Chapter 51 Responsibility

Chapter 51 Taking Responsibility

On the day the new ice cream was sent for pricing, Xie Xinyi unexpectedly received a reply from Xie Xinyue, postmarked from Chenjia Village.

Gu Yu handed her the letter. "The mail carrier just came by. Old Man Wang saw me and gave it directly to me."

The man had been coming to the factory to pick her up for several days straight, regular as clockwork, arriving at the guardhouse at six o'clock sharp every day. He didn't enter the workshop but sat fixedly on the chair in the guardhouse, ensuring Xie Xinyi would spot him immediately after work.

At first, Xie Xinyi thought he was relatively free after the training program, until she unintentionally overheard Zhang Xin complaining to Gu Yu about all the shifts he'd covered for the man. Only then did she realize she had misjudged a hardworking, lovesick young man.

Sister Guo was right; Gu Yu was quite clingy.

When she first married him, Xie Xinyi didn't think so. After all, Gu Yu's series of unusual behaviors at the time seemed to her to be merely fulfilling family duties.

She wasn't sure exactly when it began, but his attitude toward her gradually changed.

Xie Xinyi wasn't the kind of careless girl; after all, they had already kissed, so she couldn’t pretend it was nothing.

She wasn't some naive airhead and certainly didn't think Gu Yu's recent changes were just a sudden whim.

After all, a sudden whim is temporary, but he had been consistent toward her ever since he wised up.

Like these days, come rain or shine, he came to pick her up—even when he was scheduled to work, even when he was very busy, even knowing he'd be teased for it...

If it were before, he would have hated the idea, but now, not only did he show up punctually, but he also enjoyed it.

Xie Xinyi glanced at the man beside her, pushing his bicycle without a word.

She hadn't expected that after being on guard for so long, she would still succumb to his charm.

Ah, well, what could she do? The heavens had sent her such a handsome husband.

With such a feast for the eyes around every day, it would be strange if she could maintain her composure.

As for why the powerful figure in the original book remained chaste and avoided romance, that wasn't something for her, a transmigrator, to worry about.

Time and space had already been disrupted by her arrival, so why not let it become even more chaotic?

Xie Xinyi didn't care about all that; anyway, she had already "consumed" the man. If there were any retribution, let it find Gu Yu.

She thought clearly and didn't get hung up on trivialities.

After going home and "celebrating" the successful development of the new product with him, she finally took out Xie Xinyue's reply letter to read.

The letter was long, a full twelve pages. When Xie Xinyi first held it, she was a bit incredulous.

After all, given her relationship with Xie Xinyue, their first correspondence shouldn't have been so lengthy.

With a sense of curiosity, she opened the letter and read it carefully.

As expected, the beginning of the letter had no formal greeting but directly stated, "Letter received, situation verified," followed by a detailed account of where she had gathered the information.

Xie Xinyi was fine with this; no greeting felt more genuine than a phony "dearest second sister" or something.

After all, in the letter she sent, aside from addressing her as "big sister," the rest was all about Chen Yalan, so naturally, the reply would only discuss matters related to Chen Yalan.

Xie Xinyi found it quite normal, but Gu Yu, who took the first page of the letter after the girl finished reading, imperceptibly frowned.

Not wanting to judge the relationship between the two sisters, the man just looked down and continued reading the letter.

Page one: Xie Xinyue inquired and found that there was indeed a girl named Chen Yalan in Chenjia Village, and her age and name checked out.

Page two: She asked around and learned that before returning to the village, Chen Yalan was indeed working in logistics at the cafeteria of the Central China Military Region. This information came from Chen Yalan's aunt and should be reliable.

Page three: Regarding what illness Chen Yalan had, her aunt didn't say, only that the child had been frail since childhood and never adjusted to the local lifestyle and climate.

Page four: Xie Xinyue also asked other villagers about Chen Yalan's illness and heard various opinions. She briefly listed a few examples.

Some said Chen Yalan had tuberculosis because they often heard coughing from her courtyard.

Others said she had a terminal illness; otherwise, she wouldn't have given up such a good job and returned to this godforsaken place.

There were even rumors that she had a venereal disease, since a young girl alone outside, with her father dead early and her mother uninvolved, if bullied, could only return to her hometown.

Page five: Xie Xinyue mentioned she also heard a strange piece of news: crying sounds often came from Chen Yalan's house, but when you listened carefully, they disappeared.

This came from the neighbor next to Chen Yalan's house. Because it was so spooky and few people actually heard it, many didn't believe it.

Xie Xinyue only stated the facts without adding anything else.

However, on page six, she heard from another source that a few years ago, when Chen's mother was asked about her daughter's personal matters, she seemed to mention that Chen Yalan had found an officer in the military region, but the name was unknown.

Page seven: Xie Xinyue quietly asked around and, after some effort, found someone who claimed to be a close friend (like a sister) of Chen's mother.

According to that person, Chen Yalan and her mother never got along. The only time she wrote was to say she had found a partner in the military region and asked if her mother wanted to attend her wedding there. But not long after, Chen Yalan quit her job in the military region and returned to her hometown.

Page eight: News unintentionally heard from the Village Party Secretary: Chen Yalan had some mental issues. After returning from the military region, she hardly recognized anyone and just wandered to the village entrance every day holding a pillow, as if waiting for someone.

Her mother had been living with her second husband before, but after Chen Yalan returned to Chenjia Village, her mother also moved back.

Considering Chen Yalan's special circumstances, the village resolved her work-point quota issue. She lived on subsidies, and with her mother's work points, their life should have been manageable. However, just before Xie Xinyue wrote the letter, the Village Party Secretary had returned from inquiring about their family's debts.

Yes, the Chen family had been borrowing from the village to get by these years. The amounts weren't large, but accumulated, they were significant.

As to why they couldn't make ends meet, Xie Xinyue didn't mention it in the letter.

Page nine: Once, when Xie Xinyue passed by the Chen family's door, she seemed to really hear a child crying, but when she moved closer to listen carefully, it stopped.

She found it very uncanny.

Page ten: Among the sent-down youth, one who arrived in Chenjia Village earliest said he once saw Chen Yalan at the village entrance, seemingly saying to the pillow, "Daddy will come back to get us soon."

About this, Xie Xinyue said men aren't reliable witnesses, even worse listeners, and sometimes their imagination is more vivid than women's, so his words shouldn't be trusted.

But this was just her own view.

Page eleven: Xie Xinyue explained why she only asked these few people and couldn't inquire further from others.

Afraid that specifically asking would raise suspicion, she usually just casually brought it up in conversations, letting people volunteer the information themselves.

People are curious and love to pry; Xie Xinyue played into that tendency.

This actually earned some admiration from Xie Xinyi.

As for the last page, it had only a few short lines: one summarizing, one explaining, and one asking about her situation.

The summary: regarding Chen Yalan's matter, she could only help this much.

Xie Xinyue explained why she hadn't even sent a letter when Xie Xinyi got married: there were no buses that could get to town during those days.

She ended by briefly asking how Xie Xinyi was doing.

Xie Xinyi stared at the thick stack of stationery in front of her, remaining unsettled for quite a while.

When it came to her impression of Xie Xinyue, it could be said that it had always been limited to what their mother had said about her—someone who wasn't much of a talker.

As the eldest sister in the family, Xie Xinyue had long been accustomed to shouldering responsibilities by herself, not letting the family worry, especially about her own affairs.

After their father passed away, everyone pushed her to mature before her time, forcing her to grow. Under immense pressure, she had no choice but to grit her teeth and bear it all alone.

Keeping to herself was her defense mechanism, a habit developed over years of experience.

The Xie family, including Xie Xinyi, who knew her eldest sister only by name but had never met her in person, only knew that Xie Xinyue was not good at communicating with others. They had no idea how much hidden sorrow and helplessness lay behind her reluctance to show her emotions.

Xie Xinyi had always thought that her eldest sister was pretty self-absorbed, so when Zhang Xin asked her to help inquire about Chen Yalan, she did so with a "let's give it a try" attitude.

Uncertain whether Xie Xinyue would help, she repeatedly used phrases like "if it's convenient" in her letter.

There was no pressure—just testing the waters, but she never expected the other party to take it so seriously after receiving the letter.

A full twelve pages of letter paper, all because of her one request to "see if she could look into it."

And from the content of the letter, it was clear that this was far from just a casual inquiry.

Not only was it detailed, but it also considered not tipping anyone off.

It could be said that this time, her eldest sister had completely overturned Xie Xinyi's traditional impression of her.

She wasn't incapable of conversation; she just didn't know how to communicate with others.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have asked about Xie Xinyi's situation at the end of the letter and explained why she hadn't written when Xie Xinyi got married.

In truth, her eldest sister cared deeply about her family.

Though her words were simple and infrequent, this reply showed that when it came to her younger sisters' matters, no matter how difficult or busy she was, she would do her utmost to help.

Xie Xinyi never thought she would one day find common ground with the eldest sister she had always underestimated.

She carefully put away the twelve pages of letter paper and remained silent for a long time.

"What's wrong?" Gu Yu asked her after turning off the lights, "Are you dissatisfied with the results of eldest sister's investigation?"

He knew she was feeling down and was deliberately teasing her to lighten the mood.

Xie Xinyi ignored him. "I just didn't expect her to help."

She had no intention of hiding her feelings from the man. After briefly sharing her thoughts, she didn't dwell on the topic but instead asked him what he thought about the information her eldest sister had gathered.

"...What I think doesn't matter. What matters is what the Zhang family thinks."

After saying this, Gu Yu felt he hadn't expressed himself fully and added, "Especially Zhang Juan—what she thinks."

Gao He was currently pursuing her. Whether he was sincere or not, no amount of outside opinions would matter.

What really mattered was how the person involved viewed the situation.

Xie Xinyi agreed.

"...If Gao He were currently dating Ying'er, I wouldn't hesitate to cut through the nonsense."

When it came to the information her eldest sister had uncovered, she wasn't like the people in Chen Village.

It wouldn't be easy to fool her, especially with such obvious clues.

Without Xie Xinyue needing to say much, just the two points—the girl suddenly going home sick and the frequent sound of a child crying in her home—were enough for Xie Xinyi to guess the terrible things Gao He had done.

Think about it: a girl from a small village, bright and beautiful but with no background or support, what could she possibly encounter in a foreign land?

A young officer who paid her lots of attention, came from a good family, and had a polished appearance, even promoting her from a temporary position to a full-time position.

You'd feel grateful, you'd be happy, and you couldn't help but share your joy with your mother back home, inviting her to your wedding.

You'd dream of finally becoming your parents' pillar of support, never realizing that the man never actually intended to marry you.

As your belly grew day by day, word got around the military base that the man was about to be transferred back to Shanghai.

You panicked and went to find him, but he coaxed you into resigning from your job and returning to your hometown, promising that he would come back for you and the child after the baby was born.

But from dusk till dawn, from month to month, the man never showed up.

In despair and agony, you gradually lost your grip, while the man, far away from your sight, lived a carefree and glamorous life, even playing the field, dating one person after another.

Tell me, is that fair?

Fair? Not a chance!

Xie Xinyi was utterly disgusted by the filthy soul hidden beneath Gao He's refined exterior.

She told Gu Yu to deliver the information gathered by her eldest sister to Zhang Xin first thing the next morning and reminded him to make sure he explained to the Zhang family why he abandoned his wife and child.

"Tell Zhang Xin to call his mother."

Aunt Luo never thought much of Gao He, and both she and Uncle Zhang were upright people who couldn't tolerate such behavior.

If they found out that Gao He had a history of personal misconduct years ago, Zhang Juan's relationship with him would be over before it even began.

"...Don't say I'm being forceful."

After mentioning the phone call, Xie Xinyi thought of the man's earlier remark about not interfering in others' private affairs and quickly explained, "I just can't stand seeing girls being bullied."

Whether it was Chen Yalan, Gu Ying, or Zhang Juan, it was all the same.

"Besides, Zhang Juan used to have feelings for you. Even if you don't care about Zhang Xin's feelings, you should still take responsibility for a girl who once liked you."

Xie Xinyi randomly came up with an excuse, but as soon as the words left her mouth, she realized she had put her foot in her mouth.

"I..."

She tried to make up for it, but it was too late.

In the dim light of the night, a tall figure pulled the petite figure beside him close, drawing nearer and nearer until they became one.