Chapter 165 Nian Nian's Initial Understanding of Death
The fifth-grade class was noisy, with white pages flying everywhere in the classroom.
"Brother, please help me copy my homework. Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda!"
"Okay, okay, take it."
"Thank you, brother! I will never forget your kindness!"
"Go away."
…
Nian Nian, who had honestly completed her homework during the summer vacation, stayed at her seat, supporting her face with her hands, staring blankly at nothing.
The first day that I’m not in the same school with brother Duan, I miss him.
Ji Shuhe, who was sitting on the left, tapped the table with a pen between his fingers. "Eh? Why hasn't Xi Zimu come to class yet?"
Nian Nian pulled herself out of the vortex of missing Jiang Duan and subconsciously glanced at Xi Zimu's seat. She was surprised, "Really? He hasn't arrived yet. Class is almost starting."
Xi Zimu was always the first of the three to arrive in the classroom. The last time he arrived, Nian Nian remembered, it was because he was sick.
The class representatives began to collect homework, and for a while the class was filled with wailing.
After Nian Nian and Ji Shuhe handed in their homework, they were about to discuss again why Xi Zimu had not arrived yet, when the protagonist of the discussion happened to push open the front door of the classroom.
Xi Zimu walked to his seat in a listless manner and sat down, his schoolbag lazily thrown on the table.
The Chinese class representative was businesslike, holding a pile of homework and stopping in front of his desk: "Xi Zimu, homework, you're the only one missing."
"Oh, wait a minute." Xi Zimu unzipped his schoolbag, took out a book and handed it to him.
The man glanced at it and said, "You gave it to the wrong person. I wanted a Chinese workbook. Xi Zimu, can you please be more serious?"
"Oh, sorry." Xizimu, who was always sharp-tongued, rarely refrained from talking nonsense. He took out another homework from his schoolbag, confirmed that it was correct, and handed it to him.
The class representative completed the task and walked away proudly with all the homework collected.
Nian Nian and Ji Shuhe looked at each other, and thousands of words flashed through their minds.
"Um," Nian Nian's eyes swept across Xi Zimu's swollen and red eyelids, and she asked tentatively: "Mu Mu, are you in a bad mood?"
Xi Zimu's eyes instantly turned red again, and he said with a tearful voice, "Yeah, a little."
Ji Shuhe was worried about him: "What's wrong? Don't just be sad and keep silent."
Xi Zimu took a deep breath and said, "He passed away last night." After saying that, his eyes could no longer hold back the tears. As soon as he blinked, tears rolled down his cheeks.
Nian Nian was so shocked that her mind went blank and she couldn't utter a single word.
Ji Shuhe also lost his voice.
After a long moment, Nian Nian found her voice again: "But, but, didn't you say last time that you were only fifteen years old when you came here?"
"My mom said," Xi Zimu said, trying to control his emotions, "fifteen is very old for a cat."
"Dogs are different from humans. Eleven years old is considered an elderly dog."
Without a second thought, Nian Nian's mind immediately replayed Shi Guilin's words from yesterday. His heart felt like it was electrocuted, and it went numb for a moment.
"I'm very old... am I considered old...?" Nian Nian muttered to herself in disbelief, her hands unconsciously clenched on the top of the chair back.
At this moment, he suddenly realized a fact very deeply.
It turns out that what everyone calls "very old" is not an adverb of degree or an adjective, but an obscure and terrifying result, an ending called death that everyone knows.
Nian Nian was at a loss and didn't know what to do.
Her eyelashes fluttered lightly, and a crystal tear mixed with fear and uncertainty escaped from her eyes.
"What should I do, Mumu?" Nian Nian said in a trembling voice, "Dad said yesterday that my Yuanyuan is also very old."
"Is it dying too?"
The terrifying words entered Ji Shuhe's ears, and his throat tightened.
Although his family didn't have any pets, he often played with Xizi from the Mu family and Yuanyuan from Nian Nian's family.
He couldn't think about such a heavy topic as death from an outsider's perspective because this death was too close to him.
He couldn't stay out of it, so it was inevitable that he shed tears.
The three of them sat facing each other in silence and shed tears.
Seeing that class was about to start, Nian Nian suddenly said, "I want to go home."
He fumbled with the phone watch on his arm, woke up the screen, and made a call. "I want to see Yuanyuan."
As soon as the call was connected, he spoke first: "Hello, Dad, I want to ask for leave."
A hint of tears was picked up by the phone's microphone. Shi Guilin frowned and stood up with one hand on his waist. "Are you feeling unwell? Sit down nicely. I'll call your teacher to ask for leave and come pick you up right away."
"Well, Dad, don't worry. Be careful on the road." Nian Nian said and hung up the phone.
The schoolbag that was resting in the hole of the desk was pulled out, and Nian Nian neatly put the pens and notebooks on the desk back into the schoolbag. After doing this, he stayed in his seat and waited for someone wholeheartedly.
He stared at the blue desk surface for a long time without blinking, then raised his gaze again and met two pairs of wet eyes.
Xi Zimu said, "Can Uncle Shi also ask for leave for us? I want to go to your house and hug Yuanyuan."
Ji Shuhe asked expectantly, "Yeah."
Nian Nian finally agreed with a soft heart.
When Shi Guilin was called to school by a phone call, he felt puzzled when he saw the three kids under his nose.
"You're not going to class? Are you all following me home?"
The three of them nodded in unison.
Shi Guilin: "...Okay." He called the parents of Xi Zimu and Ji Shuhe one by one, and asked for leave for them. Finally, he walked to the school bus door with the three little kids behind him.
"You three, go sit in the back seat." Shi Guilin opened the back door and waved his hand like he was herding ducks, shooing the three children to the back seat. After they were seated and fastened their seat belts, he circled around and got in the driver's seat.
There was a click, the sound of turning the key. The car started, and Shi Guilin glanced at the rearview mirror to observe the road conditions, then turned the steering wheel to turn.
After the car merged into the traffic flow, he calmly asked, "One by one, they're tired of studying and want to go home on the first day of school. What's going on?"
"Dad, you said Yuanyuan is very old?" Nian Nian leaned forward and asked hesitantly.
"Yeah." Shi Guilin glanced at him and then looked straight ahead. "What's the problem?"
Nian Nian uttered a "wu" sound: "Dad, is Yuan Yuan going to die soon?"
Shi Guilin was surprised: "Who told you that? What nonsense are you talking about? Yuanyuan is fine."
"Mu Mu's Lailai passed away. Teacher Xi said it was because Lailai was too old." Nian Nian spoke with sadness, and her voice turned sobbing again, "You said yesterday, yesterday that Yuanyuan was old, an old dog..."
"Doesn't that mean I'm going to die?" Nian Nian raised the back of her hand and wiped her eyes roughly.
"This..." Shi Guilin was first shocked by the death of Xi Zhu's cat, and then he was eager to refute Nian Nian's flawed reasoning, "Who said that old age means death? Old age is definitely-"
He was stuck.
When you are old, you are old. When you are old, you will die. Does that mean you will live? Shi Guilin was speechless for a moment.
"...That's not the same thing." After a long pause, he concluded this fallacy, "Death can't be explained in a few words."
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