"Grandma, I brought someone with me. He wants to see you."
"Then come in."
"I apologize for bothering you, but I feel that you resemble an old friend of mine, so I wanted to confirm whether you know someone named Yan Xiaoling."
For some reason, Yan Cuihua felt a sense of familiarity with the person in front of her, and the same was true for Old Man Yan. This was the wonder of blood ties.
Grandma Yan shook her head: "I don't know her."
Suya said, "I told you my grandmother doesn't recognize me, but you still won't give up. Now you can leave."
The old man was still unwilling to give up.
"Then may I ask if you know someone named Yan Zhengqing?"
Yan Zhengqing was the name of Yan Lao's father.
Yan Zhengqing's grandmother's memories were suddenly pulled back to fifty years ago.
She grew up without a father. There was only one photo in the house, showing her father and mother. Her mother told her that her father had passed away. At that time, Yan Cuihua remembered the names written on the back of the photo: Nizi for the woman and Yan Zhengqing for the man.
"Who are you to Yan Zhengqing?"
“I am his son.”
"son?"
"Then where is Yan Xiaoling, whom you're looking for?"
"That was my older sister, but she disappeared forty years ago after being caught in an avalanche while she was helping in Tibet."
This is our family photo.
For many years, Mr. Yan has kept a family photo on his phone.
Yan Cuihua saw that the man in the middle was smiling very happily. If he were ten years younger, he would look exactly like her father.
Upon seeing this, Yan Cuihua understood. It turned out that her father had not died at that time, but had abandoned her and her mother to marry another woman.
"I don't know any Yan Zhengqing, you can leave."
Grandma Yan started chasing people away.
Old Yan had just observed Yan Cuihua's expression. When he mentioned his father's name, it was clear that Yan Cuihua knew him. But why did she suddenly say she didn't recognize him?
However, the other party had already asked him to leave. Old Yan left a business card and hurriedly departed. The card contained his personal contact information, but only his phone number and name, without any heading.
After everyone left, Yan Cuihua held the business card but never threw it in the trash can.
Seeing this, Suya also left.
She knew that Grandma Yan needed to calm down.
Grandma Yan held that business card as if it weighed a ton of gold.
I found an iron box in my room, and at the bottom was an old, yellowed photograph.
The photo shows his father and mother.
Grandma Yan did not return to her home when she left Nanlin Town.
These were all brought by people sent by Su's father.
Everything that was movable, except for things that couldn't be moved, was moved to this room.
As for what to do with the items...
That's all Grandma Yan's business.
Grandma Yan stared blankly at that photo for the entire afternoon.
When he was a child, whenever he asked his mother, she would always say that his father had gone to see the stars.
But the truth turned out to be so cruel.
That evening, Grandma Yan finally decided to call Grandpa Yan.
I picked up the phone and dialed the number with trembling hands.
The phone was answered after only one ring.
Grandma Yan arranged to meet Grandpa Yan at her home.
Old Master Yan was overjoyed to receive the call from his maternal grandmother. He had already guessed who she was; she must be the daughter his father's ex-wife had taken away, the daughter he had been thinking about until his death. His parents had taught them since they were young that they also had an older sister, and his father hoped that she would do her best to find her in the future.
Mr. Yan arrived at the entrance of his maternal grandmother's residential compound with great excitement.
This time, after I gave them the house number and filled out the visitor registration form, they were relieved.
Mr. Su took the elevator to the second floor.
The community has a high degree of privacy. You can enter the elevator, but they won't let you scan the floor number, so you'll be stuck inside the elevator.
When we reached the second floor, the elevator doors opened with a swipe.
As soon as I stepped out of the elevator, Grandma Yan's door was already open.
Only then did Old Yan notice that there were only two households on the first floor.
As soon as I entered and sat down, I saw Yan Cuihua take out a photograph.
When Mr. Yan took it, he saw that it was a photo of a man and a woman.
Old Yan had seen the man's face in the family's old photo album; it was his father, Yan Zhengqing.
The woman had two braids and wore two pieces of clothing printed with small flowers. She was quite pretty. It seemed that this must be Yan Cuihua's mother.
At this moment, Yan Cuihua spoke up: "When I was little, everyone else had a father, but I didn't. So I asked my mother, and she said my father had gone to heaven. Only when I grew up did I understand that 'heaven' meant 'dead.' But only today do I realize that he didn't die; he abandoned my mother and me to start a new family with someone else. And my mother never remarried, dedicating her entire life to raising me. But..."
Before Yan Cuihua could finish speaking, Old Master Yan interrupted her. "No, it's not the eldest sister."
"Don't call me 'big sister'."
"Fine, fine, I won't call you that, but the truth isn't what you say."
That's how it is.
Then I listened as Old Yan recounted that old story buried deep in his memory: "Back then, city kids were all required to go to the countryside, and many of them married local women. Later, when the policy was relaxed, some people returned to the city through family connections, and my father was one of them. He promised your mother that he would bring her to the city when he returned. Of course, his return wasn't so smooth, but in the end, he succeeded. However, when he returned full of hope to find your mother, he discovered she was gone. He asked many people, and they all had different stories: some said she had jumped into the river with her child, others said she had run off with a peddler. Everyone said the same thing. Father stayed where your mother lived for half a year, but couldn't find her. Because his mother was ill, he had to return home to care for her. During this time, he also kept looking for you, but given the poor transportation and communication at that time, finding two people was like finding a needle in a haystack. Three years later, Father was getting older. As the saying goes, of the three unfilial acts, the greatest is to have no offspring." That's how Father married Mother, and my sister was born the following year, and I was born the year after that. By the time I was old enough to manage, Father was too ill to walk, so he entrusted the burden of finding you to me. Until the very moment he died, he was still thinking about you and my sister who survived the avalanche. Sister, we really searched for decades, never giving up.”
After hearing this story, Yan Cuihua burst into tears. It turned out that it wasn't her father who abandoned them, but her mother who left voluntarily so as not to affect her father's future.
But my mother was such a proud person, and she loved my father so much. Otherwise, why would she have never remarried? If it weren't for my father, why would she have taken her young daughter with her when they left?
She wiped away her tears: "Your father is gone, but what about your mother?"
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