Chapter 7: Encounter with an Enigmatic Person

  Knowing that the road to and from is very good, she happily jumps forward. Nowadays, this little body board finds that it looks weak, but it's actually quite solid, with agile limbs, jumping very lightly, and also bursting with energy. Since there are no people on the road, her mood is also good, and she is so self-entertaining to run and jump.

  Clippity-clop, clippity-clop, the horse in front pranced along the road, while behind it came a flat-bed wagon at a slow pace.

  The driver was a young man wearing a round-necked flower-printed gown. Since there was no cover on the back of the cart, he saw that behind him, on the backboard of the cart, there was a woman sitting with her knees bent, looking at him knowingly.

  After hearing the sound of the horse-drawn carriage coming from behind, he looked back and saw that these two people seemed to be a couple, sitting on the cart one in front of the other.

  Young man saw her looking over, suddenly big eyes wide open, somewhat surprised: "Isn't this Zhi Xiao? How are you walking on this road yourself? And in this direction, are you going into the city?" He turned his head to look at the straight road leading into the city, and looked at her with doubt.

  He didn't know how to respond, and in fact, he didn't even know the man. The man just didn't realize it. He wouldn't explain anything, but instead silently stared at him without saying a word.

  This man is Liu Lao Tou's only son, Liu Wei. This Liu Wei became the son-in-law of the owner of the silk store a few years ago and is a well-known person in the village, but his reputation is exactly the opposite of what people know about him.

  Liu Wei doesn't often come home, but yesterday Liu Lao took some things back to the village and stayed overnight at his place. When Liu Lao mentioned that his mother missed him, he agreed to bring his wife back home for a few days. Coincidentally, they ran into Zhi Xiao on the way.

  Just a moment ago, I was looking at the back of someone in front of me, and that red jacket and agile figure seemed familiar as they walked quickly ahead.

  It turned out to be the village's little girl, but what was she doing coming into town? This road isn't short either. When Liu Wei was still in the village, he would often see her jumping around like this, and now it was still the same, which made Liu Wei think it was a bit funny.

  Liu Wei hadn't been back for a long time and he didn't even know that Zhi Xiao had already been driven up the mountain by the villagers.

  A well-dressed woman moved her body in the back seat of the car and said, "Dad, how much longer will it take? I'm tired of sitting in the back."

  The woman stretched out her stiff legs and spoke, then looked at the little girl standing stupidly by the road with a dirty body. As soon as she saw her, the woman's mouth curled up, and she waved her hand in front of her nose, as if there was an unpleasant smell.

  Liu Wei was a simple-minded person, only to see him smiling and saying: "It's almost there, just turn around the corner in front and you'll be able to see the village." Liu Wei was in a good mood and said to his wife, this was still the first time his own wife was willing to follow him home. He didn't feel belittled at all for being a live-in son-in-law after marrying this woman in front of him, although he felt a little sorry for his elderly parents who lived alone at home.

  Liu Wei turned his head and looked at the girl under the car, saying: "Zhī xiǎo, anyway we two are from the same village, met on the road, get in the car, I'll give you a ride." Smiling, he pointed to the empty space on the carriage board.

  It's good to know that someone has invited her, and since there are seats available, why not sit down? Besides, there's still a long way to go, and the strangers in front of her look harmless, somewhat honest, so they probably won't do anything to this little girl.

  "Hmm." She responded softly and walked towards the back of the car.

  "Hey, slow down! Don't come up yet!" A shrill shout came from the mouth of a woman sitting in the back.

  The woman hastily waved her hand to stop Xiaoyao from jumping onto the car, as if she suddenly remembered something. She stared at Xiaoyao and asked, "What did you say her name was?" But the question was directed at her husband sitting beside her.

  "Know it." Liu Wei was puzzled, his daughter-in-law should have some impression of this celebrity in their village. Occasionally when her parents came to the city to live, they loved to chat with her about the big and small things of this girl.

  "You want to die, no, no, isn't that what your mother always said... about that thing in your village?" The woman suddenly sat up straight.

  She pulled her head back, using her hands to hurriedly wave away the acquaintance who was about to get on the car. She now hated that she couldn't even use her feet, but when she looked into the cold eyes of this young woman, she became even more frightened and shrunk back.

  But she still wouldn't let him on the bus.

  She knew the origin of this disaster star, was a formidable figure, and looking at her earthy appearance, she was even more unwilling to sit with her, without hesitation, she drove her away, at least letting this girl stay away from herself.

  "Come on, hurry up and drive," she said impatiently to her husband sitting in the front seat, frowning and muttering to herself, "What's the point of bothering with this girl?"

  She knew the inverted eyebrows, and the three-character scripture in her heart was suddenly summoned by her. These two people, one letting her take a ride and the other driving her away, treated her as if she were some kind of village idiot, what's that thing called, it's inexplicably strange.

  She was aware of her anger rising, staring at them with wide eyes and a fierce gaze. She had just thought about taking advantage of the situation to save trouble, but now she realized that others might think she loved riding in this broken car. In her heart, she scolded herself severely, warning herself that even if such an opportunity were to arise again, she would kick it away. Now, she was left with a belly full of anger and no way to vent it.

  "Your wife, look at other people's young girls..." Liu Wei seemed to be in a difficult situation.

  "What's wrong with the little girl, we're not taking this person, you know...". With a sideways glance, she pulled on his clothes and muttered: "Hurry up, let's go, what are you still doing here."

  "Alright, I'll listen to you." Liu Wei looked like a good husband and turned to Zhi Xiao, saying kindly: "Little girl, why don't you walk back yourself?"

  He finished speaking and didn't wait for a response, then hurriedly led his wife forward.

  From start to finish, she didn't know what was going on. She hadn't said a word, it was just these two talking to themselves, one telling her to get in the car and the other not letting her.

  She was aware that she had been treated like a wooden puppet, being scolded and venting her anger on her. She vowed never to make the same mistake again, never to let them bully her into submission.

  People like this are rarely seen.

  Where did this come from, old chap?

  She stomped her feet heavily on the spot, fiercely venting the depression in her heart. Now she was unwilling to hurry forward quickly, with these two annoying guys ahead, making her feel sick.

  ……

  After hurrying for almost an hour, he finally returned to the small hut on the mountain.

  Throw the copper coins into the tile jar, take a sip of the cool tea brewed in the morning, and the icy feeling is just right to dispel the heat from the whole body. After walking for nearly an hour on this winter day, I don't feel cold at all, my whole body is warm and even sweats slightly, thinking that I should boil some water to wash up tonight.

  Put aside the annoying things encountered on the road, thinking about it makes me angry, so I'd better not think about it. From head to toe, she had no idea where these two came from.

  Alas, running into them is also one's own bad luck, who can be blamed?

  Knowing thought of finding a basket to pick wild vegetables, but there was none in the house at all. Knowing helplessly shook his head, this family, she had thoroughly seen through it, how could it be a poor one?

  But there's nothing to be disappointed about, after all, everything here belongs to her alone. Thinking of this, it seems that this advantage is still quite to her taste, and she is very satisfied with this point.

  With a happy heart, he picked up the hatchet that had been unused for almost a day and left the mountain hut.

  First, I made a basket. In the forest, I walked around in circles and found a kind of soft and flexible vine. I cut down many of them to use.

  Sat down on the warm rocks by the river, she slowly started weaving a basket with her own hands. After several failures, she finally figured out the method. Looking at this dusty, dirty and slightly deformed basket, she still felt a sense of accomplishment.

  It's just a bit dirty, so I got up and found another long rattan strip, tied one end to the basket and the other end to a tree branch by the river, and threw it into the water to wash away with the current.

  She rushed to the wild vegetable field again, took a look around, and found that there were some shepherd's purse growing in the corners, but not too much, mixed with some weeds. It is estimated that when the temperature rises, it will grow faster, but now is the most valuable time.

  She cleared away the weeds and stones, sprinkled some water on it, and after a busy round, straightened her small waist, thinking that she would come to pick them again tomorrow, letting them grow a bit more.

  On the way back, I picked up some small firewood. The meal was still corn and millet porridge, found some pickled vegetables in a jar, cut yesterday's leftover meat, stir-fried together, garlic flavor opened appetite, after eating full, the leftovers were covered with a lid, heated for tomorrow's breakfast, then went out again to search around, looking for other places with wild vegetables.

  Walking to the riverbank, she lifted up the basket hanging in the water. As she pulled it up, she found it was a bit heavy. Upon looking inside, she surprisingly found a fish jumping around inside. Extremely unexpected, this unexpected gain delighted her. Who doesn't like getting something for free?

  Knowing that they were going to take it home and pickle it, they looked at the basket made of woven rattan strips. On top, some places had black skin exposed with greenish-white rattan inside, seemingly bite marks. Did this fish like to eat these stalks?

  Knowing that the sky is still early, I plan to take advantage of the fact that it's not dark yet and compile a few more. As for the task of finding wild vegetables, let's put it off until tomorrow. As for whether the shopkeeper will accept them or not, she's not too sure either. Looking at his attitude today, Xiaoxiao is a bit worried, and she's not too confident herself, but after all, there's still hope, which is better than having none.

  (I changed the original text's "xiang baliao" to "tu lao mao", please forgive me, it seems not very polite, it's a curse word. So I changed it, please give more encouragement to new people. Thank you!)