Chapter 79 I'm Still Alive
Chapter 79
Nianfu County is a remote county located in the northern province of the country. It has a permanent population of only 500,000 and is a county with a very slow pace.
Yongning Town is one of the eight towns in the county. There is not much difference between the eight towns. If we have to compare them, the only outstanding thing about Yongning Town is its abundant lotus root production. Because of its unique terrain, in the short summer, the villagers' fish ponds can bloom with large lotus flowers for more than a month. The summer breeze blows, the lotus leaves and lotus flowers sway, and the fragrance is overflowing.
In mid-August, the temperature in mid- and high-latitude regions dropped rapidly, and the lotus flowers in Yongning Town had already gone through most of the process of withering and decay. When driving on the road, you would often come across a fish pond with only a few lotus flowers left on the roadside.
Yan Jue looked at the darkening sky outside the car. A strong wind blew outside the car, blowing dust straight into the car. He frowned slightly and closed the car window.
After three days of high fever, Wenxi woke up and stayed in the hospital for observation for a day to make sure there was no major problem. Yan Jue let Wenxi leave the hospital. After being discharged, he did not go home but got on the car and went directly to the airport. After a five-hour flight, he landed in the capital of Bei Province, and then drove for another six hours to finally return to Yongning Town.
Wenxi smelled a cold wind and started coughing violently.
“Ahem…”
The boy's fair cheeks turned red from coughing, he breathed short and fast, his throat was sore and itchy. Wen Xi climbed up from Yan Jue's shoulder uncomfortably, and as soon as he stood up, the water was handed to his lips.
Wenxi swallowed the sweet and slightly bitter Chinese medicine in big gulps. As the warm water went down his throat, Wenxi frowned even more. His body had not fully recovered from the three-day fever. Despite taking medicine, his throat was still severely red and swollen. It hurt like a knife cutting his throat when he swallowed water.
"Drink slowly," Wen Xi opened his eyes and saw the pair of dark eyes, his eyebrows were cold and indifferent, but also full of pity. He felt his Adam's apple being rubbed by the man's slightly cool fingertips. Wen Xi's throat rolled unconsciously, shook his head, and said, "It's okay."
His voice was hoarse and he managed to squeeze out those few words with great effort.
Yan Jue lifted his face a little and saw the tears overflowing from the corners of Wen Xi's eyes due to the unbearable pain. He looked at Wen Xi for a few seconds and gently wiped away the moisture from the corners of his eyes with his fingertips. Wen Xi pursed his lips, lowered his eyes, held Yan Jue's hand, and slowly drank the Chinese medicine.
I don’t know if it was because the windows were closed that the air smelled better, or because he drank the medicine slowly and the Chinese medicine stayed in his throat a little longer to take effect, but after Wenxi finished drinking a large cup, his cough felt much better.
"Do you want to sleep a little longer?" Yan Jue asked.
Wen Xi looked at the gradually familiar scenery outside the window and shook his head. He didn't want to talk much, so he took Yan Jue's hand and slowly wrote on his palm.
His body had not recovered yet and his mood fluctuated greatly. Wenxi's mental state was not very good. Due to the tight schedule, he slept very poorly and woke up every three or two hours. His already haggard face had become even more haggard after the bumpy journey. His head was drooped and his hair covered most of his face, making it difficult to see his expression. However, his jawline became more obvious and his tense face became paler.
"I won't sleep."
“I don’t want to dream anymore.
There was nothing substantial in Wenxi's dream, only a large area of red fire, like muddy and sticky magma. If he caught up with it, it would pull him into the endless abyss, swallowing him up, burning all over and unable to breathe.
So, he could only run endlessly, but the fire burned too fast and he was always caught up and drowned in the lava.
I woke up in panic and found that the feeling of suffocation and near-death was just a dream. My tense nerves relaxed, and sleepiness swept over me. I fell asleep again, over and over again, endlessly.
Yan Jue lowered his eyes and looked at Wen Xi's fingertips writing on the palm of his hand. The fingertips were no longer soft, and were covered with tiny blood scabs. As he wrote stroke by stroke, his palm felt a little itchy from the friction, but when this feeling was transmitted to his heart, it was a very strong and swollen pain.
As if worried that he wouldn't understand, Wen Xi wrote very slowly, word by word.
After Wen Xi finished writing, he looked up and saw a worried look on Yan Jue's face. Wen Xi raised his hand and touched his face to show that he was fine, then lowered his head and lay in the man's strong arms.
My cheek rests against his warm chest, and my strong, steady heartbeat fights against the howling wind outside the window.
Yan Jue gently lifted the hair that was pursed by his lips. While tidying up the messy hair, his fingertips unconsciously rested on Wen Xi's eyelids. He didn't move until he felt his eyeballs rolling under his fingertips. Yan Jue leaned down, put his arms around Wen Xi's shoulders, and hugged him tightly.
The cold aroma unique to Yanjue enveloped Wenxi.
Wen Xi opened his eyes and saw a stone with three big characters "Yongning Town" engraved on it flashing by outside the car window through the gap in Yan Jue's arm. Wen Xi's body froze suddenly.
Seeing the extremely familiar town stone again, all the memories that had been suppressed and deliberately forgotten on this land were instantly revived, and both the good and the bad came into Wenxi's mind all at once.
The shoulders were hugged more firmly.
"Then don't sleep. Just lie down for a while. You'll be there soon." The man whispered, with an imperceptible tremor in the tail end of his voice.
After an unknown amount of time, Wen Xi felt the car stop.
"Sir, we're here," said the driver.
Listening to Yanjue's deep and peaceful heartbeat, Wenxi opened his eyes and saw the small courtyard where he had lived for many years. He said softly: "Yanjue, this is my old home.
There was silence in the car for a long time, and Yan Jue said in a low voice: "It's the same now."
Wen Xi's throat was choked with pain, and the smell of blood rose up. For several seconds, he rolled his throat and gasped, saying: "You——"
After saying just one word, he felt a warm touch on his face. Yan Jue felt the trembling thin body and said, "I bought it back. This little house is your home in the past, present and future."
Yan Jue pulled the coat from the seat, held Wen Xi's bandaged wrist and put it on him, zipped it up, and put on the thick hood.
In the gloomy sky, Wen Xi's face was as pale as a piece of cold jade. He stared at Yan Jue blankly with red eyes, while the man held the brim of his hat and lowered his head to rest it on his forehead.
Wen Xi felt his skin getting hot and his blood flowing rapidly. His eyes were sore and dull. A voice with an uncontrollable crying tone came out from his hood: "Yan Jue..."
The hot breath sprayed on the skin around the mouth and nose. Yan Jue rubbed Wen Xi's red nose tip, lowered his head slightly and kissed Wen Xi's slightly cool lips.
"Wenxi, we're going home."
When Wen Xi was ten years old and his family still had money, Wen Guoqing bought a piece of land in the center of the town and rebuilt a rare three-story building using sufficient materials. It was the kind of house in a remote town that could be sold for four hundred thousand yuan even if someone had died in it.
Not long after the house was built, Wen Guoqing's investment failed, and the family's luck seemed to have been exhausted during the construction of this house.
Standing in the small courtyard again after three years, Wen Xi felt mixed emotions.
It’s a familiar yet unfamiliar environment. The hard furnishings remain the same as before I left, but the soft furnishings have been completely replaced from inside to outside.
The first floor has the living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom and a storage room. After Yan Yili fell ill and was bedridden, Wen Xi cleaned up the small storage room that was not facing the sun so that she could take care of her more easily and let her mother live on the first floor.
Wen Xi walked around the three floors and finally stood in the storage room on the first floor with a pale face in silence. The fingers holding the door handle trembled unconsciously.
Three years had passed since the incident, and Yan Yili's appearance began to become blurred in Wen Xi's mind. Looking at the brown wooden door in front of him, the memories that his brain had deliberately forgotten reappeared before his eyes uncontrollably.
With his fingertips nervously pressing the pattern on the handle, Wen Xi took a few deep breaths, pressed down hard, and opened the wooden door that hid years of suffering.
Creak.
The wooden door that had been used for many years was pushed open with a whimper, and a cool breeze immediately rushed out of the door. Wen Xi subconsciously hid his head, and the cold wind entered his throat, making his throat feel very uncomfortable for a while.
“Ahem…”
With a click, the window of the room was closed, and the raging wind was blocked outside the window.
"Are you okay?"
Wen Xi covered her lips and coughed a few times, then said softly, "It's okay."
He raised his eyes to look at Yan Jue. The window of the room was closed and the curtains were half-drawn. The sky outside had become completely gloomy and the light in the room was dim. The man was standing in the shadow by the window, and his expression could not be seen clearly. Through the curtains that let in white light, there was a strangely shaped black object reaching towards Yan Jue.
Wen Xi was stunned for a moment, then followed his memory and reached out to touch the switch on the wall at the entrance. With a click, the light came on brightly, and the cold white light made everything in the small room visible.
The small bed and table that my mother had used had long been smashed and thrown away, and the ground was littered with a pile of empty boards, looking very empty.
It was an understandable scene, but even though Wen Xi was mentally prepared, his heart still couldn't help but contract violently when he saw the scene.
It gets dark quickly in the north. There is a warm yellow light on in the living room, which reveals a bit of withered darkness under the oppression of the surrounding sky.
The sharp draft not only messed up the cardboards on the floor, but also lifted up Wenxi's hood. Her black hair was thrown back in a messy manner, revealing her pale and sickly face. The delicate and small mole lay on the tip of her nose in a daze. She stood at the door of the cramped room.
At this moment, Yan Jue put himself in the perspective of Yan Yili, who was lying in bed sick, and looked at the thin Wen Xi with a mountain pressing down on him.
"Wenxi." Yan Jue rolled his throat and spoke in a low and hoarse voice.
Wen Xi looked at Yan Jue's face, slightly stunned. In his memory, his mother's skinny and sickly appearance was gradually replaced by the man's cold and concerned look. He drooped his eyelids, stepped on the scattered cardboards on the ground, and walked in front of Yan Jue.
"There's nothing left." Wen Xi said suddenly.
Wen Xi looked up with deep red circles around his eyes, his fox eyes had lost their luster, revealing regret, melancholy, pain, and helpless confusion, weaving into a huge net that trapped him.
"All of Mom's things are gone."
"Yan Jue, death and oblivion are really terrible. There is nothing left."
They left Yongning Town in such a hurry that apart from the necessities for living with Wen Ran, Wen Xi only had the energy to take away a photo album. Other than that, everything was abandoned in the house that had to be sold.
All of Yan Yili's belongings were cleared away. There are very few relics in this world that can prove that this ordinary woman existed, except for the photo album hidden at the bottom of the dormitory locker and the ashes buried in the cemetery behind the village.
The only two people in this world who love Yan Yili are Wen Xi and Wen Ran. And now, Wen Ran has also been lost by him, and her life or death is unknown.
Yan Jue paused for a moment as he stared at Wen Xi's sickly face. His throat rolled violently and unnaturally, and the bloody taste surged in his throat. He stared at her quietly for a moment and said in a hoarse voice, "Wen Xi, Mom won't care about these. As long as you and Ran Ran still remember her, she will be happy."
Wen Xi's breathing became rapid, and he felt himself falling into a warm embrace.
"Wenwen, after meeting you, I also have a new mother. I will miss her with you."
"No matter the past, present, or future, Mom will be proud of you. She wants you to look forward."
After a long time, Wen Xi asked softly, "Am I also considered a relic of my mother?"
Yan Jue raised his hand and touched Wen Xi's cold cheek. He lowered his head, tightened his arms around her, and whispered, "You are, Wen Ran is, and Ai is too."
The wind was still raging outside the window, but the man's calm whisper in his ear drowned out everything.
The cold wind blew against the glass window, causing a huge whimper. Wen Xi clutched the hem of Yan Jue's clothes tightly, and the reflection of their hug was reflected on the glass window.
Yan Jue stroked the slightly trembling thin back of the person in his arms, and heard Wen Xi's helpless and excited sobs, "If this is really the case... that would be great."
"Banquet...Luckily I survived."
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