Chapter 732
Chen Degui suddenly raised his head, and a glimmer of panic and hope flashed in his turbid eyes.
His hands were tightly clenched on the corners of his clothes, his knuckles turning white from the force, as if he was gathering all the courage in his body.
"The plaque is still there... half of it is still there. I'm hiding it."
The entire hall suddenly became so quiet that even the crackling of the charcoal fire could be clearly heard. A light rain started to fall outside the house, and the raindrops gently tapped on the window frames, making the house even more dead silent.
Seventh Uncle's walking stick fell to the ground with a clang and rolled twice before stopping.
Grandma San opened her mouth, but the curse "God damn it" that she had just finished saying was stuck in her throat. Her hand, covered with age spots, hung in the air like a dead branch.
"What did you say?" Seventh Uncle's voice suddenly became extremely sharp, and he grabbed Chen Degui's collar and shook him.
"Say it again! Explain it clearly! Is it there or not? What do you mean by halfway?"
Upon seeing this, Chen Jianjun quickly stepped forward to protect his father: "Old Master Su, please don't get excited! My father has been living in guilt all these years..."
The Third Wife finally found her voice again. She sneered, and the sound of her laughter seemed to have been pulled out of an ice cellar:
"Guilt? If he really felt guilty, why didn't he return the plaque earlier? He's showing up so suddenly now, I'm afraid he's like a weasel paying a New Year's visit to a chicken—he has no good intentions!"
Second uncle said anxiously: "Seventh uncle! Mom! Calm down for a moment and listen to what happened to our family's plaque."
Chen Degui sat back heavily in the chair, and the old rattan chair groaned under the weight.
He was breathing heavily, his chest heaving violently, as if the words he had just spoken had drained all his strength.
The sound of rain outside the house gradually grew louder, and the raindrops gathered into water columns on the tiles, flowing down the eaves.
Chen Degui's voice was as elusive as a wisp of smoke. "Back then, Old Sun said he wanted to completely eradicate the remnants of feudalism. Besides burning books, he also wanted to tear down the ancestral hall. When we were confronting each other, your people came to notify us and called us back.
Lao Sun said that we couldn't just let it go like this, so he asked me to come with him in the evening to steal the plaque back.
He was originally going to burn it, but I said it was an antique with a provenance and it would be a shame to burn it, so we sawed the plaque in half and each took half.
When the Seventh Uncle heard this, his eyes darkened: "You...you, that is the treasure of our entire family. It has been fine for hundreds of years, and you actually sawed it in half."
The eyes of the Third Wife flashed with a sharp light like a knife. She looked Chen Degui up and down, as if she wanted to see through his internal organs:
"Oh, now that Mr. Sun isn't here, you can say whatever you want and put the blame on others. You're still as shameless as ever."
Seventh Uncle took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. His voice was as cold as ice:
"Tell me, twenty years have passed and you suddenly come here and put on such a scene again. What are your intentions?"
Chen Jianjun suddenly knelt down, banged his forehead heavily on the floor, and took out the medical records from his pocket:
"Su Qigong, my son...my son has leukemia. He has been treated in Yongcheng Hospital for a while, but his condition is getting worse.
The attending physician said that University A has a Hematology Research Institute and Peking Union Medical College Hospital is also conducting research, so they are currently the best places in China to treat this disease.
We took our child to Beijing last month, but there were so many people going there from all over the country that we couldn’t even get a number. They said we needed connections to get a bed…”
Su Miao was shocked. Blood cancer? Isn't that leukemia... This is a fatal disease.
There was a sudden whisper in the hall.
Several older tribesmen shook their heads. In their memory, this disease was almost incurable.
The younger ones were whispering to each other, discussing the progress of modern medicine.
Su Miao heard someone behind him whispering "retribution", but was immediately stopped by others.
"We heard...we heard that Brother Yuanzheng is doing business in Beijing and has a wide network of contacts. Su Miao was admitted to University A as a college entrance exam candidate...Please, help us find some connections so that my son can get medical treatment. He was supposed to take the college entrance exam next year..."
Chen Jianjun raised his head, tears in his eyes, and made his request.
It turned out that he came here to ask Su Yuanzheng for help. With what happened today, Su Miao and Su Yuanzheng suddenly became one of the protagonists from bystanders.
Second Uncle slammed the table so hard that the teacup jumped up.
"Why should I ask my brother to help your family? Back then, your father led people to smash our ancestral hall without mercy. Why didn't he think that this day would come?
Our kindness was fed to the ungrateful wolf back then, and now we’re helping you, but we don’t know when we’ll get bitten again.”
Chen Degui suddenly burst into tears, his back hunched, like an old tree ravaged by wind and snow:
"I... I am guilty... but my grandson is innocent. You can punish me however you want, even asking me to pay with my life, but please save my grandson."
He knelt on the ground crying and shouting, which made people feel mixed emotions.
The Seventh Uncle did not stop him from kneeling, but pointed at Chen Jianjun and said:
"Stand up and speak. What your father did back then has nothing to do with you. You don't have to kneel."
There was a strange calm in the old man's voice, like the calm before the storm.
Chen Jianjun couldn't stand up since his father was kneeling. He took out two photos from his pocket and gave them to Su Yuanzheng tremblingly:
"Brother Yuanzheng, this is my son Xiaopeng. He is a very well behaved and excellent student. His academic performance is always among the top three in the class.
He is currently studying at Yongcheng No. 1 High School, and is Su Miao's junior. When Su Miao became the top scorer in the imperial examination two years ago, he said he wanted to follow her example and get into University A as well..."
Su Miao couldn't help but take a closer look. The two photos were taken at different times.
The boy in the first photo is standing under the basketball hoop, and the sunlight gives him a golden edge.
He was wearing the school uniform of Yongcheng No. 1 High School, and his smile was so bright that it seemed to be able to dispel all the haze.
The second photo makes people feel nervous. The boy on the hospital bed has shaved head, sunken cheeks, frighteningly large eyes, and tubes inserted in his arms. He looks like all the vitality has been drained out of him.
"What's his... name?" Su Miao asked softly. She felt that the young man looked strangely familiar.
"His name is Chen Zhipeng." Chen Jianjun replied, and every word seemed to be squeezed out from the bottom of his heart.
Su Miao suddenly remembered that during the senior high school oath-taking ceremony, their freshman classmates cheered them up, and outstanding student representatives presented flowers to the top ten students in the liberal arts and science classes in their senior year.
At that time, it was this classmate who presented her with flowers.
I still remember that Chen Zhipeng was wearing a clean white shirt, his hair was blown by the wind, his eyes were bright as stars, and he said with a blushing face when he handed the flowers to her:
"Senior Su Miao wishes you good luck in the college entrance examination and hope you will be on the list of top scorers. I will definitely work tirelessly towards you."
There was light in his eyes at that time.
And now, in the photo, there is only fear of death in his eyes.
Unexpectedly, their two families had such a connection.
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