Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 2684 It's good to be home (First update, please subscribe)
The courtyard was completely silent in the dead of night.

The man sat on a bench, his eyes fixed on the night sky, where stars twinkled. He took intermittent puffs of a homemade tobacco pipe rolled in newspaper, the sparks flickering and the acrid smoke swirling around him.

The woman lay on her side on the bed, her belly slightly protruding. Occasionally, she would glance out the window. Several times she opened her mouth, but then hesitated to speak, ultimately letting out a barely audible sigh.

After an unknown amount of time, the man stubbed out his cigarette, got up, pushed open the door, and entered the room, saying:
"Let's go to the county tomorrow."

The woman gave a soft "hmm," and then the two fell silent.

They spent a sleepless night, back to back.

Just as dawn was breaking, the man pushed out a slightly worn 28-inch bicycle with a coarse cloth bag tied to the handlebars. The woman, holding onto the back seat, sat down and gently gripped the man's clothes with both hands.

The county road is narrow, with drainage ditches more than a meter deep on both sides. Beyond that, there are endless fields where soybeans are already knee-deep, and there are few people on the road.

We walked in silence, with only the wind whispering past our ears.

After a long while, the woman's voice finally drifted over, carrying a calm and serene tone:
“One of us has to go back to the city; we can’t stay in the countryside forever… I’m not the kind of person who can stay here.”

The man only responded with a low voice:
"understood."

Those three words felt like a massive boulder, pressing down on both of them and making it hard for them to breathe.

“You come from a poor background, so I guess you can’t go back to the city. I can’t stay here and suffer with you for the rest of my life. If the child is born, it will suffer with you too.”

The man paused for a moment, then resumed his normal pace and said:

"Ah."

The entire journey was speechless.

After more than an hour of bumpy travel, the red brick building of the county hospital finally came into view.

The man stopped the car and helped the woman slowly walk inside, his movements gentle, as if afraid she would get hurt.

Register and explain your purpose.

"Induced labor, five months."

The doctor looked at the medical record, then at the woman's protruding belly, and asked:

"Why induce labor? She's already five months along, and the baby will be born in a few more months."

"She's going back to the city and can't take her children with her."

When the man said these words, he even clenched his fists involuntarily.

"do you agree?"

The doctor looked at the man with some doubt.

"Ah."

The man nodded.

At this point, if both husband and wife agree, a late-term fetus can be induced, and a fetus under 3 months can be aborted. In this month, she can only choose induced labor.

The hospital admission examination showed no major problems, and the surgery was scheduled for the next day.

It rained all morning the next day. By noon, the sunlight barely pierced through the clouds. The muddy path in the yard was very sticky, and the potholes were filled with murky rainwater. Stepping on it would splash mud all over you.

While waiting for surgery, the woman lay in the ward, staring blankly at the ceiling, while the man stood guard at the door, still silent, but smoking his cigarette more heavily than usual.

Later, he left the ward and went outside alone.

The doctor was seeing patients and making rounds as usual when suddenly a nurse rushed over, her voice urgent:

"Doctor! The husband of the patient you were treating who had an induced abortion is in trouble!"

The doctor's heart tightened, and she rushed to the window of the delivery room. The sight before her made her freeze—the man was covered in mud, rolling and struggling on the ground, his heart-wrenching cries shaking the leaves around him.

He would sometimes grab his hair and tear it apart, and sometimes he would grab his shirt and pull it hard. The shirt was not very sturdy to begin with, and it was torn into strips in an instant, revealing his firm back underneath. Several people went forward to try to pull him away, but he broke free with brute force, and no one could persuade him otherwise.

Only when his strength was exhausted and his voice was so hoarse that he could no longer utter complete syllables did the man gradually quiet down. He collapsed to the ground, his eyes unfocused, but he struggled to move closer to the delivery room window, eventually leaning against the wall as if wanting to be a little closer to his wife and children.

Upon hearing the news, the woman came out of the ward and stood five meters away, pale-faced and trembling, clearly terrified by the out-of-control scene.

The man didn't look at her, but slowly raised his head to look at the approaching doctor, his voice hoarse like a broken gong:

"Did you do it?"

The doctor nodded.

The man lowered his eyelids and remained silent for a long time.

The doctor was then able to examine him closely: the post-rain sunlight shone through the locust tree in the yard, casting dappled shadows on his mud-covered body; the stray hairs on his forehead were damp with sweat and mud, clinging to his temples and looking slightly disheveled.

Her eyes, which are double-lidded and wide, are filled with broken longing. Her upper eyelashes cast soft arcs under her eyes. Her eyes, which should be lively and clear, are now filled with broken longing.

His eyebrows were slightly raised, his nose was straight, and his jawline was well-defined, exuding a calm and masculine aura. However, the corners of his mouth were slightly downturned due to extreme sadness, adding a touch of sorrow.

The man was handsome, while his wife was rather insignificant in comparison.

After a long while, he slowly stood up, leaning against the wall. He took off his shirt, which was already in terrible condition, revealing a healthy wheat-colored upper body. He was about 1.8 meters tall, with a well-proportioned body and a straight back, exuding a soldier-like ruggedness.

Someone hurriedly brought him new clothes. He picked up the blue trousers and put them directly over his muddy, wet trousers. He then put on a white shirt, buttoning it up meticulously. However, his eyes had lost their former liveliness, leaving only an empty void devoid of desire.

He turned and followed the person outside, never once looking back at his wife. His departing figure was thin yet proud, each step seeming to tread on people's hearts, exuding an inescapable sorrow.

The doctor knew that from now on, the couple would go their separate ways and never cross paths again.

Someone leaned over and whispered, "Is he mentally ill?"

The doctor slowly shook his head, his eyes filled with emotion. This is hardly a case of mental illness.
With the greatest kindness, he tacitly approved of this separation; with the deepest tolerance, he agreed to give up his own child and allow her to return to the city.

When everything settles down, the struggles and screams all over the ground are nothing more than the desperate venting of a husband who has lost his lover and a father who has lost his child, as they break free from the shackles in their hearts. It is the most painful heartbreak and lament of a man.

It's utterly absurd that anyone would think he's mentally ill.

One week later, at the train station.

The man stood on the platform, looking at the woman in front of him. The woman also looked at the tall man in front of her. The woman's appearance was that of an ordinary passerby who would be easily forgotten after just one glance.

She said:
"Let's go back."

The man nodded, placed a lunchbox in the woman's hand, and said:

"These are eggs I borrowed from Aunt Zhang. I boiled them and left them for you to eat on the road. You need to nourish yourself and take good care of yourself from now on."

The woman took the lunchbox, opened her mouth, and said calmly.

"From now on, you should live your life well on your own."

After saying goodbye, the woman turned and boarded the train without looking back. Although it was a farewell, there was no sadness on her face, only a look of relief.

This kind of woman is a bit unconventional.

The man remained standing on the platform until the train had gone far away.

The woman didn't look back until the train had gone far away, while the man just watched the train silently.

……

In the days that followed, the man remained the same as before; he was eerily quiet, as if he had suddenly lost his soul.

During the day, he worked on the farm, wielding a hoe to weed and fertilize. His movements were mechanical yet energetic, and he was oblivious to the sweat soaking through his clothes. He never spoke a word to anyone else. In the evening, after finishing work, he would go back to his house alone, close the door, and never leave again. He never even lit an oil lamp in his house again.

The man in his thirties may appear calm, but everyone knows that he is suppressing a pain that no one can console him about.

His wife left.

The baby is gone too.

A man in his thirties, all alone.

Most of the time, men are frighteningly quiet.

Everyone on the farm saw it all, but no one dared to ask. They all knew the bitterness in his heart, a pain stuck in his throat, unspeakable and impossible to swallow, which he could only endure in silence.

Spring came and went, until one early autumn afternoon when the farm held a general meeting. The farm was packed with people, and the autumn wind, carrying the highland wind, swept through the farm, bringing a touch of desolation.

Standing on the stage, the leader looked at the young people from all over the country below and loudly announced the new policy for returning to the city—the order of returning to the city would no longer be restricted by social class, but would be based on the length of time spent in the countryside, with the longer the time spent in the countryside, the more priority would be given to returning to the city! Moreover, as long as the place of origin agreed to accept the household registration, the city would immediately release them unconditionally.

The crowd erupted instantly, cheering and shouting excitedly, their shouts reaching a deafening roar.

Finally waited.

Unlike the joy around him, the man just stood there blankly, seemingly at a loss for what to do.

Go home.

You can go home.

As one of the earliest people to be sent to the farm, he has been there for fourteen years. For a man who is only thirty-five years old, he never thought that he would be able to go home one day.

And now, all of this has come too suddenly.

After the meeting, like many others, the man stood on the bulletin board, where the list of the first batch of people to return to the city was posted.

“Sun, Sun Qifan.”

He stood frozen in place, his eyes fixed on his own name on the list, his lips trembling. He just stared wide-eyed, unable to utter a single word for a long time.

The next second, the emotions that had been suppressed for months finally erupted. His legs went weak, and he squatted on the ground, wailing loudly. The crying was no longer the desperate screams he had heard in the hospital months ago, but rather filled with endless grievances and confusion, like a lost child.

The heart-wrenching cries brought tears to the eyes of those around her.

Some people wanted to pat him on the shoulder to comfort him, but they silently withdrew their hands halfway through the air, and in the end, they could only let out heavy sighs and quietly watch him vent his emotions.

A few days later, like everyone else, the man arrived at the train station in a farm truck with only a few changes of clothes and nothing else.

I arrived at the train station once again. The platform was still noisy, and the train whistles pierced through the clouds, just like when I sent my wife back to the city.

This time, however, there was no one to stand shoulder to shoulder with him, no one to wholeheartedly support him; he was left all alone.

At that moment, someone put their arm around his shoulder and said:
"Old Sun, we can finally go home."

"Ah."

Sun Qifan nodded, then gazed into the distance. He had been away from home for over a decade. He didn't even know what home looked like anymore. He had finally embarked on his journey back to the city, but he had lost his wife and unborn child forever.
Home is far away, from the Northwest Plateau to Jiaozhou, a journey of thousands of kilometers. The train clanged along the long journey.

More than a week later, the train finally pulled into the station. At the exit, Sun Qifan saw an old woman standing there in the distance. The moment he saw her, tears instantly welled up in his eyes.

"mother……"

As soon as he stepped out of the ticket gate, he rushed over, knelt in his mother's arms, and burst into tears, crying like a child. In fact, he was still a child, no matter how old he was.

The woman gently patted his back, tears streaming down her face, and said:

"It's good that you're back... Let's go home with Mom, we're going home..."

(End of this chapter)