Chapter 492 - 187: Celebrating the New Year
Chapter 492: Chapter 187: Celebrating the New Year
The young man, it turned out, was named Xu Yanhe. His family was from Jiangnan, but he was currently a student at the Imperial College in the Capital City.
He was only passing through Xinghuai Prefecture at his parents’ request to visit an old family friend.
His ultimate destination was the neighboring prefecture. He was going to visit his paternal uncle, who had been about to return to the Capital City for the New Year when he was suddenly struck by a serious illness.
Xu Yanhe was in a hurry. After taking the character for good fortune from Magistrate Sheng and exchanging a few more words, he started down the mountain and set off for the neighboring prefecture.
As he descended, he passed a plum grove and heard bursts of laughter coming from within. He couldn’t help but turn his head to look.
One glance was all it took. The man urgently called for his servant to stop. "Wait."
"Third Master, is something wrong?"
Xu Yanhe didn’t answer. He strained his eyes to see, but under the slanting afternoon sun, where was the figure of that stunningly beautiful woman from moments ago?
’But I couldn’t have just imagined a girl who resembles both my aunt and my grandmother. She must have been real.’
He strode into the plum grove. It was filled with an elegant, perfumed crowd, but the beautiful woman he had just seen was nowhere to be found.
"Third Master, what are you looking for? Just tell me, and I’ll help you search."
What could Xu Yanhe say?
’That I saw a girl who bore a slight resemblance to my aunt?’
’My servant would probably look at me with pity and say I was so homesick I’d started seeing things.’
At that thought, Xu Yanhe said nothing.
But after searching circle after circle, he still couldn’t find her in the plum grove. ’Could it be that I was so worried I actually hallucinated?’
"Third Master, we can’t stay any longer. If we delay further, we won’t reach an inn by nightfall. Tomorrow is the thirtieth, and Second Master has surely received the family’s letter. He’ll get anxious if we don’t arrive soon."
Hearing this, Xu Yanhe gritted his teeth and, with a flick of his cloak, said, "Let’s go. Down the mountain."
But before heading down, he couldn’t resist one last glance back at the plum grove.
’This is too urgent; I don’t have time to search every inch of this place. But after the New Year, on my way back to the Capital City, I’ll have to stay in Xinghuai Prefecture for a while. I’ll see if I can find that familiar-looking woman then.’
The thought of his grandmother back home, who was also sick with depression and growing weaker by the day, caused a sharp pain in Xu Yanhe’s heart. He quickened his pace down the mountain.
Only after Xu Yanhe and his party were far in the distance did Chen Wanqing and Zhao Jing emerge from behind a rockery next to the plum grove.
Behind them, De’an brushed a spiderweb from his head and crawled out as well.
"His surname really is Xu. And he looks so much like our mother. You don’t think he’s really her nephew, do you?"
"It’s hard to say," Chen Wanqing said. "Mother said she has amnesia and doesn’t remember anything. She might have just picked her surname randomly from the Hundred Family Names."
"Mother wouldn’t be that casual, would she?"
"Who can say for sure?"
"I still think he’s related to our mother by blood. It’s just that when it happened, Mother’s journey was supposed to be by boat, heading south, when she was injured. If her maternal family was also in the Capital City, there would be no reason for her to go south."
"Maybe her family moved to the Capital City later?"
"That explanation makes sense... He doesn’t look like a bad person. Wanqing, should we try to get in contact with him and ask about his family?"
"We definitely can’t contact him now. He’s in a rush and is about to leave Xinghuai Prefecture. We’ll see in the future. If we get a chance later, we’ll inquire carefully. If we can confirm his family aren’t the ones who harmed Mother, then we can reveal her situation to them."
Zhao Jing and De’an both nodded in agreement. "That works."
In any case, it had been twenty years. There was no need to rush things now.
A loud shout echoed from the plum grove. "Wanqing! Chen De’an! Where are you?"
"Sister-in-law, Big Brother, it’s getting late! Are we heading down the mountain?"
And so, the group went down the mountain.
「In the blink of an eye, it was New Year’s Eve.」
On that day, Chen Wanqing and Mrs. Zhao cooked together, preparing a grand feast.
At the banquet, everyone raised their glasses for a toast. But as they drank, their eyes grew red with emotion.
"I miss my dad, my mom... and Yao’an..."
Hearing her brother’s words, Chen Wanqing couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness as well.
Before the New Year, she had sent a letter inviting her mother to the prefecture to celebrate, but her mother, worried about her father’s bandit-suppression campaign, declined to come. And because Jing’s holiday started late and the journey was too cold, Wanqing hadn’t been able to go back either.
This was the longest she had ever been separated from her parents. It would be a lie to say she wasn’t homesick.
Mrs. Zhao’s eyes were also red. Holding back a sob, she said, "In previous years, Jing would at least visit his father’s grave to weed it and add some fresh soil. Now that he’s been gone for half a year, I wonder if anyone is taking care of his father’s grave at all."