Chapter 1460
Chapter 1460
While Crystal was in grade two of the elementary school, she was admitted into the Young Pioneers, which meant that she could wear a red scarf every day in the future.
When she returned home after school, she couldn't wait to share the good news with her dearest brother, Erik, but only to learn that today Erik's biological mother and her family members would come and take Erik away with them.
Crystal burst into tears.
She hugged her brother's thigh tightly and cried loudly, refusing to let him go. Erik's face was also full of tears, but he could do nothing about it. In the end, Erik left the Chin Family.
In the following nights, Crystal would cry for her elder brother.
Since then, Anthea and Adam had tried not to mention about Erik in front of Crystal, for fearing that she would be sad again. They behaved as if Erik had never come to this house before.
As time went on, Crystal gradually forgot about Erik and the sad story between them.
She had a premonition that Erik would never come back again.
Her parents, Anthea and Adam, believed that with the passage of time, their daughter's memories would be changed gradually, and she would finally forget about Erik. However, they were wrong. Crystal had always remembered Adam.
How could Crystal forget about him? Erik used to be her most intimate pal!
She would always remember the scene that she cried so sadly and begged Erik not to leave, but he still left her alone.
She hated him!
Her emotions were just like a piece of sponge soaked into an icy lake, which became heavier and heavier.
Crystal clutched her hands and turned her head to see the sceneries outside of the window. She tried to calm herself down.
It took more than ten hours for the train to cover the distance between Tbridge City and her hometown. For this reason, the passengers had to spend the night on the train. The train would arrive at the destination after nine o' clock tomorrow morning.
When night fell, it was dark outside of the window.
Darkness prevented the passengers from viewing the sceneries outside. The soldiers in the carriage allowed female members of the medical team to sleep on their beds, while the soldiers sat on their seats.
Crystal was the last one to be led to the sleeping carriage. She was brought to a soft bed which originally belonged to a young soldier. Although the bunk contained an upper bed and a bottom bed, she was the only one designated to this bunk.
Crystal was surprised. "Am I the only one sleeping here tonight?"
"Yes!" The soldier nodded.
Crystal realized that before the medical team came, the whole train was occupied by the soldiers, and each of them had a bed in the sleeping carriage. By coincidence, the number of female volunteers was an odd number. That’s why Anthea was the only person to sleep on the bunk which contained two beds.
She smiled gratefully. "Thank you. I'm so lucky!"
Although Crystal didn't inherit the two charming little dimples from her mother, Anthea Lee, when she smiled, her eyes would be curved into the shape of a crescent moon, looking particularly charming.
The soldier was embarrassed in the face of a beautiful girl like Crystal. He said with a smile, "Miss Chin, have a good rest!"
"Thank you!" Crystal thanked him once again.
After the door of the compartment was closed, the soldier shook his head.
Crystal was "so lucky" simply because their captain, Erik Chin, had ordered to give his bed to her!
Of course, Crystal didn't know that it was Erik who gave her the bed. Now, she was lying on the bed and stretching out her arms and legs comfortably.
Medical students tended to have a morbid fear of getting dirty. In the past, Crystal would feel that bunk beds on a train would not be clean enough. After all, lots of passengers had slept on them every week. At this time, she didn't feel anything dirty on the bed. Strangely, she could smell the fresh scent of tree leaves. It smelled good.
The bed was much softer than she had imagined, and she didn't feel uncomfortable when turning over her body.
Crystal still was unable to fall asleep.
It might be because it was the first time for her to sleep on a train bed, or because her mood fluctuated too drastically for what had happened during the day.
After lying on the bed for two hours without feeling sleepy, Crystal got up and put on a coat, intending to take a stroll outside.
At this time, all the lights in the whole carriage had been turned off. It was quiet everywhere.
Crystal was walking here and there like a wandering ghost.
The next carriage was a dining car. Only this carriage had the lights on, and therefore she could see clearly a figure standing at the intersection of the two carriages.
It was a man. He was leaning against the car door and smoking, with one leg slightly bent.
With the lamplight shedding on his back, he didn't wear his military cap now. His hairs were short and black, and almost looked like steel needles. As there was no greasepaint on his face, his facial features could be seen clearly. There was a sculpture-like shadow of his nose on the face as the train kept moving on with clicking sounds.
Crystal turned around and wanted to leave.
But she halted her steps at second thought. After standing there still for a moment, she walked toward the man step by step.
There was something that she needed him to confirm.
In the bathroom during the day, in addition to seeing that man's facial features, she also saw a small mole under the corner of his eye. It was such a small mole that others wouldn't see it without careful observation, yet she
noticed it at a glance.
It was because Erik Chin, her brother, also had a mole at the same place. When she was still a child, she often touched her brother's mole with her small hands, and then happily said, "Erik, you are a 'beauty's mole'!"
Now, Crystal was 99% sure that this young military officer with a mole on his face was none other than Erik Chin, her brother who left her a number of years ago. However, she still needed confirmation from him. "Are you Erik Chin?"
A ring of smoke was spat out of the man's mouth.
In the swirling smoke, his features were vivid and three-dimensional.
He said, "Dear Crystal, it's me!"
", " Crystal's heart trembled.
The moment he called her "Dear Crystal", she knew the answer.
Only the most intimate persons in her life would call her in this way.
Tears filled Crystal's eyes, while fixed emotions were billowing in her heart. She glared at him bitterly and gritted her teeth as she questioned, "Why did you leave me back then? Why did you never come back to see us for so many years? Why did you never contact us?
"I'm sorry, Crystal!" Erik sighed.
His eyes darkened out of self-reproach, and he looked at her apologetically.
He pinched the cigarette in his hand and said slowly, "I was sent to the welfare house by my biological mother when I was a baby. My adoptive parents brought me back to the Chin Family when I was four years old. Before that, I always knew that my biological father was a great soldier.
After he died on the battlefield, my biological mother abandoned me in the welfare house and ran away!
But I was wrong. The truth was... My biological mother didn't abandon me. She was forced by her family members and relatives to return to her family in Tbridge City, a remote plateau area. NôvelDrama.Org owns this text.
My father used to be a military officer, and he was despatched to Tbridge City for a mission. There he and my mother fell in love at first sight. But my mother's family didn't want them to be together. They thought that my father was just a poor soldier and had no future at all. They had no choice but to elope!
Good times didn't last long. My father died in a battle later, and my mother was pregnant at that time. She never thought about abandoning me. But not long after I was born, her family members found her and forced her to leave me in the welfare house..."
Crystal listened with bated breath.
She quietly clenched her fists. This was the first time for her to hear her brother's life story.
Since she was a child, she had known that the two of them were not related by blood. Her brother was adopted by her parents from the welfare house. However, Erik had been a very optimistic person since he became a member of the Chin Family. He was open-minded and brave in his nature.
But now, she could feel his loneliness.
The shadow of him was cast on the wall of the carriage by the lights behind him. It looked like a lonely mountain.
Erik continued, "Several years later, my biological mother suddenly visited the Chin Family and told me the truth. She wanted to bring me back to Tbridge City! My biological grandfather had passed
away, and the whole family was in a mess. As the only daughter of the old man, my mother wanted to inherit the family business, but she was opposed by the other family members and relatives.
This was because there was an unwritten tradition in the clan. A woman without a male offspring was not allowed to take charge of the family business. It was just like the tradition that any woman without a male offspring in the royal family would not be allowed to take charge of the imperial harem. Only when my mother had a legitimate son could she gain control of the family business.
"My mother loved my father so deeply that she had decided she would never get married again. She would thus have no child other than me. For this reason, she kept looking for me. Finally, she found me in the Chin Family!"