An Moxue returned home with the package Wu Sicheng had given her. As soon as she opened the door, the two little ones surrounded her. An Moxue said, "Are you hungry? Wait a minute."
After she finished speaking, she took out some food from her space and put it in a bowl. The two little ones gathered around and ate happily, wagging their tails.
Seeing the two little ones eating heartily, An Moxue carried the package into the house.
An Moxue opened the package, inside were several cooked skins, several bags of milk powder, and two boxes of malted milk powder.
She took out the pelts and examined them one by one. The quality was good, and they were all sable, enough to make a short mink coat.
After heating the kang (a heated brick bed), An Moxue checked the inside and outside of the house, locked the door, went into her spatial dimension, and began making medicine.
When she gets busy, she loses track of time. It wasn't until the alarm rang for the third time that An Moxue stopped what she was doing. It was already midnight.
An Moxue returned to her bedroom, took a shower, and went to sleep on the bed.
For the next two days, An Moxue didn't leave the house until she remembered her promise to Old Ma, at which point she took a frozen rabbit and went out.
Upon entering, I saw Aunt Ma alone at home and said, "Auntie, where's my uncle? Why isn't he home weaving baskets today?"
"They went to town."
She held up the rabbit in her hand and said, "Auntie, I want to eat your stewed rabbit today, and then make pancakes on the side of the pot."
"Okay, is this frozen? Go get a bowl to thaw it, then we'll have dinner."
An Moxue went into the kitchen, took a large basin, filled it with water, and put the rabbit in it.
Entering the house, sitting on the kang (a heated brick bed), I asked, "Auntie, I've never seen you idle. You're always making shoes, pasting soles, sewing soles, mending shoes, patching and mending. You always have work to do. It's really not easy."
"It's much better than before. It's only in the last few years, when my children have all grown up, gotten married, and moved out, that things have gotten a bit better. In the past, your uncle was away from home all year round, sometimes so far that he couldn't even send his allowance back. Life was so hard back then, let alone having a few of us get together to chat during the off-season. Just taking care of all the clothes and shoes for the whole family was enough to keep us busy. You're young now, without family burdens, so life is easier for you, and you probably can't understand. But that's how life is! We ordinary folks, all we have to do is eat three meals a day and wear clothes for all four seasons."
"Yes, you're right. A peaceful and ordinary life is just as good!"
"Yes, that's it."
Why didn't you two stay in the city to retire?
"This!" Aunt Ma said, lost in thought, her face full of reminiscence.
After a long while, he came to his senses and said, "The souls of heroes are here, and we must come back to guard them. If we don't remember now, slowly no one will remember anymore. It was a large family, hundreds of people, who all sacrificed themselves to fight against foreign enemies." As he finished speaking, tears streamed down his face.
An Moxue had a bold guess in her mind, but she wasn't sure if it was true. She tentatively asked, "Auntie, what's the surname of the family you mentioned? Could you tell me?"
"Yes, of course! The older folks in this county all know about it. It's a local family, with the compound surname Nalan."
Hearing this, An Moxue's heart skipped a beat. Since arriving here, she had never dared to actively inquire about the Nalan family, but had always asked indirectly, without obtaining any valuable information.
Her mother had always used the surname Lan in public. Apart from her family of three, no one else knew about her mother's background. She thought there must be something her mother hadn't told her.
"Back then, our village was the ancestral home of their family. Later, the direct descendants gradually moved to the county. In the north of the county, there is a large old house ruin called Juedi, now just ruins. It was bombarded by foreign invaders. When the enemy attacked, their family donated money and supplies. At first, the men went to the battlefield, and later the women went too. In the end, they all sacrificed themselves on the battlefield to defend their home and country. The enemy hated them. Even after everyone was dead, they still didn't let them go. They bombarded that huge house with cannons until it was completely destroyed."
An Moxue thought that perhaps their hatred wasn't the only reason; they might also be looking for something.
"Did women also go to the battlefield to kill the enemy?"
"Of course, it was a family where the women were just as capable as the men. They were all skilled in riding and archery, and the women could be just as useful as men. Some of the older villagers were their tenants back then and had been taken care of by them. Some of them even had their lives saved by them."
"That's truly impressive, a display of national righteousness!"
"That's right, I felt a sense of familiarity when I first saw you, but I couldn't remember who you looked like. Now that you mention it, I remember. Your eyes are very similar to those of your family; they are all beautiful fox-like eyes, equally expressive."
"So, is it thanks to these eyes that you're so good to me?"
"Maybe so! Even though you're wearing glasses to cover it up, I still like it."
"This is such an honor! Could you tell us more about their family stories in the future? I think they are all amazing. I want to be like them."
"Alright! Actually, your personality is very similar to the second master of their family. Your Uncle Ma likes you so much because of this. The first time he went to the county with you, he came back and said to me with emotion, 'If only you were a child of the Nalan family, even if you were a girl, it wouldn't matter, at least your lineage wouldn't be broken!' He said that getting along with you is just like getting along with the second master, your personalities are so similar."
An Moxue said jokingly, "I look like them, I have a similar personality, and I've come here. Maybe this is fate between me and their family!"
"Yes, who can argue with that!"
"You and Uncle Ma know their family so well. What was your relationship with them before? Would you mind talking about it? If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine too."
"I've told you, just don't tell anyone else. We're both retainers. If it weren't for the Second Master, your Uncle Ma and I would be gone long ago."
"I didn't find any large houses in this village! A family like theirs shouldn't live in a village like this! Shouldn't there be some decent old houses or ancestral halls or something?"
"Who told you there's nothing left? Those despicable foreign enemies destroyed it all, leaving not even a trace."
"What have they done to allow foreign enemies to act in this way?"
"What did we do? Of course, we protected our compatriots and fought against foreign enemies. Not a single one of us, whether man or woman, was a coward."
"What a pity."
"yes!"
"If you hate someone so much, you even blew up their house, so did you spare their graves too?!"
Aunt Ma scoffed, "Hmph! They'd love to, but they'd better be able to find it first!"
"Wow! It feels so mysterious! Can you tell me about it?"
"It's nothing. It's said that you need someone with Nalan family blood to guide you to the place. Otherwise, even if you get there, you won't be able to get in."
"That's so mysterious. Have you and Uncle Ma visited the cemetery to pay respects all these years?"
“We searched, but we just couldn’t find it. It was like being trapped in a maze. After several attempts, we gave up and had no choice but to settle for staying and guarding this village.”
"Auntie, they will know how you and my uncle feel. Trust me."
"I don't need them to know, I just want them to be happy in their next life." After saying that, her eyes were filled with tears again.
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