Shuangling: Braving the Rapids

Yue Chuan was ultimately unable to participate in the earlier conflict. At this moment, he was trudging along the muddy mountain path, continuing his journey towards the cemetery.

As Yue Chuan passed the old mine pit, he stopped in his tracks. He stared blankly at the entrance of the mine pit, hesitating again and again, but he couldn't take a single step forward.

Aimin fell to his death here. The rain over the past few days has not completely washed away the bloodstains. How could Yuechuan forget?

Even now, those horrifying images still surged and resurfaced from the depths of Yue Chuan's consciousness. The boy's heart pounded like a drum, his breathing gradually became labored, as if he had fallen back into that dark and desolate abyss of memory...

Just then, a loud roar of a car engine suddenly came from the foot of the mountain. Yue Chuan was jolted awake. He turned his head and saw a black SUV speeding along the rugged mountain road toward the mine.

How could anyone drive up such a narrow and muddy mountain road? Are they out of their mind?

While Yue Chuan was still in shock and doubt, the off-road vehicle suddenly accelerated. The tires splashed mud during the series of sharp turns, and as expected, it got stuck in the mud, the wheels spinning at high speed but unable to move forward an inch.

At this moment, the male driver wearing a baseball cap jumped out of the car in frustration and paced back and forth around the SUV stuck in the mud. He couldn't think of a good way to get out of the predicament. While scratching his head, he noticed a thin figure not far away, and his small eyes suddenly lit up.

"Young man! My car is stuck in a mud pit, could you come and lend a hand?"

Yue Chuan was feeling unwell and was considering whether to go forward when two more women got out of the back seat of the SUV. The one with long hair was wearing a black coat and had an intellectual and elegant demeanor. The short-haired, round-faced girl was dressed in white, and her face was delicate, with a slightly protruding belly indicating that she was pregnant.

Both women were strikingly beautiful, yet their eyes were red and swollen, and their faces looked haggard. The white-clad woman, in particular, was heavily pregnant; she clenched her teeth, her breath coming in gasps, as if she were barely able to stand.

Yue Chuan glanced at the two women, then took a few steps closer and asked, "Where are you from? Why are you running up the mountain in the rain?"

In the past few days, many people from other places have come to mourn Aimin, and Yuechuan dared not neglect them.

Before the male driver could respond, the long-haired woman in black hurriedly stepped forward and said, "My name is Chen Yun, and I'm a local from Shangzhou. These two came all the way from the provincial capital. We...we're here to see Qin Aimin...he...really..."

Chen Yun's voice trailed off, her throat tightening with emotion. Just last week, she and Ai Min had gone to the doctor together, but the provincial experts couldn't diagnose her condition. So, they agreed to go to a major hospital in Beijing to get a proper diagnosis. The young woman believed that once she addressed the man's emotional wounds, the final barrier between them would surely be overcome.

But when she rushed to Beijing and used her connections to find experts to arrange everything, Aimin suddenly vanished without a trace. She paged him eight hundred times without a response, and in desperation, she made a direct call to the academic affairs office of Zhenping No. 1 Middle School.

The operator relayed Aimin's heroic sacrifice to Chen Yun. At that moment, the girl felt as if the sky had fallen. She refused to believe that Aimin was dead and immediately took a plane back, determined to see him with her own eyes.

It's already a fait accompli, so what's the point of verifying it? In fact, as soon as Chen Yun landed in the provincial capital, many old classmates told her about Aimin's passing.

Chen Yun cried all night, and in despair, she inexplicably dialed Li Baihe's number.

Li Baihe must be Aimin's ex-girlfriend. The emotional entanglements between the three are complicated, which led to the absurd situation of the three of them risking their lives to rush to Qin Family Village.

"I guess you're all my uncle's college classmates, right?" Yue Chuan said this with unusual calmness, pointing to the chrysanthemum terrace on the slope. "I knew people would come to see my uncle... Come on, I'll take you to the cemetery..."

The boy spoke lightly, but those simple words made the two women in front of him cover their faces and burst into tears.

Before they came, they could have hoped for the best, but when someone actually brought a basket of paper money to take them to the grave, their last bit of hope was completely destroyed—Aimin really died, right there in this remote and impoverished mountain valley.

Yue Chuan had no idea how to comfort them, or perhaps, as a minor, he was the one who needed comforting. At that moment, the boy sniffled and turned to walk towards the cemetery.

The long-haired woman wiped away her tears and followed. The short-haired pregnant woman, heavily pregnant, was about to take a step when her husband grabbed her arm. The couple argued for a few moments, then the pregnant woman suddenly snapped and slapped her husband across the face.

The man was so badly beaten that he saw stars, but he didn't dare to lose his temper. He pulled an umbrella and a canvas bag out of the car and followed the pregnant woman dejectedly.

At this moment, Yue Chuan and Chen Yun were wading through mud puddles side by side in front, followed by a hapless couple. The man held an umbrella in his left hand and protected his wife's belly with his right, looking like an old hen with its neck tucked in.

"If I'm not mistaken, your name is Qin Xiaochuan, right?" Chen Yun asked, wiping her face.

She had heard Aimin mention him several times before and knew that this nephew was his closest relative.

Logically, Yue Chuan should have been surprised, but the young man's reaction was extremely calm; he simply nodded in response.

"Can you... tell me how Aimin got into this mess?" This question had been weighing on Chen Yun's mind for far too long.

It feels better to say it out loud.

Yue Chuan didn't say anything, but just poked the old mine pit not far away with his finger.

"You mean... Aimin fell into a pit?" Chen Yun's eyes widened, her throat tightening.

This time, Yue Chuan didn't speak in riddles. His expression was blank as he sighed and said, "To save a child, the rope broke, and he fell onto a tree branch..."

This answer is very much in line with Yue Chuan's speaking habits. There are no connecting words, and it can't even form a complete sentence. Yet, with just these few words, he manages to piece together a thrilling scene in people's minds.

Chen Yun dug her nails into her palms, her gaze fixed on the bamboo basket swaying on Yue Chuan's arm. She stared at the gold and silver paper ingots, recalling the conversation she had with Ai Min that night on the agricultural university campus, and fell silent for a moment.

A few minutes later, Yue Chuan and Chen Yun arrived side by side in front of the wet grave mound.

Yue Chuan silently placed the bamboo basket next to the tombstone, while Chen Yun's attention was entirely focused on the five large characters "Tomb of Qin Aimin".

I thought she would wail and cry, but Chen Yun was like a ghost, just standing there with tears streaming down her face, her eyes fixed on a tombstone.

Heartbroken, regretful, and even somewhat resentful, Chen Yun's feelings at this moment were indescribable. She kept asking herself, "Where exactly did things go wrong?"

As a young woman, Chen Yun had already been proactive enough. She confessed her feelings twice, once at the Shangzhou Hotel and once on the campus of the Agricultural University. She pursued him so hard and was just one step away from holding hands and becoming a couple. Why did it end up like this?

She had anticipated many possible outcomes and was confident that she was prepared to face the challenges head-on. She could accept Aimin's impoverished background, his seizures, and even his lingering feelings for his ex-girlfriend. She was so strong-willed, yet she loved so humbly. Who knew that in the end, it would all be for nothing?

To support each other through thick and thin, to walk hand in hand through life, to grow old together...

What beautiful words! It's a pity the person is gone, leaving only a grave mound of red clay and a cold blue stone tombstone.

As she cried, Chen Yun suddenly burst into manic laughter, followed by a hoarse, frantic roar: "Qin Aimin! You bastard! Why did you make me a promise, and now you've ruined it all? I hate you! I really hate you!"

At this moment, Chen Yun must have recalled the scene on the campus of the Provincial Agricultural University that night, when Ai Min made a promise to her that he would reconsider their relationship after the trip to Beijing. This was why she rushed to the capital in such a hurry. She never expected that this trip would be their last.

The woman seemed to have lost her mind, but she had ample reason to be resentful. She hated the man's indecisiveness and his excessive overthinking. If Aimin had accepted her advances earlier, things might not have turned out this way.

Thinking of this, the girl punched the tombstone. She endured the pain, and the next second, she hugged the slippery tombstone and began to sob.

"If I had known it would turn out like this, I shouldn't have confessed to you, and I shouldn't have brought up that awful thing about Li Baihe getting married. If I had stopped you from coming back to this godforsaken place, you wouldn't be in this mess..."

A thousand words stuck in her throat, the woman sobbed, but no one could hear her words, no one could understand this final monologue of love...