"Thank you, sir!"
Chen Changqing thanked him again, and then followed behind the old man, shoulder to shoulder with Chen Changzheng.
"You city folks are so particular."
He was just showing the way, and the comrades in the city thanked him repeatedly. The old man leading the way put his hands behind his back and shook his head with a hint of helplessness.
-
Before we knew it, we arrived at Uncle Song's house. The old man who led the way said, "We're here. The gate is open, so there must be someone home. You can go in!" Since it was still before the workday ended, there were few people on the village road, so not many people came to watch outside Uncle Song's house.
As the old man turned to leave, Chen Changqing said thank you again.
Chen Changzheng is the same.
The old man, who had already turned around, waved casually and walked away with his hands behind his back a short while later.
Chen Dongxu helped Mrs. Chen out of the car and walked with Mr. Chen to the gate of Uncle Song's house.
"Dad, Uncle, why aren't you going in?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Changqing was about to speak when he heard footsteps coming from inside the courtyard gate.
In an instant, everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw Grandma Song walking towards the courtyard gate.
"Who are you...?"
Grandma Song stopped a few steps away from Old Mrs. Chen and the others, her eyes revealing obvious doubt.
But Old Mrs. Chen was moved to tears. From Grandma Song's face, which was marked by the passage of time, she vaguely recognized that this was the same Sister Huaihua who had been entrusted to take care of her second son when he was still an infant.
With a tremor at the corner of her mouth and a slight tremor in her voice, Old Mrs. Chen took two quick steps, grabbed Grandma Song's hand, and let tears well up in her eyes, saying, "Sister Huaihua! Sister Huaihua, it's me, Xiao He. Do you still remember me?"
That year, I had just given birth, and because I had to catch up with the rest of the group, I entrusted my child to your care..."
Grandma Chen became emotional as she slowly recounted her past, and as Grandma Song spoke, her expression involuntarily froze, her thoughts suddenly drawn back to many years ago...
It was August in Songjiagou Village.
Outside the window, the sky was still dark. In a mud house some distance from the other houses in the village, a man looked at his wife, who was sitting on the kang (a heated brick bed) holding their baby son, who was only a few days old, and wiping away tears. His eyes were moist. He said:
"You've just finished your postpartum confinement period, so rest well at home. I'll find a good place to bury our third child!"
The son held in his wife's arms was their third child, born prematurely and weak from birth. His cries sounded like a kitten's. They had thought that with proper care, he should... he should be able to survive...
Unexpectedly, the baby tripped and fell every few days during the postpartum period, but managed to pull through each time. However, just five days after the baby turned one month old, the baby suddenly developed a high fever at night, giving the couple no time to react. The little one convulsed for a moment, and then... stopped breathing.
"No, I want to see San'er off myself."
The woman got off the kang (a heated brick bed) as she spoke.
"Huaihua...you're not feeling well, let me go!"
The man reached out to take the swaddled baby from the woman's arms.
"I'll go, I want to personally escort San'er..."
The daughter shook her head, tears streaming down her face. She said, "It's all my fault. I knew I was pregnant, but I was careless and fell, causing me to have a premature birth. My third child was born at seven months, and... and even though I held on until now, I still couldn't make it. I'm the one who hurt my third child!"
“It’s not your fault, Huaihua. You went to the fields while pregnant to bring me food. Who could have imagined that a sudden downpour would make the road muddy and cause you to slip and fall? It’s not your fault. In the end… in the end, it’s because San’er and we are not destined to be parents!”
The man advised the woman not to blame herself, but his advice had no effect on her at all.
"Don't say anything, sir. It's my fault, I have to admit it. You stay home and take good care of the eldest and second son. I'll come back as soon as I've settled the third son in."
With tears streaming down her face, the woman tidied up the lifeless baby in its swaddling clothes. She hugged the baby tightly, gently rubbing her face against the infant's. Then she said to the man, "Don't follow us. Take good care of the older two. I don't want anything to happen to them again."
The man had to put his foot down. Besides his third son, he and his wife also had two other sons, one under five years old and the other under three. If he and his wife weren't home right now, there was no guarantee that the two boys wouldn't wake up and not be able to find their parents and something might happen to them.
However, as the woman carried the swaddled baby out the door, the man couldn't resist following her to the gate and watching her walk away in the dim light.
On a slope overlooking the entire Songjiagou Village, the woman found a spot, dug a pit with her hoe, and then lined it with a thick layer of dry straw. She carefully placed the swaddled baby inside, repeatedly apologizing to the prematurely deceased child.
The family was so poor that they struggled to make ends meet, and the few family members often went hungry. This was all due to natural disasters. As farmers who relied on the land for their livelihood, they had no other way to improve their family's life except by farming.
Therefore, let alone preparing a decent coffin for a premature child who only lived for a month or so... The more the woman thought about it, the more heartbroken she became. She slowly filled the pit with soil until a small mound appeared in front of her, and then she stopped.
Time passed, and the woman got up, not knowing how much time had gone by. She saw that the east was beginning to lighten with the first hint of dawn.
She walked down the slope in a daze, then through a grove of trees, when she suddenly heard two female voices, and soon after, she heard a baby crying.
"Comrade He, what should we do next? It's not easy to catch up with the main force while taking the child with us, and it might be difficult to take care of the child's safety if we move with the main force."
"I understand what you mean, let me think about it."
"How about this? We can find a family in a nearby village, entrust the child to their care, and leave a token. That way, Comrade He, you can come back later to find that family and reunite with the child."
I happen to have a few silver dollars on me. I'll leave them with the villagers; after all, they're not having an easy time either, and we can't let them raise the little guy for nothing."
"Okay, let's do it your way, An Xiaolin."
Hearing the conversation nearby, the woman walked over without any further hesitation.
"...Fellow villager?"
“My name is Huaihua, and I live in a nearby village. I heard what you were saying. By the way, please don’t misunderstand, I just happened to be passing by and overheard it. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.”
"Don't be nervous, fellow villager, we don't blame you."
“I’ll call you Sister-in-law Huaihua. This is Nurse Lin. She’s right, we don’t blame you. Now I have something I’d like to ask you…”
"Don't bother with any begging or pleading. I know what you're going to say, comrade. I promise, as long as I have a bite to eat, I'll make sure to feed this child as much as I can."
"Thank you! Sister Huaihua, I sincerely thank you!"
Not long after birth, the swaddled baby was handed to the woman.
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