Lian En was stunned: Was he dead?
He kept hitting the mischievous kid who looked like him several times, but still saw no reaction from the other side. He constantly lunged at the person who, although a few years older and appeared more weathered, was undoubtedly his own father. Yet, he passed right through. The terrifying idea that he might already be dead started to flash through Lian En’s mind.
"No, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die! I’m only seven; I still want to study hard to make my parents proud and become an idol and support for my younger siblings! I haven’t achieved any of that, so I can’t just die ." Lian En cried, desperately shouting that he wanted to go back, that he didn’t want to die or worry his parents.
Unfortunately, no matter how he cried his heart out, it was of no use.
He could only follow like a ghost alongside the brat who resembled him.
He followed him back to a low and cramped two-room mud house and saw the much older-looking mother who would lovingly call that brat "Mingsi" and cherish him dearly.
Though he resented it greatly inside, Lian En still felt that obnoxious brat must be him.
The version of himself that hadn’t been strictly educated by his parents, without the guidance of Grandpa Wu and a group of exceptional teachers.
A young wildling who just learned about his origins and yearned to break away from the countryside, take up his father’s mantle, and become a highly admired military officer.
To achieve this, he didn’t hesitate to fall out with his loving mother and stepfather, calling the scoundrel and vile woman who ruined his mother’s life in the name of love his parents. He thought a great person shouldn’t get hung up on trivial things, so he deceived the scoundrel and vile, dealing falsely. Once he had money and capability, he would help his younger siblings at home. Unfortunately, the little sparrow wasn’t cunning enough for the old hawk, and he not only drove his doting mother mad with anger but also made his stepfather, who treated him better than his own son, refuse to acknowledge him. He even walked into a quagmire, constantly being lectured by his scoundrel father to make progress and schemed against by the vile woman with endless tricks.
Having suffered many losses, gradually he became wiser.
He learned to retaliate and fight back, abandoning his conscience and bottom line.
The more he had, the emptier he felt inside. He began to miss the cramped little house of Liu family village’s production team desperately. He missed the man who treated him like his own son, carrying him on his shoulder from a young age. Sweat dripping and splitting into eight petals, he would do everything to earn money to support his education through high school and university. Not for old age benefits, nor for family glory, but only to ensure that his talent and ambitions wouldn’t be wasted, an honest and simple man. He missed the man who wasn’t his biological father yet loved and cared for him more than his real dad ever would.
He missed the mother who would gently call him Mingsi, wash his clothes, cook his meals, and teach him to read and write. And those little sis and brothers who would chirpily call him brother, boasting everywhere they went that their brother was Lian Mingsi, clever and handsome, who would surely go to college someday.
He desperately wanted to return to that cramped and lowly two-room mud house.
But a massive mistake had been made, and how could it be fixed by merely regretting?
Lian En watched as that self-destructive version of himself had the money and parcels he sent back repeatedly returned. Finally, he gathered up the courage to return, only to be beaten black and blue by his hot-tempered second brother with a stick.
The hot-headed second brother said, sure!
If you could turn back time, go back to where all the harm had yet to happen, and bring back the poor yet happy family we once had.
Lian En clapped and cheered, this third-in-actual-rank second brother beneath Chenchen, was indeed sharp.
Didn’t you see the brat looked as if he’d seen a ghost after being hit with that sentence? His face was as white as a sheet, and all his energy drained out?
A fool is but a fool. Instead of saying you regret it when everything is beyond repair, wouldn’t it be better to have been cautious from the start?
Without an ounce of wit, he dared to climb the mountain and conspire with the tiger?
Ha, serves him right to get punished!
He deeply hated how that person couldn’t appreciate his blessings despite knowing it should have been himself. Lian En spared no effort in his sarcastic taunts. Watching his misfortunes only filled Lian En with joy.
Even if he later came to his senses, no longer flattering that scum. But instead used cunning tricks to ruin their reputation, ensuring they met a bad end. He then turned to business, earning money, and devoting himself to charity. Building bridges wherever he went, always hoping to do good deeds to accumulate virtue, wishing to be reborn as his mother’s and stepfather’s child. Lian En still wasn’t moved in the slightest, instead taking him as a warning.
Thinking, if he truly had a chance to live again, he would have to be cautious, cautious, and more cautious. No matter what, he must stay far away from the Dai family.
No matter if they were prospering or even if they fell to such poverty as to squeeze the whole family into two rooms with a kang bed, he could never abandon his parents and conscience for the sake of wealth and future.
One should rather take directly than seek via dishonest means.
Teacher Dong Shu said a person should be upright, principled, obtain things rightfully, and mustn’t compromise their character for fame and fortune. Otherwise, even if one achieves one’s aim by luck, it would be hard to cross the barrier inside one’s heart and obtain genuine pure happiness.
Before, he didn’t quite understand, but with this example right before him, how could one not be deeply impressed?
Seeing Lian Mingsi filled with endless regret that he couldn’t let go even in death, how could Lian En not be cautious, fearing to relive those mistakes himself?
Unaware that their son, in his grave illness, had such an encounter, Shuzhen and Lianshan diligently brewed medicine. One held the child while the other fed him, working in perfect harmony.
Unexpectedly, just as they fed a spoonful, Lian En, who wouldn’t wake and only kept fevering before, mumbled, "Bitter, so bitter."
Lianshan habitually coaxed, "Bitter medicine is good for illness; be good, son, and drink it down. Once you’re well, I’ll use our sugar coupons to buy you a big bag of White Rabbit candy. None for Chenchen and the others, just for you. Be good..."
As he spoke, Lianshan suddenly realized, "Wife, Shuzhen, just now, just now did our Lian En say that the medicine was bitter, very bitter?"
"Mm-hmm," Shuzhen nodded chokingly, yes, yes! The brat not only complained the medicine was bitter but even smacked his little lips.
"Son, son wake up, quickly wake up." Having got confirmation, Lianshan ignored whether to continue feeding the medicine, cradling Lian En while calling out to him earnestly.
He watched as his long lashes trembled like butterfly wings, and finally, the phoenix eyes that had been shut tight all night and half a day opened. Lianshan was filled with delight: "Oh, my sweet son, you finally woke up, you had your mother and me worried sick!"