Seeing Old Mrs. Jiang’s son return, Chen Zekai’s first reaction was to try to stop him first, lest going in would delay Ye Chen’s talk with Old Mrs. Jiang.
However, at this time, Ye Chen had also convinced Old Mrs. Jiang to move to Shudu, so he walked out the door and said across the courtyard, “Old Chen, come in quickly!”
When Chen Zekai heard this, he knew that Ye Chen had finished talking about his business, so he said to Old Mrs. Jiang’s son, “Come on, let’s go in!”
When they entered the courtyard, Mrs. Jiang’s son shouted happily, “Mother, look what I’ve hunted! Two pheasants!”
Mrs. Jiang came out and said with a smile, “You’re really something, you’ve hunted two pheasants in such a short time.”
After saying that, she greeted him and sent him inside.
It was late in the day and visibility in the courtyard was poor, so Mrs Jiang’s son did not see anything unusual about his mother, but when he entered the house, he was surprised to find, through the dim, yellowing tungsten lamp, that his mother had suddenly become much younger!
He said with a shocked face: “Mother …… you …… have become so young! Even your hair is half darker, this …… is too amazing ……”
The old lady Jiang lowered her voice and said, “Youngest son, you must not say anything, the noble guest who came brought some tonic for mother, and foreign health medicine, after mother ate it, her hair became much darker, but you must not tell others about it, understand?”
Mrs Jiang’s son nodded without thinking and said with a smile, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”
Mrs. Jiang nodded slightly and then said, “Youngest son, go pack your things and go out with mother.”
“Now?” Mrs Jiang’s son asked with a surprised look on his face, “Mother, don’t you want to kill the chicken and eat before you leave?”
“No.” Old Mrs Jiang instructed, “You should throw the chicken in the yard first.”
Mrs Jiang’s son hurriedly said, “These two chickens are dying, if we throw them in the courtyard, weasels and other wild animals will pick them up at night, and it will be a waste.”
The old lady said, “It doesn’t matter, if the weasels take them away, they will take them away.
Ye Chen also nodded and said, “It’s late now, and we still have an hour or so to go down the mountain. Even if we leave now and drive down the mountain to Shudu, it will still be midnight when we get there, and if we kill the chickens and cook, it will be dawn when we get there.”
The old lady said to her son at once, “Youngest, you should hurry up and pack, we must leave quickly.”
Seeing the old lady’s determination, the son did not insist any longer and said, “Then I will go and pack now.”
The old lady added, “Bring only the essentials, nothing else.”
……
Ten minutes later.
The old lady used a scoop of well water to extinguish the firewood in the stove, and together with Ye Chen, Chen Zekai, and her own young son, walked out of the house.
The old lady looked reluctantly at the dilapidated door of the house, knowing that she would not return in the future if she left this time.
Her son, however, did not know that this time he was leaving home for good, and was now carefully locking the door without making any noise, as she had instructed him to do.
According to the old lady’s instructions, since he was leaving the village, he should try not to alert the others, lest they stop him for questioning or become suspicious, and simply evaporate.
Luckily, at this time of the day, the village was completely dark and the only dozen or so families had come to dinner time, so from the time they left the house to the time they left the village, they did not meet anyone else.