Love in the Courtyard: Starting with Engineers

Two days later, Sha Zhu walked briskly out of the courtyard with a cloth bag in his hand. The bag contained several pounds of fruit candy and two clean old clothes.

The place he was going to was a mental hospital on the outskirts of the city.

Sha Zhu planned to visit Qin Huairu, a name that had been weighing on his mind for many years.

The events of that year are like a scar, etched in the memories of everyone in the courtyard.

Over the years, Sha Zhu has never mentioned Qin Huairu, but he has been harboring resentment in his heart.

I resent her for not being a virtuous woman, for ruining her reputation, and for leaving behind two maids for me, a cripple, to raise.

Despite my resentment, when the day actually came to see her, I was filled with mixed feelings.

Half an hour later, Sha Zhu got off the bus, walked for a while, and arrived at the entrance of the mental hospital. After a pause, he went inside.

The walls of the mental hospital were mottled, and a faint smell of disinfectant lingered in the air. Sha Zhu followed the nurse into a ward.

Qin Huairu was the only one in the ward. She was huddled in the corner of the bed, her hair disheveled. Her hospital gown was faded and stained.

Hearing footsteps, she suddenly looked up, a flicker of fear flashing in her cloudy eyes.

When Qin Huairu saw that the person who came was Sha Zhu, she let out a short scream, hurriedly pulled the quilt over her head, and covered her face tightly.

"Don't...don't look at me...I'm too ashamed to face you."

Sha Zhu stood there, his anger instantly subsiding.

He had prepared a whole host of things to say, things he wanted to ask her, things he wanted to scold her with, but looking at the disheveled, timid woman in front of him, those words got stuck in his throat, and he couldn't say a single one.

Over the years, he has finally reaped the rewards of his hard work. Despite losing the use of his hands to cook, he has managed to take on apprentices and live a fulfilling life thanks to his culinary skills.

He supported Xiao Dang and Huaihua through middle school, and they grew into beautiful young women. The neighbors all praised him for being lucky.

He often wondered if things would be different if those unpleasant things hadn't happened back then.

But then he thought, he's disabled, and if it weren't for his skills, he might have starved to death in some remote corner long ago, and he wouldn't have the peaceful life he has today.

The resentment seemed to dissipate at that moment.

Sha Zhu slowly walked over, placed the cloth bag on the bedside table, and said in a low voice, "I came to see you. I brought some candy and two sets of clothes. Change into them and make sure you're clean."

Qin Huairu was still covering her face, her shoulders trembling, "I'm sorry... Shazhu... I'm sorry," she kept repeating this sentence.

Sha Zhu sat on the edge of the bed, watching her trembling and hiding under the covers, and sighed.

"That's all in the past, and I'm doing quite well now. My apprentices are filial, and Xiao Dang and Huaihua are sensible, have good grades, and will definitely be successful in the future."

"Although I have no male heir, I now have two daughters, who are just like my own daughters."

He paused, then said, "Jia Zhangshi passed away a few years ago, at her home in the countryside. I heard she died of illness."

Qin Huairu's crying suddenly stopped, and she slowly released her hands from her face, revealing a face covered in tears.

She looked at Shazhu and said in a tearful voice, "She left too?"

Sha Zhu didn't say anything more, just sat by the bed and stayed with her for a while.

Qin Huairu stopped crying and just stared blankly out the window.

Before leaving, Sha Zhu left some money, told the nurse to take good care of her, and then turned and left the ward.

He didn't turn around, and he didn't know that Qin Huairu watched his back as two last tears streamed down her face.

That evening, the hospital called.

On the other end of the phone, the nurse's voice was anxious: "He Yuzhu, right? You...you need to come here. Qin Huairu...she hanged herself."

Sha Zhu's hand holding the phone suddenly trembled, and the receiver fell to the ground with a "thud".

He stood there, stunned, his mind blank, as if all his thoughts had been taken away.

After a long pause, he slowly squatted down, picked up the receiver with both hands, and said in a hoarse voice, "I understand, I'm coming."

When they arrived at the hospital, Qin Huairu's body was already cold.

She lay quietly, wearing the clothes that Sha Zhu had brought her, with a relieved smile on her face.

Sha Zhu looked at her, feeling neither sadness nor joy, only a sense of emptiness.

He said nothing, silently completed the formalities, and brought Qin Huairu's body back to the courtyard house.

When the neighbors heard about it, they all gathered around to see, but no one said anything.

Liu Haizhong sighed, and Yan Bugui shook his head. These were all old stories, and neither of them wanted to reopen old wounds.

When Xiao Dang and Huaihua came home from school and saw Qin Huairu lying on the door panel, they burst into tears.

The two girls knelt on the ground, calling out "Mom" over and over again, crying their hearts out.

Sha Zhu stood to the side, his eyes red-rimmed, but he didn't shed a single tear. He knew this was the last time the two girls would see their biological mother.

The next morning, Sha Zhu found a cart and took Qin Huairu's body to the crematorium.

Black smoke billowed from the crematorium chimney, drifting into the hazy sky.

Sha Zhu, carrying a small urn, led the two girls to a mass grave in the suburbs. They found a sunny slope, dug a pit, and buried the ashes inside.

There was no funeral, no wreaths, not even a proper tombstone.

A simple wooden tombstone stood in front of the grave, and a bunch of wild chrysanthemums were stuck on the top of the grave.

Xiao Dang and Huaihua knelt before the grave, their shoulders shaking with sobs.

Sha Zhu stood behind them, looking at the mound of fresh soil, and remained silent for a long time.

The wind blew by, carrying the scent of wild grass. He finally spoke, his voice low and hoarse: "Girls, do you know? All these years, I have never resented your mother."

"I know you all know what happened back then, and I know you've been very careful all these years."

He paused, as if speaking to Qin Huairu, but also as if speaking to himself: "It's better that you're gone. You don't have to face those rumors anymore, you don't have to suffer that pain anymore. In your next life, may you be reborn into a better family and live a good life."

Xiao Dang and Huaihua looked up at Sha Zhu with teary eyes.

Sunlight pierced through the clouds, falling on the three people and on the fresh soil.

Sha Zhu reached out and gently patted the two girls' shoulders.

Then, holding Xiao Dang's hand in one hand and Huaihua's hand in the other, he slowly walked back.

Qin's parents in Qinjiazhuang also received the news of Qin Huairu's passing. Qin's mother almost fainted when she heard the news.

Later, she wanted to go to Beijing, but Qin Dashan stopped her. Over the years, Qin Dashan and Qin Huairu's brothers had suffered a lot of gossip because of Qin Huairu's affairs. Now that things were getting a little better, he was afraid that going there would cause even more gossip.

Looking at his mother, whose eyes were red and swollen, Qin Dashan said, "Look at what our family has become all these years because of her! We even curse at the dog when it comes by, and both of our sons have moved out!"

"It's better that she's dead; it'll end it all!"