Chapter 1927: The Statue of Solid Gold

It was cast in solid gold and placed in the very center of the Square, with a specialized security system protecting this statue to prevent it from being stolen.

Yaqing said, "The achievements our village has today are inseparable from you. This is a small token of appreciation from all the villagers. After you pass on in a hundred years, the descendants of the village will offer incense and worship you."

"Pfft—"

Such a serious topic, yet someone actually snickered.

And the one snickering was none other than Shi Youxuan.

She said, "No need to wait a hundred years. On the way here, we already saw someone burning incense and kowtowing to a living person."

Yaqing:...

That was going too far; how could one burn incense for a living person?

Sheng Hanyu proposed destroying the statue. He was never a person who sought the limelight, and transforming the Small Fishing Village back then was just a matter of convenience. He felt it shouldn't be so exaggerated, and using solid gold to cast a life-sized statue of him was completely unnecessary.

With so much gold placed in the Square, it had to be guarded against theft, requiring a massive amount of manpower and resources every year; it was entirely unnecessary.

But Yaqing disagreed.

He could listen to Yano on anything else, but not on this.

Sheng Hanyu had left the Small Fishing Village for so many years without returning, and although everyone here knew he was the famous Sheng Hanyu, they still preferred to call him Yano.

He would always be Yano of the Small Fishing Village!

He was the former Village Chief, the man who led everyone to prosperity.

Everyone was deeply grateful to Sheng Hanyu and worshipped him like a deity, but Sheng Hanyu did not want to be treated as a god!

Humans can have flaws, but gods cannot.

Being treated as a god meant he could only do the right things and could not make even the slightest mistake.

He repeatedly suggested that Yaqing remove the statue, saying it was a waste of labor and money that was completely unnecessary.

Yaqing used to listen to Yano very well; he was his little follower.

But now he was very firm, refusing to agree to take down the statue no matter what. He said Yano was their god, the faith of the entire village; people cannot live without faith, and their faith could not be shaken.

No one was allowed to shake their faith, not even the object of that faith itself!

Since they were unwilling, so be it. Although the statue was of him, he was a guest here, and a guest cannot make decisions for the host.

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Ever since arriving at the Small Fishing Village, Litian had always looked like he had something to say but held back, wandering around the village alone. When asked where he wanted to go, he wouldn't say.

It was Shi Youxuan who saw through her son's thoughts and quietly said to Sheng Hanyu, "He probably wants to go see Yafei's grave. You should go with him."

Sheng Hanyu: "We'll go together."

Shi Youxuan shook her head: "I won't go. Yafei wouldn't want to see me; the person she wants to see more is you. At Yafei's grave, you should talk more, say more good things about our son, so she can be at peace in the afterlife."

Sheng Hanyu was dismissive: "She's been dead for so many years, what's there to say about being at peace or not? Talking nonsense in broad daylight."

Although he acted dismissive, he still did as she said.

Sheng Hanyu had Yaqing prepare fresh flowers and took Litian and Feifei to Yafei's grave.

The father and son stood there for a long time, yet neither said a word.

He simply couldn't bring himself to say the things Shi Youxuan had instructed!

And Litian was only five years old when he left the Small Fishing Village; so many years had passed, and he had no impression of his biological mother left.

His only impression remained stuck on his mother's unpredictable temperament toward him.

Sometimes she liked him, would hold him and kiss him, shedding tears.

Sometimes she was furious, wishing she could beat him to death...

It was Lu Feifei who, following the customs of Jiangzhou, knelt before the grave and kowtowed three times, telling her husband's biological mother that they had a child, a girl, but because the child was too young, they hadn't brought her over to see her. She promised that when the child was older, she would definitely bring her to kowtow to her grandmother.

Litian pulled his wife up and told her: "No need to kowtow, there is no such custom here."

"You go back first; Dad and I will stand here for a while."

Lu Feifei then went back.

The two stood for a long time, and Litian said: "Let's go back; Mom is still waiting for us."

In his heart, he had long since regarded Shi Youxuan as his true mother.

The two turned to head back, and that night, Litian had a dream!

He dreamed that his biological mother was smiling at him, telling him to be well, that she was very happy to have a son like him, and that she was proud of him.

His biological mother also apologized to him, saying she used to be unable to let go of her hatred for his biological father and had transferred that resentment onto him. Now she had let it go and wanted him to live a good life from now on.

After saying this, his mother disappeared.

He woke up from the dream with a start and sat up, only to realize it was just a dream!

His wife and daughter beside him were still fast asleep, but he couldn't sleep at all. So, he sat up lightly, put on his clothes, got out of bed, opened the door, and walked outside.

The Small Fishing Village in the dead of night was quiet; people were all in sweet dreams and had not woken up. There was no one outside, only the sound of waves lapping against the beach.

Litian walked to the seaside and sat down.

When he was little, he often played here, in the middle of the night.

It wasn't that the seaside was so much fun in the middle of the night, but that his biological mother would often leave him alone outside at night and ignore him.

He had nowhere else to go, so he would come here.

In the past, kind uncles and aunts would take him to their homes, but if his mother found out, she would beat him severely, complaining that he had caused her to lose face. Later, he stopped going and would just play by the seaside alone.

There were pillars by the seaside with lights on them, so he wasn't too afraid.

He often played by the seaside alone until he fell asleep, and even a few times he was swept into the sea by the waves. The miraculous thing was that he wasn't afraid at all; even if he fell asleep in the sea, he wasn't afraid, and the ocean would always return him safely and soundly.

There were also a few times when his mother would call out to him in a low voice, anxiously searching for him by the seaside, holding him and crying, repeatedly saying she was sorry!

When his mother was good to him, she was truly good, and when she was bad, she was truly bad.

This made him, who was very young at the time, very conflicted, unable to tell at all whether his mother was good to him or not.

Distant memories had originally become blurred, but now that he had returned to the place where he grew up, the memories of his childhood surged back like a tide, very clear.

When he was a child, he could not understand, but now he can.

He understands the contradictory feelings of his biological mother.

He was the flesh and blood that fell from his mother; how could a mother not love him?

It was just that his biological father was the person his mother hated most, the one who shattered her dreams, but he was already dead, so his mother transferred all her hatred onto him.

His mother's heart was also very bitter; he did not understand when he was a child, but now that he has grown up, he understands and has let it go, his mood feeling more relaxed than ever before.

It is said that the shadows of childhood take a lifetime to heal; it seems he does not need that, for he has already healed.