Song Shuyao frowned slightly and said, "I don't understand what you mean. I only know that the cancellation of the engagement is a fact. Since you say such weird things, I don't have anything nice to say." After saying that, she turned around and was about to leave, as if she didn't want to listen any more.
Liang Li grabbed her hand, but didn't mind when Song Shuyao broke free. He stopped her and said helplessly, "Yaoyao, don't deny it. I know it was you. If you're still angry and holding a grudge, you can beat me or scold me as you like. But after that, can we just forget about it? It's the 1960s now. Let's forget about the 21st century and start over."
Song Shuyao turned and left.
Liang Li was stunned and immediately chased after her, trying to grab her hand. This time, Song Shuyao didn't shake him off but slapped him again. "Start over? How dare you talk to me about starting over again, Liang Li!"
Song Shuyao could barely control her voice, tears welling up in her eyes. "In your heart, am I that cheap? You said break up and we can start over just like that? Who do you think you are? I don't have any other men besides you, right? I'm telling you, from the moment you left me, you were nothing, understand? Who are you? Who are you to give me a will and a suicide note? Who are you to say we can start over, huh?!"
Liang Li hugged her tightly, holding her tightly with his arms. No matter how she struggled, he would not let go, calling her name again and again, "Don't be excited, don't be excited, Yaoyao, I was wrong, I said the wrong thing, calm down, don't cry, don't cry." His tone was soothing, but also with heartache. He had seen her emotional breakdown and didn't want to see it again. All thoughts of joking around in his mind were gone. He just wanted her to be fine.
Song Shuyao shed tears, "What's wrong with you? I'm the one who's wrong..." It was me who didn't know what was good for me and put all my missing feelings on you. It was me who couldn't get out of the cage I drew from the beginning to the end. What's wrong with you?
Tears blurred her vision, and the darkness that she had tried hard to suppress in her heart surged out. Song Shuyao felt that she did not have the strength to push him away, and she felt uncomfortable all over.
However, just as she was about to fall, Song Shuyao stopped her emotional outburst. Her tone was somewhat disheartened, "Liang Li, let me go."
The courage she once had to risk everything and throw herself into a flame without fear has disappeared. She can no longer spend two years persuading herself to live a good life. She has learned to be afraid.
Liang Li felt as if a dagger was stabbed in his heart. The nonchalant tone hurt him more than tears. His throat felt like a handful of rough straw was stuffed in it, his Adam's apple rolled, and he found it difficult to speak, but he didn't dare to let go.
"Song Shuyao, I regret it."
As soon as the words fell, the surrounding scene changed instantly.
"Second uncle, can you please ask Goudan not to live in my house when you go back? I want to eat egg custard every day." Shugen felt that Hao Yuanchao was his family and a supporter, so he couldn't help but ask. Although the second aunt said that Goudan was his cousin, he didn't like cousins who would snatch food from him, oh, and even steal the rations of his younger brothers and sisters. He was also greedy and didn't dare to eat milk powder and malted milk. The eldest brother said that he would starve to death without his younger brothers and sisters, but Goudan didn't listen and ate it without him. The second aunt also said that it was okay to let Goudan eat a few bites. Shugen didn't understand, but his intuition told him that resistance was useless, so he could only talk to his second uncle. The eldest brother said that everything would be fine when the second uncle came back.
What the eldest brother said was right. Now that his second uncle was back, he had delicious noodles to eat. And his second aunt was so pretty. The way she looked at him made him feel much more comfortable than the way his second aunt looked at him. He always felt that the way his second aunt looked at him was strange. He had not been to school yet and did not know whether that look was sympathy or envy. Sympathy for him because he had no parents, envy for him because he had a good second uncle, and the good fortune he would enjoy in the future because he was a city dweller. He even felt a little jealous. Why didn't her Goudan have the blessing of being a city dweller and eating delicious food every day?
Shugen didn't understand all this. He just thought that his second aunt's eyes were strange. However, he was a carefree person and often forgot about it after a while. He told Hao Yuanchao this just because he didn't like Goudan stealing his food.
Hao Yuanchao didn't directly answer Shugen's question. Instead, he said, "I'm coming back this time to take the four of you away to live with me and your second aunt in the military district. Are you happy with that?"
"Live with uncle and aunt?" A puzzled look flashed across Shugen's little eyes, not quite understanding what this meant.
"Just like you lived with your parents before, you will live with me and your second aunt from now on."
"My parents are dead. Will you die too?" People in rural areas are not shy about talking about death in front of children, because death is very common in rural areas. In addition to death from old age and illness, every year there are people who die while swimming, or are gored to death by wild boars while climbing the mountains. In the past few years, there were also people who starved to death. Various kinds of death and death at any time and anywhere make rural people sad and accustomed to it. Even in an era without gossip and entertainment, death is still brought up as a topic of conversation after dinner, especially abnormal death. People will say it's a pity or bad luck, but they don't worry about whether the children will have any psychological problems after hearing it, or tell them with white lies that the dead are just sleeping/going on a long journey/turning into stars in the sky to protect them.
These things don't exist. They'll say that when a person dies, they're gone, buried underground, and will never be seen again. Even if children are confused and don't understand, further questioning won't bring comfort, but rather impatience. At most, they can be more patient and tolerant for a month or two before and after the funeral, but after that, these feelings will fade.
In an era when food and clothing are still a problem, death will never make rural people sad year after year. What they worry about are the crops in the fields and the living people. The dead will eventually fade away from their hearts when they turn into yellow earth, and there will not be much sadness when they are mentioned.
Shugen was initially heartbroken when his parents died. He cried, woke up in the middle of the night to look for them, unable to sleep. But he was still young, still naive, and couldn't fully grasp the true meaning of death. No one around him, except his eldest brother, Tiezhu, told him to remember them. When he asked about his second aunt, she simply told him not to ask again. People were gone, gone. Everyone's lives were no different from when their parents were still alive. The neighbor lady still cried at dinnertime, calling her children to eat. The team leader still walked around the fields, urging them to work. His playmates still climbed trees to get bird eggs and competed to see who could urinate the farthest. His "world" was normal, no different at all, except that the people he called his parents no longer lived at home. Shugen was still young, and he didn't understand why his eldest brother, Tiezhu, cried secretly every night.
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