After talking with her grandpa for almost an hour, Su Ruan stood up, wanting to return to the house. When she looked up, her father was already standing in front of her.
A hint of surprise crossed her face. Su Ruan kept her calm and flashed a smile. "Dad, when did you get here? Are you looking for me?"
"Mhm…" Su Yu looked at her daughter for a few seconds longer. "Were you talking to your mom earlier?"
He saw his daughter walk out of the house to answer the call. His instinct told him that Su Ruan's mother called and she went out as it would be awkward to talk to her mother with him and the others still around.
"No. It's Grandpa." The smile on her face stretched up when she saw the surprised look on her father's face.
Her father had never prevented her from contacting her mother or the maternal family members. However, her father was aware that her grandpa often called to check on her.
Although her parents were divorced, Su Ruan thought that she was quite lucky to have both sides of her grandparents to dote on her.
"Grandpa… He invited me over to his place," Su Ruan told him.
Su Yu pursed his lips into a thin line. "What did you tell him?"
"I told him that I will visit him soon," Su Ruan said. "Dad, I'm planning to spend some time with my grandpa and grandma in D Town after the festivity."
There was a hesitant look on Su Yu's face. His lips moved as if he was reluctant to say something. "What about your work? Aren't you going back to Capital City?"
Su Ruan remembered that she haven't told any of her family members the news that she was now unemployed.
Previously, everyone had thought that she had returned to F City to accompany her grandfather after the accident. Then, she told everyone that she will be staying until the festivity. No one had suspected anything.
Moreover, Su Ruan had not brought up this matter as she did not want her grandparents to worry. The most important thing was for her grandfather to recuperate.
Su Ruan lowered her head and stared at her shoes. "Dad, there's something that I haven't told you yet."
"What is it?" Su Yu looked at his daughter with worry.
He might not spend a lot of his time with his daughter but that did not mean that he did not care about her.
"Dad, I quit my job." Su Ruan looked at her father's face, wanting to look at his reaction. "I didn't tell you or anyone before because I did not want everyone to worry. Especially Grandfather and Grandmother."
"I thought you liked working for that company."
"Initially I do." She raised her shoulders and sighed. "Eventually, the environment was not for me," Su Ruan said. She had no plan to elaborate on Gao Leng's harassment and how she was bullied at work.
Su Yu thought about her words for a while. "It's fine if you quit your job if you think that it's not for you." He stretched his hand to pat at her shoulder. "I'm still here to support you and we are not lacking money."
"Thank you, Dad."
"What are you planning to do now?" Su Yu asked after a few seconds of silence between them.
"I think going back to my maternal grandparents' place would be a good idea," Su Ruan said. "I just wanted to take a short break and figure out what I wanted to do next."
Su Yu frowned. From the way Su Ruan had phrased it, he could guess that Su Ruan's stay in D Town would not be a one or two days visit.
Thinking of what had happened to Su Ruan when she was still a little girl made him a little hesitant.
A long time has passed since the last time Su Ruan had visited D Town. Su Yu did not know whether his daughter would react the same way again when she came to her maternal grandparents' place.
"Did your mom know about this?" Su Yu asked.
"I haven't talked to her about it."
"It's not that I wanted to stop your visit to your maternal grandparent's place. They are also your grandparents and as their granddaughter, of course, you should visit them," Su Yu spoke. "However, Su Ruan, I am a little worried."
Su Ruan shot her father an inquiring look. "Why?"
A helpless sigh escaped him. "You might not remember this, but when you were four, five years old, your mom and I brought you back to D Town. Your cousins were all there and everyone gathered around for a small barbecue party."
Su Ruan listened to her father attentively. However, she had no memories of that incident. Perhaps, it was because she was too young.
"That night, your cousins wanted to play hide and seek. No one expected you to head into your grandfathers' orchard and hide in there." Su Yu paused. He looked at his daughter worriedly and wondered if she was going to remember something unpleasant. "Later, everyone heard your scream. No one knew what happened to you but we found you on the ground, passed out. When you woke up, you don't remember anything but each time you look at your grandpa's orchard, you would scream out hysterically."
"I don't remember any of this. But mom often told me that the reason we never go back to D Town was that I would be traumatized each time we stepped into grandpa's place."
"I'm worried if something would happen to you again if you went back to that town," Su Yu admitted.
Su Ruan chuckled. "Dad, this incident happened more than twenty years ago. Perhaps I would be fine now. Besides, I was still a little girl when that incident happened. Perhaps, m cousins told me some horror story and my imagination ran wild when I went into the orchard to hide."
Su Yu thought that her daughter was taking things too lightly about this.
Of course, she did not know how badly she would react when she saw the orchard.
She stretched her hand and patted at her father's arm. "Dad, I'll be fine. I promise. Grandpa is around too. If something happened to me, he will quickly bring me out of the town."
Seeing the stubborn look in Su Ruan's eyes, Su Yu could only heave a long sigh. "Fine. I don't want to stop you from seeing your maternal family as well. But Su Ruan, you have to promise that you will leave once you feel uncomfortable." He hesitated for a while and added, "Talk to your mom before you head back, alright?"