CH 14

Li JianYe was escorted away by other educated youths in the team. He was still screaming all the way, knowing that he was wrong, but no one paid him any attention.

Many of the educated youths have not yet gone to work so they gathered around the team leaders headquarter and looked at Li JianYe, who had been taken away in distress, and pointing at him.

Leaving with Li JianYe were Director Liu, Gu Zheng and Qin LingLing. Secretary Zhang was not available, so Director Liu was appointed to go over.

***

After returning from the police station, the sun has already slanted to the west. Director Liu went to her bicycle to go back but when she sees that the couple did not have any transportation, she pushed the bicycle towards them, “You can use this bicycle!”

“Director Liu, what about you?” Qin LingLing asked.

Director Liu pointed to another bicycle next to her, “I can ride this one back. When Xiao Wang went back, I asked him to take the bus and leave the bike here.”

If there was only Qin LingLing, Director Liu would just carry Qin LingLing back to the farm by herself, but with the addition of Gu Zheng, Director Liu would have to take into account of the other. She didn’t expect Director Liu to be so thoughtful, so Qin LingLing thanked her again and again.

“It’s okay, you guys ride it, Comrade Gu finally came back, you may go home today; you are not required to return to the farm; I will grant you a leave.”

As considerate as Director Liu, Qin LingLing is extremely grateful, “Thank you Director Liu.” Gu Zheng also thanked her, and then watched Director Liu leave.

As soon as she left, there were only two of them, and Qin LingLing found that the atmosphere was inexplicably awkward. She had been sticking behind Gu Zheng, and her mouth was full of words, but now she was like a quail, unable to open her mouth, and she was nervous even to look at Gu Zheng more than once.

All she thinks now is: This person will be my husband from today. We’ve been certified as a real couple.

Obviously feeling Qin LingLing’s nervousness, Gu Zheng opened his mouth and asked, “Do you know how to ride a bicycle?”

“Yes!” Qin LingLing replied quickly, but the next second she shook her head and said, “Actually, I’m not that familiar.”

“Then give me the bike.”

“Oh.” Qin LingLing passed the bicycle over, still feeling nervous.

It is no wonder that she’d feeling nervous, she and Gu Zheng hadn’t even spent a day together, and for no reason at all, they had become a couple. In her original life, she had a very simple single life.

She is an orphan. She has known since she was a child that no one can be trusted. Only by relying on herself, studying, and earning more money will she be able to live a better life. Many boys have been pursuing her in recent years, but she rejects them since she had become accustomed to being alone.

On the other hand, she also doesn’t have that much good opinion towards them and the uncertainty about the future, so that is why she has been single, to the point where she remained single for 2-3 years after graduation and stay a single dog since born. On top of not being in any kind of relationship, she suddenly has a husband, which is dreadful to think about.

“Now do you plan to go back to the farm or go home?” Gu Zheng asked, and his voice was a bit uncomfortable.

Qin LingLing wanted to say back to the farm but thought that the Gu family did not know that Gu Zheng was still alive. He must have come back this time to report his survival. Although she doesn’t want to see Gu Zheng’s stepmother and half-sister, but Gu Yao, his sister, is really kind to her.

If she said she’s going back to the farm now, it will be too dark for Gu Zheng to go home, and it will be even harder to walk back from the gate of hell, so Qin LingLing didn’t dare to take the risk.

She replied, “Go home!”

“Okay, then you sit up and I will ride.” He patted the back seat and spoke.

“Um.”

Along the way, both were relatively quiet. Qin LingLing cautiously grasped the spring behind Gu Zheng’s seat with both hands, bumping gently on the back seat as the road was uneven.

She actually had a lot of questions in her heart, but she didn’t know where to begin, so she could only be silent. Gu Zheng in the front noticed her being silent without saying anything, so he had no idea what was going on in her mind.

In the end, he explained himself, “I thought I couldn’t survive this time. The flood was quite large. Later, I came across a wooden wood floating on the water. It floated to the shallows and I was rescued by the kind villagers. I fell ill and stayed for several days before rushing back.”

Qin LingLing was thinking about things, and when she heard the explanation, she hurriedly responded, “Oh, that’s how it is!”

“Um.”

Qin LingLing had thought that because of the changes that had occurred as a result of her book-wearing, it had allowed Gu Zheng’s lifeline to be rewritten along with it to give him a chance to come back to life.

Although she was only nervous about the sudden husband, she was still happy that a soldier who sacrificed for the country and the people could come back to life. But only Gu Zheng knew what he had said is a lie, cause only he knew what it was like at the time.

Surviving this time is not a miracle, but a word to describe it, ridiculous! Yes, it’s ridiculous! Because, he was reborn and came back to life.

In order to save the woman who was eight months pregnant, he and his comrades had to risk their lives to get her back.

Unexpectedly, the impact of the current was too great. When he and a few of his comrades went there, in order to pull the woman by using the life-saving rope, he was washed out by the flood.

At that time, he had already thought about his own death, and he was indeed dead. When the flood quickly swept through, his body sank to the bottom of the river and finally became a missing person.

Later, his soul came out of his body and could not stay as a human but float everywhere. He has no entity, can’t speak, can’t touch anyone, could only look with his eyes.

He watched the country go from poverty to prosperity, he watched the hometown where he once lived, where a tall building rose from the ground, he saw the girl who once rushed to get a marriage certificate with him, who, after suffering oppression, took a crooked path and ended up in a jail cell.

He saw a lot more, but he couldn’t do anything about it. Even though he felt it was all a dream, he knew he had been in the world for more than 10 years. He eventually awoke only to find himself on the shoreline, his body being obstructed by trash along the way.

As he watched the changes in the next ten years, after waking up, he dragged his tired body to a nearby village, looked for a phone, and reported to the troops that he was safe, but he was in poor health and lived in a villager’s home for two days. Only after the high fever subsided, he hurried home from Henan.

On the way back home, he had only one goal. He wants to go home quickly and tried his best to stop the wife who he just got married from the path of deterioration in the future.

When the two appeared at the entrance of the village on bicycle, Qin LingLing hurriedly asked Gu Zheng to stop. She was thin-skinned, and she always felt uncomfortable sitting behind the bicycle.

Gu Zheng obediently stopped the bicycle, supporting the bike on both sides with his long legs, trying to make the bike more stable. The sky had dimmed, and the people in the production team were rushing to their homes after a day of work. The sudden appearance of the two people on the village road immediately drew many villagers to look over.

“It’s ShanZi!” Someone with sharp eyes exclaimed.

Later, more people ran over.

“It’s really ShanZi, it’s ShanZi, he actually came back!”

ShanZi is Gu Zheng’s nickname because when he was a child, he got picked up from the mountain by his parents, so the oldest two members of the Gu family named him Shan, Gu Shan.

However, Zhao E is slightly more cultured and so doesn’t approve of the name and changed it to the ‘Zheng’ character instead with its mountain radical and the word ‘fight’ as its sound, hoping he would be able to forge a path forward for himself in the future. Later, though, a fortuneteller said the mountain part will press down and suffocate the kid, so, with no other options, they resorted to changing the kid’s name to ‘Zheng’ (with a ‘metal’ radical) in the end.

But most of the villagers called him ShanZi according to his previous name.

“ShanZi, a while ago the people of LiuYang Village said you had an accident?”

“Yes, they also said you were missing, washed away by the flood or something.”

Gu Zheng greeted each uncle and aunt with a smile, “I thought I would die, but I was lucky and survived.”

“No wonder, I told you that ShanZi is a very rich and powerful person, right?” The man who spoke was an old uncle, more than seventy years old, his legs were still good, when Gu Zheng was small, he often played with the youngest son of the old uncle in his house.

The villagers nodded their heads and said yes, “There is a saying in the city that there will be blessings after death, ShanZi, you have come back safely, you will definitely be rich in the future, do not forget us, the uncles!

“No, no, I won’t forget anyone!”

The old uncle looked at Qin LingLing beside him in the dark sky and said, “ShanZi, is this your wife?”

“Um.”

The two got married in a hurry. Except that when Gu Zheng came back from receiving the certificate on the same day, he had to went back to the army. As soon as he left, the newly married wife also left. She didn’t show up too often until a few days ago.

Most people only learned from Gu Zheng’s stepmother mother, that this woman is an educated youth from the nearby Sun Farm, and from the city, they didn’t know how Gu Zheng met her.

A lot of the villagers have never seen his wife, and this is the first time they have seen her. The old uncle saw the fragile little girl, and when he looked over, the other party greeted him, “Old uncle.”

Seeing that the little girl was much whiter and tenderer than these country folks, the old uncle said happily, “Well, this wife is a good-looking woman. Since you are back, she can live a good life and you must treat your wife well in the future.”

“Okay, Uncle, I know.”

“Okay, everyone disperse, ShanZi is going home, the family is waiting to be reunited.”

Gu Zheng thanked all the uncles and aunts one by one, and then led Qin LingLing away.

Behind them, the villagers looked at the two shadows, one big and one small, and there was a lot of discussion.

“ShanZi’s wife is good-looking and polite, she doesn’t look like what DaNi said!”

“Hey, you don’t know what kind of person DaNi is? You forget how many blind dates she introduced to ShanZi in the early years, one by one, all from her Natal’s family.” When someone talked about this, they nodded in response.

“DaNi also didn’t expect that Gu Zheng would find someone who is good-looking and even from the city. She is far much better that the girls she introduced.”