HLnovel Chapter 58 One String, One Pillar: Reminiscences of Bygone Years
Chapter 58 One String, One Pillar: Reminiscences of Bygone Years
Lu Yuan looked at Ye Yixian quietly. Their eyes met across the distance, and they gazed at each other silently, as if they were both waiting in silence.
Ye Yixian was filled with hesitation and inner conflict.
She simply wanted to hug Lu Yuan and thank him properly.
A hug isn't always necessary to express gratitude, but the atmosphere is just right right now, and a hug seems to best reflect the mood.
But she also harbored some concerns in her heart.
She was afraid that her sudden initiative would cause Lu Yuan to misunderstand.
Do you think she's too casual?
I don't think so...
At that moment, the desire to be with Lu Yuan forever became stronger than ever before.
Forget it, forget it.
Ye Yixian bit her lip, secretly made up her mind, and mustered up her courage to hug him.
But just as she was about to act, Lu Yuan suddenly turned to look at the tombstone and broke the silence in a soft voice: "Your mother's name is Lin Jinhua, and your name is Ye Yixian... I guess your brother's name is Ye Yizhu?"
Ye Yixian's body stiffened abruptly, and she staggered, almost losing her balance. She quickly steadied herself and looked up at him with astonishment in her eyes: "How did you know?"
"I immediately thought of it when I heard your name." Lu Yuan explained slowly with a smile in his eyes, "Your and your brother's names should be taken from Li Shangyin's poem 'The Brocade Zither.' The brocade zither has fifty strings for no reason, each string and each fret evokes thoughts of bygone years."
Upon hearing this, Ye Yixian finally smiled faintly and said softly, "My father's name is Ye Xinnian. My brother wasn't originally named Ye Yizhu. It was after my mother passed away the year I was born that my father specially changed my brother's name. I was named Yixian, and my brother was named Yizhu, which happens to match that poem, and it can also be considered as a way of expressing our thoughts."
"Your dad is an educated man."
Lu Yuan couldn't help but sincerely admire it. If it were him, he would never have thought of such a name that was full of affection and poetry.
"A cultured person... I guess I'd say that's a stretch."
When Ye Yixian mentioned his father, the smile that had just appeared on his face vanished instantly, and a deep sense of loneliness and loss quickly settled over his eyes.
Lu Yuan knew in his heart that her sadness was all because of her father who was imprisoned.
This is the deepest scar in her heart, one she has never wanted to touch lightly.
In fact, Lu Yuan was also very curious: why would someone as thoughtful, poetic, and sentimental as Ye Xinnian be convicted of murder?
He prefers to believe it was manslaughter.
A man who can use poetry to express his longing for his broken family and to connect with his children is definitely not a vicious and irresponsible villain.
There must be untold helplessness and bitterness hidden within.
Despite his intense curiosity, Lu Yuan had no intention of getting to the bottom of things.
Ye Yixian was already unwilling to mention it, and it would be too impolite and hurtful for him to press the matter further.
He thought to himself that as long as he could stay by Ye Yixian's side, he would eventually learn the whole truth.
The two squatted quietly in front of Lin Jinhua's tombstone and shared many heartfelt words.
Ye Yixian frankly admitted that she had already considered dropping out of school. For her, the campus was never a warm and wonderful place.
Over the years, her tuition fees have been covered entirely by her brother, who works in the provincial capital.
Her brother always hoped she would study hard and never wanted her to drop out of school and work early.
She also frankly recounted her brother's past thefts.
In their youth, the brother and sister depended on each other for survival. Although they received meager assistance from the government, they could barely make ends meet.
To fill his stomach, the older brother had no choice but to steal some food.
Throughout the entire ordeal, he only took food and never touched any other money.
But the town was small to begin with, and after being caught stealing several times, his reputation was completely ruined.
In addition, due to his father's imprisonment, no one dared to hire his brother to make a living anymore.
Ye Yixian's reason for refusing to drop out of school was entirely because she did not want to let her brother down.
But she knew in her heart that, given her current state, she had no chance of getting into a university.
If she only gets into a junior college through the college entrance examination, without the support of rural education assistance, she simply cannot afford the high tuition fees.
She had already planned to give up and just wait for the college entrance exam to end so she could go to the provincial capital to join her brother and work together to make a living.
The days ahead may be simple and plain, but we can still live a stable and free life.
After listening quietly to Ye Yixian's heartfelt words, Lu Yuan did not judge her choice casually. He simply said softly, "It's getting late. You should go back and change your clothes. Wearing wet clothes all the time will make you catch a cold."
Only after his reminder did Ye Yixian realize that she was soaked to the bone, her clothes clinging tightly to her body, revealing the curves of her delicate figure in a way that was completely exposed to Lu Yuan's eyes.
Her cheeks instantly burned, her heart raced with panic, and she hurriedly lowered her head, at a loss for what to do.
……
Lu Yuan followed Ye Yixian back to her home.
It was a dilapidated bungalow, not far from the No. 1 Middle School, about a half-hour walk away.
The house is right next to a garbage recycling station, where an elderly couple collects recyclables year after year.
The pile of waste kept growing, and a lot of miscellaneous items ended up crowding up to Ye Yixian's doorstep.
Ye Yixian didn't seem to mind at all, and explained softly, "They are all kind old neighbors who often bring me food. The living expenses my brother sends back are also helped by the two elderly people who help me withdraw them from the bank and transfer them to me."
In this era, electronic payment methods such as WeChat Pay and Alipay are not yet widespread, and bank card transfers are still the mainstream choice for remittances to other places.
Ye Yixian doesn't have his own bank card, so he has to ask his elderly neighbors for help with depositing and withdrawing money.
This also shows that the elderly couple took good care of her on a daily basis.
The windows in the house were old and mottled, and two of the panes were even broken. They were barely covered by cardboard to keep out the wind and rain, but it still couldn't stop the rainwater from seeping in.
Over the years, the windowsill has become covered with watermarks of varying depths, giving it an air of poverty and destitution.
"You...you wait here for a moment."
Ye Yixian hurriedly told Lu Yuan to wait in the cluttered living room, while she quickly went into the room and rummaged through drawers and cabinets for a long time before finally finding a set of men's clothes that had been washed until they were faded.
Lu Yuan's gaze swept quietly over the simple and dilapidated furnishings in the room, and he couldn't help but feel a little sad. Ye Yixian's life was really too hard and difficult.
Seeing that Lu Yuan was constantly looking around his home, Ye Yixian felt even more embarrassed and ashamed.
The house was messy and old, with miscellaneous items piled up everywhere. It was barely a place to stay, let alone a home.
Lu Yuan didn't say a word of comfort. He took the clothes she handed him and went to the bathroom to change, while telling her to change into dry clothes as well.
While changing clothes, Lu Yuan suddenly remembered something unpleasant: his phone had gotten wet.
He quickly took out his phone and tried to turn it on. Fortunately, the screen could still be lit. He immediately disassembled all the detachable parts and spread them out to air dry.
After letting it sit for a while, he reassembled it and tried it out. Although it could still operate normally, the inside of the machine had obviously been flooded and damp, which must have left hidden dangers. It would inevitably malfunction before long.
Looks like I'll have to get a new phone after the college entrance exam.
I had just finished fiddling with my phone when several QQ messages popped up on the screen.
Upon opening the message, I saw messages from Gao Zhe, as well as messages from Xu Lingjing and Jiang Yiqing.
Gao Zhe was simply worried about his safety, asking how things were going and if he needed any help.
Lu Yuan casually replied that the matter had been properly resolved and that he didn't need to worry about it.
Jiang Yiqing also learned about the incident and sent a message to inquire about the situation.
Lu Yuan gave her a similarly simple reply, informing her that the matter had been resolved.
The only news about Xu Lingjing had an inexplicable strangeness about it.
Without asking any questions about the incident, she only sent a message: "Lu Yuan, did you analyze your weaknesses after the mock exam? If there are any points you don't understand, I can help you with them during tonight's self-study session."
It's normal for Xu Lingjing to inquire about studies, but the fact that she chose this time to send such a message seems particularly deliberate and unusual.
Lu Yuan frowned deeply, pondering the matter in his mind, and an idea gradually surfaced in his thoughts.
If Jiang Yiqing could find out what happened immediately, how could Xu Lingjing, who is so perceptive, be completely unaware?
Everyone else was busy finding out what was going on and caring about his condition, but she alone didn't say a word.
It wasn't that she didn't care; rather, she knew from the beginning that all of this would happen today.
Having lived two lives, Lu Yuan saw through the situation, and a surge of suppressed anger welled up in his heart. His fingertip landed on the screen, and he quickly replied to Xu Lingjing:
Everything that happened today was your doing, wasn't it?