In the second year after Wen Qian's departure, the two elders of the Jin Family also passed away one after another. Now, the only ones who could still be called elders were the couple from the Nisha Family.
Although Little Jin and Little Ning were no longer young, they were still children in front of their parents. The passing of their elders meant that they no longer had anyone to shelter them from life's storms.
The only consolation was that their children had grown up, and after starting their own families, they had become grandparents themselves.
Here, as some passed away, new life was born. This was perhaps the only thing that could bring them joy and hope.
Every Qingming Festival, they would visit the graves of the deceased to sweep the tombs, and they would also pay respects at their neighbors' graves.
No one knew what the deceased had become, and the living could only commemorate them with their heartfelt intentions, if only to comfort their own grief.
When they had time, they would also visit the Nisha Family to see the two elderly people from their parents' generation and listen to stories about the elders from the past.
After all, they were the only ones left who could recount those stories. An An, whenever she heard others mention her mother, always wanted them to say more, as if this was the only way to make her memories more vivid.
In early summer, An An took her child to weed the fields near the forest farm, while Yin Chuan went hunting in his area. When he returned, he didn't forget to pick some fruits for the child.
They continued their previous lifestyle, through the four seasons and three meals a day.
The place where Wen Qian had lived, that bedroom, hadn't been cleared out. Instead, it had become their daily activity room.
When they weren't out working or sleeping, both children and adults would stay in this room, reading, playing games, or doing handicrafts.
An An didn't want to clear away all traces of her mother; in fact, she would intentionally preserve them. Wen Qian's handwritten notebooks were still on the shelf, and she would still flip through them from time to time.
Even in some books she occasionally browsed, she could find her mother's sharp sentences written during moments of free thought.
Now that the children were only a few years old, they naturally slept with them at night. She thought that when the children grew older and needed their own bedrooms, she would let them sleep in this room.
There was an old sewing machine by the wall, which she could still use to make clothes. There was also a very old, broken-down machine stored in the row of rooms at the back.
An An remembered that her mother had bought a new one after the original one broke down and couldn't be repaired.
In reality, when Wen Qian had worn out the old one, she brought out the new spare machine she had bought, but she couldn't bear to throw away the old one because it had been left by her grandmother.
An An estimated that this thing must have been quite expensive, after all, even now, sewing machines weren't something ordinary families would have.
Additionally, several heaters that Wen Qian had bought originally had now been mostly replaced. The iron stoves had gotten thinner with use, and Wen Qian would replace them when the time came.
By An An's generation, they had just installed two in the house, and the remaining spare inner liners were stored in the storage room, along with those stainless steel tabletops.
Wen Qian had put a lot of thought into hiding things, managing to dispose of the less noticeable items before her passing.
Since Wen Qian first settled here, the walls had remained fixed, and the house initially had only a few rooms.
The additions didn't come quickly. The real rapid increase in rooms probably happened after Wen Qian started raising children.
In the past, everything was stuffed into the space, but now they had to slowly bring things out. As the items needing storage increased, naturally, more rooms were needed.
By the time An An took over everything, she had more resources at her disposal than others.
The things stored in Wen Qian's space remained in their original condition when taken out, with virtually no quality deterioration or depreciation.
Now in An An's hands, including some fabrics, she had to store them carefully, using what she had on hand first and only considering buying from outside when they ran out.
Fortunately, a family of three consumed things much faster than Wen Qian did alone.
Some plastic products basically disappeared after use and didn't last long in storage, so An An used them up before they could spoil.
As for stainless steel and iron items, they tried to take good care of them as long as they were usable.
When Qiuqiu turned five, she actually had no impression of her grandmother, but every random item in the house could prompt her mother to mention Grandma.
The cute little animal-patterned sweater she wore was prepared for her by Grandma, the mooncake molds they used were left by Grandma, and a room full of books were all Grandma's things.
Grandma was like a fairy in a fairy tale, able to conjure up many things.
When An An took Qiuqiu to pay respects, Qiuqiu would lie on Wen Qian's grave, mumbling, hoping that Grandma would meet her in her dreams.
There were still old-fashioned cameras in this era, but Wen Qian hadn't left any photos for An An, so Qiuqiu had no way to see her grandmother's face.
The things in the house were later mostly made from raw materials they could access, such as clay or wood.
Those things Wen Qian initially brought from that era were now gone.
Their pressure well also became unusable later because the original plastic water pipes broke several times. After Wen Qian replaced them a few times, there were no more materials to continue supporting its use.
The iron part of the upper half of the pressure well had already decayed, and Wen Qian's replacement parts were also exhausted in the later stages.
It must be said that the things Wen Qian originally prepared indeed lasted until her departure, but the following An An's family could no longer enjoy this convenience.
The pressure well's platform was removed, and they later drew water from the well's edge to use at home, building a platform by the well and placing wooden buckets to fetch water.
The stair railings were still as Wen Qian had designed them. After years of repairs and maintenance, they largely maintained their original appearance, with expanded platforms nearby for resting.
Since Wen Qian had An An, her life began to settle like her neighbors', with storage rooms, preservation methods, and practical effectiveness.
By An An's time, there were quite a few seeds left by Wen Qian. Besides the ones they planted every year, An An also planted a bit of some less frequently grown seeds annually.
Even when seeds are preserved with the utmost care, their viability gradually decreases over time. To prevent all the seeds from becoming ineffective, An An would cultivate some seedlings.
She didn't plant everything herself. Sometimes she would give seeds to neighbors or exchange them with others at the market.
With such a vast collection of seeds, An An couldn't possibly plant them all herself, but she didn't want the seeds her mother had painstakingly preserved to lose their vitality.
As long as the seeds could continue to be passed down, An An didn't mind who actually planted them.
