novelzi Chapter 221
Chapter 221
In the second year after Wen Qian's departure, the two elders of the Jin Family also passed away one after another. Now, the only ones who could still be called elders were the couple from the Nisha Family.
Although Little Jin and Little Ning were no longer young, they were still children in front of their parents. The passing of their elders meant that they no longer had anyone to shelter them from life's storms.
The only consolation was that their children had grown up, and after starting their own families, they had become grandparents themselves.
Here, as some passed away, new life was born. This was perhaps the only thing that could bring them joy and hope.
Every Qingming Festival, they would visit the graves of the deceased to sweep the tombs, and they would also pay respects at their neighbors' graves.
No one knew what the deceased had become, and the living could only commemorate them with their heartfelt intentions, if only to comfort their own grief.
When they had time, they would also visit the Nisha Family to see the two elderly people from their parents' generation and listen to stories about the elders from the past.
After all, they were the only ones left who could recount those stories. An An, whenever she heard others mention her mother, always wanted them to say more, as if this was the only way to make her memories more vivid.
In early summer, An An took her child to weed the fields near the forest farm, while Yin Chuan went hunting in his area. When he returned, he didn't forget to pick some fruits for the child.
They continued their previous lifestyle, through the four seasons and three meals a day.
The place where Wen Qian had lived, that bedroom, hadn't been cleared out. Instead, it had become their daily activity room.
When they weren't out working or sleeping, both children and adults would stay in this room, reading, playing games, or doing handicrafts.
An An didn't want to clear away all traces of her mother; in fact, she would intentionally preserve them. Wen Qian's handwritten notebooks were still on the shelf, and she would still flip through them from time to time.Fiind updated novels at novelhall.com
Even in some books she occasionally browsed, she could find her mother's sharp sentences written during moments of free thought.
Now that the children were only a few years old, they naturally slept with them at night. She thought that when the children grew older and needed their own bedrooms, she would let them sleep in this room.
There was an old sewing machine by the wall, which she could still use to make clothes. There was also a very old, broken-down machine stored in the row of rooms at the back.
Grandma was like a fairy in a fairy tale, able to conjure up many things.
When An An took Qiuqiu to pay respects, Qiuqiu would lie on Wen Qian's grave, mumbling, hoping that Grandma would meet her in her dreams.
There were still old-fashioned cameras in this era, but Wen Qian hadn't left any photos for An An, so Qiuqiu had no way to see her grandmother's face.
The things in the house were later mostly made from raw materials they could access, such as clay or wood.
Those things Wen Qian initially brought from that era were now gone.
Their pressure well also became unusable later because the original plastic water pipes broke several times. After Wen Qian replaced them a few times, there were no more materials to continue supporting its use.
The iron part of the upper half of the pressure well had already decayed, and Wen Qian's replacement parts were also exhausted in the later stages.
It must be said that the things Wen Qian originally prepared indeed lasted until her departure, but the following An An's family could no longer enjoy this convenience.
The pressure well's platform was removed, and they later drew water from the well's edge to use at home, building a platform by the well and placing wooden buckets to fetch water.
The stair railings were still as Wen Qian had designed them. After years of repairs and maintenance, they largely maintained their original appearance, with expanded platforms nearby for resting.
Since Wen Qian had An An, her life began to settle like her neighbors', with storage rooms, preservation methods, and practical effectiveness.
By An An's time, there were quite a few seeds left by Wen Qian. Besides the ones they planted every year, An An also planted a bit of some less frequently grown seeds annually.
Even when seeds are preserved with the utmost care, their viability gradually decreases over time. To prevent all the seeds from becoming ineffective, An An would cultivate some seedlings.
She didn't plant everything herself. Sometimes she would give seeds to neighbors or exchange them with others at the market.
With such a vast collection of seeds, An An couldn't possibly plant them all herself, but she didn't want the seeds her mother had painstakingly preserved to lose their vitality.
As long as the seeds could continue to be passed down, An An didn't mind who actually planted them.