Shi Dazhuang couldn't immediately connect the burly young man with a short, black stubble on his lip with the Yusang of years past. Back then, Yusang was a child laborer in a drug cartel's drug production workshop, working fourteen hours a day and eating only one meal a day. When Shi Dazhuang rescued him, he was as thin Monkey. Even when he saw him three years ago in Kuaziba, he was still a naive mountain village boy.
Yusang also saw the Beauty and stared wide-eyed in disbelief, exclaiming, "Wow, Beauty 've grown so tall! You've really become a stunning Beauty!"
"Is that really Yusang?!" Shi Dazhuang put down the rattan basket he was carrying and grabbed Yusang's broad shoulders. "Good lad, you've grown into a man!"
The woman beside her walked over, smiling warmly, "Is this Uncle Shi? I've often heard Yusang mention you; it's great to see you in person today!"
"And who is this...?" Shi Dazhuang, looking at Yusang.
Yusang smiled sheepishly and said, "My wife."
"Wow! You're all married!" Shi Dazhuang exclaimed in surprise.
The woman was quite generous. While getting rattan chairs for Shi Dazhuang and Yu Meiren and making tea, she said, "We got married last year, Yusang said she wanted to invite Uncle Shi to the wedding banquet. I said, 'How can you come from so far away?' But now that you're here, you're not leaving. I'll go buy some good dishes and invite Uncle Shi and Beauty to eat at home, as a belated wedding banquet!"
Shi Dazhuang was delighted and agreed, saying to Yusang, "Your wife is quite the charmer!"
Yusang just chuckled foolishly. The woman laughed and said, "Look at his clumsy and rough appearance, how could I not clean him up!"
While the woman went to buy groceries, Shi Dazhuang sat in the shop chatting with Yusang. When they talked about the changes over the past three years, Yusang became quite animated:
"Uncle, you don't know yet, do you? The road to Kuaziba has been repaired. Cars can drive all the way to that big blue stone at the mouth of the dam. Before, it took us several hours to walk through the mountains to get to Mangdian, but now it only takes a short time by motorcycle. There's also a rural bus that runs every day from the three-way intersection outside the dam, going directly to Ruihekou. The dam area is different too; every family has built a new house, much prettier than before."
Shi Dazhuang was also delighted and exclaimed, "That's wonderful!"
Yusang said, "I have to thank Uncle Yu Gang and Uncle Yu Gang. If it weren't for you, Kuaziba would still be growing poppies, and I'd still be doing illegal work in the drug factory!"
When Yu Meiren heard Yusang talk about her father, she felt both proud and sad. Her eyes reddened, and she secretly turned her face away, pretending to admire a wicker flower basket so that they wouldn't see her tears.
Shi Dazhuang said, "We have to thank the government; you were born in a great era!" Then, pointing to the rattan weaving scattered on the ground, he asked, "When did you learn to make this? How's business?"
Yusang said, "We have to thank Grandpa Enkun for this! After you left, he led everyone up the mountain to collect herbs and pick old vines. He said the mountain is full of treasures, why should only poppies make money! Grandpa Enkun Grandpa Enkun taught me how to weave rattan. He also set up a cooperative in the village, with each family investing according to the number of people in their household. This shop doesn't belong to me alone, it belongs to the cooperative. The year before last, everyone chipped in to rent the shop, and business has been pretty good. We not only sell retail, but also supply channels in Ruihekou and Baoteng, and we've even opened an online store! My wife is in charge of taking orders, and production and packaging all happen in Kuaziba. Every night, we use a tractor to haul the goods to the courier company. Now everyone is working really hard!"
Speaking of Old Enkun, Shi Dazhuang always felt a sense of indebtedness and asked, "How is Grandpa Enkun's health?"
Yusang's expression suddenly darkened, and she lowered her head, whispering, " Grandpa Enkun has already left!"
Shi Dazhuang was stunned. Yu Meiren had a bad feeling, but she wasn't sure. She opened her mouth to ask, but her throat felt like it was blocked by something, and she couldn't make a sound.
After a long pause, Shi Dazhuang finally asked, "When did this happen?"
Yusang said, "Just a month ago, I went back for the seventh day after my death. Counting the days, it hasn't even been forty-seven yet."
The air in the store suddenly froze.
Yu Meiren finally received the news she least wanted to hear. Something burst open inside her body, gushing out from her heart, stomach, and gallbladder like a flood, filling her blood and bronchi, rampaging through her body, breaking free of the foreign object blocking her throat. Some long-buried feelings, buried deep in her heart, rushed out along with a loud, sorrowful cry, shattering the frozen air and her fragile heart.
She was a strong girl. She didn't cry when her father died, nor when her mother died, nor when she was misunderstood and bullied, nor when she was far from her homeland and wandering in a foreign land. Only when her father was exonerated and his ashes were moved to the martyrs' cemetery, and the solemn music played, did her tears flow like a spring, but she held back her sobs and did not cry.
However, at this moment, when she learned that the old man she had been thinking about for the past three years was no longer alive and would never hear her call him "Grandpa Enkun" again, she finally couldn't hold back anymore. Years of grievances, loneliness, and confusion burst forth like a flood that had broken its banks, and she could no longer bear it.
When Granny Yusang returned, the little girl was still sobbing, and the cold, sorrowful atmosphere in the shop could freeze into winter frost in the summer air.
The woman shivered and asked, "What's wrong?"
Yusang pulled his wife aside and quietly recounted what had happened. The woman then complained that her husband was too blunt; how could he tell such a hurtful thing so directly to a customer who had come from afar? She took a deep breath, adjusting to the frosty atmosphere in the shop, and, as if recalling her grandmother sewing shoe soles and telling her stories when she was a child, spoke in a gentle tone:
" Grandpa Enkun is our benefactor, the benefactor of the entire Kuaziba. When everyone relied on poppies for a living, he picked up a sickle and cut down the poppy seedlings in his own yard and on the mountain; when everyone was idle and didn't know how to make a living tomorrow, he walked up the oldest mountain with his canes, brought down medicinal herbs and old vines, and taught the young people how to make a living using the things in the mountains; when the things in the mountains could not be transported out, he walked with his canes to Mangdian, to Ruihekou, from the town government to the county government, and finally brought the road construction team back to the mouth of the dam."
Grandpa Enkun passed away peacefully. In his final days, he would sit on the large blue stone at the mouth of the dam every evening, watching the Sun set and the stars rise. He said he had atoned for his sins, for the sins of Lemao and for the sins of Kuaziba. He was going to a place where there were no poppies, where Yu Meiren bloomed everywhere.
Grandpa Enkun didn't die; he just left, going to where he wanted to go. He will live forever in my and Yusang's hearts, in the hearts of everyone in Kuaziba. We too will eventually go to find that place as clear as the starry sky; Grandpa Enkun simply went ahead, guiding us there."
Yu Meiren stopped crying, raised her bright, tear-filled eyes, and asked, "Will he turn into a star?"