Zhao Xiaopeng

Yanzhou City is more than 180 li away from Fuping County. It can be reached by both water and land. Since they had a horse-drawn carriage at home, the two of them finally chose the land route.

After greeting Sister-in-law Wang and asking her to look after the house, the two of them set off with Jiang Jiao. Because of Jiang Jiao, Chu Wei's journey was slow, and it took four days to reach Fuping County.

Seeing the county town just like she remembered, and hearing the familiar accents of the people on the street, Xichun couldn't help but shed tears inside the carriage. Five years had passed, and she had finally returned to her beloved hometown.

After crying for a while, Xichun wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, followed by joy. She could see those familiar people from her memories again, and they could have a good chat about what had happened in their hometown over the years.

"Chu Wei, turn right at the third intersection along this street and walk to the end, that's my home, Persimmon Alley," Xi Chun said with a smile, pointing out the way to Chu Wei.

"Alright!" Chu Wei replied with a smile, then whipped her horse to urge it on.

Xichun lifted the carriage curtain high, craning her neck eager to see what her home looked like.

The carriage had only reached the third intersection when it found that the road ahead had disappeared. The once wide street was now buried in mud, and high mounds of earth had buried the houses on both sides underground. Only the rooftops of the houses could still be vaguely seen at the very edge. As far as the eye could see, there was only piled-up earth, which was now covered with dense weeds.

Persimmon Alley is gone, and so is her home.

Xi Chun, carrying the child, dismounted and stood on the mound of earth, gazing in the direction where her home used to be. Beneath the thick layer of yellow soil, she could see nothing. Chu Wei took the ginger and pepper from her arms, patted her shoulder reassuringly, and stood with her on the mound.

A passing peddler saw them looking like this and came over to talk to them, saying, "Hey, are you looking for someone?"

Chu Wei climbed down from the mound and asked him, "Yes, we have a relative who lives in Persimmon Lane." Chu Wei turned her head and glanced at the vast earthen hill behind her, then asked him, "When did this happen?"

The peddler put down his load, sighed, and said, "It happened in early June this year. There was a lot of rain in Fuping this year. I remember it rained heavily for several days before the accident. Then, on the afternoon of June 4th, Mao'er Mountain behind this street suddenly collapsed. The rubble and mud buried this street and many other places nearby."

"What about the people who live here?" Xichun rushed up to him and asked anxiously.

Seeing the tears in Xichun's eyes, the peddler also shed tears. One of his aunts lived in the alley over there. The incident happened so suddenly that no one from his aunt's family managed to escape.

"Alas, what a tragedy." The peddler wiped the tears from his face with his sleeve, sighed deeply, and said, "Except for a few people from a few households on this side, no one else managed to escape. The soil is too thick and deep. The county magistrate organized the yamen runners and laborers to dig for several days, but they could only dig up the roof at most. Later, they set up a mourning hall in an open space over there, invited a Taoist priest to perform a ritual, and that was the end of it."

Upon hearing that almost no one had survived, Xichun could no longer hold back and burst into tears. The wind blew across the mound, causing the wild grass to rustle, and the white spikes of the five-jointed awned flowers swayed incessantly in the wind, like clusters of white mourning banners commemorating the lives buried beneath the earth.

Xichun and Chuwei stayed at Huang's Restaurant in the city. Xichun bought ten bundles of paper money and three sets of incense and candles and went to the place where the ritual had been performed to offer incense to their former neighbors. The next day, they went to her grandfather's grave outside the city to offer incense to him. Her grandfather's grave was overgrown with weeds, and Xichun spent the whole morning clearing the weeds to restore the grave to its original appearance.

Xichun kowtowed to her grandfather with ginger and pepper. Now that she had a daughter, she was no longer alone, and her grandfather could finally rest easy on the other side.

Not far from Jiang Delu's grave was the county's mass burial ground, where countless lost souls were laid to rest. Seeing that it was about to rain, and having brought no umbrellas, they decided to take a shortcut back to the inn through the mass burial ground.

Halfway there, they heard a man's laughter coming from the mass grave. Chu Wei immediately sensed something was wrong. She settled Xi Chun and Jiang Jiao under a large locust tree, then picked up a thin stick from the roadside and headed towards the source of the sound. She found a grave in the middle with a hole in it, revealing a willow coffin inside. The sound was coming from that coffin.

Chu Wei didn't believe in ghosts or gods; she had seen things far more terrifying than them. She picked up a wooden stick and approached the coffin. Inside, Zhao Xiaopeng, seeing a shadow approaching, assumed it was one of those bullying kids again and quickly climbed out from the other end of the coffin, running in the opposite direction from Chu Wei. He wasn't fast, and Chu Wei caught him after a few steps.

When Zhao Xiaopeng was grabbed, he quickly covered his head with his hands and shouted, "Don't hit me, don't hit me, I have no food."

Chu Wei bent down and saw that the ragged, disheveled man was not a bad guy at all; he looked more like a crazy beggar. She threw away the wooden stick in her hand and said to him, "I'm not a bad person. I'm sorry for scaring you. Here, have this." As she spoke, Chu Wei took out a preserved vegetable and meat pie from her sleeve and handed it to him.

Smelling the aroma of meat, Zhao Xiaopeng reached out and grabbed some, saying thank you before running off in the opposite direction from Chu Wei. Xi Chun recognized the voice; carrying ginger and pepper, she walked out from behind the locust tree and saw the person rushing past her. Although he was disheveled, his face covered by a tangled beard, she immediately recognized his dark, grape-like eyes—it was Xiaopeng.

"Xiao Peng, Xiao Peng!" Xi Chun called out as she chased after him, carrying the child in her arms.

Zhao Xiaopeng ran to a sheltered spot at the foot of the mountain and hid there. He had only eaten half a steamed bun given to him by others since yesterday, and he was very hungry. Now he held the preserved vegetable and meat pie and began to eat it in big bites.

"Xiao Peng, Zhao Xiao Peng!" Xi Chun shouted loudly as the figure disappeared in front of her.

"Xichun, do you know that person?" Chu Wei asked Xichun when she heard her call out.

Xi Chun nodded. "That's my friend Zhao Xiaopeng."

Zhao Xiaopeng quickly devoured the preserved vegetable and meat pie, intending to take advantage of the early hour to go to the county town to beg for more food. He hadn't gone far when he heard someone calling his name. Looking towards the source of the voice, he saw it was Xichun.

Xi Chun and Zhao Xiaopeng exchanged a glance and quickly ran in his direction. Seeing her running towards him, Zhao Xiaopeng also quickly ran towards her.

"Xichun, Xichun." Zhao Xiaopeng stopped two steps away from Xichun, and after realizing that the person in front of him was indeed Xichun, he began to wail loudly.

A light rain began to fall, and the group hurried down the mountain. Back at the inn, Xichun spent an extra two taels of silver to have the innkeeper help Zhao Xiaopeng take a bath and find him two sets of clean clothes.

After taking a shower and shaving his beard, Zhao Xiaopeng looked like a tall, slender young man with delicate features. However, he hadn't eaten properly for months and was extremely hungry; the shape of his back bones was clearly visible under his clothes.

"Xichun, I've been waiting for you for so long, why did it take you so long to come find me?" Zhao Xiaopeng pouted.

Xi Chun turned her face away to wipe away her tears, then turned to look at him and said, "Xiao Peng, let's live together from now on."

“Okay, wherever Xichun goes, Xiaopeng will go too,” Zhao Xiaopeng said.

On the carriage ride there, Chu Wei had heard Xi Chun mention that her friend had been kicked down the stairs while working at a restaurant, injuring her head and causing her to revert to a childlike state of mind. Chu Wei thought this wasn't so bad; at least there would be fewer worries.

The next day, they set off on their journey back to Yanzhou. On the way, Xichun pieced together from Zhao Xiaopeng's words the reason he had been hiding in the mass grave. On the day of the accident, he had gone to the market to play when he heard a rumbling sound. He followed others to see what was happening and discovered his home had been buried. His family was buried underground, and with nowhere else to go, he had no choice but to beg on the streets.

As a result, some children tried to bully him, so he ran to a mass grave outside the city to escape them. Coincidentally, he found an open coffin that was empty, so he decided to stay there.

Back in Yanzhou, Xichun and Chuwei started looking for a shop, with Zhao Xiaopeng following behind them, helping Xichun take care of her daughter. He used to help his mother take care of his younger siblings, so he was quite skilled at holding children. Chuwei also noticed that Zhao Xiaopeng was very interested in the family's horses. After learning from Chuwei a few times how to feed the horses, groom them, and clean the stables, he started vying to do anything related to the horses.

By the end of September, the shop was settled. It was located on Maliu Street. There happened to be a noodle shop that was going out of business and closing down, so Xichun spent sixty taels of silver to rent it from the owner for a year. The tables and chairs in the shop were already in place; all that was needed was to order some large and small steamers before it could open for business.

Before opening, Xichun and Chuwei made several varieties of steamed buns at home and gave them to their neighbors to taste, and then made adjustments based on everyone's opinions.

On the sixth day of the tenth lunar month, Jiang's Steamed Bun Shop opened. Since it was the only shop selling steamed buns on the street near the dock, and their improved fillings were incredibly delicious, Jiang's Steamed Bun Shop quickly gained a reputation at the dock within just a few days. Although they only sold steamed buns until noon, customers at the dock would buy a dozen or twenty at a time, and the hundreds they made each day were always in short supply.

Xi Chun owned 70% of the shop, Chu Wei owned 30%, and Zhao Xiaopeng received an additional tael of silver per month for his wages. Xi Chun kept daily accounts, and after the first month, she calculated the accounts and found that she had made a total of ten taels of silver, excluding rent and various costs incurred in the early stages.

To celebrate their booming business, Chu Wei set up a hot pot at home, and the three of them enjoyed hot pot with mutton around the charcoal stove in the early winter weather.

The weather in Yanzhou was gradually getting colder, and Xichun added two more layers of clothing for Jiangjiao. Jiangjiao began to babble, and although no one could understand her, she still enthusiastically chatted with everyone who came to play with her. Xichun's days were busy yet wonderful. Occasionally, she would hear customers in the shop mentioning the war in the Northwest. She heard that the fighting there was fierce, and that our army and the enemy were locked in a deadly battle.

In mid-December, Yanzhou experienced a light snowfall. Xichun, holding Jiangjiao, stood under the eaves of the main house, watching the snowflakes drift down from the sky. She recalled a customer who frequently traveled the Northwest route saying that the snowflakes there fall in individual flakes, and when they accumulate, they can sometimes bury a person completely.

As Xi Chun watched the snowflakes melting in Jiang Jiao's small hands, she instantly thought of Wei Qiao.

The snow must be quite thick where he is.