CHAPTER 609: CHAPTER 608: HUMAN HEART

Granny Cui wanted to leave after learning what had happened.

But when her gaze fell on Xiao Xiao sitting nearby, she hesitated.

"Granny, don’t worry, Grandpa will take care of her, Xiao Xiao will be fine," said Lu Jiawei.

Lu Jiawei was the glasses-wearing middle-aged man Dou Dou and her friends had previously encountered.

He found Granny Cui and explained the situation, leaving her a bit surprised.

She hadn’t expected Dou Dou to come back looking for her.

"Granny Cui, I noticed those little... little girls are not ordinary. Do you know where they are from?" Lu Jiawei asked curiously.

The reason he hurried to find Granny Cui and inform her was partly to inquire about the origins of Dou Dou and her companions.

"I don’t know either. We just coincidentally met last night," Granny Cui said.

What she said was true. Last night, Dou Dou didn’t say much about herself, only that she had a brother who seemed like an immortal.

"They are definitely not ordinary ghosts," said Lu Jiawei.

The statement seemed casual but was actually a reminder for Granny Cui.

"Thank you, Xiao Lu, for going out of your way," Granny Cui said gratefully.

"Granny, I have my own motives. I’ve been dead for so long and it’s the first time I’ve encountered such special beings. I want to ask them some things too," Lu Jiawei said honestly.

Granny Cui understood Lu Jiawei’s sentiments.

Lu Jiawei had been deceased longer than Granny Cui; the sense of helplessness of just watching without being able to do anything could drive one insane.

Now, with the appearance of these unusually special girls, he of course did not want to miss the chance.

Granny Cui returned home and waited, but couldn’t wait for Dou Dou and her group.

As the sun gradually set, Granny Cui inevitably grew anxious.

"Do you think they will come back?"

Lu Jiawei, having accompanied Granny Cui back, had not left since.

Upon hearing her question, he didn’t know how to respond.

After thinking for a while, he said, "They will surely come back, otherwise they wouldn’t have asked me so much. It’s just a matter of when they’ll return."

Granny Cui nodded at his words, sighed deeply, and said nothing more.

"Grandpa, let me help you," at that moment, Xiao Xiao’s voice came from outside.

It turned out that Grandpa Li had finished at the market and returned. At this point, the sunset had completely vanished, leaving just a trace of twilight.

"No need, just open the door and let me push the cart in," Grandpa Li said.

The house was dilapidated, but there was a small yard full of clutter, and Grandpa Li usually pushed his tricycle into the yard.

It was his only source of livelihood, and if it were stolen, he would truly have no income source.

Xiao Xiao obediently opened the yard door and let Grandpa in.

She was carrying two plastic bags bought on the way back from the market.

Nothing special, just two servings of cold noodles without any ingredients, the cheapest kind.

Grandpa Li pushed the cart into the yard and said to Xiao Xiao while she was closing the yard door, "Don’t bother with that, go get chopsticks for the cold noodles."

Xiao Xiao went directly inside in response.

Watching Xiao Xiao go inside, Lu Jiawei said with some compassion in his eyes, "Has Li Meihua come back?"

Upon hearing this, Granny Cui sighed deeply, her wrinkles seeming to deepen.

"Things were really good before, how did it become like this?" Lu Jiawei mumbled quietly.

Li Meihua was the apple of many people’s eye, including Lu Jiawei.

In Lu Jiawei’s memories, Li Meihua was not only beautiful but also kind, the deepest impression being how she often helped Granny Cui sell fried fish after school.

She never showed resentment due to her family’s background.

"Yes, she was a good child, I don’t know why she became so heartless," Granny Cui couldn’t understand either.

In her memory, her daughter was a sensible and filial child.

She would have never thought her capable of abandoning her daughter.

Even after death, Granny Cui held a sliver of hope for her daughter, hoping one day she would come to understand.

In reality, she didn’t. When Granny Cui passed away, Li Meihua did return, but after handling her funeral arrangements, she left in haste.

She treated her daughter with indifference akin to a stranger.

Xiao Xiao’s disappointment was evident in her eyes, as sharp as a knife.

Granny Cui couldn’t grasp why things were like this, so she followed her daughter to see what she was actually doing.

Then she discovered, her daughter had remarried and had children again, something Gruanny Cui was completely unaware of.

Watching her hold her child with joy, caressing, kissing, showcasing maternal warmth, it was impossible to reconcile this image with coldness, selfishness, and abandon.

They were both her children, why such a stark difference?

Granny Cui had consistently failed to understand.

Was it due to hating Xiao Xiao’s father and extending that hatred?

But Xiao Xiao’s father was her choice, what did Xiao Xiao do wrong?

"What do you think she’s thinking?" Granny Cui asked Lu Jiawei.

In the past, Granny Cui was quite proud; if she knew these things, she would never speak about them to outsiders.

But now that she’s deceased, pride doesn’t matter anymore.

Yet after hearing this, Lu Jiawei remained silent, his expression exceedingly complex.

There was anger, sorrow, and confusion...

"Granny, you know about Qingqing being sent back, right?" Lu Jiawei asked in return.

Granny Cui had nodded, knowing that being neighbors for decades, these matters couldn’t escape her notice.

"My parents said my wife couldn’t look after Qingqing due to work, so they married to care for her, right?"

"Yes, that’s what they said."

"But actually, no," said Lu Jiawei.

"She considered Qingqing a nuisance, took compensation money to be carefree... I never imagined she was that kind of person," Lu Jiawei said with pain.

He met his wife through work, and from initial acquaintance to understanding, then to marriage, they had weathered quite a few storms together.

He thought that even after his death, his wife would take good care of his daughter.

But he never expected his wife to seemingly transform into an entirely different person, becoming astonishingly unfamiliar.

Although the matter had been almost two years past, Lu Jiawei still hadn’t figured out why.

As he shared this with Granny Cui, he was essentially telling her he couldn’t answer her question.

"Why has everyone become like this?" Granny Cui murmured to herself.

She found it incomprehensible.

In her generation, even when life was extremely tough, abandoning children was never considered, unless circumstances were unbearably difficult, children were given away not to be left alone, just to ensure a meal and a chance to survive.

But now, life was getting easier, yet why was it regressing?

As the last ray of twilight vanished, night had enveloped the land, as the dim light in the house illuminated the small yard.

Xiao Xiao and Grandpa sat at the door eating cold noodles, intermittently putting down chopsticks to swat mosquitoes.

At that moment, a swirling Yin Wind descended from the sky, bringing a touch of coolness, while driving away those irritating mosquitoes.