My ‘Healing’ Game
Chapter 564: Father and Son

Chapter 564: Chapter 564: Father and Son

The hospital’s diagnosis was in Han Fei’s pocket as he entered the kitchen, standing next to his wife.

Clear water flowed from the faucet, washing away the grease and suds from the plates, every spot wiped by his wife became as clean and bright as a mirror.

"Do you already know?"

Han Fei looked at his wife’s hands. She was several years younger than Fu Yi, but her hands were even rougher than Fu Yi’s.

"Know what?"

One by one, the plates and bowls were placed back into the cupboard. After her adept washing, his wife began cleaning the kitchen. Once everything was in order, Han Fei still stood in his original spot.

For Han Fei, this was an experience he had never had before. The words were on the tip of his tongue, but they were so hard to say.

This period was supposed to be the most tender time his wife had gone through. If he spoke the truth, that false semblance of happiness might shatter instantly.

In fact, Han Fei could sense that his wife not only knew about Fu Yi’s affairs with other women but also that he might not be Fu Yi.

In this world, his wife was the person who knew Fu Yi best. She had forgiven and retreated time and time again, until she finally picked up a sharp knife.

For her, who valued family so much, she wouldn’t have made that decision unless it had reached an utterly unsustainable point. Han Fei could even imagine her despair at that time.

After tidying up the kitchen, his wife left; she seemed to deliberately avoid Han Fei, preventing him from continuing the conversation.

"It seems she really knows."

Han Fei never expected the first person to see through his master-level acting in this world would be an ordinary woman.

Around ten, Han Fei and his wife went into the bedroom. This time, his wife lay on the bed, sleeping on one side.

Han Fei opened the cupboard, ready to take out the bedding and discovered, to his surprise, that the quilt and mattress had already been changed; someone had replaced them with softer, warmer bedding for him.

After making the bed, he lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling in a daze. He suffered from insomnia that night.

At a little past six in the morning, his wife had already gotten up, tiptoeing out of the room and starting preparations for the new day for the family.

Once his wife had left the bedroom, Han Fei also opened his eyes.

Without doing anything extra, he waited, as usual, for the alarm clock to go off before he crawled out from under the quilt.

He went into the bathroom to freshen up, then sat at the table, eating the breakfast prepared by his wife.

Upstairs, the sound of a door. Fu Sheng came downstairs in his school uniform, carrying a backpack.

"Fu Sheng, I’ve prepared a little extra today," his wife said as she took out a lunch box from the kitchen and handed it to Fu Sheng.

Without rejecting, Fu Sheng took the lunch box and left the house.

"High schoolers are under a lot of pressure, sometimes more so than us during work," Han Fei, having gone through it himself, felt this profoundly.

"You should hurry and eat too, you’re going to be late."

Fu Sheng was the first to go out, and after Han Fei left for work, his wife still had to take Fu Tian to the kindergarten.

Quickly finishing the last bite of his meal, Han Fei grabbed his briefcase, ready to go to work like he usually did.

"Wait a second," his wife suddenly called Han Fei. She wiped her hands and walked up to him, straightening the collar of his shirt.

Watching his wife’s earnest focus, Han Fei didn’t refuse her kind gesture.

"Go on, be careful on the road," she said.

"Don’t worry, I’m off to work," he replied.

He left quickly, touching the diagnosis in his pocket to make sure it was still there before he sighed in relief.

Stepping out of the residential community, Han Fei arrived at the bus stop. He watched as bus after bus left the station, the crowd around him growing sparser until he alone remained on the platform.

With no job, no income, where was he going to work?

"Fu Tian’s kindergarten is to the west; the wife is responsible for dropping him off and picking him up every day. If I stay here, she might see me," he thought.

Holding his briefcase, Han Fei left the bus platform, walking towards the east.

He was still pretending to go to work, but eventually, he ended up in a nearly deserted small park in the east.

With nowhere else to go, he sat down on a bench in the park.

This place was seldom visited, the trees were lush, flocks of birds flew overhead, and occasionally, a squirrel could be seen leaping through the branches.

The morning sun shone on the weeds, several stray cats lazily licked their fur, not at all afraid of people; it seemed like this was their home.

"I’ll just stay here until it’s time to get off work," he decided.

Feeling a wave of exhaustion in his heart, Han Fei leaned back in the chair, looking up at the azure sky.

Neither in reality nor in Deep World had he had such an experience, seldom stopping in his tracks to sit quietly in a corner of the city like this.

After a while, Han Fei suddenly felt something brush against his arm.

He looked down to see a stray cat had jumped onto the bench and settled next to him, its fluffy tail seemed to have a mind of its own as it swayed back and forth.

"Am I in your spot?" Han Fei was about to pet the cat on the head when all the stray cats seemed to suddenly catch a scent, and they left his side together, running towards the other side of the bushes.

Puzzled, Han Fei stood up. Dressed in his business suit, he turned and looked behind him to find a high school student, holding an just-opened can of cat food, walking towards him.

As their eyes met, both faces showing surprise, they almost said in unison:

"Didn’t you go to school?"

"Didn’t you go to work?"

There, in their business suits, Han Fei and Fu Sheng, the father and son, stood face to face in the small park.

The wind stirred the treetops, and speckles of sunlight scattered down, the cats looked eagerly at the can of food in Fu Sheng’s hand, meowing constantly, as if asking what they were doing.

"Actually, I want to go to school every day, but I always hesitate when I get to the school gate, not wanting to go forward," Fu Sheng put down the can of food, and the several stray cats gathered around, "And why aren’t you at work?"

"I was let go," Han Fei walked through the shrubbery and came to Fu Sheng’s side, the two of them sitting side by side on the park bench.

The father and son didn’t speak further, instead, they just watched the stray cats together.

"Sometimes I envy them, not having to think about anything, so free, and not needing to understand too much," Fu Sheng said, petting the chin of a stray cat that seemed to particularly like him and was very close to him.

"Who would want to be a stray cat if they had a home?" Han Fei was an orphan and deep in his heart lay a longing for a family, a longing that made him willing to protect the neighbors of Happiness Residential Community, to protect those who treated him like family, the ghosts.

After finishing their food, some cats ran away immediately, some were indifferent to people, and others just lay there, like a furball that had lost its dream.

Fu Sheng didn’t go to school, and Han Fei didn’t go to work. The two of them sat in the deserted park until noon. Although they didn’t talk much, they had grown much closer, and this was probably the longest they had ever spent together alone.

At noon, Fu Sheng took out a lunch box from his bag. He opened the lid and was about to eat when he suddenly noticed that Han Fei was staring at him.

"Want to share?"

"Sure."

"?"

Fu Sheng, holding the sole pair of chopsticks, shook his head, "Better not."

"That’s a naughty response, then why did you ask me?"

"I thought you would refuse," Fu Sheng replied.

Han Fei felt a rare sense of joy upon hearing Fu Sheng’s answer.

"Just eating those vegetables, how could that be enough? Stay right here, don’t move, I’ll go and buy you something," Han Fei patted his pocket, and he headed out of the small park.

Before long, Han Fei returned with a large bag.

He placed the heavy bag on the bench, then leaned back into the chair, looking quite content.

Fu Sheng looked curiously into the bag and saw it was filled with various kinds of beer.

"Since I met you that day, I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol. I’m afraid of being numbed by alcohol and making a misjudgment after midnight, you know, any bit of deviation could cost me my life," Han Fei opened a can of beer, "I’ve lost a lot, but I’ve gained a lot too. I don’t know whether I should thank you or hate you."

The empty can traced an arc through the air, thrown precisely into the trash bin by Han Fei.

"I don’t really understand what you’re talking about?" Fu Sheng’s eyes were full of confusion.

"Broadly speaking, I’m more inclined to thank you. That’s why I’m here, doing all this," Han Fei said as he opened another can of beer and glanced at Fu Sheng, "Want to try?"

"No thanks," Fu Sheng said, shaking his head and concentrating on his meal.

After finishing the meal, Fu Sheng washed the lunch box and then sat on the bench to start self-study.

Han Fei, on the other hand, indulged in drinking, sitting next to Fu Sheng, leaning against the center of the world, briefly relaxing his constantly tense nerves.

As the sun slowly set and the light dimmed, Fu Sheng put his textbooks and exercises back into his backpack and glanced to the side.

Han Fei’s suit was crumpled, he had drunk all the beer in the bag, and lay lopsided on the bench as if asleep.

"Have you always been this tired?"

Fu Sheng had never seen his father show such a side before. In the past, his father’s image in his mind had been one of authority, roughness, selfishness. Due to his father’s strong abilities, he had very strict demands on his child, and any disobedience was met with scolding and beating.

But at some point, Fu Sheng felt his father had changed.

Perhaps it was because of that day in the back alley when Fu Sheng saw his father back him up, driving away all the delinquents; maybe it was because he overheard his father telling his mother over the phone that the headmaster had been beaten up; or perhaps it was because his father chose to believe his words and ultimately helped the police clear the old headmaster’s name.

All those recent events flashed through Fu Sheng’s mind, and it took him a long time to calm down.

The sun was about to set, and Fu Sheng organized his backpack then gently shook the slumbering Han Fei.

"Dad, it’s time to go home."