Su Yi's voice came through the door to Su Jinning's ears. He was stunned for a moment, then called out towards the door, "Ah, I'm here!"
The door was pushed open, and Su Yi, already dressed in a suit, stood solemnly in front of the door.
"Dad, why are you up so early too?" Su Jinning said as she put the bookmark inside and stood up.
Su Yi turned around and said as he closed the door, "I have to go on a business trip today, so I got up a little early." After saying that, he smiled and handed over the cup of hot milk he was holding, "Don't you get up early too?"
Su Jinning took the milk and took a small sip: "No, I can't sleep."
Su Yi nodded: "I see. Do you want to take a nap now? Anyway, you can make it if you leave home at 7:30."
"No need." Su Jinning turned around, put the milk on the desk, and looked at the clock again: "It's 6:30, and I can't sleep now."
Su Yi nodded helplessly, looking at Su Jinning's tired face, and reached out to touch Su Jinning's head with heartache: "I heard from your Aunt Cui that you seemed to have something on your mind, and you got up earlier than her. I was worried, so I came to see you."
Su Jinning didn't have anything to say, and nodded while rubbing her head: "I'm fine, I'll be fine after a good night's sleep tonight."
"Hmm." Su Yi didn't know how to comfort her, so he turned to look elsewhere and suddenly noticed several books slumped behind Su Jinning. His eyes lit up: "Xiao Ning, were you reading the whole time?"
Su Jinning nodded dismissively: "Yes."
"Then..." Su Yi put on a flattered expression, "Did Dad disturb you?"
Su Jinning was a little helpless: "No, just some extracurricular books, bought in junior high school, I just read them when I couldn't sleep."
"Ah!" Despite saying that, Su Yi nodded happily, and a rare look of surprise appeared on his increasingly aged face: "It's okay, any book is a book! As long as I can read it, that's fine."
Looking at his childlike smile, Su Jinning smiled too: "Dad, is it strange that I read books?"
"No, no, it's not strange!" Su Yi quickly waved his hand. His flustered expression was a bit exaggerated: "Um, what other books do you want to read? Dad will give you money, go buy them." Perhaps seeing that his child had suddenly figured it out, he didn't know what to do for a moment, so he simply took out his wallet and casually handed over five hundred yuan.
This reaction made Su Jinning feel guilty. He smiled and pushed the money back, saying, "Dad, I don't need money. I have more here."
"This is your money for buying books, it's different from other money, take it." Su Yi ignored him and haphazardly stuffed five hundred yuan into Su Jinning's hand.
Su Jinning looked at the five hundred yuan in her hand, which had been torn and crumpled by the two of them, and couldn't understand her father.
Money for books? Is it different from other money?
In his father's eyes, this thing comes in different varieties?
"Dad," he rubbed his temples, "do you remember when you transferred 10,000 yuan to my card for tuition fees, but your hand slipped and you typed 100,000 instead?"
Su Yi was taken aback, then scratched his cheek: "...No, I don't remember."
Su Jinning knew he was faking it, and she laughed in anger: "I haven't even spent all the money left, can you please stop stuffing it in? Am I supposed to feed it to the dog?"
"Whatever." Su Yi was too lazy to take it back, and grumbled as he stuffed the wallet in, complaining that the man didn't accept the money: "You brat, you won't take the money. I've never had such a stupid son."
Su Yi left the house, probably because Su Jinning had brought up the embarrassing incident involving the middle-aged man, which put him in a bad mood.
Su Jinning found it amusing, and shook her head with a light laugh: "I've never seen a father who insists on giving money to his son even though he doesn't want it."
He turned around and read for a while longer. When the clock struck 6:50, he got up to change his clothes and wash up.
As he stepped outside, the living room was filled with the aroma of food, but he had no appetite. He grabbed a sandwich from the plate and left, ignoring Cui Ping's request to take a bottle of water.
As soon as he stepped outside, a fresh floral fragrance wafted into his nostrils on a gentle breeze. He looked towards the source of the scent and saw an old man in tattered clothes standing at the intersection with his back to him, surrounded by various kinds of flowers.
He recognized the old man; he was a widowed, childless man who had spent most of his life growing flowers with his wife. After her death, he started selling his flowers. Before, on Chen Yuanyuan's birthday, Chen Hang had broken her gift, and when they were at a loss, Su Jinning had brought Chen Hang to the old man's to buy roses. The flowers were not only beautiful but also inexpensive, but he always came to sell them very early in the morning, so he had few customers and his income was meager.
Thinking of this, Su Jinning took out the five hundred yuan that Su Yi had just given him from her pocket and walked over.
"Grandpa, how much are these flowers?" Su Jinning smiled and bent down, her little tiger teeth showing, giving a warm smile with her back to the sunlight.
When the old man saw someone come to buy flowers, his eyes narrowed into slits with joy, and the wrinkles on his face gathered together, giving him an inexplicably kind expression: "Not expensive, not expensive, just a few dollars. See if there's anything you like?"
The flowers were probably picked by the old man early in the morning, and a few drops of glistening dew still clung to the delicate petals.
Su Jinning hesitated for a moment, looking at these flowers, each one more delicate than the last, and for a moment she even wanted to buy them all.
But he prefers roses.
Su Jinning smiled, as if thinking about something: "Grandpa, please wrap up all the roses here."
The old man had never received such a large order before, and for a moment he didn't know whether to be surprised or delighted. While answering, he packed up the long, delicate roses beside him. He didn't have many materials on hand, and he had never packed such a large bunch of roses before, so he could only put two sheets of wrapping paper together to pack them.
Seeing him busy, Su Jinning squatted down to help: "Let me help you."
The old man quickly waved his hand and declined, saying, "No need, no need, young man, I can do it."
"It's alright." Su Jinning insisted on taking a rose and winked at the old man: "It's a gift, so my bag has meaning too."
——
After finishing everything, it was almost 7:30. Although there was no morning reading today, I still had to be at school before 8:00.
He rushed into Su Yi's room, clutching a rose still glistening with dew, and fumbled for the motorcycle keys.
There's really no time to spare today; I'll definitely be late if I don't sneak out on my motorcycle.
The black motorcycle sped through the dense city streets. Afraid that the roses would be damaged by the wind, he simply took off his jacket and covered them with the roses. He was only wearing a thin white short-sleeved shirt. To prevent the flowers from being crushed, he would occasionally reach out to steady them with one hand. To be honest, this action was very dangerous on the motorcycle.
The howling wind swept fiercely over Su Jinning's body, sending chills down his spine. He suddenly felt like he might have a brain bubble; he had gotten up at five o'clock, yet he was still too late.
Why buy roses so early in the morning and rush them to be delivered? That's just ridiculous. Couldn't you leave them at home and deliver them tomorrow? Or deliver them when you get home in the evening? Why rush them in the morning?
Only when the hospital entrance appeared before her did Su Jinning hurriedly get out of the car, pick up the roses, and run into the hospital building.
Wow! So handsome!
"What a handsome guy! And he's holding roses!"
"It's probably a gift for your lover, I'm so envious!"
"Quick, take a picture and post it on Weibo!"
...
Shen Moyu sat by the window feeding the ball, still reeling from the joy of finally being able to stand and walk, when a cacophony of praise erupted from the female nurses down the corridor. Even in their hushed screams, he could tell just how handsome the boy carrying roses down the hospital corridor was.
"Bang—"