Chapter 242 The truth of that year

Xia Juanjuan asked tentatively: "Auntie, I shouldn't ask about this, but some sad words may make you feel better after speaking them out. Auntie, can you tell me about what happened back then?"

After listening to this, Shen Wanxue looked at Xia Juanjuan for a while, then sighed quietly, patted Xia Juanjuan's hand, and said with a smile: "These old things are all my own sufferings. I shouldn't tell them to make others upset or add to the gossip. But since you asked, I will be hypocritical for once. I will tell you about my sufferings. Maybe I will feel better in my heart."

"That was 26 years ago. At that time, the whole country had not been liberated yet. Your uncle and I followed the troops to the province of Lu. It was winter, and there was a lot of snow. I was almost due to give birth, and it was too dangerous to camp outside with the troops. Besides, there might be a battle that night. So the superiors sent me to a farmer's house in a village in the rear to wait for the birth. After your uncle and the soldiers sent me here, they went back to fight.

There was a loud sound of artillery fire in the second half of the night. It was not just a battle with that small wave of resistance. I was extremely worried, fearing that your uncle was injured or something happened. Maybe this anxiety caused him to have a miscarriage. In the second half of the night, I started to have severe stomach pains. I was about to give birth.

Fortunately, the housewife was experienced. She told her husband to call the midwife immediately and instructed her sons and daughters to boil some hot water. In order to replenish my strength, she took out the only brown sugar in the house, soaked it in hot water, and fed me the brown sugar water.

It can be said that if it weren’t for that family, I and the baby in my belly would have died long ago.

It was not until daybreak that the child was born, a son. We heard the artillery fire from the other side, so we thought the fighting must have stopped. We heard from the peasants in the village who were delivering supplies to the front that the battle had been won.

I breathed a sigh of relief, but I was still worried, not knowing whether your uncle was dead or alive.

I waited anxiously until noon, when your uncle finally rushed back to the farmer's house to pick me and the child up. He was hit by a bullet in the shoulder, but fortunately the bullet passed through the muscle and did not remain in the body, so I simply stopped the bleeding and bandaged it with a bandage.

I was completely relieved. However, he came over and said that he might not be able to take me and the child with him.

After yesterday's battle was over, the troops had to move to another place immediately. He asked for instructions and came to tell me that he was going to set out immediately to catch up with the troops!

I was also in a state of panic at the time. I was afraid that after this separation, I would never see him again. I was also worried that his injuries would be left unattended and he would get infected. So I thought of leaving the child in the care of this farmer first, and I would go with him to catch up with the main force. After some time, if we were lucky enough to still be alive, we would come back and take the child back to our side. If anything happened to him, the child would still have a chance to survive.

Your uncle didn't agree at first and insisted that I stay with him. He would definitely come to pick us up later. It was because I insisted that he had no choice but to agree. The family was also very nice. They agreed to take care of the child for us without saying anything.

We left all the money we had with us, which was only ten silver dollars, to them, and asked them to help look after the child. I thought about it and asked your uncle to take off the dragon and phoenix pendant and give it to the farmer, asking them to keep it for the child as a token of love. If anything happened, they would be able to recognize the phoenix pendant when they see it in the future."

After hearing this, Xia Juanjuan couldn't help but say, "Auntie, that Fengpei is so important, why did you give it to me? This is not..."

Shen Wanxue said, "Alas... maybe it's because I've been looking for him for so many years, and I feel that the chance of finding him again is getting slimmer and slimmer. Your uncle has been persuading me that this child may not be meant for us, so I should stop blaming myself and making things difficult for myself. So I made up my mind and gave the Fengpei to you, Juanjuan... maybe I can..."

I can really let go and stop holding on...

I couldn’t continue talking after this.

Seeing her like this, Xia Juanjuan felt bad and asked, "Auntie, what happened later? When you sent the child to foster care, you should have asked the family about their situation clearly, right? How come they got separated later?"

Shen Wanxue raised her hand to wipe away her tears, calmed down her emotions, and then continued:

"Oh! Why didn't you ask clearly? The village is called Lijia Village. We also asked the head of the household if it was the Li of Muzi. The head of the household smiled and said that he couldn't read, but it should be the same surname as the villagers. And the wife of that family is called Liang Yunxia, ​​but we don't know which characters are in her name either.

There were three children in the family at that time. The eldest daughter was seven or eight years old, the second son was four or five years old, and the youngest son was just over two years old. They didn't have a full name yet, just called Daya, Da Wa, and Er Wa.

I thought at the time that it would only be half a year before I came to pick up the child, so I didn't ask any more questions. Who would have thought that the war was so intense that it would take a year and a half before it was completely over. Your uncle and I immediately rushed to the village to pick up the child.

Unfortunately... after we arrived, there was no trace of the village. I heard that half a year ago, there was a flood there, the Yellow River burst its banks, and dozens of villages along the river were affected. Lijia Village was the worst hit, and the whole village was flooded. When we went there, it was still a swamp! I heard that most of the people in the village were washed away, and the crops of the remaining people were destroyed, so they had to flee with their families..."

Xia Juanjuan felt sad when she heard this. Sometimes it's really hard to explain fate.

However, the details that Shen Wanxue described matched a lot with what Li Jie heard.

For example, that village is all in the province of Lu, and the people there fled because of a flood caused by a river bursting its banks. Liezhan’s age and birthday are almost the same.

The only thing that doesn't match up is the surname of the Li family. I've seen people mistake Li for Li, after all, Li is a common surname and it's easy to get it wrong. But the reverse is really rare.

Another thing is that the name of the farmhouse owner back then didn't match. Shen Wanxue remembered Liang Yunxia, ​​but her mother-in-law was clearly named Liu Lan.

As for the number of children, Shen Wanxue said that there were three children in the family at that time, a daughter and two sons. Judging from their ages, they should correspond to Li Zhan’s eldest sister who had been out of contact for many years, and the eldest brother who died - or Li Qiang. The youngest should be Li Jie.

Li Qiaoqiao can explain that the child was born later, but how does Li Qiang explain it?

The possibilities that Xia Juanjuan can think of now are, either Liu Lan married into the family later, and judging by how partial she is to Li Qiang, Li Qiang must have been brought up by her and was not originally a child of the Li family.

Either that, or the dragon pendant was obtained by Liu Lan or the Li family by chance - for example, they obtained it from a real member of the Li family while fleeing famine.

Xia Juanjuan is inclined to the first possibility. But it is better to be safe than sorry.

What if the second possibility is true?

If that really happened, and if she told Shen Wanxue now that she had found Long Pei and that Lizhan might be her son, and later found out that he wasn't, how sad would Shen Wanxue be? Could she still bear such a blow?

Thinking of this, Xia Juanjuan still suppressed her inner excitement and decided to keep this matter secret for the time being.

After Shen Wanxue finished telling the story of that year, she was stunned for a long while and couldn't help crying silently.

At that time, she was just over 20 years old and had just been married to Zhenbang for more than a year. At that time, she was still determined to love him with the purest and most resolute determination. She thought in her heart that if Zhenbang died, she would never live alone.

Although she gave birth to the child after suffering pain for half a night, her maternal love was overshadowed by her love for her husband when faced with the hungry child.

If...if she had listened to her husband and stayed behind with her son, waiting for him to come back and pick them up, perhaps she and her child would have died in the flood, but...at least her child would have her as his mother by his side on the road to the underworld, so he wouldn't be afraid, right?

One thought.

Therefore, she refused to forgive herself and spent more than 20 years in regret. She even refused to have another child, fearing that she would have other children. She easily forgave herself for the crime of "abandoning" her first child.

Zhenbang was also a rare man with a generous heart. If it were another man, if his wife refused to give birth to his family line, he would have divorced her and married someone new.

Yet her husband quietly supported all her decisions and consoled her over the years, telling her to let it go.

In fact...how could he not feel regret and guilt in his heart?

The loss of the child they abandoned at birth will be a lifelong pain in their hearts.

"Juanjuan, I'm sorry to make you listen to such a long speech from an old woman like me. I have been holding these things in my heart for many years. Now that I have spoken them out to you today, I feel a little relieved..."

Xia Juanjuan tightly grasped Shen Wanxue's hand and said softly, "Auntie, don't be too sad. Isn't there a saying that goes, 'If you wait, the clouds will clear and the moon will appear'? There is also a saying that goes, 'With sincerity, even metal and stone can be split.' You have been persisting for so many years, and God must have seen it all. Your child... will definitely be found!"

Shen Wanxue was stunned for a moment after hearing her last words, which were said so firmly. Then she smiled and said, "Alas! I have been looking for it for most of my life. I am not afraid of finding it until I die. If I can't find it in this life, I will go to Prince Yan and stay there. In the next life, I will be the mother of that child..."

Xia Juanjuan said a few more words and then went back.

Now, the old man and eldest brother of the Li family are both dead. Liang Yunxia doesn't know what happened, but she is probably dead too.

It is definitely not reliable to ask Liu Lan and Li Qiang. Therefore, the only key is the eldest daughter of the Li family!