Su Nianyuan walked into the guest room carrying a bowl. In the corner, Deng Yinghe was still sitting there, having huddled in that exact spot the entire day except for a single trip to the outhouse.
Her gaze lacked focus, as if her soul had left her body.
Su Nianyuan placed the yam porridge in front of Deng Yinghe, but she did not react at all.
Su Nianyuan suddenly spoke in a low voice, “Auntie, you don’t have to eat, but can the baby in your belly also afford not to eat?”
Deng Yinghe shuddered all over, her lifeless gaze falling upon Su Nianyuan.
Su Nianyuan looked up, her large eyes revealing innocence and purity. Resting her chin in her hands, she adopted the childish, delicate tone of a five-year-old.
“Uncle Qin hugged A-Yuan last month and said that once the little younger siblings are born, he’ll let them play with me~”
“Auntie, when can the little younger siblings be born?”
She tilted her head, looking utterly adorable.
Deng Yinghe abruptly covered her mouth, her eye sockets instantly overflowing with tears that streamed down her cheeks and into the palms of her hands.
She was pregnant; she was already four months along.
On the night she first discovered she was pregnant, she had snuggled into her husband’s embrace, and his tone had been filled with bubbling joy and delight. “A-He, when our child is born, I hope they’re just as pretty as that little girl from the village chief’s family.”
“A-Yuan is the cutest child I’ve ever seen.”
At the time, she had felt a slight displeasure, poking her husband’s chest and saying with a coquettish pout, “Our child will definitely be even prettier than A-Yuan.”
“Yes, yes, yes.”
Such a good husband, when the flash flood struck, had used his very body to stubbornly withstand a falling roof beam in order to protect her and his mother.
She had watched with her own eyes as her husband’s breath grew weaker and weaker.
With his very last breath, he had said, “A-He, live well, and carry our child forward.”
Those words echoed endlessly in her mind, and the grief she had suppressed for so long finally erupted completely.
Wailing sounds drifted out from the guest room. That heart-rending cry made everyone’s chests ache. People lowered their heads, feeling as though the yam porridge in their bowls had lost all flavor.
How bitter it tasted.
Liu Ju turned her face away and wiped at her tears.
Old Mrs. Lin stepped forward and patted her shoulder in comfort.
Crying it out would make things better. By venting the sadness, a person stood a chance of surviving; if one kept it bottled up inside, they would eventually break down.
No one entered the guest room, and even Li Si, squatting at the doorway, remained silent.
The space of a stick of incense later, the weeping gradually subsided. Su Nianyuan walked out carrying an empty bowl, and Liu Ju questioned her with a glance.
Su Nianyuan nodded, indicating that Deng Yinghe was already all right.
Liu Ju let out a breath of relief and hurried into the guest room to take care of her daughter-in-law.
Handing the bowl to Hu Niang, Su Nianyuan returned to her father’s side and whispered, “Fifty-eight people. One of them should be Auntie A-He’s unborn baby.”
This was her guess, but the probability was very high.
Lin Shoufeng also agreed with this thought.
“However, there’s still one person missing. Who is it?”
Just as Su Nianyuan was about to shake her head, the tightly closed doors of the dilapidated temple were suddenly shoved open violently. Everyone had already developed a stress reaction, instinctively picking up the wooden sticks beside them.
More than fifty people glared at the doorway with hostile eyes.
Tonight’s moon was hidden behind clouds, and the main entrance was still some distance from the kitchen, so everyone could not clearly see whether the figure at the door was a human or a beast.
In the Green Mountains, there were truly fierce beasts.
No one spoke, and everyone was exceptionally tense. Su Nianyuan and the other children were pushed into the kitchen with the doors tightly shut, while several old women blocked the front.
They were nervous too, but the children were more important.
Even Li Si stood up at that moment, gripping a stick in his hand with a fierce look in his eyes.
At this very moment, the fifty-six plus one unborn baby of Qingzhu Village were thoroughly united.
“What are you all doing?”
A rough voice came from the doorway, and that familiar sound made Hu Niang’s heart skip a beat, the kitchen knife in her hand almost slipping from her grip.
Huzi reacted the fastest. He yelled out for his dad, and then charged straight toward the door.
A man nearly two meters tall stepped out from the darkness. He wore a buzz cut and a sweatband tied around his forehead. With just a slight reach and a haul, he hoisted Huzi right up onto his shoulder.
A brilliant smile bloomed across his face. Looking at Hu Niang, who was covering her mouth and weeping, he said, “Wife, I’m back.”
He had kept his promise and returned alive.
Hu Niang could no longer hold it in. She rushed toward Huzi’s father as well, throwing herself into his arms and beating his chest while crying, “Why did you take so long to come back! Do you know how worried I was about you?!”
To Huzi’s father, his wife’s blows were no different from a gentle tickle.
Even so, he pleaded for mercy, “I was wrong, wife. I was trapped in a cave at the time and only managed to hurry back today.”
He had been very anxious back then too; the pouring rain, lightning, and the sound of landslides outside had all terrified him immensely.
The cave entrance had been blocked by a pile of stones, and it took him several days to get out.
Following the path back to Qingzhu Village, it was already dark by then, and not a single speck of light could be seen in the entire village—only the dilapidated temple halfway up the mountain was still glowing.
That was why he had come.
Fortunately, both his wife and son were still alive.
Huzi hugged his old man’s head, extremely excited. “Dad! Thanks to the little village chief, she saved our lives!”
His words once again reminded everyone present.
If not for Su Nianyuan, they might truly have died.
Qu Hu was a bit curious. “The little village chief is…?”
“It’s me.”
Su Nianyuan opened the kitchen door and walked out. Being just a little bean of a child, she walked right up in front of Qu Hu.
Hu Niang hurriedly stepped aside, and Huzi climbed down as well. That attitude caused Qu Hu to glance sideways in surprise.
One was looking up.
The other was looking down.
The scene was somewhat comical, but no one laughed.
Su Nianyuan raised her small hand, her little expression completely serious. “Welcome back. Total surviving population of Qingzhu Village: 58 people, all present.”
Qu Hu looked at the fair, tender little hand, wiped the sweat from his palms onto his pants, and then cautiously shook it.
Su Nianyuan’s hand had a hard time even wrapping around just one of Qu Hu’s fingers.
That feeling was quite miraculous.
Not only had Qu Hu returned safely, but he had also brought back a fair amount of game he had hunted, along with some good news.
“That cave has cleared up?”
After hearing about Qu Hu’s experience, Su Nianyuan’s eyes instantly lit up. He was the one who had been blocked in that very cave leading to Qingmei Village at the time.
Qu Hu nodded. “Yes, I cleared it.”
“Are you planning to head out? I took a look at Qingmei Village; it suffered disasters too.”
Although the mudslide had flowed toward their side, some tumbling rocks had also smashed down toward Qingmei Village.
However, he had only taken a glance before heading back and hadn’t paid it much attention.
Su Nianyuan explained, “We need to go to the county town to see what the county’s attitude is, and to buy grain.”
Qu Hu curled his lip. “I can guess what the county’s attitude is with my toes. They’d be more than happy for us to die sooner.”
“If we have to talk about whether there’s a good person, that registrar surnamed Lin is not bad at all. Young and considering the people, he’s a good official.”
Lin Shoufeng also nodded in agreement, and even Su Jiancheng approved.
Su Nianyuan did not know who the person was, but she committed his name to memory.
Lin Wenbin.