Chapter 57 "How is it?" The other party is still...

"How is it?" the other party pressed.

Zhu Mingyue nodded vigorously, praising without reservation: "Accumulated iron is cast into intricate patterns, and the resulting blade is wondrous. I observe that your blade-forging skills have reached the pinnacle."

He didn't know exactly how good it was, having only ever handled plastic toy knives since childhood, but he was certain that the money was definitely well spent.

The old man showed no sign of it on his face, but he was secretly overjoyed. He snorted and said, "What are you talking about, kid? I don't understand."

Zhu Mingyue: ...

He tentatively added, "Where the skill reaches its peak, craftsmanship forges brilliance?"

"I don't understand, is there anything else?"

Zhu Mingyue belatedly realized that he had seen through her intentions, and said expressionlessly, "Oh, no way."

The other person smacked their lips, sighed, and seemed quite disappointed.

The poem was good, but he could only hear such praise from this clueless young man, just to satisfy his ears; he shouldn't take it seriously. In his heart, there was someone else who truly deserved those two lines of poetry.

His forging skills were indeed top-notch within a hundred miles, but there are always people more skilled than him. Just because he hadn't met anyone better didn't mean there weren't people outside who were more capable than him. When he was still young, he heard from his father that there was a man in the capital named Wei Ju who had become famous overnight after being appreciated by General Xu and forging the Azure Flame Blade for him.

Legend has it that the Azure Flame Blade is made of iron and fueled by fire. When it is drawn, the vegetation within a hundred meters trembles, making it a rare and precious blade. However, after the Xu family in the capital was massacred, this blade disappeared from the world along with Wei Ju, and those who sought it for a long time could not find a trace of it.

He has dedicated his life to the study of Wei Ju, and has devoted himself to its research for many years. Although he has gained some insights in the process, he has never been able to make a breakthrough. Now that he is over fifty years old, he is probably no longer able to improve. Although his current apprentice has some talent in forging swords, he is not wholeheartedly focused on it.

Thinking this, he felt a deep sense of melancholy and casually waved his hand to shoo the guest away: "You may leave now."

"That's such a quick change of expression," Zhu Mingyue thought to herself, and obediently took out two taels of silver and placed them on the table.

The old man buried his head in swinging the hammer, not looking at him. He smiled at the apprentice, picked up his cloth bag, and left.

He An had not yet come out. He waited at the agreed place for about the time it takes for two incense sticks to burn before he finally saw He An at the entrance of the pharmacy.

"Shopkeeper," He An said, running over with several packets of medicine of various sizes in his hands, his breath still a little unsteady, "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."

The county doctor prescribed several slightly different medicines for his mother to take together, which took quite some time.

Zhu Mingyue shook her head: "I just arrived too, I haven't been waiting long. Do you have anything else that needs to be purchased from above?"

He An: "No, that's all." He came specifically to buy medicine, and now that he's bought it, he doesn't need anything else.

"Oh, right," he said, handing the remaining silver back to Zhu Mingyue with a chuckle, "This is all that's left. The rest will be deducted from my wages."

Zhu Mingyue took the money and nodded with a smile.

Unlike Li Zhengyang, He An was not a chatterbox who liked to ask all sorts of questions. Even when he saw Zhu Mingyue carrying something, he didn't ask him what it was.

Zhu Mingyue suspected that he was so focused on getting home to brew new medicine for his mother that he didn't even notice that he was holding something in his arms.

Driven by filial piety, Zhu Mingyue quickened her pace.

When they arrived in town, the shops were already closed. Li Zhengyang wasn't there; it was unclear whether he had gone home or wandered off. He An offered to take him home first, but Li Zhengyang firmly refused.

It's no wonder He An was keeping a close eye on him. Although the refugees from the county town had been resettled elsewhere, a considerable number of refugees still roamed around the town. During the day, some with malicious intentions were relatively well-behaved and dared not cause trouble, but as soon as it got dark, they started causing trouble.

"You should go back quickly! Your mother might still be waiting for you!" Zhu Mingyue said, and sure enough, she saw an anxious look on He An's face.

He urged again, "You should go back now. It's still early. I can go back by myself."

He An remained standing still, so he gave him a light shove and then walked away.

He carried a knife, which gave him a great sense of security. Even if someone dared to mess with him, he could surprise them with a couple of stabs. In fact, the knife was more effective than He An's bare hands.

Back home, Xie Pei and Er Ya were not there. Zhu Mingyue put the knife in the bedroom, picked up two pieces of glutinous rice cake and a bowl of hot tea, and sat on the threshold of the door. She took a bite of the glutinous rice cake and a sip of tea, gazing at the distant mountain scenery in a daze, feeling quite content.

The sun sets early in November, and soon it had disappeared behind the mountains. Without the sunlight, he suddenly felt a bit cold and prepared to go back to his bedroom to put on a thicker coat.

Just as he was about to get up, he caught a glimpse of a figure emerging from the foot of the mountain not far away, with a large bird circling overhead.

Zhu Mingyue drank the hot tea in the bowl in one gulp, and without even bothering to put on more clothes, she headed straight for Xie Pei.

Xie Pei was clearly walking much faster than him. Zhu Mingyue was looking for someone but ended up running into him right next to her own vegetable garden.

Since he was already there, he simply picked a large cabbage and took it home to eat. There was nothing else in the fields this season except cabbage, so there was no way to change things up.

Besides the vegetables grown in the fields, the animals on the mountains are no longer as abundant as they are in spring and summer. Their numbers have decreased, and sometimes they are completely nowhere to be found.

Even if a trail is found, some animals have become clever and know how to hide in the brambles. No matter how accurate Xie Pei's aim is, he cannot guarantee that the axe will pass precisely through the brambles.

Xie Pei went up the mountain in the afternoon, but he didn't catch anything except a pheasant.

Er Ya stopped circling and stood on his shoulder. Zhu Mingyue casually touched Er Ya's belly; it was bulging, indicating she was already full.

His gaze fell on the pheasant, and he pondered what dishes to make for dinner.

Xie Pei walked silently beside him, and as they walked, he suddenly pulled out a grayish-brown object and handed it to him.

“Hovenia dulcis,” he said, then added casually, “is very sweet.”

Zhu Mingyue quickly took it with both hands, and upon closer inspection, realized it was a Japanese jujube!

He doesn't recognize the name "Hovenia dulcis," but he's very familiar with the name "Hovenia jujube."

When he was in elementary school, there was a tree growing in the neighborhood. The adults didn't care to eat it, but the children who played in the neighborhood treated it like a treasure.

He was very well-behaved as a child, preferring to stay at home and not wanting to hang out with those mischievous kids.

Actually, he wasn't genuinely unwilling to go out and have fun; it's just that he's introverted and lonely, and he's afraid of being ostracized because he can't fit in with others. His family had moved into an old neighborhood that originally belonged to a workers' company and housed the families of its employees; he and his family moved there later.

The previous owner was a retired employee of a state-owned enterprise. His children grew up and moved to a big city, so the whole family moved and sold the house at a low price to his family, who were now struggling financially.

His parents lived the life of a typical third-generation rich kid when they were young. They didn't have much in common with their neighbors in the apartment building. When they first met, they would just nod and greet each other politely. So when his family first arrived, they didn't integrate into the neighborhood circle, and he also couldn't integrate into the circle of children his age in the community.

He lives on the fourth floor of building two. His home is about 60 or 70 square meters, which is not a large area, but it is enough for him, his parents and grandmother. In addition to the master bedroom and the second bedroom, his parents also partitioned off a tiny room for him to use as a study and bedroom.

The little boy lived in a tiny bedroom. Every day when he came home, he would eat, watch cartoons for half an hour, do his homework, and sleep in that small space. His childhood was clearly etched in that tiny space.

Back then, his favorite thing wasn't the cartoons on the children's channel that aired every night at six o'clock without fail, but watching the kids his age running and playing in the recreational area downstairs from his house.

The short, chubby boy would stand on a chair after finishing his diary every day, sticking his little bottom out and leaning his upper body on the desk, pressing his little face against the glass window, staring blankly at the children playing downstairs, as if he were one of them.

In the autumn, the jujubes on the ground floor of the building opposite his house ripened, growing densely all over the tree like little snakes. At first, he was a little scared looking at this new thing that he had never seen before.

Gradually, seeing the children downstairs always scrambling to climb the trees and knock down fruit, and the fruit being snatched up immediately after being knocked down, he was no longer afraid, and even felt envious.

He'd eaten apples, bananas, and watermelons, but he'd never tasted that thing. What did it taste like? Was it delicious?

His little head was filled with great confusion, while he bit his finger and drool dripped from his little mouth.

Despite his envy, he still didn't dare to climb the tree and pick fruit with the other children. Instead, he timidly stayed in his study, peeking down at the laughter and chatter below.

One day, when his mother picked him up from school, they ran into a resident downstairs in the hallway. The aunt praised him with envy, saying he was well-behaved and sensible, unlike her child who only knew how to play wildly and had even torn his clothes when climbing a jujube tree a couple of days ago.

His mother was flattered and surprised to be approached by someone for the first time, and she spoke of her child with great pride and joy.

He trailed behind his mother like an outsider, heaven knows how envious he was of the auntie's child downstairs. Although he tore the paper to shreds, he won a pile of dates and the admiration of other children.

This envy grew stronger over time, until he returned home from school in early November.

There was a bag of Japanese jujubes on the coffee table, packed full in a red plastic bag given by the supermarket.

Like tree branches, the jujube trees take up a lot of space; they look like a lot but there aren't actually many. But he was overjoyed.

His mother thought he was frightened and comforted him by saying that the jujubes downstairs were ripe and his grandmother had borrowed a bamboo pole to knock some down and bring them back for him to try, so he could eat them without worry.

That night, for the first time ever, he didn't watch the children climbing the tree downstairs. Instead, he sat in the living room, nestled in his grandmother's arms, and ate a lot of jujubes all by himself.

His grandmother also told him a "secret" he had never known before: the jujubes that had been picked earlier were brownish-green, meaning they were unripe and tasted astringent. So the jujubes that the children downstairs were not ripe at all and did not taste good.

All that drooling he'd been doing for nothing!

Looking back now, the feeling of happiness is indescribable. The ripe jujubes were so sweet they made his throat ache, and he still remembers that scene vividly.

Something furry brushed against his earlobe, and his thoughts gradually returned. He turned his head and saw that it was Er Ya rubbing its head against him.

His gaze returned to the jujubes in his hands, he broke off a piece and put it in his mouth, it still tasted the familiar sweetness he remembered.

The jujubes don't last long, and a handful doesn't yield much. Perhaps Xie Pei didn't expect him to like them, so he only brought some back for him to try. But in no time, he chewed and ate them all.

Even Xie Pei was a little surprised. The jujube was sweet, and Zhu Mingyue didn't usually eat anything too sweet.

He remained silent for a long time before finally uttering a few words: "I'll pick some for you next time."

Zhu Mingyue was also a little reluctant to leave, and nodded upon hearing this, "Okay."

As soon as he finished speaking, his eyes became misty, making it difficult to see clearly. However, Zhu Mingyue's slightly pursed lips betrayed him.

Xie Pei frowned. Why would someone cry over just eating a jujube? A surge of anger flashed through his mind: "Have you run into trouble?"

Zhu Mingyue quickly shook her head, sniffed, and said, "No, I didn't encounter any trouble."

He was just a little homesick. Although he was the only one left at home, he had been here for almost a year. The Xie family's ancestors had all been worshipped, but his relatives had not been worshipped.

Thinking of this, he was overcome with grief, and tears welled up in his eyes, threatening to fall.

He didn't know how to confide his feelings to Xie Pei. If he told Xie Pei the truth that he was from another world, he would probably be mistaken for a monster! After all, this was beyond the realm of ordinary people's imagination.

But he was really wronged. He couldn't even be buried with his family after he died, and they weren't even in the same time and space anymore.

If it wasn't because they were bullied, then it must be because of the Japanese raisin tree, right? Xie Pei: "There are many Japanese raisin trees on the mountain."

Zhu Mingyue was amused by his serious face. How could he explain that he wasn't crying because he hadn't had enough jujubes? Could Zhu Mingyue be that kind of person?

After thinking about it, he decided to explain himself and salvage his image in Xie Pei's eyes: "I just missed my family."

Xie Pei frowned even more deeply: "You still have family members alive?"

“No,” Zhu Mingyue blinked, holding back her tears, “They were gone before I fled here. My family was poor, but they were very good to me. I miss them very much.”

What does it feel like to miss your family? Xie Pei has never experienced it. He has never been treated sincerely by his family, so how could he miss them?

Even after his parents passed away, he was only depressed for a short time before forgetting about it. Compared to his parents who had only given him life and his brother who was always trying to suppress him, he cared more about his own survival. Now, nothing is different, except that there is one more person he cares about.

He didn't know what to say to comfort his sister-in-law, who was prone to tears, and after thinking for a long time, he awkwardly said, "The dead are gone, the living must go on."

Xie Pei thought sullenly that Zhu Mingyue's spoiled nature was probably partly due to his family.

So what if she's delicate? It's not that annoying.

He tilted his head slightly and stared at the top of Zhu Mingyue's head for a while. Her fluffy hair was blown up by the wind, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up, without even realizing it himself.