86: Chapter 86 Half a Lifetime of Homesickness

"Father, Mother, Big Brother, Little Sister... I have returned."

Tie Qichang murmured in a low voice, his cloudy eyes brimming with tears, his voice laden with nearly half a century of longing and the vicissitudes of life.

Party Secretary Tie Dahe looked at the unfamiliar old man with confusion. To be treated with such courtesy by Secretary Li, could he be a high-ranking official from above?

But why hadn't the township given any advance notice?

Just as he was utterly baffled, an even more shocking scene unfolded.

Tie Qichang suddenly fell to his knees, kowtowed heavily three times toward the direction of the village, then bent down, cupped a handful of yellow earth in his trembling hands, and kissed this land that had raised him with deep affection.

This wanderer, who had been drifting outside for over forty years, was using the simplest of ways to express his deepest love and longing for his hometown.

At this moment, an old man with a hunched back who had been standing behind Party Secretary Tie Dahe narrowed his dim eyes, examined Tie Qichang carefully, and asked in a trembling voice, "You... are you Changwazi?"

This long-forgotten childhood nickname was like a key, instantly unlocking Tie Qichang's sealed memories.

He jerked his head up, his cloudy eyes suddenly brightening: "Uncle Baoping?"

"Changwazi! Is it really you?!"

Uncle Baoping's voice became distorted with excitement, his wrinkled face filled with disbelief.

"What? Changwazi?"

"Old Pingtou, have you gone senile? Let me take a look."

Another white-haired old man squeezed forward, squinted to examine him closely, then suddenly slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "Oh my! It really is Changwazi! Am I dreaming? Didn't you long ago..."

"Uncle Xiaoliu! I didn't die, I am still alive."

Tie Qichang replied with a choked sob, his voice full of the vicissitudes of life.

These words were like a stone thrown into a calm lake, stirring up ripples.

Several other elderly villagers crowded around, some touching Tie Qichang's hands, others patting his shoulders, all talking at once to confirm this miracle of "returning from the dead."

Afterward, in the adobe house of the village committee, Tie Qichang briefly recounted his experiences over the years to these white-haired elders.

As they listened to how he had escaped death and drifted away, the elders couldn't help but shake their heads and sigh.

"Changwazi, it's good that you're alive!"

Uncle Baoping gripped Tie Qichang's hand tightly, tears streaming down his face: "Dongming can rest in peace in the afterlife! Your family... your family line hasn't been cut off!"

These words were like a dull knife, carving straight into Tie Qichang's heart.

He tilted his head back and took a deep breath, but he couldn't stop the tears from welling up and spilling over.

After a long while, he asked with a tremor, "Uncle Baoping, my father and mother... and my big brother and little sister, where... where are their graves?"

"I want to... go see them."

Uncle Baoping shook his head and sighed heavily: "They're all gone... In those years, we were barely running for our lives; who could worry about such things?"

"By the time we returned, it was already... already impossible to find anything..."

Upon hearing this, Tie Qichang's body swayed violently, as if he had been struck hard in the chest.

He gripped his cane tightly, cloudy tears winding their way down his deeply furrowed face.

Forty-eight years of longing and dreaming, and in return, he couldn't even find a handful of earth to pay respects to his relatives. This heart-piercing pain made him almost unable to stand.

Li Dakang stood to the side, his gaze deep.

Watching the hunched back of this white-haired old man, a wave of sorrow welled up in his heart.

He understood the weight of this nostalgia all too well: leaving home as a vibrant, promising young man, returning as a white-haired elder in the twilight of his life, only to find no trace of his loved ones' graves.

"Elder Tie."

Li Dakang stepped forward, his voice gentle yet firm: "The dead are gone; the living must go on."

"Your safe return is a great comfort to Tieshan Village and a blessing for our Guantian Township."

Tie Qichang nodded slowly, his Adam's apple bobbing a few times, and finally, he only spat out a few words: "I want to... walk around the village."

Immediately, the crowd surrounded Tie Qichang as they strolled along the country path.

The bumpy dirt road of the past was now paved with bluestone slabs, and the mottled old walls had been replaced by brick houses; only the old locust tree in the center of the village still stood tall.

When Tie Qichang saw the shadow of the twisting branches, his footsteps suddenly halted.

A breeze brushed past, and the locust leaves rustled. In a daze, he seemed to hear the laughter of his childhood playmates.

More than sixty years ago, Tie Qichang had played hide-and-seek with his friends under this tree, listened to the elders tell stories in its shade, and carved crooked marks into its trunk.

Now the old tree was still lush and green, but those vivid faces had long since turned into bones beneath the yellow earth or become lonely spirits in distant lands.

"I didn't expect..."

Tie Qichang's trembling hand touched the cracked bark, his voice as light as a sigh: "You are still here."

...

At lunchtime, the group sat around the square table at Party Secretary Tie Dahe's home, preparing to eat.

When a few simple farm dishes were placed on the table, Tie Min's brows immediately furrowed into a knot.

"They say people in the interior are hospitable."

Tie Min pointed at the food on the table without reservation: "Why treat guests with things that even pigs wouldn't eat?"

The table was indeed excessively simple: a plate of boiled cabbage with faint specks of oil, a basin of sweet potato porridge so thin one could see their reflection in it, and a bowl of shriveled fried beans.