After finishing his business, He Long hurried off to the law firm to meet up with Ling Chun.
Yu Shulin sat in a daze in his hotel room for a while. After some thought, he took out his phone, hesitated for a long time, and finally sent a text message to Liang Zhou.
"I'm staying at a hotel now. The house is going to be sold, and the landline number will be deactivated soon. Please use this number to contact me." He paused, then added another line, "Is there anything you like?"
This older brother had helped him a great deal, and they would likely be interacting for a long time to come. Since Liang Zhou had given him a cell phone, he felt he... should give something in return.
The text message sank like a stone, with no response. He waited and waited, but seeing that no reply came, he picked up his backpack, stuffed the spare change and bankbook He Long had left for him inside, and left the room.
There were six hundred and twenty thousand yuan in the bankbook, the entirety of the assets left by Yu's mother. He had no idea when Ling Chun had managed to retrieve them; before, all these things had been tightly controlled by Yu Xiu and Lawyer Zhou, and he hadn't even been allowed to see them.
He first went to the bank, withdrew two thousand yuan, then took a taxi to the cemetery on the outskirts of the city.
Yu's mother had been a styling consultant, quite skilled and well-liked by the wealthy ladies in W City. She also occasionally did consulting work at various beauty salons.
On the day of the accident, she had been invited to host a promotional event for sunscreen and had left home very early. The event was large, set up in a small open-air plaza. A client's daughter was fussing, wanting ice cream, but the client was busy with a product experience and couldn't leave. Seeing this, Yu's mother kindly offered to take the little girl to buy ice cream.
At that moment, a building across the street was undergoing facade renovations. The scaffolding, not properly secured, suddenly collapsed. Yu's mother, just then walking past with the little girl, seeing there was no time to avoid it, decisively pushed the child to safety, but was struck squarely herself.
For someone who had loved beauty so much, her death was tragically gruesome. The adults, afraid of traumatizing him, stubbornly refused to let him see his mother one last time. That sleepy morning kiss became the final memory of his mother in his mind.
After buying some incense, candles, and joss paper outside the cemetery, he straightened his clothes and walked inside. Yu's mother was buried in a very remote spot, but remoteness had its advantages—it was quiet and undisturbed.
Upon arriving, he set down the offerings, squatted, and spent a long time steeling himself before he could muster the courage to look up at the photograph on the tombstone.
The woman in the photo had a bright smile, her lips curved, her gaze gentle.
"Mom, you're still so beautiful," he said, forcing a smile as he reached out to touch the tombstone, his eyes slightly reddening. "Look at me, getting more and more useless... I'm doing fine, Mom. Do you miss me?"
A breeze blew past, carrying the fresh scent of grass and trees.
"Mom... actually, I'm not fine... I miss you so much."
The sunlight grew stronger, bleaching the tombstone a pale white.
He lowered his eyes, burned the joss paper, lit the incense, then knelt before the grave and kowtowed several times earnestly. Getting up, he carefully wiped the tombstone clean.
"From my last life to this one, it's been almost seven or eight years since I last came to see you, Mom. I'm truly unfilial," he murmured, all the emotions in his heart turning into a wave of grievance, his tone unconsciously tinged with accusation and a hint of a child's complaint. "I was so foolish in my past life, but Uncle was just too wicked. Mom, you have to help me get revenge."
The woman in the photo still smiled, her eyes tolerant and gentle.
...
"Forget it, Mom, you should move on to your next life soon. I'll take good care of myself in this lifetime, don't worry."
After cleaning the tombstone, he sat in a daze for a while, then leaned against it, sitting down. His mind was a jumbled mess, filled with all the events from his past life and this one.
"Was I too stupid..."
"Mom, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
...
He wiped the sweat from his forehead, cleared his somewhat dry and hoarse throat, rubbed his stinging eyes, and after a long silence, finally let out a long sigh. He stood up, patted the dust from his trousers, turned, and smiled at the tombstone. "Mom, I'm leaving now." Reborn once, he would live well for himself in this life.
"I'll come see you when I have time." He waved, took one last, lingering look at the photo on the tombstone, and turned to leave.
From the moment of his rebirth until now, his mind had been completely occupied by the events of his past life, his heart almost filled to the brim with dark, negative emotions. Now that he had a different future, he shouldn't let his emotions continue to struggle in the mire.
He must strive to be someone like his mother.
Ling Chun and He Long, once busy, became hard to find. After hastily finishing lunch and taking a short nap, Yu Shulin, feeling refreshed, headed to W City's largest shopping mall. All signs indicated that his not-so-close older brother was quite wealthy, so this return gift couldn't be cheap.
Full of determination, he rushed to the mall. However, after a quick preliminary browse, Yu Shulin deflated—there were too many things, and he knew too little about Liang Zhou. He had no idea what to buy.
He took out his phone and checked. The text message he'd sent in the morning still had no reply. He found Liang Zhou's number, his finger hovering over the call button, but he couldn't bring himself to press it.
Why did he suddenly feel so awkward? Would calling just disturb him...?
This hesitation lasted until sunset. After receiving He Long's reminder call about dinner, he gritted his teeth and rushed into the nearest store—forget it, he'd just buy something at random. At worst, he could make it up with something else later.
During dinner, Yu Shulin pushed two small boxes towards Ling Chun and He Long, saying somewhat sheepishly, "Thank you for taking care of me these past few days. Um, these are for you."
Ling Chun and He Long exchanged a glance, both looking surprised. After a moment, Ling Chun was the first to reach out, take the box, and open it. "Keychains?"
"I didn't know what you liked, so I followed the sales assistant's suggestion and chose these," he said, lowering his eyes and poking at the rice in his bowl with his chopsticks. Having been disconnected from society for so many years, he actually lacked confidence in the gifts he had chosen.
Ling Chun was far too perceptive. He immediately sensed the unease beneath Yu Shulin's calm expression. He smiled, secretly nudged the stunned He Long with his elbow, then took out his own keys with a smile. He swapped on the new keychain, tossed the old one aside, shook the keys, and said, "Young Yu has good taste. I like it very much, thank you."
He Long finally snapped out of it. He hurriedly picked up the box meant for him, followed Ling Chun's example by switching to the new keychain, the corner of his mouth lifting into a faint, almost imperceptible smile. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." Yu Shulin breathed a sigh of relief, looked up and smiled at them, then quickly finished the rice in his bowl, bid them farewell, and returned to his room.
Watching the young man's retreating figure, the smile faded from Ling Chun's face. He shook the simple keychain in his hand and sighed. "Seeing how prickly he was in front of Yu Xiu before, I thought this kid was a little hedgehog. But after spending these few days together, he seems as meek as a little rabbit. I misjudged him."
He Long stuffed the keychain into his pocket, glanced at him sideways, and said nothing. Daring to call the boss's younger brother a rabbit was practically asking for death.
Ling Chun got irritated looking at his tight-lipped, unresponsive demeanor. Shooting him a glare, he picked up the box on the table that belonged to him, pulled out his phone, and started tapping away furiously.
"After careful appraisal by yours truly, your younger brother is of simple character and polite manners—quite worth raising. I hope you, the esteemed guardian, will instruct him diligently and not let him grow crooked. P.S., I really like the gift Little Yu gave me. He's simply a thoughtful little sweetheart. Sadly, there's no gift for you. Hahaha."
