He actually doesn’t like working late at night, because the silence of the night always inadvertently triggers fragments of past memories. He is not someone who gets lost in the past, nor does he have the habit of harboring hatred, but he dislikes facing those memories that are unpleasant to recall.
This afternoon, he received an international call from his second mother, saying they would return to Taiwan by the end of the month and asking him to visit if he had time.
What to see?
A hint of sarcasm curved at the corner of his lips.
That was his second mother’s home, and also the place where his father currently resided. As for this place that was once the true home of him, his father, and his deceased mother, his father had hardly ever stepped inside again after he became an adult.
Actually, he had always hated himself. He hated that his resentment towards his father and second mother was even more shallow than he could have imagined.
He had thought he would resent his father for indirectly forcing his mother to her death, and even blame his second mother, but ironically, he didn’t.
Because his second mother had truly been good to him. Although that kindness had a hint of compensation, being good to him was an undeniable fact.
And what he hated about himself was that he had actually accepted his second mother’s kindness.
Subconsciously, he felt he had let down his deceased biological mother, so he had been reluctant to positively respond to his father and second mother’s love, merely wearing a cold mask when facing them.
But as the years passed, his hatred had faded, and the fact that his second mother had been good to him made it hard for him to maintain his resentment.
His second mother said that his father’s health had been declining in recent years, and that he would often stare blankly at the doorway, as if waiting for someone to come home and see him.
Who was that person? Deep down, he knew.
He quietly extinguished the cigarette in his hand. Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of a familiar figure standing outside the employee dormitory, seemingly talking on the phone.
At this late hour, who would be calling her?
