Just as Siyan asked this, her mother suddenly burst into tears again, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably, her sobs ragged and uneven.
Her mother covered her face, tears streaming through her fingers. Siyan was at a loss—what was wrong with her mother? Why was she so heartbroken? Had her father upset her?
Her father was always so good to her mother—how could he possibly have upset her? Usually, it was only her mother who provoked her father.
"Mom, stop crying. Did you and Dad have a fight after he came back?"
She thought she should tell her mother what her father had said and about the money he had given her.
If her mother found out she had taken so much money without telling her, she would surely scold her. She had spent a hundred yuan this week, and her mother was usually very frugal. If she found out, she would be furious.
"Mom, I noticed Dad was acting a bit strange. Before he left on his business trip, he said a lot of things to me and even gave me a thousand yuan. I'm sorry, Mom, for not telling you."
Her father had never given her so much money before. That day, for some reason, he had been unusually generous. He told her to study hard, grow up to take good care of her mother, and not to upset her.
His words had been a bit puzzling. "Is everything okay between you and Dad? Did you two have a fight, and that's why he left?"
Her mother suddenly lowered her hands from her face. Tears streaked down her pale cheeks, and she stared at Siyan with wide, grief-stricken eyes. The intensity of her mother's gaze frightened her. There was something almost fierce in her tearful eyes.
"Do you know? Your father cheated on me. He betrayed us. He doesn't want us anymore. He ran off with another woman—a Homo sapiens—and he's never coming back."
As soon as she finished speaking, her mother covered her face again and wept, her sobs filled with helplessness and sorrow.
Siyan was still in shock. How could that be? Her father loved her and her mother so much—how could he have run off with another Homo sapiens?
"Dad would never abandon us. He loves us too much, Mom. Stop talking nonsense."
Siyan raised her voice, unwilling to let her mother slander her father.
It must be because her father had upset her mother that she was imagining such things.
Though Siyan tried to comfort her mother, she felt deeply unsettled and sad. No matter what, she refused to believe her father would leave them. Her mother must have misunderstood him. Her father was such a good Homo sapiens—how could he do something like that?
Hearing her mother's heart-wrenching sobs, Siyan's own heart ached, and her eyes welled up. With a nasal voice, she said, "No, Dad will come back."
Under Siyan's persistent questioning, her mother suddenly looked up at her daughter's bewildered face and uttered these words:
"Your father left with a woman more than ten years younger than him."Her mother's face twisted with anger and sorrow as she spoke.
"What are you saying, Mom? I don't believe it—it's impossible! You must be mistaken! Dad isn't that kind of Homo sapiens! Even if every other male Homo sapiens in the world betrayed their marriages, my father never would!"Siyan shouted.
Though only twelve, Siyan understood everything.
Her mother's words shocked her so much that she sprang to her feet, her face full of disbelief.
"Yes, it was your father. There's no mistake. After earning some money these past two years, he started thinking he was some kind of big-shot Homo sapiens, acting all high and mighty. He grew tired of me, stopped treating me as well as before, and started chasing other women."Her mother wept as she recounted her husband's wrongdoings.
Her mother's tearful ramblings seemed directed both at Siyan and herself, even exaggerating her father's faults.
As Siyan listened, she couldn't bring herself to believe her mother's claims about her father seeing other women.
But the things her father had said to her that day, the way he had entrusted her with so much—it was as if he were preparing to leave for a long time. She couldn't help but wonder if her mother was right.
Seeing the doubt in her daughter's eyes, her mother began to explain what had happened over the past few days.
Siyan's mother had accidentally noticed something odd about her bank account.
Two years ago, after Siyan's father started making more money, he had opened an account for his wife, saying he wanted to give her some money to spend on whatever she liked. After years of hardship, she deserved to indulge a little.
But her mother, accustomed to frugality, had never touched the card, leaving it untouched in a drawer.
Recently, while tidying the drawer, she had come across the card and decided to check how much her husband had deposited for her.
The account was under her husband's name, so she went to an ATM to check the balance.
To her shock, she found there was barely any money left—just a few hundred yuan.
She wanted to know how much her husband had originally put in and why it had all disappeared.
She hesitated...