Chapter Fifty-Eight Building a Snowman

Before long, Grandma came back slowly, supporting Grandpa's arm. Since Lin Yu hadn't told his aunt beforehand, there were only the five of them having lunch.

My aunt's husband is having dinner with some fertilizer manufacturers, and my cousin Zou Lang also has an appointment with his classmates and won't be able to come back in time.

The aunt took out her phone to call them all back, but Lin Yu smiled and pressed her hand down. She wasn't some national leader; there would be plenty of opportunities to meet in the future, so there was no rush.

The pork ribs, stewed over a wood-fired stove, glistened with oil, and the dark brown broth still bubbled hot between the bones.

Lin Yu ate until her cheeks were bulging, and the bones in front of her quickly piled up into a small mountain. Seeing her wolfing down her food, her grandmother used her wrinkled hands to wipe the grains of rice from the corners of her mouth.

"You child, doesn't your mother feed you? Eat less, you're already so fat!"

In her haste, Lin Yu almost spit out rice from her nose. She covered her mouth, quickly recovered from the embarrassing situation, and then whined to her grandmother in a drawn-out, coquettish tone.

"Grandma, other elderly people complain that the child is too thin, why are you deliberately undermining me?"

Grandpa, who had been silent all along, suddenly cleared his throat, put down his wine glass, and slowly said, "Because Grandma is a very honest person!"

The dinner table was filled with laughter. Jiang Chuan watched this scene and finally understood where Lin Yu's sense of humor came from.

After dinner, Lin Yu and Jiang Chuan, encouraged by their aunt, built a snowman using the piles of old snow swept from the yard.

Jiang Chuan used a shovel to pat and compact the snow, while his aunt found a carrot and quickly sculpted a cute upturned nose for the snowman.

Lin Yu was responsible for cheering them on from the sidelines. Before long, the lifeless snowdrift transformed into a vivid snowman.

My aunt picked up two dry branches from beside the grape trellis and stuck them on either side of the snowman's body. It grinned with a mouth made of chili peppers and waved in the direction of the old house.

Lin Yu took off her scarf and wrapped it around the snowman's short, thick neck. As if infused with her essence, the snowman instantly came to life.

Lin Yu retreated to the eaves, hands on his hips, admiring his masterpiece. He casually snapped a photo and posted it on his WeChat Moments, where it instantly garnered countless likes.

Yao Fangfang's comment came the fastest. "Tell me the truth, who is that scumbag in the bottom left corner?"

Lin Yu zoomed in on the photo and took a closer look, only to find that Jiang Chuan's profile, with his hands behind his back, had been unintentionally framed in the picture.

Yao Fangfang has such sharp eyes; it's a shame she's not a detective. Just as I was hesitating about how to reply, Chen Guang's "like" popped up in the notification bar.

Lin Yu's finger hovered above the screen, unsure if he had seen Yao Fangfang's mockery. She didn't want to investigate or care, but her heart still skipped a beat almost imperceptibly.

Lin Yu's aunt called to her from behind, saying that her arms had been a little sore these past few days and she wanted Lin Yu to massage them. Lin Yu put away her phone and followed her aunt back into the house.

The two sat down on the sofa. The sound of chopping wood came from outside the window. Jiang Chuan slightly hunched his back, stood the wood upright, swung the axe and chopped down, his movements clean and neat.

Lin Yu held his aunt's arm, chatting with her while glancing casually at the figure working outside the window. "Auntie, your arm is a little swollen. Have you not been resting well lately?"

"Oh, I just ate too much oily food during the holidays!" My aunt waved her hand dismissively, completely unconcerned about the subtle changes in her body. "Likely a lot of meat and fish to be hard to digest!"

“Being fat shouldn’t cause pain.” Lin Yu gently rolled up her sleeve, and the skin he touched with his fingertips was swollen and taut, not like ordinary edema.

But her aunt's overly detached attitude made her feel that it wasn't a big deal. "Have you gone to the hospital?"

"Why waste that money?" Auntie laughed, pulling her hand back and gesturing towards the window. "You've always been the smartest and most clever one, and the partner you chose isn't bad either."

Lin Yu followed his aunt's gaze and saw Jiang Chuan bending down to stack the chopped firewood into neat piles. "Look how observant he is!"

Lin Yu pursed his lips, intending to mention this to Lin Min when he got home, so he swallowed back his words of advice to seek medical help. He continued, "He's not my boyfriend, there's no sign of it happening at all!"

"Oh, oh, good, good! You college students have so many ideas!" Auntie suddenly sighed, thinking of her good-for-nothing son. "Unlike my brat, he's always causing trouble for me."

Lin Yu's image of her younger brother Zou Lang as an adult is vague. Her memories always involuntarily pull her back to her childhood, when she had just learned to ride a bike and excitedly forced her brother to take her home with her.

The two siblings were riding Lin Feng's old bicycle down a steep slope when the brakes failed. The out-of-control bicycle, like a wild horse, threw both siblings into a drainage ditch. Unsurprisingly, the younger brother scraped his forehead, and Lin Yu suffered large scrapes on his knees.

Back home, Lin Yu, fearing a scolding from her aunt and uncle, silently hid behind her younger brother. Unexpectedly, this little guy, who always followed her around, surprisingly stepped forward with a sense of chivalry, taking all the blame for her. As a result, Lin Feng gave him a severe beating and forbade him from eating dinner.

Lin Yu felt intensely guilty. Taking advantage of his family's inattention, he secretly slipped away to the corner with a chicken leg and delivered food to his younger brother who was being punished by standing in the corner.

Under the moonlight, the younger brother, with half his head swollen, was eating heartily, his face covered in oil. Lin Yu's heart was filled with a thousand thoughts, and he burst into tears.

The younger brother could only chew on a chicken leg while wiping away his sister's tears with his greasy hands, enduring his headache as he comforted her, "Don't cry, sis, it doesn't hurt at all! A man can't say he's in pain!"

Lin Yu stared at Zou Lang's fearless demeanor, wondering if he had recently become obsessed with some gangster movie. He just thought his younger brother was incredibly stupid.

And so, the image of his silly younger brother was deeply etched in Lin Yu's mind from that time until now.

Lin Feng lowered her sleeves, patted Lin Yu's hand, and stood up to take her leave.

Lin Yu saw her to the door. She stood in the yard, nodded to Jiang Chuan, and then dragged her obese body, swaying as she walked towards home. Her figure looked particularly heavy and lonely in the setting sun.

As evening approached, after dinner, Lin Yu and Jiang Chuan packed up to return home. Grandpa, not waiting for them to leave, had already taken his small stool and gone out to continue his unwavering evening pastime.

Grandma put the remaining glutinous rice from the jar into a bag and gave it to Lin Yu. She then picked up the two free-range chickens that she had slaughtered that afternoon, put on her coat, and saw them off.

As Lin Yu passed through the courtyard, he saw the snowman bathed in the sunset, its thick arms outstretched in a charmingly clumsy manner, as if saying goodbye to them, or perhaps welcoming them back for the next time.

Grandma didn't say a word the whole time, but Lin Yu knew that her silence was just as heavy as her grandmother's nagging, weighing heavily on both sides of the scale and making people's hearts ache.

As they reached the door, Grandma reached out and ruffled Lin Yu's hair. "Who knows when you'll be back next time?"

Lin Yu knew in his heart that the next time they met would probably be another year. For his grandmother, time was flowing faster and faster.

The old woman's year and my own year are like two streams flowing in different directions, measured by completely different standards. She's getting old; perhaps every New Year is a countdown, and every farewell could be a final goodbye.

Lin Yu's throat tightened, and he gripped his grandmother's hand tightly, saying, "It'll be quick!"

After listening, Grandma gently patted the back of her hand and turned to close the mottled wooden door. Just as she turned around, Lin Yu saw a tear slide down her cheek from the wrinkles at the corner of her eye.

Unlike her grandmother's straightforward crying, she didn't want anyone to see her grief. Even her sadness was restrained. She quickly turned away, her tears dripping into the thick snow and disappearing in an instant.

For some reason, the tears that I could hold back in front of my grandmother welled up uncontrollably in front of my maternal grandmother's silence.

She ran over, and through the half-closed wooden door, hugged her grandmother's hunched body tightly, saying in a low voice, "Grandma, I'll come back to see you as soon as I have time! Please take care of yourself!"

Without waiting for a response, she fled into the car, and the moment the door closed, the tears she had been holding back finally flowed uncontrollably.

Jiang Chuan started the car, his sobs drowned out by the engine's roar. He pulled Lin Yu close, letting her head rest on his shoulder, allowing her tears to soak through his clothes.

Jiang Chuan had always believed that humans were food for the world, emotions were nutrients for the land, and the body was non-renewable waste. He believed that since he had no emotions, he would not be devoured.

But at this moment, he couldn't help but be infected by Lin Yu's sadness, letting her emotions, like that bowl of plain porridge from before, soak into his parched heart.

He suddenly wanted to experience a life with Lin Yu that he wouldn't regret even if he died now.

On the way back, Lin Yu was wide awake, her eyes stinging as she gazed out the window. Jiang Chuan noticed her lonely profile and asked, "Hasn't your family considered taking your grandparents to live in the city?"

In his eyes, the two elderly people were in very good health, and going to town or even to their uncle's house in Australia would not be a problem.

"When people get old, they all want to return to their roots, and this is where their roots are."

Lin Yu continued to stare at the endless snow-covered road ahead, her eyelashes still glistening with moisture. "Actually, parting is a normal part of life; I was just momentarily overwhelmed by emotion!"

She reached out and cupped the heater vent, letting the warm air gently envelop her cold fingers. "They've toiled most of their lives, working hard to earn money, supporting their families, raising three children, and now they have to take care of their grandchildren in their old age. It's time for them to live their own lives."

"If we have to endure separation because of this, then it is a price we have to pay."

“Perhaps enjoying the company of grandchildren is a normal part of life!” Jiang Chuan didn’t have any particular feelings about carrying on the family line, but he blurted out the question in the current context.

"Oh?" Lin Yu suddenly turned his head and asked curiously, "Attorney Jiang, you didn't come to bother me because your grandmother is so eager to have a grandson, did you?"

Jiang Chuan, usually so eloquent, was rendered speechless for the first time by Lin Yu's words. After a long while, he laughed in exasperation. "As expected, don't get close to foolish women; it will only lead to unhappiness."

On the morning of the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, Jiang Chuan had to return to Shanghai early due to an urgent matter at his law firm. Lin Min and her family drove him to the airport and checked in a lot of food for him.

The terminal was packed with returning passengers. Jiang Chuan, dragging his suitcase, stood in the crowd, smiled at Lin Yu, and waved goodbye.

The two silently kept their promise on the tenth day, their feelings completely different from when they arrived.