Otherworldly Space: A Tale of Love and Growth

Song Ci’s relationship with Lin Xiaohe had been going well lately. They were just one step away from becoming a loving couple. As for the usual hand-holding and cheek-kissing, Lin Xiaohe no longer resisted as much as before. He didn’t kick Song Ci or threaten him with darts at the slightest provocation. Song Ci had taken full advantage of the situation. Occasionally, they would banter with each other, and their days were quite comfortable.

Old Lady Song’s face had been lit up with more smiles recently. With Song Ergou becoming sensible, she felt that life was becoming more hopeful. All that was left was to find a good wife for her son and have a bunch of grandchildren to raise, and life would be perfect.

Given such a favorable situation, Song Ci, after much thought, chose a breezy evening with a sky full of rosy clouds to have a heart-to-heart talk with Old Lady Song.

“Mother, how about I bring a wife home for you?” Song Ci stood in front of Old Lady Song, speaking hesitantly and blushing like a schoolboy being checked on his homework. Although he was a modern person, this was the ancient times. Talking about such matters with his mother was still quite embarrassing.

“Oh, which family have you set your sights on?” Old Lady Song continued to sew the shoe uppers without even looking up at Song Ci. However, she was inwardly pleased, knowing that this rascal couldn’t hold back any longer. She had thought he could endure it for a bit longer.

“Mother, what do you think of Lin Xiaohe from the Lin family?”

“Xiaohe, he’s a diligent child, but you can’t marry him.”

“Why not? Xiaohe is good-looking, capable, and especially filial.”

Old Lady Song put her needle and thread back into the sewing basket, looked at Song Ergou seriously, and said, “Xiaohe is going to take over the family business in the future. Old Lin won’t let him marry out. You should give up on this idea.”

This troublemaker had only been well-behaved for a few days and was already causing trouble again.

“If we agree to adopt a child for the Lin family, then Uncle Lin might agree, right?” Song Ci said uncertainly, always on guard for Old Lady Song’s sudden outburst. “After all, if there’s a good future and a family that loves their child, they wouldn’t insist on keeping their Ge’er at home as a son-in-law.”

“What did you say? Say it again!” Old Lady Song thought she had heard wrong and asked Song Ci to repeat it.

Song Ci was intimidated by her furious expression and fell silent.

“You, you, you actually want to give my eldest grandson to someone else.” Old Lady Song raised the shoe upper as if to strike Song Ci.

Seeing this, Song Ci quickly retreated three paces. Seeing that Old Lady Song was still chasing him, he hastily said, “Mother, not the eldest grandson, even the second or third grandson would do.”

“That’s still my grandson. How can you decide to give him away to outsiders? I’ll beat you, you unfilial son.”

Old Lady Song chased Song Ci in circles, round after round. The rooster, leading his hens, tried to mediate but only added to the chaos. The courtyard was filled with flying feathers and the clucking of hens.

When Old Lady Song was finally too tired to run any further, she said to Song Ci, “Even without the matter of adopting a grandson, forget about it. Lin Xiaohe still has to take care of his parents. If you marry him, it would be like bringing home two burdens. It would drag us down.”

“Mother, if I’m not afraid, and Uncle Lin and his wife don’t need me to support them in their old age—they have their own hands and feet and can still work. They must have saved money for their old age. All I need to do is give Xiaohe a hand.” Song Ci said from a distance, with a sense of determination.

“What, you call Xiaohe so affectionately. Has that little vixen bewitched you?”

“No, Mother, you’re thinking too much. I just like him and want to marry him.”

“If you like someone good-looking, I’ll find you a girl. I don’t believe I can’t find someone more attractive than Lin Xiaohe in this area. You should control your feelings. Tomorrow, I’ll take you to meet some candidates.”

“Mother, I don’t like girls. I can’t get excited around them. I only like Ge’er, and I only like Lin Xiaohe. I’m determined to marry him. If you don’t let me marry Lin Xiaohe, I might never marry anyone else in my life.” As Song Ci spoke, he felt a sense of desolation.

He knew that marrying Lin Xiaohe would bring him trouble and hurt his mother’s feelings, but this was something beyond his control. The first person he saw when he came to this world was Lin Xiaohe, and the person who witnessed his transformation from Song Ergou to Song Ci was also Lin Xiaohe.

Lin Xiaohe had become his obsession, a wife compensated by the heavens for his tragic death in the previous life. If he didn’t bring him home, Song Ci felt that his heart would always be adrift, without a place to settle and grow.

Lin Xiaohe was the soil and water of his new world, the person he could not give up.

“What a wretch you are! If I had known you would be so troublesome, I should have drowned you in the latrine when you were born. Raising you well only serves to upset me,” Old Lady Song threw the shoe upper at Song Ci and sat on the ground, wailing.

“When you left, why didn’t you take me with you? You’ve only been gone for three years, and this wicked child is already ready to call someone else father and mother, and even give away our eldest grandson.”

“What’s the point of me living if this is how it is? I might as well join you in the afterlife.”

“Mother, Mother, what are you doing? Let’s talk this through calmly and reasonably. Don’t talk about dying. You doing this will only bring shame upon me, and Father in heaven will worry.”

“Then can you not marry that Ge’er from the Lin family?” Old Lady Song stopped crying instantly and asked.

Song Ci shook his head firmly.

“Dear husband, our son is unfilial, and there’s no sign of a grandson. I might as well be dead. Why didn’t you take me with you?”

“That enchantress from the Lin family, always dressing up to attract attention, has completely bewitched our Ergou. Now he doesn’t even recognize his own mother. Why doesn’t heaven take him away?”

“Even lambs and crows know to repay their mothers’ kindness. How can our son be worse than animals? I must have failed as a mother. I’ve let down the ancestors of the Song family.”

Song Ci felt both amused and frustrated as his mother scolded him and then Lin Xiaohe, and then scolded him again. When Old Lady Song had cried enough and saw that Song Ergou showed no sign of softening, she angrily brushed off the hand that was patting her back and stormed towards Uncle Song’s house.

“Mother, it’s getting dark. Where are you going?” Song Ci chased after her.

“Don’t bother me. Seeing you annoys me. Get out of my sight,” Old Lady Song said gruffly.

“Mother, how can you say that? I only have you as my mother, and you only have me as your son. If you don’t take care of me, who will?”

“Who says I’m your mother? If you want to call someone else mother, go to their house and never come back,” the irrational Old Lady Song couldn’t hear a word Song Ci said.

Song Ci didn’t respond, trying to support Old Lady Song, only to be pushed away again. Fortunately, both of them understood the importance of reputation and didn’t mention Lin Xiaohe’s name.

“Ergou, what’s going on? Did you upset your mother? Quickly apologize to her. Blood is thicker than water between a mother and son. She wouldn’t really stop recognizing you,” Aunt Liu, who was passing by, said.

Old Lady Song then realized that it was the time when villagers were returning from the fields. She must have been the subject of many jokes along the way. So she quickened her pace towards Uncle Song’s house.

Song Ci followed behind.

“What happened?” asked someone from the Tian family, who had just come from the fields, to Aunt Liu, who had witnessed the scene earlier.

“Who knows? Maybe Ergou did something wrong again and upset his mother,” Aunt Liu shook her head. “I thought Ergou had changed for the better and that the Song family’s days would get better, but it seems he’s upset his mother again. I’ve never seen Old Lady Jin lose her temper like this. What could have happened?”

“Young people, they all make mistakes. It’s fine as long as they change,” the Tian family member didn’t engage when Aunt Liu tried to slander Song Ergou.

“I’m afraid that without an adult male figure in the family, he lacks stability. He might be good today, but tomorrow he could start causing trouble again.”

“Why am I even saying this? Maybe things will get better once Ergou gets married. My father-in-law is waiting for me to cook at home. Uncle Tian, goodbye,” seeing the Tian family member deep in thought, Aunt Liu felt uneasy and quickly proposed to go home.

When Aunt Liu was young, she had a crush on Song the carpenter and wanted to marry him to live a good life. However, Song the carpenter didn’t choose her and instead married the clumsy Jin Da’niu. The Tian family member and Jin Da’niu were from the same village and were well-informed. Aunt Liu thought that mentioning Song the carpenter just now might have caused some misunderstandings.

Over the years, Aunt Liu had actually been secretly envious of Song Jinshi’s good fortune. Even after Song the carpenter passed away, he left her a substantial estate. Even if Song Ergou did nothing in his life, he would never worry about food and clothing. She had also spread rumors about Song Ergou behind his back on more than one occasion.

The Tian family member indeed had some misunderstandings, but not about Aunt Liu’s thoughts. Instead, he was contemplating the idea of a marriage alliance between the two families. Song Jinshi had always been overly indulgent towards her children. What could Song Ergou have done to upset her so much that she would say such words? If he really proposed his nephew to Song Ergou, wouldn’t he be pushing him into a pit of fire? His sister-in-law would definitely not let him off the hook.

Whether Song Ergou had truly reformed still needed to be observed. Although Aunt Liu’s words were harsh, she did say something right: young people are the most unstable and tend to act on a whim.

Marriage is a serious matter and cannot withstand such recklessness.

He should wait and see.

He had sent a message to Old Lady Song a few days ago, but she hadn’t replied yet. If Old Lady Song were to ask, he would have to come up with a way to deflect the question.