Chapter 71
In his joy, Sun Hao spat out a mouthful of blood and passed out.
He was at the end of his rope. In his final days, he painted the peach tree at his cousin's house, brush in hand, his face painted. Xie Baoyi's face came alive on the paper. With his final stroke, Sun Hao collapsed to the ground. A spring breeze blew through the peach blossoms, and a petal fell onto the painting.
Sun Hao's cousin arranged his funeral. Sun Hao's will instructed his cousin to return his ranking on the list, the IOU, and a letter to Lijiazhuang. However, before his cousin could deliver the letter, the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing. He fled to his hometown in Jiangxi, taking the painting with him. Consequently, Xie Baoyi never received any news from Sun Hao, ultimately dying of depression.
After listening to the old man's words, I sighed in my heart. At first, I thought that Sun Hao was fickle and abandoned Xie Baoyi, but I didn't expect that Sun Hao's fate would be so bad.
"Do you still have those things?" I asked.
The old man slowly rose from the bed and led Li Danyang and me to open the cabinet. At the bottom of the cabinet, hidden was a wooden box. Although a hundred years had passed, it was still intact. When we opened it, we found the letter and a worn IOU. Only the list was missing. Perhaps it had been lost for too long.
After my description, the old man agreed to give me the wooden box.
I couldn't eat the last meal at all. After apologizing to Sun Lei's family, I walked out of his house alone, stood behind the village, and looked at the vast rice fields. I felt bad.
At this moment, Li Danyang appeared beside me and said, "Love is the most hurtful word in this world."
Although I have never experienced love, I was also moved by the love between Xie Baoyi and Sun Hao.
"Brother Danyang, the matter of the Feather Stone and the Yin Fu Lu has come to a conclusion. Now I want to go back to my hometown."
"Okay, when we return to Tianshi Mansion together, I'll ask Master to let me go back with you. I also want to go back to Baiyun Temple."
"Thank you, Senior Brother Danyang!"
"Why are you being so polite to me?" said Li Danyang.
Just like that, we returned to the Tianshi Mansion together. Li Danyang explained the whole story to Zhang Jingzhi. Zhang Jingzhi stroked his beard and said, "Now that we know it was the ghost clan that took it, it's easy to deal with. I'm going to ask him what the Ghost Beam Map means!"
"Father, please calm down!" Zhang Pingyin said.
"Grandpa is still good to me." I said with a smile.
Zhang Jingzhi looked at me and said, "You little smart kid!"
In the end, Li Danyang was unable to go back to my hometown with me. Instead, he was ordered by Master Zhang to take Erma to see the world.
When I left, Qingyun took out a peace amulet and gave it to me.
"Thank you!" I said with a smile.
Qingyun is almost as tall as me now. He has grown a lot taller in the past year.
I walked down Longhu Mountain alone and started my journey home.
As I walked into the train station, the busy green train whirred and whirred. After checking my ticket, I found my seat, leaned back, and looked out the window. The scenery along the road flashed by, and I couldn't help but think of Xie Baoyi and sighed softly.
Next to me was a woman with a thin, southern accent, also getting off at BJ. Across from me were two men from Northeast China, from the same village. They'd been working in Guangdong, and now that their project was finished, they were heading back to their home in Northeast China. The Northeasterners were incredibly welcoming, and when they saw me, a young girl, traveling alone on the train, they asked, "Where are you going?"
I said, "BJ."
"Then you have to get off at BJ West. It's a long way to go."
With a topic to talk about, we naturally started chatting. The aunt next to me also joined in. The two uncles from Northeast China were quite humorous and made my aunt and I laugh out loud. I had thought this trip would be boring, but it turned out to be so entertaining. The three of them started playing poker, but I didn't know how to play, so I just joined in.
The day passed by so simply. In the evening, they all took their instant noodles to the front of the car to get hot water. When they came back, for some reason, they started talking about strange things. As the saying goes, don't talk about ghosts in the middle of the night, but the uncle from Northeast China sitting opposite me was very eloquent and his story was fascinating. Before I knew it, many people in the car gathered around.
I was also attracted by his story and kept listening to him. At the end of it, I fell asleep in a daze.
I spent the past two days on the train. Luckily, there were two older men sitting opposite me, otherwise I'd be bored to death. When I arrived at Beijing West Railway Station, I said goodbye to them and the aunt next to me. Then I boarded the bus back home.
Seeing the familiar mountains filled me with emotion. When I arrived at the county bus station, I boarded the bus back to the village. The driver was the same driver as before; over a decade later, his appearance hadn't changed much.
I sat there until around five or six in the afternoon before returning to the village. As soon as I returned, I was spotted by the old village chief. He's no longer the village chief; he owns a pig farm on the banks of the Chun River. Seeing me return, he enthusiastically asked, "Little sister, where have you been these past two years? I never saw you back."
"Go for a walk!" I said hello and headed straight home. Along the way, I attracted quite a few villagers' attention. They were much more open-minded now, and there was no hostility towards me. Whenever I saw them, I would greet them, and they would respond.
Standing at my front door again, a wave of emotion welled up in my heart. The gate had been battered by the wind and rain over the past two years, and it looked even more worn. I went to the familiar courtyard wall, removed the brick, and there lay the key, quietly. But from the rain, it had rusted.
I picked up the key and turned it gently, and the lock opened.
Pushing open the door, the yard was filled with dead leaves, and the stone table under the tree roots was also covered with rotten leaves. No one had been home for the past two years, and the whole yard looked deserted and completely desolate.
As I was thinking about this, a wave of sadness filled my heart. Not only had I not found my grandfather, but I had also lost the feather stone.
I opened the door and was choked by the dust, which made me pinch my nose. I fanned my nose with my hand and tidied the familiar furnishings of the house until midnight, finally cleaning the house and the yard.
I plan to stay at home for a few days.
The next morning I took the quilt to the yard to dry it in the sun, otherwise it would have a musty smell, which I really don't like.
Carrying the wooden box, I prepared to go to Lijiazhuang. I suddenly felt impatient, as if someone was driving me. After arriving in Lijiazhuang, I first found Li Lianpu. With them as witnesses, I burned Sun Hao's relics in front of Xie Baoyi's grave.
When I placed the IOU and letter in the fire, the gentle flames suddenly shot up into the sky, taller than me. In the flames, I saw the shadows of Xie Baoyi and Sun Hao. She held Sun Hao's chin affectionately, tears streaming down her face. Sun Hao also hugged Xie Baoyi tightly, but this embrace was a hundred years too late.
Now I finally understand the meaning of Xie Baoyi's song "I will not return until you have a name on the list of successful candidates". Maybe in her heart, she does not need Sun Hao to be successful in the list of successful candidates. This is just a sentence she said to encourage Sun Hao.
No matter what, their lingering love finally came to an end.
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