About an hour later, the rain outside had stopped for a while. Xu Keke heard a noise coming from the door outside.

She lay motionless on the bed. After a while, she closed her eyes and listened quietly. The clock on the wall ticked away, and raindrops pattered on the eaves outside. There were no other sounds around, and Xu Keke slowly fell asleep.

In the morning, it was Da Cui who woke her up.

Da Cui, with her schoolbag slung across her shoulder and a piece of sponge cake in her hand, stood at the head of the bed. "Mom, why are your shoes outside? I brought them in for you. Yuan Bao and I are going to school in a little while."

Xu Keke felt a moment of disorientation; it seemed like last night was all a dream. She had simply overslept this morning.

"Mom, there's blood on the ground in front of our house," Yuanbao ran in from outside and stood next to Da Cui, whispering to Xu Keke.

Xu Keke hurriedly got up and realized that she hadn't even taken off her clothes to sleep last night. She rushed to the door and saw a pool of blood the size of a palm on the floor.

Although Yuanbao and Dacui were too young to participate in the village's guerrilla warfare, they had witnessed the scenes of war firsthand. They were fighting the enemy with real swords and spears. Despite not knowing how to deal with the malice of the soldiers, they were exceptionally astute in such matters.

Seeing Xu Keke looking around as if searching for something, Yuanbao cleverly ran back into the house and sprinkled the ashes from the stove that had been poured out the night before onto the ashes.

Da Cui went to the eaves to get a broom. She was eating, so Xu Keke took the broom from her, but didn't sweep immediately, placing it by the door. She called the two back inside, gave them some careful instructions, and then let them go to school.

Xu Keke finished cleaning up the dust on the ground. A Qiu came to her and said, "My nephew had a stomachache last night and went to the hospital. I have to take care of my husband, so I'd like to trouble you to look after him for a couple of days."