Chapter 16 Clothes I Put Away
I changed into the new clothes. The size fit surprisingly well.
The soft fabric sat against my skin. It was a comfort I had not felt in years.
The shoes hugged my feet too, a world better than my beat-up sneakers with the glue split open.
But there was not a scrap of joy in me.
Once I was dressed, I opened the door. I did not even look at Ji Yanli outside. I walked straight for the front entrance.
When my hand hit the cold doorknob, I paused. With my back to him, I said it on purpose.
"Don't expect me to pay you back for the clothes and the shoes."
I had raised him, after all. Spending his money on one set of clothes did not count for much.
The moment I got back to my shabby rental, I stripped them off and shoved them into the cabinet.
Then I thought about it, folded them carefully, and slipped them into a clean plastic bag.
Life slid back onto its old track.
Only sometimes, in the dead of night, when the leg wound and the old ailments kept me from sleep, Ji Yanli's cold face would flash through my head without my say-so. And that clean, sharp cedar smell on him.