Chapter 354 - 168: Sorrow of Parting Stirs, Tears Are Hard to Hold Back

Chapter 354: Chapter 168: Sorrow of Parting Stirs, Tears Are Hard to Hold Back

"What the...?" Su Ran was completely bewildered. ’Did this old lady eat gunpowder for breakfast or something, snapping at everyone she meets?’ "Aunt Luo, have you lost your mind? You snap at Uncle Qin, then you snap at me. If you want to help, then help. If not, forget it. Who can put up with your bad temper?"

"I’m snapping at you, and you think you don’t deserve it? What took you so long? Why didn’t you tell me your Village Guardian’s name is Qin Liheng?"

"How was I supposed to know his full name? All I knew was that Uncle Qin’s last name was Qin. Why are you so worked up about it?"

"I’m worked up because I feel like strangling you right now."

"Why?"

"Because I am Luo Shumin!"

...

Su Ran was completely floored. After all, the information he’d gotten from Shan Changqing was that ’Aunt Luo’s husband and son were both dead.’ Based on that alone, he never would have guessed she was Uncle Qin’s wife.

Aunt Luo grumbled her way through a long explanation before Su Ran finally accepted it as fact.

Su Ran: "Oh... So why did he make you so angry you fainted?"

Aunt Luo: "Serves him right. So, what’s his condition now?"

Su Ran: "Don’t worry, he just fainted because he was so angry at you. His condition is stable for now. As for surgery... hmm... The doctor says a piece of shrapnel is pressing on a nerve, causing his amnesia. His ability to remember things today was probably a temporary recovery of nerve function, and it might not last long. When it comes to removing the shrapnel, it’s extremely risky. It’s been decades, and the shrapnel is embedded in the tissue. It’s up to you."

Aunt Luo fell silent for a moment before saying, "I’ve already had Ah Wei arrange for a chartered plane to Jiangning. We’ll bring him back to the Imperial Capital and have specialists take a look before deciding anything."

Su Ran: "Aren’t you going to come see him?"

"I..." Aunt Luo hesitated. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to fly over immediately. But they had been apart for decades. Her youthful beauty had given way to the wrinkles of old age, yet Qin Liheng’s memory was still of Luo Shumin in her beautiful, twenty-five-year-old prime.

Now, faced with a sudden reunion, she found herself hesitating, afraid of the meeting.

"Uh... You take your time. I’m going to go check on Uncle Qin." Su Ran understood her worries. He hung up to give her some time to adjust, took a deep breath, and smiled. ’This whole thing is pretty surreal,’ he thought, ’but for them to find each other... it must be fate.’

Half an hour later, around 3 p.m., Uncle Qin groggily woke up in the ambulance on the way from Anyang to Jiangning Airport.

"Uncle Qin, you’re awake?"

Qin Liheng looked at Su Ran, a smile spreading across his face. He nodded. "Yes! I’m awake." As he spoke, he sat bolt upright on the stretcher. He seemed to be in excellent spirits, a completely different person from the sickly man he had been just moments before.

"Uncle Qin, my friend was just spouting nonsense earlier. Your wife isn’t dead; she’s alive and well."

"I know my Shumin wouldn’t die. She said she’d wait for me at our old spot after the war was over."

"What the...?" Su Ran stared as the old man, full of vigor, began to get dressed as if to leave. He hurriedly pushed him back down. After a doctor thoroughly examined Qin Liheng, he explained the situation to Su Ran. The old man’s memories were in disarray, having reverted to the time before his amnesia—before Vietnam. This indicated that his condition had worsened and he needed treatment. But the old man was incredibly stubborn. He absolutely refused to be hospitalized, insisting that he had to go to their "old spot" to find his wife. The doctor warned that he wouldn’t cooperate unless they fulfilled this wish, and that he couldn’t take any more stress.

With no other choice, Su Ran called his wife.

"The old spot?" Aunt Luo’s voice was a mixture of anger and resentment. ’You could call him devoted, but he abandoned his wife and child to go to war. You could call him heartless, but he still remembers our old spot.’

Su Ran chuckled. "Aunt Luo, you two have an ’old spot’? How cheesy."

Aunt Luo: "Was I never young? Am I not allowed to have an ’old spot’?"

Su Ran: "Okay, okay, stop snapping at me. Just tell me where your old spot is. Uncle Qin is dead set on going there right now."

Aunt Luo: "It’s... it’s a small grove of trees."

"Huh? A grove of trees?"

"What’s going through your dirty mind, you little brat? You think we were like you kids these days? The ’old spot’ he means is waiting for him to come back under the big locust tree."

"The big locust tree at the end of the alley by your courtyard house in the Imperial Capital?"

"No, it’s the big locust tree at the Shanghai Dance Academy."

"The one at Demon Dance?"

"You know it."

"I... AHEM..." Of course Su Ran knew. Every time he went to Demon Dance to pick them up, he stood under that very locust tree, not far from the girls’ dormitory.

Aunt Luo then gave Su Ran a brief summary of her past. He learned that decades ago, she had been a ballet student at Demon Dance. Only after that did she go to the United Kingdom for further studies, where she met Qin Liheng.

’Demon Dance again?’

"That Qin Liheng has always been stubborn as a mule. He was stubborn then, and he’s stubborn now. Fine, fine, fine! Go to the airport, change the destination. We’re flying to Shanghai."

"Won’t changing the destination take time?"

"What time? We’ll just charter another plane to Shanghai. Problem solved."

"..."

’A boss is a boss, after all.’

"Go on, then. I’ll fly to Shanghai from the Imperial Capital, too. Luckily, I know a young lady in Shanghai. I’ll ask her to get some friends to help tidy up the area around the locust tree."

"You know someone in Shanghai? Is she a cute girl?"

"What, are you getting ideas? She already has a boyfriend. Don’t even think about interfering, you hear me, Su Ran!"

"I’m just curious who it is. What if I know her? My girlfriend goes to Demon Dance, too."

"Oh, is that right?" Aunt Luo chuckled. "True, I never asked where your girlfriend was from. So she’s one of my little ’junior sisters’ from Demon Dance, eh?"

"I’m not telling you. Wouldn’t want you getting any ideas about her."

Aunt Luo figured that since Xie Yiren had a boyfriend, it was better not to say. Besides, with Xie Yiren’s baby face and voluptuous figure, she was the dream girl of every guy out there. A kid like Su Ran, who was practically still wet behind the ears, might just set his sights on her. It wasn’t impossible that he’d use his ’money powers’ to steal someone else’s girlfriend. And so, she didn’t tell him.