Chapter 70 She was willing to suffer, but she could not escape

Zhou Yishao observed the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law's cacophony. Unlike Yang Shi, she didn't hold back and immediately retorted, "Whether it's strange or not is none of your business, aunt. Go and take care of your own family. My family doesn't need you to worry about it. Your eldest grandson has nothing to do with us."

"You!" Xiao Wu was so angry that she was about to go up and argue with Zhou Yishao, "You've been married and..."

"That's enough."

At this moment, Zhou Linjin, who had been silent, suddenly shouted. His voice was not loud, but Wu was frightened for a moment. She swallowed the words she had not finished speaking. She looked at Zhou Linjin again, only to see his lifeless eyes passing over her. Wu's heart trembled, and she turned her head away, not daring to speak anymore.

After entering the main room of Shou'an Hall, Yang closed the door herself and left her trusted maid to guard the door. Going further inside, it was Wu's bedroom. There were two maids serving her, both of whom had been with Wu for decades.

As soon as the two maids saw Zhou Linjin and Yang, they wiped their tears and looked outside. However, as servants, they couldn't say anything, so Zhou Linjin asked them to wait in the outer room and asked Zhou Yishao to take care of An An.

Chen Lianxiu walked closer to take a look and was also shocked. Although five years had passed, the Wu lying there was completely different from what she remembered. She was so thin that she almost lost her human form. She was just a piece of skin and bones spread on the bed.

Yang called Wu several times and told her that Shen Lianxiu and An An were here, but Wu did not respond and still kept her eyes tightly closed.

Chen Lianxiu had seen many dying people, and when he saw this situation, even without taking the pulse, he actually understood about 50% of the situation in his mind.

She didn't say anything, but just sat down beside the couch and carefully took Mrs. Wu's pulse for a while. After she was done, she sighed and shook her head at Mrs. Yang and the others.

This was not a place to talk, and no one asked her anything. Only Zhou Linjin stepped forward and called Wu a few more times.

Seeing this, Zhou Yishao said, "Forget it. You're not my grandmother's favorite either. I'm afraid I can't wake you up."

But as soon as she finished speaking, Wu's eyelids moved. No one else noticed for a while, only Chen Lianxiu and Zhou Linjin were closer. Zhou Linjin naturally couldn't see it, but Chen Lianxiu saw it.

"I think I woke up!"

"Grandma," Zhou Linjin called again, "I'm Erlang, look at us."

Mrs. Wu was too weak to open her eyes completely. She could only struggle to look through the only remaining gap. Just this one action took her several breaths.

Finally, that turbid gaze stopped on Zhou Linjin. Wu opened her mouth, and after a long time, she squeezed out a few words from her mouth: "Save...save..."

Zhou Linjin couldn't see Wu's gaze, but he could hear clearly what Wu said, and his already gloomy expression became even more serious.

Yang gasped, incredulous: "What did your grandmother say?"

Zhou Linjin raised his hand, signaling Yang not to speak, and leaned down so that he could hear what Wu was saying more clearly.

But Mrs. Wu just moved her mouth but never said a word.

Chen Lianxiu took out the bag of gold needles hidden in her sleeve. After she had checked Wu's pulse, before she could give her acupuncture, Wu woke up. Now seeing that Wu was unable to speak, she could only give her a few acupuncture needles to try first.

Soon, Wu's throat uttered another sound: "Da Lang...you and...Xin...your father..."

She spoke incoherently and I couldn't understand what she was saying.

Everyone waited quietly, but after Wu said these words, she could no longer speak.

Chen Lianxiu went over to take a look and said, "This is the only way."

Yang showed Chen Lianxiu the medicinal residue she had secretly taken. Chen Lianxiu looked at it carefully but couldn't tell what was inside.

Yang said, "Take An An back later and let the other two follow."

Chen Lianxiu knew that Yang's implication was that she should go back and tell Zhou Linjin and Zhou Yishao in detail about Wu's situation, so she nodded.

As soon as she left the house, Xiao Wu came up to her and asked, "How's it going? Is the old lady awake? Is she really happy to see her great-granddaughter?"

Finally, Yang couldn't hold it in any longer and said, "The old lady has always loved you the most. Now that she is sick in bed, why do you say such things?"

Little Wu snorted, but Yang was different from Zhou Yishao just now. Zhou Yishao was a junior and could say a few words to her, but Yang was the eldest sister-in-law and the mistress of the Duke Cheng's Mansion. If Yang really spoke, Little Wu would not be able to say anything.

She only said to Su Qiong beside her: "I'll go in and take a look and then come out. You wait here for a while, don't go in, lest you be infected by the disease inside. You are different now. It's best if you give birth to a son this time."

After Xiao Wu finished speaking, she didn't leave for a while and kept looking at the people in front of her. Yang asked Chen Lianxiu and the others to leave, but she wanted to stay here for a while.

After leaving Shou'an Hall, Zhou Yishao asked someone to bring Zhu'er over and go to Chen Lianxiu together, but Zhou Linjin said, "You go ahead, I have something else to do."

Chen Lianxiu naturally didn't care, but Zhou Yishao was a little dissatisfied and said, "What's so important to you every day?"

She hated Zhou Linjin for being blind again and not even seeing the look she gave him. Zhou Yishao saw Shen Lianxiu's attitude towards him and it was obvious that it would not be easy for her to change her mind. She didn't know how long he would have to live outside with the child. He didn't cherish every opportunity to win Shen Lianxiu's heart, but was busy with other things. He really couldn't tell the difference between the important and the unimportant. To put it more seriously, even if he didn't do those official duties, there were plenty of people who could do them. Why should he treat himself like a beast of burden and leave his wife and daughter aside?

"I'll go back to Zhuoxinzhai. It won't take long." Zhou Linjin replied to Zhou Yishao, but his absent-minded eyes were looking for Chen Lianxiu. "I'll be here soon."

Zhou Yishao didn't know what to say. Just then, Zhu'er came over. She saw Shen Lianxiu from a distance and ran over. When she got close, she couldn't believe it: "Aunt, you're back!"

After not seeing her for many years, Zhu'er is already ten years old. Her facial features have not changed, but she has lost her baby fat. One can vaguely see that she will be a graceful young lady in the future, and she looks a bit like Zhou Yishao.

Chen Lianxiu was filled with emotion. Suddenly, she recalled the year in Baoguang Temple when she and Zhou Linjin took Zhu'er to burn incense and make wishes. Everything seemed to be vivid in her mind. At this moment, she heard her call her "Auntie" but she didn't know how to respond. She could only smile and touch her head, saying, "Zhu'er has grown so big."

Zhu'er took Shen Lianxiu's hand. After all, children are children. There are some things that adults cannot say, but children don't care. She muttered, "It's all my uncle's fault. He insisted on making you leave. When you left, my mother lied to me, saying that you would be back soon. In the end, I kept waiting for you and never saw you. I cried for several days..."

Zhou Linjin hadn't left yet. Although Zhu'er was telling the truth, he couldn't hold back his face when he said it in front of him and Shen Lianxiu. He was even more afraid that Shen Lianxiu would think of those things again. Just as he was about to change the subject, Zhou Yishao said, "Zhu'er, look who this is. It's little sister An'an, the little sister your aunt gave birth to for you. Isn't that what you always wanted?"

An An had also seen Zhu'er a long time ago. She was not interested in many things that happened today, and she didn't know what she was doing. Moreover, she had no friends since she came to the capital, and she really wanted to play with this sister.

Zhu'er's thoughts were indeed diverted, and she quickly ran over to hold An An: "So you are An An, let's play together from now on!"

An An covered her mouth and laughed.

In this way, Zhou Linjin temporarily returned to Zhuoxinzhai, while Chen Lianxiu and her party returned to her home.

Chen Lianxiu asked An An and Zhu Er to follow the maid to play with the chickens, while she and Zhou Yishao sat down in the hall.

The maid brought the tea, and Zhou Yishao asked them to go down first, but he was not in a hurry to talk about Wu's matter.

She just said, "Let's wait until my brother comes. I don't dare to make a decision on anything. It makes me uncomfortable to worry about it."

Although Shen Lianxiu hadn't said it yet, everyone actually already knew about Wu's illness.

Mrs. Wu is old, and now she is in this condition. She is just hanging on by a thread, and it is almost impossible for her to recover.

"You've been living here for a few days. How do you feel?" Zhou Yishao turned to ask Chen Lianxiu.

Shen Lianxiu thought for a moment and said, “Not bad.”

Zhou Yishao held her hand: "I know there are some things you don't want to hear, but he is my brother after all. I have always hoped that you will be well. I will not deny that what happened in the past was his fault. It was indeed the consequences he caused. He has known his mistakes for a long time. After learning about your death, he never talked about marriage again. The family even urged him several times, but he always turned it down. He never said why, but everyone in the family understands that he did it for you. Can you forgive him for An An's sake?"

Shen Lianxiu didn't say anything.

"It's certainly not right for me to say that. I've seen it all these years, and I'm worried, but I don't know how to persuade him," Zhou Yishao sighed. "Since there's a knot in your heart, why not try to untie it? If you just leave it alone, it's still there. You're just deceiving yourself by not seeing it."

"I've been through these five years. Even if there is a knot, it doesn't matter whether it is untied or not." Chen Lianxiu said lightly.

Zhou Yishao shook his head. "How can it not be important, A Yuan? In my heart, I also regard you as my sister. So when I call you this and ask you to untie it, it's not to make you forget the pain you felt, but to make you face it. Are you... willing to accept that?"

Chen Lianxiu slowly lowered his eyes.

Willing? Of course she wasn't, but what was the point? She had never done anything bad, and even arranged for Shen Wuyu to marry Zhou Linjin. In the end, she had to bear the consequences of everyone's mistakes. No one would be willing to accept this. If there was, it would be a true saint, not her.

But as Zhou Yishao said, just thinking about the situation at that time was enough to make her exhausted.

She couldn't forget it, but she also didn't have the energy to deal with it anymore.

If Zhou Linjin had not appeared again, she thought she would have lived in Baixi Village with An An forever, and perhaps she would have gradually forgotten what happened. It would have been even better if she could live longer. By that time, when she thought back on the past, she probably wouldn't care at all.

But now, many times, like when she went to the Duke Cheng's Mansion just now, or saw those people from the past, she would involuntarily think of the past. She could not avoid it, nor could she bury it in her memory one handful of soil at a time. Everything was actually constantly reminding her to remember.

Remembering it means remembering the pain and unbearableness.

She felt very uncomfortable, but she couldn't escape.

Even if she was hiding in this place which was nominally the residence of Zhou Linjin's colleague, and even if she rarely came into contact with Zhou Linjin, she could not escape.

What should she do?