Rebirth in the 50s: The Couple with the Hidden Space novel Chapter 1150

Chapter 1150: Chapter 1023: Returning to Hai City

The summer heat was intense. Even though Zhou Xiaozheng had reminded Huang Guodong to find a way to get some ice to preserve the body, by the time Zhou Jiao arrived, Grandpa Jiang had already been buried.

As for the reason, it left Zhou Jiao at a loss for words.

It was mainly because Grandpa Jiang’s household registration was still with his old work unit, and the production team leader was worried that they’d have to bring him back to the city for cremation. It was said that while he was alive, the old man had mentioned he wanted to be buried in the earth like his wife.

With the old man’s last wishes, what else could Zhou Jiao say? Hearing that the whole village had seen him off up the mountain, she brought her son and went door to door to express her thanks.

Looking at the empty courtyard, she remembered how the old man used to gaze at her kindly, smiling as he instructed her word by word... and now the person was gone and the house was empty.

Gone... this world had lost yet another kindly elder.

"My condolences."

The production team leader, her third-branch uncle, felt a bit guilty. This child had probably rushed back the moment she received the telegram, yet in the end she still hadn’t managed to see him one last time.

Condolences?

Zhou Jiao did feel a little sad, but the old man had been living alone in this world; perhaps leaving was also a form of release, perhaps now his whole family had already reunited.

"Sigh... these next couple of days, if you have time, go into the city and take care of the procedures. Now that he’s gone, the old work unit should also be notified. There’s nothing much the team needs to handle. When you go back to Beijing, I’ll have people come by from time to time to clean this courtyard."

"Thank you, third uncle."

Zhou Jiao didn’t turn down his kindness. While he was alive, the old man had already had the courtyard registered under her name, and since her family were in the army, there hadn’t been any melodramatic disputes over seizing the property.

She had originally planned to entrust the house to that former little beggar, but that child was now in the army and had become a company commander, with a bright future ahead, so there was no need anymore.

She had even considered whether to adopt a distant relative with the surname Jiang for the old man, but recalling some of the ideas he had mentioned to her before, she thought about it and decided to let it go.

Everything could only wait for people’s hearts to change, wait for when development started here in the future. They’d see how things were then and do something concrete for the old couple. For now, it was still too early.

After seeing off the production team leader and the neighbors, Zhou Jiao sat wearily in the wicker chair, looking at the cold, quiet rooms. She had no interest for the moment in going to look for the box the old man had left in the corner of his bedroom.

"Mom, you rest a bit first, I’ll go make dinner."

"You’re tired too, I’ll do it in a bit."

"It’s fine. The old granny next door gave us a few steamed buns. I’ll pick some vegetables from the backyard, cook them up and it’ll be quick."

Zhou Jiao watched the back of her grown-up son with quiet satisfaction. Once upon a time, Ping’an had been just a tiny bundle tied to her chest with a baby sling, and now he could already take the lead and start looking after her.

Time really did pass quickly—blink, and more than ten years had gone by... she still remembered how bewildered she had been when she first came to this era, and now all of that was behind her.

Ping’an didn’t have so many feelings. While picking vegetables, he was thinking about how to use this rare break to help his mom truly relax for a few days.

Now that Grandpa Jiang was gone, if they stayed any longer in the old house, with his mom’s temperament she’d inevitably brood over things. Better to use errands as an excuse and take her into the city tomorrow morning.

He still remembered that before he left, his dad had specifically told him that his job was to make his mom happy. It didn’t matter if they came back a few days later, and that if they had time, it’d be best to take her to those places in Hang City for a walk.

When he got back to the kitchen, Ping’an was speechless at the sight of his ever-busy mother. "Mom, can’t you let me wait on you just once?"

At his words, Zhou Jiao smiled faintly. "Wait till I’m old."

"Then I’ll tend the fire and you do the stir-frying."

She herself had been away in other places all year round and couldn’t possibly live there, so she directly entrusted it to Huang Guodong, telling him that if he had relatives, they could move in.

Housing in Hai City had always been tight— even a small attic room could house a family. To be honest, since all these years Huang Guodong had helped take care of the old man, Zhou Jiao truly felt there was no way to repay him.

If the old man hadn’t insisted that she was his heir, in theory the most suitable person would have been Huang Guodong. Even if he had done it out of regard for her father, Zhou Xiaozheng, his old comrade-in-arms, he had still given a lot.

After dealing with all the trivial matters that had brought them to Hai City this time, mother and son finally felt unburdened.

"Mom, I remember there’s a little restaurant on this lane. Their shrimp wontons are the best."

"When you were little, you liked their black sesame rice dumplings the most... That first time we came, I was still holding you in my arms. Your dad took a bite, and the smell had you wrinkling your little nose..."

"This place has the most authentic crab-roe buns. When you were three, you finished a whole basket in one go and still wanted more. Your dad was so scared he scooped you up and rushed out, and went to the shop opposite to buy you a mask."

"Haha, I remember—that Sun Wukong mask. My dad even tricked me, saying that if I ate too many soup dumplings and he ran out of money, they’d make me stay and be their son."

"Your dad always did love teasing you. Wait a bit, I’ll take you to He Ping Restaurant to see the lights. When you were little, you loved that big chandelier in the lobby the most. He even asked the waiter where he could buy one. Back then we were still living in our hometown, and it scared me so much I dragged him away."

"Hahaha, that’s exactly the kind of thing my dad would do. Just look at the lampshades in our three brothers’ room—he went all over the place to find those.

My dad always said, if it weren’t for so many things not fitting our national conditions, he’d want to put all the good things in the world in our room..."

The Bund, He Ping Restaurant, City God Temple... these places where Ping’an had been in his childhood, Zhou Jiao, carrying her memories, led her son on a slow wander.

With her child by her side, the sorrow in her heart lessened somewhat. Birth, old age, sickness, and death—she had to accept this natural law. One day, she too would leave her children.

She only hoped that these memories could remain in her children’s hearts, so they would know that no matter how unpredictable the world was, they were always the treasures in their parents’ eyes.