Chapter 13 Chapter 13
The promise of ten thousand days was ultimately not fulfilled.
Qiao Jiaxin only lived in Jicheng Village for a few months before returning to Yu City with her grandparents.
On the day of departure, Liu Shuqin and Qiao Wensheng got up early in the morning and loaded their packed luggage onto the tricycle one by one.
They cleaned up too early and the Hai family hadn't started preparing breakfast yet.
Since there was nothing to eat as compensation to Qiao Jiaxin, Hai Yan had to take out two coins from his "little golden pig" and give them to her.
"I've lost today."
Looking at Qiao Jiaxin sitting on the tricycle, he just thought her floral dress was really pretty. "Go to the city and buy a new pack of popping candy. Brother Zhou Min mentioned a new flavor."
He remembered that in the fairy tale his mother told him, the cowherd would steal the fairy's clothes in order to make her stay.
But he always felt that this was wrong.
Why let the fairy stay in the mortal world and live a hard life, instead of letting the cowherd become a fairy and go to heaven with the fairy?
Hai Yan knew that Qiao Jiaxin, who was as delicate as a doll, was a little fairy and she did not belong to the village.
So he would not try to beg her to stay, but would just silently make up his mind that he would go to heaven in the future.
"Remember to subtract one day from me. I'll come find you later and you can continue calculating for me."
Holding the two coins, Qiao Jiaxin smiled and waved to her grandfather as he rode away on his tricycle, saying "OK"...
Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, more than ten years have passed.
The little kid who was once a little shorter than me has grown into a young man full of vigor and vitality.
The tender voice became deep and hoarse, the thin shoulders became broad and strong, and the once round belly turned into a few well-defined muscles...
Today, Haiyan has really become a hard "rock", no longer the round pebble in memory.
"Are you in your third year of high school now?" Liu Shuqin asked.
Hai Yan: "Well, the school starts as a senior year."
Liu Shuqin smiled and said, "I just remember that you and Jiaxin are about the same age, both born in 1979."
Hai Yan: "I am exactly one month older than Jiaxin. She is five and I am four."
As he spoke, he couldn't help but look at Qiao Jiaxin's red eyes again.
She has become different from when she was a child.
At that time, she was like a fairy sent down from heaven to play, free and happy.
Now she is more like the fairy in the myth whose clothes were stolen and who could not return to heaven. Her face has a bit more resentment and sadness.
"This yard has been empty for more than ten years," Hai Yan said, glancing at the signs of cleaning in the yard. "Are you planning to move back?"
Liu Shuqin said "hmm" without further explanation.
"This yard has been empty for so many years and it's not easy to clean. Let me help you." As he said that, he walked to the wall at the gate of the yard and grabbed a bunch of ivy that had not been cleaned yet.
The ivy was too stubborn. Liu Shuqin had planned to burn it with fire later, but she pulled it hard with one hand and tore off a large piece.
When Haiyu heard that his brother was going to stay and work, he was stunned for a moment. He then lowered his voice and asked him, "Brother, aren't we going to buy spicy noodles?"
Hai Yan: "Go buy it."
“That money…”
Hai Yan took out a few dimes from his pocket and stuffed them into his pocket, then said, "Don't eat all the food by yourself, remember to leave some for me."
"Don't worry, don't worry. If you need to go out, just go out," Liu Shuqin stepped forward to stop her. "It's just a small job. Jiaxin and I can do a little bit every day and finish it in a few days."
"It's okay. I'm just sitting around doing nothing anyway."
Hai Yan replied with a smile, and at the same time gently kicked Hai Yu's butt, signaling him to go to the store to buy spicy strips.
After Haiyu left, Haiyan looked up at the mottled marks on the wall and patted the dust off his hands. "I'll go home and get a shovel. I'll learn how to do it later."
After saying that, he ran out of the yard.
Looking at Hai Yan's slightly burly figure, Liu Shuqin couldn't help but sigh: "Hai Yan is so small. When he was young, he was as thin as a monkey. I didn't expect him to be so strong now."
"In my time, with this much strength, I could have become a model worker and earned a lot of work points."
Yes, indeed.
It is said that girls change a lot when they grow up, but in fact, boys may change as much as 72 times when they grow up.
Less than five minutes later, Hai Yan came back, holding the shovel and the hoe in one hand.
The boy had grown up and had a sense of shame. He probably felt that it was inappropriate to be shirtless, so he deliberately wore a white vest when he returned home.
"Auntie, why didn't you tell me you were coming back?"
Also coming with them was Hai Yan's mother Wang Xichun.
Wang Xichun still looks the same as he did back then, except that he's a little fatter and his neat short hair has been permed into a fluffy mess.
Looking at Qiao Jiaxin standing beside her, her raised eyes couldn't help but raise an inch, "Is this Jiaxin? Oh! Look, look, she's grown into a big girl, so pretty!"
Wang Xichun liked her very much when he was a child, and often said that he wished he could have a daughter as pretty as her.
Now that I see that Qiao Jiaxin is tall and graceful, beautiful and charming, I regret even more that I couldn't give birth to a girl.
"You went to school?"
Qiao Jiaxin: "Well, I'll be in my third year of high school when school starts."
Wang Xichun nodded approvingly: "Good at studying, you will have a bright future! Try to get into a good university, and then I will definitely give you a big red envelope!"
Holding Liu Shuqin's hand, Wang Xichun's face was filled with a smile of reunion: "How have you been doing in the city these years? Where's my uncle? Why didn't he come back with us?"
Liu Shuqin knew that she was concerned about her, but these questions would inadvertently touch the blood scab on her heart that had not yet formed a scar.
"Uncle Nian..." Liu Shuqin's lips revealed a hint of bitterness, "It's a long story."
Wang Xichun understood what she meant, so he stopped asking about this sad topic and tried to lighten the mood: "It's a long story, let's talk about it later."
Looking at the house in front of her that had been empty for more than ten years, she took the shovel from Hai Yan's hand and said, "There were many wild cats and weasels nesting in this house before. We need to clean it out before we can live here."
"Take Jiaxin to my house and have some rest first. I'll do this little chore."
Seeing Wang Xichun trying to help her out, Liu Shuqin quickly pushed her hand away: "No, no, how can I let you do everything? It's not a lot of work, Jiaxin and I can finish it."
"Oh, just listen to me."
Wang Xichun used a Tai Chi move, and the hand that had just been dodged was supported by her the next second. "You are being so formal. We have lived together for decades, and you didn't even tell me you were coming back."
"Our village doesn't have many things, but it has a lot of people. We're all from the same village. Just give them a word and they can clean up the yard in half a day. Is it still worth it for you to bring your daughter and run around here yourself?"
Wang Xichun was blaming her in every word, but between the lines was his heartache for her.
Unlike her sons, who sounded concerned but were actually full of disgust.
She didn't want to trouble others, mainly because she was afraid of annoying them, just like her sons, so she would rather do everything herself.
But the people in the village don't agree.
Hai Youfu was very quick and in about ten minutes he led a group of people towards the Qiao family's yard.
They are all men in their thirties and forties, and all of them are good at work.
When they were young, they watched Qiao Wensheng and other elders help build their own houses. Now, it is their turn to contribute to the Qiao family's house.
Not only them, but when the elders in the village heard that Liu Shuqin was going to move back, they also brought their grandchildren to let them recognize her.
Faced with these old faces, Liu Shuqin didn't want to hide anything from them, so she told them everything that had happened over the years and the changes that had taken place in just one month.
“That’s too much!”
The village chief slammed the table hard, coughing several times without catching his breath. "Filial piety is the most important virtue. Cough, cough, cough! How can you not even support your own mother? Are you still, cough, considered a human being?"
Although Liu Shuqin deliberately concealed some of the truth for the sake of her sons' face, they were not stupid. They knew what the truth was just by thinking about it.
In fact, when they moved to the city that year, none of their sons came to pick them up. We should have expected that they were all ungrateful people who only cared about eating and drinking the hard work of their parents!
Looking at the elderly Liu Shuqin and the school-age Qiao Jiaxin, the village chief sighed reluctantly, "It's okay. Just come back and live there peacefully. You have a house and land, and your life won't be any worse than in the city. You won't have to worry about their opinions."
Stroking the water cup in her hand, Liu Shuqin took a sip and said, "I don't expect to have a good life in the future. I just want to be able to earn some money from farming, raise Jiaxin, and support her through college."
"Don't worry about money, our village..."
The person next to him was about to speak when he was stopped by a look from the village chief.
He originally wanted to say that the village might be demolished, and after the demolition, she would be able to get a lot of money and would not have to worry about her future livelihood.
However, the village chief thought it was best not to tell anyone about this news.
Liu Shuqin moved to the city with hope back then. What is the result now?
So, before things are settled, don't give her these uncertain hopes anymore, so that she won't be disappointed again because of the failure.
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