My One and Only Love/ Exclusive Memory (Somewhere Only We Know) — 独家记忆 Chapter 4 Part 3

 Greetings, hello my dear readers!  

How are you, guys? Long time no see, eh? hehehe. Life's been busy. I won't be apologizing this time since I think it would be too overdue to do so, so instead I'd like to present this chapter that have been dusting in my draft since the last update on Feb (?). I hope you like it. Please do excuse my rusty translation and editing, and also please do let me know if I made any error.

In this chapter, a tad bit of Xiao Tong and her mum's relationship will be unveiled.

Chapter 4 Part 3: Left-handed VS Right-handed
Translated & edited by Fei斐

It turned out that the boy's name was Liu Qi from the Department of Computer Science.

He was the one who stood behind me at the canteen that day, who laughed at me together with the canteen master (cook), also the person who got ferociously slashed at by me after.

Later, I squeezed myself out from the pile of people and lost the meal card. He had just picked it up and wanted to call me but didn't expect for me to slip like a puff of green smoke and disappeared from the canteen.

In desperation, he went to the school to check the student information on the meal card, and then was asked to come to the 'door' and returned it to me.

The meal card belonged to Bai Lin hence he thought my name was Bai Lin.

After class, on the way back to the dorm, Bai Lin and I made up our mind to repay Liu Qi's favor: certainly, going to treat him to a meal when there's the chance to.

I didn't have to go to Peng Yu's house for class this Saturday, while on the other hand my mother's rest day finally coincided with mine. She worked in the women's prison thirty kilometers away from city A. Our school and their prison were separated from the east and west ends of city A, and the distance between them was nearly eighty or ninety kilometers, which made it very inconvenient to go back and forth. Therefore, although in one city, we rarely saw each other.

Many people thought that the police were the public security, and the public security were the police. In fact, public security was just one out of many police divisions. There were also other police (divisions) such as prison guards, bailiffs, etc.

My mother was purely a prison guard, wearing a police uniform to work, and the police badge on her armband was embroidered with two words "司法"*. 

[*T/N: Sīfǎ - according to pleco, it means administration of justice; judicature; judicial.] 

Bai Lin often said enviously, "Xiao Tong-ah, your mother's appearance in the uniform is really valiant and formidable-looking."

My mother, though, obviously had a pear-shaped figure with three swimming circles on her stomach. I couldn't associate her with the four words "valiant and formidable-looking" at all. So, I had been wondering and introspecting whether there was something wrong with my level of appreciation or was it them who had the problems.

She was usually busy. Coupled with the particularity of prison guards' work where she could only take turns to rest and was also required to be on duty at night from time to time regardless of holidays, she rarely went home. I (too) simply stayed at school and occasionally went to see my grandparents.

On the way home, I went around the market to buy vegetables and fish, planning to make a hearty lunch for my old person at home. Usually, they would leave work at nine o'clock in the morning, (or) a little later at eleven o'clock after a slight dawdling.

When my mom got home, I was serving the fish. Seeing that she hadn't even changed her uniform and gone home, I asked in wonder, "Are you in a hurry?" Because in most cases, they were not allowed to wear police uniforms during normal times (outside work hours).

"En," she washed her face, "your Auntie Wang and the others sent a female prisoner from our prison to the city to see a doctor, probably to be hospitalized. I need to go to the hospital to watch over for them after eating."

"Oh—" I responded quietly.

During the meal, we sat facing each other, only the sound of chewing food could be heard.

She said, "I'll drop by your grandmother to give them money in a while. More than four hundred, I'll put it on your desk, it's your living expenses for next month."

"No need, you keep it la. The money I saved from part-time work is enough." 

"Then just put it aside first, or since you don't need it, you can deposit it too. Right, buy something for them when you're going to see your grandpa."

I hung my head down and ate the rice, keeping silent.

She asked, "Is there anything going on at school lately?"

"Nothing, all good." 

There was no more word after that.

She hurried away after eating.

I stared at the four RMB on the desk for a long time. In the end, I went out to deposit the money in the bank, then bought some fruit and went to the hospital.

Walking into the ward, Grandma was not there, only to see Grandpa still lying there for ten years without the slightest sign of opening his eyes. I put down my things, sat down by the bed, and touched his snow-white sideburns.

Sometimes, even the memory of him speaking to me for the last time was a little fuzzy.

The ventilator had always been set by his side, yet the result was nil.

Two years ago, Grandpa became vegetative because his brain lacked oxygen supply for ten minutes. Now he's doing fine that the ventilator was deactivated most of the time instead, to practice his independent-breathing ability. Every single day, he was also fed liquid foods like sesame paste and milk through a feeding tube that was directly connected to his esophagus.

Whether it was grandma or the nurse, they both took a very good care of him that there were almost no bedsores. In accordance with the doctor's word, except for not being able to wake up, other vital signs were basically normal.

Still, this was one enormous medical expense. But my family and uncle's family also partook in this.

"Creak—" The door opening was heard.

Grandma came in with a bottle of boiled water.

"Grandma." I stood up and called her.

"Here you are." She darted a quick glance at me.

"I'll help you." I took the thermos bottle from her hand.

"Your mom was here just now. You daughter-mother pair is truly (displeasure)– it was either both shadows can't be seen at all, or both (suddenly) gather in on place together (one after another)." She grumbled.

Grandma had always been unable to get along with my mother because I am a girl, hence she had not been very kind to me since I was a child, and now she was even more annoyed to see me.

I told her, "There's a prisoner who's hospitalized here, so she came and visited."

Grandma snorted coldly, "I know, it's on the third floor, and she's still wearing a handcuff." When I came up just now, people were strangely ogling at them. Heard that the prisoner's husband had gone with the woman and sent his son away. The female prisoner found out about it, then attempted to hang herself with a bed sheet in the cell."

"Oh." So, it turned out to be like that.

"This woman too really is, if I had known earlier that it was like that, why (was she like that) in the first place..."

I really didn't like to hear her chattering about who she was, so I got up and said, "I'll go to the third floor to have a look."

At the door of one of the most secluded single wards on the third floor, I saw two policemen sitting in the doorway, one of whom I knew, Aunt Wang.

"Isn't this Tong-tong?" The sharp-eyed Aunt Wang called me.

I walked over to greet her and looked curiously into the hospital room. The door slit was so narrow that I could barely see the woman below her knees, her pants pale blue. I had seen them in their prison uniforms on TV, with white stripes on the shoulders and back. Her right ankle was handcuffed to the iron railing of the hospital bed, and next to her stood my mother.

"How did you get here?" She saw me.

"Grandma said you're here, I'll take a look."

She walked out, Aunt Wang went in.

"Don't you have to arrive in the faculty at seven sharp? Why haven't you gone back to school yet." She asked me as she turned around and took the door of the ward vigilantly so that I could no longer see what was going on inside.

She had been doing this, deliberately keeping me at my distance from her work and denying my access to those serving sentences.

I said, "Our department has ruled that out half a year ago."

However, I guessed she didn't hear this at all, because at the same time the nurse on the other side of the nurse station was shouting, "Officer Tong! Dr. Zhu asked you to please come over."

I glanced at her and turned to go downstairs.

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Happy new year!!!🥳🎆💫

Hi, from now and onward I think I would not specify any update schedule because I do not wish to disappoint any of you here. However, if I would ever put up an update, I would post it on weekends like today (Fri-Sat-Sun) at midnight or midday GMT+7. Thank you! Hoping to see you soon, again!!

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