Seeing the sadness on Old Master Shen's face, Song Ze felt a pang of sympathy himself.
He grew up with his maternal grandfather, who was his closest relative in the world. How could he bear to hurt his grandfather's feelings?
Even so, he could not accept his grandfather's unauthorized actions.
Song Ze's eyes deepened, and he slowly said, "Grandpa, I've decided on Qingqing for the rest of my life. If you don't agree, then I'll become Qingqing's son-in-law."
He couldn't give up on Xia Qingqing, nor did he want to wrong the person he loved. So, if his grandfather still couldn't accept Qingqing in the end, he would try to bring Qingqing back to see his grandfather as little as possible.
Old Master Shen was so angry at his words that his head was spinning. He pointed at Song Ze with a trembling finger and said, "You brat...you're going to make me so angry!"
After saying this, Old Master Shen's body went limp and he fainted from anger. This time, he really fainted.
Song Ze panicked immediately: "Grandpa, don't scare me!"
Hearing the commotion in the room, Shen Huixian rushed in: "Xiaoze, what's wrong with your grandfather?"
"Auntie, Grandpa has fainted. We need to take him to the hospital right away," Song Ze said, and started to carry the old man on his back to the hospital.
When Shen Huixian saw her father lying limply on the bed, unconscious, she hesitated. Was he faking it or was it real? If he was faking it, wouldn't he be exposed if they went to the hospital?
Seeing that his aunt was not moving, Song Ze thought she was frightened and shouted to bring Shen Huixian back to her senses.
She stepped forward and touched Old Master Shen's hand, only to find it motionless. Her heart skipped a beat, and with tears welling in her eyes, she directed Song Ze, "Quick, take him to the hospital."
When Grandpa Shen woke up, it was already the next day.
When he woke up, he only saw his youngest daughter guarding his bedside. He looked around the ward anxiously, but still couldn't see Song Ze.
She asked weakly, "Xiaoxian, where is he? Did he go back to that village?"
When Shen Huixian saw that he was awake, she quickly fed him some water: "Dad, don't worry. Xiaoze stayed up all night with you. I sent him back to sleep."
Upon hearing this, Old Master Shen breathed a sigh of relief, thankfully he hadn't left.
"Dad, what exactly did you and Song Ze talk about yesterday? Why were you so angry?" Shen Huixian asked, looking at Old Master Shen.
Yesterday's incident happened so suddenly that everyone was extremely anxious. She didn't even have the mind to ask Song Ze what happened. Only now that her father has woken up does she have the mind to find out what happened yesterday.
Grandpa Shen sighed: "Xiao Ze said that if I don't agree to him being with that girl, he will become her live-in son-in-law."
"What? How could he say such a thing?" Shen Huixian's brows furrowed tightly.
In this day and age, only poor and incompetent people would become live-in sons-in-law, and they would be ridiculed by everyone.
Especially since Song Ze's crush is a country girl, if he were to become her live-in son-in-law, wouldn't he be ridiculed to death?
Thinking about the cause of this matter, Shen Huixian looked at her father with some resentment: "Isn't it because you forced him? You know that Xiaoze has been stubborn since he was a child."
Grandpa Shen kept his eyes closed and refused to look at his daughter: "I'm doing this for his own good."
——
Half a month has passed, and Song Ze has not returned at the agreed time, nor has he even sent a letter.
If this were in the future, and Xia Qingqing suddenly couldn't contact her boyfriend, perhaps she would buy a high-speed rail ticket and go to his city to find out in person.
But this was in the 1970s, when you needed a letter of introduction to go out, and a round trip to Beijing would take at least three or four days. Zhang Hongyan would never agree to let her go to such a far place.
Besides, what good would it do for her to go? Would she be foolish enough to travel all that way only to get an answer she didn't want? Was it worth it?
These days, Gou Dan has also noticed that his older sister is in a low mood, and he has become much more obedient when Xia Qingqing helps him with his homework in the evening.
After Xia Qingqing finished correcting Gou Dan's math problems, she patted his head encouragingly: "Not bad, you've made progress recently, keep it up."
"Hehe, of course. Don't you know who my brother is? Mom said you've always been good at studying, so I'll definitely be like you," Gou Dan said with a hint of pride on his face.
Xia Qingqing nodded in agreement: "Go for it, I believe in you. If you can get 100 on your midterm math exam next week, I'll take you to the county to play."
When Gou Dan heard that he could go to the county, he immediately became excited: "I will definitely get 100 points, sister, you can't lie to me."
Gou Dan was overjoyed and wished the exam could be moved to tomorrow so he could go to the county to play sooner.
Xia Qingqing looked at him amusedly, repeatedly assuring him that she would never lie to him, and then urged him to go to sleep.
Before leaving the room, Gou Dan suddenly remembered something, scratched his head, looked at Xia Qingqing and asked, "Sister, I heard from the adults that Brother Song has returned to the city. Does that mean we will never see him again?"
"I don't know, maybe," Xia Qingqing's smile immediately faded when she heard Song Ze's name.
Gou Dan looked at his sister in confusion: "But aren't you and Brother Song dating? How will you get married if he doesn't come back?"
In Gou Dan's mind, a man and a woman who are in a relationship are meant to get married. Although he is not very satisfied with Brother Song, he can barely accept Brother Song as his brother-in-law if his sister likes him.
"What do you know, you little brat? Go to sleep now, or you'll be late for school tomorrow," Xia Qingqing said, pretending to be angry. Gou Dan immediately went back to his room to sleep.
After Gou Dan left, Xia Qingqing went to bed, but she couldn't fall asleep. Her mind kept drifting back to Song Ze.
The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. What did that bastard promise before he left? He said he would be back soon and would bring me some Beijing specialties, but he just disappeared without a trace.
A week passed quickly, and Gou Dan sat expectantly in his seat, waiting for Qi Xue'er to announce the exam results.
Among the dozen or so students, Qi Xue'er spotted Gou Dan with bright, expectant eyes and smiled gently at him.
"Now let's announce the exam results. The first place goes to Xia Jiale, with 100 points in math and 98 points in Chinese. The second place is..."
When Gou Dan heard that he had scored 100 on his math test, he jumped up and down with joy: "Oh, that's great! I can go to the county to play now!"
Seeing how happy he was, Qi Xue'er didn't criticize him for disrupting class. She just smiled and reminded him, "Xia Jiale, I know you're happy, but please keep quiet during class."
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