Toon Chapter 25
by“The weather is really getting colder.”
In the morning, Granny Sun was sorting vegetables by her door, complaining about the cold, when she personally witnessed a black car driving down the narrow gravel road.
In this poor, remote village, it was the first time she had ever seen a car pass through. Granny Sun craned her neck to watch the car’s rear end, wondering which child from the village had made it big! They were even driving a car back!
The black car steadily stopped on the road in front of Zhou Lingchun’s house.
Liansheng, wearing a padded jacket, was sitting by the door sunbathing and playing with the cat. Hearing the noise, he stood up in surprise and peered out, shouting toward Zhou Lingchun, who was cleaning inside, “Come out quickly, there’s a car stopped right outside our door!”
Zhou Lingchun heard Liansheng’s shout and walked out. Liansheng leaned affectionately against his shoulder, his gaze still fixed on the black car. “Could it be my aunt?”
Liansheng grabbed Zhou Lingchun’s hand and ran over, calling out, “Aunt!”
“Xiao Lian.” Cheng Shiyi smiled gently, raising her arm to stroke Liansheng’s hair. “I was supposed to arrive this morning, but the road is too narrow and rough, making it difficult for the car to come in.”
Liansheng asked, “Why didn’t you call me?”
“Aunt did call, but couldn’t get through,” Cheng Shiyi said. “Aunt was worried about you, so I immediately inquired about the location and came to find you.”
Cheng Shiyi had called for two days straight without success. She couldn’t help but worry that perhaps that man had trapped Liansheng. Early the next morning, she followed the address Liansheng had previously given her. The journey was bumpy, and after arriving at Pingshui Village, she had to ask several households before finally finding Liansheng.
Seeing Liansheng’s smiling face, she finally felt relieved.
Cheng Shiyi’s gaze shifted to Zhou Lingchun. “You must be Lingchun?”
“Yes.” Zhou Lingchun greeted her politely. “Aunt.”
The gifts Cheng Shiyi brought were placed in a pile outside Zhou Lingchun’s door.
The painting style was naive yet expressive. It depicted a small house, with a white-haired old person sitting by the door. Beside the old person lay a small cat and a dog, and two people were hanging clothes not far away. Behind the house were continuous, winding green mountains.
Against another wall were two large wardrobes. Liansheng mentioned that the newer-looking one was recently built by Zhou Lingchun specifically for his clothes.
“Zhou Lingchun is so good to me! …Oh, this is the cat we raised together.” Just then, Ju Zi ran over to join the excitement, and Liansheng scooped him up. “Aunt, look! He’s getting fatter and fatter. When he first came to our house, he wasn’t even as big as Zhou Lingchun’s hand.”
Cheng Shiyi reached out and stroked Ju Zi’s head, her eyes revealing a loving affection, but inwardly she felt a sense of relief.
She saw that Liansheng had changed so much from before. She knew Liansheng was different from ordinary people, but the Lian family had always raised him as a boy, so she naturally viewed him as a boy. When she heard Liansheng say he was living with a man, she was greatly surprised and felt it shouldn’t be so.
But Liansheng was clearly living happily now, so why should she, as his aunt, worry unnecessarily?
Cheng Shiyi lowered her eyes.
She couldn’t stay here for long. Her husband, who was still abroad, had written to her expressing his longing. Her sister had passed away early, and the only thing she couldn’t let go of before her death was Liansheng, entrusting Cheng Shiyi to take Liansheng away from the Lian family. However, the Lian family refused to release him. When the Lian family collapsed, Cheng Shiyi was still abroad. By the time she rushed back, everything had changed. Surrounded by a pack of wolves and tigers, Liansheng had been kidnapped, and no one knew if he was dead or alive.
If she went back abroad this time, how could she bear to leave Liansheng here…
If they were to separate, she wondered if Xiao Lian could manage to let go?
If he couldn’t…
“Aunt, have some water.”
Zhou Lingchun interrupted Cheng Shiyi’s thoughts, bringing in two bowls of water. He handed one to Liansheng and the other to Cheng Shiyi.
The bowls were the most common white kind. Cheng Shiyi took a sip and tasted it: “I didn’t expect the water here to be so sweet.”
Zhou Lingchun said, “It’s spring water from the mountain, boiled.”
Cheng Shiyi drank two more sips, put down the bowl, and maintained the smile on her face. “Xiao Zhou, thank you so much. If it weren’t for you, our Xiao Lian would surely have suffered greatly.”
“It’s my duty to take care of him.”
Cheng Shiyi looked at the two servants standing at the door, motioned for one of them to bring her bag, unzipped it, and pulled out a stack of cash, all hundred-yuan bills, handing it to Zhou Lingchun. “I still need to thank you. This is compensation for taking care of our Xiao Lian these past few years.”
Zhou Lingchun frowned almost imperceptibly. “No need, really, no need.”
“You must take it.”
Liansheng sensed something was wrong and held the woman’s hand. “Aunt, please don’t.”
Cheng Shiyi tapped his forehead. “You, you’ve let someone take care of you for years for nothing. You must give some thanks, otherwise, how can you feel at ease when you go back with Aunt?”
Liansheng finally understood and instantly panicked. “No! Aunt, I don’t want to be separated from him.”
“Aunt is taking you back to live a good life. How can you live well here?”
“No, I don’t want to live a good life.” Liansheng saw the two tall men at the door, thinking they were specifically there to block him. His emotions became agitated, and his eyes turned red. “Every day I spend with him is a good life. I’m very happy here. I don’t need a lot of money, and I don’t want a big, beautiful house. I just want to stay here with him and Granny.”
He didn’t care for a wealthy life. His mind was filled with memories of Zhou Lingchun taking him up the mountain to pick flowers in spring, picking lotus pods in summer, harvesting persimmons in autumn, and building snowmen in winter.
None of these things required a lot of money, but they absolutely required Zhou Lingchun.
Just last night, he had promised the man that when the heavy snow fell this winter, they would build a snowman taller than a person.
If he left and didn’t come back, Zhou Lingchun would have to build it alone.
Thinking of this, Liansheng’s tears fell. He said, “If I go and can’t come back, then I’d rather not go…”
Zhou Lingchun didn’t know what to do. He tenderly took a tissue to wipe Liansheng’s tears, coaxing him softly, “Don’t cry. It’s cold, and if you cry, your face will hurt.”
Cheng Shiyi now knew Liansheng couldn’t be taken away, but she was deeply moved by Liansheng. She, too, shed tears. “Alright, don’t cry. If you don’t want to be separated, then we won’t separate for now. Your mother’s dying wish was for you to live happily. How could Aunt forcibly tear you apart?”
Liansheng was not surprised that his relatives had passed away; he had secretly guessed it long ago, and the sadness had already faded away with the past.
He just widened his tear-stained eyes. “Really?”
“Really.” Cheng Shiyi used a handkerchief to dry her tears. “But you should still go back and visit, see your mother… Aunt will bring you back in a few days, alright?”
“I…” Liansheng hesitated. He wanted to go back and see, but he was also afraid he truly wouldn’t be able to return.
But his hand was tightly grasped. Liansheng looked up, met Zhou Lingchun’s gaze, and heard Zhou Lingchun say with a determined tone, “Go. Go and see the place.”
Before leaving, Liansheng cried again while they were packing clothes in the house. Since being with Zhou Lingchun, he had never left the man. Leaving this time felt like he would never see the man again. The pain was real, like someone was splitting his heart with a piece of wood, leaving his heart bloody, mutilated, and split in two.
“I don’t want to go anymore…” Liansheng wiped his tears. “I don’t remember the past anyway.”
Zhou Lingchun kissed his eyelids, licking away the tears. “You have to go.”
“What if I can’t come back?”
“You won’t.” Zhou Lingchun believed Cheng Shiyi wouldn’t truly detain him. She just wanted to take him back for a family reunion and let him enjoy a few good days.
Liansheng’s tears flowed again, and he started sobbing. “How do you know? Are you just thinking of sending me away! If I leave, no one will bother you anymore.”
As soon as he finished speaking, his lips were fiercely consumed. His entire body was embraced by the man’s arms, unable to move. He cried out in pain, which only provoked the man’s more intense sucking.
Zhou Lingchun didn’t ease up the slightest. When Liansheng spoke, he only knew how to stab things into his heart. He truly wished he could devour Liansheng’s mouth! So he couldn’t say things that specifically pierced his heart.
The man passionately consumed the soft lips, his hand pressing Liansheng’s back as their lips and tongues intertwined. Their teeth clacked together, and pain bloomed between their lips, gradually tasting a hint of blood. He wished he could knead Liansheng into his own flesh and blood. If his chest were big enough, he would carve it open, let Liansheng sit on his heart, and then close his chest, so no one could ever separate the two of them.
How could he bear to send Liansheng away? He wished Liansheng would bother him for this entire lifetime.
Not until his tongue and lips were numb, Liansheng was breathless, and his lips were swollen from being kissed, did Zhou Lingchun release him. His eyes were red. “How could I bear to let you go? Go. No one can separate us. Even if I die, I will come and find you.”
And so, Liansheng got into Cheng Shiyi’s car. The car window rolled down. He wrapped his arms around the man’s neck and kissed him goodbye reluctantly, crystal tears hanging on his cheeks. He said, “Remember to take good care of Granny.”
“I will.”
“You have to wait for me to come back so we can build a snowman together.”
“Absolutely.”
“Goodbye…”
“…Goodbye.”
As the sun was about to set, in the coldness of the lingering sunset glow, the black car finally drove away along the winding road, leaving only two tire tracks on the narrow gravel path.