1

After my daughter's death, I decided to divorce my wife, leave the military family's compound, and return to my hometown to spend the rest of my life.

On the first day, I wrote the divorce report and had my wife sign it.

On the fifth day, I packed my bags and submitted my resignation letter.

On the seventh day, I bought a ticket and boarded the train home.

From today on, you and I are just strangers, and there is no turning back.

Xu Jingyi scolded me for making a fuss over nothing, saying our daughter had just caught a little cold and would get over it.

But later, when she found out our daughter had died, she went mad and started looking for me.

1

When my daughter's fever was untreatable, I cried and called my wife, begging her to come home, but she was celebrating the birthday of her first love's daughter.

Exhausted, I stayed by my daughter's bedside, looking at the critical condition notice from the doctor in my hand, my heart filled with endless despair.

And on the hospital bed, the weak-breathing Huanhuan was still comforting me.

"Daddy, I feel so bad, am I going to die?"

"Daddy, is Mommy not coming? Mommy is a great heroine, a soldier. She must have gone on a mission to protect the country, and that's why she hasn't come back!"

"Daddy, Huanhuan doesn't blame Mommy. You promised Huanhuan, you won't blame Mommy, right?"

Watching my daughter's breathing grow weaker, all I could do was hold her hand tighter and keep telling her that Mommy would be here soon, she would be here soon.

But until Huanhuan closed her eyes, my wife never came back.

I held Huanhuan's gradually cold body, sitting on the cold floor all night.

I so wanted to take her back, lay her on the little bed, sing her a lullaby, and make her favorite shrimp dumplings.

And wait for her to open her eyes the next day and make a face at me.

But Huanhuan would never wake up again.

It wasn't until the third day after Huanhuan's burial that Xu Jingyi, who had gone to celebrate the birthday of her first love's daughter, returned.

When she came home, she was carrying a bag full of fresh vegetables.

And when she saw my red-swollen eyes and pale face in the living room, she was startled, then showed a face full of disdain.

"I was just two days late coming back, and who's all this act for?"

I didn't respond, the house was excessively quiet.

It was only then that Xu Jingyi noticed there was no sign of our daughter in the house, and after looking around, she asked on her own, "Isn't Huanhuan better from her fever, is she still getting an IV at the clinic?"

But before I could answer, she went straight into the kitchen, not even noticing the photo of Huanhuan in my arms.

In the kitchen, she clumsily lit the gas stove and awkwardly stirred eggs in the pan.

Watching her seriously practice cooking, I felt a bit dazed.

In ten years of marriage, she had never stepped into the kitchen.

She used to say she was a regiment commander who commanded troops and the only female officer in the entire military district, what would it look like if she were to cook?

But now, just because her first love's daughter, Feifei, liked egg and tomato stir-fry.

She put aside her role as a regiment commander to cook personally, just to make Feifei her favorite dish of scrambled eggs with tomatoes.

This was a treatment that Huanhuan had begged for seven years but never received.

But the first love's daughter only needed to say it once.

After ruining a dozen eggs, she finally made a decent dish.

She carefully transferred the warm scrambled eggs with tomatoes into a ceramic crock and wrapped the pot carefully with a towel.

As she was about to leave, I blocked her.

She showed a bit of impatience, "What's wrong now? Can't you see I have things to do?"

I didn't speak, I pulled out the divorce application report I had prepared three days ago for her and gestured for her to sign it.

Xu Jingyi was a bit stunned, thinking it was a work directive, she took the pen and signed it without even looking.

Unfortunately, if she had flipped one more page, she would have known it was the divorce report between us.

But she didn't.

After signing her name, she walked towards the door, still scolding me, "When Huanhuan gets better, make sure to give her good nutrition, or it'll be a joke if the daughter of a regiment commander is so weak when it gets out."

After she left, the living room returned to a deathly silence.

The clock in the living room ticked and tocked.

I gently stroked Huanhuan's photo, gripping the train ticket back to my hometown tightly.

Huanhuan, in three days, Daddy will take you home.