Chapter 33: The Whole Story
“Little Qu Hui, we’ve met again.”
Su Ning smiled and nodded to the little guy before eagerly setting down the things on her back.
Ignoring the burning pain in her shoulders, she turned around, met the old man’s increasingly puzzled gaze, and dropped a bombshell.
“Old woman, this is Qu Guangming’s home, Uncle Qu’s home, right?”
“Da Ming?!”
The old woman with bound feet moved astonishingly fast at that moment, rushing to her in a few steps, grabbing her arm and asking repeatedly.
“Yes, this is Qu Guangming’s home, his home!”
“Ning Ning, do you know my Da Ming? Where is my Da Ming? Is he okay? Why hasn’t he come home after so many years?”
Gripping tightly that pair of hands full of calluses and thin as firewood, Su Ning was not surprised to ‘see’ again the tragic future scenes concerning the Qu family residence.
……
The Qu family residence, with vast fields and land, was once a well-known landlord nearby for its accumulations of good deeds. The Qu family incense was not prosperous, a single lineage, and to accumulate blessings for the family’s only seedling, generation after generation of family heads never skimped on doing good deeds.
After experiencing war and chaos, by Qu Feng’s generation, the Qu family life was still affluent. He married the eldest miss of the Huang family, which had made its fortune in Chinese medicinal materials, and had an only son, Qu Guangming.
Qu Guangming left home at sixteen.
Over more than ten years, he only met his family hastily three times. Until after the birth of the eldest grandson, suddenly there was not a single bit of news from him. The daughter-in-law couldn’t bear it and ran away, and Qu Feng fell ill soon after.
From then on, this home lost its pillar, and could only rely on Huang Shufen’s slender shoulders to barely hold on.
No matter how hard and difficult, it didn’t make them give up. The motivation to struggle on living was to raise the grandson big, and the expectation deep in their hearts… the hope that the son would eventually return.
Until a few years later, upon receiving definite news of the son’s death, the stimulated Qu Feng died on the spot.
Huang Shufen, who couldn’t believe it and successively lost her loved ones, also collapsed and from then on was bedridden.
However, not even half a year later, Huang Shufen couldn’t hold on either, passed away, leaving Qu Hui orphaned and alone.
Many years later, the now grown-up Qu Hui finally waited for his father, who returned from executing a secret mission with both legs disabled and was called a hero by everyone.
……
Thinking of little Qu Hui painfully questioning sentence by sentence, Su Ning’s heart ached terribly, her eyes gradually moistened: This time, he still protected and guarded people, and I, will protect you all.
“Wha… what’s wrong?”
Seeing her eyes suddenly redden, her heart startled, Huang Shufen trembled as her own eyes welled up, “It’s nothing, right? He’s fine, just… just can’t come back for now… right?”
“Right!”
Wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, Su Ning answered firmly, “Just as you said.”
“That’s good, that’s good! If he can’t come back, he can’t come back. As long as there’s a day he can return, it’s fine, it’s fine…”
Overly nervous upon getting the affirmation, Huang Shufen couldn’t help feeling dizzy waves.
Qu Feng, who heard everything clearly inside the room, was already with tears streaming down, but he held back tightly, not daring to make the slightest sound.
He just kept silently murmuring: As long as he’s alive, it’s good, as long as he’s still alive, it’s good.
“Look at me being senile, Ning Ning, you sit quickly. Hui, go pour a bowl of water for your elder sister!”
Huang Shufen smiled and wiped away her tears. Waiting for the dizziness to pass, she realized she had been holding the person without letting her sit down.
“It’s fine, I’m not tired.”
Returning her sweet smile, the dimple at the corner of her mouth faintly visible under the not-so-bright kerosene lamp.
To say such a pretty girl, at most sixteen or seventeen years old, didn’t seem like someone from BD at all. Could it be someone from her family from J, so she knew Da Ming?
“I have two older brothers who are both J people. They were once in Uncle Qu’s BD. Now that they’ve retired, they came with me to work in Xiangnan and specially asked me to come home on behalf of Uncle Qu to take a look.”
“But because of some reasons, they couldn’t show up, so I volunteered!”
As if seeing the doubt in her eyes, Su Ning bent down and squatted while pulling open the oiled paper tightly covering the back basket, then took out one bag after another of things from inside.
Continuing patiently to explain warmly, “On the car, when we learned little Qu Hui’s name, we were all very surprised that there could be such a coincidence.”
“Oh, so that’s how it is.”
Huang Shufen nodded in realization. No wonder earlier on the car, when the girl heard Hui’s name, she insisted on giving him such a big handful of precious candy.
The two sitting beside her at the time should be her brothers, her son’s ZY, right?
They looked strong, just like her son’s vigor and spirit, exactly the same. It really is!
“Old woman, you take these first. When they’re finished, I’ll bring more.”
“Ah?”
Huang Shufen, lost in thought, was stunned for a good while before reacting, casually opening one of the cloth bags she handed over.
It was… golden yellow top-quality premium millet!
“All these are?”
Huang Shufen seemed stung, abruptly setting down the bag in her hand, waving her hands and stepping back as she said, “No, no, this old woman can’t accept them.”
“Why not? These things were carefully bought by Uncle Qu and secretly mailed back. How can you not accept them?”
“They’re really all sent back by Da Ming?”
“Of course they are. Old woman, look, I just graduated from high school and have to wait a few days before starting work. How could I get these things?”
Although still doubtful, what she said was so certain and reasonable, Huang Shufen could only accept them somewhat anxiously.
The family really had no stored grain. They finally went into the mountains and picked some apricots and wild lantern fruits, sold them in Star City for a little money, which barely exchanged for a few jin of coarse grain.
She and the old man were worrying and discussing whether to risk selling one small gold bar that they had hidden to find a way to buy more grain.
“Ning Ning, thank you.”
“It’s what I should do. Old woman, these things…”
“I understand. We know. Not letting others know, right?”
Since they were all secretly entrusted to someone to bring back, they must help their son keep it well hidden.
Huang Shufen remembered clearly what Da Ming had once said: If not allowed, then not allowed. Don’t ask why, because that why is confidential.
“Hehe~”
The old man had a mysterious, all-knowing expression, so adorably cute. Su Ning smiled, seeing it wasn’t early, stood up and handed her the last two hemp sacks, “These are a little kindness from me and my brothers.”
“Then, old woman, I’ll head back first. I’ll come see you again in a while.”
Not giving her a chance to open and inspect then refuse, Su Ning shouldered the empty back basket. Just as she finished speaking, she had already walked out of the room and bumped right into Qu Hui, who was slowly coming step by step after pouring the water.
Reacting quickly to steady her, Su Ning bent her finger and lightly flicked his forehead.
“Sister?”
“Be good, little Qu Hui. Sister will come see you next time.”
Everyone should be able to understand the parts that can’t be explicitly said, right? No choice but to use initial caps instead.
Ah, want to level up, want to go on shelf! Dear cuties, keep begging for votes! Votes! Votes!
