Rebirth: Back to before my girlfriend dropped out of school

Chapter 115 About Atonement

Tong Yusui secretly pulled him back, fearing that he would be cheated by a liar.

The woman suddenly became angry and turned around to lean against the wall on the other side.

Seeing this, Xia Zhuomian quickly pulled Tong Yusui away and explained, "That old woman is not a liar."

"How do you know?" Tong Yusui felt that Xia Zhuomian should be more vigilant. They had just come out of the temple when someone started talking to them. Maybe it was someone selling things.

"Oh my." Xia Zhuomian immediately corrected Tong Yusui's behavior, "Don't think the worst of her. Besides, I only stopped her because I thought she wanted to tell me something."

Xia Zhuomian didn't know how to describe this feeling. He felt the old man's desire to talk and the heavy story in his eyes.

Seeing that Tong Yusui was also a little angry, he immediately smoothed over her, "I know you care about me, but I'm not a fool. You can't fool me with ordinary tricks. Besides, don't I still have you here? You can definitely tell if she's a liar, right?"

I have to admit that Tong Yusui also likes to hear nice words. She suddenly stopped being angry and pulled him back. It was just a talk, it was nothing.

Xia Zhuomian looked around and happened to hear that someone was selling sweet tea, so she went to buy her a bowl of sweet tea. The woman's mood brightened up as she drank the sweet tea. She looked at Xia Zhuomian and she was very happy, and tears seemed to be shining in her eyes.

"Okay, okay, okay." She said okay three times in a row.

Xia Zhuomian sat next to the woman and asked her, "Do you sit here every day?"

The woman drank some sweet tea, basked in the sun, and closed her eyes comfortably. She replied naturally, "I'll sit here until no one comes to shoo me away."

"Why?" Xia Zhuomian asked her with his head tilted.

When the woman heard this, she paused for a second, looked at him, and moved her hands slightly. She said, "You look a lot like my grandson."

It was a common deceptive trick, and Tong Yusui became alert instantly.

The woman seemed to see it out of the corner of her eye, but she still ignored it.

Then he continued to tell his story slowly, "I have been waiting here for three years, ever since my grandson fell ill. At first, I was hoping for a turnaround, hoping that Buddha would bless him and he would be cured. But then my grandson died, so I prayed to Buddha to set his soul free and let him be reborn into a good family in his next life."

As she spoke, she suddenly lowered her head, her hands holding the bowl trembling slightly, "Our family is not good, we are the ones who let him down."

She wiped away her tears and raised her head, wrinkles forming at the corners of her eyes as she looked at Xia Zhuomian with loving eyes. "My grandson is a lot like you. He loves to laugh, and when he laughs his eyes are like stars. Every day when he goes out, he calls out, 'Grandma, I'm out.' And when he comes back, he calls out again, 'Grandma, I'm back.' It makes everyone happy to hear that."

"His mother passed away early, and his father was a good-for-nothing. He ran away when he was just born, and there has been no news from him for so many years. I really hope he died out there." Speaking of her son, the woman was very resentful and felt like gritting her teeth.

She finished her last sip of sweet tea and continued, "For over a decade, my grandson and I have depended on each other for survival. Our family wasn't well off, and I didn't have many skills, so I just swept the streets selling sweet tea to supplement our income." She held up the sweet tea in her hand, extremely proud, "This sweet tea isn't as good as the one I make. My grandson loves my sweet tea the most. I haven't made sweet tea since he passed away."

"The family doesn't have much money, but the child is very sensible. Every time I give him money for school, he always refuses, saying "enough is enough". Every time I give him money, he thinks it's too much and insists on giving it back."

"I wish I had paid more attention to him back then." The woman pounded her chest bitterly as she spoke of this, her voice choking. "I kept praising my child for being sensible because of this, but I didn't realize his little money wasn't even enough for food. So every day he had to run errands at school and get bullied, and he had to ask for leftovers from the cafeteria. Later, he fell ill but didn't dare tell me until he collapsed at school. By then, it was too late."

"The doctor said that eating leftovers all the time is bad for your health, and that the food in that cafeteria isn't good in itself. Only then did I know, only then did I know the cause of his illness, but my grandson didn't know. When he died, he was still saying, 'Grandma, I'm sorry, I've caused you trouble again.' I, I... Hearing that, my heart ached." She prostrated herself on the cold ground, sobbing. "It's all my fault, I'm guilty... I confessed to the Buddha, saying, 'Take my life if you want, give me back my grandson.' But the Buddha didn't respond. Perhaps he just wanted me to feel regret. So I'm going to stay here, I'm going to repent, until the Buddha takes my life back."

Xia Zhuomian couldn't help but feel sad. He helped the woman up, tears welling up in his eyes. Even Tong Yusui stopped talking.

"I'm sorry for your loss." All the words he said were in vain, and language became especially pale at this moment. Xia Zhuomian didn't know how to comfort this heartbroken old woman, and could only wait quietly for her to calm down.

After a long while, she finally calmed down, wiped her tears, straightened her hair with her hands, and forced a smile, "Did I talk too much?"

"How could that be?" Xia Zhuomian quickly shook his head.

After a while, the two men left a few hundred yuan for the old man before leaving.

Before they could get far, they were stopped by someone who had noticed them and asked, "Do you want some souvenirs?"

Xia Zhuomian waved his hand, "No need."

"Hey, that old woman is also a swindler."

Xia Zhuomian stopped in his tracks instantly. It was impossible. The old man's sadness didn't seem fake.

Seeing his expression, the souvenir seller immediately explained, "She wasn't lying. Her grandson died, and she felt she was responsible for his death, so she didn't dare to enter the temple and could only guard outside. But with no one at home and no work, how could she have any source of income? She relied on the sympathy of tourists. I saw her back then. She had been squatting here for half a year, and her last savings were gone, but she still refused to leave. She was so thin and dry that she almost died. Later, she told the tourists the story of her grandson, and the tourists softened their hearts, bought her a lot of food, and left her money. That's how she was able to continue living. Otherwise, why do you think her Mandarin is so good?"

Yes, the people here speak very poor Mandarin. Once they asked the locals for directions but couldn’t understand what they were saying at all. Finally they asked a nearby vendor for directions.

The old woman's Mandarin is indeed ridiculously good.

Xia Zhuomian was a little angry, thinking that she was using her dead grandson to make money, but Tong Yusui looked calm, not only was he not angry, he also tried to persuade Xia Zhuomian.

"The old woman was dying at the time. Perhaps she just wanted to tell others her grandson's story so that more people would know about him and express her regret. The money the tourist gave her was a windfall, but she didn't demand it. She was just a storyteller. Over the past three years, as many people heard this story as got to know her grandson. Perhaps this was her true purpose."

She may have given up hope. Living on the help of tourists every day is actually not stable. She did not glorify herself in her words. She even wanted everyone to know that it was her fault that killed her grandson. This may also be a punishment for herself.