Before we knew it, autumn harvest had arrived.

During this period, A-Mian would go to learn Baduanjin every few days, and she felt her body was as flexible as willow leaves sprouting branches, with a sense of ease and strength.

After one of her "martial arts lessons," A-Mian returned to the blacksmith shop and kept staring at Meng Chijian.

The latter was extremely busy at the time, and it was so hot in the blacksmith shop that he couldn't wear a short-sleeved shirt. Meng Chijian asked, puzzled, "What are you looking at?"

"Why aren't you white?" A-Mian asked, lying on the bamboo mat.

Meng Chijian's skin tone is somewhere between snow-white (the most popular aesthetic among women these days) and the dark skin often found on farmers; it is an extremely even, slightly lighter wheat color.

He remained silent, sweat rolling down his face. After a long while, he asked in a hoarse voice, "Who did you see that was white?"

Lu Amian mentioned the young master Zheng she had met that day, saying, "He was whiter than a pear blossom, and when he spoke, all the ladies stared at him."

"You like that kind of thing?"

Amian shook her head. "No. If you were that fair-skinned, many young women would like you."

She thought that Meng Chijian was getting married at an advanced age, one reason being his personality, and another reason being that Meng Chijian was at a disadvantage because of his skin color. A-Mian had never paid much attention to men's appearance before, but now, thinking back carefully, she felt that if the man in front of her dressed up, he seemed to have a more profound and handsome appearance than the handsome young master Zheng.

Meng Chijian ignored her nonsense and, seeing that she wasn't sleepy, simply ordered her to wipe his sweat.

After a busy day, it's time to go home in the evening.

When it was time for dinner, Ah Mian noticed that everyone else was eating sweet potato porridge, but she had a plate of white noodles in front of her with a fried egg on top.

"this……"

Meng Jing had been preparing for a long time, and now she took credit: "Today is your birthday. Although it was Third Brother who told us, I cooked these noodles myself!"

Ah Mian hasn't celebrated her birthday for many years, and she doesn't even remember it anymore.

"Eat up, you'll be a year older now," Meng Chijian said calmly.

Ah Mian hummed in agreement and lowered her head to eat her noodles.

She felt that since arriving here, the Meng family had always treated her very well, but she hadn't reciprocated in any way. Not only that, she was also single-mindedly thinking about secretly saving money to pay back the debt and then open her own tofu shop.

After returning to the room, Meng Chijian noticed that her eyes were red and she was keeping her head down without saying a word, so he couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong?"

A-Mian's voice was a little nasal: "I miss my mother a little."

Since she got married, she has never returned to Lu Village. With her gone, there is certainly no one to look after her mother's grave, and no one to talk to her mother from time to time anymore.

This is the troublesome thing about marrying far away. Besides, her father had told her before she got married that it's not good for married people to keep going back to their parents' home. So, A-Mian never mentioned this. "Thank you for celebrating my birthday."

Meng Chijian frowned. Seeing that she seemed unwilling to say anything more, he had no choice but to calm down and remain silent.

Little did they know that Ah Mian had already begun to devise a new plan.

During the day, she rode her horse, Adou (with two bamboo baskets on either side), into the city, carrying two hundred coins of her own money.

Amian first bought two packs of yellow paper, tinder, several sets of paper clothes and houses, a bag of fried dough sticks, a bag of apples, and a lot of incense and candles. She then went to a restaurant and packed a peach blossom pastry that she thought was very delicious and had eaten once before. All of this cost her a hundred coins. Afterward, she went to the countryside and picked a lot of wild daisies, wrapped them in slender grass leaves, and put them in her basket.

She didn't tell anyone about it. Taking advantage of the fact that only her blind mother was at home that afternoon, she hurriedly put away the donkey and other odds and ends.

Ah Mian's plan was quite simple: she intended to sneak back to Lu Village under the cover of darkness so that her father wouldn't find out, and at the same time, she wanted to return before dawn so that Meng Chijian wouldn't notice.

So as soon as night fell, A-Mian would make an excuse that she was sleepy, extinguish the candle early, and lie down by the bed pretending to be asleep.

A short while later, Meng Chijian finished washing up and lay down. Soon after, A-Mian heard his breathing was deep and steady, so she quietly sat up.

By the moonlight, she looked closely and determined that the person was fast asleep.

Amian tiptoed past him, picked up her straw sandals, and quietly left the house.

As soon as she stepped out of the house, she quickly put on her straw sandals, went to the woodshed in the backyard, took out two of the three hidden baskets, hung them on Adou's left and right sides, carried one on her back, and led Adou out through the backyard gate.

Fortunately, there was moonlight tonight, and A-Mian quickly reached the familiar path at the village entrance.

But then he hesitated—

The last time she married from Lu Village, she wore a red veil, only secretly lifting it a few times along the way to peek at the scenery. She wasn't very familiar with the road from Qingshan Village to Lu Village, but she had a way to get there.

She first followed the road to the edge of the city, and then went from the city to Lujia Village. She had sold tofu there once before, so she remembered the route.

However, taking such a long detour makes me worry about not having enough time...

A-Mian chose a path based on her intuition.

She vaguely remembered that it should be in this direction.

The countryside was very quiet at night, completely different from the usual bustling scene.

“Ah Dou, don’t be afraid,” Ah Mian said, her heart pounding and her teeth chattering as she saw the dappled shadows of the trees under the moonlight. “Didn’t we already know that there are no ghosts in the world? If there were ghosts, Mother would definitely come to see us.”

Adou walks slower than during the day because its eyesight isn't very good at night.

Ah Mian said again, "Don't be afraid. We should visit our mother more often in the future."

It's unclear who she was encouraging, but she kept repeating this to herself to bolster her courage, without even daring to turn her head back.

I was worried that I had taken the wrong path, but as I walked, I gradually saw a crooked tree that I had noticed a year ago.

Ah Mian immediately felt confident. "We're almost there! You recognized me too, didn't you?"

A-Dou ignored everything and focused on getting on his way.

The night was deep, and only a man and a donkey remained in the darkness, moving forward relentlessly.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, the familiar village entrance of A-Mian finally appeared in the distance.

She clutched her chest, overwhelmed with emotion.

It's only been about a year, but it feels like a lifetime has passed.

Instead of going from the village entrance, Amian skillfully bypassed a dirt road and entered the woods.

When they arrived at a grave mound overgrown with weeds, Ah Mian felt a sudden pang of sorrow and tears streamed down her face.

“Mother, Adou and I have come to see you.” Seeing the scattered offerings and incense ash in front of the other graves, she quickly took down the things she had prepared.

"Mother, A-Mian is so capable! She didn't do anything bad, and she even earned a lot of copper coins."

She carefully arranged the offerings of fruit and food, lit the incense and candles with a tinderbox, and then burned paper money and paper clothes. "Mother, don't worry about us... Ahhh—ghosts—!!!"