Chapter 097 Chapter 97 Farewell

Time flies, and it's September again.

Today is Zhang Shoucang's wedding day. As an oxcart slowly approaches the village entrance, firecrackers blast and smoke fills the air in Xiaotian Village. More than half of the villagers come to watch the excitement, standing crowdedly on the roadside, watching the oxcart slowly approach.

The new bride, wearing a half-worn pair of army green pants, a brand new red jacket, and her hair combed neatly, sat sideways on the ox cart. As the new bride threw down a handful of wedding candies, adults and children swarmed over, shouting and reaching out to grab them.

Rural children rarely see candy all year round. They have been looking forward to this day for a month. Today, they all came out to catch this "joy from heaven". Unfortunately, there were too many people. The younger ones might be more considerate and give way to these little devils, but the older ones didn't care so much. After all, they could take the candy home for their grandchildren, so they wouldn't give way to anyone.

Along the way, the bride threw three handfuls of candy, which was quite a show in the village. Even before the bride arrived at her husband's house, four or five children were crying loudly and were persuaded to squeeze out of the crowd.

Zhang Linghan stood on the roadside with his hands on his hips, and scolded a crying little boy in a very imposing manner: "What's the point of your crying? If she dares to step on your foot, you should step on it back! If you just cry, will she pay attention to you? She will still take the candy away!"

She was actually the youngest among the kids who came to grab candy today. The crying little boy was even two years older than her and was stunned by her scolding.

Zhang Linghan saw that he was crying so pitifully and couldn't scold him any more, so he resolutely opened his palms, revealing the two candies he was tightly holding, and said with pain: "Here, I stole these, I'll give you one, stop crying!"

The little boy's tears stopped instantly. He looked at Zhang Linghan's palm with shining eyes and said with admiration: "Sister Lingling, you are so amazing!"

Zhang Linghan stopped feeling distressed instantly. She generously stuffed a piece of candy into the little boy's palm and smiled happily. The little boy was also very happy and pulled her hand excitedly, "Sister Lingling, you are so awesome, let's go to the groom's house to grab some wedding candy! I heard that the bride will throw out wedding candy twice after entering the house, how about we go and grab some?"

Zhang Linghan's face froze. She secretly curled up the toe of one of her shoes that had fallen off, and said stiffly: "I won't go. You know, I have to go home to take care of my brother!" After that, she turned around and ran away.

The little boy touched the back of his head and muttered in confusion: "When does Lingling need to take care of her brother? Didn't she say before that her brother never needed her care?" But with the candy in his hand, he didn't have the mind to think about anything else. He quickly peeled off the candy wrapper and stuffed the candy inside into his mouth.

Zhang Linghan trotted back home and saw her mother standing at the door holding her younger brother. Her younger brother was frightened by the firecrackers and was crying loudly, but her mother was still laughing with a heartless look.

Zhang Linghan shook his head like a little adult and said earnestly, "Mom, if Wanli sees you bullying your brother like this, he'll be angry again!"

Lin Yue actually wanted to take the child out to divert his attention, but he teased her, "I'm trying to build up his courage. He's been scared to tears by these strings of firecrackers. What will we do during the Chinese New Year?"

Zhang Linghan tilted his head and thought about it. He actually felt that it made sense. He nodded and promised, "Then I won't tell Wanli about this."

Lin Yue: Thank you so much!

The two entered the house. Zhang Linghan took out the piece of candy in his hand and said calmly, "This candy is for your brother. Save it for him and give it to him when he grows up!"

Lin Yue threw the candy into a small iron box, which was full of things that she and Zhang Wanli shared with her brother and would keep for him to eat and play with when he grew up. She gave him a timely compliment: "Wow, you are so awesome today, you got the wedding candy!"

Zhang Linghan raised his head proudly, not knowing how to be humble at all, "Brother Shouliang didn't get any candy, he was stepped on and cried, I felt sorry for him, so I gave him a piece!"

Lin Yue glanced at the child's bare foot and smiled secretly. Without exposing her, he praised her, "Our Lingling is really amazing! She even managed to snatch two pieces!"

Before she finished her exaggeration, Zhang Wanli walked in from the door, holding a shoe in his hand. He said angrily, "Zhang Linghan, your shoe fell off, don't you know how to pick it up?"

Zhang Linghan shrank his neck guiltily and secretly stuck out his tongue.

Lin Yue smiled and said, "Okay, Mom has something to tell you." Seeing that both children looked over, she said, "We will be joining the army in two days. Tomorrow Mom has something to do and needs to go to the city. I have already talked to your Grandma Zhang, and she will come to take care of you tomorrow."

Zhang Wanli quickly said, "Mom, don't worry, I will take good care of my sister and brother!"

Zhang Linghan glared at his brother and said, "Mom, I don't need Grandma Zhang to take care of me. I can take good care of myself and my brother!"

Lin Yue smiled and said, "I know you two are very capable. I just asked your Grandma Zhang to come over and look after you. You just do what you need to do. It's also a good opportunity to let Grandma Zhang see how capable you are, so that she won't always worry about you two being bullied in the army!"

This time she was not going to the county town, but "going into the city" in the true sense.

With the return of an important figure, the relationship between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait has been experiencing twists and turns, and even signs of "peaceful reunification" have appeared. But signs are only signs after all, and Xu's father seized the opportunity and secretly went to the other side. It was at this time that Lin Yue learned that what he called "transferring to work elsewhere" turned out to be like this.

Before leaving, Mr. Xu took Lin Yue to visit his former home and told her some things.

This is a two-story western-style building with a very contemporary style, and it is also the only residence left by Xu's father. Most of his wealth was donated during the years of war, and especially after his wife and children were separated, he no longer cared about these so-called "personal possessions".

After he left this time, he didn't know if he would have the chance to come back. There were still some of his remaining belongings in this house, and he couldn't take them away, so he simply left them all to Lin Yue.

Lin Yue pushed the door open and walked in. The yard was overgrown with weeds. When he came last time, there were even a few strangers living there. Those people were not completely homeless. There were many empty houses. They just saw that no one had lived here for years and wanted to occupy it. When Xu's father found out about the situation, he simply found the person in charge of the community and drove everyone away.

Those people have lived here for many years. Xu's father promised to give them some time to move out, but when Lin Yue came again, he found that the furniture in the house had been ruined beyond recognition. Almost all the tables and chairs had been moved out, and the few remaining ones were also badly damaged and greasy. Especially the carved beds in the master bedrooms, children's graffiti and knife marks were everywhere, and there were even some unknown stains.

Lin Yue frowned. In order not to attract attention, Father Xu did not take Lin Yue in last time. She followed Father Xu's instructions and found a hidden secret door on the first floor. She held up the kerosene lamp and looked into the basement.

The basement had not been ventilated for a long time, and there was an indescribable smell. She held her breath and waited for a long time before going downstairs.

The walls on both sides of the basement were made entirely of stone. The technology of the ancients was no less advanced than that of modern times. There was no sign of water accumulation, and there were not even the rats and snakes that Lin Yue was worried about.

When she finally stepped down the last step, she held up the kerosene lamp and saw clearly what Xu's father had said, "the only worthless things left," and her eyes widened instantly.

At daybreak, Lin Yue woke up the three children. The train they were going to take was in the morning, and it was not easy for Lin Yue to take care of the three children alone. She now regretted rejecting Zhang Yuandong's proposal to take leave to pick them up, but it was too late to regret now. She could only bite the bullet and carry her little son on her chest, with a huge package on her back, and urged Wanli and Lingling to hurry out.

She was still holding two large bags. Since yesterday, people from her family kept coming to say goodbye to Lin Yue. The newly married granddaughter of Aunt Zhang T also came back specially. These neighbors sent a lot of things, including local eggs, baked cakes, homemade pickles, and even Aunt Luo brought a live chicken, which Lin Yue firmly returned.

These were all food, so she had to take them all away. In order to avoid being unable to explain to people later, she couldn't put the things away, so she had to carry them all the way to another province by train. The emotion she had felt yesterday was completely gone when she was carrying so many things on the road.

As soon as the mother and her two children went out, they saw Wang Xiuxiang and Liu Jianhua walking towards them. Liu Jianhua was holding a child in his arms, and when he saw Lin Yue and the others, he shouted loudly: "Aunt! Sister! Brother!" His voice was not very clear, but it was very loud.

Lin Yue praised: "Little Lele is awesome, come here, give auntie a hug!"

Before she could take over, another pair of hands reached out first. Zhang Wanli pouted, hugged the little girl unhappily, and coaxed her: "Call me brother! Your brother can call me brother, why can't you call me brother!"

The three adults laughed so hard. Wang Xiuxiang and Liu Jianhua knew that Wanli was very strong, so they didn't worry that he couldn't hold the child. They took the luggage from Lin Yue and walked towards the village entrance together.

At the entrance of the village, an ox cart had been waiting there for a long time. What Lin Yue did not expect was that the two brothers Zhang Shouren and Zhang Shouyi were also standing next to the ox cart, and they had obviously arrived a long time ago.

Both of them felt a little embarrassed. After Sun Hongmei's death, the two brothers rarely went home. They applied for long-term boarding at the school and usually did odd jobs in the school cafeteria, which managed to support them until now.

When they saw Lin Yue, they were still a little awkward and simply greeted him. They snatched the packages from a few people and rushed to get on the ox cart.

Lin Yue was also quite helpless with the two brothers. She later sent them several times money and notes, but they never accepted them. They always saved money to send gifts to Lin Yue's three children. Lin Yue knew that they felt guilty about what his parents did, but she didn't know how to persuade them. She could only hope that Zhang Yuandong would find a chance to have a good talk with them.

Lin Yue said goodbye to Wang Xiuxiang and the others, and took the child to the oxcart. The oxcart moved slowly, getting farther and farther away from Xiaotian Village. Lin Yue could still see the blurry figures of Wang Xiuxiang and Liu Jianhua, and Liu Jianhua's trembling shoulders lying on Wang Xiuxiang. A gust of wind blew, and she couldn't help but blur her eyes.