Chapter 415: Ke Lao's Memories
415
Lai Jiaxing and Wu Jinghua were very happy, but wasn’t it a little too early for Xiangxiang to come today?
The two of them quickly got off the bed, and Lai Jiaxing immediately went to open the door. When he saw three people standing outside, Lai Jiaxing saw the little Tang Yue at first sight.
"This is, Xiao Yueyue? Xiao Yueyue is back? That's great! Come in quickly."
Wu Jinghua also walked to the door. When she heard her husband talking about Xiao Yueyue, Wu Jinghua had already come over. When she saw clearly that it was really Tang Yue, she burst into tears of joy.
"It's really Xiao Yueyue, that's great. Come in quickly."
I returned to the bullpen. It was completely different from the last time I saw it. How should I put it? There were a lot more things, and most importantly, it felt like home. It no longer felt like the prison cell I'd been trapped in.
It was clear this place had been meticulously decorated. It looked like it was ready for a good life. The house was wrapped in black tarpaulin, preventing any light from entering.
The water had just been poured and before we could say a few words, Mr. He came over to call for help.
"Haha, I heard the little girl is back. How about you all come to our room and sit for a while? Mr. Ke also wants to see the children, but his legs can't move."
There was nothing wrong with that. So a few people took their teacups and went to the rooms of Mr. Ke and Mr. He.
The others questioned Tang Yue for a while, and she answered every question. Tang Jianye once again acted as a porter. The items were the same as Lai Xiang's, except there were two of them.
Tang Jianye only showed the things in front of a few people for a moment. For safety reasons, he wrapped all the things in oilcloth and buried them in the snow opposite the two houses.
While it's unlikely they'd come to inspect during this time, that's just speculation. What if? There's so much food, it's hard to explain. This is fine; I can just come out and grab it when I want to eat.
The couple thanked him profusely. Both rooms were warm, but Lai Xiang said it was warmer during the day than at night. They were reluctant to light a fire, so the temperature at night was not as good as during the day.
However, Tang Yue felt it and found that although it was not as warm as Lai Xiang's room, it was at least over 20 degrees Celsius. They all had thick quilts and were not cold at all.
Tang Yue came this time for a reason. She wanted to confirm something.
The last time she saw Mr. Ke, she felt a sense of familiarity and closeness. However, she didn't know why at the time. She just thought it was because the two old men looked so miserable.
But when she met Kong Xiangwei and Kong Weihan, father and son, in Maozi Country, Tang Yue suddenly understood that feeling. It must be the feeling of blood being thicker than water.
Tang Yue finally remembered whose shadow she could see on Mr. Ke's face. Seeing the little girl staring at him, Mr. Ke coughed lightly out of embarrassment.
Tang Yue smiled. Mr. Ke had been eating well and resting well recently. The deathly look on his face had faded, and he looked more like her mother, Lin Cuicui.
That's right, she felt that her mother was very similar to the old man in front of her.
"Xiao Yueyue, what's wrong with you? Why are you always staring at Lao Ke? I'm similar to him, both have a face like a cabbage stalk. Come, look at me too."
Mr. He laughed and joked. Tang Yue smiled at him, then turned around and got straight to the point.
"Grandpa Ke, have you ever lost a daughter?"
With a bang, Mr. Ke almost fainted. After a long while, he finally recovered. He looked at the people who were worried about her and grabbed Tang Yue's hand.
"Xiao Yueyue, have you seen my daughter?"
Old Ke held Tang Yue's hand tightly. His dry hands were trembling at this moment, as if he was holding the last ray of hope that he had been searching for his daughter in the darkness for many years.
His eyes were instantly filled with tears, his cloudy eyes were full of pain and expectation, and his voice was trembling.
Without waiting for Tang Yue's reply, he slowly began to talk about the past that had been forgotten by time but was still heartbreaking.
That had to be traced back to the turbulent 1930s, when the flames of war, like the devil's minions, raged mercilessly across the land of China.
Towns and villages were reduced to ruins by artillery fire, and people were displaced. Cries and shouts were heard throughout the devastated land.
At that time, Mr. Ke was still an ambitious and passionate young man. With the lofty ideal of saving the country and the people, he resolutely threw himself into the torrent of revolution.
His wife, a gentle, kind, brave and resolute barefoot doctor, decided to stand by him and contribute her medical skills to the revolution after learning about his intentions.
On that brutal battlefield, shrouded in a hail of bullets, the couple supported each other, navigating the gap between life and death. Every roar of an artillery shell shook the earth, stirring up dust that filled the air and obscured their vision.
But they never showed any intention of retreating, and their eyes always showed the determination and persistence that the revolution would eventually triumph.
The gears of fate turn quietly, and accidents always happen at the most difficult moments.
Mr. Ke's wife was pregnant, but in those war-torn days, this news was not considered good news. They had seen too many children die in the flames of war.
But there was no time to think carefully, as the battle on the front lines was entering a white-hot stage. The soldiers of the army fought bravely in the hail of bullets, suffering casualties. They could only fight on the front lines.
Mr. Ke's wife also endured great pain and struggled to bring the child into this world full of gunpowder behind that extremely simple position that could only barely shelter her from the wind and rain, accompanied by the sound of gunfire.
The baby's first clear cry was like a faint ray of dawn penetrating the clouds in the darkness, instantly lighting up the tired hearts of the old couple Ke.
Mr. Ke still remembers what he looked like at that time. With trembling hands, he gently took his daughter in her cradle, looked at her wrinkled but incredibly cute little face, his eyes filled with the joy and tenderness of being a new father.
However, this short-lived joy was soon ruthlessly shattered by the cruel reality.
Mr. Ke looked around. The smoke from the battlefield had not yet dissipated. The pungent smell of gunpowder filled the air. The soldiers around him were either groaning from injuries or running around busily.
They lack food and clothing, and are short of medicine. Even their own survival faces huge challenges. How can they provide their children with a stable environment for growth?
Looking at his daughter crying for food in the cradle, Mr. Ke felt as if his heart was being pierced by thousands of needles, filled with helplessness and pain.
After a painful struggle, in order to keep the child alive, they had to make a difficult decision - to entrust the child to a reliable fellow villager to help raise him.
The fellow villager, a farmer from a nearby village, had a simple, honest face full of the vicissitudes of life. He looked at the tired but determined couple, then at the fragile child in their arms. His eyes instantly reddened, and he nodded solemnly, promising to take good care of the child.
Mr. Ke’s wife handed the child to her fellow villager with trembling hands, as if she was holding the most precious treasure in the world.
Tears flowed uncontrollably down her cheeks. She sobbed and begged her fellow villagers over and over again: "You must help them take good care of the children. If one day we can come back alive, we will definitely repay the great kindness of our fellow villagers..."
Mr. Ke suppressed the grief that was like a knife in his heart, stuffed his only savings, those wrinkled banknotes soaked with sweat, into his fellow villager's hand, and asked him in a hoarse voice to treat the child well.
They watched their fellow villager walking away with the child in his arms, and the figure gradually became blurred in the smoke-filled battlefield.
It was as if a piece of the heart of the old couple Ke was dug out, and they felt so empty that they could almost hear the whistling of the wind.
From then on, the child's appearance would appear in their minds every day and night, and that little figure was deeply engraved in their hearts like a brand.
Finally, the long war ended and the dawn of peace once again shone upon the earth. Filled with joy and immense anticipation, Mr. Ke and his wife embarked on the long journey to find their daughter.
They returned to the village where they had left their child, but the scene before them was a shattering experience. The village they once knew was completely shattered, with war destroying everything.
Houses collapsed and broken walls stood in the wind, as if telling the cruelty of war.
The fellow villager's home had long disappeared. When asking around, the villagers either shook their heads and sighed, or looked confused. No one knew where the fellow villager had gone with his children.
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