After cooking the noodles, Shen Wuqiu carried her own portion to Father Shen’s room.
“I am not sure if you have any dietary restrictions, so I just cooked plain noodles and fried an egg. Please make do with it.”
When Father Shen spoke, he still had that argumentative tone: “What restrictions could there be? Whether I eat or not, I am going to die anyway.”
Shen Wuqiu could not be bothered to argue with him, so she picked up her bowl of noodles and began to eat.
The father and daughter ate their noodles in silence. In less than ten minutes, Father Shen put down his bowl first.
Shen Wuqiu glanced at the sparkling clean bottom of the bowl and looked a bit surprised: “Do you want some more?”
Father Shen waved his hand and smacked his lips twice: “Your noodle-making skills are just like your mother’s. Aside from a hint of saltiness, there is no flavor at all.”
These plain, watery noodles had nothing added to them except oil and salt. What other flavor could they possibly have?
Shen Wuqiu had a retort right on the tip of her tongue, but her peripheral vision caught the expression on her elderly father’s face. She shoved the last bite of noodles into her mouth, swallowed the words back down into her stomach, and instead asked: “Do you still remember what Mom’s noodles tasted like?”
“I remember. How could I not remember?” Father Shen was very displeased by her doubt. “Back then, we had just contracted the mountain forest and worked from dawn till dusk every day. Only making noodles was convenient. Your mother had her heart set on the field work, so all three meals a day were made however was most convenient. You ungrateful little thing, you certainly do not remember.”
Shen Wuqiu lowered her gaze. She truly did not remember what her mother’s noodles tasted like.
Her mother passed away when she was five years old. At that age, she was neither sensible nor foolish, and the concept of death was still very vague to her. After her mother closed her eyes, everyone comforted her by saying her mother had simply fallen asleep.
She had always believed that her mother was just sleeping, which was why a year later, when her father married Su Yunzhi, she refused by all means to let this woman enter the house.
Later on, as she grew a little older and listened to the gossip of the neighbors, she also felt that her father simply did not love her mother, which was why he married a stepmother for her just one year after her mother’s passing.
However, seeing the overflowing nostalgia on this aged and haggard face at this moment, she felt that perhaps for all these years, she had misunderstood the relationship between her parents.
“I thought Auntie’s cooking all these years made you forget Mom even existed.”
Upon hearing this, Father Shen looked very shocked: “So you are still harboring resentment over this matter.”
Since some inner thoughts had already been voiced, Shen Wuqiu simply decided to make everything clear: “Back then, no matter how much I cried and made a fuss, you still insisted on marrying her. How could I not harbor resentment? Of course, I understand now. You had the right to pursue your own happiness, and I should not have done that.”
“At the time, I thought you just could not accept it for a moment,” Father Shen interrupted her. “After your mother passed away, I never thought about rebuilding a family. But back then, I was either on the mountain or in the fields all day long. You were still young, and there was no one to take care of you. I could only ask relatives and friends to help check in on you from time to time. At first, everyone was enthusiastic, but as time went on, people were not so enthusiastic anymore.”
It was rare for Father Shen to say so much in one breath, but his body, tortured by illness, was at the end of its rope. Speaking too much left him panting, so Shen Wuqiu quickly handed him a cup of water: “Please speak slowly.”
Father Shen took a sip of water supported by her posture, rested for two minutes, and then continued: “And you are a girl; I could not let you run around the mountains and fields with me. That is why I listened to the advice of relatives and friends and married her.”
For all these years, this was the first time this unsmiling man had spoken to her so calmly and at such length.
Shen Wuqiu felt a mix of guilt and self-blame in her heart. Yet, as for uttering polite, warm words, she still could not bring herself to do it. After hesitating for a moment, she lowered her voice and said: “Alright, I know now. It was my ignorance in the past that made things so difficult for you.”
“You girls need to be more sensitive in your thoughts, but it is also my fault for lacking the patience to figure it out.”
A sour bubbling sensation welled up continuously from the bottom of her heart. Shen Wuqiu raised a hand to touch her nose and took the opportunity to sniff, preventing that astringent feeling from creeping into her eyes: “It is all in the past, let us not talk about this anymore. You do not need to think about so much either. The most urgent task is to take good care of your health.”
“I have already called and notified the relatives and elders in the village and family. At the latest by the day after tomorrow, they will all come over. By then, I will properly divide up the little things I have in my hands, and you siblings…”
Shen Wuqiu did not want to hear this: “I am back now, so you do not need to worry anymore. Just focus on recovering in peace.”
“I know my own body. The reason I am not going to the hospital is not because I am stingy with money. The cancer cells have already metastasized throughout my body, and the doctors said that treatment has no real significance anymore.”
Shen Wuqiu stood up and tilted her head back slightly: “Why didn’t you seek proper treatment when it was first discovered?”
“Life and death are decreed by fate. How can such things be explained clearly?”
Shen Wuqiu turned her head away, picked up the bowl from the bedside table, and walked out.
“Qiuqiu.”
Shen Wuqiu stood at the doorway, refusing to turn back.
Father Shen, stubborn for his entire life, let out a helpless sigh: “Do not be sad. Everyone has to go through this stage; it is only a matter of sooner or later.”
Shen Wuqiu stayed rooted in place, taking a careful breath after a short while: “I know.”
Precisely because she knew, she felt even more guilty. She had always thought life was very long and there would be plenty of time to accompany and to love, only to realize that parting of life and death is not far away at all.
Having a rare calm conversation with Father Shen actually made Shen Wuqiu’s mood even heavier. She spent a long time washing the two bowls in the kitchen sink.
Seeing her zoning out with the faucet running, Su Yunzhi endured and endured, but finally could not help muttering a few words: “Wuqiu, tap water from the water company is being used now, you know.”
Shen Wuqiu did not respond. She raised her hand to turn off the faucet, then walked out of the kitchen without a word.
After all these years, she still had not learned how to hypocritically maintain harmonious relationships with people.
With Su Yunzhi at home, she did not want to stay indoors either. She went back upstairs to grab her phone, preparing to go outside and wander around.
Seeing her getting ready to go out, Shen Wujun followed her out and tried to curry favor with a cheeky attitude: “You have not been home for so many years, and our hometown has changed a lot. Do you want me to take you out for a stroll?”
Shen Wuqiu was in a bad mood right now and did not want to entertain him: “No need.”
Shen Wujun let out a scoff. The proud and delicate teenager was terrified of offering warm face to a cold backside, so he turned around and angrily went back to playing video games.
Yesterday, the full view of the village was concealed under the cover of night, and only a glimpse of the changes could be seen. Seeing it today, she realized that the changes in the village were indeed quite significant. The familiar roads from the past were either widened or gone entirely, leaving her with no choice but to wander blindly along the newly paved road.
“Oh, is this Wuqiu?”
“How many years has it been since you came back?”
“Whose family is that girl from? Why does she look so unfamiliar?”
“Wuqiu, you just married over recently, so you definitely do not know her. She must have just come back these past two days.”
Different voices of discussion, coming from near and far, drifted into her ears from time to time. Shen Wuqiu pretended not to hear them. Her reputation in the village was not particularly good; first, because she was never an enthusiastic or sweet-talking person, and second, because it was largely inseparable from Su Yunzhi’s exaggerated gossiping and embellishments behind her back and in public.
The villagers who were not very close to her did not proactively greet her when they saw her, and she only exchanged a few words with the occasional person she had a closer relationship with.
Shen Wuqiu strolled all the way along the road until halfway through, when she discovered that the primary school where she had studied for two years had now turned into the village committee office building. Not a single trace of the school’s old broken walls could be seen anymore.
Although this primary school had long been abandoned, seeing it completely transformed and given a totally new look still filled Shen Wuqiu with a sense of nostalgia for its past appearance.
Therefore, she walked around the four sides of this village committee building. When she was about to leave after finishing her walk, a man happened to walk out from the main entrance of the lobby. He looked very surprised when he saw her: “Wuqiu?”
Hearing the voice, Shen Wuqiu turned back to look at the newcomer, not recognizing him for a moment.
“It is me, Shen Yan.”
Hearing this, the dazed look on Shen Wuqiu’s face instantly cracked open: “I actually did not recognize you. You have changed so much.”
Shen Yan smiled: “You have not changed much yourself, except that your temperament looks more womanly.”
Shen Wuqiu gave him an eye-roll. Shen Yan could be considered her childhood sweet-and-sour friend; they used to be at odds with each other when they were little and caused plenty of friction. But as they grew older, their relationship actually improved. Two years before she left home, the two of them still frequently chatted online. Later on, presumably because both of their careers got busy and they formed new social circles, their contact gradually decreased.
Facing an old friend, Shen Wuqiu spoke much more bluntly: “Seriously, why have you gained so much weight at such a young age?”
Shen Yan gave a bitter laugh: “Perhaps my weight-gain period arrived early.”
“Hahahaha, it seems your life has been going quite well.”
“Going well my foot! I run around inside and out every day, and I still have no idea how I can stay this fat.”
Shen Wuqiu pouted playfully: “People who cannot gain weight no matter how much they want to express their incomprehension.”
Shen Yan walked up to her and familiarly patted her shoulder: “This is past…”
Before he could finish speaking, a white cat suddenly darted out from somewhere, leaped straight onto Shen Wuqiu’s shoulder, and delivered a scratch directly to Shen Yan’s hand.
The event happened so suddenly that both Shen Wuqiu and Shen Yan were completely startled dumb.
After a few seconds, Shen Wuqiu finally reacted: “Are you alright?”
Shen Yan looked at the thin scratch on his arm, shook his head, and pointed at her shoulder. Only then did Shen Wuqiu belatedly feel that something was pressing down on her left shoulder, and she cautiously tilted her head to look.
“Meow.” The fierce and aggressive meow was very familiar.
Shen Wuqiu stared at the white cat standing inches away, blinking after a brief moment: “You…”
The moment she spoke, she watched with her own eyes as the white cat’s pink little tongue licked across her cheek.
Shen Wuqiu’s brain completely short-circuited from the stimulation.