Chapter 165: The Unfulfilled Promise

The two of them played and chased each other in the courtyard, which ultimately ended with Luo Yixia begging for mercy.

"I was wrong, I was wrong." Luo Yixia squatted in the snow, wearing her hat and clutching her head.

Song Chenyi ran up to her, noticing that her clothes were also covered in snowballs he had thrown.

Then, catching sight of her little hands, frozen bright red, a pang of deep heartache washed over him.

"Will you be cheeky again next time?" Song Chenyi intentionally put on a stern face.

"Never again." Luo Yixia then raised her small face, which was beaming with a bright smile.

"Are you cold?" Song Chenyi's tone softened considerably.

Luo Yixia immediately sniffed and said in a pitiful manner, "Cold."

With that, she thrust both her hands right in front of Song Chenyi.

Song Chenyi cupped her hands in his, brought them close to his mouth to breathe warm air onto them, and then rubbed them back and forth.

"Let's go back."

"Okay."

At noon, Luo Yixia received a call from Yu Wenjing. Although she had already sent a text message earlier, her parents clearly still worried about her.

Luo Yixia went back to her room. After navigating the hallways these past few days, she could now accurately find her way around.

"Mom," Luo Yixia answered the video call.

"How come your face has grown a bit rounder?" Yu Wenjing teased the moment she connected.

"Grandma has people making all sorts of delicious food for me every day. I couldn't help myself." Luo Yixia giggled.

"Your mom here was worried you might be getting bullied, but looking at you now, you're living much more comfortably than at home." Yu Wenjing smiled as well.

"Grandma is so good to me; even Song Chenyi doesn't get treated this well." Luo Yixia began recounting how wonderfully the elderly lady treated her.

Hearing this, Yu Wenjing finally set her mind completely at ease.

"Where are Dad, Grandpa, and Grandma?" Luo Yixia didn't see anyone else in the video feed.

"Your grandparents finished eating and went out to visit neighbors. Your dad went along with them."

"I'll head back right after the New Year." Luo Yixia actually missed her grandparents quite a bit.

She hadn't returned home this summer, and now going back would have to wait until after the New Year.

"Everything is fine at home. Just take good care of yourself, and don't go lawless just because Grandma dotes on you, you hear?"

"I know," Luo Yixia replied softly.

After chatting for a bit longer, they hung up. Before the call, she hadn't realized it, but now she suddenly felt a strong wave of homesickness—missing her parents, missing her grandparents.

Actually, there were only six days left until the Lunar New Year. Thinking about it, time really flew.

Early that morning, the entire family prepared to go out and purchase some New Year goods.

Song Chenyi was also dragged out of the house by Luo Yixia.

The snow on the streets had mostly been cleared away, and the weather today was quite nice, with the sun shining brightly outside.

Luo Yixia was still bundled up warmly.

As soon as the elderly matriarch stepped out, many nearby neighbors spotted her and came over to greet her.

However, because it had been either raining or snowing over the past few days, Luo Yixia hadn't had a chance to stroll outside, and no one had caught sight of her.

Everyone in the neighborhood already knew that the Song family was quite wealthy, ran a large company in the city, and that their two sons were exceptionally capable and handsome.

Anyone in the neighborhood with daughters naturally wished to marry into the Song family.

Yet, after not seeing him for a year, and despite the younger Song son still being in school, how was it that he had already returned holding hands with a young girl?

Inevitably, a few gossipy neighbors came over to ask, "Old Madam, is this your granddaughter-in-law?"

"Isn't she pretty? So fresh and bright," the elderly lady said, beaming with joy.

"Chenyi has grown up in the blink of an eye, and he's already taken a girlfriend."

"Chenyi isn't young anymore; it's time for him to have a girlfriend. As parents, we can't meddle in the children's affairs. As long as the kids like each other, that's all that matters."

With a single sentence, the elderly lady shut down any further discussion.

Everyone was left without even the slightest opportunity to harbor any fantasies.

That person awkwardly closed their mouth.

Along the way, others asked as well, and the old lady responded with a smile to each of them.

Luo Yixia, however, felt rather uncomfortable, feeling like an animal in a zoo being watched by spectators.

"Dad, Mom, Grandma, should I take Xiahua for a stroll somewhere else?" Song Chenyi noticed the grip on the small hand he held tighten, and he understood instantly.

"Go on, go, take Xiaxia out to play around," the old lady agreed readily.

Song Chenyi pulled Luo Yixia away from the crowd of onlookers, and only then did he let out a breath of relief.

"Why is simply buying things on the street so difficult?" Luo Yixia couldn't help complaining.

"Maybe it's because you're too pretty?"

Luo Yixia immediately burst into a smile. "It's rare to hear you praise me. I'm quite satisfied with this, and now I actually want to go back and continue being gawked at."

Song Chenyi was also amused by her remark.

Walking hand in hand, the two of them looked just like any other young couple on the street.

"We still don't know when Brother Zeming will be able to come back," Luo Yixia mentioned casually.

"Mhm, his military unit is very busy."

"By the way, how old is Brother Zeming this year? Twenty-six, right? Why hasn't he found a partner yet?" Girls were always prone to gossip.

"Do you think everyone is like you?"

"What's wrong with me? Is it wrong of me to like you? Or should I just stop liking you then?"

Cornered by Luo Yixia's retort, Song Chenyi gritted his teeth and replied, "No."

"I was wandering around the courtyard these past few days and noticed several empty rooms. Every single one of them is meticulously cleaned and kept very neat. Are those prepared for some relatives of the family?" Luo Yixia had wanted to ask while at home, but hadn't found the right opportunity.

Song Chenyi fell silent for a moment. "Grandma prepared them. She keeps them as a lingering memory for herself."

Seeing the solemn expression on Song Chenyi's face, Luo Yixia froze, not quite understanding, and waited for him to continue.

"I originally planned to tell you about this in the future, but since you're asking now... once I tell you, you mustn't be too sad." Song Chenyi reached out and tucked a lock of her hair, blown astray by the wind, behind her ear.

"Go ahead."

"That happened almost thirty years ago. Back then, Grandma was only in her thirties..." Song Chenyi gazed into the distance.

Sure enough, five minutes later, Luo Yixia sniffed, rubbed her eyes, and unable to hold it back anymore, tears began to stream down her face.

"Didn't we agree not to cry?" Song Chenyi said, feeling somewhat helpless and torn.

"But my heart hurts for her," Luo Yixia pouted, feeling an overwhelming surge of heartache.

Resigned to her fate, Song Chenyi gently wiped away her tears.

"Wuwu, how hard must Grandma's life have been all these years? She has persevered all alone for so many decades."

"All this time, she's been waiting for Grandpa and the eldest uncle to return. Even though she clearly knows they can never come back, she just keeps waiting, even when there's not a shred of hope left." Luo Yixia buried her face in Song Chenyi's chest.

Thirty-four years ago, an airplane carrying 135 people was flying back home from the distant western ocean. No one expected the plane to meet with an accident. All 135 passengers, along with eight flight crew members, perished. Not a single body was recovered, and even the wreckage of the plane was never found.

Among the names on the ill-fated flight manifest were the grandfather and the eldest uncle.

That year, Song Shaohui was only fourteen years old, and Song Chaoyang was mere eight. For a woman to be left to drag up two young children was utter despair.

Not only had she lost her husband, but she had also lost her eldest son—a young man in the prime of his youth, who had just reached adulthood.

Yet, she never collapsed under the weight of it. She shouldered the entire family and took charge of the Song family's business.

Those years were agonizing. Every single day, she had to care for her children while dealing with corporate affairs. Shareholders abandoned the company, stock prices plummeted, business deals fell through... she experienced it all.

She persevered through those hard years, eventually even expanding the Song Corporation. Later, when Song Shaohui came of age, he gradually took over the company, and fortunately, he proved capable, managing the business exceptionally well.

Later on, of the two grandsons, one chose the military academy and entered the armed forces, while the other chose to become a doctor.

At the time, no one in the family supported this; only the elderly matriarch did. When she heard that her grandson wanted to become a doctor, she gave her full and enthusiastic support.

Song Shaohui and Zhou Yun both felt that the old lady was spoiling her grandson too much and had grown muddle-headed with age. But only the old lady had her wits about her.

Ultimately, out of a brotherly heartache for his younger sibling, Song Zeming made concessions to the family.

Back then, Song Chenyi had even called him up and quarreled with him, saying that his own life didn't require his older brother to make sacrifices for it.

Yet Song Zeming had only smiled and said, "Isn't a big brother supposed to make sacrifices for his younger brother?"

The matter was eventually left unresolved, and Song Chenyi had always felt a lingering sense of guilt toward his brother.

With only a year left—since it had been agreed back then that once Song Chenyi graduated, his older brother would return to take over the family business.

In a little over a year, Song Chenyi would graduate.

"So Grandma has always been waiting for them to return, refusing to give up even after all these years." After crying for a long while, Luo Yixia finally managed to calm down.

"For so many years, our family has grown accustomed to it. It's just that Grandma later moved to a different room and stopped resting in the bedroom she originally shared with Grandpa. She said she had too many clumsy habits, and if she stayed in the old room and messed up the arrangement of things, Grandpa would get angry." That was what Song Chenyi had heard his grandmother say when he was very young.

Yet no one knew that all these years, the elderly matriarch had simply been waiting for the person who had made a promise to return.

The one who had said, "Stay at home and take care of the kids for me. Once I finish negotiating this business deal, we'll move into the city. Didn't you say the family estate is too big and feels too desolate? We'll go to the city together; it'll be closer to the company, and I won't have to constantly travel back and forth."

That promise could never be fulfilled again, and the person who made it vanished along with all hope.

To the elderly matriarch, her husband and her son were still alive in this world; they had simply lost their way home. One day, he would return to fulfill his promise; one day, they would all come back, and the family would be reunited.

She wanted to tell him that over all these years, she had taken good care of the children, that they had grown up to be exceptional, and that she had lived a good life.

"Stop crying. If you keep crying like this, when we go back, they'll scold me for bullying you," Song Chenyi said with a tender ache in his heart.

"No, I'm not crying anymore. I just feel so sorry for Grandma... I just... the wind here is simply too strong... that's all..." Luo Yixia's words became a bit disjointed.

He knew she had always been this prone to tears; he knew she would find this deeply distressing, which was why he had hesitated for so long.

His girl possessed such a tender heart.

His girl was still just as endearing and worthy of all the love in the world.

"From now on... from now on, we'll come back more often to keep Grandma company..."

"Alright. Whenever we have time, we'll come back. We'll both come back," Song Chenyi said solemnly, resting his chin atop her head.

Luo Yixia's heart ached for the elderly matriarch. She herself had only liked Song Chenyi for a few years, had only harbored a secret crush for a few years, and already she had felt so sad and hurt. But how had Grandma managed to hold on all by herself for all these decades?