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When she and Lu Guangbai arrived, Grandpa Zhang and Grandpa Lu were standing in the courtyard, slowly practicing Baduanjin. When they saw Zheng Nanle, Grandpa Lu was very happy and said, "Nanle, you're back."
Grandpa Zhang's expression was slightly complicated. He stopped what he was doing and said with a smile, "Er Ya hasn't been here for a long time. Come in quickly. Zhang Ma, serve some tea."
Zheng Nanle handed the fruit she had brought to the housekeeper, smiled and exchanged pleasantries with Grandpa Lu for a moment, then looked at Grandpa Zhang and asked, "Grandpa Zhang, how have you been lately? You look about the same as before. Grandpa Lu, have you not seen a doctor in a long time? Has your skill deteriorated?"
When Grandpa Lu mentioned this, he got a little angry. "What use is my medical skill if the patient doesn't cooperate? He's so busy with work that he doesn't sleep most of the night. Even if I were Hua Tuo himself, I couldn't save this reckless patient."
Grandpa Zhang is still not broken down; he can still practice Baduanjin with me during the day. This is all thanks to his hard work this month.
My health had been improving before, but this month it has taken a sharp turn for the worse.
Old Master Zhang forced a smile and said, "Er Ya, come on, let's go upstairs to the study and have a talk."
“Okay.” Zheng Nanle smiled and said, “I also have something to say to Grandpa Zhang.”
Grandpa Lu sensed something amiss in their conversation and realized that Er Ya hadn't come to visit them, the two old men, on her own.
Seeing him was secondary; seeing Old Zhang was the main purpose.
"Alas, this old man is no longer worthy." Old Master Lu lamented in a serious manner, then asked Lu Guangbai, "Guangbai, what does Nanle want with Old Master Zhang?"
Lu Guangbai chuckled foolishly, "I don't know."
"You don't know and you're still laughing," Old Master Lu said disdainfully.
Lu Guangbai didn't care.
If Nanle can say it, she definitely will; if she can't say it, then she can't say it. Asking her is pointless.
Inside the study, Old Master Zhang and Zheng Nanle sat across the table, neither of them speaking for a moment.
After a moment, Old Master Zhang lit a cigarette, took a puff, and through the hazy smoke, his aged eyes suddenly became cloudy. "Er Ya, you've found out about me."
Old Master Zhang's words were not a question, but a statement of certainty.
The capital's actions this time were larger and more swift than they were six months ago, shattering all his hopes.
"Yes." Zheng Nanle nodded. "I came here to thank you for protecting Old Master Lu and Lu Guangbai during this crisis."
"It's what I should do; I'm not truly heartless."
He showed rare compassion for the Lu family, grandfather and grandson, and Zheng Nanle, as Lu Guangbai's wife, received the same treatment.
Little did he expect that his momentary good intentions and his deliberate leniency towards Zheng Nanle would lead to such consequences.
What was initially thought to be a dispensable pawn, whose life or death no one cared about, ultimately accomplished such a great feat.
Old Master Zhang extinguished his cigarette and said, "Would you like to hear a story?"
Zheng Nanle remained silent, staring intently at Old Master Zhang, leaning slightly forward as if listening attentively.
"Once upon a time, there was a poor mountain dweller who worked for a wealthy family in the city. He happened to see the young lady of the family. She was a very fashionable girl, wearing a beautiful Western dress, a pretty hat, and shiny little leather shoes. She looked like a fairy from heaven."
"She never looked down on the servants in the house, whether it was the housekeeper or the head housekeeper who had the master's respect, or the stable boy or the maid who could be bullied by anyone, she could speak to them all in a peaceful manner."
She talked about the latest ideas from abroad, telling everyone that they were the great proletariat, that they earned money with their own hands, and that they were remarkable.
One day, the young man asked for leave to go home. The young lady asked him to take a letter out of the city and deliver it to a designated person. The young man admired the young lady and agreed without hesitation.
Later, under the guidance of the young lady, the young man joined a patriotic party.
During the crisis, their feelings for each other deepened, and with the organization as their witness, they became revolutionary partners.
In the end, the young lady died saving the farmhand, and when she died, she was heavily pregnant.
"Their child was delivered via cesarean section. It was Miss's decision, and it was the only memento she left him." Old Master Zhang's eyes were filled with tears, and he choked up several times at the end.
He thought he had already digested these hidden, deeply buried memories and could face them peacefully, but every time he thought of them, it was as if a needle was stabbing him wildly, the pain penetrating deep into his bones.
Old Master Zhang wiped away his tears with a handkerchief, calmed himself down, and said, "That child was premature and weak from birth. The farmhand went to great lengths to keep the gifts his wife left behind."
“This child’s life is very important, more important than my own. The farmhand would do anything for the child.”
The farmhand didn't care about his own life. If he could, he would only wish to die with the young lady he loved. But he couldn't. The young lady had left him a child, and for the sake of the child, he had to keep his own life.
Zheng Nanle recalled the middle-aged man who had been blocked in the military compound and asked, "Didn't your wife also leave you with your eldest son?"
"Are you talking about Zhang Dezhu?" Old Master Zhang's tone was cold. "He's not my son, he's my younger brother's son."
Zheng Nanle was taken aback, then suddenly realized, "So that's how it is."
That's correct.
No wonder Old Master Zhang could be so ruthless and heartless towards him without any hesitation.
Before going to find Old Master Zhang, she went to find Zhang Dezhu first, hoping to find a breakthrough in Old Master Zhang's case through Zhang Dezhu. However, after asking around for a long time, she didn't get much information except that she felt Old Master Zhang was completely rotten to the core.
But after hearing what Old Master Zhang said, Zheng Nanle thought to himself, it's not that there's no extra information; Zhang Dezhu's information is full of key details.
“I’ve raised him for so many years, but he’s just like his father. He’s greedy for life, selfish and self-serving. He’s rotten to the core.”
Back then, his younger brother encountered a difficult situation and immediately lost his nerve. He not only brought them into the village but also led them into the deep mountains, where they found a cave where the village was hiding. As a result, all the able-bodied men in the village were slaughtered, leaving only a group of elderly, weak, women, and children.
Of course, he didn't fare well either, dying at the hands of a petty thief.
When he returned to the village, his entire family had died, leaving him as the only son. Since he was his own younger brother's child, he was entrusted to a fellow villager for upbringing, acting as his own son.
Once things had settled down a bit, they brought him to their side.
Unfortunately, there was a traitor in the military region, and his son fell into the hands of a petty scoundrel.
Every year, Xiao Rizi would take a picture of his son so that he could see his son grow up, get married, and have children.
“I never had that much sense of national duty. I joined the organization because Miss is in this organization, and I want to be closer to Miss.”
The young lady represents his sense of national duty and righteousness.
Grandpa Zhang lowered his head and stared at the photo on the desk. The photo was clearly cropped from other photos, a narrow strip, with other people's clothes and arms next to it.
The girl was wearing a People's Liberation Army uniform and smiling brightly. Even though the photo was yellowed and worn, and in black and white, her beauty at the time could still be seen through the blurry outline.
Zheng Nanle thought, "It's a very touching love story."
However, "you have betrayed Miss's original intention. If she knew that you had abandoned her firm beliefs for the sake of a child whose fate is unknown, she would probably find it hard to forgive you."
No wonder Zhang Dezhu was so jealous, so incredibly jealous.
One is her own son, and the other is the son of her own younger brother whom she subconsciously hates; naturally, their attitudes towards each other are worlds apart.
The child doesn't know the truth; all he knows is that, as children of the same father, why are they treated like heaven and earth?
Jealousy, like a venomous snake, coiled around Zhang Dezhu's heart, causing him to curse his frail and sickly younger brother to die every night.
She previously thought that Zhang Dezhu was the child born from the affair of Zhang's father's wife, or the eldest son born to his ex-wife whom his parents forced him to marry without any affection and who was drugged before consummating the marriage. He was not expected to be a burden.
Old Master Zhang suddenly looked up, his sharp gaze piercing Zheng Nanle. "Miss won't not forgive me. I protected our child."
He spoke with certainty, but inwardly he was extremely hesitant.
The young lady was different from him. In his heart, the young lady and the child were more important than anything else, but in the young lady's heart, the greater good of the country and the people was more important.
If it were the young lady, she would surely have painfully abandoned her son to uphold her faith, wouldn't she?
Sacrificing oneself for one's country is an honor.
But he's not a prostitute; he can't do that.
"Really?" Zheng Nanle asked. "You said your child was premature and you didn't have the means to raise him back then. Are you sure your child could have survived to this day in good health?"
Old Master Zhang lowered his head.
He knew.
He had his doubts.
But he can't gamble.
Even if there's only a one in ten thousand chance, he has no choice but to do it.
He would do anything for his son.
"In other words, even if it means betraying Miss's beliefs, you still won't tell me who Qianlong is?"
Qianlong was the most deeply hidden pawn in Xiao Rizi's game. When the turmoil just began, knowing that Qianlong was about to be eliminated, he committed suicide. Zheng Nanle was a step too slow.
She asked all the surviving people in the area, but no one knew who he was.
Grandpa Zhang is the last person. If he doesn't know either, it will be even more difficult to find the hidden dragon.
Grandpa Zhang stared at the young lady's smiling face without saying a word.
Zheng Nanle added, "I asked Zhang Dezhu, and he said that his younger brother, who is also your son, receives all your attention and love. If his brother coughs even once, you will rush him to the hospital and stay with him all night until he is fully recovered before leaving."
“He had a high fever, and you only asked the housekeeper to take him to the hospital. You would come over when you had time, but you would only take a quick look and leave.”
"When your younger brother falls down, you rush over to help him up, pick him up and comfort him. When he falls, you tell him not to cry and to get up by himself."
"Your younger brother grew up in your arms, but you never held him."
“He was jealous of his younger brother, insanely jealous. So, in the dead of winter, he deliberately took off his brother’s clothes, opened the window, and caused him to develop a high fever. Later, when the housekeeper took his brother to the hospital, he went with her.”
“When the housekeeper went to buy food, he asked her to watch his younger brother. He took his brother out of the hospital, coaxed him to buy some candy, and told him to wait there. He actually secretly went a little further away to keep an eye on things.”
"I only came running over in a panic after I saw strangers hurriedly carrying my younger brother away."
Do you think that human traffickers would take your child seriously and treat them properly when they have a high fever?
This was the information Zheng Nanle had obtained from Zhang Dezhu, which he had initially thought would only have a minor effect.
She told him that she just wanted to shatter his illusions about a simple life.
Although it was cruel, she had to harden her heart.
Because of the fact that the child had already died, Old Master Zhang stubbornly refused to give in, which put her in a very difficult position.
She originally intended to reveal the news of his death directly, but seeing the expression on Old Master Zhang's face, she decided to lay the groundwork first.
When Zheng Nanle mentioned Zhang Dezhu, Old Master Zhang had a bad feeling. After hearing half of it, his body began to stiffen and he remained motionless, like a statue.
After listening in silence, Old Master Zhang remained silent for a long time.
In the silence, he slumped to the side.
Zheng Nanle was getting anxious; the groundwork he had laid still hadn't met his expectations.
She scooped up Grandpa Zhang and ran downstairs, shouting as she ran, "Guangbai, Guangbai, help! Help!"
Seeing this, Old Master Lu nudged Lu Guangbai, "Quick, go and get my silver needles."
Lu Guangbai hurriedly ran to the old master Lu's temporary residence on the first floor, rummaged through the cabinet and took out the ancestral silver needle bag. After thinking for a moment, he also took the gold needle bag with him.
Zheng Nanle had already arrived downstairs and gently placed Old Master Zhang on the table.
Grandpa Lu walked over and said to Lu Guangbai, "Golden needle bag, sharp needle."
Lu Guangbai opened the gold needle bag, took out the sharp needles, quickly disinfected them with an alcohol swab, and handed them to Old Master Lu.
Grandpa Lu grasped Grandpa Zhang's hand and quickly pricked it to draw blood.
He handed the needle back, "A needle."
Without hesitation, Lu Guangbai took out a medium-length needle with a thick and pointed tip from the corresponding position and handed it over. He then took the three-edged needle from Old Master Lu's hand, wiped it with an alcohol swab, and put it back into the acupuncture kit.
When Lu Guangbai saw that the old master Lu was aggravated, he knew that he was using the Nine Needles of Rejuvenation, and silently cooperated from the side.
After nine needles were applied, Old Master Zhang's pale and ashen face slowly regained its color. Although it hadn't yet regained its rosy hue, it was visibly pulled back from the brink of death.
Zheng Nanle thought he needed time to process what he had learned, but little did he know that Old Master Zhang was so angry that his blood pressure soared to the point of almost bursting his blood vessels.
Fortunately, there were two highly skilled traditional Chinese medicine doctors downstairs.
Zheng Nanle let out a long sigh.
After about ten minutes, Grandpa Lu began to remove the needles, while Grandpa Zhang lay on the table, his eyes glazed over, motionless.
When Zheng Nanle saw Old Zhang like this, he couldn't help but feel pity.
She kindly raised her brother's son, but her good intentions backfired and harmed her own son.
Moreover, he was his most cherished and valued son.
He might really want to travel back in time and slap his past self, who wanted to adopt the child, to death.
After a long silence, he spoke in a hoarse voice: "My son..."
He choked up and couldn't speak after only two words.
Zheng Nanle asked Old Master Lu and Lu Guangbai to leave so he could finish what he had been saying earlier.
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