“Dad, I don’t quite understand.”

A faint, light yet crisp voice cut through the long silence, breaking the most fundamental interrogation about the lengthy grievances between Yu Kaixuan and Sun Xi.

Everyone followed that voice, looking toward Yu Jiuqi, seeing her face pale and blank, yet her eyes suddenly calm and resolute.

“I don’t understand.” Xiao Jiu turned her head slightly, looking at Yu Kaixuan beside her. “Why can’t we move past it?”

Yu Kaixuan’s anger hadn’t subsided, breathing rapidly as he looked at her.

“What you call ‘can’t move past it,’ at its root, is still about the 1999 case, isn’t it?”

Yu Kaixuan didn’t understand what she wanted to say, so he just looked at her.

She simply made it clear: “Dad, it’s been so many years. The people who did wrong have long been punished. Those two people who harmed Auntie back then—one was executed by firing squad, the other is in prison. Isn’t that enough?”

Yu Kaixuan heard her getting serious, his face darkening as he answered: “That’s legal justice. Human hearts don’t find fairness so easily.”

Xiao Jiu furrowed her brow slightly, seemingly disagreeing. Normally she would have held back, even pretended to agree, but at this moment she suddenly looked directly at her father with candor, rebutting and questioning:

“Then what would it take for human hearts to find fairness? Revenge? Retaliation? Or must we watch others live worse, live more painfully—is that what it takes?”

Yu Kaixuan was stunned for a moment, whether unable to answer or shocked by Xiao Jiu’s unusual rebelliousness.

Another silence echoed through the private room, a struggle of souls. In the quiet, clear sobbing came from outside the door curtain. At first just choking sounds, then the crying grew more obvious, floating in through the suspended fabric curtain with muffled wails.

Sun Xi sat by the door. He turned to look, seeing a pair of cotton shoes covered in snow beneath the curtain. Clearly someone was standing right outside their booth. His arm reached over and yanked open the curtain. A weary, miserable face looked inside, covered in tear tracks.

Almost immediately, both Sun Xi and Yu Jiuqi recognized him. Although he had changed into thicker clothes and wore a cotton hat, that pitiful face and the child on his back who didn’t look very healthy were extremely familiar—it was the middle-aged southern man visiting relatives whom they had given a ride at noon.

Sun Xi found it even stranger, asking: “Can I help you?”

The man hurriedly wiped his face, stammering without being able to speak.

Sun Xi instinctively glanced at Xiao Jiu, feeling extremely bizarre, then turned back to ask him: “Who are you looking for?”

The man hunched his back, the child wrapped in a cotton quilt on his back staring with wide eyes, timidly looking at everyone. He stabilized his emotions slightly and took a step into the booth. Sun Xi instantly became more alert, turning his chair and moving inward, facing him, watching him vigilantly.

The man first looked at Sun Xi. His chapped lips slowly opened, his accent distinct as he asked: “Are you Sun Yuwen’s son?”

Sun Xi was startled. Before he could figure out what was happening, the man looked at Xiao Jiu again: “Are you that young lady Wen Ya’s niece?”

Yu Kaixuan, hearing these names, stared wide-eyed and shouted: “Who are you!”

The man, carrying the child on his back, slowly bent his legs, his knees alternating as they hit the ground. With a thud, he knelt down. In everyone’s astonishment, he raised his head, his red and swollen aged eyes full of bloodshot veins, stammering: “I, I am Ding Yong’s youngest son. My name is Ding Manguang.”

Everyone present was in uproar, almost all holding their breath, with shocked surprise and the anger remaining from the earlier confrontation, glaring at him.

Ding Yong was the mastermind who killed Wen Ya in 1999, a serial killer who fled across five provinces and committed five consecutive cases, a perverted demon who had long been executed but still appeared prominently in major crime recaps. Essentially, he was also the chief culprit who caused all the struggle and pain of everyone present.

Yu Kaixuan stood up abruptly, almost ready to flip his chair. Sun Xi also tensed his face, hands braced on the table.

Ding Manguang knelt there, hands on his legs, tilting his head to scan the room, quickly saying: “I have no ill intentions, I really have no ill intentions. I came specifically to see you all because I want to apologize, I want to beg your forgiveness!”

Taking advantage of everyone’s lack of response, he continued: “For a year now, I’ve traveled across five provinces, knelt before five families. You’re the only ones left.”

“I’m sorry. I’m apologizing on behalf of Ding Yong.”

“If it weren’t for his instigation, Sun Yuwen wouldn’t have participated in the crime, and young lady Wen Ya wouldn’t have been targeted… I’m so sorry…”

“Please have mercy, save us, forgive us.”

The two words “forgive us” struck everyone’s heart like two heavy punches, spattering fresh blood, spraying in ways invisible to the naked eye throughout their organs.

Yu Kaixuan endured the tightness in his chest, still unable to believe everything before his eyes. He had only wanted to make his position clear on his daughter’s romantic issues today, never expecting to encounter such an awkward ambush. Staring at the person kneeling on the ground, he asked:

“Are you really Ding Yong’s son?”

Ding Manguang said yes, then recited Ding Yong’s place of origin, accurate down to the village in the household registry. He also said Ding Yong had three children in total, two sons and one daughter. Now only he remained. His older brother and sister both died within ten years after 1999—one in a car accident, one drowned while swimming.

At this moment, the child on his back suddenly started fussing. Ding Manguang removed him from his back, held him in his arms, then set him on the ground, taking off the child’s hat to reveal a shaved head with gauze taped to it.

“This is my youngest son. From birth he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. To pay for treatment we sold our house and land, spent all our money, but still can’t cure him.” He looked at the child, saying calmly, “I have another older son who would be almost twelve if he were alive. One year his mother scolded him a couple of times, he couldn’t take it and jumped from a building.”

Yu Kaixuan looked at the dark, thin, sick child on the ground, stunned and troubled: “Where’s his mother?”

Ding Manguang said: “Not long after giving birth to him, she was gone too.”

“What about your family?”

“Just the two of us, father and son, are left.”

A brief silence. He lifted his head, looking at everyone pleadingly, saying he deeply knew his father’s sins were grave, but his entire family had already paid the price. Could they forgive his son?

Having said this much, through this uninvited guest’s rambling narration, everyone had pieced together the reason why he had crossed nearly the entire country to apologize on behalf of his wickedly sinful father.

Simply put, after Ding Yong was executed, his entire family had experienced bizarre misfortune and disintegration over these twenty-some years. At his most desperate, Ding Manguang turned to superstition and was told that for his youngest son to survive, he needed to seek forgiveness from all the families his father had harmed.

Confused, trembling, yet full of hope, he set out on his journey.

He said he had previously contacted Wen Wen and was turned away. Wen Wen cursed him, said he deserved it, that it was retribution, and would never forgive him. But some time ago, Wen Wen suddenly contacted him, saying Sun Yuwen was dying in prison. “You want to eliminate your karmic burden? Go find him.”

Ding Manguang had arrived in Stone City a couple of days ago. He first went to the prison to see Sun Yuwen. It was Sun Yuwen who mentioned that his son had returned.

Ding Manguang, carrying complex guilt, wanted to meet Sun Xi, who had similarly been dragged down by that case. He discovered Sun Xi was in a passionate relationship with Wen Wen’s daughter. He thought fate was finally taking pity on his sincerity and dedication, letting him see that love could grow even from hatred and grievances. He thought he would be forgiven, thought it would change his child’s and family’s misfortune. So he followed them here and knelt in this place.

After hearing all this, Sun Xi’s stomach churned. He instinctively wanted to vomit, unable to say a word. At this moment, Ding Manguang looked up at him and suddenly spoke words that made him completely lose control.

He said: “Your father Sun Yuwen is very ill, do you know?”

“He says he’s also repenting. He’s been writing you letters these past two years, right? Asking you to do something for him.”

“He asked me to tell you that you’re doing very well.”

Sun Xi suddenly turned around, supporting himself against the wall of the booth, dry heaving in pain.

Yu Jiuqi looked across the messy table at Sun Xi. She had never known that Sun Yuwen was writing him letters, much less understood what he meant by saying Sun Xi was doing very well.

“This is complete fucking nonsense!”

Yu Kaixuan found it utterly absurd. He stood up, walked around everyone, and headed out. Ding Manguang knelt there, trying to stop him, as if continuing to seek forgiveness.

“Impossible.” Yu Kaixuan stopped, glanced at the sick child, only saying, “Unless a miracle happens.”

He strode out.

Yu Jiuqi saw her father’s steps staggering, as if he were drunk. Worried about the wind and snow outside and the slippery ice-covered steps at the entrance, she followed him out. Just as she turned into the main hall, before she could call out to him, she heard a dull thud.

Xiao Jiu ran out to look and saw that Yu Kaixuan had indeed slipped on the steps, his entire body sitting sprawled on the cement ground, his lower back wedged against the corner of a protruding stone step.

Xiao Jiu went to help him. Yu Kaixuan stubbornly shook her off, wanting to stand up himself, but suddenly a sharp pain shot through his waist. He couldn’t muster any strength. Outside in the howling wind and snow, he broke out in a fine sweat from the pain.

Xiao Jiu knew the fall wasn’t light. Anxiety brought tears to her voice as she shouted loudly toward the inside.

“Ge! Ge! Come quickly!” Her crying tone grew heavier as she shouted, “Sun Xi!”

Sun Xi and Ge Fan ran out together. Yu Kaixuan held firm, refusing to let Sun Xi help. But he was over one meter eighty tall and not light in weight. Ge Fan alone couldn’t manage it. Finally, Sun Xi crouched in front of him, using an almost pleading tone, saying, “Uncle, we need to get to the hospital quickly. Let me carry you on my back, okay?”

Yu Kaixuan endured the severe pain in his waist, looking at him for a moment before lowering his eyes, making up his mind, and placing his hand on Sun Xi’s back.

The group had all been drinking, so Xiao Jiu asked a restaurant employee to help drive them directly to the city hospital.

On the road, Sun Xi realized something was wrong. Suspecting Yu Kaixuan’s lumbar vertebrae might have a fracture risk, he asked if his lower limbs had sensation. Yu Kaixuan couldn’t answer for a moment.

Sun Xi laid his waist flat in the back seat, squatting himself in the small space beside him. He called the city hospital, asking emergency to prepare a stretcher at the entrance, saying the patient’s waist couldn’t be moved.

After arriving at the hospital, the group followed the stretcher, bypassing emergency and going directly to the spinal surgery department. Xiao Jiu held Yu Kaixuan’s down jacket and followed the entire way. Ge Fan contacted Meng Huihong to bring documents and handle procedures. Sun Xi followed the doctor into the ward. The doctor drew the curtain and had him help remove clothing and pants for the examination.

Xiao Jiu was kept outside the curtain, anxious and frantic. She heard Yu Kaixuan inside, enduring pain, loudly calling her: “Jiu?” Xiao Jiu quickly responded, “Dad.” Yu Kaixuan said, “Where’s your brother? Get your brother in here.”

Xiao Jiu knew Yu Kaixuan didn’t want Sun Xi helping him undress. He didn’t want to appear so helpless in front of him. Choking up, she said, “Dad, Ge went to pick up Auntie Hong. Auntie Hong has arrived. He was afraid she’d be anxious and unable to handle things properly.”

Sun Xi understood. Inside he said, “Uncle, just think of me as an orderly, a stranger. I’m just helping the doctor out. Once I’m done, I’ll leave, okay? Don’t move. Don’t turn your head either.”

The doctor also said, “At a time like this, don’t worry about such things. Hurry up. Pull down your pants so I can take a look, then we’ll go get an X-ray.”

Yu Kaixuan fell silent, not saying another word. But when the doctor asked him about sensations in different parts of his body, he responded in a muffled voice.

Xiao Jiu stood outside, biting her lip, her heart in her throat, listening carefully to the movements inside. With Yu Kaixuan’s every response—simple words like “I feel it” and “I don’t feel it,” “it hurts” and “it doesn’t hurt”—each phrase stabbed into her heart like a knife.

She desperately wanted to ask where it hurt, where it didn’t hurt, where he had sensation, where he didn’t. She could only guess, relying on her faith that her father, a good man, would receive karmic reward, hoping there wouldn’t be a bad outcome.

After it ended, Sun Xi dressed Yu Kaixuan properly. The doctor pulled open the curtain, saying the problem wasn’t too serious, possibly a mild compression fracture. They’d need to take an X-ray to be specific.

Yu Jiuqi’s tears instantly gushed out. She dropped her head heavily.

When she raised her head again, she happened to meet those equally confused eyes a few steps away. Although barely ten hours had passed since they returned from Chagan Lake, from being full of hope to panicked defeat, these waves of accidents and upheavals made them like two tiny ants standing in a huge, dizzying field of fate, helplessly looking at each other, both unable to discern direction.

Ge Fan and Meng Huihong’s voices came from outside. Sun Xi withdrew his gaze and sensibly walked out, wanting to leave.

As they passed each other, just for a brief instant, without any preparation, Xiao Jiu suddenly grabbed two of Sun Xi’s fingers and held them in her hand.

Just like he had done in the police station corridor not long ago, she squeezed those two stiff knuckles hard, then released them.

Sun Xi felt the pain and turned to look back at her. Xiao Jiu looked over firmly, her eyes intent and focused.

Like some kind of tacit signal, they didn’t need to speak it aloud. With that one glance, they understood.

Then they calmly disconnected temporarily.

But Sun Xi didn’t leave the hospital building. At the stairwell, he suddenly received a call from Sun Tingting. He stopped for a few seconds, hung up, lifted his legs, and hurriedly climbed the stairs to the inpatient department upstairs.

Another storm.

After a while, Yu Jiuqi learned that Wen Wen had also come.

It was while waiting for Yu Kaixuan’s X-ray examination that Meng Huihong casually mentioned it.

“Where did your mother go?”

At the mention of Wen Wen, Xiao Jiu’s heart knotted. In a muffled voice: “My mom?”

Auntie Hong said: “She came too. I just saw her.”

“Where?”

“By the stairwell.” She added, “She looked like she was going upstairs.”

Xiao Jiu glanced at the stairwell, then followed the direction upward, remembering that upstairs seemed to be Sun Xi’s grandmother’s hospital room. She wasn’t sure if her premonition was accurate. Taking advantage of Meng Huihong accompanying Yu Kaixuan, she went upstairs to check.

Before reaching that ward, just after climbing the stairs, she heard arguing voices in the corridor—pleading, crying, scolding, and even the dull sound of powerless fists hitting someone’s body. Those voices were all familiar to her.

The one pleading was Ding Manguang with his distinctive accent. He had carried his sick child to the hospital, with a confused yet desperate heart in his dire straits, apologizing to Grandma Sun, who was similarly dragged down by his father’s evil.

Grandma Sun, propped up by her bones alone, firmly refused to forgive, recounting the family tragedy again, blaming it all on Ding Yong, who had once fled and hidden here. When she got emotional, she cried loudly, weeping as she clenched empty fists and struck Ding Manguang’s body twice, only stirring up clouds of dust.

The one scolding was Sun Xi. He wanted to end this farce, loudly urging Ding Manguang to quickly leave with his child. It wasn’t good to attract so many onlookers in the hospital. He also said not to believe in superstition, to find ways to raise money and continue treating the child.

The crowd of onlookers packed two layers deep. Yu Jiuqi immediately spotted Wen Wen in the outermost layer.

She still wore her signature black coat, black long curly hair draped over her shoulders. She didn’t move closer or interfere, distantly buried in the crowd outside, coldly watching the broken families of the two murderers she hated most tearing at and suppressing each other—something she herself had stirred up—like a merciless, cold judge.

Until she heard Ding Manguang mention two key words in his pleading, then she suddenly pushed through the onlooking crowd like a leopard smelling blood, walked over, and questioned repeatedly.

First asking Ding Manguang: “What did Sun Yuwen say to you? He’s repenting?”

Then looking at Sun Xi: “What letters? What letters did he write you?”

It was at this moment that Yu Jiuqi came over. She almost roughly pulled Wen Wen, saying let’s go, my dad is downstairs.

Wen Wen could somewhat understand that Ding Yong’s son, because of his tragic life, was being neurotic about atoning for sins. But she absolutely could not accept that the still-living Sun Yuwen had any intention of repenting. She found it hypocritical and infuriating. He didn’t deserve peace. He should be a complete scoundrel until death, going straight to hell after dying. So she stared at Sun Xi, asking “why,” asking about the letters, relentlessly.

Xiao Jiu, with years of experience grappling with Wen Wen, knew she couldn’t be persuaded. But worried about her father downstairs, she gave Sun Xi a look, meaning you should leave first.

Sun Xi looked at Xiao Jiu intently for a moment, turned, walked around the crowd, and went downstairs.

Wen Wen still like a leopard, agilely chased after him. Xiao Jiu grabbed her once, only delaying a little time, ultimately unable to stop her.

She followed Wen Wen, running down several flights of stairs, chasing that tall figure already out of sight, coming to the empty hospital parking lot.

At first, Yu Jiuqi didn’t notice anything unusual, only surprised that it wasn’t so cold outside. The wind and snow that had blown all day had somehow suddenly stopped.

Everywhere was peaceful, as if in a vacuum.

There weren’t many people, only Wen Wen bumbling around like a headless fly, searching for the enemy she had lost track of, the one who had scattered her life again and again.

Xiao Jiu slowly followed behind her. Actually, she wasn’t tired, but her heart was extremely weary. She sighed heavily. Suddenly a thought flashed through her mind. In the future, she didn’t want to chase after her mother like this anymore, didn’t want to clean up after the chaos she caused.

So she called faintly and lightly: “Mom.”

Wen Wen turned around, long hair swinging across her face, her sinister eyes swiftly looking over, looking at Xiao Jiu, asking: “You let him go?”

Xiao Jiu didn’t deny it.

Wen Wen asked again: “Do you know about those things? Letters?” She laughed coldly. “He’s actually repenting?”

Xiao Jiu didn’t want to explain anymore. She only said: “If I said I didn’t know, would you believe me?”

Suddenly, a trace of colored light flickered across the sky, suspended above Wen Wen’s head, flashing past in an instant. Xiao Jiu’s attention wavered, thinking her eyes were playing tricks.

Then she said listlessly to Wen Wen: “Let’s go. Dad should be done with his X-ray.”

But Wen Wen didn’t move.

Xiao Jiu looked at her, understanding she was throwing a tantrum. She also knew that if at this moment she obediently coaxed her, said what she liked to hear, cursed the people she hated, insincerely drawing clear boundaries and stating her position like she had done so many times over the years, she could placate her.

But she suddenly didn’t want to do that anymore.

Never again.

So she turned and walked away. If you want to stay here, you can stay here by yourself.

“Yu Jiuqi.”

Xiao Jiu stopped but didn’t turn around.

Wen Wen’s voice trembled: “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to see my dad.” Xiao Jiu said, “Are you coming with me? Do you care?”

“How can you say I don’t care about your dad?”

“I don’t know…” Xiao Jiu’s chest blocked with anger. She couldn’t hold back. “If you cared about him, wouldn’t you feel guilty?”

“I should feel guilty?”

“Don’t you think you have responsibility for what happened today? If you hadn’t called that person here, Dad wouldn’t have had this accident.” Xiao Jiu’s nose tingled. She turned her head back. “Have you thought about it? What if he was really seriously injured!”

At this moment, she saw two more colored light pillars flash by, suspended in the air. Still, she didn’t pay attention.

Wen Wen, under the light pillars, asked bleakly: “Why did I call him here? Wasn’t it for you?”

“For me?” Xiao Jiu was astonished.

“I just wanted to muddy the waters, make you see their family’s true colors. You heard it too. Sun Yuwen has been writing letters to Sun Xi. Do you think he came back for you? Who’s to say Sun Yuwen didn’t teach him everything? He has ulterior motives!”

Yu Jiuqi suddenly covered her face. Every word was unbearable to her.

Wen Wen thought she had persuaded her. She walked two steps closer, saying seductively: “Jiu, Mom is doing this for your own good. Only Mom loves you the most.”

“Mom!” Yu Jiuqi released her hands, looked at her, and shouted, “Do you really love me?”

Might as well be straightforward. She said it all in one breath: “Years ago, you knew I found a job in Beijing. You deliberately made me come back. Now you deliberately brought Third Uncle back, brought that Ding Manguang over. When you do these things, is it really because you love me!”

The echo of her roar reverberated layer upon layer in the empty night.

Then suddenly, Xiao Jiu raised her head to look at the sky, eyes widening. This time she clearly saw many faint colored light pillars suspended in the pitch-black, peaceful sky, straight, slender, standing unevenly between heaven and earth.

For northern children, this rare natural phenomenon wasn’t unfamiliar. Xiao Jiu quickly knew she was seeing light pillars formed by ice crystals reflecting light in the cold night.

This wasn’t the first time she had seen this natural phenomenon, but strangely, cold night light pillars generally appeared on clear days just after nightfall. But now it was already late at night, and wind and snow had blown all day. This magnificent and dazzling spectacle between heaven and earth was extraordinarily shocking.

It could be called a miracle.

Very interestingly, the miracle didn’t happen in human hearts that couldn’t obtain justice, didn’t happen in true love diligently trying to heal grievances, didn’t happen in pitiable tragic families, didn’t happen among survivors stubbornly clinging to hatred.

Instead, it happened in this great nature, between heaven and earth, freely, equally, and warningly bestowed upon all people.

Yu Kaixuan lay in the hospital bed he had just been admitted to, silently looking out the window together with Meng Huihong. Ding Manguang, along with the onlooking crowd, looked through the corridor window in amazement at the miracle. Grandma Sun stood right behind him, looking at the sickly child on his back, and suddenly cried.

Sun Xi sat in his car, looking at the magnificent spectacle before him. The ash from the cigarette in his hand trembled and fell, extinguishing silently.

And Yu Jiuqi, looking up at the wonder, suddenly gained tremendous courage.

She felt it was now. There was no reason to escape anymore. She followed the unfinished words from earlier, bravely spreading open the biggest secret, bond, and pain between her and her mother that had nourished her but also deeply tormented her for so many years.

She turned back, looking at Wen Wen’s bleak face, and said:

“Mom, I know you’re afraid I’ll leave you.”

“I know you need me very much.”

“But after all these years, I’m also very tired. I’m really very tired, Mom.”

“That’s right, you gave me my life, and I also know that the day you found me, you were planning to commit suicide.”

“You saved me, and I also saved you.”

“So must we be tied together for life? Must I maintain your life force forever? Must I live for you?”

“Then I’d rather you hadn’t picked me up that day.”

Tears slid down Wen Wen’s face. Regardless of everything, she only looked at Xiao Jiu, hearing Xiao Jiu continue speaking.

“Mom, you understand. You don’t do those things because you love me.”

“But I don’t blame you.”

“I don’t blame you for not loving me enough, Mom.”

She raised her head again, looking at the miracle in the sky, saying as if talking to herself:

“But I’m going to start loving myself.”

Only then did Wen Wen look up at the sky, feeling deeply familiar.

As if suddenly returning to that year.