Chapter 299 Extra
He died of old age, and the fortune teller Zhao Zhaodi was helpless.
After all, Old Mrs. Ye did not survive that snowy night and fell asleep peacefully in the company of her family. She was eighty-eight years old.
In accordance with her will, the whole family brought her ashes back to Xiahe Village and buried her next to Ye Errong. The two tombstones were close together, and the mother and son would never be separated again.
After the funeral, Old Man Ye, who had originally been in good health, began to decline at a speed visible to the naked eye. His back was deeply bent, and his staggering legs seemed unable to support his body. He needed someone to support him to take a few steps.
He was unwilling to return to Hong Kong and stubbornly stayed in the old house, guarding the place where his family had lived all their lives and guarding his wife and children who were buried in the mountains behind the house.
There were many idle people in the old Ye family. Seeing that Old Man Ye didn't want to leave, they stayed with him.
Xiahe Village is no longer what it used to be. Many families in the village have demolished their original mud houses and built stylish three-story villas with carved iron gates and bright floor-to-ceiling windows. They plant two rows of green onions and peppers in front of their houses and live a happy life year after year.
There are cement roads paving the way through the villages, with buildings and houses of varying heights. Every household drives a car. Looking around, a village hidden on the side of a mountain is more prosperous than the commercial street in the city.
Amidst the prosperity, there is a family in the village that is out of tune with the rapidly developing environment.
Low-lying brown earthen walls, broken wooden windows covered with paper paste, bricks and tiles on the roof with missing edges and corners, and the black-painted wooden door at the entrance, which has weathered at the bottom and faded on the surface due to age.
The dilapidated earthen house was sandwiched between two snow-white European-style buildings, and its already dilapidated appearance looked even more desolate.
This family seems to have been forgotten by time in the 1960s and 1970s. It feels like once someone pushes open the weathered wooden door, they will take a time machine back to that sunny time.
"Squeak~" the old wooden door made a noise due to its long-term disrepair.
A pair of camel-colored sheepskin-soled suede high heels strode out from behind the dry and chipped wooden door. Looking up, the person had a trendy Hong Kong-style perm, painted eyebrows and eyes, a yellow and purple flowered silk scarf tied around her neck, and a well-made black women's leather bag in her hand.
The lady was very elegant, and seemed out of place in the shabby house behind her.
Old man Ye said he wanted to eat tofu today. Zhao Zhaodi glanced at her watch and estimated that the supermarket at the entrance of the village should have tofu at this time. She picked up her briefcase, turned around and went to the yard to tell Ye Lin who was sitting on a mat reading a book, then went out to buy tofu.
"Tofu Tofu, this doesn't seem like a good thing. We need to move faster."
Zhao Zhaodi half-closed the wooden door and walked briskly in her five-centimeter high heels towards the supermarket.
It has been three years since Mrs. Ye passed away.
In order to take care of Old Man Ye, Ye Lin, Zhao Zhaodi, Jin Fenglian and others have hardly left Xiahe Village in the past three years, taking turns to look after the old man who is losing his energy day and night.
Since the beginning of spring this year, Old Man Ye vaguely felt that it was time for him to eat. He began to be reluctant to eat and wanted to go over there to see his wife and children as soon as possible. In order to coax him to eat, Ye Lin personally went to the kitchen to wash the pots and cut the vegetables. He had to use sweet words to persuade him to eat a little. It was even harder to coax him than the baby Ye Xiuhong had just given birth to at the beginning of the year.
The stubborn old man who was on a hunger strike suddenly wanted to take advantage of me today. I'm afraid the situation is not good.
Ye Lin threw the German book in his hand on the stool, and quickly went to the inner room to check on Old Man Ye.
At the main hall door, I ran into Ye Sanxing, who came out with a wash basin and splashed water.
"Uncle San, I heard from Auntie that Grandpa wants to eat something?"
Ye Sanxing shook the water droplets in the basin and sighed: "If you want to eat tofu cooked in brine, I think your grandfather will probably have it in the next two days."
Putting the wash basin in the sun to dry, Ye Sanxing wiped his hands and went back to the house to find his newly bought mobile phone: "You go in and accompany your grandfather first. I'll call your aunt and Xiuhong and the others. We need them to come back quickly."
After eating tofu, Old Man Ye died that night.
He kept mumbling nonsense, sometimes talking about threshing wheat, sometimes talking about cutting grass for pigs.
When it was almost dawn, after waking up for a while, Old Man Ye tried to raise his cloudy eyes and looked at the people in the room under the warm yellow light. He felt that someone was missing, but he couldn't think of it.
Old man Ye opened his mouth, and Ye Dajun lay down to listen to what he was saying.
"Less... less, less..."
Ye Dajun nodded with tears in his eyes, and stroked the old man's chest again and again, comforting his anxious father like coaxing a child, "Dad, it's Xiulan who hasn't arrived yet. She's in Europe for business and is on her way back. Please wait for her, she will be back soon."
Old man Ye didn't know whether he heard clearly or not. After Ye Dajun finished speaking, he stopped asking about Ye Xiulan. He looked at Ye Lin at the end of the bed and tried to speak to Ye Lin.
"Ah...home, you..."
"Don't worry, sir. I know what you want to say."
Ye Lin walked around Ye Sanxing and Ye Dajun, strode to the head of the bed, knelt down beside it, firmly grasped Old Man Ye's hand with both hands, and assured him: "Don't worry, I will definitely protect our home and everyone in our family. I will, I promise."
After hearing Ye Lin's assurance, Old Man Ye seemed to have lost the last bit of his strength. His palms became weak, and he slowly let go of Ye Lin's hand and fell into a deep sleep again. His breath was so weak that it was almost imperceptible.
He was using his last bit of strength to wait for Ye Xiulan to come back.
The first rays of sunlight from the rising sun shone through the paper window into the dim house, accompanied by a earth-shaking knock on the door outside.
The noisy noise must be his little granddaughter coming home. Old man Ye finally had no worries in his heart. The moment Ye Xiulan rushed into the main room, he smiled and fell asleep peacefully. It was time for him to go find his wife.
He was ninety-two years old.
The last handful of yellow earth fell with the wind, and an era came to an end.
Ye Lin and Ye Xiulan were walking together in the woods in mourning clothes. The whole area was filled with graves, and the smoky smell of burning paper money lingered in their noses. In the distance, there were some relatives and friends who came to mourn for Old Man Ye.
According to the old rules, women are not allowed to follow into the woods, but who cares? The Ye family has never followed the rules.
Ye Xiulan stared at the smoke rising in the distance and suddenly said, "Brother Lin, do you think people have an afterlife?"
Ye Lin stepped over a dirt pit: "Maybe."
Ye Xiulan slowly stopped and suddenly turned to look at Ye Lin: "So, tell me, will we still be a family in our next life?"
Ye Lin did not give her a quick answer. He had thought about this question before. In his previous life in the orphanage, was there really no family in the world?
"I don't know, Xiulan, you're thinking too far ahead."
Ye Lin patted her head gently and continued walking forward
"Whether we are a family in the next life or not, no matter where you and I are, taking good care of ourselves is the greatest reward for our family. Okay, it's time to go home."
"I'm coming. Wait for me."
End of article
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