Chapter 260 Return
It was now deep winter, and snowflakes were falling from the sky. Cui Yulin lifted the car curtain and looked at the white snow outside with an unreadable expression.
Ever since his father went north to fetch him, he has been in a daze, and for the past six months, he has been wandering around under the guise of treating him.
For some reason, Cui Yulin asked his father several times, but his father only hesitated and refused to answer.
Now, things have turned out quite differently. Both he and his son have returned to the vicinity of Suzhou Prefecture, but they have passed through Suzhou Prefecture several times without entering.
Today, his father took another detour, heading towards Songjiang.
Cui Yulin raised his hand and knocked on the carriage. After traveling for a while, the carriage finally stopped.
Wearing a thick coat, Cui Cheng raised his hand and lifted the heavy fur curtain.
Inside the carriage, a charcoal brazier was burning, and Cui Yulin lay in the middle, covered with a thick blanket.
“Yulin…”
Seeing that his son looked well, Cui Cheng couldn't help but grin.
In just over half a year, Cui Cheng had aged drastically, his temples now gray. Cui Yulin looked at him, her heart aching, the words of question stuck in her throat, unable to utter another word.
He lowered his eyes to look at the official road he had walked many times before, and finally sighed.
"Father, what exactly happened at home after I left? Why are you so wary of Suzhou Prefecture and dare not go back?"
Cui Cheng rubbed his hands together, looking at Cui Yulin with a grim expression.
Cui Yulin sat up, the thick blanket slipped off him, so he simply lifted it off and grabbed the wooden ring on the car to pull himself up.
This wooden ring was made by his father.
Looking at his son's limp legs, Cui Cheng felt so heartbroken that tears welled up in his eyes.
Even after all this time, he still hasn't gotten used to it.
No one knows the excruciating pain he felt when he traveled all the way north to find Cui Yulin, only to see him slumped in a farmer's haystack, so thin that he was just skin and bones.
His promising son, in the prime of his life, was severely injured by bandits on his way to the border trade market, and his Achilles tendon was severed...
Upon seeing himself, Cui Yulin burst into tears, cried out "Father!" and then fainted.
He spent a fortune to snatch his son back from the clutches of the King of Hell.
The first thing her son said when he woke up was that he wanted to go back to Suzhou Prefecture. Jiang Wan was pregnant with his child.
Upon hearing this, Cui Cheng was struck dumb, as if by a bolt from the blue.
He was greatly puzzled and hurriedly asked what had happened. Only then did he learn that Cui Yulin and Jiang Wansu had an affair without any official relationship and that Cui Yulin was pregnant.
Fearing that Jiang Hong would not allow him to marry Jiang Wansu, Xie Xuchuan gave Yu Lin a sum of money, plus three hundred bolts of brocade to exchange for imported goods in the West.
However, Cui Yulin regretted it soon after boarding the ship, fearing that Jiang Wansu could not wait too long.
Fearing they might never return, they took delivery of the goods, disembarked, and went to the border trade market.
Little did he know that, being young and reckless, and knowing nothing, he didn't hire a renowned镖客 (bodyguard/escort) to guide him. As a result, he was robbed of everything by bandits on the road. They not only stole his goods but also severed his Achilles tendons while he was escaping.
It is only thanks to the blessings of his ancestors that he survived this misfortune; it is a stroke of good fortune amidst misfortune.
But facing his seriously injured son, Cui Cheng simply couldn't bring himself to tell him that Jiang Wansu had already remarried Xie Xuchuan.
Jiang Wansu was the life-saving medicine that kept Cui Yulin alive to return to Suzhou Prefecture. He dared not say it, for fear that his son would suddenly lose his will to live.
Therefore, during the past six months that Cui Yulin has been recuperating, Cui Cheng has been using the excuse of seeking medical treatment to keep delaying their return to Suzhou Prefecture. Now...
Cui Cheng knew he could no longer hide it.
He looked into Cui Yulin's eyes, but he really couldn't bear it.
To everyone's surprise, Cui Yulin sat up and asked with his eyes downcast, "Has something happened to Wansu? Did the Jiang family discover she was pregnant and..."
His hands trembled slightly, and a sudden wave of despair washed over him.
If Wansu and his child were both gone, he didn't know how he would survive in this body.
"No, Jiang Wansu is still alive."
Cui Cheng looked at Cui Yulin with a grim expression. "The Jiang family has fallen. Jiang You has long been imprisoned, and Jiang Hong, having lost Jiang You's protection, had his property confiscated. He has already fled with his family."
"Wansu was taken away too?"
"without……"
After thinking for a moment, Cui Cheng said, "She is still in Suzhou Prefecture."
"Still in Suzhou Prefecture?"
Cui Yulin was shocked: "The Jiang family abandoned her? What about Wansu now... No, Father, we must go back quickly. Wansu is a woman, and she's pregnant. How can she survive alone in Suzhou Prefecture?"
"Why didn't you take me back sooner? Why did you waste so much time on the road?"
"She's alright, she's fine, at least..."
Looking at Cui Yulin's legs, Cui Cheng's eyes reddened: "At least they're much better than yours."
"What do you mean?" Cui Yulin asked. "Xu Chuan has settled her in?"
"Um……"
After a long silence, Cui Cheng sighed, "Xu Chuan... broke off his engagement with the Shen family and married Jiang Wansu."
"What?"
Cui Yulin was so shocked that he suddenly lost all strength in his hands and slumped softly into the fur mat.
"Xuchuan, he..."
With his fingers turning white, Cui Yulin gripped the fur beneath him tightly, his eyes stinging with tears: "It's my fault for ruining his marriage."
“I knew how much he liked Miss Shen, but I never expected… I never expected…”
Cui Cheng sighed: "Why didn't you say anything when you disembarked in Taicang? Miss Shen married Xie Qi, and Xu Chuan..."
"Shen Yuanzhu married Xie Qi? That gloomy Xie Qi?"
"yes."
Cui Chengdao said, "Xu Chuan... he's really not doing well."
Now Cui Chengcai finally understood why Xie Xuchuan had acted so strangely on his wedding day. His marriage to the Jiang family had been completely baffling, but now he knew exactly what was going on.
Although Cui Yulin was his son, Cui Cheng also knew that it was his son's fault.
It was Cui Yulin who implicated Xie Xuchuan.
"If you had written home back then, how could this have happened..."
Looking at Cui Yulin's appearance, Cui Cheng couldn't bring himself to utter any words of resentment.
"I...I'm too ashamed to say it. How can you expect me to say it? Xu Chuan gave me a large sum of money and also took three hundred bolts of brocade from his private treasury."
"If I cannot return to my hometown in glory, how can I face Xuchuan? Besides, what happened afterward was not what I wanted."
"I never imagined that a single wrong decision would lead to so many things happening afterward..."
No wonder my father passed through Suzhou several times without returning home. How could he possibly see Xuchuan?
How can he face Xu Chuan now?
Shen Yuanzhu was forced to marry Xie Qi, and Xu Chuan...
Cui Yulin pounded on the car floor, then suddenly felt scared.
He didn't know how Wan Su was doing now, nor how Xu Chuan was, but it all started because of him. Yet, not only did he fail to make a triumphant return, he ended up in this wretched state...
Cui Cheng felt heartbroken seeing this.
After thinking for a while, Cui Cheng said, "I was thinking of going to the Xie family shop in Songjiang Prefecture to ask them. They should have just finished paying their accounts at their main residence by now."
"Let's find out about your family's situation first, and then I'll take you back, okay?"
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