Chapter 76:
Chapter Seventy-Six:
The day of the Beginning of Autumn is the anniversary of my parents' death.
In the cemetery, the branches and leaves are lush and verdant. The gentle morning breeze makes the shadows of the branches sway, and the bright sunlight shines through the dense foliage onto the tombstones, creating a mottled effect of light and shadow.
The smiling faces of the parents leaning on each other are forever frozen in black and white on the image.
Wen Jin also offered gardenias in front of the tombstone.
She hadn't been here for a while, and dust had settled on the tombstone. Wen Jin wiped the surface of the tombstone little by little with a wet tissue before leaning against it.
Just like when I was a child, I snuggled into my parents' arms.
Happy 16th birthday, Mom and Dad.
"I really miss you all..."
After her parents died in a car accident, all the storms of life seemed to rage against Wen Jin.
When her uncle took her home, the sentence Wen Jin heard most often was, "Without us, you would have been homeless long ago. You should be grateful that you have food to eat."
Everything they gave Wen Jin was meager and turned into charity.
But that's clearly not how it is.
My uncle went south to make his fortune and was swindled out of more than 100,000 yuan in high-interest loans. Later, the interest compounded, and the amount grew to a mountain, making it hard for him to breathe.
When the creditors came knocking on the door, it was my father who poured out his life's savings and hard work to help my uncle's family fill the hole.
Everyone is praising their deep friendship.
So after his parents died in a car accident, his uncle was placed on a moral high ground. In addition, he met a benefactor at work who needed to rely on his character and reputation to get promoted, so he had no choice but to bring Wen Jin home as well.
On her first night back home, Wen Jin heard her aunt Zhao Qin complaining.
“Although they are all dead and we don’t have to pay back the money, they left us with a burden. I can’t even take care of my own son.”
"Besides, the person who hit and killed them didn't look like he had much money, so who knows how much he could come up with."
Tan Guohao's tone was also impatient, "Adding another set of chopsticks and a bowl is just a matter of not starving to death. What else can I do? Do you want me to be drowned in spittle, or do you want me to fail my promotion?"
Thus began the eight years that ten-year-old Wen Jin spent living under someone else's roof.
At the age when she should have been blossoming and full of life, her life was plunged into darkness and fear.
She was always patient.
I endured it when I was little, for fear of becoming homeless.
I endured it during high school, fearing that I wouldn't be able to get into university.
Those years when I felt the most comfortable and light-hearted were all spent in the port city.
After returning, she was harassed by Tan Donglin again, and her anxiety returned.
He was afraid that Tan Donglin would really cause trouble, making all his efforts at the TV station go to waste.
But Wen Jin didn't dare say any of this.
I was afraid my parents would be so worried they'd be pacing around in circles in the sky.
She simply recounted the heartwarming little things in her life in a casual, light-hearted tone.
But in the end, she couldn't help but choke up.
Footsteps sounded behind me.
A hesitant, questioning voice asked, "Xiao Jin, is that you?"
*
Wen Jin also stood up and looked at the woman.
Approaching fifty years old, she is well-maintained and possesses an elegant demeanor.
She was also holding the gardenias that her mother loved most when she was alive.
However, Wen Jin did not have any memories of her in the past.
"Hello... May I ask who you are?"
The woman smiled and placed the flowers in front of the grave. "You don't know me, but I know you. When your mother was pregnant with you, she loved to come to my shop to chat."
When my parents came to Shibei to make a living, it was a very difficult time. But my mother never complained about the hardships. She always stood gently behind my father, supporting him through all his difficult decisions.
So whenever her father had money, he would do everything he could to treat her well.
My mother likes gold.
Dad buys it for Mom almost every few months.
The woman's shop specializes in custom-made gold and silver jewelry designs.
Over time, they got to know each other.
Unfortunately, life is unpredictable.
The two people who once chatted and talked about everything under the sun are now both turned into a handful of dust.
“I only heard about your parents’ death in a car accident a few years ago. I remember how much they helped my business back then, so I often come to visit.”
Thinking of this, the woman couldn't help but feel sad and moved. "When your mother was pregnant with you, she told me more than once that all you need to do is grow up happily and healthily."
She looked Wen Jinye up and down carefully. "I suppose your parents in heaven would be at peace to see you grow up like this."
Death is not the end; being forgotten is.
Wen Jin also thought that her parents had been gone for so many years, and her uncle and aunt had never visited them even once.
And every time her aunt learned that Wen Jinye had come, she would disgustedly send Wen Jinye to the damp basement, saying, "It's so unlucky. You keep running around in piles of dead bodies. Who knows if you'll bring anything unclean?"
Even when Tan Donglin caught a cold and had a fever, his aunt would blame Wen Jinye.
Despite the indifference of close relatives, it turned out that an old friend with whom they had a brief but distant relationship went to great lengths to visit their parents.
Wen Jin also bowed to the woman, saying, "Thank you for coming to visit them."
The woman noticed her bare neck. "Xiao Jin, didn't you bring the coming-of-age gift your mother gave you?"
Wen Jin's mind went blank. "What adult gift?"
“When your mother was pregnant with you, she brought out a lot of her old gold jewelry and added some more, asking me to design a peace lock for you. She said it was a coming-of-age gift for your eighteenth birthday.”
"They even stored their things here for a certain sense of ceremony. Later, after I learned that they had passed away, I found out through several twists and turns that you had been adopted by your uncle's family."
"I've already delivered the things to your aunt. Didn't she give them to you?"
Wen Jin's face turned ashen instantly, and her heart sank lower and lower.
*
After my parents were in a car accident, they spent a full two weeks in the ICU before finally passing away.
In those places, money is burned like paper.
Her father was an orphan, and her mother only had her uncle as a brother. At that time, Wen Jin was still an innocent child who couldn't make any decisions.
Therefore, all subsequent treatment and compensation were handled by my uncle and aunt.
So, Zhao Qin sold off their house under the pretext of paying for her parents' medical treatment.
By the time Wen Jin learned that her home was gone, the house had already changed owners, and she hadn't even left behind her parents' last belongings.
When Wen Jin was little, she didn't understand. She thought Zhao Qin pointed at her nose and scolded her for being a burden every day because her family had spent a lot of money on her parents' medical treatment.
But as Wen Jin grew older, she gradually came to understand many things.
The insurance payout, the sale of the property and its contents, plus the money Dad gave Uncle back then—all of these add up to a considerable sum.
Zhao Qin and Tan Guohao hated her so much, yet they never kicked Wen Jin out of that house.
The goal is nothing more than profit.
If Wen Jin were to hire a lawyer and a team to calculate each and every one of these matters, it could amount to a considerable sum.
Wen Jin had considered taking back what belonged to her parents and their family.
But the shadow cast by Tan Guohao's family was too great for her; the physiological fear was almost insurmountable. During the years when Wen Jin left Jiangbei, she dared not recall their ugly faces.
In addition—
Living under the same roof, Wen Jin knew better than anyone their shameless nature and their ability to make up stories and distort the truth.
If she rashly asks for it and the other party really makes a scene, then Wen Jin's hard-won stable happiness may be shattered.
A reasonable person cannot argue with a villain.
But ultimately, it was her cowardice that caused the problem.
She grew up in damp mud and finally achieved the life she has today. She can let go of the darkness of the past and the possessions that Tan Guohao's family seized from her, and use them to exchange for peace of mind in her life and work.
But Wen Jin also has to take back the adult gift her mother gave her.
That was a gift left to her by her parents, and it was also proof that Wen Jin was born and grew up in love and expectation.
She knocked on the door of the room she had kept sealed in her heart.
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