余生， 请多指教 - Please Guide Me for the Rest of My Life (English Translation)

Chapter 1: Sudden Encounter

You never know what's going to happen in the next second and who you're going to meet again.

Date: 2009.2.28

I was buried underneath a mountain of resource books and materials on the table. My head started to hurt while calculating the increasing stock market returns. The desktop vibrated, and I pulled my phone out from a pile of scrap papers; my mom was calling me.

"Your dad's lab results are back, and approximately two-thirds of his stomach needs to be removed."

I stopped writing, "Our accounting professor had half of his stomach removed for stomach cancer. Mr. Lin needs to have two-thirds of his stomach taken out for stomach ulcer?" Even though my brain was already confused from the huge amount of numbers, it was still alert to the new numbers stated.

"The surgery is scheduled to be on Monday. Tomorrow, you'll go home first and I'll text you the items you need to bring. On Monday, your dad's company will send a car and you can come to the hospital in it."

During my delayed "oh", my mom simply hung up the phone. At that time, I was like any other senior in college revising their thesis; wrapped in a down jacket with a sad and angry gaze and a blank expression.

Mr. Lin is my father, a senior political worker who works overtime and has had a history of stomach issues for 25 years. During Chinese New Year, he did not eat anything, so my mom dragged him to town X to get his stomach checked. From our previous examinations, the results we got were gastric ulcer erosion along with gastric perforation.

People always have certain intuitions regarding bad things, such as now. For example, the "two-thirds" is like a needle, immediately slicing away all memory of mom and dad's previous abnormal behaviors.

Date: 2009.3.1

By the time the car stopped at the entrance of the oncology department, my head felt like it was in a glass jar. Seven years ago, after high school entrance exams, I was taken here to find out that my maternal grandmother was in the late stages of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

My uncle came out to pick me up and with his hand on my shoulder, he said, "The surgery started at 8 o'clock. Your mom didn't want to tell you, but I didn't agree to it since you would've eventually found out. If you're upset, you can cry now, just don't let your mom see."

I nodded and lowered my head as I quickly wiped away my tears.

The last row in the waiting room - 

I cleared my throat and put down my backpack. "Hey folk, you did a great job at keeping secrets. How long have you kept it from me?" I said as I sat down and took a piece of bread from my bag.

"What are you doing?" She said as she obviously could not accept that I was so calm.

"I haven't finished my breakfast," I said. Through life's ups and downs, my spirit and heart were trained to be calm and resilient. "Would you like some?"

Mom observed my facial expression from the side. "You knew it all, huh."

"If the car had parked at the entrance of the military district general hospital, we could have kept it from you a bit longer." My mom sighed and her eyes turned slightly red.

I reached out to gently pat her back as I said, "What did Mr. Lin say? A female's mentality isn't as good as expected so they panic whenever they encounter a small problem."

Mom turned her head and replied, "Your dad has had so many surgeries, you don't know how much pain he'll be in."

I handed her a chocolate bar and responded, "When you had a Cesarean section when you birthed me, you were also cut open but you're fine now."