The vivid memories from five years ago came flooding back.
His mother awoke in a pool of blood, her breath faint. With trembling hands, she stroked his face, her gaze filled with loving tenderness and reluctance. In her last moments, she told him, "Xiao'er, I am finally free. Be happy for me, don't be sad for me, and don't be disappointed. I have fulfilled my mission in raising you. I only ask that you not blame me for being weak. Your mother will be praying for you from heaven. Do what you want to do, love who you want to love. Remember, the only one..."
He watched helplessly as his mother's trembling body collapsed into his arms, feeling utterly powerless as she screamed frantically.
His mother's departure made him hate that person intensely, his biological father, Lin Wei, that beast in human form, that drug addict. In his heart, he was the executioner who killed his mother.
He was nowhere to be seen at his mother's funeral. He silently endured everything alone, painfully accepting their condolences until he bid farewell to his mother's final appearance and handled her funeral arrangements. Then he took his admission letter from Yenching University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and set off for the Gansu Provincial Base to undergo four years of extremely arduous flight training. Regardless of the cold winter or scorching summer, rain or shine, he never stopped. From then on, he disappeared from the sight of all his relatives and friends, without any news or contact with anyone.
The figure standing solemnly by the river did not leave. The sky was dotted with stars. He looked up at the starry sky, and a planet streaked across the sky, as if beckoning to him. His mother's face appeared in his mind's eye in a blur. She was waving to him and smiling at him. He wanted to hug her, to keep her with him, to tell her how much he missed her, and to share the secrets in his heart with her.
He stood there all night until a glimmer of light appeared on the horizon, casting golden rays, a gentle breeze caressed his face, and the first rays of sunlight appeared in the morning. Only then did he leave dejectedly.
xixiacun
Jiang Shuya heard a commotion next door early in the morning. She was hanging clothes on the balcony when she looked down and saw that it was a fight in front of Old Mrs. Wang's house. Wang Hongjuan was also there, watching the young mother and daughter stand behind Wang Xi without saying a word.
Jiang Shuya steadied herself, rubbed her temples, and racked her brains for memories of her past life. Suddenly, she remembered that this timeframe should be when Wang's second sister returned. Yes, it was the daughter who had disappeared for 10 years who had returned, with a child. Ten years ago, Wang's second daughter left home to work and didn't return for several years. The elderly couple in the Wang family were extremely anxious and searched all the way to where their daughter was working. They heard that she was working in a toy factory in Guangdong. They finally found the address according to the directions given by their fellow villagers, but the people there said they had never seen their daughter. The elderly couple went to several other places but still couldn't find her. Later, they went directly to the police. The police eventually concluded that they suspected she had been abducted by human traffickers, but they didn't know which remote mountain the traffickers had taken her to. The investigation would take time, and they waited for several more years. When they couldn't wait any longer, the family thought she had died out there and had given up all hope. Now, she appeared at their doorstep with a child.
The elderly couple were surprised, delighted, and furious. The most obvious reaction came from Wang Xi, the third son of the Wang family. He was disgusted by his second sister's actions. A woman who had run away from home for ten years, married casually, and even willingly married into a poor, remote place and had a child—anyone with backbone and the ability to endure hardship should not come back. Now that she has returned, she will only bring trouble to the family.
At this moment, they saw Wang Xi holding a shovel, his eyes bloodshot, waving it around and cursing, his face full of disgust, blocking the gate. Meanwhile, Wang Erjie was kneeling on the ground, crying her heart out, and the child beside her also started wailing.
The neighbors at the door were all trying to comfort her, but Old Mrs. Wang was both angry and resentful. Seeing her son's angry face, she was a little afraid of him and didn't dare to go forward to pull up her second daughter. She hesitated and covered her face with her hands, crying bitterly, until a person appeared in the crowd. That person was Wang's eldest sister.
The appearance of Old Master Wang's eldest daughter was like a timely rain. She stepped forward, grabbed her second sister, pointed at her brother, and angrily said, "You beast! You dare to lay a hand on me? Let's see how capable you are to drive your second sister away. We raised you from childhood, giving you the best food and clothes. Now it seems we've fed it all to the dogs. She's your own second sister! She shares your blood! You... you're utterly heartless! You won't even let her into the house."
After saying that, he stepped forward, snatched the shovel from Wang Xi's hand, and angrily threw it to the ground. He warned him, "Even if you break an arm, the tendons are still connected. You don't care about your reputation at all now." As soon as he finished speaking, he took his second sister and the girl with both hands and walked home.
Looking around, the Wang family was building houses in both the front and back yards, and the yard was a bit messy. The houses were not yet completed. The eldest sister of the Wang family lived next door to the old lady of the Wang family. Her husband was a retired soldier. It was said that he was the youngest son in the family. There were many brothers and sisters in the family. He joined the army when he was young and made some merits. He rose to the position of company commander in the army. After retiring, he received 200,000 yuan and was directly assigned to the position of section chief in the organization department of the government. Everyone said that Jiangdao would be demolished in the future. After retiring, he registered his household in Jiangdao and settled down. With the 200,000 yuan he received, he built a two-story house and added another two-story house in the back yard. Before that, they were the only family with two houses in the second team of Xixia Village.
Because the land used belonged to her family, Wang Xi was not married at the time, and the elderly couple did not object. However, after she married Wang Hongjuan, it naturally aroused their dissatisfaction. Her sister-in-law used her own land to build a house without contributing a single penny.
Wang Hongjuan would often complain to her mother-in-law, and her son would also treat his older sister badly, often complaining for no reason. The two households were gradually getting along. In order to appease her younger brother's dissatisfaction, the older sister took the initiative to build a house in the front yard this time, and she would pay for all the expenses herself. The two-story house has now cost tens of thousands of yuan, and her younger brother did not have to pay a penny. Wang Xi and his wife were naturally happy to agree, and all their dissatisfaction disappeared.
But to everyone's surprise, while everyone was busy building houses, my second sister, who hadn't been around for over ten years, suddenly returned.
You know, the second sister's household registration is still at home and hasn't been transferred. She'll get a share of the compensation when the house is demolished, which naturally makes Wang Xi and his wife unhappy. I've heard people around here say that Wang Xi works at the bus company. Although his salary isn't high, it's a stable job. He can make sure he doesn't spend a penny of his income each month. He often doesn't eat out for lunch and comes home hungry after get off work. All his living expenses are paid by the old couple, Wang Xi and his wife. He's a real miser, only taking in and never giving out.
These words naturally came from the Wang family members themselves. I had heard Huang Minghao say before that when the two of them went out together in their youth, Huang Minghao always paid for the meals. I have never seen him take the initiative to do so. It seems that his stingy nature started from childhood and was not something he developed later in life.
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