Chapter 104: Tuberculosis

Gu Jianing said, “I just think you’re really a wonderful husband, Xige. You’ll definitely be a great father in the future, too.”

She was telling the truth. Ever since they found out she was pregnant, Sheng Zexi had asked Dr. Hao all about what pregnant women needed to be careful about and how to take care of them, and he’d been putting it all into practice ever since.

But for now, Gu Jianing hadn’t told her family about the pregnancy yet, nor had she told Grandpa and Grandma Sang. She planned to wait until after the first three months, when things were more stable, before sharing the good news.

At this moment, hearing his wife praise him, Sheng Zexi couldn’t help but beam with pride, his eyes lighting up and a big smile curling on his lips. “Of course! I, Sheng Zexi, guarantee that I’m absolutely the best husband in the world.”

As for being a father, he’d never done it before, so he wasn’t sure how to go about it.

He didn’t really have a clear idea of what it meant yet, but he thought that if it was a child of his and Ningning’s, he would do his best to be a good dad.

Gu Jianing seemed to understand the unspoken meaning in Sheng Zexi’s words. She gave him a gentle, playful look, but didn’t say anything more.

Meanwhile, Qin Tian, who was sitting in the back seat and had witnessed the whole exchange, thought to himself: Sister Gu and Brother-in-law really have a great relationship.

The jeep slowly drove out of the military compound. Kaoshan Village wasn’t far away, and with Qin Tian giving directions, they arrived in less than ten minutes.

After getting out of the car, Gu Jianing stood in front of the Qin family’s house.

To her surprise, she had always thought the Qin family was poor and probably lived in a thatched hut or a mud-brick house. She hadn’t expected it to be a blue-brick, tiled house—not very big, but certainly not small either.

Seeing Gu Jianing looking at the house, Qin Tian also gazed at it, as if seeing something beyond the walls. He said softly, “Grandma said this house was built by my mom and dad with their own money…”

Qin Tian couldn’t remember how long it had been since he’d last said the words “mom and dad.” Now, saying them again, even he felt a bit unfamiliar.

They’d been gone from home for eight years.

They’d left suddenly, taken away by car. At the time, both Qin Tian and his sister Qin Qing were only two years old.

Qin Qing’s memory wasn’t as good as Qin Tian’s; she didn’t even remember what their parents looked like.

But Qin Tian, who had always been precocious, still remembered things from when he was two.

He remembered that day: their mother was telling him and his sister about how to build powerful weapons, while their father was whittling a piece of wood into a little toy gun for them with a small knife.

It was an ordinary, warm day.

Then that car arrived, shattering the peace and making the day unforgettable.

The car hurriedly took their parents away—they didn’t even have time to pack their clothes.

Their parents only had time to say a few words to Grandma and give him and his sister a quick hug.

He remembered his mother holding him and telling him to be good and live with Grandma, and to wait for them to come back.

Maybe it was a child’s intuition, but two-year-old Qin Tian cried and begged his parents not to leave.

He had a bad feeling, a sense that if his parents left, they might never see each other again.

He wanted to make them stay.

But in the end, no matter how much little Qin Tian cried, his parents still left.

Through his tears, he and his sister chased after the car, but they fell down and could only watch as the car carrying their parents quickly disappeared from sight.

After that…

For a long time after their parents left, he and his sister would cry whenever they thought of them.

Little Qin Tian would cry and ask Grandma where their parents had gone.

Grandma would pull him and his sister into her arms and say, “Your mom and dad went to do something very, very important for the country and the people.”

“Xiaotian, Xiaoqing, don’t blame your parents. They are great people.”

At two years old, Qin Tian didn’t understand what “great” meant. He only knew that he and his sister missed their parents, but their parents weren’t there.

But children, it seems, always forget quickly.

One day, when Qin Tian thought of his parents again, he suddenly realized that his sister hadn’t cried or mentioned them in a while.

As time went on, even with Qin Tian’s good memory, he had only been two at the time. As he grew older, the memories of that day, and of his parents’ faces and figures, gradually became blurry.

Mom, Dad, if you don’t come back soon, my sister and I might not remember you anymore.

Far away, at a weapons research institute in the southeast, a young woman assembling a weapon suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest, and tears welled up in her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” her husband beside her asked anxiously, noticing something was wrong.

She shook her head gently. “It’s nothing. I just suddenly thought of the kids.”

Her husband hugged her. “It won’t be long now. We’ll be able to go home soon. Even though we can’t write to them, we’ve sent our salaries back every month. Your mom and the kids should be doing okay.”

“Mm. I hope so.”

The sadness only lasted a moment. Time was tight, and the couple quickly composed themselves and got back to work.

Back in Kaoshan Village, Gu Jianing had already entered the Qin house and was sitting by Granny Qin’s kang bed.

Granny Qin was awake. When she saw Gu Jianing and Sheng Zexi, such a handsome couple, her eyes were full of kindness.

She coughed and said, “You must be the Gu sister Xiao Tian always talks about, the one who’s so good to them. Comrade Gu, sorry to trouble you to come all this way. It’s so cold—Xiao Tian shouldn’t have bothered you.”

“They say life and death are up to fate. I’ve lived to this age, and that’s enough for me. I just can’t let go of these two children. Cough, cough…”

“Grandma…” Qin Tian and Qin Qing’s eyes instantly reddened.

“Granny, since you can’t let go of the kids, you have to take care of yourself. You know what things are like for the Qin family—if you’re not here, who knows how people might bully them.”

As Gu Jianing comforted her, she also had her system bind Granny Qin as a patient, her eyes scanning Granny Qin’s condition.

She quickly reached a conclusion: it really was tuberculosis.

She took Granny Qin’s pulse and finally said, “…It’s tuberculosis.”

When Granny Qin heard the word “tuberculosis,” her already pale, thin face turned even grayer.

She’d seen this illness before in her long life.

Very few people ever recovered from it.

Granny Qin seemed to see her own death.

She’d lived a long life, and dying didn’t matter to her—but what about the two children?

She knew that there were plenty of people in the village eyeing the Qin family’s brick house with greedy intent.

Her son and daughter-in-law had been gone for eight years now, not even a single letter, let alone any money sent home. Otherwise, with only the old and the young left, things wouldn’t have been so hard.

She wondered if she’d live to see them come home.

As she thought about it, cloudy tears welled up and rolled down her cheeks.

“Grandma…” Seeing her cry, Qin Tian and Qin Qing were at a loss.

“Hey, Grandma, don’t cry. Even though it’s tuberculosis, I never said it can’t be cured.”"