The Healing Sunshine (一厘米的阳光)

Chapter 24.2 - The Deepest Recesses of Time (2)

Only Jǐ Yi was guessing while looking on at all of this.

When she eventually walked into the house with Jì Chengyang and they together went over to the corner of the room to offer up some sticks of incense in front of Grandaunt's portrait, Jì Chengyang at last translated for her that conversation from earlier. Grandaunt had never married during her entire lifetime. Jì Chengyang was her one and only kin, and his life in Beijing seemed quite good as well. Therefore, there really was nothing that she had been particularly worried about and could not let go of. Before she died, Grandaunt had specifically asked the village chief to serve as a witness, and she had bequeathed her house to an especially impoverished family of the village.

That family felt deep gratitude for this, and hence, they all year round kept Grandaunt's portrait here to offer up worship.

Gazing at that photograph, Jì Chengyang said, "Grandaunt, I've brought your grandniece-in-law back to see you."

Jǐ Yi, with incense sticks in her hand, was right in the middle of bowing respectfully when she heard this sentence. Her motions froze. She was stupefied.

But he was not using a joking tone. As he inserted the burning incense sticks in place, there was an indescribable feeling in Jǐ Yi, like she had entered an ancestral hall and was acknowledging her ancestors and returning to her roots... Before she could recover from her daze, liveliness was suddenly heard behind them. The well-known elders of the village had all come, many bringing along those of the younger generation with them to see this famous person. Jì Chengyang turned around and went to talk with these elders whom he in reality had already basically forgotten.

Jǐ Yi stood in front of the portrait photograph. There was a persistent feeling in her that she should say something.

She still remembered that mistaken sentence that Grandaunt had said to her when she was fourteen years old. Grandaunt had asked Jì Chengyang whether Jǐ Yi was his little wife. At the time, Jǐ Yi still had not awakened to any feelings yet, and towards Jì Chengyang, she had held none of those romantic sentiments and notions between a boy and a girl. She had merely been stunned by this question. Now, though, when she thought back on it, it was as if this was something fate had predestined for them, and the elderly woman had spoken it aloud first.

She pondered with seriousness for a very long while. Then raising the incense sticks in her hand, she bowed worshipfully once more, gently stating, "Grandaunt, we will be fine. You can set your heart at ease."

The words had just left her lips and she still wanted to add a few more, when, out of the blue, she heard Jì Chengyang's voice from behind her ask, "What will be fine?"

"Huh?" She had not noticed that he had come over. "Just that we will be safe and sound and peaceful."

"That simple?" He smiled.

"... Is there something else I should say?" This was her first time offering up incense and praying to someone who had passed on. She had no experience whatsoever in it.

Jì Chengyang pretended to muse over this. "Such as, you can tell her about any way or time that I haven't treated you well and ask her, our elder, to monitor me in the future."

Jǐ Yi was confused. "... You treat me very well."

Jì Chengyang had originally wanted to say, he clearly was the one to blame for those four years of separation. However, looking at her now, it was evident she already forgotten about this matter. He touched a hand to Jǐ Yi's hair, not saying any more.

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It seemed that every time Jì Chengyang returned, many people would come to this place. Four or five tables were actually laid out in the courtyard at dinnertime. The women were few but the men were many, and young and old all drank and ate for a very long time. Those soldiers and the driver who came along all had a military background, and drinking was the thing they were least afraid of. Still, after drinking into the very late hours of the night, they were all passed out in a state of complete intoxication.