Looking at the young girl holding him up, Old Uncle Gen gently patted the back of her hand; he smiled amiably: âYour Uncle Chen fetched me here, how would I be exhausted. You havenât returned to the village for two years, I was thinking about you, and I couldnât rest assured, canât rest assured.
âNow that I can see you, I can rest assured, youâve already grown into a big kid, a big kid who is valued by the military.â
No matter how far Ye Jian1 walks, in Old Uncle Genâs mind, she had just turned into a big kid from a little kid.
âIâm big now, and Grandpaâs older.â Ye Jianâs voice choked with sobs, she helped the elder to the couch and spoke softly: âI didnât go visit Grandpa for two years, and made you worry.â
Grandpa Gen smiled instead: âIn order to not let you come back, Iâve almost worn out my worn-out lips. Donât you think the present is quite good? Youâre being valued greatly by the military, while Iâm also being valued greatly in the village, why does it matter if you donât come back?â
âLittle lass Jian, a person only has so much time in their life, every day they spend in this world, their lifespan is one day lesser, at times when you need to learn new skills, you need to spend each day earnestly. If you come back to see me, the time you spent journeying back and forth would be three days, I wouldnât want you to waste three days of your life just to see me.â
âYou havenât returned to see me in the last two years, but rather seeing you return to see me, it makes me happier to see your current achievements. Kiddo, youâve always been using your own way to prove to me, that youâve always been putting in the work, and havenât let my expectations down, thatâs already good enough, thatâs already good enough.â
After someone gets older, they realize the importance of time better; the eighty-year-old elder had used the essence of his life to educate the kid he had watched growing up; all he wanted was for her to grow and mature waste the time of her life.
Ye Jian wiped away the tears that she couldnât keep inside; her hands gripped tightly onto the old manâs shriveled hands that were almost devoid of life, she pursed her lips, she revealed slight stubbornness on her face, and revealed a shallow smile as she replied, âI didnât come back to see Grandpa, all I could do was to talk to you with my actions, that I wonât let Grandpa down, that I wonât let Grandpa sad.â
âGrandpa knows, Grandpa knows everything, youâre a good kid, youâre Grandpaâs pride.â Old Uncle Gen was much skinnier than four years ago, but he looked quite lively, though his speech was a little tardy, but every word and every sentence he said was clear and strong, from the looks of it, the old manâs physical condition was still quite well.
He then saw Ye Jian trying to wipe away her tears without him noticing; he couldnât help but to start laughing out loud, âLook at you kiddo, I didnât even see you shedding a tear after coming out of your fifteen days intensive training, why are you shedding tears now that youâre good and well here.â
When an old person reaches this age, and after experiencing the flames of war, they would be able to see things much more clearly than others; his witty speech that doesnât lose any connotation started making Ye Jian laugh heartily.
The situation should be her making the old man happy, why did it turn into the old man making her laugh?
She knew what the elder liked to hear, so Ye Jian only said things he wanted to hear, âSnakes should be hibernating in the winter, right, but I saw two pythons wrapped around the tree, and those mountain leeches are only as big as my pinky, I didnât even know they stuck on me, only when I felt a bit of pain, hah! Good riddance, theyâre already full!â
âThese things roam around the mountains, but the situation now is much better than in the past. In my day, thereâre many tigers, many jackals, whenever weâre crossing the mountains weâre all tensed up, just in case before we start the war, everyone is eaten by tigers.â
When talking about Ye Jianâs training, the smile on Grandpa Genâs face became more prominent. Although this kid looks quite cold and aloof, but her heart was extremely kind and was only picking things he liked to hear about.