Strange Cards

Chapter 220 These years must have been tough for you.

After sheathing his knife, Shi Yu rushed into the main building, and none of the bodyguards or servants present dared to stop him.

After all, their master's example was a stark warning; he dared to harm even his own parents, Shigure, let alone people like them who had no connection to him.

Shi Yu went downstairs and, after searching for a long time, finally found the room where she lived when she was a child.

That room was much larger than the servants' room if you were to say it was large, but less than half the size of the room where the Shi family lived if you were to say it was small.

That was the room where Shiyu had lived since she was a child. Shiyu pushed open the door and went in. She found that the room was fairly clean and tidy, but the marks on it clearly indicated that it had been cleaned recently.

An elderly man with various medical devices connected to his body was lying on the bed in the room, dozing off with his eyes half-closed.

The electrocardiogram showed that the elderly man's heart rate was not very good, but after hearing Shi Yu push open the door, the elderly man slowly opened his eyes.

"Light rain..."

"Is that you back?"

Wearing a black cloak with the hood up, Shigure walked to the bedside, took off the hood, and revealed his slightly weathered face.

"It's me, old man."

"I'm late."

"It's not too late, it's not too late."

The old man struggled to sit up and looked at his grandson's gray hair.

"Xiaoyu, how old are you this year?"

"This gray hair...it makes me look older than Grandpa!"

"These twelve years..."

"You must be having a tough time?"

Upon hearing the old man's words, Shi Yu couldn't hold back her tears, but she forced them back and smiled.

"fine."

"The past few years have been really tough; we had to work hard every day just to make our next meal."

"Things got much better in the following years. We had food to eat, clothes to wear, and shelter from the rain."

The old man looked at the boy in front of him and gently reached out to straighten the little finger that Shi Yu was clenching in his right hand.

"Child, you are very much like me."

"They really look alike."

Shi Yu took a deep breath and suddenly remembered something.

"Where's Grandma?"

"Where did she go?"

When Shi Yu asked about his wife, the old man was speechless for a moment, and after a long while, he said in a bitter tone.

Your grandmother passed away a long time ago.

"It was probably the second year after you went missing, by which time her body was already failing."

"She was looking for you all the time, but my unfilial son kept the fact that you were lost in Nanhai City a secret, saying that you were lost near the capital."

"Then, during the first year after you went missing, she was still quite mobile and could walk. Every day, she would use a cane to search for you in and around the capital."

"The following year, she suffered a stroke and developed Alzheimer's disease. Coupled with some pre-existing minor health problems, she passed away quickly during a sudden attack."

"The only thing your grandmother remembers after developing Alzheimer's is looking for you. She sits in her wheelchair every day saying she wants to find her grandson, her lost grandson."

"That unfilial son takes his adopted son, who's as white as a dead person, around in front of your grandmother every day, saying that this is her grandson."

As the old man spoke, tears welled up in his eyes.

"She didn't even remember what I looked like, she only remembered my voice."

"You're the only person she remembers, and you're the one she thought about before she died."

The old man, speaking with trembling hands, picked up a photo frame from the side and handed it to Shi Yudao.

Looking at the kind old man in the photo, Shi Yu couldn't hold back her tears.

"Her Alzheimer's disease was cured before she died."

"But she knew she didn't have time left. Before she died, she held my hand tightly and repeated it over and over again with tears streaming down her face."

As he spoke, Grandpa Shi picked up a tape recorder and pressed play.

"Old man, promise me."

"We must find our grandson! We must find Xiaoyu!"

"My only grandson is Shi Yu. I won't acknowledge that pale-faced, effeminate bastard!"

"Remember, you must find Xiaoyu!"

"Old man, you absolutely cannot die before Xiaoyu comes back. He has already lost his grandmother, and he cannot lose his grandfather as well."

"If you die too, that child will really never find his way home. You have to hold on until that kid comes back!"

"If you die before Xiaoyu comes back, I will never forgive you in this lifetime. If I find out, I will never wait for you, and I won't even let you be reincarnated with me."

"Remember this well!"

As the kind voice slowly faded away from the tape recorder, Shiyu could no longer hold back her tears.

Shi Yu never imagined that the day before he left for Nanhai City at the age of six, he would wave goodbye to his grandmother and see her for the last time.

When the grandfather and grandson met again, they were already separated by death, and could only stare blankly at the things left behind.

Shiyu gripped the tape recorder tightly, as if she could see that kind old man again.

Grandpa Shi looked at his late wife's portrait across from his bed and silently shed tears, but soon he composed himself, touched Shi Yu's face and said.

"Then I kept looking for you. I even called on Old Man Feng and all the connections I could."

"After your grandmother died, I started taking care of my health and taking medicine, just to live a little longer, until the day you come back."

"I'm so glad you came back. It means I haven't let my wife down before she died."

Looking at the black cloak on Shi Yu, Old Master Shi recognized who the cloak's former owner was.

"Xiao Tian...is he dead?"

Shi Yu nodded heavily and recounted the series of events that followed: being abandoned in Nanhai City for twelve years, and then meeting Xiao Bo, who had become a ghost, after becoming a hunter.

Grandpa Shi didn't interrupt; he just listened quietly.

"...At first, I didn't know what could fill my stomach, so I ate anything that was edible."

"You can eat the orange peel, it'll just be a little spicy on your lips."

"Luckily, I learned a few tricks from Uncle Xiao back then, otherwise I might not have even made it out of the slums."

Looking at the relaxed young man in front of him, Old Master Shi couldn't even imagine how Shi Yu had spent those first few years in the slums.

"I remember he said a few words to me before I entered the cycle of reincarnation."

He said he hadn't let you down and had saved me.

"..."

"Xiao Tian... I really have to thank him."

"I've considered him a brother ever since he was with me. He raised your father and protected you for me."

"I can never repay his kindness in this lifetime; I'll repay it in the next."