"Oh, right, this is yours." Wen Jifei leaned out of the car and tossed a small cloth bundle over in a deliberate arc, buying himself time to add a warning: "It's yours. Whatever you do, don't catch it with too much force."
Han Qingyu turned, opened his hands, dropped his arms slightly, and caught it gently. He heard a soft rustling chink from inside the bundle, but before he could look, his mother was already tugging him into the house.
The door closed behind them for now, leaving just the family of three inside. Both parents were seated, while Han Qingyu remained standing.
The atmosphere didn't feel great. It felt a lot like when he had gotten into trouble as a kid, waiting at home for a scolding.
'So Mom and Dad were the last to know about everything that happened over these five years... They were kept in the dark the whole time until their comatose son was finally brought back to them.'
Neither of his parents showed any inclination to speak yet, merely watching him with their eyes. In their gazes lay what seemed to be deep worry and helplessness, which made Han Qingyu's heart grow uneasy.
'Are Mom and Dad even a little proud because of Major Qing? Come to think of it, they're probably feeling far more worry, anger, and lingering fear. That must be why Mom beat me earlier.'
Han Qingyu had no idea how to bring it up either. After all, he didn't really understand much about it himself.
During the awkward silence, head lowered, he casually opened the small cloth bundle.
'An old silver bracelet... Mom's. Looks like she probably gave it to me when I enlisted.'
'A silver dollar?! Where did this come from? It looks genuine, and it's an antique, but there's a hole drilled through it. No telling if it's still worth anything.'
'Looks like this cloth bundle was for keeping my important belongings...' The bundle wasn't large, containing only a handful of items in total. Glancing through it casually, with no recollection of his past, Han Qingyu failed to notice that a very important item was actually missing: his little ledger.
'Wait, this is...'
'A small compact mirror?'
'A hair tie?!'
At this point, a sudden panic surged through Han Qingyu's heart. Both items were unmistakably a girl's belongings, and they bore obvious signs of use.
'It can't be... could it...?'
'If this were like a television drama, some girl must have left them for me. So then, who was she to me?'
'What happened to her? Why did she leave these everyday personal items for me?'
An involuntary wave of sorrow washed over him.
"Qingzi," his mother, Zhang Jiexia, finally spoke up, calling his name.
Han Qingyu hurriedly looked up, momentarily pulling himself together. "Yes, Mom?"
"The things you forgot—you should have a general idea about them by now, right?" Zhang Jiexia asked.
Han Qingyu nodded. "Yeah. Plague Chicken told me a bit in the car."
"That's good," Zhang Jiexia replied. Then, sounding completely casual, she asked, "So did Xiao Fei tell you whether you got a girlfriend over these five years?"
What? A girlfriend?! The question lined right up with the mirror and hair tie. Han Qingyu's heart skipped a beat. A sense of dread mingled with his nervousness as he stammered:
"Plague Chicken didn't say. Did... did I?"
If he had one, was she alright? Where was she now?
Han Qingyu had a barrage of urgent questions he wanted to ask.
But his mother didn't let him finish. She stood up, smiled faintly, and said with blunt, cold certainty: "You don't."
It wasn't that Wen Jifei hadn't said anything—he simply didn't have one at all.
"..." He didn't? That's too much, Mom! Why ask if you already knew the answer?!
Then what about these two items...? Well, not having one was fine too. Better than having one who met with tragedy. Han Qingyu silently gave thanks on behalf of his nonexistent girlfriend, letting out a sigh of relief.
While he was lost in thought, Zhang Jiexia walked over, her expression suddenly switching to one of warm affection. "Qingzi, Mom is really worried about you, do you know that?"
"I... I know." Han Qingyu nodded guiltily. In these tumultuous years, with him away on the battlefield, how could his family not worry or live in fear?
"Think about it, Qingzi," his mother said, pulling him down to sit beside her, continuing gently, "back when you were that Major Qing, such a hero, so formidable... you still couldn't find a girlfriend."
Han Qingyu froze. So Mom was still on this topic?
"And now you've ended up like this. Bedridden for months, your brain broken," Zhang Jiexia added.
"..." Han Qingyu took a moment to compose himself. "Plague Chicken said I should recover before long."
"Even so, it was broken once. People are bound to have reservations, you know? Whoever takes a liking to you and marries you—wouldn't she worry you might relapse and forget who she is all over again?"
Zhang Jiexia's pitch had all been prepared beforehand, and she smoothly pressed on:
"So right now, you're just a discharged veteran with a broken brain, do you understand? Son."
That sounded utterly miserable all of a sudden, yet his mother's eyes were filled to the brim with tender love and care... If she said so, then so be it. Han Qingyu nodded.
"So don't set your sights too high, and don't go dwelling on how formidable or heroic you used to be. At this point, you should count your blessings if anyone likes you at all, got it?"
Accusing him of setting his sights too high had no basis whatsoever, but Zhang Jiexia was covering her bases anyway. Her horizons weren't broad and she wasn't well-educated; after turning it over in her mind, her greatest fear was that Han Qingyu had stood too high before, which was why he had never found a suitable girlfriend.
'Otherwise, how could it possibly be? My son was Major Qing!'
By this point in the conversation, Han Qingyu had been completely deflated by the barrage. He nodded weakly. "Mm."
The moment his head dipped, Zhang Jiexia shot a quick glance at Han Youshan, conveying: *He's become well-behaved. Now that his brain's broken, he's very easy to fool.*
Then, turning back around, she said, "Qingzi, you're twenty-four now. Everyone says our world won't stay peaceful for more than a few years. If one day you have to go fight in a war again, your dad and I will be left all alone at home..."
As Zhang Jiexia spoke, seeing the growing distress on her son's face and judging the timing was just right, she finally got to the point:
"Go on a blind date, son."
"Huh?!" Han Qingyu thought: *Wait, isn't my brain still broken?*
But this "broken" state was precisely what Zhang Jiexia wanted. Or rather, it wasn't broken, but reset.
She had just discussed it seriously with Han Youshan. She felt that back when their son was nineteen, dense as he might have been in romance, he had by no means been a "dead-iron straight man."
Therefore, the problem was definitely caused by the Azure forces.
Fortunately, their son had suddenly reverted to his nineteen-year-old state, and seemed even more innocent than before...
This was a good thing, Zhang Jiexia had decided on the spot. Hadn't the village primary school teacher always said that when someone is a blank sheet of paper, they are easiest to shape and teach?
So taking advantage of this opportunity, she had to make him practice. She had to send him on blind dates. If it worked out in the end, that would be wonderful; if several dates failed, that didn't matter either. In any case, she had to make every effort to help him overcome this flaw.
It had taken a miracle to get another chance; under no circumstances could she let him walk down that old path again, or it would all be over.
"While we have time now, Mom has already asked someone to arrange it for you. There's no harm in meeting a few, but remember to treat each date properly and don't act like a block of iron, you hear?"
*Don't act like a block of iron? What does that even mean? Is it because of this "dead-iron straight man" thing? And what is that supposed to mean, anyway?*
While Han Qingyu was still baffled, his mother was already giving him a shove. "Go on, hurry up, take a shower and change clothes. The girl will be here soon."
"Soon?"
"Of course! Mom already laid out some clothes on your bed." Zhang Jiexia gave him another shove. "Go on, what are you standing around for?"
Chapter 706