Chapter 94 Encounter
In the early morning of Peking University, Gu Qiuyue was awakened by the golden sunlight filtering through the leaves of the sycamore trees and the resounding "Singing the Motherland" on the radio. She walked on the tree-lined avenue with a book in her hand, surrounded by hurried classmates. The air was filled with the fragrance of ink and books and a vigorous and upward spirit.
She took a deep breath and tried to focus her mind on the modern literature class later, but her fingertips accidentally touched the hard-cover notebook in her schoolbag, which carefully contained the fragments of yellow paper sent by Sun Juan.
"The ancestral hall is high, the elders smile... the bottom of the Qinghe River, the stones nod..." Those vague words and heavy resentment always quietly surfaced when she let her guard down. She shook her head, as if to dispel some ominous thoughts. Her studies were the priority, and her children were still young. The affairs of Qinghe Town could not be rushed.
She secretly told herself that she would find a safe excuse to find out the truth during the winter vacation. For now, she should just enjoy this rare weekend.
The bell rang for the end of get out of class. Gu Qiuyue packed up her notes. Some people gathered in front of the bulletin board. She glanced at a newly posted lecture notice: "A Preliminary Exploration of Local Folk Culture and Social Change." The speaker was an old professor from the History Department. She paused, her heart moved slightly, and she still wrote down the time and place.
Knowledge is always useful.
In the autumn park, the sky is high and the clouds are light. Golden ginkgo leaves are spread all over the ground, making a rustling sound when stepped on.
Gu Qiuyue and her mother-in-law Wang Xiulan brought their twins to join the weekend hustle and bustle. They went to the newly built amusement park together. The two children, who were walking more and more steadily, were like two happy deer. They broke free from their grandmother and mother's hands, giggled and rushed towards the slide.
Wang Xiulan chased after them, repeatedly urging them to "slow down", and the wrinkles on her face were smoothed out, filled with love. Gu Qiuyue looked at the grandparents and grandchildren, and her mood, which had been entangled by the old pieces of paper for days, also relaxed a lot.
The warm sunlight shines on my body, Teresa Teng's sweet singing voice floats from the tape recorder, and in the distance a few fashionable young people wearing bell-bottom pants and frog-eye glasses walk by. New life, it's so good.
"Mom! Look at me!" Huahua slid down from the top of the slide, waving his hands excitedly. Gu Qiuyue smiled and waved in response. As her eyes moved, she caught a familiar yet unfamiliar silhouette in the shadow of an old locust tree not far away.
It’s Bai Xiaolian.
She was wearing a washed-out blue smock, her hair was casually tied up, a few strands stuck to her sweaty forehead, and her face was sallow from long-term work.
She was pulling with a man wearing dark blue work clothes and with a frown on his face. The man looked impatient. It was Chen Xiangsong. Bai Xiaolian seemed to want to pull him away, and her movements were almost humble and eager.
Almost simultaneously, Bai Xiaolian also raised her head. The moment their eyes met, time seemed to freeze. Gu Qiuyue clearly saw shock flash across Bai Xiaolian's eyes, followed by overwhelming embarrassment, inferiority, and a hint of resentment that she couldn't conceal.
She lowered her head suddenly as if she was burned, and pulled Chen Xiangsong's arm even harder, her voice filled with tears: "Go... Go quickly!"
Chen Xiangsong staggered when he was pulled, and his anger rose. His voice became louder: "Why are you walking? What's wrong with you?" He looked over in the direction Bai Xiaolian's evasive gaze, and saw Gu Qiuyue standing quietly in the sun with her arms folded.
Gu Qiuyue had a rosy complexion, was dressed neatly and appropriately, and had a calm look in her eyes, which formed a stark contrast with Bai Xiaolian's haggard and disheveled appearance.
A flicker of embarrassment crossed Chen Xiangsong's face, but it was quickly replaced by even greater anger. He forcefully shook off Bai Xiaolian's hand, his voice tinged with disdain, neither too high nor too low, but loud enough for those nearby to hear: "You're such a jinx! You're always looking so sad, you act like you've seen a ghost. You're such bad luck!"
He brushed off the sleeve that Bai Xiaolian had grabbed with disgust.
Bai Xiaolian was humiliated by him in public, especially in front of the radiant Gu Qiuyue. Her body trembled violently, tears rolled down her face silently, she bit her lower lip tightly, and wished she could find a hole in the ground to crawl into.
This little commotion attracted two aunties who were chatting and enjoying the cool air on the bench next to them.
One of them, Aunt Li, with a round face and a loud voice, obviously recognized both groups. She looked at Bai Xiaolian's pitiful appearance, then at the radiant Gu Qiuyue, and couldn't help but shake her head and sigh. She whispered to the thinner Sister Zhao next to her, her voice neither too loud nor too soft, just enough to reach Gu Qiuyue and Wang Xiulan's ears:
"Oh, what a sin... Bai Xiaolian, when she first married into our area, was such a smart girl, brave, righteous, hardworking and virtuous. What a pity..." Aunt Li smacked her lips and lowered her voice, speaking with a hint of mystery and taboo, "You really shouldn't do things that go against your conscience. I heard that she was able to return to the city because she stole someone else's spot. Now she looks listless and has lost all her energy. I guess this is retribution!"
"Shh! You're courting death! How dare you talk about retribution or not?" A woman who looked similar to Aunt Li nudged her.
"Look at me, look at me, I said the wrong thing." After saying that, she quickly looked around and saw that no one was paying attention to her, so she breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you for reminding me, old sister."
The smile on Gu Qiuyue's face froze instantly. The sun was still shining warmly and Teresa Teng's singing was still flowing, but Bai Xiaolian's face in front of her was a mixture of embarrassment, resentment and tears, and Chen Xiangsong's harsh humiliation, like a basin of ice water poured over her head, suddenly cooling this warm weekend afternoon.
Aunt Li's whisper of "stealing someone else's spot to return to the city" was like a fine needle that pierced Gu Qiuyue's eardrum unexpectedly. Her heart skipped a beat and her eyes subconsciously swept over Bai Xiaolian's trembling shoulders.
Wang Xiulan naturally heard it as well. Her brows immediately twisted into knots. She first glared at the two aunts who were still whispering in dissatisfaction, then quickly stepped forward and held Huahua and Shuangshuang's hands, who had just run down the slide and were looking at the direction of the quarrel in a daze.
"Come on, come on, my dear grandson, let's go play over there. There are so many kids there!" Her voice was not loud, but with unquestionable strength, she used her body to cleverly block the children's sight of Bai Xiaolian and her husband, and also protected Gu Qiuyue behind her.
Her face darkened, and she was obviously extremely dissatisfied with Chen Xiangsong's rudeness and public outburst, and she didn't want her precious grandchildren to be tainted by such bad luck.
Gu Qiuyue took a deep breath and forced herself to look away. She didn't want to see Bai Xiaolian's embarrassment, as that would only make her feel awkward and have an indescribable complex emotion spread. She also had no intention of intervening in the dispute between the resentful couple.
"Yueyue, what are you doing? Let's go." Wang Xiulan urged, her tone carrying a hint of barely perceptible anger and protectiveness for her own wife.
"Hey, here I come." Gu Qiuyue responded, and finally glanced at the couple who were still pulling each other. Chen Xiangsong seemed to feel even more embarrassed to be "made fun of" by Gu Qiuyue, and yelled at Bai Xiaolian even more fiercely. Bai Xiaolian completely hunched her shoulders, almost curled up in the shadow of the tree, with only suppressed sobs coming out intermittently.
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