“You can’t disbelieve in superstition, but you can’t believe in it completely either.”
"Lao Wu, this doesn't sound like what you would say. You used to be a staunch atheist."
Wu Yanxu didn't respond. He was becoming increasingly confused as to whether he had truly traveled through time in those past five years. He just wanted to see Gu Guangming's grandfather as soon as possible, hoping he would wake up and identify the photos on his phone.
The county seat was only sixteen kilometers away from the industrial town, and it only took a dozen minutes to get there. After parking the car, the three of them hurried towards the People's Hospital. As soon as they entered the hospital lobby, Gu Guangming's cell phone rang.
"Mom, how is Grandpa now?"
"Your aunt said you were rushing to the hospital. Where are you?"
"Just arrived at the hospital. How is grandpa doing?"
"He's passed away."
Gu Guangming paused, and turned to look at Wu Yanxu with a sad face, "My grandfather has passed away. We are a step too late."
This is too unlucky.
"Since you're here, go see your grandpa." Wu Yanxu asked him, "Which floor is he on?"
"Second floor."
As the three of them walked up the stairs, Yu Dahai asked Gu Guangming, "Has your father met your great-grandmother?"
Gu Guangming shook his head. "My grandfather got married late. He didn't have my father until he was 32. He was born in 1972. My great-grandmother had already passed away by then. There are no photos of her at home, not a single one. They were all burned the year my grandfather reported her, including photos of my great-grandfather."
But Gu Guangming didn't know that his grandfather did not burn all the photos. He secretly kept two photos. One was a group photo of Gu Guangming's great-grandfather and great-grandmother, and the other was a solo photo of his great-grandfather wearing an air force uniform and standing under the plane. On the back of the photo was written: Photo taken by Gu Shuyu on January 17, 1943.
That was the year his great-grandfather died for his country.
When Gu Guangming's grandfather was sent to the hospital, he was holding his father's photo tightly in his arms. As for the photo, Gu Guangming's father said that when he was ten years old, his father, Gu Guangming's grandfather, dug deep into the ground and searched through all the boxes and drawers but couldn't find the photo. He suspected that Gu Guangming's father had secretly taken it out to show off to other children, because Gu Guangming's great-grandfather was wearing the Kuomintang captain air force uniform in the photo, and his grandfather was sure that his father had forgotten where he threw it away and didn't take it back.
Because of this, Gu Guangming's father was severely beaten by Gu Guangming's grandfather for the first and only time in his life.
Because Gu Guangming's grandfather was a member of the movement against the landlords, the rich, the counter-revolutionaries, the bad elements, and the rightists, and was paraded through the streets wearing a dunce cap, he was frightened and lived in fear for several years after the group photo was lost. He was especially worried when strangers came to his house. It was not until 1984 that Gu Guangming's great-grandmother was suddenly rehabilitated that Gu Guangming's grandfather slowly put his mind at ease.
However, no one in their family had ever spoken out for the injustice of Gu Guangming's great-grandmother. Gu Guangming's father said that he had inquired and found that a provincial leader had looked into the matter. After investigation, he found that Gu Guangming's great-grandmother had taken Gu Guangming's grandfather back to his great-grandfather's hometown, Jinping Town, and settled there after the Kuomintang government fled to Taiwan. She had never participated in any espionage activities, so she was rehabilitated.
When Wu Yanxu asked Yu Dahai to take out the photos in his mobile phone and show them to Gu Guangming's father for identification, because it was inconvenient to explain the truth, he just asked him to see if he knew the person. However, his father took it seriously and looked at it repeatedly.
But because he was only seven years old when he saw the group photo, and Gu Guangming's great-grandmother in the photo was less than 20 years old, while Grandma Wu was in her forties in the photo, it might not be her. If she really was a transmigrated soul, then Gu Guangming's father shook his head and said he had no impression, and asked who the person in the photo was?
Wu Yanxu used a prepared excuse to tell him that it was an elderly widow who had asked him to find her relatives. Because her surname was Wu, he accidentally knew that Gu Guangming's pen name was Wu Zhuoyi. After learning that his great-grandmother's surname was Wu, he came to inquire about it.
Gu Guangming's father knew that Grandma Wu had passed away a long time ago, so he didn't ask any more questions. It was useless to ask. He didn't know much about his grandmother's family. He didn't even know how many brothers and sisters his grandmother had. Even if there were any, they were probably either in Taiwan or abroad. It was almost impossible that Grandma Wu was a relative of theirs.
Because Gu Guangming wanted to stay and wait for his grandfather to be buried, Wu Yanxu and Yu Dahai drove back to Hecheng first that night. On the way back, Yu Dahai drove the car. He asked Wu Yanxu to explain why he was so obsessed with the things in his dream.
"Do you really want to hear the truth?" Wu Yanxu asked him.
"No more nonsense, tell me everything clearly."
"Then be prepared, because what I'm about to say may overturn your previous understanding. Don't regret it if you can't digest it. After all, you are an atheist."
Although Wu Yanxu was still not sure whether he had really traveled through time, he suspected that the lost photo was taken away by Grandma Wu. Unfortunately, he did not see the photo. In any case, he trusted Yu Dahai and told him the general story.
"Really? You got a woman over there who looks exactly like your sister-in-law, and you gave birth to two sons? Haha, why am I so unconvinced? However, if Xiao Jian really came back to life over there and became a princess, I'd be willing to believe it."
"If it was a dream, would it be so complete? Oh, right, Jian Ning said she dreamed of a military hospital and saw you." Thinking of this, Wu Yanxu suddenly came to his senses. "Jian Ning said you sent me two books on electricity, and said that I used to love tinkering with these things, and asked your sister-in-law to try reading them to me, saying that they might be useful. It was really thanks to those two books that I succeeded in generating electricity in ancient times. Think about it, did you say those words at the time?"
"It's really weird, but are you sure it wasn't your sister-in-law who told you that?" Yu Dahai glanced at him and said.
Wu Juan had indeed told him that, but Yu Dahai did not deny that it was true, indicating that Jian Ning's dream was real. "I can now be sure that I really traveled through time, otherwise the dream would not be so complete. I remember everyone there and everything that happened. When I came back, Yanchao and Yueguo..."
"What's wrong? Go on, I'm listening."
Wu Yanxu waved his hand, signaling him not to disturb his thoughts. As soon as he mentioned Yue Kingdom, the scene of going to the capital that year suddenly emerged in his mind. At that time, he brought Ma Xiaomai and Ma Xiaodou down from the boat and met Pei Xiyuan. Later, when he was on the official road, he looked back. At that time, he didn't understand why they took a detour to return to Yue Kingdom. It was not until Jian Ning went to Danyang and told him that Pei Xiyuan became the Moon Emperor and asked Liu Xiazi for help that he knew that Pei Xiyuan took a boat to Dingxian Village that time.
Pei Xiyuan's facial features gradually became clearer in Wu Yanxu's mind, and gradually merged with He Shuyu's and overlapped into one.
"I just remembered, it's amazing, Gu Guangming's great-grandfather actually looks exactly like Pei Xiyuan, the emperor of the Moon Kingdom. The Moon Kingdom is currently attacking the Central Plains."
"You're getting more and more ridiculous the more you talk. You're telling me, even if you tell me it's God, I don't believe it. You might as well stop studying for the exam and just write a novel instead."
When Yu Dahai drove the police car into Hecheng, Pei Xiyuan also led his elite cavalry and entered the city through the north gate of Fengyi County.
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