The Young Urban Doctor

The plate was hot, so hot that he almost cried out.

He quickly put his other hand under it too, and after holding each side of the plate with both hands, it finally stopped burning.

What satisfied him greatly was that not a single bit of the food on the plate had spilled.

He hurried to place the plate on the dining table.

While setting the plate down, Luo Ziling quickly wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

After wiping away the rolling tears, he slowly turned around, with reddened eyes, to face that woman.

Ling Ruonan had already been crying uncontrollably, her tears cascading down like a breached dam.

But she tried to force a smile, yet she couldn’t bring herself to do so.

Luo Ziling wanted to smile too, but he also failed to do so and when he tried to pull the corners of his mouth into a smile, his tears flowed even more freely.

Seeing Luo Ziling with tears streaming down his face, Ling Ruonan could no longer hold back and cried out loud.

Luo Ziling really wanted to walk over, wipe the tears from her face, and throw himself into her arms, calling out “Mom.”

But facing Ling Ruonan, with tears covering her face, he felt as if his legs were weighed down by a thousand pounds and couldn’t move forward, ultimately just standing in place, watching Ling Ruonan cry even more sadly.

He felt drops of water hanging on his face, as if rained upon, and then felt droplets falling onto his sock-covered feet as well.

Luo Ziling knew those were his own tears.

Men have tears but they don’t lightly shed them, only at the true moment of deep feeling.

Luo Ziling felt that the tears he had just shed were more than all the tears he had shed in the past ten-plus years since he could remember.

As a child, no matter how wronged or hurt he was, he never cried, never shed tears.

As he grew up, he was even less likely to cry.

But today, never having thought he would cry, he just stood there letting the tears fall incessantly.

Mother and son stood opposite each other, a little more than a meter’s distance apart, watching each other’s tears flow endlessly.

Finally, it was Ling Ruonan who stepped forward first.

With eyes reddened from crying, Ling Ruonan extended her hand, lifted her sleeve, and tilted her head back to wipe Luo Ziling’s tears.

“Ling’er, don’t cry,” she murmured softly while wiping away the tears, “Stop crying, okay?”

Even as she said this, her own tears kept falling even more fiercely.

For many years, except for when Luo Ziling was taken away by the grandfather and she had cried bitterly, in the nineteen years before Luo Ziling came to Yanjing, she had never shed a tear in front of anyone.

The tears she cried today were enough to wet her clothes and apron, which surely exceeded the total amount of tears she had secretly shed in the past twenty years.

As Ling Ruonan wiped his tears with her sleeve, Luo Ziling knew he should call out “Mom.”

But after opening his mouth several times, he still couldn’t say it, his mouth full of a salty bitterness.

“Don’t cry anymore, it’s all my fault,” Ling Ruonan tried hard to smile, but still couldn’t, and her tears simply wouldn’t stop.

Luo Ziling turned around, pulled a stack of tissues from the dining table, and started wiping the tears from Ling Ruonan’s face.

Because she had been crying so hard, Ling Ruonan’s eyes were very red, and the area around her eyes somewhat swollen.

Luo Ziling used several tissues, but they just wouldn’t dry the tears on Ling Ruonan’s face.

Finally, Ling Ruonan snatched the tissue from his hand and used the tissue she had used on her own eyes to wipe away his tears.

“Ling’er, don’t cry anymore, this is our home, Mom is here, you don’t have to worry about anything.”

Luo Ziling gently nodded his head, trying hard to stop crying.

Ling Ruonan lowered her head, wiped her eyes a few times with the tissue, and then raised her head to reveal a very ugly smile, “You sit for a while, I’ll just make another soup.”

With that, regardless of Luo Ziling’s reaction, she turned and ran into the kitchen.

But upon entering the kitchen, she broke down in tears once again.

No matter how many tissues she pulled, they couldn’t dry the tears in her eyes.

Luo Ziling’s tears had finally stopped, but he didn’t sit down. Instead, he walked to the kitchen doorway and quietly watched Ling Ruonan wiping her eyes.

He saw that Ling Ruonan wiped her eyes for a full two minutes before she started to cook.

There was also a tomato and egg soup, another dish that Luo Ziling loved.

While making the soup, Ling Ruonan’s shoulders kept shrugging. From time to time she wiped her eyes, still unable to control her emotions.

Luo Ziling just stood quietly behind her, simply watching.

The woman he had dreamt about for twenty years, the closest woman he had never seen since he became sensible, now stood before him in reality, yet he still felt it was unreal.

He barely blinked, fearing that with a blink, she would vanish from his sight.

Ling Ruonan didn’t turn around. She knew Luo Ziling was standing behind her. She was afraid that turning around and letting Luo Ziling see her red eyes would make him cry again.

Of course, she also wanted to finish preparing all the dishes and then enjoy a proper meal with Luo Ziling.

While he ate, she wanted to watch him and chat with him.

Soon, the tomato and egg soup was ready. As Ling Ruonan was about to bring it out, the ever-watching Luo Ziling immediately entered the kitchen.

“I’ll do it,” his tears had stopped. He quickly stepped forward, snatching the soup before Ling Ruonan could.

Ling Ruonan let him do as he pleased. After a brief daze, she untied her apron, took a few more tissues, wiped her eyes, and then followed Luo Ziling to the dining room.

The table was laden with food, eight dishes and one soup, an incredibly sumptuous spread.

“Sit down,” Ling Ruonan finally managed an expression that could be called a “smile,” “The dishes are getting cold.”

“Mm,” Luo Ziling nodded, and sat down very stiffly.

Ling Ruonan sat down beside him, took a pair of chopsticks, and picked up a piece of lobster meat and a scallop, placing them into Luo Ziling’s bowl.

“Your grandfather told me what dishes you like to eat. It’s just that I haven’t cooked in a long time, so I’m not sure about the taste,” Ling Ruonan handed the chopsticks to Luo Ziling, again showing that difficult smile, “You taste it first. Also, would you like some wine? There is Yuezhou Old Wine. I’ll join you for a drink.”

“Mm,” Luo Ziling obediently replied, picking up a piece of lobster meat, he put it in his mouth and bit into it.

But he couldn’t taste anything; his taste buds had long been soaked with tears, temporarily losing their function to taste.

As Luo Ziling ate, Ling Ruonan watched him without blinking an eye, not bothering with her own meal, just gazing silently.

Thinking for a moment, she picked up a crab and held it out in front of Luo Ziling, “This is the freshly caught Yangcheng Lake hairy crab. Try it and see how it tastes.”

Seeing that Luo Ziling had finished the dishes in his bowl, she picked up another pair of chopsticks, and began to load more food into his bowl.

Soon, Luo Ziling’s bowl was piled high.

Looking at the mountain of dishes before him, Luo Ziling once again couldn’t control himself, and tears started to flow again.