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CHAPTER 5
PART 1
After such an event, the atmosphere at dinner was naturally heavy and subdued. Everyone ate in silence, with hardly any conversation or interaction. Breaking the solemnity was Fan Lin's daughter, Fan Wenjing. She sensed that something was off today and asked, "Mom, why is no one talking?"
"Silent at meals, quiet at rest. We shouldn't be talking while eating."
"Why wasn't it like this before?"
Fan Lin didn't know how to answer, so she picked up a piece of food for Fan Wenjing with chopsticks. "Don't ask, just eat."
Fan Wenjing looked around the table and noticed that there was one person missing today. She asked, "Where is Grandma Gong? Why isn't she eating with us?"
After contemplating for a moment, Fan Lin thought that she couldn't keep this from her daughter forever, but she also didn't want to reveal too much. So she informed her daughter in a more moderate way. "Wenjing, Grandma Gong... has passed away."
"Where did she go?"
"To a faraway place, and she won't be coming back for a while."
Fan Wenjing was only six years old and didn't have a concept of "death" yet. Innocently, she asked, "Where is the faraway place? Why didn't Grandma Gong tell us before she left?"
"Okay, stop asking, Wenjing..."
"Passed away," a sudden voice interjected. Fan Lin froze, and everyone else who was eating also stopped, raising their heads to look around as if no one had clearly heard who said that.
Except for Su Xiaotong. If she hadn't misheard, this voice came from Gu Xiaoliang, who was seated between her and Gu Lei. But she wasn't entirely sure, she locked eyes with Gu Lei and then instinctively glanced at Gu Xiaoliang, he was looking down, as if he had just swallowed a mouthful of food.
"Who was speaking just now?" Wang Xingxing asked in confusion.
As if in response to his question, this time, Gu Xiaoliang repeated the two words he had said before, clear and distinct: "Passed away."
This time, everyone understood clearly. Fan Wenjing widened her eyes and asked, "Who passed away?"
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Gu Xiaoliang raised his arm and pointed towards Li Xueli. Li Xueli was taken aback, freezing on the spot. Su Xiaotong was caught in an awkward situation and immediately pressed Gu Xiaoliang's hand down, saying, "Xiaoliang, don't talk nonsense!"
"I'm not talking nonsense. She passed away," Gu Xiaoliang said expressionlessly.
"This..." Li Xueli's face turned embarrassed.
Su Xiaotong hurriedly apologized, "Xueli, please don't mind. You know how this child is... I don't know what's gotten into him today..."
"It's fine... I understand."
Wang Xingxing, sitting next to Li Xueli, put two and two together. "Sister Xueli, he's not referring to you, nor to me. He means... Yamei."
As Wang Xingxing said this, everyone understood. While the seating arrangement wasn't fixed when eating at Li Xueli's place, over time, everyone had become accustomed to sitting in their usual spots, with mostly the same people around them. Gong Yamei had often sat between Li Xueli and Wang Xingxing.
Fan Wenjing wasn't naive. Piecing together all the signs and combining it with what Gu Xiaoliang had said, she figured it out. Her nose tingled, and tears welled up in her eyes. "Did Grandma Gong pass away?"
Fan Lin didn't know how to respond, she couldn't deceive her daughter, so she simply acquiesced. Fan Wenjing burst into tears and exclaimed, "I liked Grandma Gong the most. Wah... She was fine yesterday. How did she suddenly pass away?"
Fan Wenjing's tears put a damper on everyone's appetite. Moreover, Xia Qi, Shen Fengxia, and Li Xueli's eyes also turned red as they held back from crying.
Su Xiaotong recalled that in the afternoon, when Officer Tan Yong had questioned everyone in this house, Gu Xiaoliang was also present. Even though he had been playing with toys the whole time, not speaking and seemingly disinterested in the matter, he had picked up on key words from the adults' conversation. Su Xiaotong regretted not realizing that her intellectually challenged son might understand more than she thought. It seemed that he had grasped that Gong Yamei had passed away and had blurted it out without embellishment.
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"Does Xiaoliang... understand what 'death' means?" Yuan Dong whispered.
Su Xiaotong shook her head. "He doesn't understand. He overheard our conversation this afternoon and repeated some of the words."
"But the direction he pointed to just now..."
Gu Lei didn't want to delve into this topic. He quickly scooped a spoonful of rice into Gu Xiaoliang's mouth, preventing him from saying anything inappropriate. He smiled and said, "Don't take a child's words seriously. He's just speaking casually."
However, with his mouth full of food, Gu Xiaoliang muttered another sentence, "I know what 'death' is, it's like my dad's..." (partially unintelligible).
Although many people present didn't catch the entirety of what he said, Su Xiaotong and Gu Lei understood. Their faces changed drastically in an instant. Gu Lei almost wanted to cover Gu Xiaoliang's mouth with his hand, and Su Xiaotong immediately lifted her son off the dining table, scolding loudly, "Xiaoliang, stop talking nonsense! Let's go home!"
As she spoke, she grabbed Gu Xiaoliang's hand and walked toward the door. After being scolded by his mother, Gu Xiaoliang burst into loud sobs. Gu Lei followed them, saying to the others, "Sorry, something's off with him today... We'll go home and talk to him. Please continue with your meal."
"Hey, you haven't finished eating yet," Li Xueli said.
"It's okay, it's okay," Gu Lei waved his hand, and he and Su Xiaotong left Li Xueli's house without looking back.
The people left in the room stared in surprise at their departing figures. After a while, Wang Xingxing said, "Did you all catch what Gu Xiaoliang just said?"
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TL CORNER
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