Chapter 36 Letter
"Brother Zhuzi!"
Looking back, a man in a cotton jacket pushing a cart was smiling at me not far away. This was Aunt Gao's son, Wang Dazhui.
Wang Dazhu is eight years older than Lin Yan and is almost 30 this year. Since she was a child, Gao's family has treated Lin Yan like their own child. As an older brother, Wang Dazhu has taken care of and loved this little sister. When she went to the northwest, it was Zhuzi who sent her on the train. He was still a teenager at the time, but now he is already the father of two children.
"Looking at your back, it really is Yan Zi. You haven't been here for quite a while. Why don't you come in?"
Wang Dazhu said with a smile, and put down the cart in his hand at the gate of the courtyard. On the cart was a cart of honeycomb coal.
"I just arrived and haven't had time to go in yet. I happened to run into you, Brother Zhuzi, at the door." Lin Yan said with a smile, and looked at the cart and asked curiously: "Brother Zhuzi, are you out of coal at home? Why are you pulling so much?"
"How can we? We don't have enough money." Wang Dazhu picked up the towel hanging around his neck and wiped his sweat. "Most of this belongs to Grandpa Jiang and Grandma Pan in the front yard. The old man is not in good health and the children are busy at home. Anyway, I brought it back to them when I went there today."
"Brother Zhuzi, let me help you." Seeing Wang Dazhu start to unload honeycomb coal onto the car, Lin Yan rolled up her sleeves and was about to step forward.
"No, no, please don't. You're a girl wearing this, and you're a college student. Wouldn't it be a waste for you to do this? I've been doing this for a long time. Please don't interfere. It will be done in a short while. Yanzi, go to the yard first. My mother has been missing you these days. She will be very happy if you come."
Lin Yan looked at her clothes and smiled embarrassedly. Indeed, what she was wearing today was not suitable for this job. The honeycomb briquettes were very dirty, and after one trip, the clothes would probably be ruined.
After saying hello to Wang Dazhu, Lin Yan went into the yard first. After entering the yard, Uncle Jiang and Old Lady Pan, who lived in the front yard, came out after hearing the noise. They were very happy to see Lin Yan, who hadn't been there for a long time, and took Lin Yan to the front yard to chat for a while.
After talking for a while, Lin Yan went to the backyard. Aunt Gao was even happier to see Lin Yan. In her eyes, Lin Yan was no different from her own little daughter. She was a child who grew up in her eyes.
Holding Lin Yan's hand, Aunt Gao asked Lin Yan how she had been doing these days and whether she was tired from studying at school. She seemed to have lost some weight, wondering if she was studying too hard and eating less.
At this point, Aunt Gao patted her thigh, stood up, and said that she would prepare some delicious food for Lin Yan today. Lin Yan felt warm at heart when she heard that.
Lin Yan had lunch at Aunt Gao's house. Although it was just a simple meal, Lin Yan felt it was more to her taste than delicacies from land and sea.
After the meal, he took the initiative to help Aunt Gao wash the dishes, and chatted with her in the house. Seeing that it was almost time, Lin Yan got up to say goodbye. Aunt Gao asked Wang Dazhu to send Lin Yan out. Lin Yan said goodbye to Aunt Gao and said that she would come to see her again in a few days.
After walking out of the compound and reaching the gate, Lin Yan asked Wang Dazhu not to see her off, as the distance was not far anyway and she could return to school in a short while by taking the bus.
"Okay then, Yan Zi, be careful on the road and keep an eye on the road!"
"Brother Zhuzi, please go back. I'll come back in a few days."
Wang Dazhu smiled and nodded at Lin Yan. He was about to wave goodbye when he suddenly remembered something and quickly called Lin Yan.
"I almost forgot. There's a letter for you in the room. I was thinking of sending it to your house these two days. Now it's just the right time to give it to you. It saves me from making another trip."
"letter?"
When Lin Yan heard this word, her heart suddenly started pounding for some reason. When Wang Dazhui came back to the room, got the letter and handed it to her, Lin Yan couldn't wait to look at the envelope.
When she saw the extremely familiar handwriting on the envelope, Lin Yan was instantly surrounded by a huge sense of happiness . She couldn't help but sway. Wang Dazhu, who was beside her, quickly supported Lin Yan and asked her what was wrong.
"It's okay, Brother Zhuzi, I'm fine."
At this moment, Lin Yan's mind was filled with Song Yuanchao's shadow. She even wanted to open the letter and read its contents, but her reasoning made Lin Yan resist the urge. She carefully put the letter into her pocket and said to Wang Dazhu with a smile, "Thank you, Brother Zhuzi. This letter is very important to me. Thank you so much!"
"Is it important? Who is this letter from?" Wang Dazhu scratched his head, looking a little puzzled: "I see this letter is from Shanghai. There was also a letter sent to me before. I sent it to your home. Didn't you receive it?"
Lin Yan was slightly startled by this, but she quickly calmed down and pretended to be calm and said with a smile: "I got it. My mother sent it for me, right? She sent me a message. I haven't been home these days and haven't had time read it. Brother Zhuzi, thank you. I'm leaving now."
"Okay, Yan Zi, be careful on the road, remember to look at the road!"
"Don't worry, goodbye, Brother Zhuzi."
"goodbye!"
Lin Yan quickly left the courtyard gate and turned to walk out of the alley, but after only a few steps, tears began to fall uncontrollably on her face.
Song Yuanchao has not forgotten me. He wrote to me and said he still remembers me and misses me as deeply as I do.
Lin Yan felt an overwhelming sense of happiness. She wanted to laugh out loud, but at the same time she wanted to find a place to have a good cry and release all the thoughts that had been suppressed in her heart for a long time.
Wang Dazhu accidentally told Lin Yan that Song Yuanchao had actually sent two letters, but Lin Yan did not receive the first one. Smart Lin Yan had already figured out what was going on. If her guess was correct, the first letter was secretly hidden by her mother.
Although she hadn't read the letter yet, Lin Yan already knew from the mailing address that Song Yuanchao had returned to Shanghai. Perhaps for this reason, the letter she sent to the northwest was not received by Song Yuanchao who had already returned to the city. So Song Yuanchao sent the letter to Aunt Gao according to the address she gave him when she left, and the letter from Song Yuanchao who had returned to Shanghai accidentally fell into her mother's hands.
If Lin Yan had not decided to visit Aunt Gao today, one can imagine what would have happened to this letter.
In her mother's eyes, Lin Yan is no longer the ugly duckling she was back then. Her parents' work status has been restored, and Lin Yan is a student at Imperial University. Her family conditions and her own conditions are far better than ordinary people. Such a daughter is simply not worthy of an ordinary young man. Perhaps her mother thinks that only a promising young man like Zhao Minglei is qualified as her future son-in-law.
It was because of this that her mother secretly withheld the letter from Song Yuanchao to her and secretly supported Zhao Minglei in pursuing her.
Thinking of this, Lin Yan felt extremely sad. She couldn't understand her mother's thoughts and even wanted to go home and ask her why she did this. But reason made Lin Yan gradually calm down. She didn't go home and decided not to mention this to her mother for the time being.
On the bus back to school, Lin Yan opened the letter and read it slowly while sitting in the car.
Song Yuanchao wrote a lot in the letter. In addition to his thoughts and concerns for Lin Yan, Song Yuanchao also asked whether she had received the last letter, and whether she was too busy with school studies to reply to him in time? But it didn't matter, as long as Lin Yan lived well in the capital, Song Yuanchao only hoped that Lin Yan could be well and happy. He would always hope so and wish Lin Yan all the best.
At the end of the letter, the careful Lin Yan found a faint mark on the letter paper. She was stunned at first, but soon understood what the mark was.
If she guessed correctly, these were the dried traces of the tears that Song Yuanchao shed when he wrote this letter. When Lin Yan thought that Song Yuanchao was waiting for her message in faraway Shanghai, and she was unable to reply for various reasons, she could no longer suppress her emotions. She held the letter tightly to her chest, feeling Song Yuanchao's breath on the letter paper, and two lines of tears silently slid down her cheeks.
