Chapter 486 — Feng Xiaoxiao and Her Father

"?" Tang Yun was briefly startled, but then she more or less understood what her mother meant, and her brows knit at once. "Mom, you're not thinking of making me someone's mistress, are you? If that's what this is, then don't say another word. I could never do anything that shameful!"

Seeing how resolute her daughter was, Mother Tang had no choice but to let it drop. She patted her daughter's shoulder. "There, there, Yun'er, don't cry. Who knows — maybe one day Wei Zhao will come to his senses."

"Who cares if he comes to his senses? I'm never speaking to him again!" Tang Yun stamped her foot. "I'm going to study. I was too foolish before, believing in him. Never again!"

With that, Tang Yun ran into her room. Having poured it all out to her mother, she felt much better, no longer so pent up and wronged.

Mother Tang watched her daughter's retreating back and shook her head with regret, sighing inwardly. Yun'er, you still don't know how hard life is. Wait until you're my age — then you'll understand how painful it is to have no money.

She thought of her old classmates. Many of them had not been half as pretty as she was when they were young, but now they had money — every one of them kept herself so fresh and dewy — while she, the campus beauty in her day, now had a face etched with the marks of hardship.

It was rare to find a man her daughter liked who liked her daughter back — even as a mistress, that was nothing to be ashamed of! At her class reunions there was a divorced woman who had become the kept woman of some big boss, and she never stopped bragging and showing off to everyone. Not only did no one despise her, they were all desperately envious, and when they left they made sure to sit in her BMW for a taste of the good life.

"They laugh at poverty, not at prostitution" — the saying was ugly, but it reflected, indirectly, the helplessness of reality.

Numbly, Feng Xiaoxiao had her blood drawn, and was then sent off for fluoroscopy and every kind of test. It was the same every time, and the results always came to nothing.

Feng Xiaoxiao yawned and lay listlessly on the hospital bed. Feng Tianlong came in and looked at his daughter with concern. "Xiaoxiao, what do you want for dinner? I'll take you out. I've taken a couple of days off — I want to spend them properly with you."

"No need. Go do what you have to do..." Feng Xiaoxiao shook her head, gazing emptily at the traffic coming and going in the street below the window. "Are the results out yet? When can we go home?"

The fact that she asked only whether the results were out, and when they could go back, made it clear that she held no hope at all for a cure — she wanted only to leave the moment the tests were done.

Otherwise, if there were any chance of treatment, she would surely have stayed and been admitted.

"Not yet. But Doctor Zheng is an expert in hereditary diseases — he should have a way," Feng Tianlong said, comforting her.

"Don't try to comfort me. My mother's illness — even Lin Dongfang, the great divine doctor, couldn't do anything about it. How could anyone else?" Feng Xiaoxiao curled her lip. She had all but given up hope; she wanted only to do as she pleased in the last stage of her life, so that she would have no regrets.

"Divine Doctor Lin said at the time that it wasn't that he couldn't cure it, but that he lacked certain conditions." Feng Tianlong sounded helpless. "He said that if he were given five years, he might find a solution. But your mother couldn't wait five years..."

"Isn't that just making excuses for his own incompetence?" Feng Xiaoxiao snorted. "Who knows whether he could really cure it, or whether he was afraid of ruining his reputation?"

"No. After that, Divine Doctor Lin devoted himself to studying certain special components in your mother's blood. But after that last meeting, he went into seclusion..." Feng Tianlong trailed off, somewhat helpless.

"He must have known he couldn't cure it, so he hid himself away!" Feng Xiaoxiao was unconvinced. "Those so-called divine doctors are all the same. And that so-called Divine Doctor Kang — what can he do besides make a wound salve? And people call him a divine doctor! It's laughable!"

"You were young then; you don't understand what kind of man Divine Doctor Lin is. He's a man of persistence. For your mother's sake, he risked going to the Miao lands to study the Gu sect." Feng Tianlong could not bear to scold his daughter, but he still had to teach her a thing or two. "You must not disrespect him."

"Fine, fine..." Feng Xiaoxiao waved her hand. "But if he was so persistent, why did he go into seclusion?"

"Your mother's illness — how could it be so easy to study?" Feng Tianlong smiled bitterly. "For a while now I've been trying to contact him, but I haven't been able to reach him... Captain Yang, who led me on missions back then, was on close terms with Divine Doctor Lin, but he went into seclusion too."

"You know it's hard to study, and yet you still brought me here for tests?" Feng Xiaoxiao frowned.

"The results will take a few more days. Let me show you around Yanjing these next couple of days — it'll do you good to get your mind off things." Feng Tianlong did not answer his daughter's question directly. He knew as well as anyone that this round of tests would probably leave Doctor Zheng at a loss too, but hope was better than no hope.

"Oh..." Feng Xiaoxiao answered faintly, neither agreeing nor refusing. Clearly she was not very interested.

"Someone gave your father a few invitations to an auction. Want to go take a look?" Feng Tianlong suddenly remembered that the Yu family's auction was in a few days, and he had received an invitation as well.

The organization Feng Tianlong belonged to was called the Mysterious Investigation Bureau, a very special agency, and it had close ties with the Yu family, who hosted the auctions. So every time the Yu family held an auction, they sent a great many courtesy tickets to the Bureau. But most of the Bureau's people had no time to attend; the invitations were merely a matter of courtesy.

"An auction? Then let's go take a look!" Feng Xiaoxiao had never been to an auction in all her life. Hearing her father mention it, she rather wanted to see one — otherwise she would die without ever having been to an auction, and what a waste that would be!

"But if you take a fancy to something, your father won't have the money to buy it." Feng Tianlong smiled regretfully. "My salary is high enough, but I still can't afford auction pieces that go for hundreds of thousands or millions at the drop of a hat."

"Heh..." Feng Xiaoxiao finally smiled. What she wanted was that feeling of novelty, the feeling of her father taking her out to have fun. Whether they bought anything or not was beside the point.

Her father had said before that he would take her around — she had heard that kind of talk plenty of times, and every time some urgent assignment had come up and he had stood her up several times over. But this time he had mentioned an auction and even produced the invitations, so presumably he would not stand her up. "No standing me up!"

Seeing the smile on Feng Xiaoxiao's face, Feng Tianlong was happy too. "I won't. There are three sessions in all — I can at least sit through one with you."

"Mm." Being able to see one was enough for Feng Xiaoxiao. For her, that was already plenty.