Chapter 6

“Ms. Li, listen to me. Even for twenty thousand, I’m not coming back.”

“Why not?” she cried. “How much is Mr. Chen paying you? I’ll pay double! If anything happens to my mother, you’ll be a regret I can never get over!”

“Ms. Li, the regret you can’t get over isn’t my fault. Before I left, I wrote everything out in those seven pages of handover notes. Wang Cuilan didn’t read a word, and you didn’t make her read them. You hired her because she was cheap. Now you have to live with the consequences.”

There was a long silence on the other end.

Then her voice grew hoarse. “Xiaowan… I was wrong…”

“You weren’t wrong to want to save three thousand,” I said. “You were wrong to think professional care wasn’t worth paying for. Can just anyone take care of an elderly person? This is a job where someone’s life is at stake. Putting your mother’s life in the hands of an untrained caregiver is gambling it away to save three thousand yuan.”

A muffled sob came through the phone.

I didn’t hang up. I waited for her to finish crying.

“Xiaowan… then tell me what to do…”

“Find a certified caregiver through a reputable agency. Make sure there’s a contract and proper credentials. Your mother’s condition is beyond what an ordinary nanny can handle.”

“The money… I’m almost out…”

“It’s better to run out of money than to lose someone. You can earn money again. You can’t bring a life back.”

After I hung up that day, I stood on the balcony for a long time.

I thought that was the end of it.

Then, three days later, Li Mei showed up at the door.

Somehow she’d found Mr. Chen’s address. She brought two cases of milk and a bag of fruit, then rang the bell for half an hour.

Mr. Chen opened the door.

“You must be Mr. Chen. I’m Li, Xiaowan’s former employer.”

Li Mei gave him an ingratiating smile. “My mother really can’t do without Xiaowan. Could you let her work for both of us? Money’s no problem. I’ll pay double.”

Mr. Chen stood in the doorway without moving aside.

“Ms. Song is my father’s caregiver. We have a contract. After his heart stent surgery, he can’t go a single day without her. If she takes another job, who will look after my father?”

“Then… could you find someone else? I’ll pay Xiaowan’s full salary. I’ll even cover the cost of hiring someone for your father!”

Li Mei grew more frantic with every word. Sweat beaded on her forehead.

Mr. Chen didn’t answer. He only turned and called out, “Ms. Song, could you come here for a moment?”

I stepped out of the kitchen and saw Li Mei standing outside, carrying bags, her hair disheveled and dark circles under her eyes.

“Xiaowan!” The moment she saw me, her eyes lit up. Her voice was soft but urgent. “I came here in person to beg you. Twenty thousand! Would you come back for twenty thousand? Things are really bad with my mother. Just come home and take a look—”

“Ms. Li.”

I stood at the kitchen doorway, still holding a ladle.

“I told you I can’t come back. Professor Chen has medicine three times a day. He can’t miss a dose. It takes two hours to get back and forth. That would leave him without anyone for two hours. Your mother is a person, and Professor Chen is a person too.”

Li Mei’s lips trembled. She tried to say something else.

Mr. Chen spoke up. His voice wasn’t raised, but he was firm.

“Ms. Li, Ms. Song is one of our family. If she wants to visit Mrs. Zhang, I won’t stop her. I’ll give her time off and pay for her travel. But she cannot come back to work for you. I don’t trust anyone else to care for my father.”

Li Mei stood outside the door, unable to speak for a long time. She didn’t know whether to set down the cases of milk or pick them back up.

At last, she left them by the door and said flatly, “Then… please accept these as thanks for taking care of Xiaowan.”

She turned and walked away unsteadily.

I stood by the kitchen door, watching her disappear into the elevator. I couldn’t quite name what I was feeling.

Mr. Chen closed the door and glanced at me without saying anything.

But afterward, he added two thousand to my paycheck.

“Ms. Song, you’ve earned it.”

I later asked Xiao Chen to return the milk to Li Mei with a note.

“Thank you for thinking of us. Please keep it for your mother’s recovery.”

Li Mei never came back.

Professor Chen walked over and handed me a glass of water.

“Xiao Song, did you feel sorry for her?”

“A little.”

“That’s right,” Professor Chen said. “If you couldn’t feel even a little sorry for someone, you wouldn’t be worth what I pay you. But feeling sorry for someone doesn’t mean you abandon your principles.”

## Chapter 9: A Good Reputation Spreads Across the City

After that, things unfolded naturally.

First, someone dug up the nine-photo check-in collage Wang Cuilan had posted in the residents’ group. The comments turned into a long string of sarcasm.

【So close you practically kissed her into the ICU. You’re amazing.】

Then someone found the photo of my seven-page handover notebook and posted it in the group.

“Look at this. Now that’s professional. She wrote everything down before leaving, and Wang Cuilan couldn’t even be bothered to look.”