After arriving at home, Longzi and Ah Ling immediately arranged to take a bath for Yu Qiushang and Yu Qiuyou, and after taking a shower, they went to have a meal. However, when Yu Qiuyou jumped and took off all his clothes and ran into the bathhouse, Yu Qiushang was kept by Imagawa Kaede.
"Mom, what's wrong? Is there anything wrong?" Yu Qiushang turned around and looked at his mother who was holding his sleeve, his eyes flashed.
"The person who should ask this is my mother, right?" Imakawa Kaede frowned, squatted down, and looked straight into Yu Qiushang's eyes, "Shang'er, what's wrong with you?"
"Mom, I..." Yu Qiushang's lips opened and closed, and then pursed quickly. Finally, he still said: "I'm fine."
"Silly kid, you are only 4 years old." Imakawa Kaede sighed, and a bitter smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, "Tell mom, are you having fun with your brother today?"
"Happy." Yu Qiushang nodded quickly.
Imakawa Kaede shook his head slightly, gently stroked Yu Qiushang's little cheek with his right hand, and asked in a low voice again: "Tell the truth to mom. Didn't your father educate you since he was a child to be a good child who has credit and does not lie?"
“Have you had fun today?”
Yu Qiushang was stunned for a moment, a trace of loneliness flashed in his eyes, he quietly lowered his head, and buried his face in the shadow.
"You actually don't want to be selected as a monster because you only have one hand." Imakawa Kaede sighed, looked at the wronged child in front of you, and whispered: "I must feel very uncomfortable being caught back and forth by other children and brothers."
Yu Qiushang's little hands twisted his clothes uneasy, as if he was a little embarrassed because his thoughts were seen through.
"Silly kid, what are you thinking in your heart? Mom knows, you can't hide it from me." Imakawa Kaede slowly opened his hands, hugged Yu Qiushang in her arms, and whispered: "Be good at Shang'er, tell your mother. Why did you agree to be a monster at that time, and still play with them all the time?"
Yu Qiushang swallowed, tears faintly rolled in his eyes. After hesitating for a while, he whispered: "Because... because the children seem to want me to be a monster, and if I become a monster, they will be very happy."
"And...and," Yu Qiushang paused and added in a low voice: "Ayou seems to have a lot of fun, and I'm afraid that if I say I won't play, it will ruin his pleasure."
Imakawa Kaede was stunned for a moment, and his eyes suddenly turned red.
This child may be because he is born weak and sick and has lost one hand, and has been very sensitive since childhood. He should be at the age of innocence, but he already has a lot of concerns and thoughts in his heart.
After thinking for a while, Kaede Imakawa suddenly smiled. She raised her body slightly, stared at Yu Qiushang's eyes, and asked the words.
"Shang'er, do you know Hongye?"
·
"Red Leaves?" Yu Qiushang was stunned for a moment and raised his head blankly, "Isn't that the pattern of our Yu Qiu family? My father always carries the red leaf shawl embroidered by his mother on his shoulders, and his mother also keeps carrying the red leaf pendant given by his father."
"Yeah, that's right." Imakawa Kaede nodded and asked softly again: "Then do you think there is something different from other leaves?"
"Different?" Yu Qiushang thought for a moment and replied in a low voice: "It should be autumn... the other leaves have turned yellow and fallen. Only the red leaves will turn red and will fall to the latest."
"Yeah." Imakawa Kaede nodded again and smiled: "Autumn is here, and the leaves have no nutrients and cannot continue to stay on the trees. Everyone is very sad and painful, so they turn yellow and wither, causing sadness to passersby."
"Only the red leaves are different." Imakawa Kaede said as she looked out the window - that was the direction to the east. Her eyes seemed to be staring at something beautiful and heartbreaking. "She used blood to turn it into nutrients and still stood proudly on the branches. She concealed everything in the beautiful red, and showed it to others, always the beautiful and moving red, not pain. She didn't want pedestrians to be sad because of his yellowness, nor did she want the trees to be lonely because of the leaves, nor did she want autumn to blame herself for her own solemnity. He always thought about others, lived for the feelings of others, and endured all the pain alone."
"She wants everyone to feel that she never needs comfort and will always be so beautiful. Even when she is drifting, she sways helplessly in the wind, and still pretends to be strong and beautiful in red."
Yu Qiushang silently listened to his mother's nagging for a long time, and his emotions kept rolling. At this moment, when he looked at the red leaf pendant between his mother's neck and the red leaf pattern behind the Yu Qiu family warrior, his mood was completely different.
"Shang'er, do you know?" Imagawa Kaede suddenly spoke after a long time of silence, but it was another topic: "What happened when you were born."
"Because Shang'er was born with one hand and was in poor health, some people suggested that Li You'er, as the eldest son, be the next governor of the Yuqiu family." Imakawa Kaede stared at Yuqiu's eyes, and saw that the latter's eyes suddenly flashed, and his body began to tremble slightly.
"Because in their eyes, the eldest son should be a strong and healthy person to become the heir of the family."
"That adult may be right. Teacher Takenaka often taught me that the eldest son must take on the responsibility of the family. Be brave, wise, responsible, and courageous." Yu Qiushang said in a low voice, and his voice could not stop trembling: "Shang'er is born without a right hand, weak and sick, and has a stupidity. Whether it is character recognition, calligraphy, etiquette, martial arts, or arithmetic taught by her father, I am not as good as Ayou. Maybe Ayou is really more suitable than me..."
"But my mother doesn't think so." Imagawa Kaede said firmly, interrupting Yu Qiushang's words, which made the latter raise his head in surprise.
"No matter who it is, he will live in other people's world." Imakawa Kaede sighed, slowly raised his hands, untied the red leaf pendant between his neck, held it in his hand, and looked at it for a long time.
"Some women live in a world where there is no matchmaker who is marrying her husband. In order to make him happy, she silently endures her own pain. Even if she can only meet a few times a year, she always has a smile on her face whenever she greets her husband. She never complains about the injustice of love, never complains about the indifference of men, and never makes any requests."
"Some young men live in a world where their status is much higher than theirs. In order to make her happy and happy, he silently endured his own pain. In order to get to the position of being able to marry that daughter, he did not hesitate to live and die, and tried his best to fight, but he always told his sweetheart that it was okay and kept his sweetheart's care and responsibility out of the door."
Yu Qiushang listened to the irrelevant stories his mother told, but she felt a burst of unexplained sadness in her heart.
"There is a child who lives in other people's world." As Imakawa Kaede said, the topic changed and he turned his attention to Yu Qiushang. "Others think that as the eldest son of the family, he worked hard to live up to others' expectations. Others want him to play the role of a monster, but he played it to make everyone happy. My younger brother wanted to continue playing the game. Even though he was already so distressed that he was unbearable, he continued to play in order not to wipe out his younger brother's fun."
Imakawa Kaede said this, and smiled suddenly and said softly: "Aren't they like red leaves?"
·
"Hongye can cry and it will hurt."
·
"If a person's life is just like a red leaf, living for others, joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness arise because of others, and always living under a bright red smile, how sad it would be? This is not a life that a person should have!"
Imagawa Kaede grabbed the chain of the pendant, shook her wrist, and watched the red leaf pendant fall down until it was locked by the chain, and she shook twice in the air. Through the crystal clear red crystal, Imagawa Kaede suddenly saw countless scenes in a trance. This pendant that had experienced hundreds of years of twists and turns, reflects the love between her father-in-law and her mother-in-law whom she had never met; reflects the solemn promise of the handsome boy; reflects the tears of the boy and the girl under the heavy rain; reflects the long-term companionship of the two red leaves in the harsh winter in the small house in the snow.
During the chaotic times of the Warring States Period, many children of the Wu family were destined to live in other people's worlds for the rest of their lives and become other people's red leaves.
How lucky I am to meet another red leaf, giving me the opportunity to live for myself as a woman.
"Children, don't be the red leaves of others, don't hide your pain for others, change your life, and live for yourself." Imakawa Kaede looked at Yu Qiushang's ignorant eyes and said firmly: "This is the creed of my mother throughout her life, and I hope you can live independently."
After saying that, she gently tied the pendant to Yu Qiushang's neck and dropped a kiss on his forehead.
"Shang'er, I know that it may be difficult for you to understand these things now." Imakawa Kaede stood up and rubbed his hair gently twice, looking at him with wide eyes open and blankly. "But when you grow up, you will understand. Whenever you see this pendant, you have to remember something."
"Don't be someone else's red leaves, live for yourself."
·
Yu Qiushang nodded as if he had understood it, and Imakawa Kaede only smiled relievedly.
At this time, a cheerful singing came from the bathhouse. Yu Qiuyou was dragging his clothes on the floor, and hurriedly ran towards Yu Qiushang and Imagawa Kaede. Ryuko, who was following behind, held two or three pieces of clothes that Yu Qiuyou had not worn, and followed him trotted all the way.
"Brother! Brother!" Yu Qiuyou ran to Yu Qiushang excitedly, "Let's go find them to play monsters and catch people tomorrow afternoon!"
Yu Qiushang was stunned for a moment, and Xiaoxiao's heart was in a mess.
Finally, he looked at his brother's expectant smile and nodded silently.
Chapter completed!