Wind and snow hasten aging
With Xin Xuan by her side, the two-wheeled electric wheelchair was like a crazy bumper car at an amusement park.
No one knows the town's winding roads better than Song Yanan, who has been delivering noodles since childhood. Following her instructions, Jin Xilu adjusted her wheelchair in time without stopping for a moment, and finally succeeded in driving away those troublesome people.
We finally arrived at the entrance to the mountain. The path up the mountain was too narrow for a wheelchair to navigate.
"Alright, the rest is up to you." Song Yanan carefully handed the urn she had been holding to Jin Xilu.
"Okay, don't stand here in the wind, let's meet at the Xin family's place." Jin Xilu looked up at the bumpy mountain road ahead, then took the warm urn from Song Yanan.
"Go ahead, our teacher Xin is always a picky person, but she found out you were late again."
Song Yanan's eyes were red. She didn't understand why Xin Xuan went to such lengths to burn down the ancestral hall, only to end up not only failing to destroy it but also perishing in the flames.
She always remembered that she had to deliver noodles to her family before every Chinese New Year and other holidays during junior high school, which caused her to miss morning reading sessions many times.
She slunk into the classroom, where others mocked her, saying it was like a rat from a flour shop trying to study. Xin Xuan was the first to notice her embarrassment, and she took the initiative to stand up and defend a girl's self-esteem with decisive actions and clumsy words.
The town started building a new main road, and the old cemetery area was requisitioned for the road construction project. All the new ashes from the past few years will be sent to the public cemetery.
Kim Hee-ro began climbing the mountain. She wore brown leather boots, her feet sinking into the muddy ground soaked with snowmelt. Every footprint was deep. Because it was winter, the surrounding grass had not yet grown. Her thin back resembled the yellow grass in the mountains, rising and falling with her steps and breaths.
After climbing the mountain, real snowflakes began to fall, and the world gradually turned white.
Jin Xilu bent down and moved the granite behind the tombstone, wiped the melted snow off the urn with her sleeve, carefully and securely placed it inside, and then covered it again.
"Teacher Xin, I'm leaving."
Jin Xilu looked blank. These days she had stayed at the Xin family’s house instead of going home, not wanting to go back and face Jiang Yilin. She kept flipping through the diary that Xin Xuan had left for her.
The handwriting was different at the beginning and end, so it was obvious that this was He Min's diary. Later, it was handed to Xin Xuan, who took the notebook from He Min and continued writing.
She read every entry in the diary and gradually pieced together the relationship between Xin Xuan, He Min, and Jin Meiling.
Xin Xuan and He Min have been inseparable since they were little girls who couldn't even tie their hair into a ponytail. They skipped classes together, went to the mountaintop to pick the latest blooming peach blossoms, and secretly drank baijiu for the first time together. He Min recorded all of these in her diary.
Jin Meiling was their neighbor, whom they met later. Because she felt sorry for the two little girls who had lost their mother, Jin Meiling often brought them food, helped them with their laundry and braided their hair. Gradually, the three of them became closer and closer.
When He Min was just beginning to experience romantic feelings, her diary was filled with entries about Jiang Lianyin. He Min's initial attraction to Jiang Lianyin was quite superficial; it was simply because he was handsome and perfectly matched He Min's longing for a loving partner and a perfect family.
Those who are cursed are unaware of it.
Finally, they got together and had a big, lively wedding, which made the whole town happy.
After getting married, He Min rarely wrote in her diary anymore. She only picked up her pen again when Jiang Yilin had just learned to walk.
He Min used delicate and loving words to describe Jiang Yilin's demeanor as he learned to walk. She used long paragraphs to describe Jiang Yilin, who was still a toddler, saying that his eyebrows were like tender peach leaves, and that his toes looked round and strong, but he could not stand steadily on the ground. She suspected that the child was lame and wanted to take him to see a doctor.
He Min kept writing, filling a whole page with dense text in one go, as if it was never enough. Later, her handwriting became increasingly hurried and messy, and she hastily wrote down the last sentence: Oh no, he's back.
Jin Xilu knew that the "he" here was Jiang Lianyin, based on the scene she dreamed about in the Jiang family's basement.
In fact, He Min's life after marriage was not good. Jiang Lianyin's terrible controlling desire became more and more serious, and his madness almost robbed He Min of her freedom to breathe.
It was Jiang Yilin's maternal love that sustained He Min for several more years.
Later, He Min's diary entries became shorter and shorter, and Jiang Lianyin's name never appeared again. He Min really wanted to sever all ties with Jiang Lianyin, and she used her last bit of strength to keep writing on the wall.
"I hate him."
Several pages of the diary were torn out, and by the time it was handed over to Xin Xuan, He Min had already passed away.
Xin Xuan's diary is more mundane than He Min's; it mainly records the weather, what she did, and who she met that day.
But after her grandmother Jin Meiling passed away, Xin Xuan's diary also came to an end.
Kim Hee-ro found the letter she received at the city library and compared it; it was a piece of paper torn from her diary.
But the handwriting wasn't Xin Xuan's, so Jin Xilu still couldn't figure out who could have sent her this letter.
On the way back through the mountains, the snow fell heavier and heavier, almost covering her eyes, and a thin layer of snow covered the ground.
Unlike when we arrived, the once smooth snow road now bears seven or eight tire tracks. Some reckless vehicles, finding the mountain road too narrow, have even driven over the yellow grass beside it, leaving the black tire tracks starkly visible on the white snow.
This is very unusual; there shouldn't be any cars going into the mountains on the first day of the Lunar New Year, yet there are still so many cars.
Kim Hee-ro decided to follow the tire tracks to find out what was going on.
Living off the mountains and rivers, the town of Milu, nestled against this sacred mountain, relies heavily on its mines for its economy.
Before Jin Xilu even reached the inner mountain, cars began to come down the mountain one after another. These dark cars passed by Jin Xilu one after another, and they all had one thing in common: their license plates were from out of town.
One of the cars even stopped on its own initiative, and two men in black suits sat inside the window. The back seat was filled with some incomprehensible measuring instruments.
"Little girl, the snow is getting heavier and heavier. Do you still want to go uphill?"
"Oh, my home is nearby. What are you all doing up the mountain?" Jin Xilu lied, betting that they were all outsiders and didn't know the terrain.
Upon hearing this, the younger man sitting in the passenger seat interrupted, "You little girl, we kindly asked you if you needed a ride, and you're not telling us a single truth."
A hint of embarrassment flashed across Kim Hee-ro's face. Just as she was about to say something to defend herself, she heard the man watching the car say something.
“You don’t need to be afraid of us. This is a cooperative project between the government and your town. We were pulled in during the Chinese New Year to work overtime and survey the terrain.”
Hearing this, Kim Hee-ro became even more confused and uneasy: "What project?"
"You don't know? Luckily, your clan chief is still in the wooden house behind. Go ask him and you'll find out. I'm freezing to death." The man driving the car complained.
"Little girl, you really aren't going to take the bus?"
"No, thank you."
The car window rolled down again, and the black car drove away from Kim Hee-ro.
Jin Xilu suddenly had a terrible guess in her mind. She quickened her pace and walked deeper into the mountains. She couldn't wait to walk too slowly, so she started running. But the faster she ran, the more she sank into the mud, and the mud stuck to the soles of her shoes became thicker and thicker.
She was panting, her originally straight back bent by the cold wind blowing in her face.
Reason told Jin Xilu that the best thing she should do now was not to rush to find Jiang Yilin, but to immediately turn back, take a car down the mountain, and fabricate evidence to support her suspicions and throw it in front of Jiang Yili.
But she couldn't wait any longer; she had to see Jiang Yilin today.
Dragging her frozen body, Kim Hee-ro stood in front of the wooden house, looking like half a snowman. She hurriedly brushed the snowflakes off the blurry window, but the snow kept falling on her hair, and even the gray strands of hair were frozen stiff.
Jin Xilu sighed, standing in front of the door, clutching her reddened palms. If she could, she really didn't want to always face Jiang Yilin with a confused and failed appearance.
But the truth is, Kim Hee-ro's heart is always warm. When she cares too much about someone, she always realizes her own imperfections immediately.
Her hand touched the doorknob, her mind racing, rehearsing repeatedly the first thing she would say to Jiang Yilin when she saw him.
Upon hearing the unbearable coughing coming from inside, she panicked and her mind went blank. The first thing she said as she pushed open the door was, "Jiang Yilin, you're not dressed properly again."
But when she actually entered the room, the hot air hit her cheeks, but the door behind her wasn't closed tightly, so her body still couldn't warm up. She stood in the doorway, stuck in a dilemma, unable to move forward or backward.
When she saw Jiang Yilin coughing and trembling, a woman with snow-white skin carefully supported him. Her skin was as white as a snow pear, and her palm slowly moved up to Jiang Yilin's face and then touched his brow.
Like two intertwined magnolia branches, Jin Xilu became an unsympathetic, observing crow.
The two people with fair and translucent skin were so close that Kim Hee-ro couldn't hear what they were saying, and they couldn't see each other because they were wearing robes cut from the same piece of fabric.
Jin Xilu could clearly see the heartache and love in the woman's eyes for Jiang Yilin.
Neither of them turned around; one had his back to the other, and the other was facing sideways to Kim Hee-ro. The woman heard the sound, glanced up, and said nothing.
After catching his breath, Jiang Yilin forcefully suppressed his cough.
As Ah-Qing watched his face slowly regain its color, she was about to pull her hand away from his neck when...
Jiang Yilin lowered her eyes, her thick eyelashes trembling. The next moment, she pressed down on Jiang Yilin's hand, not allowing her to leave.
Ah Qing's heart sank. She understood and pointed to Jin Xilu's location with her other hand without saying anything.
Because she said nothing, at this moment, Kim Hee-ro felt like she had become a crow embroidered on a screen again. She couldn't even move, and every part of her body felt incredibly awkward.
Jiang Yilin coughed painfully, as if another person was living inside her body, constantly rejecting the world. The floor in front of her was shaking, and her ears were covered, so she couldn't hear anything.
This happened from time to time, and he began to crave the coolness more and more, wishing he could lie in the snow and sleep forever.
But this time, he did it on purpose.
Even though he can't hear or see, every step Jin Xilu takes when she gets close to him and walks towards him feels like walking on Jiang Yilin's heart.
Love arrives before pain.
"What are you doing here?" Jiang Yilin released Aqing's hand, his legs were still a little weak and he could not stand steadily, when Jin Xilu forcibly kissed him.
Covered in melting snow, with her lips icy cold, Jin Xilu didn't answer. Instead, she kissed Jiang Yilin, licking his lips until they were slightly bloody and tinged with her own scent before pulling away.
"To see if you're dead."
Although Kim Hee-ro spoke with a smile, there was no trace of a smile in her eyes.
She understood the sentence in the diary: those who are cursed are unaware of it.
She could no longer deceive herself; she simply loved the man before her, and it had nothing to do with the curse.
She simply couldn't stand it, not even a charade, not even a momentary indifference in someone's eyes, not even fake affection—none of it was acceptable!
Jiang Yilin suppressed the itch in her heart and said coldly, "Oh, are you satisfied now? I'm not dead, you can leave."
Halfway through his sentence, Kim Hee-ro stood on tiptoe and forcefully kissed him again. This time, she didn't let him off easily and bit him hard.
Their lips were pressed tightly together, each vying for the other's attention, but this time it was Kim Hee-ro who took the initiative to withdraw.
Seeing the surprise flash across Jiang Yilin's indifferent face, and the bleeding wound on his pale red lips, Jin Xilu felt incredibly pleased.
As the two faced each other, Kim Hee-ro couldn't help but think that Jiang Yi-lin's fists must be clenched tightly beneath his neat white robe.
But what can we do?
In any case, the most enduring relationship is one where love and hate are intertwined.
Kim Hee-ro's wet hair clung to her forehead, and icy snow water flowed into the nape of her neck. She continued to lick the corner of her lips, revealing a hint of her sharp teeth when she smiled.
"If you say something wrong again, I'll kiss you."
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