Chapter Fourteen: The Branches Were All Broken
The village chief’s wife was also quick-tempered. Glaring fiercely, she stepped forward and with a sharp slap, she turned Song Shijing’s mud-splattered face askew.
“You young ones with your books—have you stuffed your head full of nonsense?”
“Don’t you know why Miss Meng always comes over to help at our house? It’s because she wants to give you an egg every day to help you get stronger. After finishing her work at the lumberyard, she still comes to help us. And yet, you resent her for the gossip she faces. Haven’t you been the subject of enough rumors yourself with Nurse Su? It’s utterly shameful!”
“Luckily, that girl finally saw through you and left. Otherwise, I really couldn’t stand it…”
Song Shijing froze in place as if awakened by that slap.
So Shu Yue often ran to the village chief’s house, all for just an egg.
Suddenly, his eyes reddened, but then he caught himself and grabbed the village chief’s wife’s wrist, alarmed.
“What did you just say? You said Shu Yue left?”
“She left a couple of days ago! And you, as her man, only realized it now?”
“I heard that on the morning she left, the neighboring city was flooded, all the city trains stopped, and everyone was fleeing. I don’t even know if that girl is safe!”
“Why did she have to be so unlucky? If not then, when? It’s all because those two were having an affair so openly that it ruined poor Shu Yue…”
The voices of the village chief’s wife and the elder faded into the distance.
Song Shijing stood frozen, his ears ringing with noise.
Around him, only the pattering of rain on the ground and wooden tiles remained, but he felt like a drowning man lost in a vast ocean, desperately searching for a piece of driftwood, his eyes filled with terror.
He kicked open the door to the lumberyard dormitory, trembling as he lit the kerosene lamp inside.
“Shu Yue, Shu Yue…”
His voice shook as he whispered her name.
He frantically tossed aside the bedding, peering everywhere—on the bed, under the bed.
He opened the small wooden cabinet; it was empty, not a single piece of clothing inside.
He stood in the empty room, feeling as if all his strength had been drained, utterly powerless.
Just like in that nightmare, he stood hopelessly amidst the ashes of the burned dormitory, overwhelmed by the raging pain of losing her.
The village chief’s wife’s words echoed relentlessly in his mind.
Shu Yue really had left!
She left yesterday, and her fate was unknown amid the flood!
On the clean table sat a small box.
He opened it and saw the hairpin inside. It was the only gift he had ever given her.
Yet she had left it behind.
“Shu Yue…”
Outside, the night was silent and dark. Inside, he curled the hairpin in his palm, leaning on the table as he sank to the floor, crying like a child lost without a home.
Su Yanyan, unable to wait for him to return, donned a bamboo hat and raincoat and hurried over.
Seeing Song Shijing sobbing uncontrollably inside, she froze, her eyes reddening with anger.
“Brother Jing, let’s go back. I heard many houses in the city were flooded yesterday, with heavy casualties. She brought this on herself—why leave now? Don’t blame yourself so much.”
Su Yanyan tried to comfort him and reached to take his hand.
Song Shijing pushed her away fiercely, his eyes bloodshot. He shouted, “Impossible! Shu Yue won’t die! I have to find her!”
Without a second thought, he dashed out like a madman, crashing his forehead on the corner of a table as he passed Su Yanyan who had fallen to the ground, disappearing into the rain-shrouded night.
***
Late at night, the evacuation center was noisy and chaotic as a man and a woman in a fainted state were carried in.
The military medic, having just bandaged a neighboring patient’s leg, hurried over to ask about their condition.
“Did they faint? Any external injuries?”
Several young rescuers blushed and stammered, unable to give a clear answer.
“We don’t know exactly what happened to them.”
“The man probably injured his back and fainted from blood loss. As for the woman… we don’t know why she fainted.”
“Yeah, when we found them, they were clinging together on a tree branch. The man seemed unconscious, and the woman was biting him like a starving wolf. When we approached, she fainted too.”
“Luckily, we arrived just in time. A little later, that branch might have broken under their weight…”
The rescuers chattered incessantly, while Meng Shu Yue, lying on the stretcher pretending to be unconscious, felt a flush of embarrassment rise to her face.
She wished she could jump up and stuff their mouths with a hard steamed bun.
What did they mean by “biting like a starving wolf”?
They hadn’t seen how that unconscious handsome man beside her had been the one “biting” her.
Otherwise, how would such a thick branch have broken?
How could he have lost so much blood and fainted?
And those rescuers had no idea that she was actually giving him artificial respiration when they saw her “biting” him.
***
The more Meng Shu Yue thought about it, the more embarrassed she felt. She didn’t know what had come over her during the day—she had been like a lovesick fool, restless as never before.
Just like that, she had carelessly transformed from a young girl into a woman.
And all with a man she barely knew!
She wished she could end her life to atone to her parents. She really had no self-control—just one glance from a handsome man and her soul and body were both captured.
Her heart broke into pieces, though she still feigned unconsciousness as they moved both of them onto separate beds.
Finally, when no one was around, she quietly lifted her eyelids, glanced at the doctor stitching the handsome man’s shoulder wound, and stealthily picked up her bundle and slipped away.
She slipped away quickly.
Leaving behind the man with whom she had shared a fleeting romance...
***
Three days later.
Meng Shu Yue, sweating profusely, finally returned to the capital with her bundle on her back.
Three days ago, she had left the evacuation center on foot and walked to a nearby town, intending to call home, but the post-disaster reconstruction had disabled the phone lines.
So she had to detour through another city and buy a train ticket back.
She hadn’t contacted anyone for three days, knowing her parents must be worried sick.
Without delay, she rushed to the traditional medicine clinic.
From afar, she saw her mother standing dazed at the clinic’s door.
“Mother!”
Meng Shu Yue cried out, running and throwing herself into her mother’s arms.
Her mother trembled violently, and upon hearing her daughter’s voice, her vacant eyes suddenly brightened and focused again.
She turned stiffly, and when she saw the slender figure running toward her, she could no longer contain the fear and worry that had haunted her for days and broke down crying.
“My Yueyue, my dear Yueyue. I thought I had lost you—I didn’t want to live anymore…”
“Mother, it’s all because Yueyue was stubborn, making you and father worry!”
The two cried in each other’s arms, their loud sobbing echoing through the alley, drawing curious and bewildered looks from passersby who thought them mad.