Chapter 524: Father, Lan Xu

It had rained not long ago, so the roads here were all muddy and very difficult to walk on.

Fortunately, they were all wearing sneakers.

But by the time they reached the village, their shoes were a complete mess.

They finally managed to find a house. After paying a bit of money, the four of them took off their shoes to clean off the mud.

“Good heavens, this place is really in the middle of nowhere,” Yun Xiao Ba said.

Yun Jiao looked at a persimmon tree in front of the yard. It was the time of year when the persimmons were starting to ripen. The tree had barely any leaves left, and the bright red fruit hanging from its branches, set against the old house, had a unique charm.

They had also lived through hard times when they were young.

But things had improved since then; even the conditions in their own village were now very good.

And that was to say nothing of when they moved to the big city.

After so many years, it felt a little strange to suddenly be in such an underdeveloped place where the roads were barely passable.

Yun Xiao Ba, with a camera hanging around his neck, sat under the eaves. He found a good angle and took a picture of the persimmon tree.

He glanced down at the photo and was quite satisfied with it.

The group was hungry by now. The homeowner was in the middle of cooking, but the meal wasn’t ready yet.

So Yun Jiao took out a box of cookies for everyone to snack on and tide themselves over.

CRUNCH, CRUNCH…

GULP…

Hearing the sound of someone swallowing, Yun Jiao looked over. Behind the door, a grimy little child with big eyes was staring at them wistfully.

Yun Jiao raised an eyebrow slightly and beckoned to him.

“Come here.”

The child was shy and a little afraid of strangers, but tempted by the delicious treats, he came out anyway.

“Go wash your hands and face. Once you’re clean, I’ll give you a cookie.”

His hands were filthy.

Yun Jiao, who had been about to give him a cookie, took one look and changed her mind. ‘He’d better wash his hands and face first. Even a coal miner isn’t this dirty.’

The child understood. He sniffled and immediately turned around.

“Mom, I need to wash my hands.”

He quickly ran out again.

Yun Jiao kept her promise and handed him a cookie.

The little guy was overjoyed as he ate, no longer afraid of them.

“Big brothers and sisters, are you from the big city?”

Yun Xiaoqi answered him, “That’s right. But we’re from a fishing village, too.”

“So you live by the sea, too?”

When he saw them nod, the little boy asked, “Then when I grow up, can I be rich like you, too?”

“How do you know we’re rich?” Yun Xiaojiu asked.

The little boy replied, “Because your clothes and shoes are so nice. And you have this.”

He pointed at Yun Xiao Ba’s camera.

They smiled. “Well, you’ll have to study hard, then. You can only make good money after you get into college.”

They didn’t know it, but their words planted a small seed in the boy’s heart. When he grew up, he would indeed leave the small fishing village through his studies.

They chatted for a while before their host called them for dinner.

Because they had paid, the host family was very hospitable, preparing a much larger and better meal than usual.

Still, the family was a little reserved around their guests.

After Yun Jiao and the others had eaten their fill, they began to ask about the shipwreck from seventeen years ago.

“Oh, that year,” the man of the house suddenly recalled. “Several people from our village were swept out to sea. I was one of them.”

“But I was lucky. Someone saved me. He was a strange man—his hair and eye color were different from ours.”

“Oh, right. Just like yours.”

He pointed at Yun Jiao.

Hearing this, Yun Jiao asked, “Did he ever come back after that?”

The man of the house scratched his head. “What do you mean, ‘come back’? He lives right here in the village.”

Yun Jiao: !!!

Her brothers: !!!

The four of them stared in shock. Even the look in Fu Mingyu’s eyes changed.

“He lives here? He didn’t die?!”

The host replied, “…Who said Brother Lan died? He’s alive and well.”

“It’s just… for all these years, he’s been living in that run-down house up on the mountain. Says he’s waiting for someone, but that person has never come back.”

Yun Jiao, her two brothers, and Fu Mingyu exchanged stunned glances.

This was something none of them had ever imagined.

“Where does he live?”

The middle-aged man decided to take them up the mountain himself.

It took them half an hour. The path was difficult to navigate, mostly because of the recent rain.

The house was on the mountainside. Gradually, a small wooden cabin came into view.

The wooden cabin looked somewhat dilapidated, with obvious signs of repairs in several places. The yard, however, was neatly tended, featuring a thriving little vegetable patch and a ring of rose bushes surrounding the house.

A man sat on a small stool in the yard, his eyes fixed blankly on the horizon.

From where he sat, he was facing the sea.

“Brother Lan, these people came looking for you. Are they the ones you’ve been waiting for?”

The middle-aged man’s voice roused the man who had been staring into the distance. He turned his head and looked toward them.

In that instant, his eyes met Yun Jiao’s.

Lan Xu shot to his feet, his pupils widening slightly. The tall man strode over to stand before Yun Jiao.

“You…”

He reached out, his eyes reddening as he stared at Yun Jiao’s face. It was as if he were looking right through her at another person.

Everyone present, except for the middle-aged man who had guided them, knew who he was seeing.

Yun Jiao studied him. The man had fair skin and stood about six feet tall. His slightly long hair had a faint, pale blue tint, a color shared by his eyes. His handsome features held a touch of delicate refinement.

After so many years, he had an air of world-weariness and solitude about him. But his face, other than looking more mature than it did in the portrait, hadn’t changed much at all.

“My name is Yun Jiao.”

Yun Jiao took the initiative. “I’m An Zhiya’s daughter.”

After that, Yun Jiao sat with him, and they spoke for a long time.

The moment Lan Xu learned that An Zhiya was dead, he burst into tears.

He didn’t care about losing face in front of the younger generation, simply crying his heart out.

Only then did Yun Jiao learn that Lan Xu had returned a month after the shipwreck. He had been washed ashore on a distant island and had managed to swim all the way back on his own.

But when he returned, he discovered the woman he loved was gone. He searched for a long, long time.

He searched the village and the nearby town.

But he didn’t know where An Zhiya lived.

An Zhiya had never told him. And since Lan Xu had just left his hometown, it was his first contact with the outside world. He knew nothing of it, like a newborn babe. Even if he wanted to search for her, he had no idea where to begin.

Worse, he was undocumented, so he couldn’t travel anywhere beyond this area.

In the end, all he could do was return to this fishing village—to the place they had once shared—and wait.

And so he waited, right up to this very day.

If Yun Jiao and the others hadn’t come, Lan Xu might have waited for the rest of his life.

A bitter feeling washed over Yun Jiao as she listened.

“If Mom were still alive, she might have come back here to visit.”

But fate was cruel. Distraught over Lan Xu’s disappearance on top of being pregnant, she had fainted and was taken back to the Capital by Song Qing for treatment. Afterward, she was forced to marry another man.

She was plotted against during childbirth; not only did she lose the baby, but she herself was manipulated into a state of frail health, ultimately leading to her tragic death.

Meanwhile, Lan Xu, tragically separated from her, couldn’t find the woman he loved and had no idea where else to look. So he could only wait, heartbroken, in the little fishing village where they had once lived.

They had missed their chance, just like that.

Listening to Lan Xu’s sobs, Yun Xiao Ba and Yun Xiaojiu felt their hearts ache as well.

Yun Jiao reached out, placed a hand on his shoulder, and softly called out a name.

“Dad.”

Lan Xu cried, but then he smiled. It was a heartbreaking sight.

He placed a hand on Yun Jiao’s face.

“You look so much like Zhiya.”

“I’m so sorry. We… neither of us protected you.”

Yun Jiao shook her head. “I didn’t suffer.”

No one could have expected that Yun Jiao’s sudden whim—to visit the place where her parents met and fell in love—would actually lead her to find the man himself.

That night, Yun Jiao and the others stayed there.

Although there was no bedding, they were able to buy a few sets in the village.

The rooms weren’t soundproof, and Lan Xu’s sobs echoed in their ears throughout the night.

Yun Jiao called Song Qing and told her everything that had happened there.

On the other end of the line, Song Qing was silent for a long moment before speaking, her voice choked with emotion.

“Jiaojiao, tell me… how could two people who loved each other so deeply suffer such a cruel fate?”

Yun Jiao replied, “The ones to blame for this are Su Kangcheng and Sun Shuzhen.”

Song Qing’s voice was laced with hatred. “That’s right… If it weren’t for them. If only it weren’t for them…”

Her voice clearly broke into sobs.

But what was done was done. Time could not be turned back; all they could do was look forward.