Since Mu Zhenting's visit, Xu Mingyang and Mu Jingheng's relationship has suddenly undergone a dramatic change. The two often go up the mountain together, and they never come back empty-handed. Wild fruits, wild vegetables, mushrooms, pheasants, wild rabbits, and so on are always brought back, which makes Xu Laosan jealous. Every time, he shouts that Mu Jingheng no longer likes him, which makes the family both amused and exasperated.
The happiest person in the family was none other than Old Mrs. Xu. She turned the things they had brought into all sorts of delicacies, and dried the leftovers into cured meat. When she had enough, she asked Mu Jingheng to send them to their home in Kyoto.
To avoid giving Shen Yuqin any advantage, Mu Jingheng would always secretly write his grandfather's name when sending things, and then slip in a letter saying that he didn't want Shen Yuqin to eat the things he had worked so hard to get.
It was incredibly childish. Every time Xu Xinning saw him, she would stare at him for a long time. More than once, she suspected that his mental age was about the same as Xu Laosan's. In Xu Xinning's mind, only a little kid like Xu Laosan would do something so childish.
Since Old Mrs. Chen fell ill, Xu Xinning has developed a habit of setting up a study upstairs in the Chen family home. Sitting by the window, she can see the entire courtyard of the Chen family home. If she listens carefully, she can hear clearly what people downstairs are saying. Below the study is Chen Ping and Wang Ying's room.
The room had been vacant for a long time because Chen Ping and Wang Ying lived in the room below it.
Houses in the south are either made of wood or stone. The most common type is a stone floor with wooden planks for the walls. This prevents the wood from being damaged by moisture and attracting ants.
For a more refined approach, walls would be made by weaving bamboo strips and bamboo combs, then mixing them with mud and shell lime. Such walls provide excellent heat insulation, sound insulation, and earthquake resistance.
However, people later took a shortcut and rarely used this type of wall anymore, although the Xu family still used this technique in their kitchen.
When Xu Xinning turned this room into a study, she specially asked Grandpa Xu to help her weave a large straw mat and lay it on the ground. At first, the Xu family did not understand why, but later they realized that the ground with a thick straw mat was silent when walking on it.
Xu Xinning used her geographical location to keep an eye on Wang Ying. She didn't want to wrong her, so she tried her best to convince herself to speak with facts.
In truth, Xu Xinning is too soft-hearted. She can never be as decisive as her mother in her previous life, nor as righteous as Yang Chunqin. Her heart is always dominated by emotions.
She was caught off guard by her wet nurse in her past life, but what about Wang Ying?
Whenever she had free time, she would repeatedly think about Wang Ying's motives, but as if she were possessed, her mind would repeatedly replay the pampering and care Wang Ying had shown her over the years.
While staring at the Chen family's courtyard, Xu Xinning played with a small glass bottle in her hand, which contained the Gu worms she had painstakingly cultivated.
For some unknown reason, cultivating a Gu worm in this era is far more difficult than in her previous life. Either it won't survive, or it's not as easy to control as it was in her previous life. The one in her hand was the result of countless failures before she finally cultivated it, but she didn't seem to be very satisfied with it. So Xu Xinning was still hesitating about whether to use it.
——
Two months later, more educated youth were coming to the brigade. This time, there were three educated youth, two men and one woman.
Xu Mingyang and Uncle Scarface were assigned to pick up the people from the brigade. Mu Jingheng also went to join in the fun after he found out, because he knew someone among the educated youth who had been assigned there. He had heard that they had grown up together in the same compound since childhood.
In fact, Jiang Juecheng is several years older than Mu Jingheng. If we have to say they grew up together, Mu Jingheng's older brother, Mu Jinghuai, would be a more accurate comparison. Both Jiang Juecheng and Mu Jinghuai were raised as heirs from a young age. Because they both came from military families, they had something in common: they were upright throughout their lives, unlike Mu Jingheng, who could be either righteous or wicked, and you never knew what he would do.
If Mu Jingheng insists that the two grew up together, then it's fair to say they did.
This was the second time Scarface had gone to pick up educated youth, so he had gained some experience. But with Mu Jingheng accompanying him, Scarface felt even more confident.
——
After staying at the medical station for so long, Xiao Er's husband was finally able to go home. Xu Xialian and Da Er's husband came to pick him up, along with their child, a nine-year-old boy.
Although he was only nine years old, his eyes looked very determined and mature, not like a child of that age at all.
Although he was a boy, he had long hair, which was held in place on top of his head with a hairpin.
He looks a bit like a Taoist priest, and coupled with his mature yet innocent appearance, he seems quite unusual.
But Xu Xinning's attention was drawn to the hairpin on the little boy's head.
If Xu Xinning wasn't mistaken, the hairpin was engraved with a set of intricate patterns, and judging from its color, it must have been there for a long time.
If anyone in the world is most familiar with this pattern, it has to be Hsu Hsin-ning.
That was the totem of her secret guard in her previous life.
As Xu Xinning stared at the little boy's hairpin, the child also stared at her.
What Xu Xinning didn't know was that Xu Xialian's husband's family also had another identity: grave keepers. However, only two people in the family truly knew this identity: Xu Xialian's father-in-law and the little boy in front of her.
Due to the changing times, this family has experienced a lot. They mainly made a living by hunting and also worked as bandits. After liberation, the bandits were recruited and settled in villages at the foot of the mountain. Most people moved away, but this family refused to leave the mountain no matter how much ideological work was done.
Life was too inconvenient, even marriage was a problem, and the clan was not as united as one might imagine. However, there was a clan rule that if one wanted to leave, one had to cut off one of their own arms.
It was because of this perverse tribal rule that they were all trapped in the mountains.
The little boy pulled Xu Xinning into an empty room and then formally performed the grand salute of his previous life's imperial dynasty for her.
Xu Xinning was a little confused; she couldn't believe that anyone else had memories of their past life like her.
But the little boy's actions and the totem on his hairpin made her suspicious.
The little boy removed the hairpin from his hair and respectfully handed it to Xu Xinning: "Princess!"
Xu Xinning felt a bit disoriented, unsure of what day it was.
The little boy recounted, "I am the guardian of the princess's tomb. My ancestors were the princess's secret guards. After the princess's accident, my ancestors led all the secret guards to protect her. Except for my ancestors, the others all committed suicide to follow her."
Xu Xinning stared intently at the little boy and said, "Aren't you afraid of mistaking someone for someone else?"
The little boy said, "I won't mistake her. I am the chosen one. My grandfather said that only I can find the princess."
There are some things Xu Xinning has to believe. Since she can remember her past life, what in this world is impossible?
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