I can not only catch cicadas with an old man's cicadas, I can also catch cicadas with an old man's cicadas.
"Not only can I 'catch cicadas like an old man,' I can also 'catch cicadas like an old man—'"
64.
Today, the border between the north and south is defined by Wuyue Waterfall and Langu Creek. Langu Creek belongs to the northern Luan territory, and its waters flow gently downstream from Wuyue Waterfall on the north side of Wuyue Mountain. During Lanjian's first month studying on the southern slope, she was taken on an outing near Wuyue Waterfall by her university classmates. However, in recent years, due to ongoing disputes between the north and south, the southern government has sent people to block off the scenic area where Wuyue Waterfall is located.
After the Spring Festival, the Southern Army announced the lifting of the security period, and after today, the Wuyue Waterfall Scenic Area will reopen.
After learning that the troops were about to withdraw today, Ming Zijuan took her son and daughter-in-law into the mountains. After the last vehicle of the main force left at noon, leaving only one company guarding the scenic area, she took Lu Jie's car and entered the Wuyue Waterfall Scenic Area, which she had not visited for a long time.
Lu Jie was already waiting for them at the first old guard post. He had changed out of his military uniform and was wearing a casual shirt that Ms. Ming had prepared for him. He set up the barbecue grill with a relaxed and carefree air.
“When Weiwei was little, she loved my grilled meat skewers the most!” Lu Jie handed the first skewer of meat for the day to Lan Jian. “Here, Lan Jian, try my cooking!”
Lan Jian was stunned for a moment.
This was the first time Lu Jie had referred to himself as "Dad" in front of her.
She called Ming Zijuan "mama" without any burden, because Ming Zijuan had protected her from the very first time they met, her eyes clearly showing her favoritism.
But Lu Jie was different.
Lan Jian knew Lu Jie before she came to Nanlu University. He and her uncle Zhou Puzhao were operations staff officers in their respective armies, and the two had been rivals and friends for many years. Lan Jian went to Nanlu on Zhou Puzhao's advice. He said that the Nanlu government looked down on nuclear energy or no longer wanted to send students from Beiluan to study at the nuclear research institute. However, he was worried that some people within the Southern Party were deceiving their superiors and were still secretly developing nuclear weapons. If no students were sent, Nanlu might tear up the nuclear peace treaty ahead of schedule.
So Zhou Puzhao sent Lan Jian to Nanhua University to study aircraft design with Jing You. At that time, Lan Jian only knew that Zhou Puzhao had connections in Nanlu and could help her enter Jing You's laboratory smoothly as a student of Beiluan University.
Although she had been a student at Beiluan University for many years, she had rarely encountered obstacles in her studies at Nanlu due to her special status. Her choice to enter the Nuclear Research Institute was also at the request of her family, who hoped that she could go to Nanlu to seek some truth. Along the way, Lan Jian could sense that her smooth journey was because someone was helping her in secret, but she did not know that that person was Lu Jie.
It wasn't until the day he met Lu Jie at the Fourth Nuclear Science Department that Meng Lanjian suddenly realized that the marriage alliance between the North and South was probably a backup plan devised by their elders.
For fifty years, factional strife has been severe in the South, while corruption has plagued the North. If war were to break out again between the two regions, it would be an opportunity for those with ill intentions to amass wealth and power. For their own selfish desires, they could turn young soldiers into pawns, turn the land that nurtured them into scorched earth under the flames of war, and even turn the smoke of war into a clarion call for decadent indulgence.
Because of these people, it's extremely difficult for the North and South to truly unify...
Lan Jian looked at Lu Jie, whose temples were turning gray, suppressed her many thoughts, and smiled as she accepted the skewer of meat. "Thank you, Dad."
Lu Jie's usually imposing face softened with a touch of friendliness as he smiled at Lan Jian and said, "You're welcome."
Ms. Chongming and Ms. Ming Zijuan observed the interaction between the two, and the mother and son exchanged a smile.
After noon, a sudden afternoon thunderstorm struck. The rain was heavy, but it passed in an instant. Chongming held Lanjian in his arms in the pavilion, watching the raindrops fall obliquely. Behind them were his parents, who were nestled together. His parents were chatting and laughing, but he and Lanjian were very, very quiet.
After the rain stopped, two rainbow bridges appeared over the cascading Wuyue Waterfall. The rainwater in the mountains evaporated quickly under the scorching sun, and the cicadas' chirping suddenly became louder.
"That's the sound of a grass cicada. It's the earliest cicada song in April." Chongming led Lanjian by the hand as they walked through the mountains. The path was rugged and not all flat. "After the grass cicada comes the cicada, which is smaller and not very pretty. I think the prettiest one is the thin-winged cicada, which comes in two colors: emerald green and orange-red. Birds love to eat this kind of cicada. Then there's the incredibly noisy black cicada. Black cicadas are such a nuisance in the summer. Sometimes when I'm camping in the mountains, I feel like my ears are going to be knocked off by them! When the autumn cicadas start singing, summer is over."
The family of four was going to wade in the stream, a place where he had played since childhood in Chongming. After it was designated as a scenic area, he rarely came back, but his memories of the mountains were still as clear as if they were yesterday. When he spoke of this, he unconsciously revealed a rare childlike innocence.
After listening to his description of cicadas in different seasons, Lan Jian couldn't help but smile. "Did you use a bamboo pole to catch cicadas when you were a child?"
Chongming knew perfectly well how quick-witted Meng Lanjian was. Seeing her eyes crinkle into crescent moons with laughter, he guessed she was recalling a story from Zhuangzi's "Da Sheng" chapter. He said seriously, "Yes, I practice my steadiness and concentration by balancing mud balls on a bamboo pole!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw her become even more overjoyed, almost unable to stand.
He pulled her into his arms, whispered in her ear, "I not only know 'Old Man Catches Cicadas,' I also know 'Old Man—'"
Lan Jian suddenly pushed him away.
His sudden unseriousness shattered all his childlike innocence and naivety.
Chongming stumbled a step after being pushed by her, and laughed heartily as he stepped back.
Lan Jian stumbled and jogged a few steps, still seemingly able to hear his inappropriate lewd remarks. Her face grew increasingly flushed, while he continued to chase after her, laughing loudly behind her.
She turned to glare at him, both embarrassed and annoyed. "Why are you as noisy as a cicada in a tree?"
Chongming shrugged, "Then come and stick to me... Ouch!"
Lan Jian watched as Ming Zijuan picked up a coconut-sized peach from under a tree and threw it at Chongming's back. She opened her mouth to warn Chongming, but then heard him teasing her again, so she let him be hit on the back by Ms. Ming.
The peaches were hard and sturdy, and Chongming was hit quite hard by his mother's blow.
"I'm upholding justice!" Ms. Ming approached with righteous indignation. "And what absurd things are you saying to bully Lan Jian?"
"How am I talking nonsense?" Chongming touched his muddy back, looking aggrieved. He frowned and muttered, "This is clearly just marital fun, and you had to interfere. What kind of nonsense is this!"
"What, you're not happy about it?" Ms. Ming Zijuan said, hands on her hips, waving her hand confidently. "Old Lu! Our son's grown up and doesn't listen to discipline. He's bullying his wife. What do you suggest we do?"
"Isn't that simple?" Lu Jie walked forward slowly with his hands behind his back. "Two kilometers ahead, you'll find the stream below the waterfall."
As soon as he finished speaking, Major General Lu, who was over fifty years old, took a leap and ran past everyone. Not to be outdone, Chongming shouted, "Dad, you're jumping the gun!" and chased after him, his figure quickly disappearing into the dense forest.
Lan Jian looked at Ming Zijuan, puzzled. "Mama, what's going on?"
"It's a game that the father and son have played for eight hundred years without getting tired of: whoever gets to the stream below the waterfall first makes the first move."
"Make a move?" Lan Jian took a breath. "Are they going to have another match?"
“Yes, if you fight on the stream bed, whoever gets wet first loses.” Ms. Ming Zijuan strolled leisurely under the dappled shadows of the trees. “I just deliberately hit this brat. The older he gets, the less close he is to his parents. I’ll have Old Lu give him a good beating so he can vent my anger and get revenge.”
Upon hearing the words "revenge," Lan Jian unconsciously curled the corners of her lips again. "Mama, do you think Chongming will definitely lose?"
“Well…” Ms. Ming Zijuan glanced at Lan Jian meaningfully, “it depends on how long it takes us to get there.”
Lan Jian was intrigued by Ming Zijuan's story and walked briskly along the way. However, Ms. Ming slowly pulled Lan Jian aside to tell her a story. She said that once, Chongming found a cuckoo's nest the size of a volleyball in the nearby bushes. There were two eggs inside. When the cuckoo's mother came face to face with the cuckoo returning to its nest, the cuckoo turned around and ran away and never came back.
"So what happened to the bird eggs?" Lan Jian asked, supporting Ming Zijuan as she listened to the story. "Were they given to the Forestry Bureau?"
“She was taken home by Weiwei, and after a week of being a mother hen, she hatched the chicks, only to be brought back and released by Chongming.” Ming Zijuan recounted this story with a nonchalant air at first, but then her tone shifted. “This incident deeply affected Chongming. He was still young then, and he ran into the forest for three days without seeing Fanjuan return, so he kept asking me, ‘Mama, will you abandon me like Fanjuan Mama did when we encounter danger?’”
At this point, Ms. Ming Zijuan rolled her eyes and said, "Son, your mother just has 'Juan' in her name. I'm not a real cuckoo that would abandon its nest and run away."
Lan Jian suddenly understood the implication in Ming Zijuan's words. She looked up and met Ming Zijuan's smiling gaze. She heard this wealthy mother-in-law, who had only recently become her family and was always decisive and efficient, now speaking to her with a motherly tenderness, "Lan Jian, what I want to tell you is that from the moment you decided to marry Chongming, you, like him, became my child. I can't guarantee that I can treat you 100% the way I treat Weiwei, but no matter what dangers may arise in the future, whether it's war or being forced to live in seclusion, as your mother, I will not abandon you like Fan Juan did."
Lan Jian felt a lump in her throat. Those missing pieces of her heart, those desires to be favored, to be cared for and protected in every way, but which had never been properly fulfilled, seemed to be filled in at this moment.
At this moment, what Lan Jian most wanted to say was not gratitude, but rather—
"Mama, seeing you like this makes me miss my grandma so much."
Ms. Ming Zijuan was taken aback.
“Grandma was the person who loved me the most in this world.” Lan Jian pointed to the waterfall stream not far away. The sounds of Chongming and his father playing on the stream bed could still be faintly heard. Downstream from that stream was Lan Valley Stream. Lan Jian’s former home was in Lan Valley, where orchids grew everywhere. “She rests in peace in the valley not far away.”
"She never got to see the man who abandoned her in her entire life."
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