Longing for my love to return
We set off for Shouping County early in the morning.
When the car that Si Mucheng had called arrived to pick them up, Wen Ya realized that it was the same car that had taken them to the Arch Bridge yesterday.
Si Mucheng winked at her: "The butterfly is useful now, isn't it? This gentleman is offering it for more than a hundred yuan less than the market price."
In this respect, Wen Ya really admired him. However, this man was quite easygoing. When he saw that they were going to take Wen Xiaofeng with them, he didn't say much, but only exclaimed in amazement, "I've never seen anyone keep a chicken as a pet before, but this chicken is really well dyed."
This was the first time Wen Ya had ever heard someone compliment Wen Xiaofeng on the color of her outfit, and she couldn't help but think that the driver's taste was really not very good.
It's not far to Shouping County, only a forty-minute drive. The driver maintained his enthusiastic service, chatting and laughing with Si Mucheng along the way, as if they had become close friends despite their age difference.
"By the way, what are you going to Shouping County for? There aren't any tourist attractions there, and nothing fun to do."
Si Mucheng thought for a moment and asked the driver, "Brother, do you know of a village called Shenzi in Shouping County?"
The driver muttered "Shenzi Village" twice, but clearly had no clue: "Brother, I've never heard of this village before. Are you going there?"
“Yes,” Si Mucheng said frankly, “Brother, to be honest, we’ve come to find our relatives. My grandmother’s hometown is Shenzi Village. She was separated from her family when she was young and hadn’t been home for many years. She misses her family very much. Now that she doesn’t have much time left, we’ve come to help her find her relatives.”
Upon hearing this, the driver exclaimed, "Oh, is that so? That's a big deal, it's something the old lady has been longing for."
"That's right. My grandma said she only remembers Shenzi Village, where most of the people have the surname Shen."
Wen Ya turned to look at him. Shen Guixiang hadn't mentioned that everyone in the village shared the surname Shen. Si Mucheng noticed her gaze and smiled at her. Wen Ya softly complained, "Does your grandmother know she's looking for her relatives?"
Si Mucheng replied in a similarly breathy voice, "My grandma won't mind."
The driver was still pondering about Shenzi Village when he suddenly said, "Alright, I'll ask my old man for you. He used to work for the government and often went to the grassroots level, so he should have heard of it." With that, he started making phone calls.
Although the driver had the phone on speakerphone, he was speaking in dialect, which Si Mucheng and Wen Ya couldn't quite understand. However, the call ended quickly, and the driver beamed, "I found the answer! There is such a village, but it's been renamed Chenxi Village. Don't bother going to Shouping County; I'll take you directly to Chenxi Village!"
Wen Ya raised an eyebrow. It went so smoothly?
Si Mucheng also felt very lucky. He smiled and said, "We really met a good person today, brother. If it weren't for you, we would have been like headless flies, not knowing how long we would have searched. Thank you so much!"
"Oh, don't be so polite." The driver waved his hand. "But it's a coincidence. My dad's former colleague was from Chenxi Village. He had heard about the village's name change from him, so my dad remembered it immediately."
"Oh, you've come to the right person! You're our benefactor; this search for our relatives is sure to go exceptionally smoothly!"
His words made the driver beam with joy, and he couldn't help but chat with him again: "But my dad said that not everyone in that village has the surname Shen. For example, his colleague has the surname Zhong."
Almost as soon as the words were spoken, Wen Ya and Si Mucheng exchanged a glance. The surname Zhong is not very common.
Si Mucheng continued to probe, "Really? Then maybe my grandma remembered wrong. The surname Zhong is quite rare. I've never met anyone with the surname Zhong before. What's your colleague's name, Uncle?"
“I didn’t ask that. My dad did mention it, but I don’t remember.”
"Then... Uncle has retired, right?"
“I’m almost fifty, and my dad has been retired for many years.”
"You really don't look forty at all, brother! Your father must be over seventy, right?"
"Almost eighty! I'll be eighty next year, in great health and full of energy!"
"Wow, you've lived a long life. It's wonderful to be healthy. Having an elder in the family is like having a treasure."
"Well, you could say that."
"My uncle's colleagues are probably around the same age as him."
"Yes, they retired together, they're the same age."
The surnames matched, the origins matched, and the ages were about the same. Si Mucheng and Wen Ya never expected that they would find Zhong Weinian so easily, by such a coincidence.
Wen Ya didn't know whether to praise Si Mucheng for his good luck or call him a fool who was blessed with good fortune. To encounter such an opportunity was truly a stroke of luck that came without any effort on his part.
Shenzi Village, now known as Chenxi Village, is only a 20-minute drive from Shouping County, and the driver quickly dropped them off at the village entrance.
"Brother, we're here. I'll drop you off here. You can ask around about your grandmother's relatives after you get off the bus," the driver said to them. Then, as if remembering something, he added, "By the way, are you going back to the city? There should be hotels or something in the village, but this place is close to the city, so you'll need a ride if you want to go back. Should I wait for you?"
Si Mucheng hadn't expected this tough-hearted man to be so thoughtful and considerate. He said, "That would be perfect. Here's what we'll do, brother. I'll transfer two hundred yuan to you later. Go find a place to eat and rest for lunch. We'll come to see you this afternoon, maybe a little earlier. Let's try not to drive at night and get back to the city before dinner, okay?"
"That would be great. But you don't need to transfer money to me, I need to eat too."
In the end, Si Mucheng still insisted on transferring the money to the driver, watched the driver drive the car into the village, and then went to find a place to relax.
A brand-new archway has been built at the entrance of the village, with three large characters on it: Chenxi Village.
Rural areas have now been urbanized, with newly paved cement roads and neat, clean houses on both sides.
Si Mucheng deciphered the characters on the archway and asked the soaking wet female ghost, "Well, do you have any impression of it?"
Shen Guixiang shook her head and sighed, "The changes are too great. Before, it was all muddy roads. When I ran out from here, I had to ride in someone's carriage, which was so bumpy."
Wen Ya was silent for a moment, then asked, "Where do you live? Can you find the general area?"
Shen Guixiang hesitated for a moment before slowly nodding: "I'll try my best."
Even so, she still felt a bit apprehensive about returning home. As she walked, Shen Guixiang looked around, her face showing a mixture of bewilderment and happiness.
"It's been such a long time since I've been back," she said softly.
Sixty years can change so much, not just the village, but also the people. The path her father took to work in the fields, the trees she climbed as a child, and the school she went to with her brother Weinian are all gone.
The people sitting and chatting by the roadside were also complete strangers. When "she" saw an old woman, she was stunned. If "she" were still alive, she would probably have the same appearance of snow-white hair and wrinkled skin.
But "she" did not survive.
As they walked further into the village and away from the county road, they began to see winding paths. Shen Guixiang led them across long ridges between fields, and the place they arrived at was no longer so glamorous.
Shen Guixiang smiled: "I do remember this place. But there used to be a small river here, and Brother Weinian and the others would take me to catch fish in it, but it's all dried up now."
In a low-lying area, Wen Ya and Si Mucheng saw a dilapidated house.
"Are you... sure this is the place?" Si Mucheng asked incredulously.
Shen Guixiang glanced at the hillside behind the house and then at the fields in front of it, nodding only: "This is definitely the place. But perhaps..."
Given her desolate state, even without her saying the rest, everyone knew the situation wasn't good.
Just then, an old man passed by, fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan. He saw Wen Ya and Si Mucheng standing there and couldn't help but glance at them. As he got closer, he asked, "You're not from the village, are you? What are you doing here?"
The old man had a heavy accent, but Si Mucheng understood half of it. He then put on his standard smile and stepped forward sweetly, asking, "Grandpa, do you know this family?"
The old man looked him over suspiciously before asking, "Why are you asking about this family?"
"Oh, we're here to find our relatives. We came here according to the address in the letter, and we asked around in the village and they said this is the place, but it doesn't look like anyone lives here."
Wen Ya watched from the side, thinking that this person was really addicted to using the excuse of searching for relatives.
Upon hearing this, the old man muttered, "This family has relatives too."
Si Mucheng asked curiously, "What's wrong?"
The old man tapped the dilapidated house with his palm-leaf fan: "This family's surname is Shen. I remember my parents telling me that they used to be landlords, but they were beaten and moved here. They had a daughter, I think, who ran away for some reason, and not long after, news of her death came back. The family lost all hope. Well, they only had one child, and she died out of the public eye. Who could go on living like that? After that, the couple moved away, and nobody knows where they went. They're probably long gone now. This house has been abandoned ever since."
Upon hearing the old man mention Shen Guixiang's parents, Si Mucheng subconsciously glanced at "her," only to find her expression blank.
Sixty years have passed, and it's obvious that my family members are no longer here. But hearing such news still makes me sad.
Si Mucheng sighed inwardly, then thought for a moment and showed a surprised expression: "Oh dear, your surname is Chen? Then we've come to the wrong place."
Wen Ya was confused and didn't know what he was up to.
The old man was also taken aback: "Wrong place? Young man, which house are you looking for?"
Si Mucheng remained expressionless: "Aren't we looking for someone surnamed Zhong here?"
The old man suddenly realized: "Surname Zhong? Zhong Jian Guoguo, right? His family is from up there."
Si Mucheng and Wen Ya looked behind the dilapidated house of the Shen family and saw a two-story brick house on the hillside.
“Oh, so you’re from the Zhong family,” the old man said, shaking his palm-leaf fan. “But you’ve definitely come to the wrong place. Didn’t your family tell you that the Zhong family has moved away? They live in the county.”
"The county?" Si Mucheng asked, "Shouping County?"
"right."
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