Xu Keke led her two children into the courtyard where Feng Lichun had lived in her previous life.
Upon hearing the sound, an older woman wearing a dark blue old-fashioned cotton jacket emerged from the house furthest to the side of the courtyard.
Xu Keke smiled and said to her, "We want to rent a house. We heard there are houses for rent here, so we came to take a look."
The woman looked at them suspiciously. Then they heard a cough coming from the next room, followed by an elderly man's voice, "Ah Qiu, who's outside?"
The woman named A-Qiu replied, "Sir, it's a woman with two children who wants to rent our house."
Then the door opened, and a distinguished, refined old gentleman stepped out. He pursed his lips, still wearing a faint smile. Even though one knew he was scrutinizing them, the gentleness in his eyes made it difficult to feel any dislike.
"We want to rent out the house, but we haven't told anyone yet. How did you find out?" The old man spoke gently and calmly.
Xu Keke was taken aback; Feng Lichun wouldn't be coming to rent a place for another ten days or so. Feng Lichun had seen the bright red paper pasted on a telephone pole by chance, with a rental notice neatly written in calligraphy. It didn't look like it was posted randomly, so Feng Lichun went to look for it.
"Ah! We've come to the wrong place. I thought this was the place. Isn't this No. 274, Baijia Lane?"
"Wrong, wrong, there's no number 274 here. I've never even heard of it," A-Qiu replied impatiently.
"What should we do? I'm sorry to bother you. But you just said that you also rent out rooms here, I wonder if we could rent them to you?"
Xu Keke looked around, trying to appear somewhat anxious and at a loss.
It was unclear whether the old man believed him or not. It was chilly outside, and the old man covered his mouth and coughed a few times. After recovering, he smiled and asked, "Where are you from? Why did you bring two children here? And why do you want to stay here?"
Although she knew the old man's identity, Xu Ke had become cautious because of what had just happened. "My husband is in the army. I brought the children to visit him and we're staying at the military guesthouse. But he can't come home with us right away. We can't stay there forever. Taking them back to our hometown is too far, and there's hardly anyone there anymore. So I was thinking of finding a place to stay here. I'll work for someone to earn some money, and the children can go to school here and learn something. Someone at the guesthouse told me that there were people renting rooms here, but even though I tried to remember it, I got it wrong."
The old man sighed, "When the country is in trouble, people take up arms and don armor; when people are in danger, warriors rush to the front!"
"It's cold outside, come inside with me."
The old man called them into the house. The house had two rooms; the outer room was the living room, with a stove burning. The inner room, from the outside, appeared to be the bedroom.
The walls of the living room outside are covered with traditional Chinese paintings. The paintings depict pomegranates at different stages of life, some in bloom, some bearing fruit, and one with a bare branch with a few withered pomegranates hanging from it.
The room was furnished entirely with old mahogany furniture. A long sofa sat in the center near the stove, with single sofas to the side. A round table was placed in front of the sofas. The old gentleman invited them to sit on the sofa. A white lace sofacloth was draped over the light brown sofa, but Xu Keke pointed to the dust on the three of them and declined.
He called Da Cui and Yuan Bao to come with him, and went to the window to move three chairs. He let Da Cui and Yuan Bao each sit on one side of him, and the three of them sat side by side.
The old gentleman smiled and didn't insist. He poured the water heating up on the small stove into a teapot with pomegranate patterns, took a teacup from the table, and poured one for each of them. He then opened the box of candied fruit and pushed it in front of Da Cui.
Noticing that Yuanbao was inconvenient to take, she smiled and said, "That's something girls like to eat. Take one and try it; it's a bit sour. There are also some popcorn beans here; they're not bad either."
Then he asked Xu Keke in detail where she was from and when she came. But he never asked about the man she had mentioned.
"I do have a room here that's currently empty. It's two adjacent rooms, about the same size as my room. I'll have A-Qiu show it to you in a bit. If you'd like to rent it, the price is negotiable."
After pouring Xu Keke and the two children another glass of water, the old man called out to A Qiu, asking her to take them to see the house.
The house was in the inner courtyard. There were three houses in the courtyard. The one in the very middle, directly opposite, was where Feng Lichun used to rent. Xu Keke could vaguely see figures moving inside, so it seemed someone lived there. Sure enough, A Qiu led them to the house on the left side of the courtyard.
The innermost bedroom wasn't small, but it contained only a wooden-framed bed and a small single-door wardrobe. Several old newspapers from 1949, shortly after the liberation, were pasted on the wall. Judging from the condition of the room, Xu Keke guessed that a young, single man must have lived here before.
In the living room outside, there was a table and two chairs in the center. There were also two glass display cases, with a few small items scattered inside, which were not very clear through the glass.
Near the window on the courtyard side, there stood a large, antique-looking desk. Its intricate yet exquisite carvings seemed somewhat out of place with the simple furniture in the room.
Seeing Xu Keke looking at her curiously, A Qiu explained to her, "Mr. Li, who used to live here, worked for a newspaper and had to write articles when he came home at night. My husband gave him the drawing table that my wife used to not use. Your child is going to school, so you can keep this table; it will be convenient for the child to write."
As the two were talking, the door to the opposite room opened, and a woman walked out. She had a somewhat languid demeanor, slightly curly hair, and skin so fair it seemed to glow. She carried a washbasin and didn't even glance at them. Slipping on her slippers, she went straight to the small room under the eaves. Hearing the sound of water coming from inside, and recalling Feng Lichun's memories, Xu Keke knew the woman was probably washing up.
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