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On the way down the mountain, the wind picked up.

Dead leaves rolled on the stone steps, and the smell of burning paper money wafted down the mountain.

Xia Yu suddenly stopped.

Zhou Ding then paused: "What's wrong?"

Xia Yu glanced towards the top of the mountain, and said in a low voice, "I want to find out."

Zhou Ding asked: "Find out what?"

Xia Yu didn't explain, he looked away and continued to walk down: "Let's go down the mountain first, I want to talk to my sister-in-law later, I have some questions to ask her."

"I'll wait for you in the car." Zhou Ding avoided consciously.

"it is good."

Down the mountain, the two separated.

Zhou Ding returned to the car first, while Xia Yu stood by the entrance of the stone staircase and waited.

He put his hands in his pockets, his expression slightly condensed.

The wind blew across his cheeks, and the broken hair fluttered on his forehead. He looked up at the direction of the mountain top, his thoughts mixed.

There was an endless stream of people who came to sweep the grave, and there were people going up and down the mountain.

He paid attention to the people coming down the mountain, and waited for almost half an hour before finally waiting for his sister-in-law and Xia Yi.

The sister-in-law was held by Xia Yi, her eyes were reddish, she looked as if she had cried.

She was wearing a long black dress today, and her hair was pulled up, with a hosta stuck in it, which was very different from the way she always wore long hair in the past.

When he got closer, Xia Yu noticed that his sister-in-law was wearing makeup.

I traced my eyebrows, applied light-colored lipstick, and even applied blush. The color is very light, but you can still see it if you look closely.

Did he dress up specially because he wanted to meet Xia Zhao?

Xia Yu pursed her lips, and after hesitating for a while, she still called out to them: "Sister-in-law."

When his sister-in-law looked over, he nodded to her, "Can we have a chat? I have a few questions for you."

The sister-in-law smiled: "Of course."

He said to Xia Yi again, "Go back to the car and wait for me."

Xia Yi left, leaving only the two of them.

"Go over there." Xia Yu led her sister-in-law to a relatively secluded shade.

Then turned around, looked straight at the other person, and asked without any detour, "Who is that 'person who loves him' you're talking about?"

When Xia Yu heard this sentence on the top of the mountain before, his first reaction was his parents, because he made the guess based on the condition that his sister-in-law didn't know anything.

But soon, he felt something was wrong.

Mother would never disobey father, and father specially arranged Xia Zhao's tomb on the top of the mountain, just because he didn't want to see him again.

With her father's strong and unfaltering disgust, no matter how sad her mother was, she would never dare to secretly go up the mountain to worship behind her father's back.Xia Yu had never seen her go up the mountain, but only saw her quietly recite scriptures and fold ingots when her father was not at home.

Therefore, the bouquet of flowers should not have been placed by the mother, let alone by the father.

Who would that be?

Xia Yu thought of the basketball at home with Kobe's signature, and the signature and handwriting of another man he found in Xia Zhao's book.He had carefully distinguished the signature, it was not a person's name, but more like a pseudonym. He knew that pen pals were very popular in that era.

So he asked again: "Is that the one named 'Jiangge Qiushui'?"

The sister-in-law was startled, her eyelashes trembling: "You know?"

really.

Xia Yu observed her expression and nodded: "I found it in the book in the attic."

The sister-in-law lowered her eyes slightly, and her eyes fell on the ground without focus, as if she was thinking about something.

After a while, she sighed slowly.

Seeing this reaction, Xia Yu swallowed nervously, and said in a low voice, "So, you know everything."

He clenched his hands again, and asked almost holding his breath, "When did you know? Did he, did he lie..."

"No."

The sister-in-law interrupted Xia Yu, she raised her head and looked into Xia Yu's eyes, "He didn't lie to me, I knew everything, from the beginning."

Xia Yu paused, and looked at the woman in front of her with a complicated expression.

The sister-in-law is no longer young, and there are fine lines around her eyes and lips, but these do not make her look old, but add a gentleness and demureness accumulated over the years.

In his impression, she was always quiet and soft-spoken, but at the same time she had no sense of presence. Having been together under the same roof for 20 years, Xia Yu didn't have a deep impression of her sister-in-law. There is very little communication.

After all, this was the first time they had one-on-one, face-to-face communication.

It was also this time that he took a closer look at his sister-in-law's appearance.

He also suddenly remembered what his mother had said. He remembered that his mother said that his sister-in-law used to be a cellist in a symphony orchestra and was well-known in Jiangcheng.

Also, her name is Zhao Peilu.

Xia Yu relaxed a lot, but still frowned and asked, "Why did you marry him if you knew?"

"Physical marriage." Zhao Peilu spit out two words lightly.

Seeing Xia Yu's surprised eyes, she smiled, "There's nothing wrong with it, it's okay if you know about it."

As she said that, she turned sideways, looked up at the direction of the top of the mountain, and said in a reminiscent tone, "He has someone he likes, and I also have a career I love. He doesn't want to get married, and I don't want to get married either, but in those days You know, the word filial piety is too big, most marriages are still arranged by matchmakers, and parents decide, we happen to be in the same family, neither wants to get married, and we have no way to resist, so we signed an agreement and became a fake couple."

Xia Yu's brows did not loosen: "Since it's a physical marriage, why did you give birth to Xia Yi?"

"Because I fell in love with him." Zhao Peilu's answer was direct and concise, without any concealment.

Xia Yu opened his eyes wide, showing surprise.

Zhao Peilu turned around and smiled at him: "You know what? It's not terrible for a woman to have love for a man, what's terrible is to feel pity for him. When a woman starts to pity a man, it's easy to fall headlong into it, even if Knowing that man doesn't love her, even knowing that he has other lovers, he is willing to love him like a moth flying to a flame."

Her expression was gentle, but her tone was extremely firm, "I love your brother, I love him and pity him, I really want to help him, that's why I gave birth to Xia Yi."

Xia Yu was silent for a while and asked, "He also wants a child?"

"he does not want."

Zhao Peilu's expression was very calm, "I have always slept with him separately, he has never liked me, let alone wanting a child."

"Then why..."

She interrupted Xia Yu's words: "Because your birth stimulated him."

Xia Yu was shocked.

Zhao Peilu glanced at the people around him, then walked towards the hidden woods.

After standing still, she turned around, as if she was going to have a long talk, Xia Yu followed silently, he also wanted to know what happened back then.

After confirming that there was no one around, Zhao Peilu said, "He was in a bad state of mind, and it didn't get much better after he got married. He is too good at lying about his liking, and there is another person clearly written in his eyes." Therefore, even though he married me, the relationship with your parents did not ease much after marriage. Even because your parents felt that he had treated me badly, they often blamed him, which kept him in a very low mood. state. And after you were born, his state was even worse."

How bad the details are, even after 20 years, it still seems like it happened yesterday.

"When you were still in your mother's womb, he was already taking a lot of medicine. He couldn't eat well every day, couldn't sleep well, and his spirit was not good. He also liked to hide and cry by himself."

During the day, I was like a normal person, eating and working normally, without showing any emotions, and at night, I hid and cried quietly.

There were only tears and no sound.

After crying, the eye sockets and nose are red, and the eyes are also wet. With that face, it is very pitiful.

That's when she began to pity him.

A person who is so good-looking, a person who draws so well, a person who is so gentle that he doesn't want to disturb others when he vents his emotions, but he is tortured by family and love. At first, she felt sorry and pitiful. Later, slowly, it became distressed, turned into pity.

She began to want to cheer him up, to wipe his tears when he was crying, even if it was to hand him a handkerchief.

Obviously what she dislikes the most is this kind of fragile and soft man.

But when she really met her, her heart didn't obey her orders, and she became completely soft within a few months. She even wondered if she had been aroused by her mother's love.

"I really want to help him, but I don't know how to help."

Zhao Peilu smiled, "I even wanted to help him contact that man, be their liaison, cover them, and help them meet, but I didn't expect that man to be sent abroad by his family, so I couldn't be contacted at all. Then you were born again..."

Xia Yu lowered her eyes.

Zhao Peilu sighed softly: "Before you were born, he was your parents' first and only child. He was raised in the palm of his hand since he was a child, and has been going smoothly. The only hardship he suffered was in studying and drawing. In the end, everything turned upside down suddenly, not to mention being beaten by a mandarin duck, and being rejected by the closest relatives. No one can accept this kind of gap, and your parents are also very murderous. They are so old, and they are trying to regenerate You can imagine how much it hurt him. So I thought at that time, I can't help him emotionally, it's better to help him maintain the family relationship. Since your parents want him to be a 'normal person' so much, If I want to see him get married and have children, then I will give him a child."

Hearing this, Xia Yu frowned, but he restrained himself from speaking.

Zhao Peilu looked at him and said, "I know what you want to say, but you don't know the situation at that time. The first reason I had a child was to make your parents happy and to treat your brother better for the child's sake." One is that I found that I was tempted by him, and I had the idea of ​​living a good life with him, and the most important thing is..."

She breathed out softly, "I'm afraid he will die."

"His condition was so bad that he couldn't even take medicine anymore. He was in a trance all day long, and he was always sick with fever. I was afraid that one day I would come back from the orchestra and he would be gone. So I wanted to give him Give birth to a child, hold him, trip him, and give him some motivation to live."

"After having Xia Yi, the atmosphere at home has indeed eased a lot, and he has indeed cheered up. His body and spirit are getting better day by day."

Xia Yu said abruptly: "Will he agree to have a baby with you?"

Zhao Peilu gave him a helpless look: "You are as sharp as your brother."

Xia Yu asked: "So?"

Zhao Peilu didn't evade, and said directly: "I did a test tube."

Xia Yu frowned tightly, even though she felt that she had crossed the line, she still asked, "Will he cooperate?"

Zhao Peilu didn't start: "He's in a daze, what does he know?"

Xia Yu was silent for a while.

He blinked, and was suddenly in a daze, as if he saw Xia Zhao who was crying and kissing the baby's forehead, letting go of all the past in his heart, and decided to be a "normal person" and live a "normal" life.

After a while, he asked, "But why did he still commit suicide?"

Didn't you cheer up?Didn't the relationship with parents ease?Isn't there hope?

Zhao Peilu said, "That man has returned to China."

Xia Yu: "..."

"That man was watched very strictly by his family, and he sneaked back home. He wanted to give up everything and run away with Xia Zhao, but when he came back, he found that Xia Zhao was not only married but also had a child, so he yelled at him, thinking that Xia Zhao was betrayed killed him."

Zhao Pielu lowered his head and smiled helplessly, "He finally got better, that man came back and gave him a fatal blow, and after that he got better again, thinking that everything he did was wrong, that he Sorry to anyone..."

Speaking of this, she took a deep breath, "You also know what happened later."

Xia Yu lowered her eyes and said nothing.

Zhao Peilu also looked away and didn't say anything more.

Both stood silent, each lost in his own thoughts.

The wind blows the dead leaves past the feet, and the number of grave-sweepers gradually decreases. The smell of incense candles on the Martyrs Mountain is blown away by the wind and fades a lot.

After a while, Xia Yu was the first to say: "Thank you for telling me this."

"If you don't ask, I won't tell, and if you ask, I won't hide it."

After a short while, Zhao Peilu had already collected her expression. She looked at Xia Yu and asked, "That was your boyfriend just now, right?"

Xia Yun hummed and nodded.

"Do you like him very much?"

Xia Yu still nodded.

Zhao Peilu raised the corners of his mouth and smiled softly: "Then let's be together, your brother will definitely bless you both."

He added, "I will help you if necessary in the future."

Xia Yu frowned slightly: "Help me?"

Zhao Peilu nodded: "If I can help, I will definitely help you."

After she finished speaking, she patted the hem of her skirt, "Is there anything else you want to ask? If not, I'll go back first."

"and many more."

Xia Yu hurriedly called to her, "What's that man's name?"

Zhao Peilu exhaled softly, "Zhong Ting."

Because they were on the way, the two walked towards the parking lot together.

As soon as he walked near the parking lot, Xia Yu saw Zhou Ding and Xia Yi standing together and chatting about something. They seemed to be having a pleasant chat with smiles on their faces. When they saw them coming, they stopped talking.

After saying goodbye to each other, both parties got into their cars.

After closing the car door, Zhou Ding started the car and asked casually, "What have you been talking about for so long?"

"Talk about my brother."

Xia Yu suddenly looked sideways at Zhou Ding and asked, "Do you think my brother and Xia Yi look alike?"

Zhou Ding turned the steering wheel: "I've only seen a photo of your brother, and I didn't see it too clearly."

"Then do you think Xia Yi and I look alike?"

"It's quite similar. Is he imitating you? His clothes are very similar to yours, and his hairstyle is the same as yours."

Xia Yu murmured: "Maybe."

"Did something happen?"

Xia Yu shook her head: "It's nothing."

He rubbed his face, took a deep breath, then looked at the time and said, "It doesn't matter, let's find a place to eat first. After eating, go to the hotel to get something, and then how about we go camping by the lake at night?"