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Jiang Zhiming was anxious and suddenly said, "Xiaoyu, you have to pull yourself together. Think about it, isn't your mother's death too strange? Now the police station closed the case and said it was suicide. Could it really be suicide? Why would she commit suicide out of the blue? Don't you have any doubts?"
Ye Wenyu's heart skipped a beat, and her eyes lit up. She straightened up, nodded, and said, "I've always had my doubts. My mother, with her personality, would never commit suicide." If she were to commit suicide, she would have done so countless times during the more than ten years she raised her, because of the hardships she endured. But she didn't. Now she has Uncle Wang, and the family is living a lively and happy life. She couldn't possibly have committed suicide!
Jiang Zhiming continued to encourage her, saying, "So you have to pull yourself together and become stronger, so that one day you can get to the bottom of this and seek justice for your mother!"
Hearing this, Ye Wenyu's eyes brightened even more. She nodded and said gratefully to Jiang Zhiming, "Thank you, Zhiming. I will try my best to cheer up. Also, thank you for last time, Zhiming. If it weren't for you, I might not have been able to make it."
Hearing her thanks, Jiang Zhiming felt a warmth in his heart and smiled, "You're welcome. How about this, from now on you can think of me as your older brother, as your family. If you need anything, just come to me. Now, I'll help you take these things back to your dorm so you can have a good holiday, okay?"
Ye Wenyu nodded obediently.
That year, the Mid-Autumn Festival fell on the eighth day of the National Day holiday, so the school gave both holidays together, for a total of eleven days off. Because of the long holiday, most students went home to celebrate.
The dormitory was deserted.
Ye Wenyu had nowhere to go, so she planned to stay at the school and live alone in the deserted campus, like a lost soul.
Uncle Wang did call her and invite her to come home for the Mid-Autumn Festival, but Ye Wenyu refused. Besides the fact that going back to Uncle Wang's house would embarrass her, she also didn't want to see her mother's old things again. If she saw them, she would be extremely sad.
Therefore, she declined Uncle Wang's invitation.
Ye Wenyu originally had no intention of celebrating the holiday, but Jiang Zhiming's arrival and the gifts he brought made the gold and red gift boxes in the dormitory feel like a holiday.
In addition, because Jiang Zhiming had said that "osmanthus flowers are very fragrant", Ye Wenyu also began to pay attention to osmanthus flowers when walking on campus. She realized that the more inconspicuous the flower, the more fragrant it was. When walking outside, she would sometimes sniff the rich, sweet fragrance.
However, the first second she smelled the fragrance of osmanthus, she felt happy, but the next second, she would feel sad, as if her heart was being pricked by needles.
Because she would think of her mother, who would take her around to pick osmanthus flowers ten days before the Mid-Autumn Festival every year. Then, her mother would dry them and store them in small bamboo tubes. The dried osmanthus flowers could be used to make osmanthus cakes or sweet osmanthus lotus root.
In short, every year when her mother made osmanthus cake, every room in the house was filled with a sweet fragrance. Ye Wenyu would run in and out of the room, feeling especially happy amidst that aroma.
From childhood, collecting, drying, and pickling osmanthus flowers with her mother in August was the thing she looked forward to most as a child, and it was also the most important and ritualistic event in the family.
Now that Mom is gone, naturally no one picks osmanthus flowers, and no one steams osmanthus cakes.
On the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the weather turned bad and a light rain began to fall. Many osmanthus flowers were knocked down by the rain and fell to the ground, creating a large, golden patch. Ye Wenyu stood under the osmanthus tree, staring blankly at the golden blossoms on the ground, tears streaming down her face.
Human life is so short and fragile, like glass, it shatters at the slightest touch.
Sometimes, things live much longer than people. For example, this osmanthus tree that seems to exist forever is probably several decades old. And if it weren't for a natural disaster or someone cutting it down, it would continue to live until the end of time.
By this time, three months had passed, and she still couldn't accept the news of her mother's death.
Jiang Zhiming's encouragement still had no effect; Ye Wenyu wanted to cheer up, but she still couldn't.
Just then, she heard a familiar voice calling "Xiaoyu—" Ye Wenyu raised her head in a daze and saw Cai Wenchuan walking over with an umbrella. He was wearing a khaki trench coat, tall and elegant, and smiling as he walked towards her in the drizzling rain.
Ye Wenyu was wearing a floral sundress and a cardigan. A chill was in the air. Cai Wenchuan walked up to her, holding an umbrella to shield her from the light rain, and said gently, "I tried calling you but you didn't answer, so I had to come to your campus to look for you. The dorm supervisor said you were out, so I searched the campus. Luckily, I found you. Why didn't you use an umbrella in the rain? What if you caught a cold and got sick?"
Ye Wenyu knew that Cai Wenchuan cared about her, and her heart warmed. She forced a smile, still looking at the dense osmanthus blossoms that had fallen to the ground, and asked Cai Wenchuan, "Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival, why aren't you home for the holiday?"
Cai Wenchuan paused for a moment before trying to cover up his words, saying, "Oh, I've already gone home and had dinner with my parents. I had some work to do, so I went back to school. The students will be returning to school in a couple of days."
"So that's how it is," Ye Wenyu looked up, her clear black and white eyes fixed on Cai Wenchuan, who seemed somewhat uneasy. A gust of autumn wind blew by, and a few raindrops fell on her. Feeling cold, she sneezed. Cai Wenchuan saw this and immediately took off his overcoat and draped it over her shoulders.
Ye Wenyu felt a warmth in her heart, glanced at Cai Wenchuan, and said to him, "Brother Wen, look at all these osmanthus blossoms covering the ground—"
Cai Wenchuan looked in the direction she was pointing, smiled and nodded, saying, "Yes, the osmanthus flowers at school are in full bloom today—"
Ye Wenyu gently asked him, "Did your mother steam osmanthus cake for the Mid-Autumn Festival this year? I remember when we were little, my mother and your mother always liked to steam osmanthus cake for the Mid-Autumn Festival—"
Upon hearing this, Cai Wenchuan smiled mischievously, then suddenly produced a bag as if by magic and said to her, "Look what this is?"
As soon as Ye Wenyu took a look, a fragrant osmanthus scent wafted over. Somewhat incredulously, she took the bag, opened it, and found that it contained fragrant osmanthus cakes, and they were even hot!
She exclaimed in surprise, "Did your mother steam this?"
Cai Wenchuan's face flushed, but he decided to lie. So he said, "Yes, my mom knows I know you now, so she asked me to bring you some to eat. Eat it while it's hot." His unease grew stronger.
Ye Wenyu ate with relish, saying as she ate, "Your mother's cooking seems to be better than when I was a child. This osmanthus cake is really delicious."
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