Chapter 106 Meeting
"Aying, Aying, are you there? Are you okay?"
The lights were also turned on in a homestay halfway up the mountain.
The man emerged from the house, his clothes draped over him, and saw the door to the adjacent side room already open. The boy was soundly asleep on the large bed in the room, but by the half-meter-high wall next to the door, an old man's graying hair fluttered in the night breeze.
When the man saw someone, he quickly took off his coat, walked up to him and asked, "Dad, why did you come out?"
The old man turned around, stopped the man from putting his clothes on him, and frowned, "I couldn't sleep in the middle of the night, and I heard a commotion down the mountain, so I got up to check... ahem... why are you out too?"
"Same here, I heard the noise too," the man replied. "I don't know what happened down there. Ah Ying is still in the infirmary. I'm a little worried, so I'm going to go check on her."
Hearing the old man cough twice more, he handed the clothes in his hand forward and said, "Dad, put on some clothes. It's cold in the mountains at night. Don't catch a cold."
"No need, ahem, don't you still have to go down the mountain to find Aying? Just wear it." When they evacuated in an emergency before, they were in a hurry and didn't bring many clothes with them. They didn't even bring a single thick coat suitable for wearing in the mountains. The few pieces they had now were all exchanged with others.
A gust of cold wind blew, and the old man couldn't help coughing a few more times. "I'll go inside soon, so I don't need clothes."
The man listened and gave up. "Then Dad, please go into the house. I'll go down the mountain to see what's going on."
"Go!"
The old man waved his hand and watched the figure who was running down the mountain while putting on clothes and holding a flashlight disappear into the darkness.
…
On the other side, Jiang Qian and the other two followed the young boy to the resettlement site halfway up Jingming Mountain.
This was originally a tourist service center. After the incident, the rescue team evacuated here and closed the road leading up the mountain from the foot of the mountain, so that the evacuated people could live here.
The tourist service center is not big, but fortunately there are several villages near the scenic area. Many homestays have been renovated in recent years. There is also a sanatorium near the scenic area that uses its beautiful scenery as a selling point, which can accommodate quite a few people.
But for safety reasons, more people prefer to stay in the tourist center where there are more rescue team members stationed. Naturally, the only medical room at the resettlement site is also here.
The young man greeted the young soldier guarding the door with familiarity, took the three of them in, and after several twists and turns, they arrived at the back of one of the buildings of the visitor center.
Hidden by dense vegetation, the three bright red characters hanging outside the lighted house stood out clearly against the dark mountain.
Jiang Qian clearly felt that Ren Ru's footsteps beside her were getting more hurried, but as they got closer and closer to the door of the infirmary, her steps slowed down instead.
Against the backdrop of the desolate moonlight in the mountains and the lights not far away, Jiang Qian and Jiang Dong saw the expectation and hesitation in her eyes. They said nothing, nor did they urge her, but slowed down their pace with her.
But the young boy walking in front didn't feel the complicated mood of the person at all. He took two steps at a time and went up the stairs, knocking on the door of the infirmary.
"Doctor Ren, Doctor Ren? Are you there? Someone's looking for..."
The boy's hoarse voice, which was in the process of voice change, rang out in the quiet night, startling the flocks of birds in the nearby trees and forests.
The three people outside the house looked at the closed door and breathed a sigh of relief.
Noises gradually came from inside the house, and the sound of footsteps was getting closer and closer. The hearts of the three people outside the house seemed to be pulled by something, and their hearts were getting tighter and tighter.
Finally... the guillotine that had been raised high fell...
A familiar voice came from behind the door...
"I'm coming, what's going on? Is anyone hurt? The door isn't locked, just push it open and come in..."
Although the sound was not very clear due to the distance and the door, the person who heard it was already in tears.
Ren Ru didn't wait for anyone else to move, she pushed the door open and walked in. Without even taking the time to look at the person who was standing at the door and had no time to open the door for them, she just hugged the person in her arms.
The next second, a cry with a tearful tone came from the depths of his throat.
"sister……"
The person being hugged was stunned, his eyes were dazed for a few seconds, and his hands subconsciously wanted to push away the person who was rushing towards him. It was not until he heard the crying "Sister" and saw the man standing at the door with eyes full of surprise that he realized who the person in his arms was.
"Xiao Ru," the woman with a weathered face had tears rolling down her eyes. She wanted to push the person away, but she withdrew her hand and hugged him tightly, her voice choked with sobs, "Xiao Ru, is that you? Xiao Ru..."
"Sister, it's me, it's me. I'm sorry I only found you now..."
Ren Ru loosened her arms a little, leaving enough space to look at the person in front of her. When she saw those eyes and face filled with pain and sadness, all the questions she wanted to ask were stuck in her throat, and her tears flowed like a flood that could no longer be stopped.
"elder sister……"
Ren Ying, who was shocked by the accident, recovered first. He reached out to wipe the tears from his sister's face, led her into the house, and said, "Look at me. I forgot about it in the excitement. Come in and sit down first..."
The young boy scratched his head, knowing that it was not appropriate for him to be present at a family reunion, so he said, "I won't go in. Doctor Ren, you guys talk first. I'll go talk to the guards up front. Just call me if you need anything."
Ren Ying did have something to say to her sister and brother-in-law, so she didn't stop them. "Xiao Zhang, go ahead and do your work. Thank you for bringing them here!"
Ren Ying took out a somewhat shriveled fruit from the cabinet next to him and stuffed it into his hand. "Someone gave it to you last time. Take it and eat it. You took the trouble to bring them here."
The boy blushed and waved his hands repeatedly, refusing, "No, no, it's my duty! It's my duty!"
After saying that, he smiled shyly, turned around and ran away.
Ren Ying held her sister's hand tightly and led the three of them into the infirmary.
When they were under the bright lights and could clearly see the person in front of him, Ren Ying held Ren Ru's hand tightly and did not let go, but his emotions, which had just stabilized, collapsed again.
"Xiao Ru, Xiao Ru..."
While crying, Ren Ying hugged her sister tightly in her arms, just like Ren Ru had just done.
Ren Ru listened to the heart-wrenching cry and tears fell again, but she still tried her best to comfort her sister who was crying in her arms, patting her back gently.
Under the bright lights in the room, she could see the changes in her elder sister more clearly than before.
The elder sister, who had always worked in the hospital and always attached great importance to health and wellness, now had patches of white hair at her temples, and her once delicate and elastic skin had become dull. But none of this could compare to the dead silence and sadness in the weeping elder sister's eyes.
Listening to her crying, Ren Ru couldn't help but have some bad guesses in her mind.
The two sisters were very emotional. Jiang Qian and Jiang Dong closed the door of the infirmary and stood aside silently waiting for the two sisters to calm down.
After about ten minutes, Ren Ying's crying finally stopped. The two sisters sat opposite each other, wiping each other's tears.
Ren Ru looked around the medical room. The environment was pretty good, and she had some idea of her sister's situation.
As the only "doctor" here, she supposedly had the most basic living needs guaranteed. But when she thought of her other relatives, whom she had yet to meet, and her sister, Ren Ying, whose age was visibly declining, Ren Ru felt her throat dry again.
But this question has to be asked.
"Sister, Mom and Dad..."
She spoke slowly, while looking at the expression on her elder sister's face, but she didn't expect that the expression on her elder sister's face changed after she had just said a few words.
Sadness spread uncontrollably in the infirmary.
"I'm sorry, Xiaoru, Mom, Mom..." Facing her sister's pupils that shrank in an instant, Ren Ru struggled to speak out the truth engraved in her heart, "Our mom is gone!"
As these words burst out, Ren Ying's tears also burst out.
"Not long after you called that night, the property management announced the evacuation. We waited at home until the early hours of the morning before arriving at our building... During the evacuation, Mom went to pick up Xiaobao, but Xiaobao... Xiaobao..."
Thinking of the child who was gnawing at his mother's flesh and blood with his fangs and claws, the sadness in Ren Ying's heart rose like a tide.
"By the time your brother-in-law and I heard the noise, it was already too late... That night, our mother and Xiaobao, as well as your brother-in-law's parents, they all..."
Ren Ying choked up and told him everything that happened that night that haunted her like a nightmare. "Besides our family, many families in the entire building were... Your brother-in-law's parents were killed by the family downstairs when they were going downstairs... The rescue boat was right downstairs, but your brother-in-law and I only managed to escape with our father and Dabao..."
As Ren Ying continued to narrate, her tone grew increasingly flat. Perhaps time had diluted all the sadness and grief, or perhaps she had experienced so much pain, layer upon layer, that she was no longer as sensitive to this "long-ago" pain, leaving only numbness...
Ren Ru listened to her sister's story, tears streaming down her face. Even though she had imagined all sorts of tragedies before coming here, she still couldn't contain her grief when she faced them head-on.
But Ren Ying continued, "Mom told me about her affairs after her death a few years ago. I didn't want to hear it at the time, thinking it was too far away. I never expected that in the end, I, as her daughter, wouldn't even be able to collect her body..."
Ren Ying's tears kept flowing. "I have been thinking, if it was me who went to hold Xiaobao that day, would our mother still be fine..."
"Wow..." Ren Ru couldn't hold it in any longer. She covered her mouth with one hand, put her arms around her sister's waist with the other, and threw herself into Ren Ying's arms, "Sister... Mom..."
The pain of losing her mother and empathy for her sister's feelings made her tears flow uncontrollably, but under the complicated emotions, the words she wanted to say turned into silent sobs...
Jiang Qian and Jiang Dong's vision also blurred. They turned their heads to look away. Only bursts of crying remained in the room...
No one was so busy venting their pain that they noticed the footsteps getting closer and closer outside the door. Therefore, when the door was knocked, everyone in the room was startled.
"Aying, Aying, are you there? Are you okay?" Along with the knocks and inquiries, there was the sound of the doorknob being turned. "I'm coming in?"
【Author’s words】
Thank you all for your support, grateful!
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