Yang Shuying gently nudged Jiang Qiutang's shoulder. "Qiutang, do you think that's Yinhua over there?"
Jiang Qiutang wanted to say, "Are you seeing things?", but after glancing at it impatiently, he was also stunned.
"It really looks like her. What's she doing here?"
"Wait here for me for a moment, I'm coming over."
Yang Shuying walked over quickly and bent down, "Yinhua?"
He Yinhua looked up, and Yang Shuying then noticed that her eyes were swollen and red, like walnuts.
Moreover, he was not even forty years old, yet his forehead and eyes were covered in wrinkles.
However, her facial features are still as beautiful as before.
"Yinhua, it really is you? It's been over ten years, what happened to you?"
"Sister-in-law." He Yinhua stood up, wiped her eyes, and forced a smile, "Are you all alright?"
"Sigh, things haven't been going well at home lately, and I can't explain it all in just a few words. Tell me, what are you doing here? I heard you moved to Hexi."
He Yinhua nodded. "Yes, I just got back a few days ago."
"Why did you suddenly come back?"
He Yinhua sighed, "He is seriously ill and wants to go back to his hometown."
Yang Shuying realized what was going on. "Oh, so you're here to accompany Lao Liu to the doctor today? How is he? Is it serious?"
He Yinhua sighed softly and said, "She's already dead. I'm here today to treat myself."
Yang Shuying: You're really a jinx to your husbands!
She's cursed her second man to death!
"Huh? Dead? When did that happen?"
“Just a few days ago.” He Yinhua looked very tired. “Last month, it couldn’t eat anymore. We took it home and it died after a few days.”
Towards the end, He Yinhua actually started crying.
Yang Shuying took her hand and comforted her, "Yinhua, don't be sad. Life and death are all predetermined. You said you came to see a doctor today, what's wrong?"
He Yinhua concealed her illness, saying, "It's nothing, I just didn't have a good appetite, so I came to see you."
"Appetite is related to mood. You must have been too worried about Lao Liu lately. Relax. Lao Liu was over sixty years old. He's gone now. By the way, you don't know yet, but Xuanxuan did a great job and got into Ningzhou University."
He Yinhua's eyes lit up. "Really? Xuanxuan is so lucky. Thank you, brother and sister-in-law, for raising Xuanxuan all these years."
"There's no need to thank me. In my heart, Xuanxuan is just like my Qiaoling and Qiaoyun. Let's not talk about Yinhua for now. I still need to push your brother to complete the hospital admission procedures. Come to our house whenever you have time, and we sisters can sit down and have a good chat."
What happened to my brother?
"Oh dear, I tripped and fell while working a few days ago, hitting a rock and breaking a bone. The doctor said I have to stay in the hospital for observation for two days."
"Okay, sister-in-law, you go and get busy."
Yang Shuying walked over, pushed the wheelchair, and said to Jiang Qiutang, "This He Yinhua is really a jinx; she's brought death to another one!"
"What?"
"The man she married later died, and now she's in a pitiful state."
Yang Shuying raised an eyebrow. "It's her fate! Beautiful women always have a hard life. I just told her about Jiang Xuan, and she's probably going to go find Jiang Xuan."
“Jiang Xuan has been separated from her since childhood. Why are you telling her this now? Jiang Xuan will never acknowledge her.”
“I only told her because I knew she wouldn’t recognize me,” Yang Shuying said in a low voice. “I saw that her eyes were sunken and her face was so yellow. I guessed she had a serious illness. Who knows how many days she has left to live?”
Jiang Qiutang remained silent.
“When I asked her, she was evasive and said that her stomach was upset and she was coming to see a doctor for stomach problems? Nobody would believe that. I was just trying to be kind and let her see Jiang Xuan.”
This was not Yang Shuying's true feeling.
What she really wanted was for her to die in despair, unable to acknowledge her daughter.
*
As He Yinhua watched Yang Shuying and the others walk away, she couldn't help but burst into tears.
In my memory, that little one who had just learned to walk and kept calling her "Mom" is now 19 years old.
Her daughter.
She misses her so much.
The scene from 17 years ago involuntarily came to mind.
That autumn night, the wind was strong and the rain poured down. The raindrops lashed the ground like whips, and also lashed at He Yinhua's heart.
Her husband, Jiang Chunting, passed away unexpectedly, leaving behind their one-year-old daughter, Jiang Xuan.
Under the instigation of her eldest daughter-in-law and daughter, Li Aiqin always believed that she was a jinx who had caused the death of her youngest son.
She swallowed her anger and didn't defend herself, all for the sake of her one-year-old daughter.
Her youngest daughter was her only hope and support.
She wanted to spend her whole life with her.
Even so, the Jiang family still couldn't accept her.
Her mother-in-law shoved her out the door and told her to leave.
She stood in front of the Jiang family's dilapidated door, soaked to the bone, her arms tightly wrapped around herself.
Tears mingled with the rain and slid down her face. She didn't bother to wipe them away, and just begged her mother-in-law, Li Aiqin, to let her stay.
"Get out of here! This family doesn't need a jinx like you!"
Li Aiqin's sharp, piercing voice came from inside the room, filled with endless disgust and indifference.
"You should have gotten out of here a long time ago! What are you still doing here? Wasn't killing my son enough? Do you want to kill all of us too?"
"Mom, please, let me take the child away, she's my life." She knelt in front of the door.
The door was flung open, and Li Aiqin stood in the doorway, pointing at her and yelling, "What are you doing, crying and wailing? How could our Jiang family have married someone like you?"
He Yinhua knelt down and grabbed her trouser legs tightly with both hands. "Mom, please, give me the child."
She kowtowed repeatedly.
"You're dreaming!" Li Aiqin kicked her away, her eyes devoid of any warmth. "The child's surname is Jiang, he belongs to the Jiang family, and has nothing to do with you. Get out of here and never come back!"
Yang Shuying walked over, a slight smile playing on her lips. She put away her gloating and disdainful look and said gently, "Yinhua, don't be like this. You should leave while the child is sleeping. Don't make your mother angry anymore. You're still young. You can find a good family and start over."
Yinhua felt as if her heart was being torn apart, the pain making it hard to breathe.
She stood up weakly, her eyes empty and desperate, looking one last time at that familiar yet painful place in the room.
She knew all too well that this parting might be forever.
"Mom, sister-in-law, can I see Xuan'er one more time?"
"What are you looking at? Get out of here right now!" Li Aiqin roared.
“Xuan’er is asleep, don’t wake her up, or she’ll be hard to soothe if she starts crying,” Yang Shuying said. “You should go now, don’t worry, I will treat Xuan’er as my own daughter.”
He Yinhua turned away weakly.
The rain poured down harder and harder, as if it were mourning for her.
With heavy steps, she left the place she once called "home," each step a heart-wrenching farewell, a helpless despair.
Perhaps, after Chunting left, this place could no longer be called "home".
This scene became a permanent source of pain in her life.
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