Chapter 165: Chapter 167: Separation

Chen Zhong coughed, his face unnaturally pale. It had been like this for the past few years, up and down.

“Grandpa, take your medicine,” Tang Yuxin placed the medicine in front of Chen Zhong. Yet, her expression was somewhat sad. She knew that Chen Zhong was ill, and it was serious. Neither Western medicine nor traditional Chinese medicine could cure his condition. It was simply the natural aging process, but Chen Zhong was aging faster than most.

As for the reason, it could have been some trauma he experienced when he was young, or a hidden illness he had for all his life. It wasn’t easy for him to have lasted until now.

Tang Yuxin was a doctor, and a pretty good internist at that. However, she discovered the illness too late, and Chen Zhong was good at hiding it, so it was irreversible by the time Tang Yuxin found out about his condition.

And there was no cure for his illness.

Neither Western nor Chinese medicine could help a man already in the twilight of his life.

Every organ in his body was already failing, and his survival to this point might only be due to the Chen-style Rejuvenation Acupuncture Technique, which kept him hanging on.

“It’s okay.”

Chen Zhong reached out and patted Tang Yuxin’s head.

“I should have been dead long ago. If it weren’t for accepting you as my little apprentice, I might have died in that flood. I just can’t let go of you as you haven’t completely grown up.”

He sighed. Unfortunately, those books were swept away by the flood. “Therefore, there’s not much I can leave for you. You’ve grown up, and you’ve learned all that I know. Now it will be up to you.”

All of us will die eventually, sooner or later, it is determined the moment we are born.

Tang Yuxin realized for the first time how sad it was to part from life. In her previous life, she had left Tang Zhinian dealing with her death, an old man burying his child.

Her brother had died, her daughter was gone too, an old man who had lived for his daughter had to face all this. How heartbroken he must have been. What use was there in leaving him more money?

No amount of money can buy back a life.

At this moment, Tang Yuxin finally realized what she had brought to her father in her previous life. She had led an ineffectual life and never allowed her father a single happy day. In the end, he even had to watch her die and bury her. They say raising children is to safeguard the old age, but who took care of Tang Zhinian’s affairs after his only daughter died prematurely? No one knew.

As for Sang Zhilan’s family, they were living happily, living in her house, with her husband, spending the money she had earned with her life.

“Little girl, don’t think too much, life and death are determined by fate.”

Chen Zhong patted Tang Yuxin’s head again, “Don’t be too mature, you’re still a child. I don’t know where you got this temperament. But even if I die now, I would have no regrets.” He had passed on the Chen family’s medical skills, so he had fulfilled his duty to the Chen family.

It’s unfortunate about his books.

Tang Yuxin took back the bowl, brought it to the kitchen, and silently began washing it.

Suddenly, she looked up. Her face reflected in the mirror still had an innocent, immature look. But just like Chen Zhong said, they would all die one day. She was still young now, but had prematurely aged.

“What’s this?” Chen Zhong seemed a little better. His eyes had more energy, and his spirit seemed lifted. But Tang Yuxin knew there was a term for this – terminal lucidity.

He pointed to the cardboard box that Tang Yuxin brought over and asked. His wrinkled eyes seemed to shine a little brighter.

Tang Yuxin opened the box to reveal book after book.

“This is…”

Chen Zhong suddenly felt a sourness in his nose. His trembling, aged hands, devoid of skin and flesh, resembled dry tree branches in winter, grayish white, cracked, and lifeless.

He took a book from the box. It was an old book. The yellowing pages held memories unique to time. If not mistaken, the book should be over a hundred years old.

He took out another one, also an old book with many annotations.

“These were what you gave me years ago. I kept them all,” Tang Yuxin crouched down and took out the books one by one from the box. “When I was young, I didn’t know where it would be safe to keep them. I just felt they needed to be in a place where I couldn’t reach them on a whim.”

“So I thought of the big Pagoda tree at the entrance of my house. I asked my second uncle to keep my stuff there, including these books. These are what you gave me, and those I borrowed and never returned. They’re all here, none are missing or damaged.”

“Good girl, good girl…”

Chen Zhong held the books and, his old face finally showed contentment.

He handed the books back to Tang Yuxin. “I have nothing valuable to leave you in my life. Even this house belongs to the village. After I die, it will be returned to the village. These herbs were collected by me over the years; you can take them. And these books, these books…”

He caressed the books. Through the passage of time, it seemed as if he was transported back to a long time ago, when he was a child picking medicinal herbs on the mountain with his grandfather. Back then, he was a young boy. And now, he was about to die.

However, having lived a full life, he was content.

“I leave these books to you. One day, when you have a child, pass them on. The medical skills of our Chen family are passed down from generation to generation. Although it stopped with me, without a direct Chen family successor, at least the Chen family’s medical skills survive.”

And these books, they’re still here. He now truly believed that Tang Yuxin was a child sent by the ancestors of the Chen family. She was the rightful one to learn their medical skills and inherit everything of the Chen family.

Tang Yuxin put the books away. Her hand, holding the pages of the books, tightened, resisting the bitter and sad feelings of the imminent parting.

Chen Zhong’s health started to deteriorate half a year ago, and during this time, he taught Tang Yuxin everything he could. When she was young, he had already force-fed her a lot of knowledge. With Tang Yuxin growing up, she had now learnt 70% of his medical skills, and the remaining 30% would simply come with experience over time.