Chapter 63: Living in a Small Villa
When Wu Yuetang returned to the group, he had just glossed over the small cave and said he had found a cave large enough to accommodate everyone. The eyes of the village chiefs lit up. The Dayao Village chief stroked his graying beard, his eyes wrinkled with laughter. "Is it really that big?" Ye Jingchen nodded in confirmation. He immediately shouted to the crowd, "Everyone, cheer up! There's a warm cave just ahead. It's better to hurry than to leave! Pack your things!"
The crowd suddenly erupted in cheers. When Wu Yuetang turned around, she saw Li wiping tears with red eyes, her three brothers busy wrapping the carriage with felt cloth, and even her little nephew, who was usually the most mischievous, sensibly helping to carry the baggage. Only her second sister-in-law Chen Zhaodi stood by the carriage, holding a piece of unfinished animal skin in her hand, staring at the snow-capped mountains in the distance. She looked up hurriedly when she heard the noise, but the worry on her face could not be hidden. "Second sister-in-law, what's wrong?" Wu Yuetang walked over and saw a blood spot on her fingertip where the needle had pricked her. "Are you feeling unwell?"
Chen Zhaodi hurriedly put her hands behind her back and shook her head. "It's okay." She forced a smile, but her voice was faint. "Let's go quickly. Don't waste time."
Seeing that she refused to say more, Wu Yuetang didn't dare to ask any more questions. She turned and got into the carriage, helped Li sit down, and then she lifted the curtain and sat in the front. Ye Jingchen had taken the reins at some point, and when he saw her get on, he moved aside, making room for half of the wooden board covered with felt.
"Let me do it." Wu Yuetang reached out to take the reins, but he held the back of her hand.
"You point the way, I'll drive." Ye Jingchen's voice came through the wind and snow, calm and reassuring. He shook his wrist lightly, and the old horse pulling the cart started moving with steady steps, the wheels creaking as they rolled over the snow.
The team was indeed moving much faster. The villagers trudged through the snow, their breath emitting clouds of white mist. Even the children stopped complaining about the cold. But there were so many people, half of whom were elderly, weak, women, and children. From time to time, someone would sprain their ankle or a child would cry for water. As they walked and stopped, the sun slowly sank behind the mountains.
It was not until dusk crept up the hillside that the huge dark cave finally appeared in the wind and snow.
The village chiefs, unable to sit still, jumped out of their cars upon reaching the cave entrance and trudged in, one foot deep and one foot shallow. The Dayao Village chief led the way, holding a pine torch and shining it inside. The flames crackled in the air, illuminating the cavernous scene: stalactites dangling from the high, broad ceiling, and the ground smooth as if it had been trodden on, without even a trace of water seepage.
"Wow!" someone couldn't help but exclaim, "This is even more spacious than the ancestral hall in our village!"
Several village chiefs wandered around the cave for a bit and emerged with rosy cheeks. The Dayao Village chief slapped his thigh and shouted, "Come in! Pick any spot you want! Just sweep the floor and spread some grass, and you can sleep! The walls are sturdy, guaranteed to be draft-proof!"
The crowd erupted in excitement. People carrying bags, clutching children, and holding the elderly scrambled to squeeze into the cave. Some, frustrated by the strong wind at the entrance, pushed deeper. Others, drawn to a flat rock at the bottom of the cave wall, quickly placed their belongings on it, fearing they might be snatched away. Even the usually most polite women, their eyes reddened as they protected their cloth bags, muttering, "This side is better, this side is better."
Wu Yuetang and Ye Jingchen slowly drove their carriage into the cave. The torchlight reflected on the rock wall, making her dizzy. She caught a glimpse of Chen Chunhe directing the people of the old Wu family to move under a protruding rock. Seeing Wu Yuetang's carriage pass by, she glared at them fiercely and quickly lowered her head to spread the felt cloth.
"Dad, Mom, you two can rest here now." Wu Yuetang reined in his horse and pointed to a corner near the cave wall. It was a little further away from the others, but it was just the right spot to block the wind from the cave entrance. "I'll take the horse somewhere else to feed it some grass."
Wu Shoutian responded and got busy with his sons. Mrs. Li took Wu Yuetang's hand and smiled from ear to ear: "Thanks to you, otherwise I really don't know where to go in this heavy snow."
Wu Yuetang smiled and agreed, but out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of Chen Zhaodi squatting on the ground with her back to the crowd. She frowned and was about to walk over when Ye Jingchen gently pulled her back.
"Your sister-in-law is probably worried about something. I think we should wait for her to speak up herself," he whispered, his gaze fixed on the noisy crowd in the distance. "The most important thing right now is how we can live together in the small cave up there."
Wu Yuetang looked up at the cave entrance. It was already dark, and the wind blew snowflakes against the cave walls, making a whirring sound. She nodded and turned to help her family pack their belongings.
Wu Yuetang helped spread the family's felt cloth in the corner of the cave wall and stacked the pottery jars containing grain at the innermost side. Seeing that his parents and brothers and sisters-in-law were almost settled, he dusted off his hands and said to Li, "Mother, I'm going to add some hay to the horses and get some fresh air."
Li urged her to "go early and come back early," and she responded, grabbing the horse tethered to the cave wall and heading out. The wind and snow at the cave entrance were even stronger than before, and as she stepped outside, her fur coat rustled in the wind. She didn't actually head up the mountain, but instead led the horse around in the snow not far from the cave entrance, occasionally bending down to pull up handfuls of dead grass roots that weren't buried by the snow. In reality, she was pulling some fresh grass from the space and pretending to feed the horse.
Torchlight streamed out from the cave entrance, casting a swathe of orange on the snow. She counted the figures moving back and forth among the crowd and listened to the quarrels emanating from within the cave—perhaps one family had taken over another's coveted territory. When she felt the time was almost up, she suddenly tightened her grip on the reins, her face a furious expression, and led her horse back into the cave.
"Village chief! Where is the village chief?" Her voice was deliberately hurried, and it cut through the noisy voices and fell accurately into the ears of the village chief of Dayao Village.
The old man who was discussing the division of the area with other village heads turned around and saw that her hair was all messed up from running. He asked hurriedly, "What's wrong?"
Wu Yuetang grabbed his sleeve and pointed up the mountain, panting. "I was just looking for fodder for the horses, and I found a small cave up there! It's not big, but it's perfect for our family! I want to... I want to bring my parents up there to live."
The head of Dayao Village frowned and said, "Why do we have to live separately when everything is fine? It might be a bit messy with so many people crowded together, but we can still take care of each other."
"Look after them?" Wu Yuetang lowered her head and tugged at the corner of her clothes, her voice suddenly sinking. "Last time, when we were taking shelter from a rainstorm at the mountain temple, the dry food my family provided saved half the villagers, but what happened? Haven't Chen Chunhe and Aunt Sun done enough bad things? And that Wang Xiaobin family, they're holding on to old scores and wish I'd give them all my wealth!"
When she raised her eyes, they were red. "It's not that I don't want to help others, but my parents are old. I have to protect my family first, right?"
These words hit the village chief like a stone. He recalled the chaos during the rainstorm, and how someone had indeed taken advantage of them by claiming they were "sharing the hardship." He had thought it was a trivial matter at the time, but he hadn't expected the girl to remember it.
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