TCFSRMR |Chapter 5

Like the other production teams, the Shilibu Production Brigade was also racing to harvest wheat.

The team leader had just relayed the weather forecast, saying that it would rain the day after tomorrow. This field of wheat concerned the stomachs of everyone in the village, so even though it was already noon, everyone was still under the blazing sun, continuously swinging their sickles.

Shi Guoan, tall and broad-shouldered, was an expert at farm work. He was handling three ridges of the field by himself, and from time to time he also helped Grandpa Shi, Grandma Shi, and his wife Miao Xiuxiu nearby cut a few swaths. In this one man pulling three load situation, he not only did not fall behind, he actually pulled far ahead.

The team leader, Liang Dacheng, who was shouting to urge everyone to work while occasionally swinging his sickle to cut a few strokes himself, happened to walk over. When he saw Shi Guoan bent over with his muscles bulging, he also praised him endlessly:

“If everyone were like Brother Guoan, this field would have been harvested long ago.”

Shi Guoan stopped his sickle and was just about to say something when he heard his niece Shi Ting’s crying voice calling from far away:

“Uncle, Uncle, a ghost, a ghost…”

“What’s wrong with Ting girl? Could she have been possessed?” Old Master Shi Zongyi, who was not far behind Shi Guoan, was startled.

In broad daylight like this, how could there be a ghost?

Shi Guoan had already put down his sickle and was striding toward Shi Ting, who was stumbling over as she ran. Not far away, Shi family’s second son Shi Guoping also put down his sickle and ran over that way:

“What’s going on? Tingting, run slower…”

Shi Ting had already panted her way to the front.

On such a hot day, Shi Ting’s face was as white as a sheet of paper. The moment she threw herself into Shi Guoan’s arms, she started crying:

“Uncle, Uncle, a ghost, a ghost…”

“Tingting, don’t be afraid. Have a sip of water…” Shi Guoan said softly as he twisted open the military water bottle he was carrying and handed it to Shi Ting.

“Ghost, there really is a ghost…” Shi Ting shrank in Shi Guoan’s arms, trembling all over. “The ghost is going to cling to little brother…”

“Xiao Heng?” Shi Guoan froze for a moment. “Don’t panic, say it slowly. What happened to little brother…”

“It’s little sister’s ghost,” leaning against Shi Guoan’s sweat-damp embrace, Shi Ting’s fear at suddenly seeing her younger sister’s ghost finally eased a little. “Little sister’s ghost, little sister’s ghost has come back…”

“Nonsense again,” Shi Guoping also hurried over. He was an honest man, awkward with words and not someone who could say anything comforting, so all he could repeat were two lines: “Nonsense, don’t talk nonsense, little sister is little sister, how could she be a ghost”…

“It’s true,” Shi Ting sniffled. “It’s Yingying little sister, Yingying little sister turned into a ghost and came back.”

That one sentence startled Shi Guoping’s wife, who had just finished cutting a ridge of wheat and followed over, making her jump. She pulled Shi Ting over and raised her hand to hit her:

“Ptui, ptui, ptui, what bad luck, why would you say something like that… You little wretch, if you dare spout nonsense again, see if I don’t beat you!”

“What bad luck? What kind of way is that to talk…” Shi Guoping glared at the woman, then hurriedly shielded his daughter behind him.

Shi Guoan, who was also shocked back to his senses, looked uneasily at his wife, who was bringing up the rear and should not have heard what was being said here, then bent down and picked up Shi Ting:

“Tingting, be good. Uncle will go take a look with you.”

Then he lowered his voice and instructed his mother;

“Mom, keep an eye on Xiuxiu in a bit. Don’t let her notice anything…”

The old lady nodded, already with a bit of a sob in her voice:

“Go, go. I’ll watch your wife…”

Shi Guoan nodded and scooped up Shi Ting, striding back. The group had not gone far when they ran into the three sisters from the Shi family, Shi Jie, who were holding hands and crying all the way.

Going farther ahead, they saw Shi Heng already moved under the shade of the tree —

It was too hot under the sun, and Shi Ying tried to express this meaning, then worked hard to use her other hand to hold Shi Heng’s hand and pull him toward the shade.

She had even been wondering whether it would work, but unexpectedly, aside from refusing to speak and refusing to let go of her hand so that she could leave his side, Shi Heng otherwise simply listened to Shi Ying in everything.

Suddenly seeing the little girl tightly held in his son’s arms, Shi Guoan’s steps also clearly faltered for a moment.

Shi Ying also heard the sound of footsteps and turned back. Her gaze happened to collide with Shi Guoan’s.

Shi Guoan was at least one meter eighty tall. When Shi Ying looked at him, she had no choice but to tilt her head up hard.

When she made out Shi Guoan’s face, Shi Ying’s eyes immediately turned red —

As the most famous philanthropist in China, Shi Guoan’s image was posted online in no small amount. So many people paid attention to him, aside from Shi Guoan himself being positive enough, there was also one more point, and that was that he was handsome enough. Especially a certain ID photo from when he was young and enlisted in the army that someone had somehow released. It truly could be called sword-like brows and starry eyes, and even those little fresh-faced pretty boys would be thrown off by several streets.

Now, facing that almost identical face, Shi Ying immediately realized that she had guessed right. Shi Guoan really was her father in this life. Even those eyes overlapped with the warm gaze of the elderly chairman.

By now, Shi Ying also realized why she had thought Shi Heng’s side profile looked familiar earlier. Wasn’t it because the side facial structure of the chairman, who had also become nothing but skin and bones in his old age, looked very much like it?

Over there, Shi Guoan’s gaze also gradually froze —

When Shi Heng was just born, he was an extremely beautiful baby, and even the midwife, who was used to seeing newborns, praised him endlessly.

At the moment he saw the newborn baby, Shi Guoan almost burst into tears of joy. But that happiness did not last very long —

When children of the same age were teased, they were already able to laugh happily and giggle out loud. But his son had no reaction whatsoever to the outside world. By the time he was over a year old, other people’s children were already calling out dad and mom, but Shi Heng still would not open his mouth.

At that time, they could still comfort themselves that he was just a late speaker, but when Shi Heng still had no reaction to the outside world at age three…

Almost everyone concluded that Shi Heng only had a pretty face, but was in fact a fool who knew nothing and felt nothing about the outside world. The couple loved their son like he was a treasure in their palms, so how could they accept such a result? But they took the child to who knew how many hospitals, found who knew how many old Chinese doctors, and there was almost no effect at all.

The turning point came when Shi Heng was five, when their daughter was born. When Shi Guoan came out of the room holding his equally beautiful little daughter, he looked up and saw Shi Heng waiting by the door.

At that time, Shi Guoan had even thought it was his own illusion, but still, with the idea of trying it out, he carefully held his daughter in front of his son. His daughter, who had been crying “wa wa” all along, kept waving her little arms. No one knew whether it was a coincidence or fate, but she actually grabbed hold of her brother’s hand all at once.

The next second, a miracle happened. His son, who had never allowed anyone to approach him, did not push away that tiny arm, and on the contrary was pulled forward slightly by the little daughter’s strength —

How much strength could a newborn baby have?

In other words, it was clearly that his son had reacted to the outside world, or more specifically, to his little daughter.

Before this, someone had pointed it out to them, and they had secretly taken their son to see a doctor who had returned from studying abroad and had been sent down. After spending about an hour with Shi Heng, that doctor told them that Shi Heng was not a fool like this. There were also people like this in foreign countries. If they intervened early and were patient, the child still had a chance to recover to normal. He also told them to pay more attention in daily life to the points where the child could communicate with the outside world in a balanced way…

The moment they saw their son’s mind being held by their daughter, Shi Guoan understood that their daughter was the so-called balance point the doctor had mentioned.

After that, their married life finally began to have brightness in it.

Although Shi Heng still refused to talk with anyone else, he had always been very patient with his little sister. No matter if his sister peed on him or gnawed on his hand, Shi Heng would be obedient and motionless, allowing his sister to do as she pleased.

His daughter also clung to her brother very much. When she could not speak yet, whenever her brother was nearby, she would stretch out her hands while making “ah ah” sounds, insisting that Shi Heng hold her. By the time she was learning to speak, the first word she called out was not “Dad” or “Mom,” but “brother.”

God knew how excited the couple was when they heard their daughter speak for the first time —

Before this, they were truly afraid, afraid that their daughter would be like their son…

When their daughter grew a little older and could walk, she became her brother’s completely devoted little tail. No matter what she was doing, she would keep turning around and asking for her brother.

Shi Heng also indulged her very much. Even when the little girl dug out the mushy bun she had been chewing in her mouth and stuffed it into Shi Heng’s mouth, Shi Heng would not refuse.

Although his son still had not spoken, every time he and his wife came back from work and saw their pair of children in the family snuggled together, Shi Guoan would always feel that heaven had opened its eyes. Wasn’t this because it had given him a virtuous wife and a pair of lovely children?

But he never expected that heaven would actually take his happiness away so quickly —

Their five-year-old daughter went missing.

The whole family searched like mad for a long time, but in the end they found only one little shoe hooked by reeds and the little red jacket his wife had sewn for their daughter in the reed marsh by the river…

From then on, as long as Shi Heng was awake, no matter whether it was raining, snowing, or knives were falling from the sky, he would never again leave this old willow tree —

According to the eldest niece Shi Ting, at that time they were playing here, and each person had a section of reed in their hand, only Shi Heng did not. Their daughter told her brother to wait under the big willow tree, and she would also go and break off a section of reed for him…

But who could have expected that Shi Ying, once she went, would never come back again. As for Shi Heng, he also refused to leave this big willow tree ever again. As long as he opened his eyes, whether it was the dead of winter or the scorching summer, he would keep his head lowered and sit here in silence…

And now, Shi Heng had actually left the spot where, whenever he was awake, he had always refused to leave, a spot that had already been stamped out with two pits, and not only that, he was even holding tightly to a little girl’s hand just like before…

Shi Guoan was already somewhat dazed when Shi Heng, carrying the little girl, suddenly raised her head.

Shi Guoan instantly stiffened, and his eyes also began to swell with sour, burning discomfort —

The little girl’s eyes were so familiar, just like his daughter’s, really, very much alike.

Once such a thought rose up, even his heart began to feel a thread-like pain:

“Girl, you…”

Shi Ying slowly extended her hand. On her slender wrist, that bright red cherry blossom birthmark was just showing.