Free Web NovelChapter 160: Chapter 127: Memories of the Village
"Yang Yishui! You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?!"
"Hey, hey, hey! I was just kidding. What are you getting so worked up about?"
Yang Yishui looked at Shen Yuan, his face flushed with shame and anger, and a wide, happy smile spread across her own.
"The little brat’s actually getting flustered."
"You!"
Shen Yuan glared at his Eldest Female Cousin, but in the end, he didn’t say a word.
"Forget it, forget it. Let’s just go to Grandma and Grandpa’s."
The moment Shen Yuan finished speaking, he saw Li Zhi, who was beside him, nodding repeatedly in agreement.
"It’s about time, anyway. It’s almost 7:30. If we head over early, we can also walk around the village."
Yang Yishui watched the two of them, laughing to herself, and naturally nodded in agreement.
"Then let’s go."
The instant Yang Yishui turned, Shen Yuan and Li Zhi both started walking to keep up.
But as the toe of Shen Yuan’s shoe crushed a curled, fallen leaf, he suddenly stopped and looked back. At that exact moment, the morning breeze lifted a corner of the wisteria curtain.
A million golden threads spilled down from the dome of the flower trellis. Pale purple petals unfurled in the beams of light, the texture of each one, thin as a cicada’s wing, steeped in a honey-colored halo.
As Shen Yuan looked up, the wavering shadow of a flower suddenly transformed into the quivering eyelashes of a girl. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
A speckle of light filtering through the gaps in the wisteria leaves exploded softly in his pupils, and for a dazed moment, he again saw those eyes that held the Milky Way.
Shen Yuan’s Adam’s apple bobbed unconsciously. As the wind filled the collar of his hoodie, it felt as if the cloyingly sweet scent of ice cream still clung to his breath.
"COUGH!"
As if he had suddenly choked, the young man lowered his head, the heel of his shoe crushing the scattered specks of light on the ground.
The moment Shen Yuan turned back, he froze on the spot.
The instant he subconsciously looked up, his gaze met Li Zhi’s, who was looking back at him from out of the morning light.
The girl was biting her lower lip as she looked back, her wavering gaze like a strand of spider silk disturbed by the wind, suddenly tangling with his.
The panic she hadn’t managed to hide in her eyes scattered like sparks.
Li Zhi abruptly turned her face away, her ponytail tracing an incomplete arc through the air.
"I’m going!"
Shen Yuan only had time to see the rosy blush burning at the tips of her ears before her figure disappeared into the shadows of the street.
"Coming!"
The breeze stirred up by the young man’s stride startled the mist of light resting on the trellis.
Swirls of golden dust chased his hurried figure, forever preserving that glimpse of crimson at her ear, not yet faded in the depths of the trellis, within the undried morning dew of late September.
Shen Yuan had just rounded a corner when he saw his Eldest Female Cousin’s teasing gaze fall upon him.
"What took you so long?"
"My shoelace came untied," Shen Yuan said instinctively.
His Eldest Female Cousin lowered her eyes, her gaze landing on Shen Yuan’s running shoes.
They did, in fact, have shoelaces.
The corners of Yang Yishui’s mouth lifted slightly as she turned and walked toward where the car was parked.
Shen Yuan slowly let out a breath of relief, and then he saw Li Zhi.
Young Master Li only glanced at him before turning and walking away.
Back in the car, Yang Yishui didn’t stay on the main road, instead plunging down a village path.
This way led directly to the ring road.
Their old hometown—Yang Yishui’s maternal grandmother’s house—was just off the ring road.
There was an overpass still under construction on this ring road, and Shen Yuan’s and Li Zhi’s ancestral homes were somewhere beneath it.
The place where his grandpa and grandma lived now was Shen Yuan’s paternal uncle’s house.
Their true ancestral home was still there, but it had already collapsed.
Even if they tore it down now, the permits for rebuilding wouldn’t necessarily be approved, so it was better to just leave it be.
His uncle’s family had moved to the city long ago, but the old couple was unwilling to leave the place they had lived their whole lives, so the family let them have their way.
In the villages of Jiyang, especially those nestled against the mountains, the houses were built close together.
Typically, there would be residences on one side and fields on the other, a sharp distinction between them.
This resulted in the houses being built closer together, with alleys just wide enough for two people connecting throughout the village in a grid-like pattern.
After getting out of the car, Li Zhi didn’t follow Shen Yuan, but went to her own grandparents’ place instead.
It was close by anyway; after a few twists and turns through the alleys, it was only a minute’s walk.
Shen Yuan had a loud voice; from this distance, Li Zhi would be able to hear him if he shouted.
As soon as he reached the front door, Shen Yuan saw that the main gate was shut tight.
No one was home.
Shen Yuan’s mouth twitched.
He didn’t even have to think about where the old couple had gone.
Knowing their grandkid was coming, they had gone to the fields to pick vegetables.
No matter what, the elderly held the simple belief that the vegetables they grew themselves were the best.
When the younger generation returned home, picking their own vegetables for them was not just about maintaining family bonds. The deeper meaning was that the elderly were seeking self-validation.
As they aged, the social and familial roles of the elderly rapidly diminished.
Gardening was one of the few forms of positive feedback they had left to reinforce their sense of self-worth.
And gardening was also a spiritual outlet for the elderly to combat loneliness.
Shen Yuan placed the fruit he’d brought by the door, then squatted down on the concrete ground in front of the house.
He had given the only small bamboo chair to his Eldest Female Cousin.
After squatting for a while, Shen Yuan turned his head to look at his Eldest Female Cousin.
"Did we get here too early?"
"Obviously. What are you squatting around for? Go check the windowsill for a key."
"Tsk, I forgot."
Shen Yuan immediately got up, went to the window, and started feeling around on the sill.
Soon, his fingertips touched a small, hard object.
"Perfect!" Shen Yuan exclaimed excitedly, then quickly unlocked the door with the key.
The moment the door opened, a musty smell washed over him. It was a faint scent of decay, the smell that time leaves in its wake.
Before Shen Yuan’s grandparents moved in, his paternal uncle’s house had stood empty for several years, occupied only during the New Year.
Shen Yuan poked his head out from inside the house.
