I will never forget that night when I was watching sports news as usual. After taking a shower, my wife came in and said to me: "How come there is an extra black mole on my foot?" I am someone who has no medical knowledge. Thinking it might be due to some unnecessary worries, I didn't pay much attention to her.
Our life could be said to be quite harmonious and comfortable. Ever since I got promoted in my company, she became a full-time housewife. I often have to work overtime or travel on business for weeks at a time. When people are away from home, they usually worry about the health of their elders or how their children are doing with school. But I always remained calm and collected. I knew she would handle all these things well for me; she would take care of our children and help them with their studies. In fact, many people envied both her and me. In others' eyes, she didn't have to endure the nine-to-five grind under someone else's watchful eye, working hard and diligently. We bought a private car early and moved into a luxuriously decorated three-bedroom, two-living room apartment. Although neither of us really knew what romance was, we always had a good relationship.
My wife used to be a pharmacist and had some medical knowledge. She knew that this kind of sudden, inexplicable black mole could be problematic. She saw a doctor herself, and the diagnosis came back as skin cancer. This result shocked both of us. During those days, I accompanied her to every famous hospital in Shanghai. However, almost all the diagnoses were the same. A very famous doctor privately informed me that the type of cancer she had had a 90% mortality rate and was one of the most malignant types of skin cancer!
Not long after, just as the doctors had predicted, new black moles started appearing on her legs, arms, and back. Her physical and mental condition began to deteriorate gradually, and she, who used to be so active, finally ended up lying in a hospital bed.
Without her, our home became cold and desolate. The kitchen lacked warmth, and the toilet bowl, furniture, all gathered a layer of dust. Our once bright, warm, comfortable home became a place I barely recognized. I realized I was unfamiliar with many things in the house. Using the microwave to defrost or steam food, I spent half a day not knowing which setting to use. Making a cup of coffee or tea, cooking instant noodles, warming soup, the taste always seemed different from when she did it. In the past, she effortlessly handed me daily necessities, but now I couldn't find them even after searching through all the drawers.
Since she was hospitalized, I started taking maternity leave and personal leave, trying my best to stay by her side. It was only then that I realized, if there isn't a home, if there isn't a loving wife in the home, how meaningless it is for a man to earn money, no matter how prestigious he is outside.
Just as her condition was worsening, someone told me about a hospital in Guangzhou that specialized in treating this type of skin cancer. There were similar cases that had been successfully cured there, but the cost was high. A course of treatment lasted three months and cost about 300,000 yuan, with a recovery rate of approximately 30%. When I told her this news, despite being nearly delirious from pain, she clearly and firmly said three words to me: "I want to live!" Truly, I had never felt such deep affection between us before. But at that moment, I felt we were the most loving and suitable couple in the world. We could live together so beautifully. She wanted to live, and I wanted her. We wanted to walk together, wait for our son to grow up, listen to his children call us "grandpa" and "grandma." I decided to accompany her to Guangzhou.
Before going to Guangzhou, I went to a supermarket near our home to buy some necessary daily items. On the eve of the Spring Festival, people in the supermarket were laughing and talking, everywhere filled with cheerful faces. Suddenly, I felt like I was separated from those happy people. All the laughter and chatter had become irrelevant to me since the day my wife fell ill.
Following her list, I bought many daily necessities. When I picked up the bags and walked out, I felt the weight. For so many years, everything we ate and used at home was arranged perfectly by her. I never knew how much a bag of rice or a bucket of oil cost, nor did I realize how tiring it was to carry these things from the supermarket to our home. I used to think I was the pillar of the family, but when she suddenly fell ill, I realized she was the backbone of our home.
In Guangzhou, we spent the closest days since our early marriage. During these three months, we stayed together every moment, often crying and laughing together. It had been so long since we last talked so much. After the first month of treatment, she seemed to feel a little better. Occasionally, I would support her walking slowly in the garden. We recalled our first meeting at the entrance of the People's Park, our first movie at Victory Cinema, which was an Italian film called "The Last Romance," starring Sophia Loren. She told me that when someone first invited her to watch that movie, she had already seen it with classmates, but she didn't refuse me and watched it again with me. We seemed to have only recalled this during our honeymoon, and now speaking about it, it only made us feel melancholy. After so many years of marriage, we had never spoken so much to each other.