When Xiaoxiao returned to her room and lay down on the bed, Susu tucked her in and asked, "Little friend, you shouldn't lie. Tell me the truth now, why were they arguing?"
Xiaoxiao wanted to bury her head in the quilt, unwilling to talk about it.
Susu pulled at her quilt and said, "Xiaoxiao, they're arguing because of you, right? Do you know that the two of them are now at a very tense point? Your most beloved father, An Jing, is even hospitalized due to alcohol poisoning."
Only then did Xiaoxiao look at Susu, her voice choked with tears, "Auntie, I didn't want this either. There's only one An Jing who loves me, and I don't want him to share his love with me, so I don't like Lan Yu's adoptive mother. I was rude to her, but I never expected my sister to get hurt."
"Sister got hurt? You mean Ning Yu got hurt? What exactly happened?" Susu asked in surprise.
Xiaoxiao recounted the entire incident truthfully. Besides An Jing, the person Xiaoxiao had always liked and trusted was her aunt, Susu.
After listening, Susu said to Xiaoxiao earnestly, "You can't do this anymore in the future. Do you know that your mother called me and said she wanted to bring you to play with Xingxing. I told her Xingxing was at school and would have to wait until his holiday. She didn't lie to you, nor did she deliberately not bring you to play, understand?"
Xiaoxiao said, "Oh," and knew she had gone too far. She said softly, "Auntie, I'm sorry."
"You haven't wronged me. When you go back, you must apologize to your mother," Susu said to her seriously.
"Okay, I will. I'll get along well with her from now on," Xiaoxiao decided not to reject Lan Yu anymore.
"Go to sleep, goodnight." Seeing that she knew she was wrong, Susu didn't say any more to her, turned off the light in her room, and returned to her own room.
She lay alone on the bed, unable to sleep, and called Tianyi again.
Tianyi was by An Jing's side. He answered softly, "Why aren't you asleep yet?"
"I can't sleep. I just asked Xiaoxiao and found out why they were arguing," Susu said. "An Jing and Xiaoxiao were wrong about this, and Lan Yu was wronged."
Tianyi said, "Oh."
She told Tianyi about the matter.
"Then An Jing didn't handle this well," Tianyi said. "Actually, he should have just sent Xiaoxiao to her biological father, and then he wouldn't have had such a conflict with Lan Yu."
"He's not you. He can't handle things as rationally as you," Susu blurted out.
Tianyi said unhappily, "Are you calling me cold-blooded and heartless?"
"No," Susu quickly corrected herself. "When An Jing wakes up, tell him not to torment himself anymore. I'll help him mediate with Lan Yu. I don't think they've reached the point of truly separating."
"We'll talk about it when he wakes up," Tianyi said, feeling a bit drowsy.
Susu said caringly, "If An Jing hasn't woken up yet, find a chair to lean on. Don't stay up all night."
"Okay, I will. You should also sleep early, goodnight." With that, Tianyi hung up.
Susu lay down and closed her eyes, still thinking about Xiaoxiao's matter. After much thought, she found it difficult to handle and unknowingly fell asleep.
...
When An Jing woke up, he felt less uncomfortable. He opened his eyes and found himself lying in a hospital bed, with an IV drip.
He tried hard to recall what happened before he lost consciousness. He remembered that he had a big argument with Lan Yu and even slapped her.
After Lan Yu left with the children in anger, he went to a bar alone and drank himself into a stupor. Then he remembered nothing else.
"You're awake. Are you okay? Does your head hurt?" Tianyi came in from outside with some breakfast.
An Jing saw Tianyi and sat up, asking, "Why are you here? Where's Xiaoxiao?"
"Of course, she's at my place. Did you lose your memory? You're the one who sent her to my house," Tianyi said, placing the breakfast on the bedside cabinet and looking at him impatiently.
"Oh, I remember." An Jing felt a bit uncomfortable with an empty stomach and was about to eat something. He opened the takeout box and saw it only contained plain congee and steamed buns.
He was disappointed and complained, "This is the breakfast you bought? How can there be no pickles? It's too bland."
"You're still being picky," Tianyi said angrily. "If I hadn't found you at that lounge bar last night, you would have been dead drunk. Do you know how high your blood alcohol content was? The doctor pumped your stomach last night, so you can only eat this."
"Oh, oh." An Jing didn't dare to complain about the breakfast anymore. He picked up the congee, which was still a bit hot, blew on it, and after a few sips, his stomach felt a little better.
Seeing that he was fine, Tianyi said, "Go back by yourself after the IV drip. I have to go to the group."
"Wait." An Jing saw that there wasn't much liquid left in the IV drip. "Don't leave me alone. I'll go to the group with you."
Tianyi looked at him, crossed his arms in front of him, and said, "You're still in the mood to work? Hurry up and find Lan Yu and the child."
"You know about it?" An Jing said sadly, thinking of the matter. "Lan Yu won't come back. She won't forgive me. I hit her..."
"Ah." Tianyi said disbelievingly, "You hit a woman?"
"After I sent Xiaoxiao to your place, I went home and had a big fight with her. During the argument, we were saying hurtful things to each other, and when my emotions got the better of me, I lost control."
Tianyi still asked disbelievingly, "Even if you were very angry at the time, you shouldn't have laid a hand on a woman. What did she say that provoked you so much?"
Seeing that he couldn't hide it from him, An Jing told him indifferently, "She said that Xiaoxiao clearly has a biological father, and I insisted on being her father... She said that in this family, I could only choose between Xiaoxiao and her, and I lost control..."
"It's unavoidable to get emotional during an argument. After she calms down, it shouldn't be irreparable," Tianyi said. "However, she's right about one thing. You've gotten to know Xiaoxiao's biological father clearly, so you should let Xiaoxiao return to her biological father's side. You have a wife and your own biological daughter; there's no need to take on the responsibility of Xiaoxiao anymore."
"I know that too, but Xiaoxiao can't leave me. I have to respect her wishes," An Jing was still hesitant.
Tianyi said with a laugh, "She's just a child of a few years old; what can she understand? You should make the decision yourself. Why respect her? Do you, an adult, have to be led around by a child?"
An Jing was speechless for a moment, knowing that Tianyi's words were reasonable.
"You should stay in the hospital and think it over carefully," Tianyi said. "First, send Xiaoxiao to her biological father, then come back and apologize to Lan Yu. She will definitely forgive you then."
Seeing that An Jing still didn't respond, Tianyi could only say so much and then left the hospital.
An Jing was left alone in the ward, mechanically drinking the plain congee and thinking about what Tianyi had just said.
In fact, in his heart, all family members were equally important. Having to choose one over the other, he could only make the difficult decision to choose Lan Yu and her daughter.
He would contact Alva today and see if it would be convenient to send Xiaoxiao abroad for him to raise recently.
However, he had promised Xiaoxiao earlier, and now he didn't know how to tell Xiaoxiao about this matter without hurting her young heart again.