The next morning, Lin Wanqiu was awakened by Nian'an's crying. She quickly sat up and saw Nian'an rubbing her eyes, saying aggrievedly, "Mom, I dreamed about Dad, and Dad ignored me."
Lin Wanqiu felt a pang of sadness, hugged Nian'an in her arms, and gently comforted her, "Nian'an, be good. Daddy isn't ignoring you. Daddy is watching over us from heaven. He hopes that Nian'an can grow up healthy."
Although she said that, Lin Wanqiu knew in her heart that Shen Tingzhou might still be alive. She decided to go to the back mountain again tonight to find out the truth.
That evening, after Lin Wanqiu had lulled Nian'an to sleep, she quietly slung her bamboo basket over her shoulder, took a hoe and a flashlight, and headed towards the back of the mountain. This time, she was more careful than the day before, walking very slowly and listening intently to the sounds around her.
As she approached the wasteland halfway up the mountain, she heard that familiar rustling sound again. Her heart tightened, she stopped, and shone her flashlight into the woods.
Sure enough, the tall, dark figure was standing there again, in the same spot and posture as yesterday.
"Who's playing tricks there?" She suppressed her panic, deliberately raising her voice and slamming her hoe on the ground. "This back hill belongs to the brigade, it's not a place for swindlers to hide. If you keep hiding, I'll call for help!"
The moment the words left his mouth, the shadowy figure moved. He took two steps forward, the moonlight falling precisely on his face through the crooked pine branches. Lin Wanqiu glanced at him, then slammed the hoe in her hand against the stone with a loud clang, startling the crickets in the grass into silence.
This man has high, prominent brow bones and a straight nose. The faint scar on his left eyebrow—that was from when Shen Tingzhou was cut by barbed wire during military training. She even specially found some mercurochrome to apply to it for him for half a month! But… but didn’t he sacrifice himself half a year ago? On the day of the village’s memorial service, the brigade leader read out the notice of the compensation payment. She held Nian’an, who was so thin that he was just skin and bones, and cried so hard in the mourning hall that she almost passed out. How could he be standing here alive?
"You...are you a human or a ghost?" Lin Wanqiu's voice trembled like corn leaves in the autumn wind. She took a step back, her mind a mess—was she hallucinating because she missed him so much? Or had Old Lady Shen tormented her to the point of insanity?
The shadowy figure didn't speak, only stared at her. Its gaze was incredibly complex, containing surprise, guilt, and a melancholy she couldn't decipher—it didn't seem like a vengeful ghost. But the more it seemed this way, the more panicked Lin Wanqiu became. She turned to run down the mountain, but after only two steps, she tripped over a blade of grass and stumbled, about to fall into the ditch beside her, when suddenly a warm, large hand grasped her wrist.
The grip was incredibly strong, making her wrist ache. The calluses on his palm brushed against her skin, the sensation was frighteningly real. Lin Wanqiu froze on the spot, forgetting even to struggle. She only heard a deep, slightly hoarse voice above her: "Wanqiu, don't run, it's me."
That voice! That voice is exactly the same as when Shen Tingzhou was alive! Lin Wanqiu suddenly looked up, meeting his deep eyes, and tears streamed down her face. They weren't tears of fear, but of anger, grievance, and disbelief: "Shen Tingzhou? You heartless bastard! Aren't you dead? Do you know what kind of life Nian'an and I have been living for the past six months?"
She raised her hand and punched his chest, the force not strong, but carrying all the pent-up frustration of the past six months—Old Mrs. Shen cursed her every day as a "jinx who kills men," Zhang Lan borrowed grain and pretended to be stupid and didn't pay it back, Nian'an was so hungry that she cried for steamed buns in the middle of the night, and she herself was pushed into the river and almost drowned. If it weren't for activating the space, the mother and daughter would have been dead long ago!
Shen Tingzhou let her pound him, his shoulders tensing slightly, his Adam's apple bobbing: "I'm sorry, Wanqiu, I faked my death."
"Fake death?" Lin Wanqiu's hand froze in mid-air, tears still on her face. She laughed angrily, "Do you think this is some kind of opera? You can just die and come back to life as you please? Do you know that the whole village treats you like a martyr, while I, the 'martyr's widow,' am bullied by your bunch of ingrates every day!"
She became more and more agitated as she spoke, pointing down the mountain: "Nian'an is so thin he can barely walk. Last time he had a fever and was delirious, I couldn't even find any fever reducers, so I had to secretly boil herbs from my spatial storage to give him water! Shen Tingzhou, if you have any conscience at all, stop playing tricks here. Either go home openly and honestly, or never show your face again!"
Shen Tingzhou's eyes darkened. He released her wrist, took out something wrapped in blue cloth from his pocket, and handed it to her: "I know I've wronged you two, but I can't go back now. This is for Nian'an. It contains milk candy, which he loved to eat when he was little."
Lin Wanqiu glanced at the blue cloth bag, her heart aching even more—Nian'an did love milk candy when she was little. Every time Shen Tingzhou came back from visiting his family, he would bring two small pieces from the army, and Nian'an would smile for a long time while sucking on the candy. But ever since Shen Tingzhou "sacrificed" himself, Nian'an had never mentioned milk candy again, not because she didn't want to, but because she knew her family couldn't afford it.
"Since you have Nian'an in your heart, why don't you come back?" She turned her face away, not wanting him to see her tear-streaked face. "Is there something you're hiding from me?"
Shen Tingzhou was silent for a while, then lowered his voice even further: "I was on a mission, and I can't say the specifics. But I've been watching you. The time when Old Lady Shen stole your grain, I was under the old locust tree at the village entrance; the day Zhang Lan asked you for eggs, I was behind the woodshed."
Lin Wanqiu was stunned—no wonder Grandma Shen and Zhang Lan suddenly backed down halfway through their argument those two times. Grandma Shen said, "I think I saw Tingzhou's shadow," and Zhang Lan said, "I always feel like someone is watching me from behind." It turns out they weren't seeing things; Shen Tingzhou really was there!
"Then why didn't you come out and help me?" She bit her lip, her anger subsiding a little, but she was still aggrieved. "Don't you feel sorry for me seeing them bullying me?"
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