The cemetery is always quiet, with only the rustling of the pine and cypress trees in the wind and the occasional suppressed sobs. Sunlight filtered through the layers of leaves, casting dappled shadows on the bluestone path. The shadows were bright and dazzling, yet they couldn't dispel the gloomy sadness.
Su Wanwan stood in front of her mother's grave. In the black-and-white photo, Li Qingya smiles gently. Her eyebrows and eyes bear a seven-tenths resemblance to Su Wanwan's, yet they are forever frozen in the days of her youth.
Lu Tingchen held his son in his arms and stood a little further away, with his back to them. He was like a silent and reliable guardian deity, leaving space for the mother and daughter who were separated by life and death, and also cutting off all external disturbances.
Su Wanwan placed a bunch of pure white lilies in front of the tomb. They were her mother's favorite flowers.
"Mom," she spoke softly, her voice sounding particularly clear in the silent cemetery, with a barely perceptible tremor. "I've come to see you." This time, I brought a little one along."
She paused for a moment, as if gathering her courage.
I saw your diary and also found some... The truth." Her voice gradually choked up, yet carried a resolute firmness. "I know you left with great unease and fear." Sorry, I only figured it out now...
She took a deep breath and finally couldn't hold back her tears.
But I came today not just to see you. She turned around and her gaze fell on the hunched figure standing alone in front of a newer tombstone beyond several rows of tombstones - her father.
Su's father seemed to sense her gaze and slowly turned around. He looked much older, his hair almost all white, his eyes hazy, with an inescapable sense of weariness and guilt. He also held a bunch of flowers in his hand and walked over unsteadily.
The father and daughter, separated by the cold tombstone, looked at each other in silence. The air was filled with an indescribable heaviness and sadness.
"Wanwan..." " Father Su spoke first, his voice dry and hoarse, "You..." You know it all?"
"I know you sent Mom to an illegal human experiment for money!" " Su Wanwan's voice suddenly rose, filled with uncontrollable pain and anger. "I know she has discovered the truth and is scared!" I know her car has been tampered with! I know you shut the driver's mouth with money!"
Every "I know" was like a heavy hammer, hitting Su's father's heart and also Su Wanwan's own heart. Her body trembled slightly, but she stubbornly held her back straight.
Su's father's old face turned as pale as paper in an instant, his lips trembling, and he could hardly stand steadily. He closed his eyes in pain, tears streaming down his face: "Yes..." It's my fault... It's all my fault..."
"Why?" "!" Su Wanwan finally let out the pent-up questioning in her heart, and tears welled up in her eyes. "Just for that crappy company?" Just for the money? What exactly is your mother in your heart? "!"
Her crying echoed in the quiet cemetery, mournful and desperate.
Lu Tingchen's back stiffened for a moment, but he didn't turn around. Instead, he held his son in his arms even tighter.
Su's father was crushed by his daughter's grief. He staggered forward but then stopped feebly, covering his face with both hands and sobbing uncontrollably, "No..." Not entirely... At that time... The company was set up by someone and owed an astronomical amount of debt. If we don't pay it back, our whole family will be doomed... Those people... P.P. People from the foundation approached me. They said it was just a small experiment, very safe and the reward was generous... I... I was bewitched..."
He raised his tear-eyed face and looked at his daughter, his eyes filled with endless remorse and pain: "I didn't expect the reaction to be so serious..." I never expected that they would... It will be silenced... When Qingya found out, she threatened to expose it... I can't persuade her... Wanwan, Dad is sorry to you, Mom, and also to you... I'm not a human..."
He was incoherent, as if all his energy and spirit had been drained away in an instant, leaving only an empty shell crushed by a sense of guilt.
Su Wanwan listened to her father's broken confession. The hatred and sadness in her heart intertwined and swirled, almost suffocating her. She understood that her father was pitiful. He was weak, greedy and had taken the wrong path. But he had indeed been taken advantage of and had paid the price of spending the rest of his life in guilt for it.
But this cannot offset the fact that my mother died unjustly!
She looked at the old and remorseful man before her. The mountain that had once been her childhood was now in ruins.
"Those materials," Su Wanwan forced herself to calm down, her voice as cold as ice, "Where are the materials about the experiment that Mom secretly photocopied?"
Su's father shook his head blankly, "I don't know..." She didn't give me... Perhaps... Could it be left to Lin Wanru? They were very close at that time...
It's Lin Wanru again!
Su Wanwan's heart sank. What role did the mother-in-law play in it exactly? Merely an insider, or... Participant?
She looked at her father, and the last trace of warmth in her eyes faded away.
"From today on," she said word by word, clearly and coldly, "you are no longer my father." "Su family's company, Tingchen will take care of it for you until you can enjoy your old age in peace. After that, we won't owe each other anything." "
She made a decision. I can't forgive, but I won't let hatred completely devour me either. She chose a cold split.
Su's father looked at his daughter in disbelief as if struck by lightning. He opened his mouth but made no sound, only tears flowing silently. He knew that this was the punishment he deserved. He lost his daughter forever.
Su Wanwan no longer looked at him and turned to walk towards Lu Tingchen.
Lu Tingchen turned around at the right moment and gently held his son, who was crying a little uneasily, into her arms. The little one sensed his mother's sadness, stretched out his little hand, unconsciously touched her face and mumbled, "Ah..." "Ah..." The sound seemed to comfort her.
Hugging her son's soft and warm little body, Su Wanwan's forced strength instantly shattered. She buried her face in her son's swaddling clothes and her shoulders twitched slightly.
Lu Tingchen didn't ask anything. He just stretched out his arms and tightly embraced his wife and children into his broad embrace. He pressed his chin against the top of her hair, silently conveying support and strength.
The wind in the cemetery was still blowing, brushing past Li Qingya's tombstone, over Su's father's desperate figure, and also over the three people embracing each other.
The heavy grudges of an era seem to have drawn its bloody and sorrowful curtain at this moment.
But for those still alive, the battle is far from over.
From her father's breakdown, Su Wanwan confirmed Lin Wanru as a crucial turning point.
On the way back in the car, she leaned on Lu Tingchen's shoulder, looking out of the window at the rapidly receding scenery. Her voice was calm yet carried a hint of determination from exhaustion.
"Tingchen, I need to see your mother." "
This time, she must confront that mother-in-law who has always seemed gentle but might be hiding the most secrets.
Lu Tingchen fell silent for a moment and then held her hand tightly.
"Ok." " He replied, "I'll make the arrangements."
He knew that this storm of seeking the truth was finally going to sweep through his closest relatives.
(To be continued...)"