Can I still be saved? [Transmigration] - Chapter 50.1

Wen Huaishan wasn’t originally from Henglin; his hometown was a small village near Donglin City.

Because of a job transfer, the family had moved away from Donglin. Later, when Wen Yanlai became pregnant, they gave their son in adoption to her elder brother. Fearing this matter might come to light, the family relocated again, this time settling down in Henglin for good.

The older generation always believed in “falling leaves returning to their roots” —¹ and after living in Donglin for more than twenty years, Wen Huaishan had deep emotional ties to that land.

When his eldest son and daughter-in-law passed away, he buried them together in the family graveyard back home.

Donglin City wasn’t far from Henglin, just over an hour’s drive.

On May 1st, early in the morning at six o’clock, Su Yunjing and the others left the hospital to return to Donglin.

Donglin was a tourist city. Every holiday, the roads would fill with visitors. To avoid traffic jams, they set out early, yet still ended up stuck for more than an hour. By the time they arrived at the village, it was already past ten.

Guo Xiuhui had long prepared the ritual paper money, and as they neared the village, Wen Huaishan stopped at a roadside shop to buy a bottle of liquor. He didn’t bother greeting old acquaintances but went straight to the Wen family gravesite.

The graves in the countryside weren’t arranged as neatly as those in formal cemeteries, and beyond them stretched a wide cornfield.

When the car stopped, Su Yunjing carried the paper money while Fu Hanzhou followed behind Wen Huaishan, holding the liquor.

At the graves of the couple, Wen Huaishan silently began pulling up the wild grass that had grown around the tombs.

When his son and daughter-in-law died, he’d been away for work and never saw them one last time — a regret that had haunted him ever since.

Seeing how much it pained him, neither Su Yunjing nor Fu Hanzhou said anything.

After clearing the weeds, Wen Huaishan took two small wine cups from his pocket and said hoarsely, “Pour a drink for your father and mother.”

It was an old rural custom. When Su Yunjing’s father had taken him to visit his grandfather’s grave, he’d been made to pour a drink too.

Su Yunjing took the bottle from Fu Hanzhou, opened it, and filled the cups. “Dad, Mom,” he said softly, “I came to see you.”

“They may not be your biological parents,” Wen Huaishan said, his voice catching, “but they raised you as their own. Bow to them.”

Though Su Yunjing wasn’t used to such old-fashioned customs, he didn’t object, he knelt before the graves of Wen Yan and his wife and bowed his head respectfully three times.

As soon as Su Yunjing knelt, Fu Hanzhou followed suit. Su Yunjing glanced at him in surprise.

Fu Hanzhou’s expression was calm. His elegant eyes were lowered, and his long fingers quietly slipped into Su Yunjing’s hand.

Fu Hanzhou didn’t believe in gods or ghosts, in heaven or earth, but he believed in Su Yunjing.

Whatever Su Yunjing believed in, he believed. Whatever Su Yunjing did, he did too.

His hands were cold. Thinking he was just trying to keep warm, Su Yunjing tucked Fu Hanzhou’s hand into his own jacket pocket and bowed twice more to the tombs.

Wen Huaishan wiped his eyes roughly, turned back, and saw the two young men kneeling side by side. To an outsider, they could have looked like a newlywed couple visiting the parents’ graves.

Seeing the brothers get along so well, Wen Huaishan felt a flicker of comfort. He told them to stand up and wait for him in the car.

After standing, Fu Hanzhou brushed the dirt from Su Yunjing’s knees.

Su Yunjing suddenly felt awkward and stepped back. “I can do it myself.”

They returned to the car, leaving Wen Huaishan alone to speak to his son and daughter-in-law in private.

Sitting in the back seat, Fu Hanzhou stared out the window. Through the thick green cornfield, he could faintly see the two mounds of earth side by side.

He thought, If I and Su Yunjing die one day, I want us to be buried together — even our ashes would be placed in the same container, indistinguishable from each other.

Sunlight streamed in, gilding his long lashes and casting a soft golden hue. The shadows beneath them were swallowed by the deep black of his eyes.

Seeing Fu Hanzhou so lost in thought, Su Yunjing asked, “What are you thinking about?”

Fu Hanzhou lifted his eyes, the light spilling in. The corners of his lips curved faintly downward. “The future.”

“What future?”

“The future when we’re old,” Fu Hanzhou said after a pause. “You and me, when we’re old.”

Su Yunjing hadn’t expected that a single visit to a grave would trigger this man’s retirement-cadre mode again.

He raised an eyebrow. “And when we’re old, what exactly will we be doing? Playing chess? Dancing in the square with the aunties?”

Fu Hanzhou’s black eyes were calm. “Nothing. Just… the kind of ‘old’ where we’re buried together in the ground.”

They were only eighteen and he was already thinking about death?!

Su Yunjing huffed, “Can’t you at least wish me a long life?”

Fu Hanzhou chuckled quietly, slipped both hands into Su Yunjing’s jacket pockets, leaned against him lazily, and stared at Su Yunjing’s slender fingers.

“I wish you better than anyone else ever could,” he murmured. “No matter what you do, I’ll stand by you. Always.”

Su Yunjing ruffled his hair and couldn’t help but sigh in his heart that his little Chuan chuan was becoming more and more obedient.

Wen Huaishan stayed by the graves for over twenty minutes. When he returned, his eyes were still a bit red.

Su Yunjing pretended not to notice.

With Guo Xiuhui still in the hospital, Wen Huaishan wasn’t in the mood to linger. He started the car and headed straight back toward Henglin.

As they entered Donglin City, traffic jammed again. To avoid being stuck, Wen Huaishan decided to take a detour toward the highway.

Although it would be a long detour, it was better than being stuck here.

He turned the car around and left the crowded street. The farther they went, the fewer vehicles there were.

Just as they were about to turn onto the highway, a freight truck suddenly came barreling toward them head-on.

Wen Huaishan’s pupils constricted sharply, he jerked the wheel without a second’s thought.

The tires screeched against the asphalt, a harsh, grating sound splitting the air.

They were about to hit the barrier when Su Yunjing instinctively reached out to protect Fu Hanzhou.

But Fu Hanzhou was faster, he pulled Su Yunjing into his arms, shielding his head with his own body.

The violent impact made Su Yunjing’s vision go black. It felt as if a sharp awl had pierced straight through his eardrums, the pain searing and unbearable.

He briefly lost consciousness, and when he opened his eyes again, the car had flipped over, Fu Hanzhou was lying on top of him.

Wen Huaishan was in the driver’s seat; Fu Hanzhou had been behind him. The car had rolled onto its right side. Only Su Yunjing was pinned, his legs completely numb.

Ignoring his pain, he called out to Wen Huaishan, then gently patted Fu Hanzhou’s cheek, trying to wake them.

Cars had stopped on the road; people rushed over to help.

The car windows were covered in spider-web cracks, ready to shatter with a single blow.

When the rear window was finally smashed open, a fair, delicate face appeared — a girl’s face filled with worry.

“Are you all right?” she shouted.

Su Yunjing froze for a moment when he saw her.

Seeing that he was awake, bl00d trickling from his ear, the girl raised her voice even louder, afraid he couldn’t hear her.

But Su Yunjing could only see her lips moving, he couldn’t hear a single sound. Snapping out of his daze, he forced himself to speak: “Save him.”

Other rescuers were already running over. Together, they pulled Wen Huaishan from the front seat.

Su Yunjing finally let out a sigh of relief, then struggled to move toward Fu Hanzhou, helping the girl and another young man pull him out first.

Fu Hanzhou’s fingers clutched his hand in a death grip. Su Yunjing’s lower body was already completely numb, he couldn’t even tell what part of him was pinned down.

The boy outside shouted, “You’ve got to make him let go first! We can’t pull both of you out at once. We’re not strong enough!”

Su Yunjing still couldn’t hear anything. His ears throbbed with a sharp, needle-like pain, but from the rescuers’ lip movements, he could vaguely make out words like “let go” and “save.” He guessed what they were saying.

He could only try to pry Fu Hanzhou’s hand loose.

Fu Hanzhou was unconscious, bl00d streaming from a cut on his forehead, tracing down the corner of his long, narrow eye like a single tear, pooling darkly around his ear.

His fingertips had gone pale from the force of his grip, as if his hand were welded to Su Yunjing’s. No matter how Su Yunjing tried to pry one finger after another, they wouldn’t come apart.

“Hanzhou… let go,” Su Yunjing rasped, his voice hoarse.

But the unconscious man couldn’t hear him, he only clung tighter, unwilling to release his hand.

Fortunately, Su Yunjing’s hand was slick with bl00d; the makeshift ‘lubricant’ helped him slowly slip free from Fu Hanzhou’s grasp. When he finally pulled away, deep red marks ringed his fingers.

It took all his remaining strength to help get Fu Hanzhou out of the wreck. Then, gritting his teeth, Su Yunjing tried to move himself.

There was still no feeling below his waist. Alarmed, he looked down. The deformed front passenger seat had trapped him in place, his pant leg soaked through with bl00d.

Gritting his teeth, Su Yunjing forced the deformed front seat apart. The pain made cold sweat break out all down his back.

But wanting to make it easier for others to rescue him, he endured the stabbing agony and kept dragging himself toward the car window. After crawling for a while, his strength gave out, and his consciousness began to fade.

In the blur of half-awareness, Su Yunjing thought he could smell something burning.

He struggled twice, weakly, and then blacked out completely.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself back in that familiar expanse of endless white. He couldn’t tell if the feeling in his chest was disappointment or sorrow. Only that a dull ache spread through him again and again.

He sat down on the cold floor of the space. The piercing pain in his legs still throbbed in his nerves, leaving him utterly drained.

The book-transmigration system’s calm voice sounded beside his ear: “Host, you’ve worked hard.”

Su Yunjing rubbed at his temples, his voice slightly hoarse.

“Mm.”

It wasn’t exactly hard. After all, he had managed to live almost another year this time. The little tsundere had behaved well, the Wen family had treated him kindly, and his material life couldn’t have been better.

He just hadn’t expected to die this way again — so suddenly, without even a moment of warning. At least last time, the system had given him a countdown to the end.

And that girl who had rescued Fu Hanzhou just now — that must have been Mu Ge, the female lead of this novel, right?

Su Yunjing had thought he’d successfully prevented Fu Hanzhou and Mu Ge from ever meeting. But he never imagined that fate had only been delayed, not changed.

The little tsundere had still gotten into a car accident. And he had still been saved by Mu Ge.

Now, with him gone, Fu Hanzhou would surely fall into depression for a while… and once Mu Ge came along to comfort him. Wouldn’t he fall for her, with his heart and soul, all over again?