Back to 1984: Hunting in the Mountains

Yu Qiutang told Yu Dejin the news he got from Liu Shufen. The more Yu Dejin listened, the more surprised he was. When he saw the photo Yu Qiutang took out, he found that Yu Chunsheng was on it, which made him even more unbelievable.

"Really? If he's still alive, why doesn't he send a telegram or a letter home? He doesn't know there are children at home, this bastard!"

As Yu Dejin spoke, he started to get angry again.

"He left for so many years, leaving his family behind and not caring about anything. What kind of man is he? What kind of son is he? What's the difference between a man like him being alive and dead?"

Yu Qiutang wanted to explain something to his father, but for a moment he didn't know what to say.

He immediately understood what his father meant.

My father's feelings towards my brother are very complicated. There is some father-son affection, but also a lot of responsibility towards my mother.

Perhaps thinking about his mother's absence, he still tried his best to take care of the child he left behind, and found a wife for the child and raised the child. He was already a good stepfather.

But his brother had been away for so long that he seemed to have not taken his stepfather seriously at all, and he even left two children at home for him to raise.

I originally thought that if I really died, then that would be it.

Now that everyone is gone, the remaining ones can only help fulfill their responsibilities. They can't just watch two children starve to death.

I just feel depressed.

But now, suddenly seeing that Yu Chunsheng is still alive, that’s another matter.

Since the person is still here, why not come back?

If there is anything, just say it directly. Without saying anything else, he suddenly disappears and leaves his wife and children behind. What kind of thing is this?

You can ignore me, your stepfather; you can not care about your brother; your wife and children are always yours, right? Can you just ignore this?
"Dad, I'm going to go over there and take a look."

Yu Qiutang waited until his father's emotions had calmed down a little before expressing his thoughts.

"What are you looking at? He doesn't want to come back. Why should we send a sedan chair to invite him? I won't go!"

Yu Qiutang: "Dad, don't be angry first. I think there may be something behind this. You know my brother's character. He is not the kind of ungrateful person. He has always been homesick and very responsible for his family..."

"That was before. He has been out there for a long time now. Who knows what his personality has become? He might be like Chen Shimei on the stage. He has a new home out there and has forgotten his wife and children here."

"probably not……"

"You know he can't. You are not him. Before Chen Shimei went to take the imperial examination, he made a solemn promise to his wife and children, saying that he would definitely take care of them and lead a good life when he became rich in the future.

Then, after he passed the imperial examination and became the top scholar, he not only refused to take care of his wife and children at home, but even sent people to kill them. Tell me, what conscience did he have? Even if he had one, it was eaten away by dogs. "

As the two were talking, the scene of Bao Zheng's trial was playing on the stage. Chen Shimei was making a very loud defense, so Yu Dejin turned his gaze back to the stage.

"Just pretend that I never raised this ungrateful wolf!"

Although Yu Qiutang understood his father's thoughts, he was unwilling to give up and explained to his father: "Dad, I heard from others that there are many illegal coal mines over there, where people are tricked into going in and locked up, not allowing them to come out or contact their families.

I guess that's probably what my brother is like.

You see, Liu Shufen’s husband didn’t come back for a long time after he left. If he hadn’t died this time, HIA might not have gotten any news.”

"You can think of it, but I can't?"

Yu Dejin disagreed, "There was only one person in our village who went out with him. Why could he come back but not him?"

"Dad, you are being unreasonable. That man was carrying bags at the cement factory. He never went to the coal mine. Of course he can come back anytime.

I heard that there are such people in other villages. After they left, there has been no news of them, as if they had disappeared from the face of the earth.

There were also people who escaped, saying that they were locked up in a black coal mine, where someone was watching them every day, they ate poorly, wore poorly, and had endless work to do.

They worked until they died, and then they would bury them somewhere deep in the coal mine. No one outside would know about it, just like the slaves in ancient times.

"Don't say these nonsense!"

As Yu Dejin listened, he became irritated and could no longer concentrate on the play on the stage.

Just at this time, Chen Meidi and Wang Chunhua came back from strolling around and saw that something was wrong with the father and son. They didn’t know what had happened for a moment.

Chen Meidi walked up to him and asked, "What are you and your son arguing about?"

Yu Dejin said unhappily, "It's none of your business."

Chen Meidi was stunned and immediately became annoyed.

"It's none of my business, so don't be so sullen. It's not like I owe you anything, you lunatic!"

Wang Chunhua had a candied haws in his mouth and didn't pay much attention to what was happening here. He just stared at the stage, watching the show and eating the candied haws.

Men are definitely no match for women when it comes to quarreling.

Yu Dejin felt it was shameful to quarrel with his wife in public, so he immediately controlled his emotions and was unwilling to say anything else. He just kept silent with a gloomy face.

Seeing this, Yu Qiutang prepared to leave. He had already told his father what he needed to say, so he let his father do whatever he wanted. It had nothing to do with him anymore.

Seeing that he was about to leave, Yu Dejin asked again: "What are you going to do? When are you going to go?"

Yu Qiutang stopped again and said, "I plan to discuss with my brother Jiang and go over to take a look. It will be just for a few days. Let's settle down a little more at home."

"That's fine."

Yu Dejin finally sighed, "Then go and take a look. There is always a shadow of a person. You two should be more careful when you go out. Don't fail to find the person and get yourself involved.

I have already raised several grandchildren for others, but I don't have the energy to do it again. All kinds of bad things have happened to me in my life. I really owe you!"

Yu Qiutang did not continue to argue with his father and turned away.

Back to the eldest sister, Miali has already told her what happened, and the eldest sister is also very shocked.

The eldest sister is almost the same age as her brother, and they grew up together, so they are half-siblings.

The eldest sister is gentle and virtuous, and the eldest brother is loyal and honest, and they get along very well.

"Brother is still alive. This is so great. A few years ago, people said that he had an accident and was gone. At first, Dad and I didn't believe it. Dad even went there to look for him once, but couldn't find him..."

"You said our father went to look for big brother?"

"Yes, you forgot. It was when you were ten or one year old. My eldest sister-in-law was still alive. My father went out for a while. He went to Shanxi to look for my eldest brother.

But I didn't find it.

After Dad came back, his temper became more irritable and violent. Think carefully, is it after that that he would lose his temper easily and like to hit people?"

Yu Qiutang had not thought of this happening yet.

It is true that my father is not at home for a while, but I always thought that this was because he was working outside and therefore could not come home on time.

Unexpectedly, this also included a trip to Shanxi to find his brother.

Thinking back on my father's emotions just now, a lot of it can be explained.

"Oh, it would be great if we could really find big brother. In the past few years, I would often dream about big brother coming back, but that hasn't happened in recent years. I thought that if I couldn't even think of big brother in my dreams, then he would really be forgotten by us, which means he is really dead."

Yu Qiutang had this feeling when he thought of his grandfather's death in his previous life. His grandfather especially liked to eat noodles sold on the street.

Every time I follow him to the street, I take him to eat noodles.

So my memory of my grandfather will always be limited to two scenes: one is him whipping the sheep with a whip, and the other is him sitting on a bench and eating noodles.

Later, his grandfather passed away. He often dreamed of making noodles with his grandfather at night. Once, he knew in his dream that his grandfather was dead, and he even asked curiously, "Grandpa, aren't you dead? How can you still sit here and eat noodles with me?"

Human death can be roughly divided into three levels.

First comes physical death, then spiritual decline, and finally the extinction of social relations.

When a person is gradually completely eliminated from social relationships such as relatives and friends and is forgotten by people, it can be considered truly and completely dead.

"What does our father say?"

Miali asked.

Yu Qiutang repeated his father's attitude, and Mi Yali nodded after listening, "We can't blame our father, in fact, he had his reasons, he worked hard to raise our eldest brother, and even married him off, but he left and never came back, leaving behind two children who are not his biological grandchildren to continue to raise.

If it were an ordinary person, they probably wouldn't be able to stand it. Our father just said it, but he still fulfilled his responsibility, which is already very good."

The so-called bystander is clear.

Yu Qiutang didn't expect Mi Yali to have such an opinion.

When people think about a problem, they often subconsciously consider their own interests. That is why people are most likely to have conflicts with their family members.

It is because I feel deep down that my family members should be kind to me, tolerate my shortcomings and acknowledge my strengths.

But when they are outside, they are often timid and polite, because they know that outsiders have nothing to do with them and there is no need to accommodate them.

So don't expect too much.

Miali looked at the relationship between her father and brother from a bystander's perspective, and the conclusion she drew was relatively objective.

"Why don't we go back first? This drama is almost coming to an end. All that's left is Chen Shimei being beheaded. There's nothing much to watch."

After all this, no one was interested in watching the show anymore, and Yu Chunxing suggested going home.

Yu Qiutang and Mi Yali had no objections either.

Yu Qiutang helped Xiaodong, and Yu Chunxing pulled Dadong, and the three of them came upstairs and saw that the three children were selling quite well. Seeing them coming up, Yu Qiushi hurried over to take credit.

"How's it going, brother? Are we awesome?"

Yu Qiutang glanced at Yu Xiaowei and Yu Xiaoyun, seeing how happy they were, and held back his emotion, not mentioning anything about his elder brother.

“Is it almost sold out?”

"One more thing, it will probably be sold out in half an hour."

"Okay, you guys continue selling, and come back with dad when you're done. Xiaowei and Xiaoyun, stay with uncle and come back with grandpa later, and don't run around."

"I know, uncle."

The two of them happily agreed.

Yu Xiaoyun was much more relaxed at this moment, her little face still red from the sun and covered with dust.

Yu Qiutang gave a few more instructions and went home with Yu Chunxing and Mi Yali.

After returning, he drank some water and rode his motorcycle straight to the town.

Yu Chunjiang was busy when he suddenly saw Yu Qiutang's car appear at the door and was very surprised.

"The Yaowang Temple was holding a ceremony today. Didn't you accompany Lili and the others to take a look?"

Yu Qiutang pulled Yu Chunjiang outside the store and said solemnly: "Brother Jiang, I found my brother's information."

As he said this, he handed the photo to Yu Qiujiang.

Yu Qiujiang subconsciously took the photo, just glanced at it, and was stunned.

"Is this Brother Chunsheng?"

"correct."

“It doesn’t feel like that!”

Yu Chunjiang is slightly younger than Yu Chunsheng, but they are about the same age.

It was just that Yu Qiujiang's family was going through a crisis at the time, so his relationship with this side was just average, just like his relationship with Yu Chunsheng, not as good as his relationship with Yu Qiutang.

So his impression of Yu Chunsheng was not as good as others.

It was a bit uncertain for a while.

After all, when Yu Chunsheng passed away, he was not as old as Yu Qiutang is now, and he looks almost thirty years old in the photo, and his clothing style is different, so naturally I am a little suspicious.

"That's my brother."

Yu Qiutang said: "My brother is like this. I can recognize him even if he turns into ashes. After all, we are brothers."

"That's it," Yu Qiujiang looked at the photo and thought for a while, "If it's really Brother Chunsheng, then this is indeed a bit strange. Don't you all say that he..."

"I used to think so. After he left, Xiaoyun was still in my sister-in-law's belly. Now Xiaoyun is ten years old, and he hasn't come back. Anyone would think he's dead."

"That's right," Yu Qiujiang nodded, "So what do you want to do? Are you going to go find him?"

"That's what I thought."

Yu Qiutang sat down on a stool at the entrance of the store and said, "I haven't heard from you for so many years. Now I finally have a chance. I definitely can't miss it.

Brother Jiang, can you come with me? I don’t know anyone there, and it would be too inefficient to go alone.”

"That's fine," Yu Qiujiang nodded subconsciously without thinking, "It's definitely not possible to be alone. When you're out, it's not like being at home. If something goes wrong, you can't be without someone to help you.

It's just right for me to go with you. When are you going to leave? It's a bit far over there and it will probably take some time to walk."

Yu Qiutang subconsciously looked inside the store and felt very ashamed. The store had just opened and Yu Qiujiang was in a critical period of his work. If he left him behind and went out, the loss would be considerable.

Yu Qiujiang saw it and immediately understood what he was thinking.

"Don't worry about that. There's always a way to make money. Finding the person is the most important thing. Brothers don't need to be so polite. We are not that kind of people.

If we really talk about helping, you have helped me so much that I cannot repay you at all. Now that you are in trouble, I have to follow you."

Yu Qiutang nodded gratefully.

He is just that kind of person. Being nice to others is an instinct, but he will be very grateful if others are nice to him.

"Brother Jiang, this photo is a little old. We don't know if the person has changed his position yet. We can only try our luck when we go there. We may have to stay for a few more days."

"Just stay, good things take time. As long as we can find the person, it doesn't matter if I stay a little longer. Just tell me when you're leaving, and I'll follow you anytime." (End of this chapter)