Liu Haitao had only been in Li Family Village for a few days when Grandma Shen’s relatives came knocking.
The visitors were Grandma Shen’s nephew, Shen Hongjiang, and his son, Shen Mingyuan.
The father and son had barely stepped through the courtyard gate when they demanded angrily, “Li Dazhuang, your old mother’s been gone for so long. You didn’t even send her family a message. What’s the meaning of this?”
Li Dazhuang and Wang Lanhua were both stunned.
There was a reason they hadn’t informed Grandma Shen’s relatives of her death.
The old woman had cut ties with her family years ago. They hadn’t had any contact in decades.
Who could have expected that a year after her death, those relatives would come knocking to demand an explanation?
“Uncle, Grandma passed away on New Year’s Eve. It was freezing cold then, and the snow had blocked the roads. We had no way to send word. I admit that I handled this badly.”
Though the family ties had long since been severed, death was still a serious matter. Li Dazhuang knew that and hurried to apologize.
Wang Lanhua came to her senses, grabbed Li Dazhuang, and glared at the visitors. “Did any of you ever come see her while she was alive? Now that she’s been gone for a whole year, you’ve suddenly come here making a scene. What are you really after?”
As she spoke, she strode to the gate and reached out to shut it in their faces. “Get out of here. Don’t keep me from going to the fields. I don’t have time to argue with you!”
Shen Mingyuan took two quick steps to the doorway and pressed his hand firmly against the door. “Our great-aunt died, and you deliberately kept us in the dark. And you still think you’re in the right?”
“Oh? Let me make one thing clear. If you keep causing trouble, don’t mistake me for some helpless pushover!”
Wang Lanhua grabbed the broom from behind the door and swung it at Shen Mingyuan.
Li Dazhuang hurried forward and caught hold of her. “Lanhua, let’s talk this out. Don’t hit anyone!”
“You good-for-nothing! They’re bullying us right at our own doorstep, and you’re still trying to keep the peace!”
She yanked herself free from Li Dazhuang and moved to attack again, but Shen Hongjiang suddenly shouted, “Stop!”
Keeping his temper under control, he turned to Wang Lanhua and softened his tone. “We didn’t come here to argue, much less to fight. We just want to pay our respects at my aunt’s grave.”
“Pay your respects? That’s a nice thing to say!” Wang Lanhua snorted.
Only a few days earlier, Liu Haitao had come asking about Grandma Shen. Now her relatives had shown up right afterward. The timing was far too suspicious.
Li Dazhuang wanted to take the father and son to the grave, but Wang Lanhua immediately stopped him. “There’s plenty of work to do in the fields. You get out there!”
Li Dazhuang looked embarrassed. “I’ll take them over.”
Fearing that he might let something slip, Wang Lanhua quickly cut him off. “The grave is up on the eastern slope. The path is easy to find. They don’t need you to show them the way!”
Shen Hongjiang and Shen Mingyuan exchanged a glance, then turned to Li Dazhuang.
“Dazhuang, we’ll go ourselves. You get on with whatever you need to do. I haven’t seen my eldest aunt in over twenty years. Even though we lost touch, I’ve always kept her in my heart.
“Before she died, did she leave any words behind? Or perhaps some keepsake?”
Wang Lanhua’s heart sank. Sure enough, they were after the same thing as Liu Haitao. Could Liu Haitao have secretly prompted them to come?
She spoke before Li Dazhuang could answer. “She didn’t leave any last words, and she didn’t leave anything behind!”
Shen Mingyuan fixed his eyes on Wang Lanhua. “Are you sure? Not a single word? Not even one item?”
“I said there was nothing!”
It turned out that two days earlier, the Shen family had received an urgent telegram. They had been instructed to come to Li Family Village and find out everything they could about Grandma Shen’s final words and any belongings she might have left behind.
There was something only Grandma Shen had known: years ago, Shen Xiangjun had given birth to a daughter, who was rumored to have died shortly after birth.
After hearing Wang Lanhua’s answer, the father and son finally relaxed.
They didn’t actually go to the grave to pay their respects. Instead, they turned around and headed straight for Qingshan Street, where they quietly sent a telegram in reply from the post office.
Meanwhile, Liu Haitao had found no leads from Wang Lanhua in Li Family Village. However, he learned from the villagers that Li Chun Tao was Grandma Shen’s biological granddaughter.
But the evasive look in Wang Lanhua’s eyes convinced him that there was far more to the matter than met the eye.
To uncover the truth completely, he had to find the key person—Shen Xiangjun. Yet apart from the late Grandma Shen, no one in the world knew where Shen Xiangjun was.
After returning to the unit, Liu Haitao immediately went to the commander’s office and reported everything.
“I understand. Leave the matter there for now.”
“Yes, sir!”
Liu Haitao had just stepped out of the commander’s office when he ran into Lin Xiuyun.
“Uncle Liu!” Lin Xiuyun greeted him with a radiant smile, a thermos in her hand.
When she noticed Liu Haitao’s eyes fall on the thermos, her smile faded slightly.
“My dad’s old stomach problem is acting up again, and he can’t have anything cold. I simmered some nourishing soup over a low flame and brought it to him while it’s still warm. It should help settle his stomach.”
Liu Haitao sighed. “Your father is truly blessed to have such a thoughtful daughter.”
“It’s only what I should do!”
“Go on, then.”
Liu Haitao waved her off and turned to leave. Lin Xiuyun watched his retreating back, her heart tightening with unease.
For the next several days, she was restless and anxious. She had no appetite and slept poorly.
Whenever she had a spare moment, she would hurry to the family compound’s mailroom and ask again and again whether a telegram had arrived for her.
She had just returned empty-handed from the mailroom when Li Zhengtang arrived behind her.
“Xiuyun, your telegram!” Li Zhengtang said as he entered, a telegram clasped in his hand.
The people at the mailroom had just told her there was nothing for her. Yet the moment she returned to her room, Li Zhengtang had shown up with a telegram. Lin Xiuyun’s heart gave a sudden jolt, and she stole a glance at the message in his hand.
Fortunately, it wasn’t an exposed telegram sheet. It had been placed inside a small kraft-paper envelope, which was sealed tightly.
Feigning surprise, she said, “A telegram? Could it be from my uncle? Maybe my cousin is getting married.”
“Will you go to the wedding?”
Lin Xiuyun didn’t dare open the envelope in front of Li Zhengtang. She casually slipped it into her pocket. “I’ll see how things go. Dad’s stomach has been acting up lately, and I really can’t feel at ease leaving him.”
“Xiuyun, it’s all thanks to the care you give him every day that Dad’s old stomach problem hasn’t flared up as often as it used to.”
“Stomach problems are thirty percent treatment and seventy percent proper care. They need to be managed slowly. I also made some red-date millet porridge. I’ll take it over to him now.”
As she spoke, Lin Xiuyun turned toward the kitchen to ladle out the porridge.
“Brother, I made plenty. Why don’t you have a bowl too?”
“I have something to take care of. I’ll pass.”
Li Zhengtang followed Lin Xiuyun out of the courtyard.
As soon as they stepped outside, they ran into several military wives returning with baskets of vegetables. The women were chatting and laughing as they walked toward the family compound.
Lin Xiuyun put on a pleasant smile and took the initiative to greet them.
The women’s eyes all fell on the thermos in her hand.
“Xiuyun, taking soup to your father again?” one of them asked.
Lin Xiuyun nodded lightly. “Mm-hmm.”
Another woman chimed in casually, “Why don’t you have the orderly take it over? There’s no need for you to make the trip every day.”
“The soup from the mess hall is too watery and roughly made. This is a nourishing soup I watched over the stove and simmered slowly myself. It’s good for his stomach.”
“Oh my, daughters really are the most thoughtful and attentive. No one else can compare!”
Lin Xiuyun smiled as she walked past them. The moment she had gone a short distance, the smiles vanished from the women’s faces. They gathered together and began whispering among themselves.
“Commander Lin never married in his whole life, so where did this biological daughter come from?”
“I heard he went to the countryside when he was young. Could she be the illegitimate daughter he left behind back then?”
“Watch your tongue. If those words reach the commander’s ears, none of us will be able to answer for them!”
“He adopted Li Zhengtang before, and now he has a devoted daughter as well. No matter how you look at it, he has both a son and a daughter now.”
After Lin Xiuyun returned from delivering the soup, she did not even bother to wash the thermos. She hurried into the inner room, pulled out the kraft-paper envelope, and tore it open.
The moment she saw the telegram’s contents, the heart that had been hanging in suspense for days finally settled.
She struck a match and set the telegram alight. Before long, it had burned to ashes.
What she never imagined was that a pair of eyes was watching her every move from outside the window.
