Chapter 928: The Past is Forgotten
Wen Cube's coffee is very good, it's the hand-ground kind. The coffee is poured from a beautiful coffee pot into a white coffee cup, and the air is filled with rich aroma.
There was a sugar jar and a small pot of milk on the side, and the silver spoon was small and exquisite. Wen Lifang raised his hand to signal Song Yuanchao to add sugar and milk to him, but he himself did not add anything. He picked up the coffee in front of him, took a sip, and nodded slightly.
"Do you like black coffee?"
"Yes, as I get older, I don't like adding sugar and milk. It tastes better this way." Wen Lifang replied with a smile.
Song Yuanchao put a sugar cube in his coffee, then poured some milk, stirred it with a spoon a few times, took a sip, and nodded in praise: "The coffee is very good, very fragrant."
"If you like, drink more. I asked someone to get the coffee beans from Southeast Asia, and I roasted them myself."
"Your craftsmanship is really good. It's rare to find someone who can do this nowadays."
"Haha, it's a personal hobby. I'm a person who is neither high nor low in this life, so I just like to do these things. In the past, I would be a complete petty bourgeois." Wen Lifang replied with a smile. This term, which is rarely mentioned nowadays, made Song Yuanchao stunned for a moment when he said it, and then he also laughed.
The two chatted for a while over coffee, and Song Yuanchao then asked about the purpose of their visit today.
"I understand what you mean. In fact, as soon as you came, I knew why you came." Wen Lifang put down the coffee cup in his hand, picked up the cigarette box beside him and gestured to Song Chaoyuan, then took out a cigarette and lit it: "In fact, I don't know your parents. Going to sweep your parents' graves is a request from someone else..."
"Entrusted by someone?" Song Yuanchao was stunned. He had been wondering what the relationship between Wen Lifang and his parents was. Judging from his age, he was ten years older than him and was half a generation older than his parents.
Song Yuanchao's mother, Wang Sufen, was just an ordinary cotton mill worker. She didn't have many social contacts and the people she knew were either colleagues, neighbors, or relatives.
After his parents passed away, he basically stopped communicating with some old colleagues. Besides, Song Yuanchao was still young before he went to the countryside, so he was also unfamiliar with them. As for neighbors, except for Zhang Jianguo's family who lived close to his own family, the rest of the neighbors were just normal neighbors.
As for his relatives, due to the death of his parents and some subsequent events, Song Yuanchao had no contact with them a long time ago. It was like this in his previous life and it is still like this in this life. What's more, none of Song Yuanchao's relatives have the surname Wen.
As for his father, as far as Song Chaoyuan knew, he didn't have many relatives. He basically knew all of his father's old colleagues, after all, he went to work in the school-run factory after returning. So when he learned that the person who visited his parents' graves was called Wen Lifang, Song Chaoyuan also thought about the relationship between Wen Lifang and his parents. After thinking about it, the most likely possibility was that Wen Lifang was his father's former student?
After all, Song Guangzeng had been a teacher for so many years and taught so many students. Although many years had passed and his father's students still missed him, it was possible that they would visit his grave, but who would have thought that Wen Lifang would tell him that he did not know his parents and that he was only visiting their graves because he was asked to do so, which surprised Song Chaoyuan.
"You said someone entrusted you with this... Who entrusted you with this?" Song Yuanchao couldn't help but ask.
Wen Lifang said "wait a moment", got up and left the living room and went to the bedroom on the third floor. A moment later, he came back from the third floor with an old photo in his hand.
"Look at this."
"What is this...?" Song Chaoyuan asked subconsciously after taking the photo. Wen Lifang motioned him to look at it carefully. When Song Chaoyuan looked carefully at the photo in his hand, he could see clearly that it was a very old photo, at least several decades old. The photo was yellowed, and the portrait on it was a little blurry. In addition, the photography technology at that time was not as advanced as it is now, and the pixels seemed a little low.
But even so, Song Chaoyuan still recognized the man on the left in the photo. Wasn't this well-mannered young man wearing a white shirt and a pair of glasses his father, Song Guangzeng?
Song Guangzeng in the photo looked very young, and he looked to be no more than 18 or 19 years old. Standing on Song Guangzeng's right, holding his arm, was a young and beautiful girl, wearing a beautiful dress, leaning against Song Guangzeng with a bright smile on her face.
"This girl is my aunt." Wen Lifang said calmly: "My aunt and your father, Mr. Song, were classmates at St. John's, and they were also a couple..."
"Lover?" Song Yuanchao was stunned. This answer really surprised him. In Song Yuanchao's memory, he had never heard of this matter, and his parents had always had a good relationship.
"Yes!" Wen Lifang nodded. Seeing that Song Yuanchao was very surprised, he slowly talked about the past of his aunt Wen Lei and Song Yuanchao's father Song Guangzeng.
Wen Lifang told Song Yuanchao that Song Guangzeng and Wen Lei were indeed a couple. They were classmates at St. John's. When they were in school, the young Wen Lei fell in love with the gentle and talented Song Guangzeng, and Song Guangzeng also had a good impression of the young, beautiful and considerate Wen Lei, and the two young people began to fall in love.
This photo was taken that year, with the background being the French Park, which is now the Fuxing Park.
If nothing unexpected happened, the young couple would get together in the future, get married, have children, and live a happy life. Unfortunately, life is full of accidents. The situation changed very quickly. The Wen family had some background at the time. As the situation changed, Wen Lei's father, Wen Lifang's grandfather, decided to leave Shanghai and go overseas.
Because she left in such a hurry, Mr. Wen was worried about accidents during the chaos, so he restricted Wen Lei's freedom. Until the day Wen Lei left the country, she didn't have time to meet Song Guangzeng.
In this way, the couple was torn apart and never had the chance to meet again. Wen Lifang's father was the eldest son of the Wen family. As the eldest son, he stayed behind temporarily to deal with domestic industries. Later, after his sister Wen Lei left, Wen Lifang's father found Song Guangzeng and told him about it. He also gave him a letter that Wen Lei left for Song Guangzeng.
No one knows what is written in the letter. Perhaps only the two parties involved know clearly. Now so much time has passed. Song Guangzeng has passed away long ago, and Wen Lei also died of illness a few years ago. This has become an eternal secret.
Wen Lifang's parents did not leave and stayed in Shanghai. Later, some changes happened in the family. Wen Lifang's parents passed away and Wen Lifang lived alone. Many years passed in the blink of an eye.
It was not until the reform and opening up that Wen Lifang had the opportunity to contact his relatives overseas. At that time, Wen Lei was already quite old and her health was very poor. For so many years, Wen Lei did not get married because she missed Song Guangzeng and remained single.
After the contact was restored, Wen Lei asked her nephew to find Song Guangzeng's whereabouts. Unfortunately, by the time she got the news, Song Guangzeng had already passed away many years ago. The two former lovers didn't even see each other for the last time, leaving only this yellowed photo and the melancholy memory of the past.
Upon learning that Song Guangzeng had passed away, Wen Lei's remaining hopes were completely shattered. In grief, her health deteriorated day by day.
Although she always wanted to come back and visit Song Guangzeng, to talk to him at his grave and express her deep longing for him, it was a pity that Wen Lei never had this chance until she passed away. After her death, according to her will, all her property was left to Wen Lifang, but she required Wen Lifang to do two things.
One thing is to bring her ashes back from overseas and bury them in the cemetery where Song Guangzeng was. Although they couldn't be together in life, it's also good to be next to your beloved after death.
The second thing was to require Wen Lifang to sweep the graves of himself and Song Guangzeng every year during the Qingming Festival.
These two things are what Wen Lei asked of Wen Lifang. If he can fulfill his promise, then all of Wen Lei's estate will be inherited by Wen Lifang.
Wen Lifang signed his name under the witness of a lawyer. In this way, Wen Lifang inherited all the inheritance of his aunt Wen Lei, and brought her ashes back to China according to Wen Lei's last wishes before her death. He buried them in the cemetery where Song Guangzeng and his wife were. At the same time, every Qingming Festival, Wen Lifang would go to the cemetery to sweep the graves of Wen Lei and Song Guangzeng.
After listening to Wen Lifang's story, Song Yuanchao felt mixed emotions and didn't know what to say for a moment.
Before coming, Song Yuanchao had many speculations, but the facts were far beyond his imagination.
He had no idea that his father had such a past, and he was probably afraid that even his mother didn't know about it.
If he hadn't noticed that someone had been sweeping his parents' graves, perhaps he would never have known about this. Just like in his previous life, Song Yuanchao had never heard of this story, let alone the past of his father Song Guangzeng and Wen Lei.
"I'm sorry, I lost my composure. This matter really made me..." After being in a daze for a long time, Song Chaoyuan came to his senses, sighed, and apologized to Wen Lifang.
"It's okay, I understand." Wen Lifang nodded. As a child, it is normal to react like this when learning about their father's past.
"Mr. Wen, has your aunt never been married?"
Wen Lifang nodded slowly: "Maybe she had been waiting for Mr. Song, but unfortunately she didn't get to see him in the end. But she didn't blame Mr. Song before she died. My aunt is a very kind person. In her heart, maybe it's a good ending to be with the person she loves all her life in this way."
For some reason, Song Yuanchao suddenly felt sad, and he thought of his past life experience. He understood Wen Lei's longing for her father better than anyone else, because he had experienced all of this before, and at the same time he couldn't help but sigh at the fate of people.
This past event was once again turned up from his sealed memory. Song Yuanchao looked at the photo again, looking at his young and high-spirited father and the young and beautiful Wen Lei with a happy smile on her face. After a long time, Song Yuanchao couldn't help but sigh again.
