Chapter 28 Remembrance

It was three in the afternoon. After drinking a lot of water and urinating many times, and independently at that, Chen Yuan finally sobered up a bit after diluting the alcohol in his system.

Then, the two of them went out together to the back mountain where Xia Xinyu's parents were buried.

Chen Yuan carried a white plastic bag in his hand, which contained firecrackers, ghost money, yellow paper, and red incense.

Xia Xinyu held a flower basket in her hand, filled with white chrysanthemums bought in advance from Hexiang.

The two walked hand in hand on the cement mountain road.

The snow on the road hadn't completely melted, mixed with muddy tire tracks, making it somewhat murky and black.

The air was filled with coldness.

Jingnan was really cold this year, even Xia Xinyu, a local, thought so.

The two of them arrived at the graves of Xinyu's parents.

Chen Yuan first burned the yellow paper, then propped it up with a stick to make it burn more thoroughly, and then lit a handful of incense and stuck it in front of the tombstone.

Next was burning the ghost money.

Xia Xinyu placed the flower basket in the center of the two tombstones, sat down beside it, and looked at her mother's picture on the stone. Her emotions naturally shifted.

It wasn't sadness, it wasn't pain, because the emotion value was red.

And Chen Yuan judged that this was 'longing'.

So the emotion of longing wasn't necessarily negative.

"Mom, I miss you so much."

Xia Xinyu smiled, saying gently, "When will you come visit me in my dreams? I've gained a little weight, three *jin* (about 3.3 pounds) heavier than when you passed away. Chen Yuan's plan to turn me into a little fatty seems to be going smoothly..."

"You'll know if you give me a hug, I'm not lying, I really did get fatter."

"We had a very special year this year. After you left, I didn't give up on myself, and my grades have improved a lot. Although there's still a long way to go before I can attend the same school as him, I'll slowly catch up."

"Chen Yuan is really amazing, he's especially talented in his studies. Our family...might produce a *zhuangyuan* (top scholar)!"

Xia Xinyu stroked the tombstone with her hand, saying worriedly, "Where are you? Is there a place where you are all together? Are you suffering? What can I do for you… I don't know, if I can help you, be sure to find me in my dreams."

After talking to her mother, Xia Xinyu turned to look at her father's tombstone and said very strongly, "Dad, don't worry, I have someone who loves me as much as you did. He protects me very well, and he'll be with me no matter where I am."

"You have to be with Mom over there."

"Hold her hand, don't let her get lost..."

Taking a deep breath, and then closing her eyes and pursing her lips, Xia Xinyu adjusted her emotions and stepped back to Chen Yuan's side, burning paper money with him.

The two of them quietly unfolded each piece of paper money and burned it thoroughly.

The ashes of the burning ghost money, carrying their longing, drifted all the way to heaven...

After burning the paper, the two stood up and bowed to the tombstone together.

"Mom and Dad, please bless us too, for smooth studies and good health," Xia Xinyu said with a smile.

"We'll come to see you every year," Chen Yuan promised to the grave. "In a few years, we may bring our children to see you. She, or he, will definitely be the most beautiful child in the world."

Hearing this, Xia Xinyu's nose tingled, and she said sadly, "If there really is reincarnation, Mom and Dad, come find me again. This time, we can be your mom and dad."

Ten thousand thoughts of sorrow couldn't compare to a single meeting.

I want to see you.

Chen Yuan put his arm around Xia Xinyu's shoulders, and she leaned over.

Then, she simply covered her face.

And so, in front of her parents, Xinyu cried without any restraint.

She said so much, that in the end, it was a jumble of incoherent words.

And so, late into the afternoon, after Chen Yuan set off the firecrackers, the two left the cemetery.

On the way, Chen Yuan held Xia Xinyu's hand, walking very slowly.

"The day Mom and Dad left, I thought about killing myself so many times. But I was also struggling, because Grandpa was still around. But in the end, I succumbed to the sadness. Fortunately, you bumped into me," Xia Xinyu said.

"That day, your hair was down, it was the first time like that, and your expression was different from before, so I became suspicious..." Chen Yuan said.

"Yeah." Xia Xinyu nodded, admitting, "That was the most decadent period of my life. I felt like everything was unreal."

"Fortunately, you persevered."

"That's what I say..." Xia Xinyu recalled again, "But later, I also thought many times, why was I so unlucky that this happened to me? So many nights, I sank into that kind of depression, it was really hard."

"If I had been more proactive at that time..." Chen Yuan regretted that the two hadn't confessed and gotten together sooner.

After such a long period of pulling and tugging, they finally established their relationship and could legally "check each other's rooms."

"Yeah." Xia Xinyu looked at him and smiled, a little embarrassed as she brought up, "At that time, I kept fantasizing about a scene, that one day, Chen Yuan would suddenly take my hand and ask me if I could be his girlfriend. But I never waited for it."

"My bad, my bad."

I'm really sorry for not being a pervert.

"Fortunately, we were both 'scheming' against each other, so even if we didn't get together quickly, the progress of our relationship was steadily advancing," Xia Xinyu said.

"That's true."

Chen Yuan admitted it.

When he gave her the Boston lobster on the first day, Chen Yuan thought that this girl was really beautiful, and must be especially good to kiss.

Later, it was also confirmed that she was indeed quite good to kiss.

"Chen Yuan, be careful."

Just as the two were reminiscing about their shameless past, Xia Xinyu suddenly noticed that on the bridge, a must-pass road home, seven or eight old men and women were sitting on both sides...

So, she lowered her head and said in a low voice, "Walk a little faster in a bit, just walk straight past them."

Even a dog walking on this road would be gossiped about.

No one could withstand these gazes.

And Xia Xinyu, although usually quite optimistic and said a lot of saucy things, was still a little girl at heart, how could she possibly handle it.

Honestly, Chen Yuan was a little scared too.

These giant war machines guarded here seemed to be warning people: This place, one-way street.

Why didn't the damn superpower refresh a Flying Thunder God Technique?

"Okay." Chen Yuan gripped Xia Xinyu's hand, indicating that he understood.

………

"They brought their boyfriend back this year."

"I heard he came back during the funeral too."

"That's the young man who kept the accounts, right?"

"He's quite handsome, has a pretty face, and matches the girl well."

"They're only in high school, you can't tell. It's only useful if they can stick together until marriage."

"But the Xia family's conditions…"

Everyone stopped talking when they saw the two coming.

They would definitely continue to talk after the two had left, for at least ten or twenty minutes.

Just as everyone was staring at them, preparing to see them off, Chen Yuan took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and handed them out to the old men, one by one.

"Happy New Year, Happy New Year, I'm Chen Yuan, you can just call me Little Chen."

"..." Xia Xinyu was suddenly shocked.

Weren't you supposed to lower your head and pass by quickly?

Why are you chatting with the NPCs!

These people were also a little surprised, but since a young man was willing to chat with them, they were certainly happy to accept it.

The old men all took the cigarettes and, with Chen Yuan's help lighting them, puffed away on the hard blue Shining Furong King cigarettes.

For these old men, they could only smoke such good cigarettes when attending a banquet at a rich person's house. So their goodwill towards this young man immediately increased.

"How old are you this year, Little Chen?" An old woman asked.

Chen Yuan replied, "Eighteen."

In the countryside, they counted age based on the lunar year. Saying he was eighteen, almost nineteen, almost twenty, was no problem.

"He's really handsome, like a movie star," the old woman said.

"Thank you, Auntie."

"Auntie?" The old woman was amused, and the others next to her laughed gleefully. So she said, "How old do you think I am?"

Chen Yuan thought for a moment, then said, "Forty-eight?"

"Oh my!" The old woman's face flushed instantly, and she slapped her thigh, laughing, "I'm already fifty-eight, you really know how to guess!"

"Fifty-eight? Really? You can't tell at all!"

Chen Yuan's set of compliments for the young and handsome immediately made the old women smile like flowers, and they were all very happy.

Through this week's superpower, Chen Yuan had raised everyone's emotions very high.

Except for one grandma, whose expression was stern, and whose emotion was blue.

Xia Xinyu told Chen Yuan that this was a neighbor from a few houses down.

She was a very difficult grandma to deal with.

After her husband passed away, she became even more irritable.

She loved to gossip about people behind their backs.

Moreover, many of the village's gossip were rumors that she had embellished and spread.

It was said that because her son had married a strong-willed woman, the two didn't get along, and argued many times, causing her son not to come home for several years.

The most difficult old bonehead was left to him.

"Grandma." Chen Yuan walked to her side and said enthusiastically, "Our house is next to yours, if you need anything, you can call on us."

Hearing this, the grandma sneered and said, "Yes, my house hasn't been cleaned yet."

Her words made the other old men and women present feel uncomfortable, and they couldn't help but curse in their hearts.

This old woman was really sick!

Besides Little Chen, which other young person would be willing to chat with them?

Why are you acting crazy?

Isn't this embarrassing people…

"Okay, then Grandma, you can lead the way."

However, unexpectedly, Chen Yuan agreed directly.

The grandma was stunned for a moment, and Chen Yuan went to support her.

She had no choice but to get up, confused, and lead the two of them…

This scene made the old men and women think they were watching science fiction.

"This young man is really good."

"If my granddaughter could find this boyfriend, I'd be happy to die now."

"He can tolerate such a difficult old woman, he's a good person."

"We must help Xinyu's family more in the future."

………

The grandma watched Chen Yuan and Xia Xinyu cleaning her house...

And it wasn't the kind of perfunctory cleaning, sweeping and mopping, even organizing, doing it very seriously.

This young man, he's really good at putting on an act...

Well, do it then, whatever you want to do.

The grandma still wore that stern face.

At this moment, Chen Yuan came over.

See, you can't do it anymore, can you?

"Grandma, hasn't your TV been used for a long time?" Chen Yuan asked.

"..." The grandma paused for a moment, then said, "I don't know how to tune the TV, so I haven't watched it."

"Where's the remote control?"

"...I'll go look for it." The grandma went into the room to look.

After a while, she handed the remote control to Chen Yuan.

Then, she watched him turn on the TV, and after operating it for a while, he tuned the TV.

"Grandma, how loud do you want the volume?"

"...A little louder, good, that's it."

"Okay." Chen Yuan put the remote control in the cabinet, then handed her another remote control, "Grandma, you can only use this remote control to change the channels, don't touch anything else. Otherwise, if it gets messed up again, I can only come back next year to help you."

As soon as he said this, the grandma's eyes lit up.

The blue above her head instantly turned red.

Simple indeed.

Chen Yuan knew that he hadn't been able to make her turn red by cleaning, which meant that the point she cared about wasn't here.

She could do the cleaning herself.

However, she didn't know how to tune the TV herself.

Her son hadn't come back for several years, and no one had helped her tune it.

So, it had been left untouched until it had gathered dust.

At this time, as long as he fixed her TV and said a few sweet words, she would definitely fall for it.

"...Good, good."

The grandma almost cried when she heard this.

But her mean and harsh personality made her face completely 'unappreciative'.

In her heart, she was actually happy.

But there was always a voice saying: These two are still pretending, what's the point of flattering an old woman like me?

Until the two finished cleaning, Chen Yuan came over and said very sincerely, "Grandma, Xinyu and I are leaving tomorrow. Our grandpa is home alone, and his health isn't very good. So please, and please ask the villagers, to take care of him. It's not easy for us to come back once. Really, I beg you."

"..."

The grandma's last line of defense was completely broken.

After hearing this reason, she understood that this child was really not being fake.

But these feelings really weren't because of her.

They were for Xia Xinyu's grandpa.

Why couldn't my son do this for me?

"Well, Grandma, we're leaving."

Then, the two children left.

And the grandma wiped her wrinkled eyes with her sleeve.

Her meanness and harshness could no longer arm her.

……

"You actually managed to deal with such a difficult grandma? It's amazing."

"Of course, you have to capture the leader first." Chen Yuan, who was helping in the kitchen, explained with a smile, "Since she was the troublemaker, by solving her, no one in the village would gossip about us anymore. They might even help us take care of Grandpa."

"Babe, you're really so reliable."

Xia Xinyu looked at Chen Yuan, and was so touched that she wanted to cry.

"Who's your babe? It's nothing, really."

Chen Yuan felt great after being praised, and suggested increasing the effort.

Just as the two were preparing the New Year's Eve dinner in the kitchen, a figure entered the kitchen.

Then, she put two long pieces of cured meat and two pieces of cured fish on the cutting board.

Without saying anything, she turned around and left.

And Xia Xinyu recognized her, it was that mean and harsh grandma!

"Thank you, Grandma, we can't..."

Xia Xinyu wanted to say something, but the other person didn't listen at all, and was still walking outside.

Helpless, Xia Xinyu had to follow her out.

Then, she saw this grandma saying to her grandpa, who was sitting in a chair, "Don't go to the back mountain to chop firewood anymore, the ground is slippery, and you might fall. Just chop it behind my house, you hear?"

"Ah...okay." Grandpa nodded, "Thank you."

"Also, live a few more years!"

The grandma was actually a little hard of hearing, but afraid that others wouldn't hear, she said loudly, "You're lucky, you'll have a happy life later on, the longer you live, the better. Unlike me, I'll just die. You hear?"

After loudly instructing Grandpa, the grandma turned around and walked towards her own house, her back looking bulky, but her steps were not slow at all, rushing away…

Her empty house probably wasn't worth her rushing back to so urgently.

It was just that the harsh her couldn't bear to see others happy.

(End of Chapter)