November eighth, the sixth day of the tenth lunar month, a Tuesday, was Damai’s wedding day.
On Saturday afternoon, Li Zhengguo went to pick up his mother. The children strongly requested to escort their elder sister, so Li Zhengguo took two days off from school.
The evening of the fifth was the bride’s side banquet. Two women from the village attended from every household, without exception.
The noon of the sixth was the groom’s side banquet. Two men from the village attended from every household.
Tian Jing and Li Zhengguo thought the villagers were creating gender factions.
Who would have known the villagers were seeking fairness.
To taste Afeng’s cooking, each family drew lots to decide who among four would attend, and it had to be gender-balanced.
They also agreed that the next time there was a banquet where Afeng cooked, these four people would be disqualified from drawing lots.
Tian Jing didn't know whether to praise these villagers. They could come up with any idea for the sake of their taste buds.
...
Following the Li family’s wedding banquet, there were continuous celebratory feasts in Kushan. Weddings, marriages, everyone was busy.
With the addition of these new brides, Kushan gained a fresh vitality.
Finally, winter break arrived. Tian Jing handed over the task of contributing to banquets to her mother-in-law.
Li Weili introduced her pet poodle to Xiao Hei.
Xiao Hei let out a soft meow, and the poodle, tail tucked between its legs, ran away.
Li Weili stomped her foot in anger; it had completely disregarded her.
Tian Jing chided, "You're being too fanciful. Poodles are the most timid among dog breeds. How could Xiao Hei, who was once a wolf king, possibly fancy it?"
Li Weili knew her plan could absolutely not be revealed to her mother. She turned and went out to chase the poodle.
She returned alone shortly thereafter.
Tian Jing wondered if the poodle had gotten lost.
Li Weili said the poodle was too scared to come back, so she had locked it in the courtyard of the small western-style house.
Seeing her daughter squatting by Xiao Hei, whispering, Tian Jing paid it no mind.
Not long after her daughter started school the following year, Tian Jing noticed Xiao Hei liked to go out.
She figured the villagers were accustomed to Xiao Hei, and Xiao Hei was very docile, so she didn't worry.
Spring plowing began, and she became busy again, not paying attention to Xiao Hei.
When a villager told her Xiao Hei had gone to the back mountain, she assumed Xiao Hei was going to visit its pack.
Unexpectedly, in mid-June, Xiao Hei brought her back a wolf cub.
After bringing it back, Xiao Hei stopped leaving the quadrangle.
Before Tian Jing could figure out what Xiao Hei meant, the children’s summer vacation began.
Seeing the wolf cub, Li Weili, with mixed joy and sorrow, chided Xiao Hei for getting her a pure wolf cub.
Only then did Tian Jing understand what her daughter had been up to.
She reprimanded her daughter.
Her husband pulled her into the house and lectured her.
He said that in the countryside, it was inevitable to encounter dogs mating.
Besides, their daughter was already fourteen. If she was still reluctant to discuss matters of reproduction, it wouldn't be good for her. wap.kanshuwu.net
Schools issued a textbook on physiology and hygiene and then stopped. Where would the children learn from?
If they didn't learn, wouldn't they be deceived?
Tian Jing said with embarrassed annoyance, "You mean I should teach our daughter?"
"Yes!" Li Zhengguo nodded. "You teach our daughter, and in a few years, I'll teach the boys."
"Get lost!" Tian Jing pushed her husband out of the room.
After two days of internal struggle, Tian Jing finally conceded. She got her daughter's physiology and hygiene textbook and earnestly began teaching her daughter.
Li Weili felt anguish! She understood all this; she had already read it.
But her mother was explaining it earnestly, so she had to listen.
She had a question: "Mom, does giving birth hurt?"
Tian Jing: "..."
Does it not hurt? Was that possible?
Does it hurt? Wouldn't that plant a seed of fear in her daughter's heart?
Seeing her mother stumped, Li Weili offered her own answer: "Is it a case of 'out of sight, out of mind' once the wound heals?"
Tian Jing sighed deeply.
The child was growing up, and it was so difficult to teach, harder than her second life.
The physiology and hygiene education class concluded, and Tian Jing shifted to teaching her daughter how to protect herself.
Li Weili nodded repeatedly. This was the knowledge she actually wanted to know:
"Mom, next semester, we'll be on a double weekend. Can we go home every weekend? Grandma is too lonely by herself."
Thinking of her mother-in-law's contributions over the past decade, Tian Jing felt guilty:
"Alright, have your dad or your uncle pick you up every Friday afternoon."
"Go tell your grandma to move in. There's no need to watch over that place; isn't Xiaobai guarding it?"
Li Weili ran off and returned: "Grandma won't come. She said this place belongs to Great Grandpa and she's still waiting for Great Grandpa to return."
Tian Jing looked expectantly out the door. Three years had passed; wouldn't Grandpa be back soon?
In Tian Jing's anticipation, Aguang returned, dishevelled and dejected.
He brought back two jars.
Tian Jing ignored the two jars and asked Aguang expectantly, "Where's Grandpa? Why didn't he come back?"
Aguang teared up, "Team Leader Tian, Old Master and Godfather have returned. Their dying wish was to return to their homeland, back to Kushan."
Dying wish?
Tian Jing felt a tearing pain in her heart. In both lifetimes, the only elder who had truly doted on her as his descendant was gone?
Aguang took out a letter and a box from his backpack: "Team Leader Tian, this is what Old Master asked me to give you."
The letter contained only one sheet of paper, written in the Old Master's beloved Yan style calligraphy.
Tiantian:
When you see this letter, I will have already departed.
Do not be sad; this is the inevitable path of life.
Do not grieve; my wish has been fulfilled.
In this life, I lost much, but I gained much as well. The eleven years of joy were the most precious happiness of my life.
I am going to find the other two women who are most important in my life.
Take good care.
Looking at the letter without even a signature, Tian Jing wept uncontrollably.
She knew Grandpa carried guilt in his heart.
She didn't want Grandpa's guilt; she only wanted Grandpa back. She was willing to support him in his old age; she didn't care about the trouble he brought!
Li Zhengguo put his arm around his wife's shoulder and comforted her, "Tiantian, when Grandpa said he was leaving, I knew he wouldn't come back."
"Even if he were alive, he wouldn't come back. His kindness would not allow him to let someone with no blood relation like you support him."
"If he had no descendants, perhaps. But he has descendants, and they are all thick-skinned. He would be too ashamed to return."
"Leaving this world is a release for him."
How could Tian Jing not understand? Grandpa deeply loved his wife, yet he had to raise his only daughter.
Grandpa respected his father, but his father deceived and concealed things from him until his death.
His daughter's worthlessness and his two elder brothers' antagonism had left Grandpa battered and bruised.
He had just healed with her, only to be hurt again by his granddaughter's daughter...
Perhaps it was for the best, leaving. May Grandpa no longer face schemes in the afterlife.
"Aguang, how did Grandpa pass away?"
Aguang looked up and wiped away his tears. "Old Master and Godfather were burned, but they refused to go to the hospital. They lingered for two days, made their final arrangements, and then passed away. It's all my fault, woo woo woo."
After Xiao Grandpa returned, he moved into the villa that was already under Xiao Wei's name.
The elder Mr. Xiao and the second Mr. Xiao knew that Old Master Xiao had returned and both went to see him.
Verbally, they mocked him for mistaking his granddaughter.
Old Master Xiao asked his two elder brothers if Sun Liyang had helped with the DNA tests for Tian Jing and Liu Yuelian.
The two Mr. Xiao admitted it and said that Old Master Xiao was destined to be alone for life and should just linger in this desolate manor.
When the two Mr. Xiao left, they dismissed all the workers in the manor and the villa because they were the ones paying their salaries.
They had agreed to pay for their niece, not to hire workers to serve their dear brother.
When Xiao Shuyuan arrived, Old Master Xiao was trying to start a fire to cook for himself.
The master and servant lived under the surveillance of the two Mr. Xiao for two years, and finding no abnormalities, they abandoned their surveillance.
When Aguang arrived at night, Old Master Xiao had assigned all the tasks to Aguang alone.
Therefore, after the two Mr. Xiao gave up their surveillance, everything could proceed.
The Xiao family not only trafficked in arms but also colluded with human trafficking syndicates.
However, handing over this evidence to overseas police was like a dog biting a package of meat – useless.
Old Master Xiao and Xiao Shuyuan joined forces with parents of missing children and dismantled one human trafficking syndicate den after another.
The rescued youths also participated, and the group grew larger, with more and more people being rescued.
When Old Master Xiao's group gained momentum, overseas police inexplicably called them terrorists and launched operations against them.
Old Master Xiao abandoned the struggle with the police and disbanded those who followed him.
Among the followers, some were unwilling to disband and formed a separate gang, specifically targeting the police or human trafficking syndicates.
With these people creating a diversion, Old Master Xiao and Xiao Shuyuan engineered a situation to divert Aguang and infiltrated the Xiao family, intending to eliminate the two Mr. Xiao.
But they were discovered by Xiao Xueqi.
Old Master Xiao knew that after this, there would be no more opportunities. He no longer cared about so-called innocent people and threw out a homemade explosive.