Not long after the ridiculous conversation on New Year's Eve, Xiao Yan took action and adopted a pair of brothers.
The two children came from the disaster area. Their parents unfortunately died in the disaster and they had no other relatives, so they had to be sent to the local welfare home.
Xiao Yan's company donated a sum of money to the disaster area. Assistant Huang mentioned this matter casually during the report, and he paid attention to it.
Originally, he was only going to adopt one, but the older brother, who was only four or five years old, held his younger brother's hand tightly after learning that he was going to be taken away. His dark eyes were full of fear and stubbornness, and he refused to let go no matter how the adults tried to coax him. The other child, who was less than two years old, probably sensed the tense atmosphere and began to cry loudly.
The scene was noisy. The welfare home staff were anxiously trying to coax the children while constantly looking at Xiao Yan, fearing that he would get impatient and leave.
Later, when Xiao Yan left, there were two more children in the car.
Xiao Xing had no objection to his actions, and Su Wanting and Old Lady Qu would not object either. Only the two elderly people in the Xiao family were not very happy at first.
However, you can’t force a cow to drink water if it doesn’t want to, let alone a living person
Besides, the two children were indeed pitiful and well-behaved, which made people feel distressed. Old Master Xiao came to see them twice with some awkwardness, and then he moved back with Old Madam Xiao. The two of them were happily playing with their great-grandsons and no longer bothered to care whether Xiao Yan wanted to find a girl or a boy.
In order to take care of the children, the family hired a nanny, and the originally somewhat deserted house suddenly became lively.
Children have short memories. Although they always cried because they missed their parents at the beginning, the memories and pain gradually faded over time, and they became close to the Xiao family again. Except for occasionally asking where their parents had gone, they seldom cried anymore.
Since they were born, whenever Suyi came back from abroad, she was greeted not only by Mimi but also by two little ones who kept calling her "Auntie".
Sue never thought she could handle children, nor did she feel she had enough patience to tolerate their fighting and shouting, but in fact, reality was much better than she had imagined.
She sat in the yard with Old Lady Qu and the two elders of the Xiao family, watching the two little guys chasing and playing with Mimi around the yard. Night was about to fall, and the house behind them was lit with warm lights. The smell of food wafted out from the window. Outside the yard, Su Wanting and Xiao Xing's car was slowly stopping. Somewhere in the city, Xiao Yan might have just turned off his computer and was ready to go home.
At this moment, all the stars and family are here.
She was in a trance for a moment, thinking that this moment would last forever.
Mimi was the first to leave.
For a dog, it is indeed old enough.
But to Sue, it seemed like only yesterday that she was competing with the puppy for her grandmother's attention. She still remembered hiding a little snowman in the refrigerator, which made the little dog whimper.
But now, it just lay there, its fur turning white and its limbs stiff, and no matter how hard she tried to coax it, it would never be fooled again.
The two children in the family cried loudly, and the rest of the people were more or less sad. However, Mrs. Qu, who had raised Mimi the longest and was closest to it, did not cry.
She knew this day would come sooner or later.
Su Wanting wanted to adopt another puppy to raise, but Grandma Qu refused, saying that she wanted to move back to the small fishing village.
Fallen leaves return to their roots, and people return to their hometowns when they grow old.
Although Su Wanting and the Xiao family tried again and again to persuade her to stay, Old Lady Qu was determined this time. Xiao Xing had no choice but to have someone renovate the two-story house in the fishing village before sending her back personally.
More than ten years have passed, and the outside world has undergone tremendous changes, but the fishing village seems to have not changed. The sea is still the same sea, the wind is still the same wind, but there are fewer familiar faces and more strangers.
Su Yi came back with Old Lady Qu. Firstly, her grandmother was old and needed someone to take care of her; secondly, even though she didn't want to think about it, she always had a bad premonition.
When she first returned to the small fishing village, Old Mrs. Qu was still very strong. Every day she would either go out to visit old friends, or go to the cemetery to weed her husband's grave and chat with him.
One night when Su Yi came back from a walk with her, she suddenly said, "Yi Yi, grandma is going back."
"Go back" is how the elderly here express their impending death.
More than half a month later, Mrs. Qu passed away in her sleep.
Su Wanting fainted several times from crying. Su Yi stared blankly at the rising sun outside the window. The light was so bright and dazzling that she closed her eyelids and a drop of water fell from her eyes.
Old Mrs. Qu was buried together with Su Yi's grandfather. The lovers who had been separated for more than 40 years were finally reunited under the ground and buried together on a hillside facing the sea.
After the funeral, Sui neither returned to City S nor traveled around the world, but remained in the small fishing village.
Xiao Yan came to see her. It was almost winter then. The sea breeze was cold and the waves were sluggish. The two of them stood on the reef and quietly enjoyed the sea breeze for the entire afternoon. When it was almost night, Xiao Yan returned to the city alone.
Su Wanting also called her, which was very rare. Su Yi knew that they were all worried about her and afraid that she would be too sad.
She didn't feel that sad. No one had probably seen more separations of life and death than she had. She just... needed to take a break for a while, and everything would be fine after it was over.
Moreover, she once again realized that she had stayed in this world for too long.
Su Yi leaned on the windowsill, gently stroking the fur of the fur ball with her fingers, and suddenly asked: "In the original book, after Su Yi committed suicide, how did Su Wanting become?"
During this time, Maotuan had been accompanying her quietly. Such a noisy ball actually managed to endure the loneliness.
It was not until Su Yi asked that it quickly flipped through the original book, read for a long time, and said, "There is not much description, but there is a sentence that says that Xiao Yan's stepmother felt guilty because her daughter committed suicide, which led to her physical and mental problems."
Sue nodded.
Mao Tuan asked anxiously, "Yi Yi, do you have any plans?"
Sue did have a plan, she was ready to leave.
Human life span is limited, and she lived too long, the only difference is sooner or later.
However, no matter how many times it happens, it always makes people sad and lonely. They just think that she is too weak and unwilling to be the one who stays until the end, watching the people around her leave one by one.
But she couldn't just leave like that. Su Wanting had just lost a relative. If she lost her daughter too, even though they were not very close, she might not be able to bear it.
There is also Xiao Yan, the Xiao family, and her friends. She can't bear to make them sad.
Su Yi sat on the windowsill all night, and only made a decision when the sky in the east was just getting light.
"Yiyi, are you really going to do this?" Maotuan asked in surprise, "It will probably be a big loss to you."
Su Yi smiled, touched its head and said, "It may be a little bit of effort, but it's not a big loss. Don't underestimate me."
Mao Tuan knew that he couldn't persuade her and could only sigh inwardly.
The sun finally jumped out of the sea level and a new day has begun.
In the Xiao family mansion in City S, it was just past six o'clock when Xiao Yan opened his eyes and stepped out of the room at 6:20 on time.
He was adjusting his tie when he accidentally looked up at the room opposite and was slightly stunned.
He is the only one living on the entire third floor. The room opposite has been empty for decades. The door is usually closed, but today it is slightly open. Did the aunt forget to close it when she was cleaning
It was a trivial matter, but it seemed as if something forgotten was leading him through the living room.
Xiao Yan grasped the doorknob and before closing it, he glanced into the room. The furnishings were not much different from his own room, with a bed, a wardrobe, a desk, and what seemed to be a string of wind chimes made of shells hanging on the windowsill. When he looked more closely, he found that the white curtains were blown up by the wind, which dazzled him.
"Click—" the door closed tightly and the curtains fell slowly.
In the master bedroom downstairs, Su Wanting woke up early and was packing up her mother's belongings.
She found an iron box in the old man's cabinet, which contained many small objects and a not very clear photo. She took a closer look under the light and realized that the people in the photo were Old Lady Qu and a little girl. The girl was only three or four years old, with short arms and legs, a small round face, and dark eyes that flickered.
Su Wanting was lost in thought at the photo.
Of course she knew who the girl was. That was the daughter she didn't want to give birth to, didn't want to see, and who died when she was five or six years old. She had long since deliberately forgotten her, but today for some reason, perhaps because she thought of her mother who had passed away not long ago, or maybe she was just blinded by the wind, she looked at the photo and shed tears without even realizing it.
Further downtown, in a luxury apartment, Zhang Jiajia was awakened by a phone call. She picked up the phone impatiently, "…Who is it?"
"Lazy pig, are you still not up? Didn't we agree to go shopping all day so that we can make a shining appearance at the class reunion?" Fang Yingying urged from the other end.
“I know, I know…” Zhang Jiajia looked painful, but still got up.
She sat on the bed in a daze for a while, and caught a glimpse of the graduation photo that had been placed on the bedside table last night. She picked it up and planned to take another look at the class hunk from that year.
"Eh... Is there one more person here?" She rubbed her eyes and counted again, making sure that she was not sleepy and had seen it wrong. There were only twenty-nine people in their class, not thirty.
She threw the photo away, yawned, and went to wash up.
In the small fishing village, Su Yi leaned against Old Lady Qu's tombstone and watched all this.
The fur ball was beside her, wiping the corners of his eyes furtively. He wanted to take back what he had said before about the devil. Who said the devil was inhumane? He had never seen a more merciful devil than her.
In order not to make others sad, she chose to change other people's memories. Now everyone forgot about her, but she herself could not forget.
Is there anything more sad than this
"Why are you crying?" Su Yi saw Maotuan wiping his nose, and picked him up, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. He took one last look at the sea, turned around and said, "Grandma, I'm leaving."
Thousands of miles away, Xiao Yan finished his breakfast and was about to go to the company. The moment he opened the car door, countless images flooded into his mind: the blue sea, the girl on the windowsill, the white wind chimes, and... the figure bathed in fire, the woman on the throne, her fiery red dress fluttering...
Xiao Yan opened his mouth, but a strange, hoarse voice came out, "... Your Majesty."
The author has something to say: This world has ended, and I will write "The Villain's Pretentious and Short-lived Mother" in the next world. Of course, Brother Xiao is still here, after all, he is a loyal dog who has turned himself into a tracker.