Chapter 29
As autumn deepens, large swaths of sycamore leaves fall, carpeting every path on the campus of University A. For most, this is a poetic season, but for some, autumn becomes synonymous with farewell forever.
Lu Xiaoyan's parents came to the school one weekend. When they knocked on their son's dormitory door, the scene they saw made their hearts clench instantly.
Lu Xiaoyan sat at his desk, a huge photo album open before him, his fingers lingering unconsciously on a particular page. He had lost a lot of weight; his once-fitting clothes now seemed loose, his cheeks were sunken, and dark circles under his eyes were heavy and persistent. Most alarming were his eyes—empty, lifeless, like two deep wells devoid of any life, reflecting no light whatsoever.
“Xiao… Yan…” Mother Lü’s voice was choked with sobs. She took a few steps forward, wanting to touch her son’s head as she did when he was a child. Her hand reached out halfway, but she stopped, trembling. She was afraid that her touch would disturb the seemingly calm but actually fragile shell that her son had.
Mr. Lü stood silently at the door, his Adam's apple bobbing violently as he looked at his son. He was a man of strict self-control, rarely showing his emotions, but now, seeing his proud son sitting there as if his soul had been ripped from his body, a profound heartache and helplessness gripped him. He remembered his son's bright, inquisitive eyes when he received his first camera, a stark contrast to the lifeless gaze before him.
“Let’s…go see Ya Yu’s parents,” Mr. Lü finally said in a low voice, his tone slightly hoarse.
Lu Xiaoyan's body stiffened almost imperceptibly. She neither objected nor responded, but slowly closed the photo album, her movements as sluggish as a rusty robot.
The two families arranged to meet at a quiet teahouse.
The atmosphere upon their reunion was vastly different from the harmonious atmosphere of their previous meeting at the Jiangnan restaurant. Qiu's parents looked aged and haggard; Qiu's mother's eyes were red and swollen, as if her tears had never dried. Qiu's father's back was no longer straight; sitting there, he resembled an old tree bent under the weight of wind and snow.
When the two sets of parents met, there were no pleasantries, only a heavy, almost suffocating silence.
In the end, it was Qiu's mother who spoke first. She looked at Lü Xiaoyan, tears streaming down her face before she could even utter a word: "Xiaoyan... child... you've suffered so much..." She knew how much her daughter loved this boy, and now that her daughter was gone, she felt the child's pain deeply.
These words were like a key, instantly unlocking the floodgates of emotions that Mrs. Lü had been holding back. She covered her mouth, suppressed sobs escaping through her fingers, her shoulders trembling violently. "It's our Xiaoyan... who wasn't blessed... Yayu was such a good child... how could she..." She couldn't continue, tears streaming down her face.
The two mothers' hands were clasped tightly together across the table, as if only in this way could they draw a meager amount of strength from each other to face this cruel reality. Their weeping was not a loud wail, but a suppressed, broken sob that overflowed from the depths of their souls, filled with the despair of parents burying their children and the helplessness in the face of their children's pain.
Mr. Lü took a deep breath, his eyes reddening. He looked at Mr. Qiu, who was also silent and restrained, and said in a low, heavy voice, "Brother... I'm sorry... we couldn't..."
Qiu's father waved his hand, stopping him from saying anything more. He raised his bloodshot eyes, looked at Lü's father, then at Lü Xiaoyan beside him, who was like a soulless puppet, and sighed heavily, a sigh that carried too much unspeakable sorrow and helplessness.
"It's all fate..." Qiu's father's voice was terribly hoarse, "It's because Yu Yu and Xiao Yan... their fate was too shallow..."
Upon hearing this, Lü Xiaoyan, who had been silent all along, suddenly raised his head. He looked at Qiu's father, his lips trembling violently, wanting to say something but unable to utter a sound. For the first time, intense and painful emotions surged in those empty eyes.
Our fate was too shallow?
How could it be shallow?
They had so many beautiful moments together, and so many promises they made about the future!
They should have had a very long road to walk together!
But...but...
All his arguments and shouts were stuck in his throat, turning into a violent, uncontrollable dry cough. He bent over, coughing so hard it felt like he was coughing up his internal organs.
Mother Lü patted his back hurriedly, her tears flowing even more fiercely.
Seeing Lü Xiaoyan's pained expression, Qiu's mother felt as if her heart was being torn apart. It was as if she could see her daughter lying on the cold morgue again. Overwhelmed with grief, she buried her face in her arms on the table and wept uncontrollably.
For a moment, only the suppressed sobs of two mothers, the heavy, helpless sighs of two fathers, and the desperate coughs and gasps of a boy like a trapped beast filled the tea room.
Outside the window, the autumn wind blew, swirling up a carpet of withered yellow leaves, making a rustling sound, as if playing a mournful accompaniment to the silent tragedy unfolding inside the room.
This meeting between the two sets of parents solved no problems and did nothing to alleviate their pain. It merely laid bare the bloody wounds torn apart by the same disaster, making them realize more clearly that the girl, as beautiful as sunshine, would truly never return. And each of them who is still alive will carry this profound longing and irreparable regret for the rest of their lives, struggling to move forward.
As Lü Xiaoyan left the teahouse with her mother's help, she looked back one last time.
He saw Qiu's mother leaning against Qiu's father's chest, her shoulders still trembling slightly. He saw that in Qiu's father's once gentle and wise eyes, there was now only a desolate sorrow.
At that moment, he knew it clearly.
They weren't the only ones crying.
That autumn, named Qiu Yayu, took away the most important part of the world in the hearts of four parents.
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