Chapter 200 if-Two Little Guess 1
The empress came. She dressed her in a white dress, combed her hair, and then applied some hair oil, smoothing even the loose strands on her forehead to her scalp. Finally, she picked up a small white flower and pinned it to the side of her hair.
The empress looked at her and sighed. She squatted down and looked at her levelly.
"Wait, when you see your mother, you're going to cry."
The child didn't know what was wrong. After her sister-in-law passed away, she didn't cry at all. She ate whatever food she was given and drank whatever water she was given. She wondered if she was too young to understand the significance of her mother's death.
Today is the big day, and all the relatives and colleagues will come to see her off. As the only blood relative, it is impossible not to shed tears on such an occasion. Alas, I feel sorry for her brother. How will he raise his daughter alone in the future?
Qin Yizhang nodded silently, walked to the desk, picked up Han Wenying's black and white photo, and placed it on his chest.
The funeral home's auditorium was bustling with people. She didn't recognize most of the faces. Some were colleagues she hadn't seen in a while. They exchanged greetings, smiling as if it were a perfectly normal social interaction.
She lowered her head and looked at the photo of her mother on her knees. Her gentle smile, her familiar face. Her eyes were still dry.
Her father, Qin Yunjie, was nowhere to be found. She only saw her mother and grandmother bustling in and out, aimlessly busy. No relatives came from her mother, Han Wenying, except for a simple paper wreath signed by Han Wendong, her mother's fifteen-year-old brother and the uncle she had never met.
Her legs were on tiptoe, trying to hold the picture frame from sliding down, and her toes were a little numb. She shifted slightly, and the sensation of mosquito bites pierced her heart, making her nose sore. She looked up blankly. Perhaps this feeling was the feeling of wanting to cry?
A familiar person was walking towards her from a distance. When he saw her, he quickened his pace and trotted over.
"Yi Zhang!" He Wu squatted down and hugged her.
Qin Yizhang straightened her back, feeling the soft, motherly embrace she hadn't felt in a long time. She knew who she was: Aunt He Wu, her father's former colleague, whom she hadn't seen for over six months.
"Mom, let her go, you're strangling her." The boy's voice sounded behind her.
He Wu gently let go of her. Tong Zhongyuan's face appeared before her eyes. After not seeing him for a long time, his cheeks, which had once been slightly puffy, were gone, and his childish look was gone. He was wearing a formal white shirt, and his expression was somewhat mature beyond his years.
"He Wu, why are you here?" Qin Yunjie hurried over from the grooming room. "Hey, why did you bring Zhong Yuan with you? The child is still young, why did he come to a place like this?!"
"He heard me talking to his dad and insisted on coming. I couldn't persuade him. It's good that he's here to keep Yi Zhang company."
"Tong Zhongyuan," He Wu turned around and said, "You stay here with sister Yi Zhang, and mom will go help Uncle Qin."
Tong Zhongyuan nodded.
He Wu and Qin Yunjie walked away. Tong Zhongyuan looked down at Qin Yizhang for a moment, then quietly sat down beside her. He reached out, took Han Wenying's heavy photo frame, and shifted half of its weight onto his lap. On a lonely chair at the entrance of the bustling hall, they held the portrait together.
"Lao Qin, why didn't you tell me about such a big thing at home? It was Team Leader Ming who told me. He's in Tibet today and can't make it back."
He Wu took out two white envelopes from his bag and handed them to Qin Yunjie.
Qin Yunjie didn't accept it: "I'm already very grateful that you came over, so I don't need this."
He Wu sighed and stuffed the envelope into his hand.
"It's not for you, it's for Yi Zhang. The child is still young, so if there's anything I can help with in the future, just let me know. We live close to each other, so we're neighbors and colleagues. You're being too formal."
"Now... we're not colleagues anymore." Qin Yunjie lowered his head and changed the subject. "Why didn't you go to the UK? Didn't you say that all the formalities were completed?"
He Wu pouted in Tong Zhongyuan's direction.
"It's all for the child. Later, my husband and I discussed it. He's still too young. If he goes there, he'll be assimilated quickly. He hasn't even learned Chinese well enough, so he won't be able to write essays when the time comes. Forget it, let's wait a few years until he graduates from junior high school."
"Brother," the empress came running over, "it's about to start, come in."
Qin Yunjie's pupils tightened, and He Wu quickly took a step back and said, "Go quickly, don't worry about the children, I'll bring them over."
Qin Yunjie hurried on his way while turning back to instruct: "Tell Zhongyuan to wait outside, no need to come in."
He Wu waved at him helplessly, walked to Qin Yizhang and took the photo.
"Yi Zhang, auntie will take you in. Zhong Yuan, you can wait outside. This is not a place for children."
Tong Zhongyuan frowned and said with a mature expression, "I know what kind of occasion this is."
"Qin Yizhang." He called her and stretched out his hand to her.
Qin Yizhang stared blankly at the hand in front of her. It was strange, as if she were dreaming today. Everything she saw and heard was shrouded in a fog. Her brain was like a rusted machine, unable to move. The hand waited for a moment, then let go. The next second, the cold hand was enveloped by warmth. Tong Zhongyuan took her hand and gently helped her up.
"Are your legs numb? Walk slowly."
He Wu was stunned. The photo frame in her hand felt unexpectedly heavy, and Yi Zhang had been holding it for a long time. She looked at her son's steady expression. It turned out that without her noticing, he had already become a little adult.
At that funeral, Tong Zhongyuan's hand never loosened. When the body was about to be buried, she wanted to let go and go up alone, but he went up with her.
Inside the glass coffin, Han Wenying's face had become so unfamiliar that she couldn't recall a single thing. The Empress was right behind her, pinching her, intentionally or unintentionally, as if to remind her it was time to cry. But she had no tears, truly no tears.
Even with so many people standing there, the hall was still exceptionally chilly, a bone-chilling chill that smelled like rusted, frozen iron. She looked at her mother's face one last time, thinking she would never forget that smell. The only warmth came from their clasped hands. The Empress's hand reached out again, and Tong Zhongyuan moved a step, blocking her back, pressing against hers. His warm body temperature instantly dispelled the chill, and his milky scent filled her nose, replacing the awful rust.
Strength surged back into her legs that had been numb enough to make her unable to walk. She withdrew her gaze from the glass coffin and walked forward, away from death.
After the funeral, Qin Yunjie hurriedly told her a few words and followed the car to the crematorium. The queen was worried and wanted to go with him. Qin Yunjie said someone would greet the guests, and He Wu pulled the queen aside and said, "I'll go with Lao Qin. You stay."
"That won't do! How can we let guests go to the crematorium? It's too unlucky!" The queen said without thinking.
"If you're talking about bad luck, every artifact in my possession belongs to the deceased. I don't care about that."
He Wu looked around and saw Tong Zhongyuan. He was like a little knight today, guarding Qin Yizhang closely, and his every move was more mature than she had ever seen.
"Mom is going out to do something with Uncle Qin. Is it okay for you to stay here alone?"
"no problem."
"Then take good care of Yi Zhang and wait for me to come back."
"Um."
After He Wu left, the empress made a bitter face as she prepared to cross the fire basin and drink the sugar water. Seeing Qin Yizhang, she couldn't help but sigh. In such an occasion, her niece didn't shed a single tear. This girl is hard-hearted, and the prince is a sincere man. I don't know if he will remarry in the future. If he is determined to rely on his daughter for life, what will happen when he gets old.
After the ceremony, some of the guests left, and the rest went to a nearby restaurant they had booked to eat tofu soup and rice.
Qin Yizhang followed the crowd. As a member of the Qin family, she should have walked at the front. But she didn't know where the restaurant was, and the queen had no time to greet her.
When they arrived at the restaurant, the guests walked in one by one. Perhaps the smell of fireworks awakened them from the oppressive atmosphere, and the scene gradually became noisy and lively, with people chatting and talking about everything.
Tong Zhongyuan's pace slowed down. He was holding Qin Yizhang's hand the whole time. When he slowed down, Qin Tian couldn't move either. She turned around and waited for him.
"Want to eat McDonald's?" He met her eyes.
She hesitated for a second: "But you don't like to eat."
"But I don't want to eat here even more," he said.
She followed him away without even saying a word to the Empress, because she didn't want to eat there, a dinner centered around death.
Only after the Empress had seen off the last group of guests did she notice Qin Yizhang was gone. A cold sweat immediately crept up her back, and she ran outside the restaurant, screaming at the top of her lungs. Mid-September weather would soon boil her over. She felt like a red shrimp, exhausted, and sat on the curb. The more she thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt, tears streaming down her face until she burst into tears.
As soon as Qin Yunjie came back, the queen grabbed his shoulders and burst into tears: "Brother, you are back. I was greeting guests, and Yi Yi ran away without saying a word. I looked everywhere for her. Look at my feet..."
He Wu hurriedly supported her: "Don't panic, don't panic, the children are here. My son is with Yi Zhang, he knows the way, and he said he will be back soon."
The empress still had snot on her face. She wiped it and said in surprise, "How did he inform you?"
"He called my cell phone."
The empress hadn't recovered yet, but she finally breathed a sigh of relief. Once she relaxed, she could no longer stand and slid down. She slid down the chair and sat down to catch her breath.
Qin Yunjie was exhausted. He patted his sister's arm weakly and sat down.
He Wu felt sad, but fortunately she came and finally helped. It was that kid Tong Zhongyuan who must have come up with the idea of sneaking out and scaring Old Qin's sister like this.
"You guys take a break first. My son called me from a public phone booth. He can't be far away. I'll go look for him."
It was getting dark. He Wu was also a little anxious. Tong Zhongyuan was naughty, but he was not a child without limits. He hadn't brought him back yet at this time. Maybe something had really happened.
She asked the restaurant owner which telephone booths were nearby, and since there were no street gardens or amusement facilities, she went along the way to look for them.
She flipped to the second phone booth and saw the number Tong Zhongyuan had called her cell phone from. She looked around and saw an open green space across the small road. From a distance, she could see a few benches and some simple exercise equipment.
She quickened her pace, and when she was about ten meters away from the bench, she was certain the back of the head sticking out from the bench was her son. But her heart still hung in the air. Why was it just the back of the head? Where was Yi Zhang?!
"Tong Zhongyuan!" she shouted from afar.
He turned around and saw He Wu. He calmly and disdainfully raised his index finger to his lips, signaling her to be quiet.
He Wu's pace slowed down, her intense heartbeat also slowed down, and she walked over slowly.
In the setting sun, Qin Yizhang curled up on Tong Zhongyuan's lap, fast asleep. Her face was covered in tears, and there was a large damp spot on his shirt. She had cried for a long, long time, leaving the dampness at the site of his heart still lingering.
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