Chapter 195 Overnight White Hair
Pei Jiuyan and Su Yunyi exchanged a glance. Pei Jiuyan stepped forward, took her hand tightly, and placed it on his chest.
Qin Suisui looked at him in confusion, feeling the strong, steady beating of his heart beneath her fingers, each beat real and reassuring. In her daze, Qin Suisui heard Pei Jiuyan continue speaking:
"Whether we live in books, paintings, or any other world, that's relative to people who don't belong to this world. But for us, this is the world we truly exist in. You can feel my heartbeat, you can feel my warmth, then we truly exist."
"Do you remember? From the moment you were born, you've been making choices. You chose princess dresses, you chose to learn foreign languages, you chose to learn medicine from your grandmother, you chose... to be my lover. Our lives have always been our own choices, and no one else can arrange them."
Qin Suisui stared blankly at him, and suddenly felt that Pei Jiuyan in front of her had become the all-powerful older brother she had seen when she was a child.
Yes, even if they really do live inside a book, so what? Perhaps to the reader they are two-dimensional characters, but to them, this is their real world.
Moreover, who can say for sure that the world in which those who read their books live is not someone else's "world in a book"?
Who can say for sure about something like this?
destiny?
Perhaps she should have known from the moment she realized and ran away from home that fate was in her own hands.
The plot of the book that she had been worried about had actually gone astray the moment she awakened, hadn't it?
In the original male-oriented novel, the male protagonist Zhou Zecheng is already dead, and the plot has fallen apart. So, the rest of the journey should be left to them to walk themselves, not to be controlled by someone else's pen!
Qin Suisui grabbed Pei Jiuyan's hand in return, her eyes gradually hardening.
Seeing her like this, Su Yunyi finally let her tears fall after holding them back for a long time: "Sui Sui, you've finally figured it out. I was afraid you might do something wrong because you couldn't think straight. Sister Xie Ting is gone. We who are left must take good care of ourselves."
Qin Suisui walked over, hugged her, and patted her: "I know, Sister Yunyi, I won't overthink it anymore. I want to eat the chicken head rice porridge you cooked."
"Okay, okay, I'll go cook it for you right away!"
Since yesterday afternoon when she started handling Xie Ting's funeral arrangements, Qin Suisui has barely eaten or drunk anything. When Su Yunyi brought over the cooked chicken head rice porridge, she drank two bowls in one go and ate a few pieces of pastry.
Pei Jiuyan was worried that she would have indigestion from eating too much at once, so he took out a few hawthorn digestive pills from her medicine cabinet and gave them to her. Before she could even take them, there was a loud banging on the front door.
Pei Jiuyan ran out to open the door, while Qin Suisui and Su Yunyi remained seated under the eaves in the backyard, enjoying the cool breeze. The wind was blowing from the north today, making this spot quite pleasant.
Less than half a minute later, Pei Jiuyan returned, looking somewhat conflicted.
"What's wrong? Who's outside?" Qin Suisui asked him, puzzled.
Pei Jiuyan glanced at her, his expression somewhat complicated: "Grandma Mai was making a scene trying to kick Minister Mai out, and she fainted from anger. Captain Mai Defu wanted you to go see her, but I told him you were sick and had them take you to the hospital."
Qin Suisui was taken aback. Grandma Mai was present when Xie Ting was buried yesterday, so she guessed what had happened.
Grandma Mai was very kind to Qin Suisui and Su Yunyi, and never did anything immoral because of her son's identity. Qin Suisui could tell the difference. She glared at Pei Jiuyan, got up, went to the living room to get her small cloth bag, and sat on the back of Su Yunyi's bicycle to go to the hospital.
Grandma Mai had woken up at the hospital. Although she was old, she was very healthy because of years of hard work. She had fainted because she was so angry that she couldn't catch her breath.
Mai Dong lost her beloved husband overnight, became estranged from her child, and was so angry that her mother fainted. At this moment, she sat dejectedly at the door of the ward, not even noticing Qin Suisui and the other person coming over.
Qin Suisui and Su Yunyi were too lazy to pay him any attention. A scumbag like him deserved to die. What he did was a complete disgrace to the identity of a soldier!
When Grandma Mai, lying in her hospital bed, saw Qin Suisui and Su Yunyi arrive, tears streamed down her cloudy eyes again: "Suisui, Yunyi, what a tragedy! What a tragedy!"
She cried and slapped her own face.
Qin Suisui quickly stepped forward and took her hand: "Grandma, what are you doing? It's not like you did anything wrong!"
Grandma Mai's tears flowed even more freely: "I gave birth to such a terrible child! She's ruined Xie Ting and Hu Zi, what am I going to do!"
"Grandma, where's Hu Zi?" At this point, Qin Suisui and Su Yunyi realized that Hu Zi seemed to have disappeared after Xie Ting's burial yesterday.
"That child...that child...stayed by Xie Ting's grave all night and didn't go home...a perfectly healthy child, and overnight, all his hair turned white...sob sob sob..."
Grandma Mai was startled when she saw Hu Zi's full head of white hair at Xie Ting's grave this morning, and when she got back, she made a fuss about kicking Mai Dong out.
"What?!" Qin Suisui and Su Yunyi exchanged a glance, comforted Grandma Mai for a few more minutes, and then hurriedly rushed back to the brigade.
The brigade's cemetery is on the north side of the mountain, requiring one to go around most of the mountain.
It was a little past two in the afternoon. The sun was blazing, but as they crossed half the mountain, dark clouds suddenly pressed down, and in the blink of an eye, the sky became overcast, and large raindrops began to fall.
Qin Suisui and her companion left in a hurry without bringing umbrellas, and were immediately soaked by the rain.
With such heavy rain, visibility on the mountain is not very clear.
Qin Suisui put her hands in front of her eyes, squinted, and quickly walked towards the mountainside.
In the cemetery halfway up the mountain, there are many graves of all sizes standing there. Some graves have tombstones in front of them, usually made of wood, while those with better conditions have stone tombstones. Some graves are empty, just a lonely grave.
Qin Suisui saw from afar that a thin little boy was kneeling upright next to the grave they had dug the day before. He seemed oblivious to the heavy rain, as if he had been turned into a stone tablet and fixed in front of Xie Ting's new grave.
Su Yunyi hurriedly stepped forward to pull him: "Tiger, Tiger, what are you doing? Come with your sister, let's go back first."
Despite being a small, thin boy not yet nine years old, Su Yunyi was unable to move him. He seemed to have turned into a stone tablet, unable to hear, see, or feel anything. Everything in the outside world had been automatically shut out from him.
Qin Suisui stepped forward and carefully stroked his rain-soaked white hair. She then took his wrist to check his pulse. His pulse was taut like a harp string and rapid. Tiger's white hair was caused by a combination of anxiety and excessive grief.
She gently took Tiger's little hand: "Tiger, do you remember what Mommy said before she left?"
Tiger didn't move, as if he hadn't heard.
Qin Suisui didn't care whether he heard her or not, and continued, "Mom said that she never left you, she just changed the way she stayed by your side. She originally turned into a white cloud in the sky, but when she saw that you kept looking for her and refused to come home to eat or sleep, she was so worried about you that she immediately turned into this rain to hug you. You see, doesn't this rain come as soon as it's told?"
Upon hearing this, Tiger turned to look at her, then at his soaked clothes and the raindrops continuously falling on him. Suddenly, he opened his arms wide, trying to hug all the raindrops into his embrace, murmuring, "Mommy, Mommy, it's Mommy..."
Having not spoken for a long time, his voice was childish yet somewhat hoarse, sounding like a wounded animal howling in the rain, accompanied by the continuous falling raindrops.
Qin Suisui hugged him tightly: "Tiger, be good, don't worry Mommy, okay?"
The little one nestled in Qin Suisui's arms, sobbing intermittently, but his entire demeanor softened.
Su Yunyi wiped away her tears and took Hu Zi from Qin Suisui's arms: "Good boy, Hu Zi. Sister Suisui is just recovering from her illness and doesn't have much strength. Sister Yunyi will hold you."
The two men braved the rain to carry Tiger back to the base.
Because Hu Zi had previously worked at the base with Xie Ting, a few changes of clothes for him were prepared here. Su Yunyi boiled water, Qian Mei called her father to help Hu Zi take a bath, and Qin Suisui and Su Yunyi also took a bath and changed their clothes.
When he came out again, Tiger was still in a low mood, but he no longer refused to communicate with the outside world.
He looked at Qin Suisui, who had changed her clothes and came out, and asked only one question: "Sister Suisui, Mom will always be watching over me, right?"
Qin Suisui was taken aback, then nodded seriously and solemnly.
If this place truly is a world from a book, then may the person who created Xie Ting continue to follow Xie Ting, watching over Hu Zi, watching this poor little guy, and let him grow up healthy and strong, just as Xie Ting wished.
Seeing Qin Suisui nod, Hu Zi also nodded solemnly.
Mom said that no matter what, we should always listen to Sui Sui. Sui Sui's words are her words. Now that Sui Sui says that Mom is always here and always watching over her, that's true.
Tiger was young and in poor health. He had been kneeling in the cemetery for a day and a night, and had been drenched in heavy rain. Coupled with the shock of Xie Ting's death, he became mentally exhausted and soon fell ill.
Grandma Mai, who was so angry in the hospital that she couldn't breathe or get out of bed, heard that Hu Zi was sick and had been brought to the hospital. She quickly turned her little feet and ran towards the pediatric ward.
For many days in a row, Grandma Mai and Ada slept on the floor in the pediatric ward to take care of Tiger.
Qin Suisui went there almost every day.
The doctor's diagnosis was the same as hers: Tiger's gray hair was caused by a sudden surge of anger and excessive grief, and it had no other impact on his health. It was uncertain whether his hair would turn black again in the future.
Grandma Mai was relieved to know that it wouldn't affect her health. When no one was looking, the old lady bowed towards the sea and said, "Thank you, Goddess of the Sea, for protecting my son, Hu Zi. After Hu Zi recovers and is discharged from the hospital, I will definitely take him to offer incense to you! As for that unfilial son, you don't need to bless him anymore. After my Hu Zi gets better, I will kick him out of the house. Let him do whatever he wants!"
Grandma Mai kept her word. On the day Hu Zi was discharged from the hospital and returned home, she simply rolled up Mai Dong's belongings and threw them out.
Madford jumped up and down in a panic: "What are you doing, old lady! Even if you don't want this son anymore, you still need him to support the family, don't you?"
The old lady wiggled her hips and said, "You reminded me. I'll go find his boss right now and make sure he pays me half of his salary every month."
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