Chapter 77: Qin Mengshi

On the fifth day of the New Year, the fifth day after the old lady passed.

Shen Mo and Liu Yue, together with Grandma, Grandpa, the refined lady, and Lady Qin Hao, came to the airport to see off Grandpa Qin Meng.

At this point Shen Mo and Liu Yue noticed a problem—none of Grandpa Qin Meng's other children had come back.

But Grandpa asked the question for the two of them.

Grandpa Qin Meng said with a lonely expression, "It's not just you two who have shadows cast by Mother—my family does too."

"In our family, apart from me and Yuewen, no one else dares to get close to the old lady."

Shen Mo was stunned.

He really found this hard to understand.

【Even more curious about the old lady's story now.】

When Grandpa Qin Meng left, his expression was somewhat lonely; Qin Yuewen, on the other hand, was doing a little better.

Back home, Liu Yue tried to ask Grandpa about the old lady.

Grandpa thought about it and found that every image of the old lady in his memory was a strict one.

The old lady was strict with every single member of the Qin Family's younger generation.

She used every possible method to make things difficult for the old lady.

But Grandpa also said the old lady had no name of her own—everyone just called her Qin Mengshi.

Shen Mo remembered that was also what was written on the tombstone.

And so the matter passed.

In the end, no one was close to the old lady, and not many people wanted to dig into her story.

At night, lying on the kang scrolling through his phone, Shen Mo had a sudden impulse and searched "Qin Mengshi."

There were all kinds of explanations.

The most common one was that this kind of name was feudal dregs for a woman.

But it also recommended to Shen Mo an article called "Qin Mengshi."

Shen Mo began to read it with mild interest.

【Qin Mengshi.

My name is Qin Mengshi. I was raised by my husband.

My mother-in-law bought me and gave me the name Qin Mengshi.

The first time I met my husband, I was six and he was eighteen.

My husband at that time, Qin Li, was a pilot.

My father-in-law and mother-in-law always said my husband was sick in the head—he could have taken the money and fled abroad, yet he insisted on risking his life. A man in office should make preserving himself his first duty.

I didn't understand.

My husband told me that it was his parents who were truly sick in the head—a country, a country, only when there is a country is there a home.

I was naive back then.

The year I turned ten, my husband got drunk; he wanted to go to the battlefield, but my father-in-law and mother-in-law held him back.

That day, my husband's comrades all died in the sky. They defeated the enemy's air formation and, as one with their planes, took down the naval fleet, creating the opportunity for victory in the war.

The year I turned eleven, my husband became an air force instructor—this was his compromise with my father-in-law and mother-in-law.

The year I turned fourteen, my father-in-law and mother-in-law wanted him to marry me. He was unwilling; he said he could not harm a person.

The year I turned sixteen, my father-in-law and mother-in-law said that as long as he left behind a child, he could go to the battlefield.

That day, my husband and I came together. No other ladies from good families were willing to marry a man with whom he had no feelings, and who was going to a battlefield where death was all but certain.

An ordinary woman—my in-laws were unwilling.

The year I turned eighteen, I gave birth to my eldest son.

That day, my husband said he was sorry, and forced me to swear that I would not follow the custom of being buried alive with the dead, and then he left home.

I knew my husband had gone off to chase his own mountains and seas.

That day, my husband took away all the able-bodied men of the Qin Family.

My husband wrote saying he had wronged the Qin Family and had no face to come back.

When my eldest son was one year old, I made contact with the Guerrilla who had come to build a base here, and became the head of their Women's Relief Association, supplying them with grain.

In truth, I had deceived them—I was also supplying another unit.

When my eldest son was six, a large group of young men from the area came to find my father-in-law; they too wanted to go to the battlefield, to support my husband.

My father-in-law, his hair streaked with white, said they could.

My father-in-law and mother-in-law told me these were the fellow townsmen. I led the fellow townsmen to find my husband, along with a large batch of medicines my in-laws had smuggled in from overseas.

My husband was overjoyed to see me, but terrified to see the fellow townsmen.

By this time, my husband had become an army commander thanks to his bravery in battle.

I stayed behind to be with my husband.

But later I became pregnant, and my husband sent me home.

That parting was forever.

The day I received my husband's letter full of apologies—his last letter—my mother-in-law died.

Later, a certain medical descendant of the Qin Family said it was rage striking the heart—a cerebral hemorrhage.

My father-in-law looked at the rows of photographs in the Qin Family ancestral hall, looked at the old and young of the Qin Family, called together the remaining fellow townsmen, divided up all the Qin Family's land, and handed the business over to me.

Then my father-in-law left the place with a group of old men.

Later I heard that my father-in-law and his men had opened a restaurant in a great city, and poisoned the foreign army that had defeated my husband.

At the war's most brutal point, the great Qin Family household I led was subjected to the enemy's reckoning—every asset was confiscated—and I led the old, the weak, the women and children, with the Guerrilla's help, to escape to the post-war base area.】

The other team I supported had become corrupt.

Not long after arriving at the post-war base, I arranged for the Qin Family members to serve in logistics, and took up a greatsword to go to the front lines myself.

Back then, my combat ability was truly very high.

Later, when I saw martial arts stars on TV, I felt I could take them all on single-handedly.

When the war ended, the organization found me and offered to help rebuild the Qin Family.

A mole the organization had planted in another team found me and gave me a letter the Master had never sent.

On it were the names of the eldest and second sons. The Master said the eldest should be called Qin Meng, because I bear the surname Meng — he was the fruit of two people's love.

The second son is called Qin Feng; his life should be as free as the wind.

I took the Qin Family members and moved back to where the Qin Family had once been — the old Qin Family lands were all gone.

Destroyed during the war.

The organization said they could help us rebuild, because my father-in-law and mother-in-law had been among the earliest backers of the organization — they had rendered great service, and the organization would not forget us.

When that leader even came here, he received us in person.

But I refused.

I said that if my husband were here, he would never agree. He would say, please put the money toward national construction, for only when there is a country can there be a home.

I had thought my duty ended there.

But one day, when I saw a young man from a Qin Family branch I had watched grow up bullying people, I was struck with dread.

The Qin Family — such a glorious and great clan — how could it produce a wastrel?

I broke that young man's leg and made him kneel in the Qin Family cemetery I had built.

I began to take over the education of every Qin Family young person.

Whether male or female, I would teach them all.

I used every means at my disposal to push them, to make them strive.

Even the girls, if they erred, I would make them go out into the freezing snow to be punished.

I would not allow them to say things like, "The Qin Family has given so much — what's wrong with enjoying ourselves a little?"

The results were good.

Even my wastrel, hot-tempered, study-averse youngest son grew into an outstanding talent.

When my second son's granddaughter was eleven, the eldest son said he was going abroad.

And taking me with him.

The eldest son said the Qin Family no longer needed me to carry its burden — these younger generations would carry it well.

The eldest son also gave me a fierce scolding, saying the Qin Family had already been pushed by me until it was no longer united.

I said fine, I'll go abroad with you.

But in truth I had always been keeping an eye on things back home.

I knew my second son's daughter Qin Hao had married Liu Xinhua, and later given birth to a beautiful great-granddaughter.

I had secretly seen her — she was truly beautiful, very much like me when I was young.

I had also secretly seen Wenya, and knew she and Qin Hao had gone against the world's conventions to be together.

(End of chapter)