The dead may be liberated, but the living work life needs to go on......

After returning home in the afternoon and finishing all the funeral activities of Chen Dexiu, his younger brother Chen Gang and the fifth sister comforted their mother again, and then took their luggage to go back to the provincial capital to busy their studies.

Chen Long and the eldest sister were packing up their father's belongings in the room, and after hearing the news, he chased them out and intercepted the younger siblings, stuffed a stack of money into each of them, and said:

"Dad is really gone this time, since ancient times, 'the eldest son is the father', and I will support you in the future as a 'father'. You have always been very sensible, and it is not easy for you to work and study since you started studying in the provincial capital, and you can earn money for your own education. As an elder brother, I'm ashamed that I haven't cared about you all the time...... You are also very aware of the situation at home, although this money is not much, but it can help you a little. In the future, don't worry about doing work-study to earn money, it will affect your studies a lot. This time, I went back to school to order more food and buy myself a good outfit. ”

"Brother, don't talk about whether your father is there or not, you are already like a father in our minds. You were smarter than us back then, and if you hadn't dropped out of school and come back, maybe you would have graduated from college and worked in the provincial capital by now...... Brother, now that my family is in such difficulty, I don't need this money, I have a way to solve my own problem of studying and living expenses......" Chen Gang said and wanted to stuff the money back into his hand.

The fifth sister looked at the eldest brother and stopped talking, and then came up and wanted to return the money to him, but was pushed away by Chen Long: "The two of you have to listen to the eldest brother, don't talk to me." Go back to school and study well, stay in the provincial capital after graduation, find a good job, and earn face for our family, this is what our family wants most! You don't need to worry about things at home, with me and my eldest sister here, nothing can stump us. ”

After Chen Long finished speaking, he left them and walked home without looking back, leaving the affectionate eyes of the younger siblings......

Chen Long returned home and continued to look through the house with his eldest sister, and all Chen Dexiu's personal clothes and belongings before his death were turned out. According to the local customs, all his things should be burned to dust and returned to him.

In the old wardrobe, Chen Long took out a large pile of old clothes and other items that Chen Dexiu had worn and used before his death, and threw them on the pile of relics on the ground. Suddenly, a small iron box rolled out of it, Chen Long didn't pick it up, and kicked the iron box into the pile of clothes.

The eldest sister on the side had already noticed this iron box, and hurriedly said to Chen Long, "Long Chen, why don't you pick it up and open it?"

"I don't want to read his things, he hasn't left us any good things in his life, and he is tired of giving us a lot of trouble before leaving!"

Seeing this, the eldest sister didn't say anything more, and walked over to pick it up and wanted to open it to see. But the iron box was already rusty, and it couldn't be opened. I leaned close and shook my ears to listen, and I heard a "cooing" sound inside.

"There must be something in there, Long Chen, open it and take a look. The eldest sister said and handed the iron box to Long Chen.

Chen Long took it, looked at it in his hand, and shook it to listen. I couldn't open it when I tried it with my hands, so I went to the kitchen and found a kitchen knife to pry it from all sides, trying to open it.

The eldest sister also came over curiously.

After some hard work, the iron box was finally opened, only to see a semi-circular green jade jade pendant and a brown brown brown paper letter in a plastic bag.

Chen Long carefully took out the plastic bag, opened it, and held the semi-circular green jade pendant in his hand and looked at it seriously. The front of the jade pendant is beautifully carved with a pattern of a soaring dragon, and the back is a "dragon" character, and there is a set of numbers "1988.9.25" below. A thin red thread passed through the small hole on the jade pendant, and it felt cool and heavy in the hand.

After reading it, Long Chen handed the jade pendant to the curious eldest sister to read, and then picked up the letter and carefully held it. He noticed that the front of the envelope was affixed with a stamp of two dimes, but it had not yet been postmarked, which meant that the letter had not been sent. On the front of the envelope is a line of words: "Send ** Provincial City Xincheng District Chengzhong Street ** Military Commission Directly Affiliated Unit 3 No. 202", the recipient writes "Li Jianzhong received", and the bottom of the envelope is mailed to the address "No. 5 shop of herbal medicine store in G County, **Province".

The letter was torn open, Chen Long opened the envelope and took out two pages of letterhead full of words from inside, and when he unfolded it, the letter read:

"Dad:

I have been here to buy Chinese herbal medicine for more than a month, but I have not been able to send you a letter to report my safety because I am very busy with work......"

The last signature on the letter is "Son: Jeongguk, date 1992.4.26".

Obviously, this is a letter to the family to bring peace to the family. But when Chen Long read the letter carefully, he slowly felt something ominous in his subconscious......

The eldest sister took the two pages of the letter from Chen Long's hand and read them silently. As she read, her face began to change dramatically, and her breathing seemed to be strained rapidly...... Before she finished reading, she folded the letter in a panic and looked up at Long Chen with panicked eyes.

"Sister, do you know what's going on with this, can you tell me?" Chen Long read something from the eldest sister's expression.

"This ......"

The eldest sister moved her lips and stopped talking. She carefully put the letter and jade pendant back into the plastic bag, stuffed it back into the iron box, and closed the lid. Gripping it tightly in his hands, he said for a long time: "Let's continue to pack up our things first, I'll tell you about this later......"

"Oh......"

Chen Long didn't rush to ask the eldest sister, and echoed, he already felt that this was definitely not a little secret!

After being busy for most of the day, I finally sorted out all the personal belongings that Chen Dexiu used before his death. In a small clearing not far from the main gate of the house, the relics were piled up into a small mountain.

Chen Long lit the pile of relics with mixed feelings, and after a while, a raging fire burst into flames. The two children approached and ran around the fire, and the mother, who was in a wheelchair at the gate, looked at her from afar, her face blank, and tears unconsciously flowed from the corners of her eyes......

After a busy day, after dinner in the evening, the eldest sister called Chen Long out of the house, and the sister and brother sat down on two large stones on the open lawn.

The evening breeze blew coolly on his face, and the screams of insects were heard everywhere. The gray sky was full of stars, and a crescent moon hung in the sky.

Looking at the empty mountain village and fields, the eldest sister sighed lightly and said, "Ah Long, I don't know if you still remember the things when you were a child, I'll tell you about the things when I was a child now......"

Premonitions, serious premonitions, very bad sixth senses...... Since reading the letter today, the eldest sister's face has been bad, and she doesn't dare to look at him anymore, as if he has suddenly become a stranger.

"The letter and the jade pendant I saw this afternoon have a great deal to do with you. I've always remembered things vividly about you when you were a child...... Actually, we are not our biological brothers and sisters in this family, you were picked up and raised by your father when you were a child, no, it should be said that you were abducted and raised by your father......"

Oh my God, the eldest sister shouldn't be able to talk nonsense, right? Chen Long couldn't believe his ears when he heard Jian Wei, and his mind went blank......

The eldest sister paused for a moment, breathed a long sigh of relief and continued:

"I'm three years older than you, and I remember everything about that. It was a big storm, and in the evening, Dad braved the rain to bring you home. You kept crying when you entered the door, and you wouldn't come in anyway. Later, it was my mother who asked me to come forward and comfort you, and you took me by the hand and came into the house with me...... Later, when I was growing up, I secretly asked my mother many times, and she told me some things privately, and told me a thousand times that I should not tell anyone to know......"

For many years, there has been such a dream-like scene in Chen Long's mind: he is a little one, crying and running desperately in the storm. He screamed out to his father and mother, but no one showed up to help him. The relentless storm hit his face, and he ran barefoot on the muddy mountain road soaked and cold. I fell and got up, and then I fell and got up again, and from time to time lightning flashed in front of me, accompanied by a deafening loud noise......

How many times, how many years, he often woke up frightened in such dreams...... It turned out that it was not a nightmare, but something that had really happened to him!

Next, the eldest sister and Chen Long launched a comprehensive memory together and told Chen Long everything she knew......

As a father, Chen Dexiu is dissolute by nature, lazy and has a bad style, he is not disciplined by his family since he was a child, and he likes to go outside to mingle with others......

The mother is an orphan who grew up in an orphanage in a small county town. At that time, the orphanage was very sad, so when I grew up a little, I ran out of society one day, but I couldn't find a job and wandered around. In the process of being bullied, it was Chen Dexiu who rescued her. So from then on, she followed him, until she had a child, so she became a family with him in a daze. Although he has children and a home, Chen Dexiu's debauched personality is difficult to change, and he still spends his days outside and only occasionally returns home. The helpless mother is also very helpless, she is an orphan and has no way to complain, so she can only endure it.

Chen Dexiu's character is not good, and those who have come into contact with him know it. So no one likes him, and when they see him, they all take a detour to avoid him. After starting a family, my mother took her very young children back to build the current home with great difficulty in the wild mountains far away from the old village.

Chen Dexiu once lost money and owed debts in gambling, and took advantage of the storm in the county town to take away Chen Long, who was still young at that time, and took it home and lied to his mother that he was a homeless orphan who had picked it up. After that, he began to look for buyers everywhere, trying to sell a sum of money to pay off his gambling debts, and his mother was very opposed to him when she found out...... Several times Chen Dexiu took the child out to sell, but his mother chased him halfway to intercept and stop him, and asked the child back.

My mother grew up in an orphanage and can understand the feelings of orphans and families who have lost their children. So she refused to give in on this matter and quarreled with Chen Dexiu. asked Chen Dexiu to return the child to his family or send him to an orphanage, and warned him desperately that if he dared to sell the child, he would definitely call the police......

Later, Chen Dexiu no longer dared to have the idea of selling the child, but he did not return the child to his family or send it to an orphanage. So the mother decided to take the child in and raise it like her own son......