Chapter 48
More than a decade ago, when management was not very standardized, Qiao Yi's parents invested in a small mining business. It wasn't large-scale, but by social average standards, it was enough to put them in the wealthy category. However, this kind of business had a serious hidden danger—a lack of systematic technology and equipment, and a high reliance on personal experience and judgment.
The hidden danger surfaced the year Yan Qing entered high school. That time, Qiao Dezheng spotted a mine on the border of Inner Mongolia and Liaoning, bought it for a huge sum, but ultimately failed to extract any ore. Qiao Dezheng not only lost everything but also incurred huge debts from loan sharks. They sold their house, car, stocks, and excavation equipment, but still couldn't fill the gap left by the high-interest loans. Qiao Dezheng's hair turned white overnight.
When Yan Qing saw Jiang Xiaoman, who had suddenly come to visit, in front of the Guan Yue Temple, she was unaware that her family had suffered a tragedy. Overjoyed, she ran up the hillside towards Jiang Xiaoman. The dust from the sun-dried earth rose in clouds with her excited steps.
As she got closer, the smile on Yan Qing's lips gradually disappeared.
After a few months apart, Jiang Xiaoman had changed drastically. Her once radiant face was now sallow and haggard, her eyes were sunken, and the veins on her neck, visible through her collar, were prominent and crisscrossed, like a withered tree trunk entwined with vines.
"Aunt Xiaoman," Yan Qing called softly.
A slight smile finally appeared on Jiang Xiaoman's gloomy face: "Qingqing, how have you been? It's been so long since I've seen you. You haven't gained any weight at all! Here, Auntie brought you some nutritional supplements. But... they're not from Taiwan." Jiang Xiaoman said apologetically, "Auntie couldn't go to Taiwan."
She handed the plastic bag in her hand to Yan Qing.
Yan Qing glanced down at Jiang Xiaoman's hand. If it weren't for the layer of skin on it, Yan Qing would have suspected that it was a skeleton.
She grasped Jiang Xiaoman's hand: "Auntie, I'm eating very well, please keep it." Then, after a moment's hesitation, she asked, "Auntie, are you feeling unwell?"
Jiang Xiaoman was taken aback, wiped the sweat from the tip of her nose, and forced a smile, saying, "I probably got too hot."
It was already winter, but Jiang Xiaoman was sweating profusely.
She handed the plastic bag containing the nutritional supplements to Yan Qing: "You help Auntie carry these things, I'm going to wash my face over there." There was a stream a few dozen meters below the roadside. During the dry season, the stream was only a shallow shoal, and the water was icy cold.
Yan Qing didn't know what to say, and stared blankly as she walked towards the stream.
"Are you dead here?!" In the quiet afternoon of the village, a sharp, insulting voice pierced Yan Qing's eardrums. Meng Xianglan stood not far away, hands on her hips, glaring at her: "Your brother's birthday, the house is in complete chaos, and you're running around here trying to have some peace and quiet?!"
Yan Qing argued, "Feng Yiming won't let me stay at home..."
"Still talking back?!" Meng Xianglan walked over aggressively. "Are you dead?! I told you not to stay near me at lunchtime, and now what time is it?! A pile of pots and pans are waiting for me to wash?! All you do is slack off all day long, I'd rather raise a dog than you!" Suddenly noticing the plastic bag in Yan Qing's hand, she snatched it and started rummaging through it.
"Where did you come from?!" Meng Xianglan demanded sharply. Yan Qing remained silent. Meng Xianglan suddenly looked around warily: "Jiang Xiaoman is here?"
For reasons unknown, Yan Qing said, "They've already left."
Meng Xianglan glanced into the bag again and muttered, "She's done her job this time. I don't have time to serve her tea!" She then glared at Yan Qing and said, "Still pretending to be dead? Go do what you're supposed to be doing!"
As Meng Xianglan was about to leave with the bag, she heard Yan Qing shout, "That thing isn't for you!"
Meng Xianglan slowly turned around, her eyes, nostrils, and mouth all wide open, staring at her for a long time: "Do you want to die?"
But Yan Qing's eyes were hard and she didn't dodge or avoid the gaze as usual.
Meng Xianglan was both ashamed and furious, and was about to unleash a furious outburst when she suddenly smiled strangely: "Your uncle has gone to town. We'll see if your skin is tougher than his stick tonight." With that, she threw her head back and laughed loudly before striding away.
When Meng Xianglan said "went to town," she meant that Feng Xin had invited his cronies to go to town for drinks, and every time he did, Yan Qing would inevitably suffer the consequences.
Yan Qing gritted her teeth, her back muscles tense. Suddenly, a hand gently covered her shoulder. Turning around, she saw Jiang Xiaoman standing behind her with an apologetic expression.
"Qingqing..." She only managed to call her name before her throat tightened. Meng Xianglan's figure receded into the distance, and under the pale sun, Yan Qing looked sallow and thin, her clothes shabby.
Jiang Xiaoman suddenly understood what kind of life she was actually living. In that instant, she made a decision. She patted Yan Qing's head: "Would you like to go back home with Auntie for winter vacation?"
Yan Qing's household registration was not transferred to Feng Xin's house. She took advantage of going home to wash dishes and successfully obtained her household registration book and ID card.
This was the first time Yan Qing had ever left Mengshui Village. Jiang Xiaoman drove Yan Qing home. By then, they had sold their old villa and rented a two-bedroom apartment in the Anchuan Waterworks residential compound.
Yan Qing stayed at the Qiao family's house for two days. Jiang Xiaoman called the Feng family and berated Feng Xin and Meng Xianglan: "When have I, Jiang Xiaoman, ever mistreated your family? You've raised such ungrateful wretches! I've fed and clothed you, and now Yan Qing has dropped out of school and can't be contacted. Is this how you repay me?!"
Upon receiving this news, Feng Xin was momentarily stunned and hastily tried to disclaim responsibility: "She hasn't been home for the past few days, and I can't find her either!"
"Don't give me that nonsense! Anyway, the money I transferred to you was for her education. Since she's quitting, hurry up and transfer the money back to me!"
Upon hearing that he was to repay the money, Feng Xin immediately turned hostile: "I have no money!"
Jiang Xiaoman denounced Feng Xin and his family as fraudsters and thieves, threatening to call the police and send them all to jail. Feng Xin initially backed down, then became defiant: "Go ahead and call the police! I'm not one to be trifled with! You shameless woman, you brought this on yourself, and now you're acting all high and mighty with me! Anyway, my surname is Feng, hers is Yan, and your money was taken by that little bitch Yan Qing. Even if the King of Heaven himself came, he wouldn't be able to trace it back to me!"
The argument grew louder and louder. After hanging up the phone, Jiang Xiaoman leaned on the table and breathed heavily for a while.
Qiao Dezheng passed by the door and gave her a deep look: "Had your verbal sparring gone well? What's next?"
Jiang Xiaoman snorted coldly, "Do what needs to be done."
Even if Yan Qing didn't know the situation clearly, she could sense that something was wrong with the atmosphere in the house. She thought her arrival had disrupted the harmony between Jiang Xiaoman and her husband. After much hesitation, she finally mustered up the courage to approach Qiao Dezheng after dinner.
"Uncle, I'm sorry. I insisted on making Aunt Xiaoman come to the city. I'll stay here for one day and go home tomorrow."
Qiao Dezheng looked at Yan Qing for a long time, then sighed heavily: "It's not your fault, it's my fault."
Later, Jiang Xiaoman secretly helped Yan Qing transfer schools. Without Feng Xin's harassment, Yan Qing finally settled down peacefully at the Qiao family's house.
At that time, Qiao Yi was a sophomore in college, and his school was in another city, so he rarely came back. Yan Qing also usually lived on campus and was completely unaware that the loan sharks had been harassing Qiao Yi at his door every few days and had even gone to the school to confront him.
The first to break down was Qiao Dezheng. The line between strength and vulnerability in middle-aged men seems incredibly thin. Overwhelmed, Qiao Dezheng began to numb his senses with alcohol. Before long, both his mind and body collapsed. One time, Yan Qing went back to the Qiao family home for the weekend. After dinner, Qiao Dezheng went out alone. Although everyone in the Qiao family kept the situation at home a secret, not wanting to burden Yan Qing, she still felt that Qiao Dezheng's expression was very strange that day.
It was past ten o'clock at night, and Qiao Dezheng still hadn't returned. Yan Qing tossed and turned in bed, feeling uneasy. She got up, put on her clothes, and wanted to go out to check, but Jiang Xiaoman stopped her at the door: "It's nothing, your uncle just had a craving and went out to eat at the night market. Don't go out so late, be careful not to catch a cold."
Jiang Xiaoman's words stirred something within Yan Qing. It was indeed freezing outside. And she had a placement exam on Monday; her health wasn't good, and she easily caught a cold from the slightest breeze. If she caught a cold, it would affect her placement exam, and she might even fall out of the science experimental class…
She eventually listened to Jiang Xiaoman's advice and went back to her bedroom to sleep.
This selfish decision became a regret she would carry for the rest of her life.
That night, Qiao Dezheng drowned his sorrows in alcohol at a night market stall. He got completely drunk and collapsed on the quiet roadside on his way home, never to rise again.
He died from choking on his own vomit.
The place where he collapsed was less than 100 meters away from the Anchuan Waterworks residential compound. Later, surveillance footage showed that he collapsed ten minutes after Yan Qing took off her coat and returned to her bedroom.
Qiao Dezheng's body remained in the morgue, and Jiang Xiaoman delayed in dealing with it. She had become emaciated again, to the point where her body was nothing but a withered, wrinkled shell...
Qiao Yi stayed at home with Jiang Xiaoman and Yan Qing. He never showed any signs of deep grief, and he said several times, "I'm here for you!"
At that moment, he must have been thinking that he was the only man in the family, and he had to support the family...
One afternoon, Qiao Yi was taking a nap in his bedroom with the door locked. Jiang Xiaoman called his name a few times through the door. Perhaps she was too weak, because her voice was low and hoarse, drowned out by Qiao Yi's heavy snoring. Jiang Xiaoman couldn't catch her breath and started coughing. Yan Qing brought her a glass of warm water.
Jiang Xiaoman had Yan Qing sit next to her, put her arm around her, and looked closely at her face.
“Xiao Bao has grown a bit. He'll be going to university soon. You know, Auntie is a university student too.” Jiang Xiaoman had never mentioned this to Yan Qing. But Yan Qing knew: “Brother Qiao Yi mentioned it.”
Jiang Xiaoman looked up and smiled, but then sighed softly: "The happiest time of a person's life is when they are young, when they have aspirations, strength, anything is possible, and there is still time for anything."
Jiang Xiaoman sighed with emotion: "Who knew I'd be fifty in the blink of an eye? Even if I live to be a hundred, I've already lived halfway. Sometimes I think about it, life is just a few short decades, fleeting like a white horse galloping past. But these few decades are also filled with stumbles and falls, ups and downs, just like Tang Sanzang's journey to the West to obtain the scriptures, full of hardships and tribulations. Xiaobao, remember, don't be Tang Sanzang, be Sun Wukong. No matter what kind of demons and monsters you encounter, hold onto your golden cudgel, don't be afraid, give them a good whack!"
Jiang Xiaoman and Yan Qing both laughed.
Jiang Xiaoman finished drinking the water in her glass, and her dry, chapped lips, covered in dead skin, regained a touch of moisture and life.
She said to Yan Qing, "I feel so bored, Auntie, let's go for a walk."
Before leaving, Jiang Xiaoman turned back and waved to Yan Qing. But Yan Qing felt that her gaze was unfocused and empty, as if she wasn't waving to Yan Qing, but saying goodbye to the whole world.
That night, Jiang Xiaoman died in a car accident.
Later, Qiao Yi was diagnosed with a brain tumor and dropped out of school...
In the cramped, dimly lit living room of the Anchuan Waterworks residential compound, a photograph of Qiao Dezheng and Jiang Xiaoman sat. Yan Qing lit three incense sticks before the altar, carefully inserting them into the incense burner. The sticks were too thin; they would break easily. The incense burned silently as Qiao Yi lay listlessly in the bedroom. The room was utterly silent.
She clenched her fingers, wondering if the golden cudgel actually existed.
...
Outside the window, the heavy rain continued to fall. The phone kept buzzing, shattering Yan Qing's memories.
Her phone was still in Shen Hanyang's hand. Feng Xin was probably getting anxious, bombarding her with WeChat messages, text messages, and phone calls. Shen Hanyang glanced at it casually and saw a series of offensive and abusive messages popping up on the screen.
"You little bitch, you can just ignore the phone?"
"Even if you hide at the ends of the earth, I'll still kill you!"
"You eat my food but don't pay me? You're going to spend the rest of your life doing nothing but fighting with me!"
"Answer the phone! You son of a bitch!"
The phone was still vibrating, and the battery had already dropped by more than half.
"Give me your phone," Yan Qing said.
Shen Hanyang suddenly grabbed the umbrella from the car and quickly got out.
Yan Qing wanted to get out of the car, but the door was locked immediately after he got out. The glass was covered with crisscrossing raindrops, and the view outside was completely blurred. Chen Hanyang's figure was swallowed up by the floodwaters.
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