Carrying a Hoe to Cultivate

In the still of night, everything was as silent as the grave, Xia Yi was frowning in his sleep.

In his dream, he came to a hospital full of the smell of sanitizer, he sat on the bench outside the operating room with his head wrapped in his arms. His parents had been in a car accident when they were traveling, both of them were lying inside. Surrounding him was the crying of a child at the end of the corridor, he could see feet with nurse shoes on walking back and forth in front of him.

There were some blood stains from his mother on his jacket. When he arrived at the hospital after receiving the call, his father was already in the operating room while his mother was about to be transferred inside.

At that time, she was still conscious, only that she looked a bit pale. She murmured, grabbing Xia Yi’s hand tightly with her lips trembling, “I am worried about you being alone by yourself…”

Watching the bed being pushed into the operating room, Xia Yi froze at the spot, a sentence repeatedly echoed in his mind, “Mom, don’t leave me, mom…”

“Yi, Yi, wake up, Yi.” An anxious voice called him, pulling Xia Yi out from his dreams. It was the voice of Gu Wen Zhu’s.

“Zhu.” Xia Yi opened his eyes blurred by tears, weeping.

“I am here, I am here,” Gu Wen Zhu held him in his arms, he patted him in the back, and asked in a low voice, “What’s wrong? Are you having a bad dream? I heard you crying in the next room.”

Upon finishing his sentence, he moved his hand to wipe off the tears from Xia Yi’s face, “What have you dreamt? How are you crying so badly?”

Xia Yi was still sobbing, he spoke with frequent pauses, “I dreamt about my parents. They, they told me, they were worried about, worried about me being alone by myself…”

Gu Wen Zhu stood up, went to the lavatory to fetch a towel and came back, he brushed Xia Yi’s face with it and said softly, “If you have that kind of dream again, remember to tell your parents that, you are not alone, there is someone taking care of you, and they don’t need to worry about you. They had been pampering you for the previous years of your life, and I will take it from here and pamper you for the rest of your life.”

“Are you better now? Do you want some water?” Gu Wen Zhu patted Xia Yi lightly through the blanket. He could see Xia Yi slowly calming down, stopping sobbing.

“Not good, don’t want it.” Xia Yi lied in Gu Wen Zhu’s arms, he stretched out two of his fingers to grab the hem of Gu Wen Zhu’s clothes, “I am only better with you by my side.”

“Alright, lie down, I will be by your side, I will wait until you are asleep then I will leave.” Gu Wen Zhu whispered in a soft voice.

“Lie beside me.” Xia Yi moved inwards, making space for him. Gu Wen Zhu hesitated, he ended up sitting beside the bed, tilted his body to lean on the headboard of the bed. Xia Yi rolled over, facing him, lying sideways, then pulled Gu Wen Zhu’s hand which had fallen onto the blanket to place it on his waist, and closed his eyes finally.  

Gu Wen Zhu did not dare to make a sound, he just kept his slanting sitting position with his hand on Xia Yi’s waist.

“Touch my ear.” Xia Yi said suddenly.

???

What? Touch his ear?

“When I was little, every night, I would tell my mom, my mother to touch my ear to make me sleep. Didn’t you just say you are going to take over and pamper me?” Xia Yi opened his eyes slightly with his voice still husky. Due to the fact that he had just cried, the corners of his eyes were still red, his eyes were moist, sparkling, the eyelashes remained in their places in clusters.

Gu Wen Zhu extended one hand in difficulty to caress Xia Yi’s ear gently.

“I want to hear you sing.” Having lied for a while, Xia Yi broke the silence, “When I was little, my mother had to sing beside the bed while she was putting me to sleep.”

Gu Wen Zhu did not respond for a long time, even his motion of caressing the ear had halted, Xia Yi opened his eyes to look up, he complained, “So you are already breaking your words right after you have promised to pamper me like my mother did?”

“But I don’t know how to sing.” Gu Wen Zhu was stunned.

“Think carefully, you must know one or two songs, I won’t frown upon you, you just have to hum a few tunes.” Xia Yi lied down and closed his eyes, “Think, sing when you come up with something, I will wait for it.”

Xia Yi had a long yawn after saying so.

After a long while, when Xia Yi thought Gu Wen Zhu was not going to sing, a trembling voice out of tone and rhythm started to rang–

Edelweiss, Edelweiss, Every morning you greet me, Small and white clean and bright…

Xia Yi: ?????!!!!!!!

Okay, don’t be too picky, it was lucky enough that Zhu knew how to sing.

Xia Yi curled up in the blanket, he silently listened to Gu Wen Zhu singing. Although the tone was far off, he could still figure out briefly what he was singing, and he felt quite familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere before.

Where? TV shows? No. Children’s songs? No.

But why does it sound so familiar? I feel like I can sing that song myself.

Suddenly, in a quick moment, a scene popped up in his head: A teenager with white clothes, holding a bunch of orchids, was running around in the woods, sunlight leaked from between the trees and shined on his lively moving body.

He was singing a merry tune.

Edelweiss, Edelweiss, Every morning you greet me, Small and white clean and bright…

“Zhu, where did you learn that tune?” Xia Yi turned and faced Gu Wen Zhu, asking directly.

Gu Wen Zhu stopped singing and tried to remember, after some time, he showed confusion on his face: “I don’t remember, maybe my mother sang to me when I was a child?”

“Nevermind if you can’t recall, let’s sleep.” Xia Yi yawned again, and buried his head in the pillow.

When Xia Yi was up, it was morning. Sunlight shining through the windows, the yard was in complete silence. Gu Wen Zhu should be in the farmland by this time of the day. 

He went back to his bed to take a longer nap, then got up at last to wash himself. After that, he went to the kitchen to look into the pot and see a pot of big buns was still steaming. Gu Wen Zhu had to place a layer of ashes on the fire every time he was preserving food for him, the remaining heat could keep his breakfast steaming with hot air though there was no fire.

With one hand holding the porridge, Xia Yi was joyfully eating a bun which was in the other hand of his, but then he heard numerous footfalls from outside the yard along with Li Zhu’s loud voice, “Yi, Yi are you there? Yi.”

“I am here.” Xia Yi hurried and replied, he put the bowl of porridge on the table, trying to figure out what was going on.

The entrance had been pushed open forcefully, then he saw Li Zhu backing his steps to enter, shouting, “Easy, easy.”

He went in even more. The wooden board he was holding could now be seen. There was obviously a person lying on it and a pair of feet entered Xia Yi’s view.

Xia Yi did not look closely, he felt like he heard a buzzing sound in his head, strength had been pulled away from his legs, the bun in his hand also fell onto the floor. He stumbled two steps forward, asked with his lips quivering, “Zhu? Is that Zhu?”

“In, in, more.” Li Zhu was still giving directions to the other guy holding the board, he saw Xia Yi from the corner of his eyes and guessed that there was some confusion with him, thus he said quickly, “It’s not Wen Zhu, Yi, it’s not Wen Zhu, this is your relative.”

As soon as he heard that the man was not Gu Wen Zhu, Xia Yi exhaled in relief. As he had calmed down, strength also came back to his feet. Then he wondered and asked, “What relative? How is there a relative of mine?”

“I don’t know, come and see for yourself.” While they were talking, Li Zhu and some other villagers had already put the board on the ground in the yard. 

Xia Yi went closer to look, before he had even seen the face of the person, he understood the situation immediately upon seeing the cyan-blue long gown embroidered with patterns on the man. 

Liu SiQian has transmigrated here?

When he saw the face of the person clearly, Xia Yi was stupefied. This was not Liu SiQian. This person was fatter, younger, probably in his forties.

He had his eyes closed tightly, however, he was holding a bowl tightly in front of his chest, and he was grabbing onto a wooden stick in the other hand, not loosening his grip even when he was in a coma.

“Er Niu found him, he was running around in the mountain headlessly, he asked Er Niu if he knew Xia Yi when he saw him, Er Niu said yes, then he fainted.” While he was fanning himself with the hem of his clothes, Li Zhu spoke of what he knew, “Seems like he fainted because of starvation.”

“He fled, right? Where did he get this costume from? Look at this poor guy without food, Oh, he is grabbing his begging stick and bowl even when he is unconscious, we could not pull those away from him.” Er Niu sighed, shaking his head, wiping the sweat from his face.

Xia Yi was thinking fast, he even knew my name, it must be Liu SiQian who told him about me. Does he know the way to transmigrate? And he told him to come to me when he arrived?

“So, do you know him?” Li Zhu asked Xia Yi.

Xia Yi hurriedly nodded, “Yes yes, he is my fourth uncle, I guess he could not make a living, so he fled here to see me.”

Some suggested finding a doctor, but then they heard a long moan. The man on the board moved slightly and began to wake sluggishly. He observed the surroundings as he was up, his lips moving as if he wanted to say something.

Xia Yi was worried that he may say inappropriate things, therefore he yelled with emotions before the man could speak, “Uncle! You have come, I am Xia Yi.”

That man lying on the board stared at Xia Yi, he looked confused at first, but he seemed to have recalled something with bright eyes. In this process, a lot came across his mind and could somehow be seen in his expression, these included but were not limited to thoughts, doubts, surprises, affirmation, happiness, sadness, etc. 

His lips were quivering, he said sobbing, “Yi, you have grown taller, you look like your mother even more now.”

Damned, this one is an actor.