and said, “Take the second brother with you… Also, I’ve arranged for a two-person room, you and the second brother should move things over now, so when the surgery finishes, we can head straight there.”

Provincial hospital rooms are divided into large and small. The large room has six beds for patients, and often with family members, friends visiting, it can get crowded and noisy.

After the surgery, Ling Father needs a quiet environment for recovery, so the noisy large ward is not suitable.

Liu San’s ability to get things done is quite strong; Ling Chengyan left him in the provincial city initially just to have him run some errands for her brothers, not expecting he would manage to secure a high-end room.

As for the type of health protection ward where Zhang Yuanhong’s mother stayed, it requires high status, and is not something ordinary people can hope for.

It was Wang Liansheng who took the eldest brother away.

Leaving only Ling Chengyan and the second brother to guard the door of the operating room.

Ling Chengyan pulled her second brother to sit on a chair in the waiting area, handed him a glass cup, and then softly said, “Tell me about how you’ve been over there all these years.”

Her voice was calm, yet had a magical power to soothe, which eased a lot of the tension and fear in the second brother’s heart.

The second brother looked back at his sister, sighed quietly, and began, “When Dad took us there, we weren’t sure if we could settle. Your sisters-in-law didn’t go with us; rather, they were sent beyond the border where one of Dad’s old friends was…”

The second brother didn’t explain much about why they left in those days, but from his words, Ling Chengyan could roughly guess that the Ling Family had encountered some crisis back then, one that could have doomed the whole family, forcing them to leave hurriedly, marry off the daughter, and send the wives away… only the father and sons heading west. It was less a move than an escape.

More than ten years have passed, their lives were preserved, and now they’ve reunited.

Ling Chengyan placed her hand over her second brother’s and said softly, “Now things are better, our whole family is together again, and from now on, things will only get better.”

After she finished, Ling Chengyan naturally switched the topic to the future, “Things are different now. You don’t necessarily need a job; running a business or doing manual work can also make for a good life. You know, Liansheng’s two cousins, one started a business and opened a shop, another formed a construction team to take on projects, and now they’re quite successful, earning more in a year than a factory worker’s salary in three to five years.”

“Haha, I’ve told the older brother the same thing, but he’s still hesitant. You know older brother likes a steady life, unlike me, who he always scolds for being an adult and still not living properly, always tinkering every day…” The second brother spoke of his disagreement with the eldest brother without anger, instead, he couldn’t help but laugh.

Ling Chengyan glanced at him, then pursed her lips.

The siblings talked, although somewhat absent-minded, occasionally glancing at the tightly closed operating room.

The waiting time always seemed so slow. After they shared stories of the past and present, it felt like ages had passed, but checking the watch, not even an hour had gone by.

Ling Father’s surgery was expected to take at least three and a half to four hours.

Wang Liansheng and the eldest brother packed up the belongings from the original ward and moved them to the new room.

The family members of fellow patients in the ward also came to help.

With many hands, they managed to move everything in one go and hurried back to the operating room door in less than an hour.

Ling Chengyan raised her hand to check the time, then quickly looked at the returned eldest brother and Wang Liansheng, and at the person behind them—Old Mr. Lian.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep