It seems to be true, but it is not true. No one is wrong, it is just fate...
"What does the Beiling Village incident have to do with the Jiang family and the girl's kidnapping case?" After listening to the long story, Wen Zichuan still didn't understand what he cared about most.
"I don't know." Lin Hanzhen said firmly.
How could I not know?
Wen Zichuan was extremely confused. If his mother didn't know the whole story, why would she, like Lin Xin, immediately think of his father and start talking about his father's story when she heard the words "girl kidnapping case" and "murderer"?
Lin Hanzhen's gaze drooped to the ground, her voice betraying either regret or remorse. "We returned to the institute empty-handed, wasting five years with nothing. Your father has always wondered if things would have been different if we had excavated the ancient tomb and gained archaeological findings."
However, in such circumstances, Wen Zichuan was born.
Taking care of a mother and baby is a particularly strenuous task. Wen Duo is a new father and does everything by himself. Once he is busy, he has no time to worry about it.
But every night, when his wife and children fell asleep, he would sit alone until dawn.
Wen Duo fell into deep self-doubt and worry about his bleak future. He had no way to vent his accumulated emotions, so he took it out on Lin Hanzhen, who had strongly opposed him in the past.
Lin Hanzhen understood him and tried to help him, so she asked a distant cousin to let Wen Duo go to her shop to learn calligraphy and painting restoration.
This distant sister is Lin Xin.
Master Lin implemented the traditional method of education through beating and scolding. Once the apprentices did something wrong, they would be beaten and scolded. For lighter punishments, they would carry a bowl of water or a paperweight and go under a tree to "stand by the rules."
Wen Duo couldn't stand this. He could barely endure it after being humiliated by his master a few times, but he didn't expect that his senior brother Jiang Yunli would dare to punish him, pointing out his mistakes and making him "stand by the rules" to reflect on his mistakes.
He felt that he was not wrong at all, it was just that they had a different understanding of the repair ideas.
After a long time, the apprentices disliked him and Master Lin refused to keep him.
After hearing this, Lin Hanzhen hurriedly took Wen Zichuan to Master Lin's house to plead for mercy, hoping that he would show mercy and keep Wen Duo so that he could have a skill and support his family in the future.
Wen Duo hated the way she begged for help the most, so he had a quarrel with her and never went to Master Lin again.
Unable to become an apprentice, Lin Hanzhen felt increasingly unhappy as she watched Wen Duo become more and more depressed day by day.
In the past, in Beiling Village, although the conditions were difficult, at least they lived in harmony and love for a long time, and Wen Duo also said that they would hold a wedding after they got out.
Now that they were back, Lin Hanzhen didn't dare to mention the matter of re-holding the wedding unless Wen Duo mentioned it.
Raising a child requires money, and holding a wedding also requires money. Wen Duo does not have a formal job, and it is good enough that she can make ends meet with just her salary.
One day, Lin Hanzhen suggested going back to Fengbo and asking her parents for help.
When Wen Duo heard this, he thought, "She's asking for help again. Asking her parents for help, doesn't that mean her husband is useless?"
In a fit of anger, Wen Duo left home.
"During that time, your father was never home. The only time I caught him making an overseas call was once."
"Overseas call? Is he in contact with someone foreign?"
"He speaks English very well and has some foreign friends before, but he didn't mention it, so I didn't ask."
Wen Duo went from returning home intermittently, to returning home only once in a long time, and then to not returning home for two or three years in a row, as if it was something that happened naturally.
Lin Hanzhen couldn't contact him. She didn't know what he was doing outside, whether he had found a job, why he didn't bring money home, and whether he didn't want her and her son anymore.
When Wen Zichuan was four years old, he already had some memories. At that time, uncles and aunts often asked him if he knew where his father had gone.
He didn't know, so he went home and asked his mother, but his mother also said she didn't know.
Gradually, he realized that he was a fatherless child.
"The ancient tombs of Beiling Village were finally excavated by the newly reorganized archaeological team of the institute."
"When did it happen?"
"It was 1998. The rainy season was also very long that year."
"Where is the Gravekeeper Clan? Where is the female clan leader?"
"have no idea."
Lin Hanzhen believed that this archaeological excavation should have nothing to do with Wen Duo. After all, when he resigned, he had a very bad relationship with the institute. Given his personality, it was impossible for him to participate again.
But at that time, some people had been asking about Wen Duo's whereabouts, both openly and secretly, which made her very troubled.
There was no other way, she could only ask the leaders of the institute.
The leader told her that when the new archaeological team found the ancient tomb, it was too late. The tomb had already been looted, the tomb chamber collapsed into pieces, and the cultural relics were almost looted.
Apart from Wen Duo, they couldn't think of anyone else who could locate the ancient tomb of Beiling Village so accurately, and get there before them, destroy the tomb, and steal the cultural relics.
"Where is that person?" Lin Hanzhen asked.
"Who is it?" The leader looked puzzled.
The new archaeological team did not see anyone in Beiling Village. Lin Hanzhen even wondered if Wu Heng had figured it out and left the village with her people.
But in that era, communication was not well developed, and it was almost impossible to find them in the vast crowd.
In fact, there is no evidence to show that Wen Duo led his men to rob the ancient tomb.
But the archaeologists' hatred for destructive tomb robbing and regret for the loss of a large number of cultural relics were like dry wood adding fuel to a fire, which only burned more fiercely. Even if a tiny spark splashed on Lin Hanzhen, it would cause her unbearable burning pain.
She is an adult and can comfort herself and be more open-minded at the right time, but she also has a child. As Wen Zichuan grows up, she is afraid that those groundless rumors will affect the child.
In 1999, Lin Hanzhen quit her job and returned to her mother's home in Fengbo with Wen Zichuan.
Wen Zichuan had experienced the power of rumors. When Yaya Yiyu went bankrupt, he was implicated by an explosive article analyzing the gossip about the relationship between Quan Zong and Mu Qi. No matter which studio he submitted his resume to, he was rejected. He had no choice but to choose a training institution.
"In 1999, when I was five, I returned to Fengbo... The following year was the millennium, and the kidnapping happened?" Wen Zichuan seemed to have grasped the connection between the two events. "I was seven in 2001, the year my father returned?"
After talking for too long, Lin Hanzhen leaned back in her chair and said tiredly, "Lin Xin and Jiang Yunli's daughter is also my distant niece. After hearing about the kidnapping, I was very sad and regretful. I wanted to go to Dengyuan to express my condolences, but Lin Xin suddenly called and scolded me harshly."
"She said that our family are murderers. Does she think that my father was responsible for the kidnapping?"
"Yes. There was an eyewitness who said there were foreigners among the kidnappers."
"ah?!"
"When your father was an apprentice at the Lin family, he secretly made overseas calls. She believes that your father not only robbed ancient tombs, but also transported cultural relics abroad. Since there are foreigners among the kidnappers, it must be related to your father."
"No way?" Wen Zichuan's mind was almost spinning. "There are foreigners among the kidnappers. My father has contacted foreigners. Does that mean they are definitely related? There are billions of people in foreign countries. It's not like they are targeting any particular person."
"You agree with me, don't you? They're ridiculous."
"Mom, shouldn't you tell the story of Beiling Village instead of letting them misunderstand it?"
"I promised Wu Heng not to tell anyone about Beiling Village, but since you're my child, I'll tell you. Besides, your father's biggest wish in Beiling Village was to excavate ancient tombs. Telling about that experience wouldn't just make things worse."
Wen Zichuan has had little communication with his father since he grew up, and almost twenty years have passed, so he can't even remember what his father looks like.
"Mom, do you think my dad did those things?"
"no."
"Did you ask him when he came back?"
"I did."
"What did he say?"
"He asked me if I still believed in him, and I said, 'I do believe in him.'"
"Then what?"
"He's gone."
“…”
Wen Zichuan didn't know what words to use to judge his father. If Wen Duo was innocent, why did he leave? He just walked away like that, as if he was fleeing from the crime.
Considering Wen Duo's "escape for fear of crime" and Lin Hanzhen's deliberate concealment, it is no wonder that Lin Xin said that their whole family were murderers.
Wen Zichuan squatted next to Lin Hanzhen and held her hand: "Mom, do you hate my dad?"
Lin Hanzhen shook her head. "I thought I would hate him, but when I think back to everything that happened back then, I feel like it was all fate."
"If, I mean if, my dad was more down-to-earth and stayed at the research institute, or learned a craft from Master Lin and opened a shop, would we be better off?"
"I don't know. But if he stayed in China, he would probably meet a better woman, right? If he finds another woman, wouldn't it be just the two of us?"
Wen Zichuan leaned on his mother's knees, feeling bitter for her grievance.
Lin Hanzhen trusted Wen Duo wholeheartedly from beginning to end, worshipped him, admired him, and even gave birth to a child for him, but she never dared to be sure or expected that he loved her.
Wen Zichuan raised his hand and wiped the corners of his eyes. He didn't want to make his mother sad because of his own sadness.
"I'm hungry. I'll go heat up some food." He picked up the cold food and turned into the kitchen. With the low roar of the range hood covering his eyes, he dared to turn his back to his mother and shed a few tears.
Lin Hanzhen leaned against the kitchen door, looking at her son's back, feeling mixed emotions.
The reason why she brought him back to Fengbo and persevered no matter how hard it was was because she didn't want Zichuan to be affected by the grievances of the previous generation, and wanted him to grow up safely like an ordinary child.
But now, the saying "fate plays tricks on us" is still proven.
She also didn't expect that Zichuan insisted on staying in Dengyuan after graduation, and in that big city of tens of millions of people, he met Jiang Yunli's apprentice.
"Mom, it's hot, let's eat."
"Well, you should sit down and eat."
The mother and son hadn't seen each other for several months, and they were both happy to get together for a home-cooked meal.
Wen Zichuan picked up a piece of fish belly meat for Lin Hanzhen: "You should eat more fish to supplement protein, which is good for your health."
While Lin Hanzhen was eating, she suddenly asked, "Is the Cheng family's child good to you?"
Wen Zichuan stopped moving, his heart beating wildly in his chest: "I didn't listen to you and even shared the apartment with him. He... is very nice."
"Xiaochuan, no matter what he does, you have to treat yourself well."
"Yeah." Wen Zichuan nodded randomly. He couldn't tell if his mother had guessed the relationship between him and Cheng Sizhou. "Don't worry, I'm fine."
"Old Jiang must be very sad because of something that happened to him. You should comfort him more. If there is anything that is not explained clearly, don't be afraid of arguing. Sometimes, arguing can actually open up things."
"Yes, I will. Anyway, there are no ancient tombs in Beiling Village anymore. Mr. Jiang definitely didn't go to Longji Mountain for the ancient tombs, and it has nothing to do with my father or our family."
"We have done nothing wrong. Even if you want to accuse us, you must provide evidence."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
