threaten
As Yunheng was packing her belongings at home, her fingertips traced across her faded training uniform when she heard the phone in the living room ring rapidly. It was her neighbor, Aunt Wang, crying, "Heng! Come back soon! Your wheat... has been shoveled!"
"What?" Yunheng's blood rushed to his head in an instant. He grabbed the straw hat in the corner and ran out.
The wheat fields of his hometown are at the east end of the village, fields his grandmother has tended her entire life. This year's wheat is growing exceptionally well, the golden ears bending with weight. Harvest will be ready in another two weeks. He had even gone to check on them before leaving this morning. How could they have suddenly been plowed?
When Yunheng ran to the edge of the field, his footsteps suddenly stopped.
The once golden wheat fields now resembled gnawed bread. Large stalks of wheat seedlings had been bulldozed in half, the broken stems mixed with dirt piled at the edge of the field, revealing the bare, brown earth. Several villagers squatted on the ridge and sighed. Aunt Wang saw them, wiped her tears, and said, "A bulldozer just came and started bulldozing without a word. We couldn't stop it..."
Yunheng's heart felt like a piece had been ripped out, the pain too severe to utter a sound. He rushed into the fields, his fingers tracing the dew-soaked wheat. His fingertips felt rough and cold—these were the seeds his grandmother had sown one by one in the spring, the hope he'd cherished while staying up late practicing dance, the last bit of confidence that had kept him from taking center stage and fleeing back home.
"Who did it?" His voice trembled and his nails dug deep into his palms.
"I don't know," Aunt Wang shook her head. "Those people were dressed in black and looked very fierce. They said this land... had been bought by someone."
Bought it?
Yunheng suddenly looked up, his gaze passing over the broken wheat and falling on the end of the ridge.
Yu Xiao stood there, wearing a white shirt that looked out of place on this land. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, revealing the scar on his forearm left by the rooftop incident. Behind him was an SUV, its bed loaded with new wheat seeds and farm tools. Several men in work clothes stood nearby, shovels in hand.
"You did it?" Yun Heng's voice was as cold as ice as she walked towards him step by step.
Yu Xiao didn't deny it, but simply kicked the dirt under his feet, leaving the toes of his shoes stained with fresh mud. "I bought this piece of land." His tone was flat, as if he was saying that the weather was good today. "Those things just now were old."
"Old?" Yun Heng laughed, her eyes reddening. "So you can just shovel it away? Yu Xiao, this is my family's land! It's my grandma's life!"
"It's mine now." Yu Xiao's eyes fell on his trembling shoulders. He suddenly bent down, pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it to him—a key with a small wheat field pendant hanging from it. "The deed is at the village committee. It's in your name."
Yunheng caught the key, her knuckles turning white.
"Want to keep them?" Yu Xiao raised his eyes, sweeping his gaze across the shoveled wheat, then looking at the new seeds in the truck bed, "Then go back and be your top star."
He raised his chin towards the workers and said, "If you nod, they will start sowing again, using the best varieties, and guarantee that the harvest will be double the original yield. If you don't nod..."
The rest of the sentence was not finished, but the meaning was already very clear.
Yunheng looked at the workers on standby, the worried eyes of the villagers on the ridges of the fields, and the heavy key in his hand - this was not a key, it was clearly a new shackle.
He remembered what he had written in the long Weibo post, "I am not a puppet", remembered his grandmother saying "there is chicken soup stewing in the pot" when he returned home, and remembered the freedom he had when he was hiding in the wheat field and singing... It turned out that as long as Yu Xiao wanted, he could not even keep his last place to stay.
"What do you want?" Yun Heng's voice was as hoarse as sandpaper. "I've already withdrawn from the competition and left that circle. How far do you want to push me?"
"I want you to go back." Yu Xiao's voice was soft, but it carried an undeniable strength. "Complete your debut and stand where you belong. Those resources, those stages, should have been yours."
"I don't want it!" Yun Heng threw the key at him, but Yu Xiao caught it. "I just want to grow wheat at home and my grandma is safe! Is this so difficult for you?"
"It's not difficult." Yu Xiao put the key back into his hand, the force was very light, but with a stubborn determination that would not allow him to break free. "But you have to go back. Yunheng, your voice should not be buried in the ground, and your stage should not be limited to these few acres of land."
He took half a step forward, the sunlight falling on the top of his head, revealing a seriousness that was almost gentle: "I know I was wrong before, and I used the wrong method. But this time, I just want you to be seen by more people - not because of me, but because of your song."
Yunheng looked at the bloodshot in his eyes, the mud spots on his white shirt, and the new wheat seeds waiting to be sown behind him - this man was always like this, saying the most sweet words in the cruelest way.
"What if I don't go back?" Yun Heng's voice was very soft, as if asking herself.
Yu Xiao said nothing, but just raised his chin towards the workers. One of the workers immediately picked up a shovel and made a move to go to the remaining wheat field.
"Stop!" Yun Heng roared like a beast whose tail was stepped on.
He looked at the golden field that had not been cleared, the old locust tree planted by his grandmother by the field, and the key in his hand - he lost in the end.
In the face of absolute capital and the soft spot that he cares about most, his pride and stubbornness have never been able to withstand a blow.
"Okay." Yun Heng's voice was as cold as ice. "I'll go back."
Yu Xiao's eyes moved, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he just waved at the workers: "Start sowing."
Suddenly, the roar of machinery rang out, and new wheat seeds were sown into the tilled soil, carrying the scent of moist earth. Yun Heng stood on the ridge of the field, looking at the old wheat being shoveled away and the new seeds being planted, and suddenly felt a sense of irony.
It turns out that some things, even if you replace them with new ones, can never go back to their original state.
"I'll have someone pick you up tomorrow." Yu Xiao's voice rang out beside him. "Don't pack your luggage, it's all there."
Yunheng ignored him and turned to walk home. Passing by the old locust tree, he paused and touched the rough trunk. This was where his grandmother had always taught him to sing when he was a child, saying, "Ah Heng's voice could reach the horizon."
At that time, he thought that the horizon was a distant stage. Now he knows that the horizon may just be the end of this wheat field.
When he got home, his grandmother was sitting in the main room mending shoe soles. When she saw him come in, she looked up and smiled: "Ah Heng, Aunt Wang just came to talk about the wheat. I know everything."
Yunheng's eyes suddenly turned red: "Grandma..."
"It's okay." The old man put down the sole of his shoe and patted his hands. "If the wheat is gone, you can plant it again. People can't lose their dreams. If you still want to sing, go back and sing. If you don't want to sing anymore, we can just guard this land and get by."
Yunheng squatted down and buried her face in her grandmother's knees like a lost child.
"But……"
"No buts." Grandma's voice was soft, but it carried the insight of someone who had experienced many years. "There has to be a time in your life when you can stand up for what you really want to do. No matter what you choose, Grandma will support you."
That night, Yunheng sat by the wheat field until dawn.
The newly planted wheat seedlings, gleaming green in the morning dew, resembled a fragile ray of hope. He remembered Yu Xiao's threats, his grandmother's words, the thrill of his heart as he sang "The Wind Stops at the Tips of Your Hair" on stage, and the words "I'll never see you again" in his withdrawal letter.
When the sky began to turn pale, Yunheng stood up and brushed off the grass debris on his body.
He took out his cell phone, turned it on, and sent a text message to Yu Xiao:
"I'm going back. But not because of your threats, but because I haven't sung enough."
When the notification of successful sending popped up, the wind blew through the wheat field, and the newly planted wheat seedlings swayed gently, as if seeing him off and waiting for him to come back.
Yun Heng didn't know what awaited him this time. Would it be another wave of manipulation by capital, or a stage truly his own? Would he be completely entangled with Yu Xiao, or could he find a way to have both?
But he knew that this time, he was no longer a puppet at the mercy of others.
He wants to sing to everyone with the wind in the wheat field.
At the end of the ridge, Yu Xiao looked at the text message, stroking his fingertips on the screen for a long time, and suddenly smiled towards the rising sun with an almost relieved look.
Perhaps, he finally found the right way to get close - not to control, not to threaten, but to regard the other person's dream as his own direction.
This pursuit that started with capital eventually revealed some different possibilities in the golden wheat fields.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
