Chapter 13
The path was winding, with many branches growing across the narrow path.
The village chief led the way. They were used to walking on mountain roads, but people in the city might not be used to such roads, and the branches that grew there.
As he walked, he swung his axe to cut off the protruding branches in front of him.
"The old people used to work outside and only fled back when the war broke out," the village chief threw away the branch in his hand, "our village was poor at that time. Apart from the little that we produced in the fields, we had nothing else. Every family couldn't even afford a hot meal, and there was no way out. If we wanted to go to the town outside to pick vegetables and exchange them for some rice and noodles, we had to walk a day and a night on the mountain road. My father told me that during the Republic of China, around 1920, soldiers came to our village to collect food, but we really had nothing to eat. Several young people in the village were beaten by them and almost died. The village chief had no choice but to hand over the few remaining beans and taro in the cellar as food."
Xiao Xiao couldn't stand it anymore and asked angrily: "When soldiers beat people like this, no one stood up to stop them. What about the officials?"
"How dare we ordinary people go against soldiers?" the village chief said, easily cutting off the branches blocking his way. "That winter, there was no food, no coal. We ate all the trees we could cut down and the bark we could eat on the mountain, but it was of no use. Many people in the village froze to death in one night alone. When the old woman came back to visit her family and saw the state of the village, she wrote to her boss. The boss had soldiers, and they sent dozens of loads of rice and coal, and left us a few guns and bullets. My father said that in those days, people would eat anything when they were hungry. In the village next door, everyone was eaten. We only survived here because of that little bit of rice and guns."
The village chief sighed, "After the reform and opening up, everyone's life started to get better. She paid for people to come to the village to build roads. Hey, the road you drive up the mountain was built by her. It wasn't so convenient before."
Xiao Xiao, who was walking behind, was curious, "What did she do before?"
"They did everything, washing clothes for their employer, cooking, and doing manual labor. People at that time could endure hardships. As long as they could make money and it was not against their conscience, they would do any kind of work. They were not picky."
The village chief turned around and looked at how they were walking along the mountain road, fearing that one or two of them might not be able to keep up.
"The boss treated her very well," Li Cheng said. In that era, if you wrote a letter, dozens of loads of rice and coal would be delivered. If you had soldiers under your command, you must be a powerful and wealthy person.
The village chief sighed, "Good, he was a good person, but unfortunately he had a bad fate and died at such a young age."
"Ah!" Xiao Xiao was surprised, "How come it's gone?"
"Fight!" the village chief's voice was so loud that everyone following him could hear it. Yang Ye walked in the middle, his head lowered, staring at the road below him. His eyes were blank and empty. Xiao Xiao shouted twice, but she was completely oblivious. She just followed quietly behind him, her thoughts seeming to have escaped from the time the village chief mentioned 1920.
"I heard he wasn't even 40 years old yet. His family waited for several years before they received a death certificate."
"Don't be too sad, this happens to everyone."
"What are you talking about?" Yang Ye tilted his head and held the phone against his shoulder. He raised his hand and looked left and right at the jade bracelet on his wrist.
I don't know what's going on these past two days, but the bracelet always gets in the way when I wear it. Either it bumps against one side, or it knocks against the teacup when I add water to my tea. The jade bracelet, which was fine, has a crack in just two days.
Hearing her cheerful tone, the person on the other side hesitated for a moment, as if he hadn't guessed that Yang Ye didn't know about it yet.
There was silence on the receiver. Yang Ye picked up the phone and said, "You're talking in circles. What do you want to say?"
"Nothing." The other party suddenly lost his temper and seemed afraid to speak.
"Hey, are you interested? What's the matter?" Yang Ye urged.
"As for your family's Shangyang, I heard it from our old Zhang," the other party mustered up the courage.
A bad feeling rose in my heart, and my hand holding the phone paused, "What happened to Xue Shangyang?"
"At once……"
The phone in her hand dropped with a thud, but she seemed not to hear it. Her body swayed, and her right hand pressed against the backrest of the sofa next to her. Her legs gave out, and her knees slowly buckled. In an instant, she collapsed onto the cold floor, eyes wide open, mouth open, her gaze gradually glazing over. Her chest trembled, and her left hand clutched her clothes tightly over her chest, her knuckles white from the strain.
The servants in the house heard the noise coming from the living room. Aunt Zhang came running from the kitchen with two little maids. Seeing her sitting on the ground, Aunt Zhang stuffed the unfinished dishes in her hand to the maid behind her.
"Madam, what's wrong with you?" She wanted to help Yang Ye.
My heart raced, threatening to burst from my chest in the next instant. A buzzing sound, a sharp piercing that threatened to pierce my eardrums, filled my ears. Everything around me drifted away, leaving only my own breathing and heartbeat, my mind a blank.
My eyes gradually became sore and tears flowed uncontrollably.
The butler came in from the door, holding the newly delivered death notice tightly in his trembling hands.
The piece of paper seemed to weigh a thousand pounds. He followed with heavy and slow steps. The adjutant who had set out on the train with Xue Shangyang knelt down in front of the housekeeper before she could speak.
"Ma'am, I'm sorry," the adjutant said with difficulty, his throat choked by guilt, "I failed to protect the commander."
At that moment, Yang Ye's world seemed to collapse.
*
"That's it," the village chief said to them.
Walk up a few dozen steps, turn two corners, turn left at the fork in the road ahead, and you will see a small house built on an open space halfway up the mountain.
The cottage is built with its back to the mountain and level with the mountain.
Xiao Ding pulled Li Cheng, who was coming up behind him, and said, "Teacher Li, are you okay?"
"It's okay," Li Cheng panted, putting his coat on his shoulders. "It's not far, but the stone road is hard to walk on."
The village chief said: "All roads in the mountains are like this. It's not so bad these days, but if it rained a while ago, the roads would be even worse."
Xiao Xiao walked beside Yang Ye, and seeing her in a trance, she nudged her with her shoulder, "Boss"
Yang Ye had reacted. She looked at Xiao Xiao and nodded calmly, "It's okay."
What should have passed has passed, she just remembered it again.
This mountain is not actually very high. Rather than calling it a mountain, it is more like a platform formed by the rocks that slid down from the main mountain behind it. From here, you can also see the courtyard of the village chief's house and the villagers working in the fields.
The mountain stream flowed down the cracks between the rocks. A young man was standing shirtless and barefoot in the stream washing clothes.
The village chief called him "Aniu"
"What's wrong, Village Chief?" He looked back without stopping the work in his hands.
The village chief said: "These are the archaeological team from the city, looking for your great-grandmother."
He wrung out the clothes in his hands and said, "Grandma is listening to opera in the yard."
There were two girls among them, and he didn't look good with his shirt off. The village chief came over and pulled down his arms, then used his body to block them, "Why are you taking off your clothes in broad daylight?"
"It's dirty." Ah Niu shook the washed clothes in his hand, "I fell when I went to the ground, and it's dirty, so I took it off and washed it."
"Go put on some clothes. It will look awkward with female comrades here," the village chief whispered, then nodded and smiled at Li Cheng.
"Village chief?" Li Cheng shouted.
"It's inside, I'll take you there." She pushed Aniu's body down and asked him to put on his clothes quickly.
The old woman was sleeping on the recliner under the locust tree. The recliner was swaying, and she was holding an old-fashioned radio with the antenna extended.
A melodious Huangmei Opera tune was playing on the radio. The graceful singing voice came through the somewhat not-so-powerful speakers. The clear female voice was so pleasant that even people who didn't usually like opera would feel comfortable hearing it.
Aniu found a piece of clothes in the yard and put them on.
"Grandma, Grandma," Aniu went over and called out to her, but she didn't respond.
Then he squatted down and leaned close to her ear, shouting: "Grandma!"
The old man finally regained consciousness and slowly opened his eyes.
"Ah" she woke up and looked at Aniu blankly.
Ah Niu shouted, "I'm from the city, I want to talk to you about something."
"Oh, oh" he seemed to understand but not quite, he just opened his mouth and nodded.
Ah Niu made way for him, and Li Cheng went over and imitated him, approaching the old man and saying loudly, "Old man, who are your ancestors?"
"Ah?" She didn't hear clearly.
"Ancestors, the top ones, ancestors" Li Cheng pointed his hand upwards.
"It's a nice day," she said happily.
"Are there any ancestors who were officials?"
"No war"
"Being an official, appointed by the emperor"
"To be an official, or not to be an official" His body trembled and he raised his hand and shook it.
"What's wrong with her?" Zhou Yiheng looked at the old woman's condition. She couldn't hear clearly and couldn't speak clearly.
"My great-grandmother's left ear has been deaf for decades, and the right ear is sometimes better and sometimes worse. A few years ago, she fell off the bed and hit her head, and she can't speak clearly anymore."
The village chief wondered, "When I came here two days ago, wasn't he fine?"
"It was windy last night, and the window in her room was not closed. It was open all night, so she caught a cold," Aniu explained.
“You don’t even know how to lock it for her.”
"My father checked before going to bed and found the window was closed. Who knew that grandma would get up in the middle of the night and open the window herself?"
The moment Yang Ye saw her, he was stunned. He stared at the old man lying in the rocking chair, looking at him carefully.
She had been looking forward to what it would be like if her old friend still existed.
After asking for more than ten minutes, Li Cheng was tired. He was really exhausted and couldn't get anything out of it. Instead of wasting time here, he might as well go back and take a look. Who knows what new things might be found underground.
He came over and said helplessly to everyone: "Let the old man rest, we will go back and look through the information."
"I'm sorry, I can't help you," the village chief said a little apologetically.
After a whole morning of hard work, Li Cheng felt embarrassed and said, "We were too anxious."
The village chief said: "You are also working for us"
"Let's go back," he said to Yang Ye.
Yang Ye didn't move, just stood there.
"Gone?"
She ignored him and walked straight towards the old man.
Grabbing the armrest of the rocking chair, Yang Ye squatted beside it.
The old woman seemed to sense something. Her gray and turbid eyes looked at the person who was slowly walking towards her from a distance.
Her palms couldn't open, and her fingers didn't have the strength to flatten. Her hands were covered with deep, thick calluses, and her skin was wrinkled, a bit like dried bark.
Yang Ye turned her hand over. The old woman seemed to understand something, her breathing gradually increased, and her hand resisted, not wanting Yang Ye to see it. He felt the scar on her right palm that extended all the way to her wrist. It was the scar that they had gotten when they escaped from the church and were attacked by gangsters waiting at the intersection.
In order to save Yang Ye, she stood in front and took the blow head-on. She held it in until Xue Shangyang arrived with his adjutant and personal soldiers. The two were safe, and when Yang Ye looked down, he saw that she was injured.
She was rushed to the hospital, but the doctor said after examining her that the tendons in her wrist were severed by the machete. Even if it healed, she would not be able to use strength in her right hand in the future.
Looking at the scar, the thick calluses on the palm of her hand, and the frostbite on her knuckles, Yang Ye felt a little sore and itchy in his eyes. He tried his best to hold back his tears.
She looked up at the old man and called softly, "A Qing"
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