Chapter 62 The Old Man at the Bottom of the Cliff
Just as Su Wenzhen had expected, after walking for a short while, he saw wisps of smoke rising from a chimney not far away.
Ye Wanning was overjoyed. She clapped her hands and smiled at Su Wenzhen, "It really is like that! Wenzhen, look over there!"
Su Wenzhen looked ahead, but unlike Ye Wanning, he was not happy. His brows were furrowed, as if he was deep in thought. He didn't know what the situation was ahead, so he couldn't relax.
Seeing that Su Wenzhen did not respond for a long time, Ye Wanning was taken aback. She turned her head and saw that Su Wenzhen's brows were furrowed. She quickly realized his concerns and asked after a moment, "Wenzhen, should we go over there?"
Su Wenzhen looked around for a moment, then replied after a brief pause, "Let's go take a look, but be careful." With that, he took Ye Wanning's hand and slowly walked forward.
After walking for a while, the surroundings seemed to have changed completely. The desolate scene was gone, replaced by a wide-open plain, with vibrant flowers, lush green vegetables, and an unusually cozy little thatched hut. Ye Wanning couldn't hide her shock and stared in astonishment at everything before her. "This..."
Su Wenzhen was clearly also frightened by the scene before him. After a long while, he finally spoke in a low voice, "Let's go closer and take a look... Could there really be someone living at the bottom of this cliff?"
"Is anyone home?" Ye Wanning slowly approached the thatched hut, looked around, and seeing no one in sight, knocked on the tightly closed door.
There was no response from inside, as if no one was home. Ye Wanning knocked on the door again, slightly harder. "Excuse me, is anyone home?"
Still silent, Ye Wanning withdrew her hand. Just as she was about to go back inside, a sudden clattering sound came from inside. Ye Wanning was startled and instinctively shrank back. "Who?"
Seeing that Ye Wanning was making a commotion, Su Wenzhen immediately came over. He glanced at Ye Wanning and asked, "What's wrong?"
Ye Wanning licked her lips, her voice trembling slightly, "This...this...there's movement inside..."
Su Wenzhen was startled and instinctively shielded Ye Wanning behind him. "Stand behind me and don't move." After saying that, Su Wenzhen kicked the door open with force.
"Ah!" A panicked scream came from inside the house. Before they could react, they heard a string of curses, "Where did this brat come from! How dare he kick my door! Does he have a death wish?!"
Ye Wanning was startled. When she came to her senses, she saw an old man with gray hair standing in the room. The old man was glaring at them angrily with wide eyes. Ye Wanning was about to speak when Su Wenzhen interrupted her, "Old man..."
Before Su Wenzhen could finish speaking, the old man interrupted him, "Who's the old man! You're the old man! Your whole family are old men!"
"So you've always lived here?" Ye Wanning looked at the white-haired old man in front of her with curiosity. After the commotion and the explanation of their identities, the three of them had started chatting in the house. "Don't you get bored by yourself?"
"How could that be?" The old man stroked his medium-length beard and said with a hint of pride, "This is a paradise on earth! The scenery is beautiful and the area is vast. I am very happy and carefree. How could I feel bored?"
I had heard of hermits in ancient times before, but I never thought I would actually meet one. Ye Wanning smiled and looked at the old man with admiration in her eyes. "Grandpa, you are amazing."
The old man clearly enjoyed being praised, and he was overjoyed to hear Ye Wanning say that. He looked at Ye Wanning with a smile and asked, "And you, little girl, where are you from?"
When the old man asked, Ye Wanning couldn't help but sigh helplessly. She pointed mournfully to the sky above, "There, we fell from the top of the cliff."
"What?" The old man was clearly incredulous, looking at Ye Wanning suspiciously. "You're saying you fell off a cliff? How is that possible!"
"You must believe me!" Ye Wanning looked at him with sincerity in her eyes. She pouted and said, "We were forced to fall off a cliff by a man. We happened to fall into the water and survived. We even met you in the end."
Upon hearing the mention of Li Zheng, Ye Wanning suddenly tensed up. She looked at the white-haired old man with a strange expression and asked, "Speaking of that man, I wonder if you've ever seen him, Grandpa? He looks fierce and is very burly, about this tall..." As she spoke, Ye Wanning gestured with her hands.
There weren't many people at the bottom of the cliff. Hearing Ye Wanning's words, the white-haired old man immediately knew who Ye Wanning was talking about. He waved his hand, seemingly a little angry, "Don't mention it. This morning when I went for a walk, I found a corpse. It looked like the man you mentioned. I was wondering who was so despicable as to leave that dead thing here and ruin my paradise."
Ye Wanning was stunned, looking at him in disbelief. "You mean... that person... is dead?"
"Yes." The white-haired old man nodded, looking at her with some confusion. "What's wrong?"
"No." Ye Wanning shook her head, glancing secretly at Su Wenzhen, who stood silently beside her. There were only four people at the bottom of the cliff. This old man didn't even know Li Zheng, so he definitely wouldn't do anything to him. But now Li Zheng was dead. As she was thinking this, she suddenly met Su Wenzhen's gaze. His eyes were unusually deep and unfathomable.
Ye Wanning was startled and quickly looked away, no longer speaking.
Su Wenzhen glanced at Ye Wanning without showing any emotion, paused for a moment, and then asked, "When Wanning and I came over just now, we didn't see any graves. According to what you said, you must have taken that person's body out. Wanning and I are just looking for a way out of this cliff. I wonder if you could show us a way?"
"Hmph!" The white-haired old man glanced at Su Wenzhen with displeasure, clearly still resentful about Su Wenzhen's earlier address as an old man. He then looked at Ye Wanning and chuckled, "Your name is Wanning? Not bad, you are as beautiful and gentle as you are."
Rarely praised so openly, Ye Wanning nodded shyly, her face turning bright red.
“However…” the old man turned to look at Su Wenzhen again, and said with some dissatisfaction, “You two are husband and wife? It’s truly a beautiful flower stuck in cow dung!”
Hearing the old man say that, Ye Wanning chuckled. She turned her head and saw that Su Wenzhen's face was a little pale, so she quickly smiled and tried to smooth things over, "Grandpa, please don't say that. Wenzhen is actually a very good person."
"Hmph!" The white-haired old man snorted coldly at Su Wenzhen, looking unusually arrogant.
Knowing that he could only rely on the old man now, Su Wenzhen didn't say much and could only continue to lower his head and say, "Senior, I was impolite just now. I hope you won't take it to heart."
The white-haired old man smacked his lips a couple of times, but finally accepted the apology, saying, "Fine, for the sake of this little girl, I'll let you off the hook."
As he spoke, he turned to look at Ye Wanning, his face immediately breaking into a smile. "Wanning, do you want to get out of this cliff?"
Ye Wanning chuckled to herself. This old man was always angry and indifferent to Su Wenzhen, but he was all smiles and kindness towards her. It was better to be a girl. She replied softly, "Yes, we must have already heard about our fall off the cliff from our relatives. It would be best to go back and let them know we're safe as soon as possible."
The white-haired old man nodded. "He's quite a filial son." Then he asked, "What do you do for a living?"
Just as Ye Wanning was about to answer, Su Wenzhen suddenly stopped her. "We are a small merchant in Duyang City. The man was originally the steward of our household. A few days ago, my wife and I were going to do business in the neighboring city when the steward had malicious intentions and tried to kill us and steal our money. That's why we fell off this cliff."
Ye Wanning was stunned, looking at Su Wenzhen with a blank expression. Why would he fabricate an identity? Suddenly, she realized that Wenzhen might be afraid of exposing his identity and had made up an excuse, so she stopped talking and just stood quietly to the side, tacitly accepting the fact.
After hearing Su Wenzhen's words, the white-haired old man knew that there must have been some exaggeration in them. But seeing that they didn't say anything more or ask any more questions, he paused and said, "You guys are lucky. It just so happens that my disciple is coming to the bottom of this cliff to see me today, so you can go out together."
Just then, a deep male voice suddenly came from outside, "Master! I'm back!"
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