Unfilial

"Oh dear, I heard that the eldest son of the Jiang Family suddenly ran back and then committed suicide!"

"Damn, these young people, young people these days are all too fragile."

"Yes, unlike our older generation. Our older generation was so resilient; they could endure any hardship. Now young people commit suicide at the drop of a hat—"

Jiang Si, who was squatting nearby, glanced at the two old men chatting.

"Where's the resilience? Kuku drank paraquat until production stopped—that's the resilience of the older generation."

Jiang Si sighed beside her, "What a waste of such a good herbicide."

The two elderly men who were playing chess looked at Jiang Si but didn't recognize him—after all, Jiang Si had an accident at that time and had been staying in the hospital, and was later taken away by Lu Ya.

The neighbors weren't particularly close, and not all of them knew him.

"You silly child."

"How dare you talk like that—don't you think we old folks can endure hardship like young people?"

Jiang Si stood up and patted her legs. "Paraquat is really bitter. They must have a knack for eating it."

The two elderly people immediately moved the chess table away with unpleasant expressions.

Jiang Si didn't chase after them, but just watched the cars passing by on the road.

Holding in their hands the Miracle Seed.

After removing his heart, he retrieved the Miracle Seed, but was unable to transform.

The purple Miracle Seed has dimmed.

I touched my chest; my heart was still beating, as if the heart-to-heart talk with my father in the funeral hall was nothing but an illusion.

He didn't stay there long.

He had no interest in wasting time with the police or discussing the inheritance with his brother again.

It's unlikely we'll be targeted anytime soon, since there's no Senior Colonel Chu here to launch a sneak attack. Reporting it to higher authorities would probably take quite a while.

There was still plenty of time, so Jiang Si wasn't in a hurry.

After leaving the park, he stopped by the school for a quick look.

The school has added several new buildings, and the railings, gates, and even the playground have been renovated.

When they arrived, the school security guards instinctively came over to shoo them away, but then looked puzzled when they saw Jiang Si.

" Jiang Si?"

He looked up at the rather old security guard, thought for a moment, but couldn't remember who he was.

"Oh my, it really is Jiang Si! You haven't changed at all!"

They were rambling on and on, as if they wanted to talk about something.

But when the school bell rang, the security guard just waved his hand and said, "Be careful, don't get hit by a car again."

He didn't intend to stay at the school for long; after leaving, he went to the place where he had the car accident.

The alley is gone; it has been completely renovated into a main road.

The houses on both sides were demolished; it's unclear how much compensation those people will receive.

Jiang Si didn't linger long. Following his brother's instructions, he crossed the streets, roads, and market.

Some things haven't changed, but overall, quite a few things have changed.

The place where I was born and raised has ultimately become a strange city.

We're a bit early.

He thought.

It was more rushed than I had anticipated.

So much so that I felt somewhat tired in the face of this unfamiliarity.

The road was hard to find; the place where I used to live was remote.

Fortunately, he soon spotted the familiar alleyway.

Although he had walked through the snow back then, he could still recognize it now that the snow was gone.

Sometimes, in an unfamiliar city, you find a corner that still lingers in your memory.

It's inevitable that there will be a sense of familiarity.

He walked forward, and finally, there were people in the houses on both sides.

The sounds of snoring, conversation, the clinking of bowls and chopsticks, the crackling of the stove, and the bubbling of boiling water filled the air.

The air is filled with the smell of cooking oil that can be smelled every evening when school lets out.

Although the overall layout remains unchanged, many rooms have been renovated. When he was a child, these were dilapidated houses, or even mud houses, but now many of them are covered with brand-new tiles.

Some were even converted into two-story buildings.

The kittens and puppies strolled leisurely along the road. When Jiang Si walked by, they stood up alertly, some meowing and others running away.

He only glanced at the spot where he had thrown away the dead cat.

There are no more garbage dumps. Some flowers and plants have been planted there, and you can see butterflies and bees fluttering around. The morning glories are blooming quite profusely.

In the shop next door, the owner sat at the doorway, shelling edamame, occasionally yelling at the child playing on his phone inside, and grumbling as he told the child to come out and help.

The children reluctantly came out with their phones in hand, and the sound of gunfire from the game echoed through the alleyways.

An older woman on the second floor opened her window and threw a basin of dirty water onto the road. An older man next door shouted a couple of times, and the two started arguing.

The little girl, who was squatting by the roadside playing with the cats and dogs, looked up curiously at Jiang Si as she passed by.

He rarely paid attention to the magical girl world because he could simply fly to wherever he wanted to go.

He wasn't interested in these mundane daily matters.

However, here, where you can only walk, you can only watch these trivial daily routines and feel bored.

When we reached the end of the road, we finally saw a familiar house around a corner.

That was the room my father used as a room for alchemy.

This was also the place where the family of three lived for a long time.

My father almost died from taking the elixir, but my mother eventually softened and came back to take care of him.

Finally, the father reformed himself and cleared out all the elixirs, alchemy furnaces, and books from the house.

It was originally intended to be sold, but for some reason it ended up in the funeral hall.

But since then, Jiang Changshou has never touched alchemy again, nor has he ever mentioned cultivating immortality or seeking the Dao.

The family of three gradually got back on track.

This once dilapidated alchemy room has actually been renovated and is no longer so shabby and unsightly. Of course, it still pales in comparison to the other houses in this alley.

When I opened the door, an unpleasant smell wafted out of the room.

The house looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a long time; there were cobwebs, dust, and plates of food with solidified grease on the table.

Then came a heavy, weary cough.

Who is it?

He stepped into the house and closed the door.

"It's me, Mom."

The coughing subsided, and after a while, the old man on the bed struggled to turn his head and glance at the scene.

His eyes were somewhat cloudy; I wonder if he could still see.

But there's no need to see it.

Upon hearing the voice, the elderly woman said tremulously, "Is it Jiang Si?"

"Um."

He tidied up the table, then pulled out a stool and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I'm back to see you, Mom."

The old man tried to sit up, but Jiang Si pressed him back down.

Lying on her side, she turned her head and reached out her somewhat withered and aged hand to touch him. "It really is Jiang Si, Jiang Si —son, what's wrong? Haven't you grown taller? Haven't you been eating properly?"

Jiang Si lowered her head, took her hand, and let her touch her face. "I'm just not grown up yet."

"Not grown up yet, that's good, not grown up yet, that's good."

She murmured, touching her son's face, and then tears streamed down her cheeks, "Mom misses you so much, son."

"Um."

Why don't you come back to see Mom?

"I will in the future."

"From now on, Mom won't be able to see anymore----"

"Yes, we will." Jiang Si said simply, "We will see."

"Well----"

The confused old man couldn't understand what he was saying, and only mumbled in agreement.

He started mumbling incoherently again, saying things that Jiang Si couldn't quite understand, his voice growing softer and softer.

Until it turned into snoring.

The old man wasn't in good physical condition; he seemed tired just from talking.

When his mother drifted off to sleep, he got up, went outside, found a basin, and boiled water.

Then we cleaned the old man's body of the filth and changed the sheets.

The elderly person with limited mobility was unable to get out of bed and was also unable to control their urination and defecation.

He remembered his childhood, after his grandfather passed away, his grandmother lived in his house.

Grandma was getting old then, and sometimes she wouldn't be careful at night and would wet the bed.

Then, when I got up during the day, I didn't dare to get up. I just covered myself with the blanket, as if I wanted to dry myself off.

At that time, he looked at his grandmother clutching the bedding tightly, her face filled with helplessness and timidity, and he felt completely bewildered.

Her mother just smiled and changed her clothes, bedding, and sheets, saying it was alright, and that's how we all grew up, wasn't it?

It's just a cycle that repeats itself.

After changing the sheets and blankets, and cleaning up, my mother changed into a new set of clothes.

He laid his mother down on the bed, covered her with blankets, and quietly looked at her aged, wrinkled face.

Not long ago, I saw my mother as a young woman in my memories, but now she is old and frail.

While his mother was sleeping, he searched the kitchen again and found some rice left. There was no refrigerator in the house, and all the vegetables had gone bad.

So I went out to the store and got some vegetables and snacks.

There was a considerable amount of money given as a gift at the funeral, and he took some with him when he left, since he would eventually need the money.

After preparing the hot porridge, along with some snacks and pickled vegetables, I brought it over. My mother was already awake.

"Son, are you still there?"

"I am here."

Jiang Si sat back down beside her, picked up the porridge, blew on it, and said, "Have something to eat."

"Mom isn't hungry."

"Eat something even if you're not hungry."

"Oh." The old man, like a child, obediently opened his mouth and ate the hot porridge his son fed him. "You, have you cleaned the bed? Don't do these things—"

"Smoothly."

"The bed is too dirty."

"Good."

As she ate, her mother started crying again, "Mom, I'm sorry."

"Are you getting senile?" Jiang Si frowned. "Eat properly and sleep well."

"Mom thought you might not be able to get up, so she had another child, and that's how your little brother came to be—"

What's the problem?

"Later, while you were in the hospital, Lu Ya took care of you the whole time, so Mom rarely visited you anymore. She was focused on taking care of your younger brother. Eventually, all her attention was on him, and she didn't even know you and Lu Ya had left the hospital—"

Jiang Si didn't know what she was apologizing for, and was just speechless. "Let's eat."

The mother lowered her head and choked out, "I won't take good care of you, so don't worry about me anymore."

3

He said while feeding the child, "Stop talking nonsense."

He has plenty of time; a little more won't make a difference.

Taking care of his mother was just a matter of course for him.

I cleaned the house, took out the trash, helped my mother wash up, and listened to her rambling about my younger brother.

Jiang Si wasn't really interested, but she figured she could let the old lady talk.

The next day, Jiang Si bought a commode specifically for the elderly, which made it much more convenient to use the toilet right next to the bed.

At one point, he ran out of money, so he went to his younger brother for help.

I brought some money back.

This unfamiliar younger brother yelled at him, complaining that his parents, who were still alive, didn't come to take care of him, but now that they were dead, they came to steal his inheritance. Not only did they not help with his father's funeral, they also came to disrupt it.

They're utterly beasts.

Jiang Si ignored him, after all, blood ties are a thing.

A relationship that has never involved the person is nothing but meaningless trash.

He was just taking his own money.

This younger brother was getting in the way, so I just slapped him. It wasn't a big deal.

I bought some food, some clothes that my mother used to like, and a coat for myself. My mom used to be so annoying when I was little; she always liked to make Jiang Si wear new clothes for her to see. She probably enjoyed this kind of trivial thing.

Sure enough, when we got back, after I changed my coat, my mother's cloudy eyes lit up.

She even sat up energetically, touched his face, and said, "My son is so handsome."

Every time she finishes changing clothes, she only says this one sentence over and over again.

I can only say that my mom isn't very educated; she doesn't read many books, not just online novels.

Days passed by like this, and it seemed like my mother had endless things to say.

She told him about a dream she had of Jiang Si, in which Jiang Si committed suicide, and how waking up gave her a fright; she also told him about her promise to Lu Ya that she would let Jiang Si marry Lu Ya and make Lu Ya a daughter-in-law of the Jiang Family.

Then he talked about his father's regrets before he died, regretting that he had ruined his health by practicing alchemy.

Speaking of that younger brother, he changed after starting his own family. Neither his father nor his mother wanted to take care of him anymore.

Although the younger brother doesn't say anything, his wife and her family all have a lot of complaints about their parents here.

The old man sighed, saying that he hadn't given enough dowry back then, and he couldn't hold his head up high. Even though they lived together, he was constantly looked down upon.

After her father died, her mother lived in the other house in great pain and loneliness, and she missed the house she used to live in.

Perhaps she wasn't actually missing her old house; she just simply missed home.

But after her father died, her mother had no home anymore.

So she returned here and lived alone, never bothering her younger brother again, and he never came to see her again.

The elderly person didn't want to trouble the children, and the children genuinely felt that the elderly person was a burden.

But at least a funeral will be held.

Is that enough?

Even if it might take several years.

Jiang Si would occasionally respond to her mother's nagging, but sometimes she wouldn't feel like responding and would just listen quietly.

The old man's health deteriorated, and in the end, he spoke less and less.

I saw a doctor, and it turned out to be nothing serious, just simple organ aging and my body's functions gradually reaching their limit.

Sometimes, Jiang Si would sit in the room, watching her all day without saying a word; the only sound in the room was her breathing.

I still wash myself and clean up after myself as usual, but even though I bought a toilet seat, sometimes I still can't manage at night.

Listen quietly to her breathing, which gradually weakens.

"My son."

One day, his mother suddenly woke up and grabbed his hand tightly. Her withered palm even hurt Jiang Si a little. "Mom, Mom wants to go up the mountain, to see the sea, is that okay? If not, then forget it."

He was breathing heavily after saying just one sentence.

Jiang Si simply picked her up and said, "Let's go."

It's not very far; there's a mountain just outside the city, and across the mountain is the sea.

My mother used to say that whenever we had time, we should go to the mountains to see the sea.

But in the end, Jiang Si never actually went with her mother.

Because I'm always busy, I never have time.

This delay has dragged on until now.

After taking a car down the mountain, I bought a wheelchair at a nearby shop.

However, it was impossible to push the wheelchair up, so Jiang Si carried her mother in one arm and lifted the wheelchair with the other to climb up.

It started snowing when I got to the road.

He recalled the time when his mother carried him out of his father's alchemy room, laughing and joking, and even sang him a song.

As Jiang Si reminisced, she began humming a song from that time.

My mother only wakes up occasionally; she remains in a coma most of the time.

Jiang Si carried her and dragged the wheelchair up the mountainside when her mother suddenly woke up, gave a hoarse, aged laugh, and said, "Oh dear, why does this snow keep getting into my son's neck?"

Perhaps it was because she had come out for some fresh air, but my mother's speech became much more fluent.

"Son, stop carrying me, carry Mom on your back."

Jiang Si said "Oh," and although she didn't understand what the old lady was fussing about, she changed it so that the old lady liked it and carried it on her back.

"Mom will shield you from the snow, hehe----"

For some reason, the mother started laughing to herself.

Jiang Si couldn't help but smile.

The mountain wasn't very high, only about a thousand meters. Carrying my mother up the mountain wasn't too tiring. On a snowy day, there weren't many people on the mountain path, and when we reached the top, there was almost no one there.

Suddenly, the view opened up, and the vast sky stretched out before us, dotted with snowflakes, while several eagles circled and cried out in the air.

Behind the mountain lies the surging sea, churning amidst the snowflakes, its roar echoing through the mountains, melodious and ethereal.

Looking down, the world is magnificent and beautiful.

Jiang Si had just placed the wheelchair when she heard her mother, who had always been in poor health, also cry out along with the eagle.

Jiang Si was stunned for a moment.

"Haha, son, you should shout too. Go to the top of the mountain and shout, it feels good."

The wind was strong, and her mother was speaking with great effort. Jiang Si called out as she placed her mother in the wheelchair.

"Your voice is too soft, even quieter than your mom's."

The mother laughed like a child.

Jiang Si simply nodded, pushed the wheelchair, and walked to the other side of the mountaintop.

The mother gazed absently at the surging sea below the mountain, watching the swirling snowflakes weave a white silken tapestry across the sky and earth.

It was like a grand funeral, with wreaths and mourning banners covering the entire mountainside.

"My son."

The mother's lips twitched, and saliva involuntarily dripped from them. She shifted her body slightly. "Are you cold?"

"It's not cold."

As she spoke, Jiang Si took off her newly bought coat and covered her mother with it, then wiped away her drool.

The mother tremblingly reached out her hand, extending it beyond the mountain peak.

Below was the surging sea, and she caught the snowflakes.

Jiang Si.

"Um."

"Son."

"Um."

My little darling.

What are you doing?

"No," the mother murmured, "I just wanted to call out, 'Si'er, Xiao Si, eldest'—"

She recited all the names she used to call Jiang Si, as if they were her own treasures.

Jiang Si patiently responded to each of their questions.

"Mom, I have a dream."

"You say."

"Mom has always wanted to go to the ocean. When she was little, she loved the sea. Back then at school, when the teacher asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up, I said, 'I want to be a diver when I grow up.'" The old woman chuckled as she spoke, "Back then, everyone thought your mom was crazy."

"It's alright." Jiang Si for a moment, "The seabed is very dark and cold, which can easily lead to claustrophobia."

"I'm not afraid of that at all."

The mother said cheerfully, tugging at her clothes, "If you die, you won't be afraid."

"When Mom dies, shall we send her to the bottom of the sea, son?"

The sound of the waves crashing against the rocks below was like a roar.

"Oh."

Then the mother smiled happily, "When I saw you throw that cat away when you were little, I thought, 'My son will definitely be able to fulfill my wish someday. Only my son—'"

She murmured, her voice gradually fading.

The snow began to lessen.

"Son."

"Um."

"As Mom once said, I hope you can be my son again in your next life. I promise I'll do even better and become a more perfect mother in the next life. That's what I meant—"

"I take it back," the mother said hoarsely. "You deserve better parents, richer parents, parents who understand you better, who love you more, so you can live a happier life and grow taller, not parents like us—"

Snowflakes blown by the howling wind clung to the corners of Jiang Si's eyes as she gazed into the distance.

The dense clouds in the sky parted.

A magnificent sunset spilled out from the gaps in the clouds, the setting sun like blood, burning the clouds and causing them to churn, so much so that the sea seemed to boil.

It burst into a dazzling sea of fire.

"No need, my parents, it's enough that you're here," Jiang Si said softly. "I'm used to it."

His mother reached out and grabbed his hand. "Well, there's nothing we can do then."

"Yeah, there's nothing we can do, we're used to it," Jiang Si simply agreed. "With other people, it's not the same."

The setting sun cast its light on my mother's face, her smile a warm and happy one. "Habits are so good."

The vast, empty world gradually quieted down.

The sounds of waves and wind faded into the distance, the snowflakes stopped falling, and the cold ground began to melt.

The setting sun was slowly dragged into the sea on the horizon, and the world was falling into the abyss.

However, the sunset was still magnificent and dazzling.

"My son."

"Um."

"It's completely dark now, how are you going to get down the mountain?"

Jiang Si looked at the blazing red sky, "I can see."

"Huh? Can't Mom see?"

"No, it's just getting dark."

"I see."

Bathed in the last rays of the setting sun, high in the mountain, her mother slowly drifted off to sleep. "You must go home soon, Jiang Si. Go back to sleep early, don't stay here too long and get cold—"

He stood there, and his mother's voice began to fade away until it could no longer be heard.

My body temperature gradually dropped on the mountain, becoming as cold as the snow, and even my heartbeat stopped.

The wind howled, blowing through the mother's pale hair. Her eyes were closed, and her expression was peaceful, as if she were asleep.

Until finally, as the sun set, the world turned into an abyss.

It's getting dark.

He said.

Pushing her wheelchair, the mother, who would never wake up again, reached the edge of the mountaintop.

White foam churned up from the sea below.

"Good night."

He pushed the wheelchair down.

It plunged into the deepest part of the ocean.