Translation- Part 2 Lonesome | by Wu Nien-chen (Part Two) The man retired from the army soon after that. He started to work as a janitor in a factory, sometimes on day shift and sometimes on night shift. Her mother helped with meal preparations in the same factory, leaving home early and coming back late every day. The family hardly spent time together. Everyone was busy with their own lives. Before long, A-Zhao was admitted to a senior high school in Taipei. She rented her own place and moved out. After that, she seldom went back home, even on holidays. During winter or summer holidays, she spent most of her times with her grandmother. She wouldn’t go home until it was only a few days before the school reopened. She’d reluctantly stay a couple of days at home simply to get her allowances and registration fee for the next semester. Her grandmother passed away when A-Zhao was in her junior year. After that, A-Zhao still seldom showed up at home during holidays. The excuse she gave herself was that she was busy with her part-time jobs, studying, dating, etc. , but she knew the real reason was she had no feelings for that family. Not sure it was because his biological son was good for nothing or what; it was so obvious that the man treated two children differently. He was always gruff when he talked to his son, but very gentle when he was with A-Zhao. A-Zhao always got a thicker Red Envelop for the New Year’s Day. If the son dared grumble a bit about it, the man would scold him, “You keeps taking and stealing money from me all the time. Wasn’t that enough?” The man retired from the factory the year when A-Zhao was graduated and applied to a school in the United States. Her mother expected A-Zhao to work a couple of years and use that money to study abroad. It was the man, unexpectedly, who encouraged A-Zhao to continue with her education when she was young and said she could take his pension. "Otherwise, it would be dissipated by that son of $%^# sooner or later anyway." He continued, "If my daughter brings me home a degree from the US one day, I look good at least. A-Zhao remembered she told him, “Thank you, dad!” She felt ashamed right after she said that, because she had never called him that before as long as she could recall.