Chapter 20 Chapter 20 "Let's Elope"
The strong wind continued, and it was about to rain heavily. Tao Ning reacted quickly, rushed forward and grabbed Tao Yuan's wrist, her soft voice full of panic: "Sister... Let's go back first."
Tao Yuan stopped trembling all over, she raised her head slightly and looked at her brother who had grown into a graceful young man. The glasses he wore were no longer bought by herself. She used to think that Zhao Jingqun was a good person, but now it seems that their purpose is the same.
She knew Tao Ning's appearance was too outstanding, which had attracted countless people's dirty thoughts since childhood. She specially bought Tao Ning rustic glasses and rustic clothes, hoping that he would not stand out in other aspects except studying. Because Tao Yuan had left the mountains, she knew that the outside world was complex, changeable, and full of temptations.
She didn't want her brother to be ruined by dirty and disgusting things and people.
Zhao Jingqun's purpose is the same as hers, but he is driven by possessiveness and jealousy...
All the details that had been ignored in the past came to mind, and the anger accumulated in Tao Yuan's heart turned into magma that was about to erupt. She grabbed Tao Ning's wrist with her backhand, her hand that was so thin that it was bony was very tense, and she looked at the man behind him coldly, "You come with me now, and don't tell him to follow us!" After that, she pulled Tao Ning away with force.
Zhao Jingqun behind him stared at Tao Ning's red wrist, his brows furrowed tightly, but his lips slightly parted, and in the end he couldn't say anything.
The wind was blowing hard, making the surrounding woods let out shrill cries. Surrounded by the mountains, his figure returned to its former loneliness. His dark eyes stared at the thin back of the young man as he walked away.
The boy didn't look back.
His heart grew colder and colder, and the cigarette scar on his palm hurt so much that Zhao Jingqun squatted on the spot with his hands covering his hands. His eyes gradually turned red, and the pain in his eyes could no longer be hidden.
However, because of this, he did not notice the young man turning his head as he walked away, as if wanting to take another look at him, but was scolded by Tao Yuan: "Still looking?! Tao Ning, when you go back, be honest and kneel in front of your parents immediately. When did you realize you were wrong..."
"It's not wrong, sister."
The boy's voice was soft, but it was like a huge stone, stirring up thousands of waves in the lake that was about to burst.
With a "smack", Tao Yuan shook off his hand. Just as he was about to slap the boy in the face, he remembered his illness and put it down again. He pointed at his nose and cursed: "What kind of medicine did he give you that you are speaking for him like this? How many good people can there be in a man? Don't you know that you are a man?! I tell you, Tao Ning, if you don't stop those crazy thoughts in your mind, you can forget about going to school!"
After she finished her scolding, she turned and walked away without even looking at Tao Ning. Tao Ning stared at her leaving, as if a gear in her heart had come loose.
From somewhere unknown, a voice mechanically read out a string of numbers:
[Congratulations, the autonomous emotion value of number 510 has reached 31.5%...]
A children's channel was playing on the old TV, and the host was reading out in an exaggerated voice, "Children, repeat after me, thirty-one, thirty-two..."
Xiao Meng shook her head and recited the numbers clearly: "Thirty-three, thirty-four."
The door was suddenly opened, and the whistling wind blew fallen leaves into the house. Xiao Meng turned her head, her eyes lit up, and she rushed over, hugging Tao Yuan's legs, "Mom, you're back? Where's my uncle..."
Xiao Meng stuck her head out and saw Tao Ning standing at the door like a ghost. He came over but didn't say anything. Instead, he walked straight to the altar and knelt down heavily in front of the two portraits.
There was a thud, and the sound of the young man kneeling on the ground was clearly audible, but no cry of pain was heard from him. It was just that his skin was delicate and fragile, and the tiny gravel on the cold concrete floor collided with his skin. The instant pain made Tao Ning frown, and his body trembled, but his back was still like an evergreen pine tree, with his spine straight.
Xiao Meng was so heartbroken that he was about to pull Tao Ning up, but was stopped by Tao Yuan. He turned around and found that his mother, who always had a smiling face, now had red eyes and was shrouded in gloom.
"Mother......"
She grabbed Xiao Meng's hand and led her into the room, suppressing her anger and growling, "You have nothing to do here. Go back to your room and do your homework! I'll come to check your room later. If you dare to write anything wrong, you'll have to kneel down here too. Go!"
Xiao Meng didn't understand what was going on, but the atmosphere at home was as depressing as the storm. He was pushed into the room, and the last thing he saw through the crack in the door was the boy kneeling on the ground, his profile a mixture of stubbornness and calmness.
The rainstorm that had been brewing for a long time finally fell. The soybean-sized raindrops hit the glass bed, creaking, like one ancient and rigid mountain after another, which always stubbornly took root in the land no matter how the rainstorm washed.
Tao Ning's knees were numb from the pain. In a trance, he suddenly remembered that when the man said he wanted to be with him, the weather was as chaotic and depressing as it was today. When he was pressed under that huge rock, he felt the feeling of despair for the first time.
He asked the system: [Will I die?]
The usually talkative system, for once, remained silent. Just when Tao Ning thought he might die, the stone opened. The next second, a man, hands covered in blood, stumbled over, hugged him, and trembled as he said, "Let's be together."
Tao Ning couldn't describe how he felt at that time. In fact, he had a very low ability to perceive emotions since he was a child. Fortunately, he had a good learning ability. When others laughed, he would laugh, and when others cried, he would cry too.
He transforms his emotions into what he needs at a specific moment. For example, when his adoptive parents passed away, he knew it was time to cry, so he cried until his eyes were red and swollen. When Xiao Meng was born, he knew it was time to smile, so he was happy for a long time that day...
But now? Should I laugh?
…or should I cry?
Tao Ning couldn't understand. It felt like his head was stuffed with cotton balls, blocking his ability to think. He felt a little drowsy, and his body was shaking a little, but he forced himself to resist the fatigue and did not fall down.
Until Tao Yuan's calm voice came from behind: "I have packed your things. I will take you to the secretary's house now. We will not accept the money. I put it in your luggage. Let's go."
Amid the sound of the pattering rain, the man stood outside the door, his voice a little unclear: "...Tao Yuan, your brother's body can't kneel. I can go, but you have to let him get up first."
Then came the woman's almost roaring voice: "That's enough! My brother has nothing to do with you now, stop pretending here..." As she spoke, she began to cry softly again, and there was finally a hint of pleading in her tone.
"... Please go, Zhao Jingqun. As your sister, I beg you. Even if you can't understand me, if... if you really like him, please think about him carefully. Our family is not like you city people who are rich and have a way out. Our family has been poor since childhood, especially Tao Ning. I don't know if he has told you that he is our adopted child..."
The woman sobbed, her cries like a sharp thorn, piercing herself and stabbing others without hesitation: "Tao Ning was picked up by my father when he was still a baby. He is the only boy in our Tao family. He is the future root of our family, you know? He was so small..."
She pointed her hand at her knees and continued crying, "Even at such a young age, he was already very sensible. He never gave us any worries. When he was four or five, he was helping us cook and wash clothes. Even when he started school at eleven or twelve, he still had the best grades in the school. He skipped many grades and won many awards. Have you seen those awards in his room?"
"He's so talented. For people from a family like ours, studying is his only future. We don't have many options like you rich people." As she spoke, her voice calmed down again. "Please let him go. My brother can't stand being stabbed in the back. If your affair is discovered, he'll be doomed. If you really like him, don't appear in front of him anymore."
After the last word fell, the surroundings seemed to fall into dead silence.
The rain soaked the man who was standing motionless outside the door. His deep and sharp facial features were covered with salty raindrops. He looked so miserable, as if he was dragged into an unsolvable vortex.
He bent one leg, then knelt down on both legs and kowtowed in the direction of the main hall of the Tao family, but the man said nothing, as if he was using silent silence to fight against the stubborn feudal mountains.
At this moment, when he kowtowed, the woman's scream and Xiao Meng's panicked voice were heard, "Ningning!" "Uncle! Uncle, what's wrong with you..."
Before Tao Yuan could run over, a figure suddenly rushed out from beside him. Zhao Jingqun had already picked up the unconscious Tao Ning and carried her horizontally. He said with a stern face, "Get some clothes and go to the clinic."
Seeing the abnormal blush on the boy's face, Tao Yuan was frightened and her anger disappeared immediately. Although she felt uncomfortable that Zhao Jingqun was still holding her brother, she could not care less at this moment. She hurriedly took the umbrella, clothes and money, and put the crying Xiao Meng back into the room, then rushed into the rain with Zhao Jingqun.
They borrowed an electric tricycle from their neighbor and rushed to the town clinic. The final result was that Tao Ning had a high fever, and due to the rain and wind, the temperature soared to around 40 degrees.
Tao Yuan remembered that the boy had been in poor health since childhood, often having fever and colds, and his bleeding could not be stopped. Now he was so angry that he made him kneel in the rain.
Sitting in the corridor outside the ward, she felt guilty and covered her face with her hands, sobbing, "It's my fault..." But she would not give up the idea of separating Tao Ning and Zhao Jingqun, because she had seen two men in the village get together, and in just a few days, the news reached the ears of everyone in the mountain.
The villagers thought they were sick and had problems with their brains, so they dragged them to a mental hospital for treatment. In the end, one of them died.
She was afraid that her brother would have the same fate, so she would never let Tao Ning and Zhao Jingqun be together.
The rain outside was getting heavier and heavier, as if it was a sign of swallowing up the world. After the man sent Tao Ning to the clinic, he disappeared. Tao Yuan didn't want to care where he went.
It wasn't until the next morning that the young man on the hospital bed woke up. He opened his eyes, which were red from the high temperature, and looked at Tao Yuan, who was standing by the bed with red and swollen eyes. His gentle voice became hoarse: "Sister, I..."
"Alright, alright," Tao Yuan forced a smile and shook her head slightly at him. "Don't say anything. That person is gone... Just pretend nothing happened. The most important thing for you now is to take care of yourself. I made you some porridge. Get up and have some."
"……Um."
Tao Ning's pale face was as calm as a piece of white paper. When she heard the news that Zhao Jingqun had passed away, the shadow of her long eyelashes on her eyelids trembled for a moment, but the trembling was so fast that it was imperceptible.
He finished the porridge calmly. In fact, the food cooked by Tao Ning would unconsciously taste heavier, but he never said it and he didn't eat much.
He has gained a little weight recently. The food the man cooks suits his taste, so he has gained a little weight.
In the room, Zhao Jingqun would always pick him up and weigh him a few times, then bury her head in the crook of his neck and say with a smile, "Daibao, I've fattened you up."
“…”
After swallowing the last spoonful of porridge, Tao Ning raised her head and found Tao Yuan asleep in the chair. There was darkness under the corners of her eyes, and she frowned even when she slept.
He watched quietly. Because he was still hooked to an IV and had a needle on the back of his hand, he couldn't get out of bed to wash the dishes.
After a while, the sleeping woman seemed to be awakened. She opened her eyes dazedly and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Tao Ning was still there. She put away the dishes and told him, "I'll go back and settle Xiao Meng down and then come back to accompany you. If you feel any pain or discomfort, tell the doctor. I've put the money under your pillow."
"good."
Tao Yuan gave him a few more instructions out of concern before leaving with the thermal box.
As soon as she left, Tao Ning was the only one left in the ward. In the square ward, he sat alone on the bed with his head lowered, revealing his soft, white neck.
Tao Ning asked softly, "System, are you there?"
The system, which had been silent for many days, appeared: [What's wrong, idiot?]
Tao Ning said in a muffled voice: "...something happened. Where have you been these days?"
The system said happily: "Let's go traveling. The past few days were our AI holiday, so we had some time off. I took a lot of photos of the Earth. Do you want to see them?"
[…Watch it at night.]
[Okay, what's up, idiot?]
Tao Ning curled her slender fingers for a moment before she whispered, "I wonder if Zhao Jingqun is okay now..."
As soon as he finished speaking, the door of the ward was opened. Zhao Jingqun stood outside the door, staring at him with his dark eyes, looking at Tao Ning without blinking, as if the boy would disappear from his sight if he blinked.
He watched with great cherishment until he walked over step by step and held the boy's hand, the hot temperature touching the soft skin of his palm. Zhao Jingqun's eyes were filled with heavy emotions. He couldn't help kissing the slender hand in his palm and said in a hoarse voice:
"Daibao... shall we elope?"
The young man on the hospital bed looked at him with his eyes downcast. Silently, neither of them spoke, as if lost in an innocent and beautiful dream. After a long moment, he called out, "Zhao Jingqun."
The man kissed his hand gently, his voice full of attachment, "I'm here."
"...Do you love me?"
The man was stunned for a moment, as if he had not expected Tao Ning to ask this question. Then, as if he had made up his mind, he answered without hesitation:
"I love you, Tao Ning."
"I love you."
The man kissed the boy's hand and said over and over again: "I love you so much, I love you."
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