C11 11
Jiang Yining approached her desk and glanced at her phone. There were no new messages. She set the phone down and moved to the wardrobe, opening the doors to change out of the ill-fitting dress she was wearing. Inside hung a variety of dresses, each with its tag, meticulously prepared for her by her biological mother, or so it was said. Yet not a single garment in the wardrobe fit her. That was to be expected, wasn't it? How could there possibly be any clothing that fit her when no one had bothered to ask for her size or preferences? With a neutral expression, Jiang Yining retrieved her own suitcase from the wardrobe's corner. As her fingers grazed the suitcase's zipper, her phone on the desk erupted with a barrage of notification tones. "Ding, ding, ding." The urgency of the sender was palpable. Jiang Yining hesitated, then turned back to check her phone. A contact labeled "Sydney" had sent several frantic messages in quick succession. "Ah, ah, ah, Ning. Where are you? I've brought your zither back. Why won't anyone answer the door? Why isn't Grandma home? The signal is terrible here. I can't make any calls. Have you gotten my messages? I'm terrified. It's pitch-black around me, I can't see a thing, and I think I hear ghostly wailing. Ning, please come open the door. Are you asleep? I'm scared out of my wits." Reading the rapid-fire messages, Jiang Yining felt a headache coming on. She massaged her temples before replying, "The spare key is under the doormat. Grandma went back to our ancestral home. Let yourself in, and leave the zither in the living room." She sent the message. With the village's spotty network, there was no telling if it had been received. After a brief pause, just as Jiang Yining was about to put her phone away, an unfamiliar message slid onto the screen. She recognized the number. It was Mu Chen. "Hmm." Was this a response to her earlier message? A single word, devoid of warmth, without even a punctuation mark to accompany it. Asking for a thank-you gift was probably just a spur-of-the-moment idea.
She saved the number in her phone under the name Mr. Mu. As soon as she finished, her phone rang loudly. She picked up. A woman's voice, tinged with tears, came through the speaker. "Ning, have you returned with Grandma? When will you be back?" Jiang Yining's fingers lightly traced the surface of the desk as she leaned back in her chair, gazing out into the pitch-black night. "I'm with the Ming family in Shen City." The woman on the phone could barely hide her astonishment at the unexpected response. "Ah? The Ming family in Shen City? What place is that?" Pressed by the woman's persistent questioning, Jiang Yining reluctantly gave a brief account of the mix-up with the child. There was a long silence before the woman finally burst out in utter disbelief. "No way, I just went to an auction to bid on a zither for you, took a little trip, and now I come back to all this? Why do such dramatic things always happen to you?" Jiang Yining let out a light laugh, offering no reply. "Don't laugh. I'm serious." "I would really like to know the answer too," Jiang Yining replied softly. Sensing the bewilderment in her voice, the woman on the other end fell silent for a while before cautiously asking, "So did Grandma take the girl who was mixed up with you back to her own family?" "No, Grandma went back by herself." Sidney was astounded. "Why? So, are you living with her now? Isn't that incredibly awkward? I mean, they just let Grandma go home alone?"
