Aunt Lin cried for a little while before finally saying in a choked up voice, shocking everybody in the house.

"I have cancer, Lung cancer."

​​

There was silence for a minute before Changming and her father spoke up at the same time in a shocked manner. 

"Mum you have cancer?!."

"Lin'er what did you say, you.....you have cancer?."

Aunt Lin didn't reply them, instead she started to cry more, and that caused her to start coughing.

Changming rubbed her back. "Mum please talk to us, how long have you had it, and when did you find out."

Eventually while coughing with her palm over her mouth, Aunt Lin coughed up something, so she opened her palm to see what it was, only to see a little mixture of blood in what she coughed up.

"Oh My God! Mother you coughed up blood!." Changming screamed in a frightened voice.

"Lin'er...Lin'er are you okay?." HuiQing asked worriedly as he patted her back.

When Chen Lihua heard her cousin scream in a frightened voice, she hurriedly walked over to take a look.

She was shocked to see some blood droplets sitting on her Aunt's plan. And that was not a good sign.

"Uncle, please take Aunt to clean up." Chen Lihua said in a composed manner.

HuiQing immediately supported Aunt Lin as he brought her away.

Watching her mother look so weak and being supported by her father, plus the shocking news she received, tears fell out from Changming's eyes.

"Lihua, please you have to help my mother. You can fix this right?." Changming asked in tears, almost losing all hope.

Chen Lihua glanced at her cousin and managed to say while trying to hide her dispirited tone. "Changming I hate to say this and feel this way, but I'm sorry, I can't be of help from here. I am not in the oncology department, and I don't know so much about cancer. But I will help in the little way I can."

Changming completely broke down in tears as she sat on the couch with her palms over her face. 

Chen Lihua's eyes felt teary as well, but she forced the tears back inside. She sat down beside her cousin and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Changming, crying will not change anything, so you've got to stop. You need to be there for Aunt, she needs you by her side more than anything now. Aunt has always been a strong woman, and she still is despite, the circumstances. But she still needs you to encourage her, and that's not going to work if you are weak. You need to stop crying and be strong for her now that she needs you the most."

Changming cried harder as she hugged Chen Lihua. "Lihua what do I do?! My mum has been my only family since I was born up until weeks ago. I don't want to lose her, I never want to lose. Please Lihua, you have to do something."

"Changming, I wish I could help. I hate being helpless and not being able to give hope to people and patients, but I can't lie, that would be the worst thing to do. Look, Cancer is a serious thing, but coughing up blood is a more serious thing given how this illness is like. Although I can't help with this, I can still help in getting the best Oncologist out there in the world for your mother, for my Aunt." Chen Lihua promised.

"Really?." Changming asked in between sobs with a trace of hope in her eyes and voice.

"Of course, I promise. I will do everything I can to help my Aunt. So wipe those tears away so your mother wouldn't see them when she comes back." Chen Lihua advised with a bitter voice.

This is her family we are talking about. She is seriously putting in a lot of effort in trying not to cry in their presence. It's really a difficult thing to do, but she has got to encourage them in her actions and her words.

Changming obeyed her and immediately wiped her teary eyes and tear stained face, as Chen Lihua went back to her previous seat when she heard sounds of footsteps approaching.

HuiQing came back with Aunt Lin. This time around, Aunt Lin didn't need any support, she walked in on her own. She was looking better now, apart from the red eyes, which showed that she must have cried her heart out, which she actually did.

"Aunt, what stage in lung cancer are you in?." Chen Lihua asked after she sat down on the couch with her man by her side.

(Huiqing and Aunt Lin are not married yet, so he can't be described as her husband.)

"When I discovered this few weeks before your wedding, I was in the late stage of stage 2 lung cancer." Aunt Lin answered in a low tone.

"And what does that mean?." Changming asked in Confusion.

"It means that the cancer has spread from my lungs to the nearby lymph nodes." Aunt Lin explained.

"Aunt, why didn't you option for treatment, because obviously, there was hope then, and still hope now?." Chen Lihua questioned.

She didn't see any reason why Aunt refused to take up treatment at that time.

"I was given treatment options. Chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. I tried chemotherapy and surgery, but it didn't work because I didn't get any better, and I didn't feel any better, so I gave up on it." Aunt Lin revealed.

"That's a wrong move you made, you shouldn't have given up. But it's okay now, you can still try again as long as there is hope, no matter how insignificant it may seem." Chen Lihua said in encouragement.

"Lihua you don't get it do you?. I am slowly dying. I have serious back pains and sometimes I can't feel any sensation in my legs. I am loosing my hair, I have persistent chest pains, shortness of breath, loss of appetite, weight loss, fatigue, and now this? coughing up blood? There is no hope at all, and I know that. I am just living the rest of my life on not having hope when there is nothing to hope on." Aunt Lin said hopelessly.

Changming and her father spoke up at the same time, in a shocked tone.

"Mum, what are you saying, are you even listening to Lihua?."

"Lin'er don't talk like that. Even if you didn't have hope before, but you have to, now. You have people that you love, and love you too, don't you want to live a little longer to see them?.