The next day, Mrs. Zhan couldn't wait to take a bus to Yisantang.
Along the way, she was looking carefully at the familiar yet unfamiliar streets and scenery, and kept saying with emotion: "It's different, it's different from before."
Zhan Rong and the foreign boy accompanied her out. When they heard what she said, they deliberately drove a little slower to let the old lady watch for a while longer. But after slowing down, the old lady couldn't help but urge them to hurry up and go to Yisantang, as her heart had already flown away.
The alley near Yisantang was narrow and cars could not enter. One of the Zhan Rong brothers took a wheelchair, and the other bent down to carry the old mother out and carefully let her sit in the wheelchair. The old woman's knees could not move at all. She seemed to be very concerned about this. She covered her too thin legs with a thin blanket to maintain her dignity.
Zhan Rong pushed the wheelchair over. When Mrs. Zhan saw the plaque of Yisan Hall at the door, she smiled. But when they went in, they found nothing.
The person in the store said, "The young boss and his friends have something to do and have gone home. If you want to repair the book, just leave it here and register it. It can be repaired within half a month."
Zhan Rong was stunned for a moment and asked, "Go home? Isn't his home here?"
If it were someone else, they might not know, but the person who stayed in the store happened to be Fu Qisheng, so he knew more. He shook his head and said, "No, he went back to his hometown."
The foreign boy next to Mrs. Zhan asked, "Where is his hometown?"
Fu Qisheng did not answer. He stood there and looked up at the other party, already becoming alert.
"Don't you remember me? Last time I came to your shop to repair a book, your boss spent the whole afternoon repairing it..."
Zhan Rong patted his brother's shoulder and said with a smile: "Don't get me wrong, we know Mi Yang, and the elders in our family happen to be old acquaintances of the elders of Mi Yang's family. We miss those old friends very much, so we came here in a hurry early in the morning."
Wu Shuang also said: "It's like this, I called Mi Yang yesterday, and I thought he meant to come here when he said 'go home', but I didn't expect that he had already left the capital."
Fu Qisheng knew Wu Shuang, and his attitude towards her was much more friendly. "The young boss has returned to Shanhai Town, and may have to stay there for a while. If you want to look for him, you can go there."
Wu Shuang thanked him and called Mi Yang. After learning that Mi Yang went back because of the elderly in his family, they insisted on going.
Mrs. Zhan even called Mi Yang in person and said to him with a smile, "It's normal that you don't know me. Your grandparents and I have been friends for many years. Let them answer the phone, or tell them that Zhan Guizhi is here, and they will know who it is."
Mi Yang was familiar with her name for a moment, but after hearing what she said, it took a while before he slowly said, "My grandfather and his family are gone."
Mrs. Zhan was silent for a while and sighed: "Then I should go see them."
Mi Yang told the old man the address, made an appointment with them, and stayed in Shanhai Town waiting.
Mi Yang and Bai Luochuan came back this time because of the camphor forest. The city's old city renovation project was launched, and someone took a fancy to this forest. In the name of renovation, they wanted to move some of the camphor trees out. It happened that Cheng Ru drove Mrs. Cheng to the city hospital for a follow-up visit. Seeing this situation, the old lady was anxious and did not go to the hospital. She knew the significance of this forest to her in-laws. Mi Honggang had been gone for less than a year, and she really couldn't bear those people to destroy these camphor trees.
Cheng Ru accompanied them to stop those people, but they stopped them for the first time, but they couldn't stay there all the time, not to mention that the other party had the approval documents in their hands.
When Mi Yang and his friends came back, Cheng Ru was still indignant: "What approval document? If you really count, that camphor forest is still in the scenic protection area! I don't know where those people got such approval documents to dig up the trees. I think they just saw that the camphor trees have matured and wanted to resell them to make money!"
Old Mrs. Cheng was also very distressed. She held Mi Yang's hand and said, "Yang Yang, those trees are public property. I have no right to control where they are taken. But they don't care about them at all. They just use machines to dig them up. They even broke many tree roots for the sake of luck! If they are bumpy for a few more days, they won't survive if they are moved!"
Mi Yang comforted her, "It's okay, Grandpa Bai has already had someone stop it. Third Aunt is right, this is something from the scenic area, and their approval document is just a bluff. The old city renovation can't be moved to Shanhai Town."
In the past, Mi Yang might have believed that Shanhai Town was indeed involved in the old town renovation project, but now the entire town has been relocated, and the original place has become a tourist attraction. What kind of renovation is used for the scenic spot? Those people are just trying to covet the large camphor forest under the guise of a pretext. It takes 20 years for a normal camphor tree to mature, but the camphor forest that Mi Hong guards is much older than that, and some of the thick ones need to be hugged to be enclosed.
Besides, even back then, the camphor forest had not been disturbed by anyone.
The person who took over the old city renovation project in the previous life was Bai Luochuan. Mi Yang calculated the time in his mind, and now is exactly the time for him to meet Bai Luochuan again after graduation and working.
Mi Yang was lost in thought. When Bai Luochuan came in from the door, he looked up and saw that the man was wearing a casual suit with two buttons open at the collar, revealing a little bit of his collarbone. Because he was standing with his back to the light, he could only see his angular chin. His voice was magnetic: "I checked with them. The approval document is real, but it is not effective enough. Don't worry, I will keep an eye on this matter and will not let anyone touch those trees..."
Mi Yang stared at him for a while, then looking at Young Master Bai's handsome face, he suddenly wondered whether Bai Luochuan had done the same thing in his previous life
He did a lot of this when he didn't know.
Is she too disdainful to say it, or too embarrassed to speak first? Or is she waiting for him to notice first, and when she expresses gratitude, he will slightly raise his chin and raise the corners of his lips with a smug look...
Bai Luochuan had already appeased the Cheng family, turned around and looked at Mi Yang, wondering, "What's wrong?"
Mi Yang held his hand and said seriously: "Thank you."
Bai Luochuan blinked, coughed, clenched his hand and pulled it closer to him, his mouth raised, obviously very pleased, "Don't worry, I won't go anywhere until this matter is dealt with, I will stay here and take care of it myself." He took Mi Yang's hand and walked a few steps, then said, "The old city renovation project has not been finalized yet, so I'll let the company send someone to participate in the bidding. In fact, this project is very good. The future development prospects of new housing sources are going to shrink, and the renovation of the old city is inevitable..."
Bai Luochuan said a lot, and even if he lowered his voice, he couldn't hide the excitement in his words.
It seemed that with just one word from Mi Yang, he had unlimited motivation.
Mi Yang's fingers moved lightly in his palm, and Bai Luochuan habitually loosened his fingers a little, and then their fingers were crossed and held together, intimate and natural.
After Mi Yang and Bai Luochuan stayed in Shanhai Town for a few days, a group of people from the Zhan family came to visit them.
Old Madam Zhan was still sitting in a wheelchair, being pushed over by Zhan Rong and the others. She looked Mi Yang up and down, trying hard to see a trace of an old friend on his face. This strong woman who used to be a master of the business world and never showed any emotion easily, reached out and held Mi Yang's hand when she saw him, her fingertips already trembling slightly.
Mi Yang held her fingers with both hands, bent down slightly and said, "Hello, Grandma Zhan."
Madam Zhan looked at him and said, "Yangyang, right? You too, if I hadn't seen you for so many years, I would have held you in my arms as you grew up. Your grandmother and I had the best relationship back then. It's not an exaggeration to say that we were sisters. Where did she and your grandfather live for so many years? Do you have other brothers and sisters? I didn't make it clear on the phone before, so tell me about it."
The small courtyard where Mi Hong lived before has been demolished, but the building that Mi Hong left for him is still there. As they walked over, Mrs. Zhan sat in a wheelchair and listened to Mi Yang talking about the family affairs. When she learned that Mi Yang had a younger sister, she said kindly, "Bring her to me next time. I like the little girl the most. I like you too. You are kind and not as tough as your grandfather. You are more like your grandmother." Then she asked, "Did your grandmother only give birth to your father in all these years? She liked children the most back then. I thought she wanted to have more."
Mi Yang said: "Actually, my father was adopted. My grandmother is in poor health and has been taking medicine."
Old Madam Zhan was stunned for a moment, and after a long while she shook her head and sighed.
The building left by Mi Hong after the demolition was very clean. He was only willing to live in the small wooden house for guarding the forest. There were only some old furniture and some commemorative items left by the Mi family. Walking into the room, there was a black porcelain vase on the cabinet, and next to it was a row of books that Mi Zehai had read when he was in military school. The damaged parts had been repaired by his old father at some point, and they were neatly arranged together. There was nothing else except some dust.
Mi Yang wiped the wooden sofa carefully, asked them to sit down, and went to make tea.
Mi Yang had been with the elderly for a long time, and he got along well with Mrs. Zhan. He knew that the elderly were nostalgic, so he went to get a few photo albums from home and looked through them with Mrs. Zhan. The elderly were indeed very interested, and asked him questions from time to time while looking at them, and Mi Yang answered them one by one.
When seeing the photos of Mi Yang's grandpa and grandma, Mrs. Zhan's gaze lingered on them for an exceptionally long time. Mi Hong didn't keep many photos, only a few scattered ones, and most of them were group photos with his wife, but there were a lot of photos taken of his wife, and it could be seen that they were taken specially in a photo studio, with some of them standing or sitting, and each one was vivid and lively, with smiles on their faces.
Old Madam Zhan gently touched the old friend in the photo with her fingers, looked at her curved eyes and raised mouth corners, and muttered a few words, "That's good" and "That's good". As she said this, her eyes became moist.
Zhan Rong and his friends had lived with Old Madam Zhan for so many years and had never seen their adoptive mother shed tears. Even in difficult times, she had never shown weakness. They were a little at a loss for a moment.
Mi Yang handed the tissue to the old lady, who took it and wiped her tears, then asked him, "Can you give me a photo of them?"
Mi Yang nodded and said, "Of course, if you are not in a hurry, I will go and print another copy of all the ones at home for you. It may take a few days to reshoot the old photos."
Madam Zhan said with relief: "Don't worry, I'll wait for you." She seemed to remember something, moved her eyes away from the photo, looked up at Mi Yang and said, "I don't want you for nothing, grandma will exchange something with you."
She took out a small box, inside of which was an old gold ring, which was made in a very unique way, like a seal. When she came out, the Zhan Rong brothers looked at each other, and their expressions became obviously more serious.
Madam Zhan said, "When I left, the little belongings I had were lent to me by your grandmother. She never asked me to pay them back, but after all these years there is still a gold bean left. I melted it and added some more to make a ring with my personal seal on it. If you have any problems, just go to the Jin family and find anyone among them. No matter who sees you, your uncles will help you."
This thing was too valuable, so Mi Yang refused to take it. However, Mrs. Zhan never took back anything she wanted to give. She just put the ring in Mi Yang's palm, wrapped his hand around it, and smiled, "Grandma gives it to you, just take it."
Mi Yang couldn't refuse and had to accept it.
Old Madam Zhan seemed to have let go of a worry. She asked about the location of Mi Yang's tomb and wanted to go there to pay her respects to the deceased in person.
Mi Yang naturally accompanied her. Along the way, Mrs. Zhan changed her previous question and seemed much quieter. She only asked Mi Yang: "When did she go?"
Mi Yang replied: "When I was eight years old, it was in 1996."
Mrs. Zhan sighed and said, "So many years have passed."
Apart from this, the old man didn't say anything else on the way.
When they were almost at the cemetery, Bai Luochuan also came over. He walked up to Mi Yang and whispered something to him. Mi Yang shook his head, smiled and held his hand.
Old Madam Zhan looked up at them.
Mi Yang took Bai Luochuan's hand and walked to the old lady and introduced her, "Grandma Zhan, this is Bai Luochuan."
He didn't say much, but the fact that they were holding hands and wearing the same ring said it all. He had already brought Bai Luochuan to see the elders who were buried here. To him, Bai Luochuan was not someone who needed to be hidden, but someone who walked side by side with him.
Madam Zhan nodded, looked at them carefully and said with a smile: "They are all good children."
Mi Yang took her to the tombstone, placed flowers and sprinkled some water, accompanied the old man for a while, and then left with Bai Luochuan. They had other things to do. Old Madam Zhan came here just to see old friends. She had been sitting in a wheelchair, looking at the names of the two old friends on the tombstone, on which were pasted photos of them when they were young.
The vows they made when they were young were finally fulfilled at this time. They stayed together until old age and were buried in the same tomb.
Mrs. Zhan suddenly smiled and said, "It is a blessing for our little Guizhi to follow you."
The old lady raised her head and looked at the other side of the cemetery. Mi Yang and Bai Luochuan had already walked very far away. She walked unsteadily, and the two old friends had already left for another world in advance. Old Lady Zhan felt emotional, but looking at the young people around her, she suddenly felt complete.
Their generation is getting old, and the next generation is growing up. Time cannot heal the wounds left behind, but it can heal the pain of the past. It is time to leave their unfulfilled dreams to their children to continue working hard for.
She placed the flowers in her hand in front of the tombstone.
On the other side, Mi Yang and Bai Luochuan were walking and whispering to each other.
Bai Luochuan glanced at the shoes on his feet and smiled, "Why didn't you change them in advance this time?"
Mi Yang: “What?”
Bai Luochuan teased him: "What else? Your sneakers."
Mi Yang laughed, held his hand and said, "Don't run away."
Bai Luochuan: “Hmm?”
Mi Yang rubbed the tip of his nose and said, "Anyway, we have already met all the elders we should meet. I will stay and live with you for the rest of my life."
Bai Luochuan held his hand tightly and said with a smile: "A lifetime is not enough, I have to cling to you, and if I catch you this time, I will never let go."
The author has something to say: The main text is finished. Thank you all for your company over the past few months. Bow!
I have been writing intermittently since December. I am really sorry. Three-dimensional things happened one after another. A company I cooperated with two years ago did not pay taxes for the author in time, and even threatened the author. In addition, I was in poor health and had a high fever that almost turned into pneumonia... There is too much negative energy. I am really embarrassed to disturb everyone's interest in reading the article, so I didn't mention it. I apologize again for the lack of updates. Next time I will restrain myself and try to report every day qaq
Next is the extra chapter, continue to be sweet~