Chapter 97

Chapter 97

Uncle Chen had now fully transitioned into the role of Jiang Yicen's personal driver, but after years of dedicated service to the Nan family, his daily routes had mostly shuttled between the company and the Nan residence. This year, after switching who he drove for, he'd visited more places in six months than in the previous three years combined. The car's mileage was climbing steadily, finally justifying its price tag instead of collecting dust in the garage.

As the two grew familiar, they'd occasionally chat in the car. Uncle Chen never crossed the line. In his youth, he'd served a few years in the military, then drove long-haul trucks after getting out, and later got into the Nan household as a driver through a referral, remaining there for years. His main strengths were keeping his mouth shut, enduring hardship, and never prying into the family's business. While other drivers quit or got fired for various reasons, only he and two other drivers had held onto their jobs, with their pay going up year after year.

Ever since his direct bosses became Master Jiang and Master Nan, his work schedule had gotten pretty erratic. Sometimes he'd get two or three days off, other times he'd be driving through the night or heading out on sudden business trips. Young people really were different from Chairman Nan and his regular routine—even their destinations were baffling.

Take today, for instance: the address Master Jiang sent him was a private cemetery in Li City.

Even though he'd driven big rigs and his family had dealt with their fair share of life and death, driving to a cemetery in the dead of night was still pretty unusual. Had Master Jiang sent the wrong address?

Uncle Chen straightened up and asked Jiang Yicen, "Master Jiang, have you been to Li City before?"

Jiang Yicen: "No. Uncle Chen, you've probably been, right?"

Uncle Chen chuckled: "Of course. My wife's folks are from Li City. Every year around the third and fourth of the New Year, we bring the kids back."

Jiang Yicen: "Then you must know Li City pretty well. Do you know its history? Like, from the Republic of China era."

Uncle Chen: "Li City's got beautiful mountains and rivers, and it's also lucky—being so close to Lin City, even when the fighting got intense during the War of Resistance, Li City didn't take much of a hit."

Jiang Yicen: "Back then, Li City was just a small county town, hardly known to anyone."

Uncle Chen: "Right. Lin City kept growing and growing, and Li City gradually changed too, going from a county to a county-level city. Now it's a third-tier city. It's not as big as Lin City, but compared to before, the change is huge."

Jiang Yicen suddenly got it.

Since Chen Zhicheng's parents had stayed in Li City, there had to be a reason. He hadn't expected Uncle Yuan's grave to be here in Li City.

Maybe Uncle Yuan would never know that nearly a century later, someone would come to this new era, but what he'd done happened to work out perfectly for him. He'd not only protected his parents' graves but also put up a tombstone for himself.

He wanted to see his father and mother, and to visit Uncle Yuan too.

An hour after they got on the highway, Jiang Yicen got a video call from Nan Shuyi.

Nan Shuyi's questions came at him fast: "Why the sudden trip to Li City? What's so urgent? You're not meeting Jiang Xingchen anymore?"

He was clearly a little pissed.

Jiang Yicen told him what Chen Zhicheng had found while sweeping the grave.

Nan Shuyi got it: "So Uncle Yuan moved your family's graves to Li City."

Jiang Yicen: "Yeah, and Chen Zhicheng also told me he went to burn incense at Uncle Yuan's grave today. I want to go see for myself."

Honestly, Jiang Yicen didn't need to confirm it—it was already pretty clear.

There was one thing he didn't dare tell Nan Shuyi: the reason he wanted to confirm was because Chen Zhicheng had mentioned his own grave was there too.

Nan Shuyi was quiet for a moment: "Private cemetery or public one?"

Jiang Yicen: "It's a private cemetery."

Nan Shuyi suddenly smiled: "Have you thought about how, even if it's a private cemetery, showing up in the middle of the night might scare people?"

Jiang Yicen had been genuinely anxious and hadn't thought that far. He smacked his forehead.

"Then what should I do?"

Nan Shuyi knew he was anxious: "First, have Uncle Chen take you to grab something to eat, then book a hotel and wait for me to get there."

He'd already figured that since Jiang Yicen hadn't met up with Jiang Xingchen, he must've left without eating dinner.

Jiang Yicen didn't want him to see his own grave—he'd inevitably be really upset.

"You don't need to come, it's too much trouble."

Nan Shuyi: "I have to pay my respects to my in-laws—how could I not go? I'm already on my way to Li City. Send me the location once you've got a hotel."

Jiang Yicen: "Fine, I'll book the hotel then."

Nan Shuyi: "Wait, I'll book it."

He wasn't sure if Jiang Yicen had ever figured out how to use hotel booking apps.

Jiang Yicen immediately understood his meaning: "Don't underestimate me. I know how to book."

Strangely, after hearing Nan Shuyi's voice, his urgency to visit his family's graves had subsided somewhat. The graves weren't going anywhere, but people who rush tend to make mistakes.

He added: "I'll book the hotel first. Drive carefully."

Nan Shuyi said: "Alright, our Sixth Master is exceptionally clever, so of course he knows how to book a hotel."

He could hardly imagine how Jiang Yicen had learned to book tickets and use phones and computers when he first arrived. Thinking about how he had arranged for him to work at Nanyuan—it must have caused him a great deal of pressure back then.

Jiang Yicen: "Naturally. Drive safely—I'll handle these small matters."

Nan Shuyi knew he was concerned about him: "Alright, I should arrive about an hour after you."

Jiang Yicen: "Should I pack some food and bring it back to the hotel?"

Nan Shuyi: "Sure."

It had been a long time since he'd eaten takeout. He used to eat quite casually, but now he ate very refined meals. He couldn't even remember what the bread he'd eaten while hiking tasted like.

Of course, from the start, he had assumed Jiang Yicen had suffered abroad, and he never wanted him to suffer again. He wanted to give him the best, so his own quality of life had improved accordingly. The days of just getting by had left him more than half a year ago.

·

Uncle Chen did take Jiang Yicen to eat Li City's local snacks. The most famous was the braised duck head—spicy, numbing, and fragrant, with every flavor imaginable. One whiff was enough to immerse him in that spicy aroma.

He remembered that Uncle Yuan couldn't handle spicy food, yet he had ended up in a place that loved spice so much. Perhaps time changes people.

He had forgotten to ask Chen Zhicheng whether Uncle Yuan had lived in Lin City or Li City in his later years.

Uncle Yuan had done so much for the Jiang family—he would surely take good care of his descendants in the future, at the very least ensuring Chen Zhicheng a smooth and prosperous life.

Uncle Chen told Jiang Yicen that Li City was now primarily a city wholesaling small souvenirs for scenic spots. Though it wasn't big, every scenic area in the country had its products. The night market they passed on the way to dinner was full of such trinkets. Jiang Yicen browsed for a while and even bought a pair of wooden carvings. The vendor said they were from an export order and couldn't be found anywhere except in Li City.

The wooden carvings he bought were for himself and Nan Shuyi. He bought a souvenir every time he visited a new place.

He then asked Uncle Chen where to buy funeral supplies, since he planned to visit the graves the next day.

After seeing the cemetery's address, Uncle Chen already knew where he would be going the next day and said he would take them there in the morning.

Only then did Jiang Yicen feel at ease and head to the hotel he had booked to check in.

An hour after he checked in, Nan Shuyi arrived at the hotel smoothly.

Nan Shuyi, the moment he arrived, was so hungry he wolfed down every last bite of the food Jiang Yicen had bought.

Jiang Yicen, seeing how famished he looked, handed him tissues and water, scolding himself: "It's my fault for being in such a hurry."

In truth, when Jiang Yicen suddenly showed up in Li City, Nan Shuyi was the one who was most on edge—he was the one who couldn't stand being away from Jiang Yicen.

"Don't blame yourself. If it were me, I'd have done the exact same thing." Nan Shuyi almost never talked about his mom. "Yicen, you know, I lost my mom when I was very young. If someone told me one day my mom was still alive, I'd drop everything and go check it out myself."

Tomorrow they were going to meet Jiang Yicen's family, and Nan Shuyi, for once, didn't do a thing—he kept himself in check and even slept more soundly that night.

They were up at five in the morning.

Uncle Chen drove them to the funeral supply street nearby. It wasn't Qingming Festival, so the street was short and mostly empty.

Nan Shuyi bought just about everything he laid eyes on. Remembering how Jiang Yicen had just gotten here, couldn't even use a phone, and almost froze to death on the road in the middle of winter, he grabbed a bunch of modern offerings.

Jiang Yicen knew the basics—gold ingots, big-denomination spirit money, burning plenty of paper and incense, plus some offerings. That was the standard. But he never expected the funeral market to have this many options these days, and Nan Shuyi couldn't stop wanting this, wanting that. In the end, they stuffed two cars to the brim and became the street's biggest customer of the day. One vendor even asked if he wanted to sign up for a membership card, with regular door-to-door paper-burning service.

Nan Shuyi almost said yes, but Jiang Yicen stopped him just in time.

Jiang Yicen pulled him away and said there was one last thing they still needed to buy.

Nan Shuyi took Jiang Yicen's hand back: "What is it?"

Jiang Yicen said, "Buy the prettiest bouquet you can find—no white flowers."

Nan Shuyi didn't get the deeper meaning, but he obediently did as he was told. They finally found a flower shop that opened early, and when it came to picking flowers, Nan Shuyi had his own taste. He picked them out himself, just like Jiang Yicen asked.

As he was paying, a thought hit him like a thunderbolt, and his heart clenched.

When they got married, Jiang Yicen had told him the same thing—no white flowers.

He glanced over at Jiang Yicen in the passenger seat.

Jiang Yicen smiled back at him, then instantly wiped the smile off his face: "Watch the road."

Nan Shuyi focused on driving.

The two of them got out of the car at the private cemetery, feeling a mix of nerves and anticipation.

The so-called private cemetery was actually a mountain, scattered with finely built graves.

The cemetery had a caretaker—a scrawny old man in his sixties. They asked him where the Jiang family graves and the Chen family graves were, but the old man had no idea who they were talking about.

Jiang Yicen prompted him: "Two young people came by yesterday."

The old man pointed to the most prominent row of graves halfway up the mountain.

The mountain wasn't tall, but since it had been turned into a cemetery, Jiang Yicen, Nan Shuyi, and Uncle Chen still had to climb for a while hauling all the offerings. Luckily, they were all in decent shape.

There'd been a thin mist in the early morning, but by the time they reached the halfway point, it had cleared, and rays of morning light spilled down, shining right on the Jiang family graves—like a spotlight guiding Jiang Yicen.

The Jiang family graves stood in a row, taking up a good chunk of land. Any passerby could tell the family had money.

Chen Zhicheng and Jiang Xingchen had come by yesterday; the incense tube in front of the graves still had burnt-out incense sticks in it.

After Uncle Chen dropped off the stuff, Nan Shuyi told him to head back down the mountain and go home to Lin City—they didn't need him anymore.

Uncle Chen glanced at the surname on the tombstone—Jiang—figured it was Jiang Yicen's ancestors, and left without thinking much of it.

·

When Jiang Yicen set the items down in front of the graves, he was already choking up.

The exquisite tombstone he'd had made back then was gone; this must have been one Uncle Yuan had re-carved later, and the burial mound was probably where he'd gathered the Jiang family's remains and brought them.

"I'm sorry, Father, Mother. Your son took so long to come see you."

"You must have seen by now—I've lived another life, reborn with all my memories intact."

"Your son misses you so much..."

Nan Shuyi watched this usually quiet man now rambling to the Jiang family about his life over the past six months. He knew that standing in front of these graves, Jiang Yicen's heart finally had a place to settle—unlike before, when he seemed adrift, like he might slip away at any moment.

"Oh, and I want to introduce you to my partner. You always worried about what kind of girl I'd end up with, but you don't have to worry anymore. I didn't find a girl—I found a very handsome gentleman. His name is Nan Shuyi. He's the first person I met in this new world, and he's the one I love."

Warmth flooded Nan Shuyi's chest. He stepped forward, took Jiang Yicen's hand, and greeted the people in the graves.

"Father, Mother, hello. I'm Nan Shuyi. My family's got a bit of money, and for the rest of my life, I'll take good care of Yicen and build a little home with him. Please rest easy—Yicen is my beloved and my family. I hope your spirits up there will bless Yicen with good health, peace through the years, and a smooth road ahead."

Finding his family's graves did bring Jiang Yicen some peace of mind. Buying back the Jiang mansion and Yongjiang Restaurant was his own wish, but the Jiang family was his root, his origin. Without those roots, he was nothing but a piece of floating duckweed, unable to settle anywhere.

After paying respects to his parents, they paid respects to his eldest brother. They bowed to every single Jiang family member, introducing each one to Nan Shuyi.

Graves from the Republic of China era didn't have black-and-white photos like modern ones—their tombstones only had engraved inscriptions, nothing else.

Jiang Yicen: "These are my fourth and fifth sisters. They were twins."

Nan Shuyi: "How did they..."

Jiang Yicen: "They died in that accident too. They were only two years older than me. Back then, they were top students at Lin City University as well."

Nan Shuyi didn't know what to say. His chest felt tight, so he just lit incense, burned paper money, and laid out fresh fruit and other offerings.

If Jiang Yicen had left his family first, instead of them leaving him, he wouldn't be this heartbroken.

They came to the last grave.

Nan Shuyi had been following behind him the whole time, holding the bouquet, until Jiang Yicen stopped in front of the last Jiang family grave.

Jiang Yicen turned around and said, "Brother Shuyi, where's that bouquet?"

Nan Shuyi: "Right here with me."

He followed Jiang Yicen's gaze, and what he'd suspected was confirmed.

In front of him stood another grave.

The name on the grave—when Nan Shuyi saw it, his heart jolted hard. Even though Jiang Yicen was standing right in front of him, he knew the person buried here was the real him.

Earlier, in front of the Jiang family, he'd been sad but hadn't cried.

But now, standing here, his eyes went red against his will.

Jiang Yicen wiped the dampness from the corner of his eye: "Would you give me those flowers?"

Nan Shuyi's throat tightened. A thousand words came down to just one: "Yes."