After Liu Chenggong repeated the story again, Liu Jing roughly understood what had happened. Although it wasn't as serious as she had imagined, her brows were still slightly furrowed, and she looked very sad.
"Alright, alright, why are you all crowding around? It's not a big deal, just live your life as usual."
Liu Wucheng himself didn't think it was a big deal. Since there was no way to operate or cure it, everyone should just go about their business as usual. He would continue eating and drinking as usual, and when the time came, he would just lie down on the ground and be buried in the ground, wouldn't that be the end of it?
Seeing his optimistic demeanor, everyone's mood improved slightly. After spending some more time with their father (grandfather), they all went home.
Around 10 p.m. that night, Chen Shichao dragged his tired body back from town. Just as he was about to find Liu Yue to comfort him, he saw her telling him about her father with a worried expression.
Unable to find comfort elsewhere, he could only console his wife, reassuring her that it was nothing serious. Things were different now; they had more money and could afford to buy their parents supplements and medicine, as well as medical care and hospitalization. As long as they could spend more time with their parents and help them through the final stages of their lives, that was all they, as children, could do.
After hearing this, Liu Yue nodded twice, then looked up and began to feel grateful that her husband was capable and could earn money.
Chen Shichao felt slightly embarrassed because Chen Bing was listening nearby.
Chen Bing didn't have much of a reaction to the fact that someone else had taken his credit and praised him in front of him. He was currently as disheartened as Liu Yue was by this unexpected bad news.
Unlike her previous life, where she only had scattered memories of her maternal grandfather, in this life she spent a lot of time with him and experienced a kind of grandfather-grandson relationship that she had never felt before.
Now, the thought that such a kind old man would pass away in the near future, unable to participate in his life anymore, and unable to see his future achievements fills him with a deep sense of loss.
Life and death, separation and parting, the impermanence of life.
Chen Bing wanted to spend as much time as possible with her grandfather in the final days of his life, and to do her best to help him see her growth, to let him see the brilliance of her own growth at the age of five or six, and to see the continuation of his bloodline shining brightly in the future centuries.
...
With this in mind, time moved from 2009 to the 2010s, and Chen Bing started kindergarten at the age of five.
Over the past six months, my grandfather's health has not been as optimistic as we had hoped. His stomach pains have worsened to the point that he has difficulty swallowing, which has caused him to become much thinner.
My eldest uncle visited twice during this period, but seeing that my father seemed to be in relatively good condition, he didn't stay long. His business in Nanjing was quite successful, so he couldn't stay away for too long.
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month this year, when he returned to Jinling, he took his father to see a doctor, but the result was the same; the doctor only said to eat and drink well.
After seeing the doctor, he stayed in Nanjing for more than ten days, and then kept saying he wanted to come back.
Of all the cities he had ever lived in, Nanjing was probably the most prosperous city he had ever seen.
There were tall buildings there, and many novel things to do. But at his age, he had lost interest in the novelties; he preferred the places he was familiar with.
The small Shangping County, the small Baishi Town, the small Baixiang Village.
For decades, Liu Wucheng has been rooted in this land. He grew up here, he lived here, he worked here, his wife lived here, and all his memories are here.
I remember the tall piles of wheat stacked in the fields, the uncles selling popsicles on bicycles, my former colleagues, and the students I taught.
The hazy memories, weathered by time, have made it impossible for many people I haven't seen in years to recognize them.
But it is precisely this ambiguity that evokes his fond memories of the past.
So when he heard from others that the village would be demolished in a few years, he was actually happy because he was going to be among the first to go.
In the midst of his joy, he recalled his memories from birth once again.
Whenever he recalls joyful moments, he thinks about them a couple of times. For example, when he became a primary school teacher in town, when he married his wife, when his children were born…
His memory drifted back, and he recalled an interesting incident.
It was sometime between summer and autumn in the last century. After school let out for the holidays, he and his wife went to work in the fields.
The weather was better back then; in the twilight, dragonflies filled the sky. You could catch countless ones just by casting a net into the air.
Back then, I caught several dragonflies for my youngest daughter to play with, then rolled some tobacco in the paper in my pocket and enjoyed a smoke while irrigating the fields.
When his wife saw this, she came over and grumbled. He had no choice but to lift his bottom off the edge of the field and get back to work.
Just then, the sound of someone hawking popsicles drifted from afar. Before the youngest daughter could even ask for some, the wife poked her waist with two fingers and cried out that she wanted some.
So he took out a crumpled banknote from his waist and called his little daughter, who was playing nearby, to go and buy two sticks.
Liu Wucheng naturally didn't eat any; one of the popsicles was held by his youngest daughter, and the other by his wife. He then sat back down on the edge of the field, comfortably lighting a cigarette.
This time, his wife didn't say anything. She plopped down next to him, and the two of them, one eating an ice cream and the other smoking, quietly watched the water flow through the fields, carrying with it the memories of that time.
Speaking of which, what did popsicles taste like back then?
I haven't seen anyone selling things by pushing a bicycle for many years.
There seemed to be a popsicle shop at the back of the village, but his body couldn't support him walking that far to buy it.
However, he could have his descendants buy it, just like he did more than twenty years ago.
Looking at his grandson showing him calligraphy, Liu Wucheng smiled, then pulled out two crumpled banknotes from his waist with two fingers.
"Grandpa wants an ice pop, go buy me one."
After receiving the banknotes, the grandson ran away.
Although his figure ran out, the image of him in my memory ran in.
I remember it was summer, and he was staring blankly at his wife's photo when he suddenly heard a childish "Grandpa" coming from outside the door.
After that, this mature and sensible grandson often came to visit her alone.
How old was he then? While other children didn't even recognize people, he could cross half the village to get to his own home.
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