Chapter 79. Going Home. We're going back to "Crossing the River," back to Mountain Breeze Alley...
Xie Jun has been having a very bad time lately.
She had seen all the news that had been making headlines online a while back. She was surprised, outraged, and also terrified.
She never imagined that Zhang Guozhong would go to such extremes, forcing Chen Zhoudu and Xia Chan into this predicament, while he still relentlessly pursued her.
He somehow got her phone number and kept sending her ambiguous yet chilling messages from different numbers, while never mentioning money. This left her helpless even if she wanted to report him for extortion, as if a sinister ghost was constantly lingering around her.
A while ago, Xie Jun saw Ya Hai's announcement that she had sued him, which made her a little worried. She prayed that he would be sentenced and stop bothering her.
However, the police soon reported that although Shen Jinghai accused Zhang Guozhong of extortion, it was only a verbal accusation, without any concrete audio or written evidence.
The police detained him for several days in accordance with the law, but the investigation yielded no results, so they had no choice but to release him for the time being.
Xie Xuan couldn't help but feel anxious again.
As usual, Xie En went out for afternoon tea with friends that day, but she seemed a bit out of sorts and absent-minded.
"Sister Mei, I'm talking to you!"
The sisters teased her casually, but Xie Jun, still in a daze, didn't hear a word they said. She could only laugh dryly and sip her tea to cover it up.
A mirror in the corridor across the mall suddenly flashed across her face, and Xie Xun subconsciously squinted and looked over in surprise.
She saw a tall, thin figure wearing a hat and mask flash by in the corner, staring at her.
Xie Jun's heart pounded wildly! Unable to sit still any longer, she excused herself to go to the restroom and left her seat for a moment.
He hurriedly went into the bathroom and locked the door.
"What exactly do you want?!"
Once the bathroom door was locked, Xie Xun could no longer contain herself and turned to glare angrily at Zhang Guozhong.
"You wanted money... I already gave it to you! I gave you all the money I could! That should be enough for you now, right? What else do you want? Greed knows no bounds... I beg you, please have mercy and let me off the hook this once, okay? Please stop this now!"
Zhang Guozhong still expertly gripped Xie Xun's neck, sneering, "I've already told you how much I want. What you have is just enough to fill a tooth gap!"
Xie Xun's tears rolled down her cheeks again, but this time she forced herself to stare intently into his eyes and said in a strained voice, "I have no money left..."
"I've given you everything I could!"
"Otherwise, you might as well fight me to the death! Even if you force me to my death now... I didn't, and I didn't!"
Zhang Guozhong gritted his teeth and gave a cold laugh, gripping her tightly and turning her head to whisper in her ear, "Are you threatening me back, Xie En?"
"Who... can threaten you!" Xie Xun frowned in pain, tears streaming down her face, and said with difficulty, "You even dared to... threaten Shen Jinghai, and Shen Jinghai is no pushover! Zhang Guozhong, if you have any humanity... then stop making things difficult for Chanchan and unrelated people... Since you hate me anyway, just kill me! Then you can go to jail... stop harming others!"
Zhang Guozhong chuckled twice, seemingly taken aback by her courage, and said, "Xie Jun, you're quite self-aware now, huh! You know that you and I are a perfect match, a rotten person and a bitch are a match made in heaven!"
Xie Xun's face was flushed red, and tears streamed down her face. Zhang Guozhong chuckled coldly, "Let me tell you, this is your retribution, and it's my retribution too! So even if I go to hell, I'll drag you down with me! You still have the nerve to mention your daughter? Who can escape responsibility for Chanchan's current state—you or me? You still want to use her to condemn me to show off your supposed great maternal love?"
“Let me tell you, do you know why Chanchan demanded 600,000 from Chen Jinghai back then? It was because your mother was sick! She was dying! She had no money for treatment, not even a place to be buried, she had no choice! If it weren't for you, would she have ended up like this? Would she and that big star have been together long ago?”
"What did you say?" Xie Jun's expression was one of utter shock and disbelief.
"That's right, hahaha! Your mother is dead!" Zhang Guozhong laughed more and more triumphantly and maniacally. "As a daughter, you didn't even know your own mother was dead, dead for nine years! And you're still showing off your maternal love to me? Hahaha, Xie Yun, you say I'm not a person, then what are you!"
He grabbed her by the neck and shoved her aside forcefully. Xie Xun suddenly fell to the ground, her hands on the ground as she gasped for breath, as if digesting disbelief.
"Xie Jun, I said you have to pay exactly what you want, not a penny less." Zhang Guozhong looked down at her and sneered, "If you can't pay, you'll go to hell with me!"
They're gone.
After Zhang Guozhong left, Xie Jun sat on the ground for a long time before suddenly coughing and covering her mouth with one hand.
She suddenly felt nauseous.
She immediately pressed her chest and gagged a few times, but nothing came out. She could only stagger towards a cubicle and try to induce vomiting by gagging.
But she barely ate anything during the day, and all she vomited was some sour fluid.
She vomited wildly, her eyes turning bloodshot, her neck and face turning red. Suddenly, she collapsed back to the ground, tears streaming down her face as she cried.
The crying was initially very soft, with a lingering sense of disbelief and bewilderment, emitting low, whimpering sobs from the throat.
Gradually, her crying grew louder, and she cried and wailed desperately, no longer caring about anything else.
He clutched his chest, his heart breaking.
"mom……"
“Chan, Chanchan…”
Mother……
Zhang Guozhong was right, it was retribution, her retribution.
She had run away for so many years, but her retribution had finally come. She was beyond redemption.
-
I've gradually become fascinated with crafts lately.
She was physically weak and her health was deteriorating. Only when she was doing these small things could she calmly feel that she was still alive and existed.
She did so many things.
There are straw-woven cicadas, knitted puppy pendants, pipe cleaner chili peppers, beaded tigers... and Lego boats.
Xia Chan could tell that everything she did was referring to them, but what about herself?
"Siyi... what should I do?" Siyi tilted her head slightly, her pale purple lips curving into a weak but cheerful smile, and said, "It seems like I can't do anything... then I can only do these things well and leave them for you, so that when you see them you will think of me, and it will also leave you with a memory!"
Lala's eyes welled up with tears upon hearing her words. Xia Chan swallowed the lump in her throat, gently flicked her head, and said, "I don't miss you, so don't say anything nonsense."
That day, a person claiming to want to visit Siyi arrived at her hospital room.
When Xia Chan saw Xie Xuan outside, she was utterly stunned.
"Thank you... Auntie?"
Huang Mao, Lala Pang Hu, and the others were even more astonished.
They haven't seen Xie Jun since she left more than a decade ago.
Even after Xia Chan met her again, she did not tell them about it.
And now she stands before them, radiant and beautiful, making them feel as if they are in a dream.
However, all the recent events now seem like a dream. Reality is always more absurd and unpredictable than dreams.
Xia Chan ultimately decided not to tell them the truth about Xie Xun and allowed her to visit Si Yi.
In the ward, Siyi was also very surprised to see Xie Xun and couldn't call out to her for a long time.
"Don't you recognize me?" Xie Xun smiled at her. "When you were little, you often came to our house to play, and I often held you."
Siyi shook her head blankly and stammered, "Aunt Xie..."
"Hey." Xie Xun smiled even more gently, tenderly supporting her already thin and bony hand.
She talked to her for a long time. She talked about her parents, how she never imagined she would grow up so fast, and how they were both good children...
She was as gentle as the neighbor lady she used to be.
Siyi couldn't help but ask, "Auntie Xie, have you come back to acknowledge Sister Xiaochan?"
Xia Chan stood silently to the side, her emotions unclear, and remained silent. Xie Xuan was also speechless for a moment, unsure of what to say.
Siyi was overjoyed, "That's wonderful! Sister Xiaochan has missed you so much all these years. You're back... Sister Xiaochan has a mother again, that's wonderful..."
Xie Xuan felt a lump in her throat and gently rubbed her hair, forcing a smile.
As she was about to leave, Xie Xun stood in the corridor facing Xia Chan, hesitated for a moment, and then asked, "How have you been lately?"
"I'm fine." Xia Chan still hesitated slightly when facing her. "And you?"
Xie Xun paused for a moment and then smiled as usual, "Of course I've always been fine. Don't you know my life?"
Xia Chan hesitated and wavered, but still asked softly, "Has Zhang Guozhong... come looking for you?"
Xie Xun remained silent for a moment, then finally smiled and shook her head, saying "No." Xia Chan's gaze, however, remained fixed on Xie Xun's face, her expression unreadable.
Xie Xun took out a thick stack of paper bags filled with money from her bag and handed them to her, saying, "Take this money."
"I don't want to." Xia Chan took a step back.
"Take it!"
Without a word, she shoved the paper bag into her hand and gave her a business card with her number on it, saying, "Chanchan, if you run out of money, come to me anytime. Don't worry about the money. Take good care of the child and take good care of yourself."
She stared at her intently. "Believe me, it will all be over soon, it will all be over very quickly."
"..." For some reason, Xia Chan felt that she could see something in her eyes, but it was so fleeting that she couldn't quite grasp it.
Her heart pounded incredibly fast, and she could only watch as the woman sped away down the corridor.
As November approached, Siyi's body was already on the verge of collapse, and she would feel extremely tired after doing handicrafts for only half an hour a day.
She fell into longer and longer sleeps, and the time she was awake each day became less and less.
When she was awake, she would often sit on the edge of the bed and look out the window at the ginkgo leaves that were turning yellow.
They don't say a single word all day.
Sometimes when Xia Chan and the others asked her what she was looking at or what she wanted, she would always shake her head and smile, saying nothing.
But the attending physician said that Siyi casually mentioned during a routine check-up, "I want to go back to Shanfeng Lane."
But her health is so poor now, she's as fragile as a glass doll.
Let alone returning to Tongcheng or Qingshui, even leaving Shanghai has become a luxury.
That day, Siyi once again fell into a long slumber. When she woke up, it was already evening, and the setting sun was like melting gold.
She opened her eyes in the dazzling sunset and saw Xia Chan and the others standing before her bed as always, backlit, like unreal deities. She forced a smile and softly called out, "Sister..."
Xia Chan smiled at her and said, "Let's go back to 'Du,' back to Shanfeng Lane."
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