Cheng Ruyi was worried that if the abnormal weather continued, the drought would be more severe than she had imagined. However, she did not expect that it would rain almost every day in the county starting a few days before the Qingming Festival.
Although the rain was not heavy, it greatly relieved the pressure on farmers to cultivate the land, at least ensuring the success of spring planting.
Especially on Qingming Festival, it rained all day long, leaving everyone who was going to pay respects to their ancestors and sweep tombs in a sorry state.
Because of the city lockdown last year, people couldn't go out during the Qingming Festival. So even though there was a lot of wind and rain this year, there were still a lot of people leaving the city. Both the south gate and the east gate were crowded with people carrying large and small bags.
Because the Cheng family had a donkey cart, they didn't have to walk on the muddy dirt road in the rain, so everyone was in a pretty good mood.
As Ruyi gazed at the torrential rain outside the window, her thoughts drifted to distant places.
Since transmigrating, she has not deliberately tried to recall the past between the original owner and her deceased husband, Shen Yun. Firstly, she felt that it was someone else's private matter and she was not in a position to pry into it. Secondly, Shen Yun had been gone for a long time and had almost no impact on their family's daily life.
Today, perhaps because of visiting the grave, memories of him kept surfacing from the original owner's mind.
Shen Yun, courtesy name Zhiyou, was born in a remote mountain village that was three days' walk from Huaishan County. As the youngest child in an ordinary farming family, his family did not have any special expectations for him, so his childhood was quite carefree.
But a change occurred when he was eight years old. The kind-hearted boy accidentally saved an injured Taoist priest. Before the priest recovered and left, he went to Shen's parents' house and told them that the boy was the reincarnation of the God of Literature and that he would eventually become the top scholar in the imperial examination and be granted a title and high office.
Shen's parents believed it without a doubt and from then on devoted all their wealth to supporting Shen Yun's studies. The already impoverished Shen family became even poorer afterward.
Shen Yun didn't know if he was truly a reincarnation of the God of Literature, but he knew he genuinely disliked studying. However, his parents and the entire family had poured so much into him. Faced with his parents' almost insane blind trust and fantasies, and the disgusted yet envious looks from his siblings, he couldn't understand how his life had suddenly changed so drastically. At such a young age, he simply didn't have the courage to give up, so he could only desperately force himself to study.
Whether he had a natural talent for studying or was simply making up for his lack of talent through hard work, he passed the imperial examination at the age of twelve and became a scholar at the age of fourteen. In the eyes of others, he was considered to have achieved fame at a young age, and his parents believed even more deeply what the Taoist priest had said back then.
After becoming a scholar, the family's land was exempted from taxes. Shen Yun sent almost all the money he earned by copying books in the county town back home. After living like this for several years, the family's situation, which was originally destitute, improved slightly, and his brothers finally got married.
However, Shen Yun himself knew very well that passing the county-level exam to become a Xiucai (a successful candidate in the county-level imperial examinations) was already his limit, and passing the provincial-level exam to become a Juren (a successful candidate in the provincial-level imperial examinations) was almost hopeless. The reason he continued to study at the academy in the county town was just an excuse for him to escape his family. Even though the pressure of life was suffocating him, he not only had the company of his friends, but also did not have to face his family every day. For him, it was already a paradise.
Until he was twenty, he met the original owner of the body who caught the thief who stole his purse. For the first time, he felt what it meant to have a passionate life force. That was the light in his life.
Choosing to marry into the Cheng family meant he could no longer pursue his academic career and it also meant breaking with his family. His first act of defiance in his life brought him several years of happiness.
In the original owner's memories, Cheng Ruyi saw the scene of them returning to the Shen family together after their marriage. Her parents' incomprehension and hysteria, her brothers' ridicule and vicious faces, and even their attempt to lock them up and beat them to force them to separate. In her opinion, the Shen family's behavior was not the state of a normal and healthy family.
Fortunately, Cheng Yan was worried and secretly followed the two. After some twists and turns and spending a lot of money, the two managed to escape and also took a letter severing ties with them.
From then on, Shen Yun completely severed ties with his family.
After marrying into the Cheng family, Shen Yun was reborn. He had never been ambitious and only wanted to live a leisurely life. He had no interest in studying. Being unable to participate in the imperial examinations after marrying into the family was exactly what he wanted. What made him even happier was that the original owner's family did not interfere with his studies at all. Their only expectation was that he would be good to the original owner. Therefore, married life was like a paradise for Shen Yun.
Unfortunately, the years of studying and working day and night over the past decade have had a very serious impact on Shen Yun's physical and mental health, and the excessive depletion of his energy and spirit can never be made up for.
This directly led to his death from a serious illness at a young age. According to the doctor at the time, if he hadn't stopped studying after getting married, he might not have lived for more than a year.
It seems that the desire for one's son to succeed is a common problem in many families, both in ancient and modern times. I don't know what these parents are thinking. They are just ordinary people, so how can they think their son must be an outstanding individual? They can only get into an ordinary university, so how can they think their child can definitely get into Tsinghua or Peking University?
In Ruyi's view, Shen Yun's experience is a very typical story of a child oppressed by his original family. Fortunately, he met the original owner of the body, and at least he finally lived a happy life in the last few years of his life.
"Yunping, go and clear away the weeds around your father's grave." Cheng Yan sighed as he saw his daughter standing in front of his son-in-law's grave in a daze. He then directed everyone to clear the weeds and prepare the offerings before going to tidy up his wife's grave himself.
Seeing this, everyone wisely refrained from disturbing Ruyi and quietly helped with the tidying up.
By this time, the rain had already subsided, and only a few raindrops continued to fall, making the surrounding scenery appear even more misty and hazy, adding a touch of desolation and solemnity to the scene.
Whether it's the original owner's husband or mother, they are all strangers to Cheng Ruyi in the modern era. Reading through their memories is like reading a novel. Although she has many feelings, she doesn't feel the same heart-wrenching pain as the original owner.
The deceased are gone; what matters more to Ruyi are the people who are still alive.
The rain, which had lasted all day, quietly stopped in the middle of the night. The next morning, people found that the rain had stopped and the sun was shining brightly outside their windows, and a new day had begun.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com