Chapter 105 His Past
While Song Youning was investigating Ji Siyun, Ji Siyun was also trying hard to find her.
She tried again and again to get more information about Ji Siyun from the villagers, which led to the system detecting a large number of keywords about "Ji Siyun", "past" and "riverside" in the conversation, and finally located the "poor mountain village" where Ji Siyun was born.
Ji Siyun finally realized what she was going to do, and ecstasy and deeper fear instantly overwhelmed him.
After locking the location, Ji Siyun set off immediately with only one thought in his mind: find her, find her before she remembers that person!
When he arrived, the house where Song Youning was temporarily staying was empty. Ji Siyun grabbed the old lady who kindly let Song Youning stay overnight, and asked with red eyes where the beautiful but pale woman had gone.
The old lady was frightened by his maddened appearance and tried to recall with trepidation: "I, I don't know."
"She said she was leaving early this morning. When I asked where she was going, she just said she was going home... I don't even know where her home is!"
go home……
Ji Siyun took a few steps back as if exhausted, and only stopped falling when his back hit the wall.
He took out his cell phone with trembling hands - December 29th, the day they first met, and the day she was about to leave.
The scene in front of me suddenly flickered, like a TV screen with a bad signal. The frightened face of the old lady in front of me was briefly distorted and doubled, and then returned to normal.
"Warning, the experiencer's consciousness is experiencing strong fluctuations. This experience is about to end..."
The sudden electronic sound was emotionless, but it suddenly awakened Ji Siyun, who had been on the verge of collapse in the past few days.
He ignored the old lady who was hiding behind him out of fear, and turned around and ran towards the riverbank in his memory.
Heavy snow covered the rugged path. When Ji Siyun finally rushed to the riverbank panting, he saw the slender figure standing in the wind and snow from afar.
Song Youning stood there quietly, facing the river that seemed particularly quiet and cold in winter. Snowflakes fell on her hair and shoulders, leaving a thin layer of white. She didn't know how long she had been standing there.
Ji Siyun was so heartbroken that he couldn't breathe. He walked lightly and approached cautiously, afraid of disturbing her and afraid that she would disappear in the next moment.
When he was still a few meters away from her, the figure who had been standing quietly with his back to him suddenly spoke, his voice calm and without a trace of emotion, as if he had already known about his arrival: "I remember."
Ji Siyun's footsteps froze instantly, and he stood still.
Song Youning turned around slowly, snowflakes fell on her pale, almost transparent face, and her long eyelashes were dyed white. Her face did not have the hatred or anger he expected, but instead had an almost compassionate, unusual calmness and gentleness.
She looked at his face, which was distorted by panic and running, and said softly, "Ji Siyun, I remember now."
"So you are that kid back then."
Song Youning lowered her eyelids slightly, pursed her lips, and a hint of apology appeared on her face: "I always thought...I saved a little girl."
Late that night, the people sent by Song Youning's mother finally arrived and took her back to the hotel in town where she was temporarily staying.
After a short rest and calming down, the next day, Song Youning forced himself to stay calm, pretending nothing had happened, and appeared at the donation ceremony of the township middle school as planned.
On behalf of the family, she completed a series of processes, including donating materials and finalizing the school renovation plan. The last step was to select ten students from the school's most outstanding but poorest families, and have them funded by her family foundation until they reach adulthood.
Only nine children on the list came to the office and stood in a row with a reserved and expectant look on their faces.
Song Youning was not much older than the oldest child among them, but she was already accustomed to this kind of scene. She asked gently, "Why didn't one of our classmates come?"
The children looked at each other with flickering eyes, and seemed reluctant to mention that name, even revealing a hint of rejection.
After waiting for a while, the absent student still did not show up. The secretary stepped forward and quietly reminded Song Youning: "Miss, we still have to rush back to the city."
Under urging, Song Youning had to follow the procedures and sign the funding intention with the nine children. After taking photos with the children and the principal, the donation activity finally ended successfully.
Before leaving, the secretary said that they needed to take some more photos for publicity. The principal happily told them to take whatever they wanted and left tactfully. Song Youning forced himself to cooperate with them in taking photos until he was stopped by a female teacher who looked to be around fifty years old, with a kind face but a little tired.
She looked hesitant and seemed to have difficulty speaking. Song Youning looked at her wandering eyes and suddenly became firm. As if he had made up his mind, he said to her, "Ms. Song, there is another student in your funding plan. Can you give him another chance?"
Song Youning shook his head regretfully: "He himself doesn't take it seriously, which means he doesn't really need my support."
"No!" The female teacher quickly explained, "That child... he was sick, so he didn't come to school today. It's not that he didn't want to come."
Afraid that Song Youning wouldn't listen to her explanation, she pulled out the certificates, test papers, and even workbooks she had prepared long ago from behind her back. She spread them out hastily and introduced them to Song Youning in a hurried tone, "Miss Song, Ji Du is a truly outstanding child. He always gets first place in exams and learns everything very quickly. His mother abandoned him and ran away, and his father not only doesn't care about him, but he also..."
The teacher paused here, still not saying everything. She said to Song Youning earnestly, "Your financial support is really important to him. His parents don't care about him at all. Without the financial support, he wouldn't even be able to continue his studies in junior high school."
In fact, Song Youning was not moved by this reason. She lowered her eyes and thought about how to politely refuse this request. Her eyes suddenly focused on the class photo with a small corner accidentally exposed in the stack of certificates belonging to "Ji Du" in the teacher's hand.
The thin, pale but extremely delicate child in the corner of the photo is the "girl" she rescued on the riverbank yesterday.
So her name is Ji Du, jealous? What a perfunctory name.
Song Youning remained calm on the surface, seemingly thinking for a long time with reluctance. He then spoke carefully, "Teacher, I'm only here on behalf of my family. The list of sponsors has already been finalized, so it's not appropriate to add to it. As for Ji Du, I'd like to sponsor him individually in my own name. Is that okay?"
The female teacher was stunned for a moment, a complex light flashing in her eyes. She hesitated for a moment, then lowered her voice and said, "Ms. Song, thank you so much. But I have one request... Ji Du's family situation is quite special. If the financial aid is directly transferred to his guardian's account, I'm afraid... I'm afraid it won't reach the child."
Song Youning thought of the violent man last night and understood.
Seeing the genuine concern in the female teacher's eyes, she proposed a plan: "How about this? I'll transfer the grant money to your account regularly, and you'll find a way to give it to Ji Du, ensuring he can use it for his studies and daily life. Is that okay?"
The female teacher thought for a moment and nodded solemnly: "Okay, Miss Song, I thank you on behalf of Ji Du! I will definitely find a way to hand it over to him!"
After making an appointment with the teacher, Song Youning quickly left by car. The photo of her and the sponsored children was later hung on the school's wall of honor.
What she didn't know was that Ji Du didn't come to school that day not because he was sick, but because he had tried his best to stop his father from chasing her the night before, and was beaten by an angry man, leaving a deep wound on his shoulder.
If the man had not been arrested by the police the next day, Ji Du might have been beaten to death by him.
When he was almost healed and returned to school, the female teacher found him and secretly told him that Song Youning was sponsoring him individually.
Ji Du saw the photo on the wall of honor and finally knew that the sister who saved him was named Song Youning. She had such a prominent status that was like a huge gap between her and him.
At the same time, he was too precocious and understood instantly why his father was arrested that night when he was punching and kicking him while cursing, saying "The fat meat in my hand flew away" and "You little bitch, don't let me catch you".
It turned out that among the bad guys she was hiding from was her father.
He stared at the photo blankly. She saved him and supported him, but he didn't deserve it at all.
After being arrested, Ji Du's father confessed and took all the crimes on himself. Six months later, the verdict came out and he was sentenced to six years in prison for attempted kidnapping.
Song Youning never stopped supporting Ji Du during this period. After learning that his father was imprisoned, Ji Du remained silent for a long time. Then, he mustered up the courage and asked the teacher, "Teacher... I... I want to write a letter to thank her. Is that okay?"
After the female teacher helped to inquire, Song Youning agreed to let him give the letter to the female teacher to forward.
Ji Du wrote a lot, using all kinds of words to express his gratitude to her, saying that he would definitely repay her when he grew up. At the end, he carefully mentioned his own life experience - a mother who abandoned her children and a father who was in prison.
When he received the reply letter from the female teacher, he opened the envelope almost holding his breath.
On the letter paper was Song Youning's handwriting, as usual, concise yet clear.
She seemed unaware that the father of the person she sponsored was one of the people who tried to kidnap her, and she did not show any of the contempt or surprise he had expected. There was no blame in her reply, but comfort and encouragement to him.
Student Ji Du: I've received your letter. We can't choose our origins, but we can choose the direction we follow. The shadows of the past shouldn't shackle the future. Studying is the most solid foundation for changing your destiny. I urge you to cherish your time and give it your all. If you have any learning difficulties or needs, please let your teacher know. I wish you academic progress.
No pity, no preaching, only a calm acceptance and encouragement.
Ji Du sat at his worn desk for a long time, clutching the thin piece of paper. Outside the window lay a gloomy gray landscape, but the words on the letter were like a faint yet resolute ray of light, piercing through the gloom of reality.
He suddenly felt that the scar on his shoulder was no longer so painful.
Thus, over the next few years, they began a long correspondence. Ji Du wrote diligently, sending a letter almost every once in a while, his handwriting evolving from childish to neat, and the contents ranged from simple thanks and reports of achievements to gradually sharing some of life's trivialities and troubles.
Song Youning was busy with work and didn't reply often. Ji Du might write three letters, but she would only reply to one. Her wording was always appropriate and a little distant, but Ji Du would read each reply over and over for several days, and then carefully keep it.
When Ji Du was sixteen years old, he had not been beaten for any trivial matter in the past few years, and he did not have to worry about not being able to pay tuition every semester. He concentrated on his studies and had skipped two grades. He went to the best high school in the city and was about to take the college entrance examination.
When Ji Du thought everything was going in the right direction, the man was given a reduced sentence for his good behavior in prison and was released a year early and found him.
The man blocked him in the alley, insulting him while committing violence again, blaming him that if he had not been stopped by him that year, he could have caught Song Youning and got a large sum of money and lived a worry-free life for the rest of his life, instead of being caught by the police and having to take all the blame for his crimes to save his life and spend several years in jail without getting a penny.
The heartless man even wanted to break his hands so that he could not take the college entrance examination.
When the man was searching for tools in the garbage pile in the corner, Ji Du, who was beaten to the point of losing consciousness, somehow found the strength to push the defenseless man down and escaped desperately.
He didn't dare go back to school, let alone the small village. He just ran forward and wandered all the way to another city.
He changed his name to Ji Siyun.
If you are as confident as Ren Siyun, and as virtuous as Kong Xiu, you will be able to achieve great things.
Although he does not have such a wonderful quality, he wishes he had it.
He worked to make a living while continuing his studies. After settling down, he secretly contacted the teacher who had always helped him and was like a family member to him.
The teacher is old and retired a few years ago. Ji Du... now she should be called Ji Siyun. When talking to her on the phone, one could still hear a hint of fatigue under her surprised tone.
Ji Siyun didn't notice this. He asked a more concerned question: "Teacher, can you tell me Sister Song's address? I want to write to her."
I thought she would decline according to the agreement, but after thinking for a while, the teacher said, "That's fine. She wrote to me once during the six months you were missing, but I was busy at the time and didn't receive it in time, so it was returned. After so much time has passed, it's time to reply to her and reassure her."
After more than half a year of wandering, Ji Siyun wrote another long letter, telling her in detail about the changes he had encountered during this period, explaining to her the reason for writing the letter, and saying that he was still insisting on studying and had not given up. Then he solemnly sent the letter to the address given by the teacher.
He waited anxiously for more than half a month, but did not receive her reply. Instead, the letter he had sent with great anticipation was returned to him with a stamp of "No such person".
He wanted to contact the teacher, but the call could no longer be connected.
Memories of the past flashed before his eyes, and Ji Siyun's eyes gradually became red.
The wind and snow on the riverbank seemed to be even stronger.
Song Youning looked at the man in front of him who had grown up but had become unrecognizable because of his obsessive love, and sighed softly:
"Ji Du...it's you."
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