The rain was still falling. Luo Zhengjun and Lin Shuxing had not returned yet. Lin Shuyue held her computer and watched the documentary that had been edited long ago over and over again. After making sure that there was nothing wrong, she sent it to the mailbox of the National Television News Department.
After doing all this, she opened Penguin, found Wu Dongyan's message box, and chatted with her.
Wu Dongyan is currently in a hotel in Yangcheng.
She arrived in Yangcheng by bus around 6 or 7 in the afternoon. She had a meal with her local police friends in Yangcheng and returned to the hotel not long ago.
Typing was too tiring, Wu Dongyan was impatient to type, so she simply called Lin Shuyue directly.
"As you suspected, Zhu Xianjun used to work in a cloth shop in Guangzhou, as did Liu Xiaojuan's father. The Zhu family has heirlooms, and Liu Xiaojuan reportedly received a generous dowry when she married. I suspect those so-called 'heirlooms' and dowry came from that cloth shop."
"Have you found the owner of the cloth shop in Guangzhou?" The information Wu Dongyan got from her visit was similar to what Lin Shuyue had guessed.
She guessed that Fan Damei, if nothing unexpected happened, was the descendant of the cloth shop.
"That was in the 1950s, more than 50 years ago. Guangzhou has changed a lot over the years. There were countless cloth shops in Guangzhou back then. We need to look carefully for one."
The implication was that there was no news for the time being. Wu Dongyan was very patient. She had taken a week's annual leave this year, which gave her time to look for it.
Lin Shuyue wished her all the best, and Wu Dongyan asked Lin Shuyue to observe Fan Damei more.
Lin Shuyue thought of Xing Yueya who couldn't even speak clearly now, and agreed.
Early the next morning, Lin Shuyue drove to the hot spring resort. She came there on her own and also on the orders of her mother.
Lou Fengqin was worried that her aunt Lou and grandmother didn't bring any clothes, and the temperature would drop suddenly, so she was afraid they would be cold.
This was exactly what Lin Shuyue wanted. When she arrived at the hot spring resort, her grandmother was playing mahjong with others in the activity room. The kind where winnings and losses were ten cents. Even if the winnings were big, even if they doubled, they would not reach fifty cents.
Her aunt doesn't know how to play mahjong, so she just sits on the side and watches without making any noise. If her grandmother needs anything, she will do it for her before she even asks.
The old people at the card table could no longer hide their envy of her.
"Sister Lu, you are so blessed." Her grandmother's family, known as Old Man Li, was particularly envious.
"Yes, it's my blessing to have Ailan." Her grandmother's surname is Lu, and her name is Lu Xiangcao.
After arriving at the sanatorium, everyone called each other by their names, which was definitely a very rare thing for Lu Xiangcao.
You should know that since she married into the Lou family, few people called her by her real name, and most people called her by her generation.
She felt that her grandchildren might have forgotten her name.
After hearing what Old Man Li said, Lu Xiangcao also felt that she was blessed, so she was particularly content. Having a daughter-in-law like this in her old age was really a blessing from her previous life.
She lived a comfortable life in her later years, her son and daughter-in-law were filial, and her daughter had a rough life in her early years but is fine now. Lu Xiangcao felt that she really had nothing to regret in her life.
So she didn't care about her second son's unfilial behavior and the troubles that her second daughter-in-law had with her every now and then.
"Grandma, are you playing mahjong?" Lin Shuyue walked in carrying clothes.
"We were playing mahjong. Why are you here?" Lu Xiangcao was also very happy to see Lin Shuyue.
She was very kind to all her grandchildren, and Lin Shuyue was no exception. In her memory, every time she went to her grandmother's house, she would always receive pocket money secretly given by her.
"Isn't the temperature dropping? My mom is worried about you and my aunt, so she asked me to bring you some clothes."
As she spoke, the aunt had already taken the things from Lin Shuyue's hand.
Lin Shuyue's words made the elderly people present envious again. They had lived in the nursing home for a long time, and no matter whether the weather was sunny or cold, their children and grandchildren had never given them anything.
"Sister Lu, you've educated your children so well."
"Yes, I lived in Yunzhou Sanatorium for more than three years. My son and daughter never came to see me unless they asked me to spend money." An old lady wearing black clothes with gold peony flowers printed on them, who was next to Lu Xiangcao's room, said.
Her hair was permed and the ends were slightly curled. Lin Shuyue heard her grandmother call her Jinxiang.
When Lin Shuyue heard that she had lived in Yunzhou Nursing Home for three years, she immediately became interested: "Grandma, you used to be in Yunzhou Nursing Home too? I heard from my grandmother's housekeeper yesterday that they hired a very good nurse from Yunzhou Nursing Home."
"You're talking about Xiao Fan, right?" Grandma Jinxiang said, her face fully understanding. "Xiao Fan is the best nurse at Yunzhou Nursing Home. There's a long queue of people waiting for her to take care of them."
"But my coming here has nothing to do with Xiao Fan. Yunzhou Nursing Home was fine a few years ago, but in the past two years, there have been too many advertisements and too many people have been admitted, including the elderly and children."
"I have migraines and I'm afraid of noise, so when I saw they were still accepting people, even asking two people to share a room, I ran away."
"Although this villa was just built, it has a good environment, not many people, and is large. I quite like it here." Jin Xiang is very satisfied with the hot spring resort. When talking about the two sanatoriums, she couldn't help but compare them more.
"When I was in Yunzhou, I ate three meals a day, but most of the snacks there were bought from outside, like steamed buns and mantou. I don't like them very much. I prefer lighter food. I've lived here for two months, and I've never felt bad about this afternoon snack."
"Although there are steamed buns, they are all made in the kitchen. You can tell whether they are good or fresh at a glance."
Grandma Jinxiang's words were recognized by everyone, and everyone talked about their good impressions of the hot spring resort.
A nurse brought tea, which was brewed according to each person's physical condition and taste. Lu Xiangcao's was chrysanthemum and monk fruit.
These past two days, she always felt a little uncomfortable in her throat after waking up. After her aunt told the housekeeper about this, she changed her tea to Luo Han Guo tea.
After they finished chatting, Lin Shuyue asked about Xing Yueya seemingly unintentionally.
"I heard that the elderly person that Caregiver Fan is caring for also came here with her? Her family also agreed?"
Jinxiang and her friends had finished a game of mahjong. They pushed the cards aside and started building the Great Wall again.
"Yeah, Xing Yueya, everyone knows her. When she was young, she joined the army and became a member of the art troupe. She was the lead dancer at the time, and there were tons of men who liked her."
"She ended up marrying a regiment leader at the time. He later retired and joined the transportation system. By the time her husband retired, he was already the top official in Guangzhou's transportation system."
"Her husband had been gone for two or three years. A year after he died, she had a stroke. After spending two years in the hospital, she went into a nursing home."
"How do you know so clearly?" asked Lu Xiangcao's boss, Old Man Li.
"What a coincidence, isn't it? My short-lived man and her man are from the same system. She and I are old acquaintances, but we don't like each other." Grandma Jinxiang was in high spirits today. It was rare for her to have a girl as old as Lin Shuyue in front of her. Once she started talking, she couldn't stop.
"Xing Yueya is a proud woman who looks down on others and is a bit ungrateful. Sometimes she does things wrong, like when she was growing vegetables in the family compound, she couldn't grow them well. She refused to learn even when others taught her, and even accused them of pretending to know."
"No one wants to be around her anymore. She never had many friends, and people always talk about her behind her back."
Lin Shuyue took a sip of tea and asked, "Has she never had any friends?"
"Not really. I heard that she had a friend when she was in the art troupe. It is said that the girl lived in the same dormitory with her and they were inseparable. She spoke rudely and did rude things, but the girl didn't say anything."
"But later on, the girl was unlucky. When she was out one day, she was dragged away by a gangster, who also reported the incident to the army."
"It was only the 1960s, when the importance of gender separation was at its highest. Once her story came to light, it had a huge impact on her work and life."
"That girl lost her chance to be the lead dancer, and because of her conduct, she couldn't stay in the army. It's said that she married the thug who forced her to do that."
After Grandma Jinxiang finished speaking, she lowered her voice, "I heard that girl was more talented than Xing Yueya in both dancing talent and popularity. The lead dancer position was originally intended for her. But after something happened to her, Xing Yueya got the chance."
"And that man Xing Yueya, it was said that the army leader was planning to introduce that girl to him, but after this incident, it was Xing Yueya who was chosen instead."
Grandma Jinxiang's voice was quite loud, and since it was the activity time, Fan Damei pushed Xing Yueya over as well. They just happened to hear the second half of Grandma Jinxiang's story.
Lin Shuyue was sitting facing the door, and she saw anger, unwillingness, and guilt flash across Xing Yueya's face.
Looking at Fan Damei again, she lowered her head and hid all the emotions in her eyes as early as when Grandma Jinxiang talked about Xing Yueya's young friend.
Lin Shuyue retracted her gaze: "Grandma, do you know the name of that girl?"
"Yes, her name is Fan Hongzhuang. Because it's a unique name, I remembered it the first time I heard it. Speaking of which, Fan Hongzhuang had a hard life. In her early years, her family background was not good. She was the daughter of the Shengyuan Cloth Shop in Yangcheng. During the land reform years, her family was classified as rich peasants."
"Her aunt remarried and took her with her. She used a lot of connections to get her into the army and into the art troupe. She thought her fate could be changed, but then something like that happened again."
"According to my husband, many people in the army wanted to beat up that thug. She herself died young. She passed away a few years after giving birth to her daughter."