Wang Bin and Lin Ye exchanged glances, then quickly followed.
Not far away, Old Liu had already caught up to the woman.
His hands rested on her shoulders, and they stood in silent communion, only tears falling in unison.
The next second, Old Liu and the woman embraced tightly, their reunion after a long separation filled with tears and heartfelt confessions.
Seeing this, Lin Ye and Wang Bin exchanged a look and stopped not far away, tacitly agreeing not to move closer.
Having faced countless dangers along the way, they understood how difficult it was for this couple to reunite in this place.
This moment of tenderness rightfully belonged to the husband and wife.
However, Lin Ye and Wang Bin had only stopped for less than a minute when they suddenly saw Old Liu pushed away and fall to the ground.
The woman opposite him looked terrified, saying something indistinctly, but they vaguely heard her mention words like "child" and "hospital."
Immediately after, the woman ran off in terror, and Old Liu quickly got up to chase her.
Although Lin Ye and Wang Bin were confused, they had no choice but to hurriedly follow Old Liu.
When Old Liu caught up to his wife again, he saw her looking frantic, speaking incoherently, shouting "hospital" and "child" while running forward at full speed.
Left with no choice, Old Liu hugged his wife tightly, refusing to let go no matter how much she struggled.
At this moment, Old Liu realized that even with all his strength, his wife was slowly breaking free from his grasp.
Old Liu hastily blew the red whistle hanging around his neck, and as the whistle sounded, his wife's struggles gradually weakened.
After Wang Bin and Lin Ye caught up, Old Liu's wife's emotions slowly returned to calm, and the panic in her eyes suddenly turned cold and blank.
A few more seconds passed before the light returned to his wife's eyes.
"Old Liu, Old Liu, am I having an episode again?"
"But I really, I really saw..."
Seeing his wife's emotions becoming agitated again, Old Liu could only hold her tightly, continuously comforting her softly.
"It's alright, it's alright, I'm here, I'm here, everything's fine..."
Lin Ye and Wang Bin stood to the side, looking at each other, unsure what to say.
A few minutes later, the four of them sat on the stone steps by the road, and only then did Lin Ye and Wang Bin learn why Old Liu had been so desperately searching for his family.
His wife's name is Chen Ting. Although she was born in a small county under Yu Tan City, both her parents were highly educated intellectuals, and her family was well-off.
She had a gentle appearance and a serene demeanor. While not stunningly beautiful, her looks were considered outstanding among ordinary people, and she seemed to have no shortage of suitors in her youth.
Old Liu was one of Chen Ting's suitors in his youth, but he was not only penniless but also idle all day, frequenting arcades and card rooms.
One time, Chen Ting was harassed by local thugs on her way home. It was Old Liu who came to her rescue, and their relationship subtly changed from that moment on.
They began eating, dating, and walking together, and their feelings quickly warmed.
However, the thugs Old Liu had stopped held a grudge. Later, they gathered many people and cornered the couple in an alley.
Old Liu helped Chen Ting over the wall; as long as she jumped down the other side, she would be safe, but he himself could not escape.
"Chen Ting, run! Run!"
Old Liu only remembered that after shouting that sentence, he was pressed to the ground, followed by countless punches and kicks.
But within a few seconds, Old Liu felt something was off. He looked up and found that Chen Ting had somehow jumped back, lying on top of him to protect him, and for that, she also took many punches and kicks.
Fortunately, the police arrived immediately, and both of them only sustained minor injuries.
But it was that encounter that made Old Liu determined to marry Chen Ting. For this, he turned over a new leaf, taught himself to drive, and eventually became a local bus driver.
And Chen Ting, despite her parents' objections and her relatives' ridicule, resolutely married Old Liu.
They treated each other with respect. Although they were not wealthy, they had the stable happiness of a small family.
At this moment, Chen Ting sat beside Old Liu. Though she was a mother and showed traces of age on her face, her every move and smile were gentle and graceful, virtuous and proper, making one feel comfortable.
Time seemed to have imbued her with a delicate temperament, like an autumn chrysanthemum.
But it was this very woman, serene as a chrysanthemum at this moment, who not long ago had been frantic, wide-eyed with terror, muttering incoherently to herself, pushing her husband away, and running off alone.
This contrast made Lin Ye and Wang Bin feel somewhat strange.
But when Old Liu spoke, revealing that his wife had contracted "Alzheimer's disease" this year, they suddenly understood.
It turned out that Chen Ting's family had a severe history of "Alzheimer's disease."
Logically speaking, at Chen Ting's age, even if it was a genetic disease, the symptoms should not have appeared yet.
However, ever since the car accident five years ago, Chen Ting lost her unborn child and her job.
She was depressed and melancholic all day, unable to sleep night after night...
Every time she closed her eyes, she felt as if she was lying in the middle of the road, the indifferent gazes of passersby quickly sweeping over her belly, and when she struggled to get up, she saw a blood-soaked infant wailing on her belly.
Chen Ting broke down. She became mentally weak and suffered from severe insomnia.
Whenever she couldn't sleep at night, she would endlessly scroll through the malicious curses left about their family online.
One comment in particular left a deep impression on her.
"I hope the driver's child gets hit by a car and dies!"
Chen Ting's eyes widened, staring intently at the thousands of likes under that comment, night after night.
Later, Old Liu's case was overturned, and to outsiders, Chen Ting's mental state seemed to have improved significantly.
But Old Liu knew that every morning when he left for work, when Chen Ting blew his lucky whistle, he could often see bloodshot eyes in his beloved's eyes.
Although Old Liu also tried to constantly counsel Chen Ting and took her to the hospital, it seemed to be of no use.
Until one day this year, when Old Liu came home from work and didn't see Chen Ting, he anxiously went out to look for her and finally found her squatting at the intersection where he had the car accident, continuously muttering "hospital" and "child"...
Chen Ting showed early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. She would occasionally forget where she was, occasionally forget who Old Liu was, and often thought her second child was still alive...
Fortunately, Chen Ting's symptoms were not too severe, basically only flaring up once a month, and she was otherwise relatively normal.
Moreover, perhaps because the whistle signal of the red whistle left a deep impression on Chen Ting, every time Chen Ting had an episode, Old Liu would blow the red whistle, and she would miraculously calm down and then recognize her husband.
To avoid worrying their child who was studying away from home, Old Liu secretly took Chen Ting to many hospitals without telling their child, but medically, there is still no solution for this symptom.
Later, the Great Disaster erupted in Yu Tan Tunnel, and the 64 Road Bus Old Liu was driving disappeared.
Old Liu had always been worried; he didn't know what his wife would do when she had her next episode...
Fortunately, although they wandered and wasted a lot of time, they finally reunited in Obsidian Town.
Lin Ye looked at Old Liu and suddenly understood that as a husband and father, this man carried far more burdens than they could see.
They sat there, listening to Old Liu and Chen Ting talk about everything that had happened since they arrived in this world.
It turned out that just two days after the incident in Yu Tan Tunnel, on her way home from the police station with other family members, Chen Ting had another episode.
When she regained consciousness, she was already with a group of people in a huge shopping mall.
The mall was suddenly flooded, and the water level kept rising.
They ran towards the top floor while using unknown superpowers to fight the monsters that appeared.
Finally, the survivors walked out from the rooftop of the top floor and entered a forest.
After entering the forest, they found themselves around a huge ancient tree.
So the team explored towards the ancient tree, and by some strange coincidence, they left that world and arrived at this place called Obsidian Town.
"Wife, did you awaken any special abilities?"
"That's right! Old Liu! That's right! Do you know, our child has been revived!"
Chen Ting seemed not to have heard Old Liu's words. Her face was filled with joy, and her emotions suddenly became agitated again.
She took Old Liu's hand and, ignoring his confused expression, walked off by herself.
Lin Ye and Wang Bin also had no choice but to quickly follow.
The few of them wound through the town, walking for more than ten minutes.
Finally, they stopped in front of a building, and the plaque above the main door read "Cross Street."
"Xiao Zhe, Xiao Zhe, come out quickly, your father is here."
Chen Ting shouted at the door. Her expression was somewhat manic, but it didn't seem like an episode.
Old Liu naturally knew the name "Xiao Zhe"; he and Chen Ting had once agreed that if their second child was a boy, they would name him "Liu Zhe."
However, their second child had clearly died five years ago.
Old Liu looked at his wife with sorrow in his eyes. He hadn't expected her to be so ill.
Just as he was about to speak to comfort her, he suddenly saw a boy's head actually peek out from the main door.
Old Liu's eyes widened in disbelief.
The boy's eyebrows, nose, and ears were all exactly like his.
The boy walked out of the door, extended his tender hands, and ran towards Old Liu.
Those two calls of "Father" seemed to have traveled through five years of time, eerily striking him.