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Decades had passed since he last had a heart-to-heart conversation with any so-called father figure.

Liu Fuchun was lost in thought, oblivious to the doorbell that had been ringing for quite some time.

"I wonder if you're deaf or I am," Lin Mei grumbled as she went to answer the door, only to find Ding Tao standing there with a bag of incense and candles.

Ding Tao was taken aback. He had come to this address based on the information provided by Old Master Liu before his passing. Noticing Lin Mei's displeased expression, he hurriedly greeted them, "Are you Mr. Liu and Mrs. Liu?"

Liu Fuchun snapped back to reality, rising from the floor. Seeing an unfamiliar face in Ding Tao, he was puzzled, "Who are you?"

Ding Tao extended his hand proactively, beginning his introduction, "I'm from the Yanghe Hospital, a nu..."

Before he could finish, Lin Mei, who had recognized him, pushed him toward the door, fuming, "You're from the hospital? Out, out, get out! We don't have money for you!"

Ding Tao was quick-witted, grabbing the door frame with one hand and refusing to budge. He spoke anxiously, "Mr. Liu, Mrs. Liu, if you're not going to collect Old Master Liu's body, do you not want his belongings either?"

It was this statement that abruptly halted Lin Mei's pushing motion.

Her eyes darted around. Could it be that her deceased father had left behind something valuable?

Liu Fuchun hesitated before asking, "What is it?"

Ding Tao quickly set down the incense and candle bag and carefully took out a note. "Look, this was what Grandpa Liu kept in his pocket until the end. It contains what he wanted to say to you."

Upon seeing it was just a piece of paper, Liu Fuchun felt inexplicably annoyed. He glanced away and declared fiercely, "I don't want it! You can give it to whoever you like!"

Seeing there was no money, Lin Mei also lost interest, flicking her fingers. "Just so you know, we won't be going to the hospital to pick anyone up. You can deal with it however you want."

Recalling some things Grandpa Liu had mentioned before his passing, Ding Tao sighed and bent down to retrieve a red ping-pong paddle. "Mr. Liu, do you not want this either?"

When Liu Fuchun saw the paddle, his pupils constricted, and his face paled in shock.

However, he refused to take it.

Ding Tao sighed. "I don't know what happened between you and your father, but that paddle was something Grandpa Liu asked me to buy from outside the hospital when he was out of danger one day."

Back then, Grandpa Liu had become extremely weak due to his treatment. Tears streaming down his face, he lay on the hospital bed and murmured, "How could I have forgotten about Chunzi? I didn't think about it. I thought he wouldn't need it anymore, but I never imagined how much I've wronged him all these years. I'm sorry to him."

Ding Tao managed to purchase a ping-pong paddle.

With the paddle in his arms, Grandpa Liu would sit by the window day after day, gazing downstairs, hoping that Liu Fuchun would come so he could personally hand the paddle over to his son.

Yet, until his very last breath, he was unable to clear the misunderstanding himself.

Upon hearing Ding Tao's account and learning of Grandpa Liu's starvation in the hospital, even the unyielding Liu Fuchun's eyes reddened. His hands trembled as he took the note.

It turned out that the paddle was meant to be a gift for him back then. But because the neighbor's child, who was suffering from leukemia and had limited time left, expressed a fondness for the paddle, Father gave it away to him.

Not long after, the neighbor's child passed away. The mother wanted to return the paddle to Father, even expressing gratitude for Father's willingness to let her child call out for him day and night.

It turned out that the neighbor's child came from a single-parent family and had never had a father since childhood. In the final stages of his illness, all he wanted was to call someone "Dad."

At that time, Liu Fuchun had already ceased communicating with his father.

Father, perhaps thinking that Liu Fuchun didn't want the paddle, politely declined the old one and didn't buy a new one. Instead, he tried to make up for it in other ways.

But by then, Liu Fuchun had utterly lost faith in his father.

It turned out that his father had always loved him.

For decades, the two of them had tormented each other due to a single misunderstanding.

With tears streaming down his face, Liu Fuchun knelt and cupped his cheeks, wailing, "Dad, I'm so sorry!"

Seeing her husband weep, Lin Mei grew worried. "Fuchun, you're not planning on bringing Father back home, are you?"

"Of course! I have to!" Liu Fuchun wiped away his tears hastily, got up, and turned to fetch money from their room.

Upon seeing him reach for the cash, Lin Mei's expression changed, and she promptly snatched the savings book from him. "Twenty thousand yuan! That's twenty thousand! We're about to move abroad, and we'll need to buy a plot for Father if we bring him back. Money is needed everywhere. The hospital morgue isn't an unacceptable place to stay. Listen, Father will surely understand our situation."

Liu Fuchun looked at the money-obsessed Lin Mei, feeling a chill run through his heart.

In the past, his wife had openly insulted his father before him. His father had never uttered a word, and Liu Fuchun had assumed he was afraid, aware that he would rely on his son as he aged.

Only now did he realize that his father wasn't growing old; he had been enduring for the sake of the family's happiness all along!

Frustrated, Liu Fuchun snatched back the passbook and was about to leave, but he turned back to look at the stunned Lin Mei. "Back then, when your mother was sick, I gave every penny I had. I've been wrong for most of my life as a son, and now, with Father starving and freezing in the morgue, I can't be un filial anymore."

"Then... what about going abroad?" Lin Mei's tone softened.

Liu Fuchun shook his head. "There's no more talk of going abroad or selling the house. I've always been afraid of making you angry. What's so good about going overseas? Wife, if... if you really don't want to, let's get a divorce. I'll compensate you with money even if we don't sell the house."

With that, Liu Fuchun pushed open the door and left.

The morgue in the hospital was too cold.

Shivering, Liu Fuchun first lit incense with Ding Tao. Gazing at the smoke-filled morgue and the refrigerated cabinets holding the corpses, he whispered, "Younger Brother, did you see our father?"

Ding Tao had just finished paying his respects on the floor and looked around, shaking his head in confusion. "I didn't see him."

Liu Fuchun's last hope vanished.

Deflated, he waited until the incense had burned out before calling for the mortician to open Grandfather Liu's freezer. When he saw his emaciated father's remains, resembling dry twigs, he couldn't hold back his sobs any longer.