The short-lived ghost of the Xie family has lived a long life

Chapter 24 The Truth
Xie Daozhi saw how his old mother was holding on to the crutches even though she was exhausted. Finally, he couldn't bear it and bent his legs and knelt down.

Seeing this, the old lady slumped down in her chair and slowly lowered her eyes.

"He wrote me a divorce note back then, but I tore it up."

One sentence was like a thunderclap, and even Yan Sanhe's usually dull face showed a look of disbelief.

She actually tore it apart?
why?
Xie Daozhi felt the cold wind blowing behind him, and felt indescribable despair in his heart.

It's over, it's over.

"Mother, why are you doing this?"

Old Mrs. Xie opened her mouth, but in the end she just sighed softly.

"I want... to leave some thoughts for myself."

"He has abandoned you, what do you want to do with this little thought?"

Xie Daozhi roared heartbreakingly, "Mother, you are confused!"

"I'm confused."

Mrs. Xie looked at her son with sadness on her face.

"I've been pretending to be stupid for 40 years. That's enough. I don't want to pretend anymore. If I keep pretending, I won't have the face to see him in the underworld."

Xie Daoyi's eyes suddenly widened.

What is mother saying?
Why can't he understand a word?

"Son!"

Mrs. Xie's whole body was shaking violently, and she was suppressing sobs in her throat.

"He has never been sorry to us. It's our mother and I who owe him too much. We can't pay him back even in our lifetimes!"

"Ancestor, what on earth is going on?"

Who owes whom?

Xie Zhifei was puzzled.

Mrs. Xie glanced at her grandson with a look of determination.

For 40 years, even if she gets cramps and peels off her skin, even if she gets older, she still remembers every detail.

Don't dare to forget!
Don't forget!
It was a winter day many years ago, and there had just been a heavy snowfall.

She and her son huddled in the dilapidated temple. This was a shelter they had just found. Although it was drafty from all sides, it could still keep out the wind and rain.

Only the last few pieces of cake were left in the dry food. The mother and son divided a piece, roasted it on the fire, and swallowed it with snow water to fill their stomachs.

When her son was six years old, it was the time when he was starting to study. Although she was a widow and had little knowledge, she knew that if she wanted to get ahead, she had to let her child learn to read.

Before leaving Xiejiatun, she thought about it, and after much hesitation, she used three old hens at home to exchange two books with the teacher at the east end of the village, one of the "Four Books" and the other of the "Five Classics".

The son was clever and clever. He took the book and asked for food and asked people. After more than half a year, he could understand roughly the characters in the book.

That night, as usual, my son carefully took the book out of his arms and read it aloud.

Tired from reading, he lay down on the straw chopper, curled up in her arms and fell asleep.

But she couldn't sleep no matter what.

Seeing that it was getting colder day by day, if we couldn't find a place to stay, we might freeze to death in the ice and snow.

After sleeping hastily for two or three hours, before dawn, she quietly got up and wanted to look outside in the fields to see if she could dig out some food.

As soon as I walked out of the ruined temple, I saw a man standing at the door, dressed very decently.

Seeing her come out, the man blew out a breath of air and took out a badge from his arms.

"Um... do you want to join the Yan family? If so, come to the door tomorrow with this badge."

She was stunned, not believing that such a good thing could happen.

"Hey, look, you still don't believe it!"

The man grunted loudly in his throat to show his displeasure, "You don't need to sign a deed of sale, just a deed of living. I'll give you one or two months of silver, food and shelter included. Don't worry, I'm not a kidnapper."

She was shocked and delighted, and knelt down with a thud, kowtowing to the man.

"Come on, don't kneel down to me. It's only proper to kowtow to my master a few more times when you turn around." The man rubbed his hands and stamped his feet and said, "My master passed by here yesterday and heard your son reading. He said he was reading. You have to be nice and ask me to come and wait for you early in the morning. You are in good luck!"

Only when she actually entered the Yan family did she realize that she had been blessed with good fortune.

The Yan family was a big business, with hundreds of servants. She was assigned to the laundry room, and the steward even gave her mother and son a small room.

Although the house was small, it was sheltered from wind and rain, and the quilt was made of cotton. It was the first time that she and her son could sleep on such a warm quilt.

It took more than half a month before she saw the master in that man's mouth.

He is in his early thirties, looks elegant, fair, and has a bookish air, as if he had stepped out of a painting.

She didn't dare to look any further and hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed.

"Although you, mother and son, are impoverished, you still don't forget to study and make progress. This is what impresses me."

The man looked at her condescendingly and said, "The Yan family does not raise idle people. In the future, if you work hard and teach your son carefully, there will be a day when all the hardships will be over."

His voice was cold and full of arrogance, and he asked her to leave after speaking.

She retreated outside, thinking about his kindness, and knelt in the yard and kowtowed three times before leaving.

She always works harder than others. Every time she washes his clothes, she spends a few more minutes. If she encounters a thread that has fallen off, she secretly adds two stitches.

His past gradually reached her ears from the servants.

He was talented and smart since he was a child, but had a cold and arrogant personality. He married a wife at the age of [-] and never took any concubines. He has three sons and one daughter.

At the age of 30, his wife fell ill and died young. He did not remarry. In addition to being an official, he devoted himself to painting, calligraphy and traveling.

He also said that he had a bad temper and had a strange temper. He would talk more when he was happy, but he was in a bad mood and was too lazy to speak for ten and a half days. There were few people in the Yan family who were not afraid of him.

She was also afraid of him, but not that afraid.

A man who can be moved by the sound of a child reading and become kind-hearted is ultimately a good person.

Good people don’t need to be afraid!
The work in the laundry room was not heavy, so after she finished her work, she ran to the sewing room next door to help.

There was an embroiderer in the sewing room who made clothes for him.

One time the embroiderer caught a cold and couldn't catch up with her needlework. Seeing that her needlework was outstanding, she threw his clothes over.

She knew that he liked bamboo, so she embroidered two more bamboo leaves on the cuffs of that dress.

She embroidered it with great care, almost lifelike.

A few days later, he found her again, again standing and kneeling.

He looked at her for a long time and suddenly asked: "What do you want from me?"

She was panicked that he had seen through her little thoughts, and she was ashamed and ashamed, but she still had the courage to say: "Please teach my son how to read."

He was silent for a long time.

She was kneeling on the ground and could only see his feet.

He wore good soap boots on his feet and tapped lightly on the ground bit by bit.

She felt her heart beating to the beat.

"You look up."

She looked up as she said.

When they looked at each other, she saw his eyes light up slightly, and then he was silent for a long time before ordering her to leave.

After walking out of the yard, she lowered her head and quickly wiped her lips with the back of her hand.

No one knew that in order to come to see him, she bit her finger and squeezed out a little blood and smeared it on her lips, just to make herself look better.

Yes, she put [-]% of her effort into it.

Entering the Yan family, although the mother and son had no worries about food and clothing, no matter how smart the son was, he couldn't study to become a talent and had to find a teacher to teach him.

There is a clan school in the Yan Mansion, and only children named Yan can go in to study. Even if the servants' children have sharpened their heads, they can't get through that door.

She had to think of something.

(End of this chapter)