Looking at the young girl holding him up, Old Uncle Gen gently patted the back of her hand; he smiled amiably: “Your Uncle Chen fetched me here, how would I be exhausted. You haven’t returned to the village for two years, I was thinking about you, and I couldn’t rest assured, can’t rest assured.
“Now that I can see you, I can rest assured, you’ve already grown into a big kid, a big kid who is valued by the military.”
No matter how far Ye Jian walks, in Old Uncle Gen’s mind, she had just turned into a big kid from a little kid.
“I’m big now, and Grandpa’s older.” Ye Jian’s voice choked with sobs, she helped the elder to the couch and spoke softly: “I didn’t go visit Grandpa for two years, and made you worry.”
Grandpa Gen smiled instead: “In order to not let you come back, I’ve almost worn out my worn-out lips. Don’t you think the present is quite good? You’re being valued greatly by the military, while I’m also being valued greatly in the village, why does it matter if you don’t come back?”
“Little lass Jian, a person only has so much time in their life, every day they spend in this world, their lifespan is one day lesser, at times when you need to learn new skills, you need to spend each day earnestly. If you come back to see me, the time you spent journeying back and forth would be three days, I wouldn’t want you to waste three days of your life just to see me.”
“You haven’t returned to see me in the last two years, but rather seeing you return to see me, it makes me happier to see your current achievements. Kiddo, you’ve always been using your own way to prove to me, that you’ve always been putting in the work, and haven’t let my expectations down, that’s already good enough, that’s already good enough.”
After someone gets older, they realize the importance of time better; the eighty-year-old elder had used the essence of his life to educate the kid he had watched growing up; all he wanted was for her to grow and mature waste the time of her life.
Ye Jian wiped away the tears that she couldn’t keep inside; her hands gripped tightly onto the old man’s shriveled hands that were almost devoid of life, she pursed her lips, she revealed slight stubbornness on her face, and revealed a shallow smile as she replied, “I didn’t come back to see Grandpa, all I could do was to talk to you with my actions, that I won’t let Grandpa down, that I won’t let Grandpa sad.”
“Grandpa knows, Grandpa knows everything, you’re a good kid, you’re Grandpa’s pride.” Old Uncle Gen was much skinnier than four years ago, but he looked quite lively, though his speech was a little tardy, but every word and every sentence he said was clear and strong, from the looks of it, the old man’s physical condition was still quite well.
He then saw Ye Jian trying to wipe away her tears without him noticing; he couldn’t help but to start laughing out loud, “Look at you kiddo, I didn’t even see you shedding a tear after coming out of your fifteen days intensive training, why are you shedding tears now that you’re good and well here.”
When an old person reaches this age, and after experiencing the flames of war, they would be able to see things much more clearly than others; his witty speech that doesn’t lose any connotation started making Ye Jian laugh heartily.
The situation should be her making the old man happy, why did it turn into the old man making her laugh?
She knew what the elder liked to hear, so Ye Jian only said things he wanted to hear, “Snakes should be hibernating in the winter, right, but I saw two pythons wrapped around the tree, and those mountain leeches are only as big as my pinky, I didn’t even know they stuck on me, only when I felt a bit of pain, hah! Good riddance, they’re already full!”
“These things roam around the mountains, but the situation now is much better than in the past. In my day, there’re many tigers, many jackals, whenever we’re crossing the mountains we’re all tensed up, just in case before we start the war, everyone is eaten by tigers.”
When talking about Ye Jian’s training, the smile on Grandpa Gen’s face became more prominent. Although this kid looks quite cold and aloof, but her heart was extremely kind and was only picking things he liked to hear about.
