Chapter 132 Telegram
Nan Zhiyi's heart skipped a beat.
telegraph?
She hurried out of the courtyard gate, where the postman was waiting for her with a telegram.
After she signed for it, she took the thin telegram, which contained only a short line of text:
[Don't worry about me. I'll be home in two days. Wait for me. Gu Xiao.]
He'll be back soon!
Nan Zhiyi held the telegram, her face beaming.
She handed the envelope to the postman: "Comrade, could you please mail this letter for me as well?"
The postman took the letter, nodded, and left.
Nan Zhiyi held the telegram high and quickly walked back to the living room.
"Aunt Wu! Aunt Wu! Fifth Brother is coming back! He'll be home in a couple of days!"
Aunt Wu was tidying up in the kitchen when she heard the noise and peeked out, her face beaming with joy.
"Oh! That's wonderful! Commander Gu is finally coming back!" She wiped her hands as she came out, took the telegram, looked at it, calculated the days, and smiled, "It's about time he came back. It's almost Qingming Festival."
Qingming Festival.
Time flies. In the blink of an eye, it has been more than a year since my parents left us.
For her, the past year has been nothing short of earth-shattering.
Her family was destroyed, she was forced into a hasty marriage, she went to war, she learned to do laundry and cook, she endured gossip, she suffered from morning sickness, she encountered malice... Each and every one of these things was like a heavy millstone of fate grinding over her world.
Now, she is about to become a mother.
She really...missed them; her heart ached slightly with longing.
She longed to show her parents what she looked like now, to rush into her mother's arms and tell her about the hardships of pregnancy, and to have her father pat her head...
When Aunt Wu saw Nan Zhiyi's eyes redden, her heart ached. She quickly put down the telegram and gently comforted her, "Zhiyi, don't be sad. As the old saying goes, the departed have gone to a better place to enjoy happiness. If they knew you were doing well now, that Commander Gu doted on you, and that you were about to have a grandson, they would be so happy!"
She quickly changed the subject, "By the way, we need to prepare some things for the memorial service in advance. What do you think we should prepare for our in-laws? Chrysanthemums? Or their favorite snacks and fruits? We also need to prepare incense, candles, and paper money... I just don't know if we can buy them..."
Nan Zhiyi rubbed her eyes, trying hard to suppress the bitterness in her heart.
Not wanting Wu Ma to worry too much, she replied softly, "Yes, my parents prefer something simple and elegant."
A thought crossed her mind, and she asked, "Aunt Wu, should we also prepare for Fifth Brother's mother and the Commander's first wife? I don't know much about their affairs yet."
When the Gu family's past was mentioned, Wu Ma's expression became more wistful.
She sighed: "I heard that the Commander's first wife passed away early, when the Commander was still fighting. I don't know the specifics, as the Commander rarely mentions it. The person we mainly commemorate is the birth mother of Regiment Commander Gu and Comrade Gu Yan, who is also the Commander's second wife. We all call her Mrs. Su."
Nan Zhiyi nodded. She often visited the Gu family, but she had never heard Gu Yan and Gu Xiao mention their mother.
Gu Yan always had a carefree and cynical attitude, as if he didn't care about anything.
Gu Xiao was even more taciturn, and avoided talking about his mother.
“Mrs. Su,” Aunt Wu said, lost in memories, “was truly a wonderful person. She was exceptionally gentle, spoke softly, and was kind to the servants. I never saw her raise her head. She was also very pretty, like someone from a painting. The Commander cherished her dearly back then.”
Nan Zhiyi listened quietly, imagining the gentle and kind Madam Su whom she had never met.
"What a pity," Wu Ma sighed heavily. "Madam Su's health was never very good, and giving birth to Gu Yan further depleted her vital energy. Medical conditions were also poor at that time, and Gu Yan was only two years old when she passed away."
Wu Ma's voice lowered, "The Commander at that time... sigh, even a man of iron almost collapsed. He locked himself in his study for days. Regiment Commander Gu was only seven or eight years old then. He was precocious and knew his mother was gone, he cried so much... Gu Yan was too young then, he didn't understand anything, and he cried along with his brother... poor thing..."
Wu Ma didn't say anything more, she just shook her head and sighed.
Nan Zhiyi felt a dull ache in her chest, as if something was blocking it.
It turns out that everyone in this world has their own suffering and their own scars.
She lost her parents, and they lost their mother.
Time may smooth out some rough edges, but it cannot truly heal the deepest ravines in one's heart.
Seeing the tears welling up in Nan Zhiyi's eyes, Aunt Wu suppressed her sigh and slapped her thigh, saying, "Alright, alright, look at me, I kept bringing up old, trivial things, making you feel bad. I won't say anymore!"
"Right now, the most important thing is to prepare everything for the Qingming Festival tomb sweeping. We need to prepare a set for our in-laws, Mrs. Su, and the Commander's first wife with sincerity and respect."
Nan Zhiyi nodded seriously: "Okay, I haven't prepared for this before, so I'll have to trouble you, Aunt Wu."
Aunt Wu pondered, "Incense and paper money are indispensable. Although things are tense outside, it's only natural for us to quietly pay respects to our ancestors and express our feelings. We can always get the things through certain channels, but we have to be careful."
"Well, I don't have much to do these past few days. I'm not very good with my hands, but I can still do some easy tasks like folding ingots and gold ingots, or helping to stamp the marks on ghost money."
She recalled that when she was a child in the Shen family, her mother would ask her to help fold some simple paper money when worshipping their ancestors.
“Oh, that’s wonderful! You’re so meticulous and skillful, the ingots you fold will surely be beautiful! Also, we need to prepare a few simple offerings. The pastries and fruits that our in-laws loved to eat, and the simple fresh flowers that Madam Su liked—I’ll think of those. The Commander will probably also be preparing offerings.”
Aunt Wu chattered on and on, making arrangements: "Alright, it's settled then. Go back to your room and rest. I'll go to the kitchen and see if I can make you some light soup tonight."
Nan Zhiyi obediently returned to her bedroom.
Over the next two days, Wu Ma used her connections with relatives and friends to buy the necessary items.
Several white candles, bundles of incense sticks, and a large amount of paper money.
Nan Zhiyi's main task was to deal with these fire paper offerings.
Aunt Wu placed a stack of joss paper, a small stamp, and a small dish of red ink paste made of cinnabar and oil on the table.
"Zhiyi, just lay the paper flat, dip this stamp in some red clay, and tap it onto the paper one by one to make the shape of 'money'. No need to rush, take your time."
"good."
Nan Zhiyi picked up the stamp, dipped it in the ink, and tapped it hard on the yellow paper, making a slight "thud" sound. A clear copper coin pattern was then left on the paper.
As she tapped, she silently recited what she wanted to say to her parents, to Mrs. Su whom she had never met, and even to Commander Gu's first wife.
Wu Ma was folding gold ingots with her hands flying.
After all the offerings were prepared, Aunt Wu carefully put them into an old rattan box.
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