novelraw Chapter 113: Those Bygone Years
Chapter 113: Those Bygone Years
Yu Mingyi had already set one foot in the car.
"Uncle!"
Yu Mingyi stopped and the secretary who came with him looked perplexed at the girl running towards them, just about to ask who she was when Yu Mingyi raised his head to stop him, halting his steps.
Dong Yi ran over, breathless, and seeing that he hadn’t left, a happy glow lit up her expressionless little face.
The sun was blazing, and she’d chased all the way here, her camouflage uniform drenched with sweat.
"Uncle, I am, I am that—" Her breath was unstable from running, her face flushed.
The moment Yu Mingyi saw her, she looked somewhat familiar, but he couldn’t be sure.
But hearing her call him ’Uncle’, those sealed memories came flooding back.
Yu Mingyi was a pilot, and when he was yet to graduate from flight school, he spent a long time flying under the tutelage of an instructor. At the age of eighteen, he followed his instructor out on his life’s first major mission, a rescue in a mountainous region hit by a torrential rain disaster, where mudslides occurred.
Back then, Yu Mingyi was a rookie, piloting a modified Dolphin helicopter. Many national defense students like him went along. Though he carried out many major tasks later, the thrill of the first one remained etched in his mind.
How brutal a disaster can be, you only know by witnessing it. The ravaged villages were submerged, and he saw a little girl in ethnic dress sitting on a rooftop, just a few years old, her face already blank.
The mountainous area they went to was populated by ethnic minorities, and it happened to be a festival time. The children were dressed in traditional bright clothing, yet her body was smeared with muddy water, sitting in despair on the rooftop, staring at the vanished homeland, all forlorn.
Her family was gone, a mere child, yet she had already witnessed life and death.
In the village, only half of the people survived, and the rescue conditions back then were particularly poor. The wind was very strong, making helicopter flights dangerous. Yu Mingyi convinced his instructor to go, boldly flying over, his instructor piloting the aircraft while Yu Mingyi descended with a soft rope, cradling the child into the helicopter, giving her the warmth of his embrace, instilling hope to survive.
It could be said that the child’s life was saved by Yu Mingyi and his instructor.
"Are you Dong Yi?"
That name, Yu Mingyi remembered well, the surname Dong was rare. After he hugged the child onto the helicopter, she remained expressionless for a long time, the first words she uttered were: "They are all dead."
The child left too deep an impression on Yu Mingyi.
Her despairing gaze coupled with the devastated native land she was in lingered in Yu Mingyi’s heart, that child made him understand, for the first time, what duty means.
Hearing him call her name, Dong Yi’s tears swirled in her eyes, one reason Chen Xiaoqian’s boyfriend seemed familiar to her was because Yu Minglang reminded her of the uncle in her memory!
"Uncle, I’m Dong Yi, I’m the Dong Yi you saved!" She said, crying as she spoke.
If it weren’t for this uncle, she would have died with her parents in that dreadful disaster.
In her dreams, she often returned to that wounded homeland, where her parents tossed her on the rooftop before being submerged...
And this uncle, his silhouette descended from the sky, became the only redemption.
Sometimes Dong Yi would think, if she had died with her parents in the disaster, perhaps she wouldn’t have had such a tough life afterward; the impression this uncle left was still godlike.
After all these years, finding the benefactor again left Dong Yi feeling excited.
"You’ve grown up." Yu Mingyi, in contrast to his cold demeanor, showed a faint smile, seeing the little girl he once saved had gotten into such a prestigious school, he felt happy inside.
"Uncle, I originally wanted to apply to flight school... but I’m myopic, I, I—"
Not good with words, seeing her benefactor, Dong Yi was so excited she didn’t know what to say.
Actually, she also wanted to be like those big brothers who saved her back then, but her physical condition didn’t allow her to apply to flight school.
"It’s okay, even if you’re not a pilot, you can still be a useful person to society. Keep it up, study hard, cherish the opportunity to learn. Here’s my number, if you ever run into difficulties, call me. The uncles who participated in the rescue would be very happy to see you achieve like this."
Yu Mingyi solemnly handed his phone number and contact information to Dong Yi.
Actually, he wanted to take Dong Yi to a restaurant to sit down and contact those comrades from back then to see if they could have a gathering. The little girl they saved has grown up now, an emotion only those who lived it would understand.
If farmers’ greatest joy is the harvest,
For Yu Mingyi, what could be more fulfilling than seeing the child he saved grow into an outstanding talent?
Unfortunately, those who participated in the rescue then have scattered across various places, holding key positions, unable to gather.
For Dong Yi, this was the thrilling moment of finding her benefactor uncle, for Yu Mingyi, seeing the little girl he saved getting into college was equally worth the excitement.
This was simply a pure feeling, a particularly pure and beautiful sentiment, devoid of any mixed thoughts, unrelated to gender.
But such a beautiful scene, in the eyes of the secretary in the car, became something else entirely.
He took advantage of Yu Mingyi chatting with Dong Yi to secretly pull out his phone and send a text message to his sister, Yu Mingyi’s wife.
"Sis, brother-in-law chatted quite long with a young female college student, just went berserk during university training camp, I think he came here specifically for this girl."
Though entirely untrue, by the time it was conveyed, the meaning had changed.
He deleted the message after sending it just as Yu Mingyi finished speaking and got into the car.
He waved his hand to Dong Yi, motioning for her to go back, turning around, seeing the secretary’s motion of pocketing the phone in the front seat.
"Catch you using the phone again, it’ll be confiscated immediately."
"Brother-in-law, I only use it once in a while, haven’t leaked anything confidential."
"Once is not acceptable, it’s the discipline." Yu Mingyi replied coldly.
A dissatisfied glint passed through the secretary’s eyes; although his brother-in-law held a high position, he wouldn’t give him any favors, didn’t arrange a better position, and he barely managed to secure a slightly easier job himself. He thought being beside his brother-in-law would mean being taken care of.
Instead, not only wasn’t he taken care of, he was managed so strictly!
Serves him right, he’ll get a scolding from sis back home, the secretary maliciously turned his head, rubbing his hands secretly in thought.