"Wen Qing, Wen Qing..." Yao Shiling held Wen Qing's hand, crying and calling out. She couldn't be there when Wen Qing closed her eyes. She couldn't help but cry. Wen Qing, her daughter, the daughter who was raised by someone else because she was too busy.

Yao Shiling couldn't stop crying.

Wen Liang and Wen Peng arrived two hours later, but they were unable to see Wen Qing one last time. The two of them simply could not believe that their sister, who had been fine during the day, was gone that night.

"sister……"

"Big sister..."

Wen Liang and Wen Peng knelt down in front of Wen Qing.

Ji Yanjun held Wen Qing tightly and wouldn't let go, ignoring everyone's advice; he just kept holding onto Wen Qing.

Until it started raining heavily outside the window.

Until dawn.

Until the heavy rain stopped and the sun came out.

It wasn't until Yao Shiling slapped Ji Yanjun that she yelled, "Ji Yanjun! Wen Qing is dead! She's dead! She's dead, and you still won't let her go? It's your Ji family that owes us a life, not us owing you! Can you please let her go?!"

Ji Yanjun slowly let go, and Yao Shiling quickly hugged Wen Qing tightly, crying, "Wen Qing, Wen Qing..."

Ji Yanjun was driven out of the hospital by Yao Shiling. He stood on the roadside, which had been washed clean by the heavy rain, looking at the houses of varying heights in front of him, feeling a dull pain in his heart.

Wen Qing is gone.

Wen Qing left and never came back. From then on, Wen Qing could no longer be found in any corner of the world. He drove her to her death once again, and she abandoned him once more.

Qingqing...

He squatted by the roadside, holding his hair and whimpering in pain, attracting the attention of many passersby.

Just then, a large truck suddenly stopped in front of him. Gangzi jumped off the truck and shouted, confused, "Yanjun, Yanjun, what's wrong, Yanjun..."

Ji Yanjun looked up at Gangzi upon hearing the sound.

Gangzi was startled. It was the first time he had ever seen Ji Yanjun cry. Ji Yanjun, who had seemed perfectly fine yesterday, now looked like he had aged more than ten years overnight, exhausted and haggard. He immediately realized that Wen Qing had an accident, but he didn't dare to confirm it or ask Ji Yanjun directly.

"Wen Qing..." Before he could finish speaking, he strode towards the hospital. As soon as he reached the hospital entrance, he saw Yao Shiling, Wen Liang, and Wen Peng.

Yao Shiling is crying.

Wen Liang put his arm around her shoulder to comfort her. The doctor next to them pushed a medical trolley covered with a white sheet. The white sheet was slightly bulging, making it seem as if an extremely thin person was lying on it. Gangzi was startled.

Then the doctor set up a medical trolley and put the person in the hospital vehicle, seemingly taking the person back to Shuiwan Village.

Wen Qing,

Wen Qing...

Gangzi trembled. Wen Qing really... She used to be so energetic and vibrant. She would bicker with him from time to time, and have a little tiff with Ji Yanjun from time to time. But she was always the one who couldn't hold back and would apologize to the other party first. She was only eighteen years old, the age of a flower.

Gangzi covered his mouth with one hand, forcefully forcing back his tears. He wanted to go forward and see Wen Qing one last time, but the Wen family had all gotten into the hospital car, which quickly drove past him and disappeared into the distance.

Wen Qing...

Gangzi stood there in a daze, seemingly in disbelief, then turned back to look for Ji Yanjun, who was still there.

Gangzi said with a solemn expression, "Yanjun, Wen Qing..."

“Qingqing is gone, gone…” Ji Yanjun said in a hoarse voice.

Gangzi felt a chill run through him; Wen Qing was gone…

Wen Qing is gone...

Wen Qing has passed away... This news quickly spread throughout Shuiwan Village, Wangcheng County, Nanzhou City, and even across the country.

A wave of lamentation swept through Fengqing.

The whole country felt sorry for her; she was only eighteen years old.

At Wen Qing's funeral, many people came, including the county magistrate of Wangcheng County, Jin Ling, Pete, Wang Zhishan, Tang Quan and many other important figures, as well as the class teacher Zhao, his classmate Wan Min, Shi Lei and his family, and so on. At the same time, TV reporters, newspaper reporters and radio reporters came one after another. In a short time, the news of the death of the 18-year-old president of Fengqing Group was reported throughout the country, causing everyone to sigh.

At this time, Ji Yanjun was the only one who was not present.

Shi Lei cried bitterly at the cemetery, which saddened everyone present.

However, no matter how sad the living are, the dead will never come back to life.

Everyone tried to comfort Yao Shiling, but she wouldn't listen to anyone.

Yao Shiling then remained depressed for nearly two months. She kept blaming herself, saying that when Wen Qing was diagnosed with stomach cancer, she shouldn't have listened to Wen Qing and made any surgical preparations. She should have had the surgery then and there, and then Wen Qing wouldn't have died.

Yao Shiling was bothered by the fact that Wen Qing hadn't had surgery. She always felt that if Wen Qing had had surgery, things would have been better, and that Wen Qing wouldn't have died.

While she was still bothered by this, one day her homeroom teacher, Mr. Zhao, called her home and told her that Wen Qing had scored second in the entire city of Nanzhou in the college entrance examination. He said that if Wen Qing were here, she could choose any university in the country.

After hanging up the phone, Yao Shiling burst into tears.

Wen Peng said from the side, "Mom, don't cry. Your older sister will be sad if she finds out."

Yao Shiling leaned on Wen Peng's shoulder and cried, which made Wen Peng cry along with her, calling out for her older sister. A passing neighbor quickly came over to comfort her, and Yao Shiling finally stopped crying.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, Ji Yanjun brought gifts to visit Yao Shiling.

Yao Shiling wouldn't let them in.

Wen Peng stood at the door and said, "You can leave now. My older sister is gone. Our family has nothing to do with yours anymore."

Ji Yanjun placed the gift at the Wen family's door. Yao Shiling came out and casually threw the gift at Ji Yanjun. It landed with a thud. Ji Yanjun bent down to pick up the gift and was about to speak when Yao Shiling pulled Wen Peng into the yard and closed the gate.

After Wen Qing became successful, the Wen family's courtyard was no longer a fenced yard, but a brick wall, and the wooden door was replaced with an iron gate. So Ji Yanjun looked back at the tightly closed iron gate.

He gave a wry smile, carried the gifts, and walked onto the dirt road. When he encountered people from Shuiwan Village, they all gave him unfriendly looks.

Some even pretended to spit and said, "Not a single good person in that family is any good!"

"Wen Qingcai wouldn't even look at your family!"

"Ingratitude!"

"What are you doing here at the Wen family? You're just pretending!"

"When Wen Qing used to go to the county town every day, your family never treated her well. Now that she's dead, what are you doing here? Just pretending!"

"..."

Because of Wen Qing's death, the neighbors hated Ji Yanjun and the Ji family with a passion that made their teeth itch, but no one dared to come forward and beat Ji Yanjun up.

He slowly walked through Shuiwan Village and onto the dirt road. He glanced sideways at the mass grave where Uncle Wenqing and Wenqing were buried. He just looked at it from a distance without going forward, and his eyes instantly reddened.

A moment later, he slowly walked towards the end of the dirt road, carrying the gifts.

He never walked along the main dirt road; he usually came by bicycle or car. He even visited Shuiwan Village very few times. Wen Qing would walk to the county town to find him more often.

Sometimes, covered in sweat, he would say, "I ran here."

Sometimes when she gets wet, she says, "It wasn't raining when I came."

Sometimes my shoes were covered in mud, and I was afraid he would look down on me, so I would awkwardly lower my head and say, "It's raining, the road is hard to walk on, it's all muddy."

Sometimes her face would turn bright red from the sun, and she would say, "Even when I'm walking in the shade, I still get sunburned."

Sometimes when she ran over and didn't see him, she would look for him everywhere, and when she found him, she would get angry: "Do you know how far I walked?!"

...

He didn't know before, but now he knows everything, he knows everything... This dirt road is very long. It takes half an hour to walk fast, and an hour to walk slowly. The road surface is uneven and full of potholes. When the sun shines directly on it, dust will rise everywhere, and when it rains, it will become a muddy mess.

But Qingqing, his Qingqing, has gone to find him and see him through thick and thin in both her past and present lives... Ji Yanjun's heart ached, the pain was so intense that his whole body almost convulsed. He stood under the tree, holding onto the trunk to catch his breath, and when he looked up, he saw three words on the tree trunk—Ji Yanjun.

He was startled and quickly looked over. It really was Ji Yanjun's name. He suddenly remembered what she had said.

She said, "Yanjun, every time I waited for you for more than thirty minutes, I would draw a stroke on a tree. I ended up writing your whole name on a big tree. Guess how many thirty-minute periods I waited for you and on which big tree I wrote your name? I wrote it so deeply that it can still be seen two or three years later. I just think I'm pretty bad. The tree must be in pain. I will never write it again."

She said it with a smile, without a hint of complaint.

He smiled too.

"Yanjun, guess how many thirty-minute intervals I waited for you, and on which big tree I wrote your name?" she asked.

He said, "I don't know."

She clung to his arm and shook it, saying, "Guess, guess!"

He thought for a moment, then casually turned his head to look at her and said, "A hundred times? The big tree in front of your house?"

"Yanjun, are you stupid? You don't even know that your name has twenty-two strokes?" Wen Qing said, "I've told you so many times, there are no big trees in front of my house, just three small locust trees. You don't remember a single thing I've said."

He was amused by her adorable appearance, so he pulled her into his arms, kissed her, and gently bit her lip, saying, "Naughty."

She chuckled, as if the fact that she had waited for him twenty-two times didn't exist.

I didn't expect it to be true; everything she said was true.

Ji Yanjun reached out and stroked the tree trunk, carefully tracing each stroke, trying to understand Wen Qing's feelings as he wrote them—anxiety, anticipation, frustration, sadness, or grievance… He knew nothing of it. All he knew was that his heart felt as if it were being pinched, kneaded, and torn by an invisible, thorny hand, with tiny thorns piercing his heart, drawing blood.

"Qingqing... Qingqing..." Ji Yanjun called out again and again, leaning over the big tree and kissing every stroke of Wen Qing's calligraphy.

That day, she stood in front of the big tree, holding the small knife that Ji Yanjun had given her, and said, "Ji Yanjun, you bastard, you said you'd be back at 8:30, and you said you'd be back at 8:30, but it's already 10:30 now. I'm going to draw yesterday too!" But when she looked at the tree, she saw that the three characters "Ji Yanjun" were already completely drawn, and she felt a pang of disappointment: "Forget it, I won't write it anymore. I won't write it anymore. It will hurt the tree if I do."

"Beep beep beep!" Several car horns sounded from the intersection.

Her disappointment vanished instantly, and she turned and ran to the end of the dirt road, heading towards the four-way intersection.

“Qingqing…” At this moment, Ji Yanjun’s head was pressed against the tree trunk, and tears rolled down uncontrollably, one by one landing on the three characters “Ji Yanjun” on the tree trunk.