Chapter 94: Unfolding
Chi Jinjin walked forward, looked up at him distressedly, reached out and touched his brow, and asked, "Nan Xuqiu, how many nights have you not slept well?"
Nan Xuqiu understood something and said, "Have you already known what happened back then..."
"Tell me what happened back then." Chi Jinjin asked urgently.
Nan Xuqiu lowered his head and told Chi Jinjin what happened that year.
Every night, he seemed to fall into a loop, replaying that day over and over again.
At that time, there was no nanny at home, and it was his mother who took care of him and his sister.
In the afternoon, his mother went to buy groceries and repeatedly told him to stay at home.
So he played with cars in his room.
At this time, Nan Nan walked in and said, "Xiao Qiu, let's go out and play."
"No, mom said we can't go out." Four-year-old Nan Xuqiu said in a childish voice.
"It's okay. Mom won't be back for a long time. We won't go far. We'll stay nearby. Don't you want to play?" Nan Nan asked.
Nan Xuqiu shook his head and said, "No, Mom will scold us. Let's wait for Mom to come back."
"Oh, when mom comes back, she won't let us go out to play. Come on, sister will take you to buy some marshmallows?" Nan Nan said.
When Nan Xuqiu heard the word "marshmallow", stars suddenly appeared in his eyes.
Nan Nan deliberately said, "If you don't go, then I will go. Bye."
"I'll go, I'll go." Nan Xuqiu left the car and chased after him.
"Sister, wait for me." Nan Xuqiu ran up and held Nan Nan's hand.
Nan Nan took him hand and left home.
They played in the park for a while, and then Nan Nan took Nan Xuqiu somewhere else.
"Sister, where are we going?" Nan Xuqiu asked Nan Nan with his head raised.
Nan Nan said, "I'm going to take you to buy cotton candy."
"Great, great!" Nan Xuqiu jumped for joy when she heard it.
Nan Nan took Nan Xuqiu to the riverside and bought two marshmallows from a stall.
"Sister, is it time for us to go home?" Nan Xuqiu asked.
Nan Nan looked at the beautiful scenery outside and said, "No hurry, it's still early, let's go play over there."
Nan Nan pointed to the riverside.
Nan Xuqiu said, "Mom told us not to go. She said there are monsters in the river."
"That's all a lie to you little brats. Let's go." Nan Nan took Nan Xuqiu's hand and came to the embankment.
She took off her shoes and kicked her feet in the water, feeling very comfortable.
Nan Xuqiu squatted on the side, eating the marshmallow in his hand.
Nan Nan played for a long time before thinking about going home.
She stood up, put on her shoes, turned around and prepared to go back, but she didn't expect her foot to step on the moss on the edge, slipped, and fell from the embankment into the water.
Nan Nan suddenly thrashed violently in the water, shouting, "Xiao Qiu, save me! Save me!"
Nan Xuqiu immediately dived into the water and swam to her side. He wanted to drag her ashore.
But as soon as he swam over, Nan Nan instinctively clung to him.
She pressed Nan Xuqiu's head into the water and he couldn't raise his head for a long time, causing him to almost suffocate in the water.
Fortunately, he was able to be pulled out of the water with two hands.
It was an uncle who held him and walked away.
"Don't save me, save her! Sister! Sister!!"
Nan Xuqiu screamed heart-wrenchingly, but he could only watch his sister being swallowed by the surging river and was powerless to do anything.
The moment her sister's hand completely disappeared from the water, Nan Xuqiu stopped shouting and making a fuss. She knelt on the shore with her red eyes open, her mouth open, her lips trembling slightly, and tears falling down one by one.
Later the police came, and mom, dad, grandparents, they came too.
Her mother grabbed her collar and asked repeatedly, "Where's your sister? Where did your sister go?"
Nan Xuqiu wanted to speak, but no sound came out.
"Did you ask your sister to come out and play? Didn't I tell you to stay home? Why did you come out? Why didn't you listen?"
His mother gripped his collar tightly, causing him pain and difficulty breathing.
My grandparents ran over, grabbed my mother's hand and pulled her away.
Mom wanted to go into the water to look for her sister, but Dad kept holding her back.
Afterwards, no one in the family slept, waiting for news from the police.
Mom sat on the sofa crying, and Dad smoked one cigarette after another.
Finally, news came from the police that my sister had been found.
So the whole family rushed over without stopping.
But the police moved aside, and he only saw a man lying on the ground covered with a white sheet.
Mom walked forward slowly, squatted down, and lifted the cloth with trembling hands.
That was my sister, but she had her eyes closed.
Grandma collapsed to the ground.
Mom pounced on my sister.
He had never heard his mother cry like this before. It was like something was being torn apart, and in the end, she cried but her voice was gone.
They said their sister was dead.
At that time, Nan Xuqiu didn't understand what death was. He thought his sister was just sleeping.
He stepped forward, held his sister's hand, and called out, "Sister."
"Get out of here!" Mom pushed him to the ground.
She pointed at him and said heartbreakingly, "It's all your fault. If you hadn't disobeyed, Nan Nan wouldn't have died. It's you who killed her. It's all you who killed her!!"
"Mom..." Nan Xuqiu looked at her helplessly.
But the mother shook her head and said through gritted teeth, "I don't want you anymore. I don't have a son who is a murderer. You are a murderer. You killed my daughter!"
"Mom." Although Nan Xuqiu was young, he could still understand when he heard that his mother didn't want him anymore. He got up from the ground and walked towards her.
But she pushed him to the ground.
After that, his mother never spoke to him again, and his father no longer told him bedtime stories like he used to.
He wanted to hug them.
His mother would push him away angrily, and his father would pull his hand away and ask him to go back to his room.
One day, it was raining heavily outside and there was constant thunder in the sky.
Nan Xuqiu heard his parents talking upstairs.
They seemed to have had a quarrel.
Dad said, "Xiao Qiu didn't do it on purpose after all. He is just a child, and he is our child too."
"What's the point of saying so much? He was the one who killed my Nan Nan. I will never forgive him in my life. I can't be with him anymore. Do whatever you want." With that, my mother went upstairs angrily.
When she saw him, her eyes were filled with disgust.
She slammed the door shut.
In the evening, my mother dragged her suitcase and walked out.
Nan Xuqiu knew that the suitcase meant leaving, because every time his mother pulled the suitcase, it would take several days for her to come back.
But this time, he felt that his mother would never come back.
So he hurried downstairs, grabbed his mother's hand and said, "Mom, don't go."
"Go away." Mom said disgustedly.
Nan Xuqiu pleaded with tears in her eyes, "Mom, I know I was wrong. I beg you not to leave."
Mom shook his hand off.
I put the suitcase in the car and drove out.
The nanny pulled him.
He broke free from the arms of the new nanny.
"Mom, please don't leave, Mom, please don't leave me. I know I was wrong. I will be obedient in the future, Mom!"
Nan Xuqiu was chasing his mother's car in the pouring rain.
But his mother's car was driving faster and faster, and finally he fell to the ground, with a large piece of skin on his hand broken and blood flowing, but his mother did not stop the car.
"Mom, please don't..."
Nan Xuqiu cried inconsolably in the rain.
Later, my father was not often at home, so my grandparents took him in.
He was no longer naughty or noisy. He started to learn from his sister, reading, writing and studying seriously.
He thought that if he did this, his parents would come to pick him up. He waited for a day, a month, a year, spring came and autumn went, winter left and summer came. Gradually, he grew up and understood that his mother didn't want him because he was naughty, but because she hated him.
So, they will never come.
He also understood what death was.
Nan Xuqiu looked at the ring on Chi Jinjin's finger.
That was given to him by his sister.
He once fell seriously ill, and his sister gave him the ring.
My sister said that the ring is a talisman that will surely protect him from harm and good health. When he gets married, she will give the ring to his future wife.
This is also her gift to her future sister-in-law.
Later, he really got better.
But in the second month after he gave the ring to her, his sister closed her eyes forever.
"I killed my sister." Nan Xuqiu said trembling all over.
Chi Jinjin stepped forward, grabbed his hand, and said, "This isn't your fault, Nan Xuqiu."
"No, it's my fault. If I hadn't eaten the marshmallows, my sister wouldn't have gone to the river, and nothing would have happened. I killed her." Nan Xuqiu said, and all the guilt that he had suppressed in his heart over the years came flooding out, and he burst into tears.
He regretted it very much. If he hadn't eaten the marshmallow back then, he would still be a man with a sister.
It’s all his fault. Why should I go eat marshmallows?
"When we were in the water, I clearly grabbed her, but I was useless. I couldn't hold on tight. It's my fault, it's all my fault..."
Nan Xuqiu was so choked up that it was difficult for him to breathe.
Chi Jinjin looked at Nan Xuqiu in front of her, tears falling one by one. She reached out and touched his face, wiped away the tears, and said, "Nan Xuqiu, you are not wrong. You are really not wrong. Things are unpredictable. Who knows when an accident will happen? If my sister were here, she would not want you to torture yourself like this and be so sad."
"Why didn't you tell me this back then?"
At this moment, Xu Wangshu suddenly appeared in the room.
Nan Xuqiu was shocked.
He looked at Chi Jinjin in surprise. Chi Jinjin smiled faintly, stepped away from him, and gave him and Xu Wangshu space.
It turned out that it was Chi Jinjin who played the recorded words of her uncle to Xu Wangshu, telling her that things might not be that simple and asked her to hear what Nan Xuqiu said with her own ears.
"I have nothing much to say. My sister's death is indeed related to me." Nan Xuqiu said in a crying voice.
"Do you blame me? All these years..." Xu Wangshu asked.
Nan Xuqiu shook his head.
"Why?"
Nan Xuqiu said, "You are my family, my mother, why should I complain?"
Xu Wangshu's tears immediately fell from his eyes.
"Xiaoqiu..." After many years, Xu Wangshu called out this name again.
Nan Xuqiu was also stunned.
Xu Wangshu said in a guilty tone, "I'm sorry, I misunderstood you for so many years..."
"I should be the one to say sorry. If I hadn't eaten the marshmallows, my sister wouldn't..." Nan Xuqiu couldn't say the word. It was like a blade stuck in his throat, unable to go up or down. There was only pain and the smell of blood.
Xu Wangshu shook his head and said, "No, it's not your fault. It's... Mom... It's Mom's fault. It's Mom who didn't look after you. It's Mom who didn't protect you. And... I hurt you for so many years. Xiaoqiu, are you willing to forgive Mom?"
"Mom..." Nan Xuqiu walked forward and hugged Xu Wangshu.
"Xiao Qiu." Xu Wangshu also hugged him.
Nan Xuqiu had been waiting for this hug for more than ten years.
At this moment, neither of them knew what to say. Excitement, guilt, and self-blame were all intertwined together. In the end, they just hugged each other tightly.
Chi Jinjin was standing aside, wiping her tears and smiling with relief.
After hugging each other for a while, the mother and son let go of each other.
Xu Wangshu wiped the tears from his face, looked at Chi Jinjin, and said to her, "Jinjin, thank you. If it weren't for you, I don't know how many years I would have misunderstood Xiaoqiu. Xiaoqiu is right, you are really a very good girl. No wonder he likes you so much."
Chi Jinjin smiled shyly and looked at Nan Xuqiu.
Nan Xuqiu smiled, his eyes filled with affection and gratitude...
From then on, Nan Xuqiu's relationship with his parents returned to what it was before.
Chi Jinjin also officially had dinner with his parents. It was Xu Wangshu who specially invited them. Chi Jinjin and Nan Xuqiu went to their house for dinner together.
Xu Wangshu cooked the meal himself, and Nan Xuqiu came forward to help. The mother and son talked and laughed in the kitchen.
It seems like they have always been like this.
Perhaps this is the magical effect of blood relationship.
No matter how many barriers there are, they are only separated, not separated.
"Jinjin, their mother-son relationship has been strained for many years. I have thought of many ways to try to resolve it, but I have never succeeded. Thank you for untying this knot." Nan Shuze looked at the mother and son in the kitchen and said to Chi Jinjin with gratitude.
"Uncle Nan, you're too polite." Chi Jinjin said, "I'm doing this entirely for myself."
"Yourself?" Nan Shuze was puzzled.
Chi Jinjin said, "When Nan Xuqiu is happy, I will be very happy. When he is sad, I will be even sadder. I hate being sad, so I do this for happiness and for myself."
Nan Shuze smiled and said, "Your aunt said that you are a very insightful and outstanding child. She is indeed right. In fact, I have heard your name a long time ago."
Chi Jinjin was surprised and confused.
Nan Shuze said, "I've heard about the lawsuit you had. To be honest, as a powerless little girl like you, wouldn't you be afraid when you took on this case?"
"Afraid." Chi Jinjin said frankly.
Nan Shuze said with a smile, "Are you afraid? Why are you still doing it?"
"Fear is my instinct, but believing in it goes against my instinct. I do this to tell some people that everyone is equal before the law," said Chi Jinjin.
The voice was soft, yet firm.
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