Chapter 105: Accustomed to Seeing the White Sails on the Boats

Hearing these words, Xu Xinyi completely froze. Tear marks still hung on her face, but her expression instantly changed from sorrow to astonishment and embarrassment!

Great-grandmother!

What kind of words are you saying?

This, this, this... what does this have to do with anything?

This is our first time meeting! We haven't even spoken two sentences! How did it jump to "marry you"?

Moreover!

President Lin Ruoxuan, and Teacher Song Jiaru, these two are right here!

The way they look at this "Mister"—that reliance, intimacy, and faint possessiveness... anyone can see that the relationship is absolutely not simple!

What does it mean for me to stick my foot in at this time?

Being an unappreciative third party? Or an even more outrageous fourth party?

And the most, most crucial thing—

If this "Mister" is really the mentor in the ancestral hall portrait that great-grandmother talked about her whole life, calculating by time, shouldn't he be over a hundred years older than me?

Is this... is this appropriate?

Does this conform to ethics? Is this scientific?

If he isn't, then isn't he a quack swindler taking advantage of great-grandmother's dying obsession and unclear consciousness to deceive?

Then that's even more unacceptable!

Lin Ruoxuan and Song Jiaru also widened their eyes simultaneously.

The two exchanged glances, both seeing astonishment and subtle depression in each other's eyes?

No, Elder Wu!

You're not not playing by the rules here, are you?

Do you understand first come, first served!

Although on our side... mhm, although the situation is a bit complex, there has to be a basic order, right?

How can you suddenly parachute in and entrust a marriage on your deathbed like this?

Xu Yunzhou was also a face full of dumbfoundedness.

He subconsciously turned his head, looking at the female lead beside him who was suddenly "assigned a marriage"—Xu Xinyi.

Looking twenty-seven or twenty-eight, exactly the golden age when a woman sheds greenness, perfectly blending mature capability with unique charm.

Wearing a well-fitting black suit skirt, setting off her graceful and slender figure. Her temperament was cold and outstanding, carrying the sharpness and neatness unique to a financial elite.

It makes sense. For Wu Xiuyun to be selected as a "nurturing target" in her youth, she must have been peerlessly magnificent.

Her direct great-granddaughter, whether in appearance or temperament, is naturally also top-tier and outstanding.

At this moment, her face was written full of embarrassment and being at a loss what to do. Her fair cheeks even uncontrollably flushed with obvious redness, spreading all the way to the roots of her ears.

But strangely...

After the initial shock, the instant Xu Xinyi's gaze met Xu Yunzhou's, she actually... nodded at him extremely slightly?

Hmm?

Before Xu Yunzhou could think deeply, Xu Xinyi had already quickly adjusted her expression. Half-kneeling by the bed, she gently held Wu Xiuyun's thin, cold hand with both hands.

Her voice still carried an undispersed crying tone, but she tried hard to squeeze out the gentlest smile, her voice as soft as coaxing a child:

"Great-grandmother, Xinyi heard you, thank you for your arrangement. Rest assured, Xinyi will definitely be fine and won't make you worry."

She paused, her eye rims turning red again, yet forcing a smile:

"You must also get better, properly nourish your body, take your medicine on time, and listen to the doctor."

She pressed the old woman's hand against her cheek, saying softly:

"When the time comes... when your body is better and your spirits are high, you will personally be our marriage witness, okay?"

Sigh, agree to it first, let great-grandmother feel at ease.

Whether to agree for real, how to handle it, that's a matter for the future.

Can't let the old person leave with regrets and worries.

Xu Yunzhou understood her meaning. Looking at Wu Xiuyun again, a gentle smile appeared on his face:

"Xiao Yun, rest assured."

"I will help you, take good care of her."

Wu Xiuyun seemed to have understood, and also seemed to have only heard the part she wanted to hear.

She laboriously used her thin hand to gently pull Xu Yunzhou's hand and Xu Xinyi's hand together, stacking them on top of each other.

She covered her cold, trembling palm on the very top.

Like an ancient contract ritual, and also like an elder's deepest blessing and entrustment.

Then, she moved her dry, cracked lips, murmuring, spitting out a few words using an almost inaudible airy voice:

"A hundred years of good union... white hair... growing old together..."

Song Jiaru: "..."

Lin Ruoxuan: "..."

Xu Yunzhou: "Uh..."

Xu Xinyi, however, had already lowered her head, responding with the most obedient and submissive tone:

"Thank you Great-grandmother, we will remember."

Wu Xiuyun nodded laboriously, an extremely faint, extremely satisfied smile appearing on her face.

Then, her gaze focused on Xu Yunzhou's face again, full of nostalgia and a final tiny, capricious desire:

"Mister..."

Her voice was as light as a sigh:

"Sing it again... that song, for me to hear, okay?"

Xu Yunzhou:

"...??"

Fuck! Again?

A historical fill-in-the-blank question, right?

Wu Xiuyun's eyes became blurry, as if falling into distant memories:

"That year I was sixteen... in the cave... cold, scared, and hungry... feeling like I was going to die..."

"You sang that song... over and over again... telling me, don't give up, the sky will turn bright..."

"That tune... those lyrics... Xiao Yun remembered for a lifetime..."

"When cold, when scared, when in pain, when unable to go on... I would secretly hum it in my heart..."

Xu Yunzhou's brain started running at its limit at this moment.

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, mountains and rivers broken, national crisis.

A sixteen-year-old orphan girl on the verge of breaking down, needing her hope ignited.

What song would I sing to her?

"March of the Volunteers"? "Yellow River Cantata"?

Uh, majestic momentum, but the situation is wrong. That's a collective roar, not a whisper by the ear.

Something more folk-like?

Those folk songs and minor tunes circulated in the flames of war? Like "On the Taihang Mountains," "Coming in February"?

Wait...

He suddenly realized that no matter what he sang right now, in the future when he truly enters the "Wu Xiuyun instance," if he sings the same song again, what Wu Xiuyun will hear is exactly that.

Because, for the "history" that has already happened, his choice at this moment is part of the "past."

In other words—whatever he wants to sing right now is the "correct answer."

Because there is only one history, and he is the person who "writes" history.

Figuring out this joint, Xu Yunzhou's heart settled.

Looking at Wu Xiuyun's expectant eyes, he cleared his throat slightly.

In the inner room, everyone quieted down.

Lin Ruoxuan, Song Jiaru, Xu Xinyi... everyone's gaze focused on him.

Xu Yunzhou closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly opened them again.

His gaze became distant, as if penetrating time, seeing that era of raging war and broken mountains and rivers, seeing that thin, shivering young girl hiding in the dark cave.

Then, using a low voice carrying a hoarse texture like being polished by the years, he gently hummed a melody.

"

A great river has wide waves,

Wind blows, the fragrance of rice flowers reaches both shores.

My home is built on the shore,

Accustomed to hearing the boatman's chant,

Accustomed to seeing the white sails on the boats..."

(TL: Lyrics from "My Motherland", a very famous Chinese patriotic song from 1956.)

The singing voice flowed and echoed slowly in the quiet inner room.

Xu Yunzhou's singing skills were truly honed through Song Jiaru's "instance," reaching a God of Song level from the same master as Song Jiaru.

The breath of every word, the melodiousness of every transition, the use of every airy sound, all reached perfection.

There was no showing off skills, but using the most unadorned method to vividly spread the tranquil, abundant, and life-filled picture scroll in the lyrics before the listener.

That was a homeland that had never been burned by the flames of war.

That was a harvest that gunpowder smoke could not obscure.

That was the most precious and most easily snatched away daily happiness of ordinary people.

Lin Ruoxuan blanked, her eye rims instantly turning red.

Song Jiaru held her breath. As a professional, she could hear even more the terrifying control and infectiousness behind this seemingly simple humming.

Xu Xinyi and several Xu family juniors were already covered in tears.

Even the medical staff in the corner couldn't help but raise their hands to wipe the corners of their eyes.

Wu Xiuyun listened, listened.

Her murky eyes gradually closed.

But the corners of her mouth slowly hooked into an extremely shallow, extremely peaceful arc.

Her withered hand still gently held Xu Yunzhou's fingers.

As if holding the only warmth and light in that cold cave night over eighty years ago.

Tears silently slid down from the corners of her closed eyes.

The lingering charm of the singing gradually faded.

The inner room was completely silent, only the regular and steady ticking sound of the instruments, and the old woman's breathing becoming deep, even, and long.