Re-embroidering life

Chapter 147 Similarity

Mr. Hai didn't seem to understand what she said and just stared at her blankly.

She looked at him too.

The sadness in her eyes pierced him, and Mr. Hai began to tremble, first in his hands, then in his whole body.

He let go of Shui Qinghua's shoulders and blinked his eyes desperately, but it was dry and there was nothing inside.

He turned around and walked up the mountain first, his voice was empty: "Come up and sit down, it's just in front."

He didn't cry and looked normal, but Shui Qinghua looked at his bamboo-like back and felt that in the blink of an eye, he had turned into a walking corpse.

His house was very simple, with a few simple pieces of furniture and daily necessities. He didn't even have any flowers or plants. The only thing with some color was the painting he spread out on the table, which was only half finished.

He picked up the tea set and wanted to make tea for the guests, but Shui Qinghua stopped him. Xiao Hulu took the tea set obediently. He sat down and stared at the beams with lifeless eyes, not knowing what he was thinking.

Shui Qinghua sat there for a long time, and finally broke the suffocating silence: "If you are sad, you will feel better if you cry."

"No need," he forced a smile. "In fact, I already knew in my heart that she was a weak woman who had lost contact with her family and was wandering alone. How many days could she live? I have been deceiving myself. She is still alive and well. She just doesn't write to me because she hates me."

Shui Qinghua lowered her eyelashes, not knowing what to say.

"Miss, has she...ever mentioned me?" Mr. Hai looked at her eagerly.

Shui Qinghua was caught in a dilemma, her hands twisted together. Of course, she had never mentioned it. But she couldn't control her mouth: "... she mentioned it. She said her husband was very good and she was sorry for him. She hoped that after she left, her husband could marry a good girl and have many children."

Mr. Hai's eyes finally filled with tears, sparkling in the sunlight.

"How was she doing during those years?"

"...Okay. She works as an embroiderer in an embroidery workshop. She has outstanding embroidery skills and should be able to make a living." Shui Qinghua said.

"How did she leave?"

"She died of illness and has been dead for ten years."

"Ten years." Mr. Hai repeated these two words, and two lines of tears finally flowed down, "It has been ten years since he passed away! Ah Xue!"

He called out for Axue and burst into tears.

After crying for a while, he wiped away his tears and walked into the inner room. After a while, he came back with a faded wedding dress in his hands.

He gently stroked the wedding dress, just like he was stroking his beloved: "It's been seventeen years, most of her belongings are gone, I have kept this wedding dress, I will bury her with it, as her cenotaph!"

As the sun was setting, Shen Xue's tomb was erected. The tombstone was actually prepared by Mr. Hai a long time ago, and it was inscribed with the words "My beloved wife Shen Xue". He also had another tombstone prepared for himself, which was temporarily stored in the yard.

The three of them burned paper and incense in front of the grave and prayed for Shen Xue.

"My child, you have been with her for seven years and saw her off to the end of her life. You are her daughter and my daughter as well. If you have any difficulties in the future, just come to me." After paying tribute to Shen Xue, Mr. Hai felt better and started chatting with Shui Qinghua.

Shui Qinghua looked at him with great concern.

He realized something from Shui Qinghua's expression and smiled self-deprecatingly: "Don't worry, I won't do anything stupid. It's been seventeen years. I knew she wouldn't come back, but I couldn't help but wait. Every day in the past was torture. Now it's different. Every day that passes, I'm closer to her."

Shui Qinghua felt a little relieved. If Mr. Hai really did something stupid, she would never forgive him even if she died.

"In the future, you and your husband should come to see me often. Your husband is a talented and good boy. When I saw him for the first time, I felt that he was very similar to Axue, especially his eyes. People with such eyes have very pure hearts." Mr. Hai said.

Shui Qinghua's heart skipped a beat.

The speaker may not mean it, but the listener may take it seriously. Perhaps because they were too familiar with sleeping in the same bed, Shui Qinghua had never thought about the similarities between Ji Zimo and Shen Xiu Niang, but when Mr. Jing Hai mentioned it, she suddenly realized that these two people were indeed too similar!

Not to mention the almost identical eyes, they were both equally kind, stubborn, and indifferent to wealth, and had many similar expressions and movements. She remembered that Ji Zimo liked to tap the table with his fingers when thinking about a problem, and Shen Xiu Niang had the same habit...

She was terrified and didn't dare to think about it anymore. But those fragments of memory that had long been buried in time broke out at this moment, regardless of anything, and flooded into her mind -

She remembered the small house where Shen Xiu Niang lived. It was low and dilapidated, and she had not moved for many years. There was a small window in the house, facing the side door of the old house, and occasionally she could see Ji Zimo coming in and out of the side door. She had not married into the Ji family at that time, and she liked to go to Shen Xiu Niang's house and sit under the small window to do embroidery. If she could see Ji Zimo that day, she would be happy for a long time. She thought it was her little secret, and Shen Xiu Niang would not know, but what if... what if that room and that window were carefully chosen by Shen Xiu Niang?

She still remembered that before she got married, she came to that little house and told Shen Xiu Niang that she was going to marry the third son of the Ji family across the street. Shen Xiu Niang was so excited that her lips trembled and tears rolled down her cheeks. She hugged herself and cried, "My good child, this is great. This is the happiest thing for me. You two must love each other till old age!"

Before Shen Xiu Niang passed away, she asked Ji Zimo to take her out to see Shen Xiu Niang for the last time. When Shen Xiu Niang saw Ji Zimo, her dim eyes lit up again. She put their hands together, held them tightly with all her strength, and once again told them to respect and love each other. Finally, she said that she hoped that the two of them could take care of her funeral.

Shui Qinghua had never thought deeply about these things, because everything was so logical. But when she thought about them again, she felt that there were traces of them everywhere.

Shui Qinghua was frightened by her own bold guess. She wanted to suppress this thought, but it kept coming out from between her fingers, growing bigger and bigger like it was inflated, until it occupied her entire head, and she could no longer pretend not to see it.

"Mr. Hai, may I ask you a question? You said that she became inexplicably distant from you after marriage. So, did anything unusual happen before you got married?" Shui Qinghua thought it over again and again, and finally asked this impolite question.

Mr. Hai frowned, recalling the past, which was obviously unpleasant for him.

"Our wedding was delayed for a year. The Shen family sent someone to say that she had lung disease and needed long-term care. We held the wedding after she recovered a year later."

"After she left me, I often thought about this. I had doubts in my heart, but I never went to the Shen family to ask. It was meaningless."

He smiled helplessly and sadly.