For thirty years, he has roamed the Northeast, his divine might overwhelming all immortals under hea

On the kang (heated brick bed), Old Wang lay limply, his head like a dragon with its tendons pulled out, his chest rising and falling, his breathing as rough as a bellows, but at least he had the breath of a living person.

Xiulian knelt down in front of her father, tears streaming down her face.

"Father, Father, how are you feeling? Father..."

My mother also went over, reached out to touch Old Wang's forehead, and breathed a long sigh of relief.

"Oh, it's not so hot anymore, thank goodness."

My father was still holding onto the doorpost, standing at the doorway, his face as taut as iron, his eyes darting back and forth between Old Wang and the wet, black stone on the ground, without uttering a sound.

The black stones on the ground, now wet and muddy, no longer seemed so dark and absorbent; they looked like ordinary pebbles, only excessively black.

After about the time it takes to smoke a pipe, Old Wang's eyelids twitched, and he slowly opened them.

His gaze was unfocused at first, but it took him a while to focus and see Xiulian crying her eyes out. Then he turned around and saw our family.

His lips moved, and he mumbled a vague word in his throat.

"……water……"

Xiulian quickly brought over some warm water and helped her father drink it in small sips.

Old Wang caught his breath, his eyes cleared up a bit, and his gaze finally fell on me. He lingered there for a long time before moving on to my father's stern face.

Old Wang pushed away Xiulian's hand holding the bowl and struggled to get up from the kang (a heated brick bed).

Xiulian quickly went to help her up.

"Dad, you're feeling a bit better, lie down and don't move!"

Old Wang was very stubborn; he insisted on sitting up halfway and leaning against the pile of quilts on the kang (a heated brick bed).

He looked at my father, his face filled with complex emotions: lingering fear, guilt, and above all, embarrassment at being unable to save face.

His lips trembled a few times before he finally spoke, his voice terribly hoarse.

"Brother Li..."

"I...I'm sorry to you, sorry to Thirteen, and even more sorry to...my Xiulian."

My father shifted slightly, but still didn't say anything. He just took out his pipe and twirled it in his hand.

Old Wang's eyes reddened.

"Back then, I broke off the engagement... because I was short-sighted, materialistic, and thought Thirteen was stupid... I was afraid your family would be a burden... I'm not human!"

He raised his hand, gently patted his pale face, and let out a deep, long sigh.

"This time... if it weren't for Thirteen, my old life would be... I was lying on the kang, being manipulated by that filthy thing, I knew perfectly well what was going on, but my body was beyond my control..."

My mother nudged my father with her elbow.

Old Wang took a breath and continued.

"Brother Li, Sister-in-law Li, I know it's too late to say anything now. The face has been slapped, the relationship is damaged. But...but Xiulian is my only daughter. I don't want anything else now, I just want my child to get better. Thirteen is a kind, capable, and upright boy! I...I entrust Xiulian to him; I have complete confidence in him! I was a bastard in the past, I apologize to you!"

As he spoke, he actually tried to move off the kang (a heated brick bed), seemingly to bow and apologize to my father.

This startled my mother, who quickly stepped forward to hold him down.

"Oh, Uncle Wang! Don't move! You're feeling better! That's enough!"

Only then did my father raise his head, which had been bowed.

He glanced at Old Wang, who was weak and full of regret on the kang (a heated brick bed), then at Xiulian, who was standing beside him with tears streaming down her face and looking helpless, and finally, his gaze swept over me.

I quickly looked away from Xiulian, feeling my face burning.

My father stuffed the pipe back into his arms and let out a heavy sigh, as if much of the pent-up air in his voice had been released with that sigh.

"Alright, Lao Wang."

My father spoke, his voice a little harsh, but without the previous coldness and distance.

"Why bring up such old, trivial matters? It's better that no one is hurt. You, too, let greed get the better of you."

He paused, then gestured with his chin toward Xiulian.

"Your daughter is a good girl."

"If it weren't for the kids, our two families would never be at odds!"

Upon hearing this, Xiulian's tears fell even more fiercely.

My mother quickly smoothed things over, her face beaming with joy.

"That's right! Don't take it to heart. We're all parents, and we all want the same thing for our children! Now everything's alright, the storm has passed! You take good care of yourself and let Xiulian relax too!"

Old Wang leaned his head against the pile of quilts. Hearing my father say this, he couldn't hold back his tears, which streamed down his wrinkled cheeks as he nodded repeatedly.

"Sigh, sigh..."

The atmosphere finally calmed down.

My mother was preparing to cook some millet porridge for Old Wang to soothe his stomach when Xiulian went to the outer room to start a fire, but my mother stopped her.

"You stay here and look after your father, I'm going!"

My dad squatted outside the door, took out his pipe, and this time he actually lit it. He started puffing away, and in the swirling smoke, his profile looked less tense.

Old Wang was not in good spirits; after talking for a while, he fell into a drowsy sleep again.

Xiulian stayed by her father's side, glancing at me every now and then. When our eyes met, she would quickly look away like a startled deer, her ears turning bright red.

After my father finished smoking his pipe, he stood up, dusted off his pants, and said into the house.

"Old Wang is alright now, let's go back and let the father and son rest."

My mother peeked out from the outer room.

"Why are you going back? The porridge will be ready soon, eat before you leave! Xiulian, set the table, I'm definitely eating here today!"

Xiulian quickly responded and deftly moved the kang table over.

Old Wang happened to wake up again at this moment. Hearing the wind, he forced himself to stay awake and said that food must be served.

The meal was simple: cornbread, corn porridge, a bowl of egg sauce that my mother had just made, and a few dry scallions.

But this meal was unlike any other meal I'd ever had.

After drinking a few mouthfuls of porridge, Old Wang's face regained some vitality, and he became more talkative.

He stopped bringing up the broken engagement and just kept praising me, saying I was calm, capable, and broad-minded.

My words made me feel very uncomfortable, so I just kept my head down and ate my porridge.

While we were eating, Old Wang suddenly put down his chopsticks, looked at me, then at his daughter, cleared his throat, and said.

"Brother Li, sister-in-law, Thirteen, I have an idea, but I don't know if I should say it."

We all stopped eating and looked at him.

Old Wang's face showed a hint of the seriousness a farmer would show when discussing serious matters.

"I think the connection between Thirteen and Xiulian has never been severed. I was just being senile in the past and insisted on breaking it up. Now... I'm thinking, could we... rekindle this marriage?"

"puff!"

I almost choked on a mouthful of porridge, coughing until my face turned bright red.

Xiulian let out an "Ah!" and buried her head almost in her chest, her neck turning red.

My mother was taken aback at first, then burst into laughter.

"Hey! You've finally said something serious! Your idea... is exactly what we were thinking!"

My father held the bowl of porridge, said nothing, looked at me, and then at Xiulian, who wished she could disappear into a crack in the ground.

Old Wang struck while the iron was hot.

"Thirteen will be nineteen after the New Year, right? Xiulian is eighteen too, just the right age! Now that we're in the reform and opening-up era, we use the new lunar calendar, so let's do things in a new way! No dowry or anything! As long as the two girls are happy, we'll pick a good day and get it done. Then the biggest weight off my shoulders will be lifted!"

My mother clapped her hands with joy.

"That's great! Old Wang, your thinking is really progressive! We can't do without a bride price; we still have to go through the proper etiquette, but we definitely won't follow the old-fashioned ways!"

At this moment, my father finally spoke slowly. His voice was not loud, but it quieted down the lively atmosphere.

"What do you think about life?"

Old Wang's spirits lifted.

Even after he broke off the engagement, he still came to my house, but every time he did, my father never gave him a friendly look.

Now that my dad has finally admitted it, I'm overjoyed.

"I think New Year's Day is fine! A new year in the Gregorian calendar, a fresh start! There's still some time before then, enough time to prepare!"

"New Year……"

My dad thought about it for a moment and nodded.

"Yes, it's a good day."

"Is that settled then?"

Old Wang looked at my dad with longing eyes.

My dad didn't answer directly; he turned to look at me.

"Thirteen, what do you say?"

All eyes in the room suddenly turned to me.

My face was burning hot, my palms were sweating, and my mind was a jumbled mess.

I stole a glance at Xiulian, and she also quickly looked up at me. Our eyes met, and she immediately lowered her head again, but her blushing cheeks and slightly trembling eyelashes...

My heart was pounding like a wild rabbit.

From the time I became mentally impaired until I returned to a normal life, I was practically a walking corpse, and I never thought about these things.

I can say without lying that this was the first time I had ever heard my own heartbeat so clearly, for a girl.

"I...I'll listen to my parents."

I struggled for a long time before finally managing to utter this incoherent sentence.

My mother chuckled.

"You silly boy! Why listen to your parents now? Ask yourself!"

Old Wang smiled too, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes smoothing out.

Xiulian's shoulders trembled slightly. She didn't look up, but her hands, resting on her knees, quietly clenched the hem of her clothes.

Seeing my embarrassed state, my father showed a rare, faint smile. He picked up the bowl of porridge, took a big gulp, put the bowl down, and said to Old Wang.

"Alright, Lao Wang. Considering your sincere admission of wrongdoing, and also for the sake of... Xiulian, our family agrees. The date is set for New Year's Day."

The room was quiet for a moment, then filled with laughter.

The sky outside the window had cleared up sometime during the day, and a ray of the setting sun shone through the window, landing on the kang table and on Xiulian's half-hidden, flushed cheeks, warm and cozy.

After dinner, the three of us walked back.

The sky was approaching dusk, with a few streaks of lotus-colored sunset still hanging in the western corner of the sky, while the eastern sky was already faintly tinged with the indigo of night.

My mother walked in the middle, carrying a basket in one hand and gesturing with the other, her words flowing out like water from a burst dam.

"Oh dear, what a mess this was! It's amazing how things turned out this way; we're truly blessed by our ancestors!"

I could tell that Xiulian was genuinely happy that things between us had been resolved.

She turned her head to look at my father, then turned back to look at me, her eyes and brows brimming with an irrepressible smile.

"But speaking of which, Thirteen, you and Xiulian are truly destined to be together since childhood!"

She paused, as if retrieving some shining beads from the depths of her memory.

"You weren't this tall before...before you went mad."

She gestured with her hand below her waist.

"I loved following Xiulian around. Xiulian was a quiet girl since she was little. She didn't like playing marbles or raiding bird nests with those crazy boys. She preferred to pick up flowers and grass, sit under the old elm tree at the village entrance, and weave little trinkets from grass leaves. You would just squat down and watch, sometimes for ages, without saying a word. When she finished weaving one and handed it to you, you would just grin like an idiot."

I walked silently, my ears perked up, trying to catch a glimpse of my long-forgotten "normal" self from my mother's words. It felt strange, like listening to someone else's story, yet my heart throbbed slightly.

"Then you became stupid."

My mother's voice lowered, she sighed, and then rose again, carrying a warm feeling of emotion.

"After you got like that, when the other kids in the village saw you, they would either hide or throw clods of dirt at you and call you 'Silly Thirteen.' Only Xiulian..."

My father, who had been walking silently, slowed his pace almost imperceptibly upon hearing this, and his pipe was suddenly in his hand again.

"Only Xiulian, when she sees you, never avoids you. Sometimes when she comes back from her maternal grandparents' house, she'll have a piece of candy or half a cake in her pocket. If she sees you wandering around the village entrance, she'll secretly slip it to you. You don't know any better, so you take it and stuff it in your mouth, getting your face all smeared. Then she'll take out her handkerchief. Oh, such a little girl, folding her handkerchief so neatly, to wipe your face. For this, her father scolds her a lot, saying she's bringing bad luck. But the next time she sees you, she's still the same."

The night seemed to grow even darker, and I could almost see a blurry little figure before my eyes, with pigtails, bright eyes, and a hint of cautious kindness.

My mother's voice sounded exceptionally clear and soft in the gradually spreading twilight.

"Later, as you grew older, she couldn't always be so close to you. But I saw her standing far away outside our yard, behind the woodpile, looking in. One winter, it snowed heavily, and you ran out to play in the snow, oblivious to the cold, and fell into a ditch, unable to get up, shivering from the cold. I couldn't find you and cried in distress. It was Xiulian who ran to tell me. When I arrived, she was trying her best to pull you out of the snowdrift, her little face red from the cold, and her cotton shoes soaked through..."

My father, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke, his voice deep and heavy, carried on the night wind.

"He's a good kid."

He only said those four words before shutting his mouth again and smacking his empty tobacco pouch.

His words carried extra weight.

I know that I've finally gotten past my dad.

My mother nodded repeatedly.

"That's right! Old Wang has finally come to his senses! Our Thirteenth is all right now, and the marriage can proceed as planned; it's God's will!"

"Dad, you did a great job today. Tell me honestly, are you also thinking about having Xiulian as your daughter-in-law?"

My father glanced at my mother but didn't say anything.