Feng Suyin stared at him.
"But you said she used to work at the hospital—"
She stopped. She looked at Xuan's face and understood. He hadn't said his mother worked there. He'd said she used to. Past tense. She'd read it as an address, somewhere to direct them. It was something else.
"Linlin and I never got the chance to meet her," Xuan said. His eyes were down. "She's been gone a long time."
Feng Suyin didn't push. Whatever the full shape of this was, she wasn't going to get it from Xuan tonight, and she wasn't going to try. He'd given her more than he probably intended to. She'd pass it to Uncle Jia and let him work from there.
She also made a note: the mother had worked at the hospital. Former pediatric nurse, Bai Yue. Left three years ago. If the twins were five, Bai Yue had left while pregnant, or shortly after giving birth, or she hadn't left at all — she'd died. Feng Suyin didn't know which. She filed it away.
