“Jiu’er, do you miss home?”
Xu Chuang regretted asking this as soon as the words left his mouth. If Jiu’er said “yes,” did it mean he wasn’t happy here, that Xu Chuang hadn’t taken good care of him? But if he said “no,” Xu Chuang wouldn’t believe it either. Anyone who lost their memory would want to know what happened before, why they ended up here. Selfishly, Xu Chuang hoped Jiu’er would never leave.
Xu Chuang thought about what Ah Sheng said, that Jiu’er’s shoes weren’t cheap, indicating he came from a well-off family. His parents might be frantically searching for him. Was keeping him here the right choice? Xu Chuang felt a bit shaken.
He adjusted Jiu’er on his back, and Ji Yuchen’s cheek pressed against Xu Chuang’s neck. After a moment of silence, Ji Yuchen said, “I do miss them, but I don’t know how to find them or where they are, so I can only wait for them to find me.”
Xu Chuang asked, “So you still have no clues? Have you remembered anything during this time?”
Ji Yuchen shook his head. Apart from a fleeting memory at the lotus pond, he had nothing else. The image was too brief, and the woman in it was unidentifiable, providing no useful information.
Xu Chuang sighed, taking one step at a time up the stairs towards home. After a while, he asked, “Do you want to go to the city to look for clues? Maybe someone has seen you, or there might be other leads…”
He didn’t want to ask this, fearing that if Ji Yuchen found his family, he would leave. The world outside Qiantang Village was much better, and Jiu’er was someone who couldn’t stand loneliness. He liked to play and enjoy good things, and Xu Chuang couldn’t keep him.
The person on his back didn’t speak for a while, his arms climbing up Xu Chuang’s neck, resting his chin on Xu Chuang’s shoulder. He seemed a bit sleepy, his voice thick, “Do you want me to leave? If I find my family, I might not stay here…”
Xu Chuang was momentarily speechless. He couldn’t bear to ask because he wanted Jiu’er to be well but didn’t want him to leave.
When they reached the doorstep, Xu Chuang didn’t put him down, carrying him straight into the house and placing him on the kang. Ji Yuchen dangled his legs, seeing Xu Chuang squatting by his knees, holding his hand with a sincere expression as if about to say something very important.
“Jiu’er,” Xu Chuang called his name, “if you want to go to the city to find your family, I’ll go with you. I’ll pack up in the next couple of days, hand over the farm work, and take you there.”
Ji Yuchen looked at the earnest person in front of him, thinking Xu Chuang was truly kind, honest, and considerate. Although he didn’t know if Xu Chuang would be the same for others, for him, Xu Chuang was too attentive.
He shook his head, “I don’t want to go.”
The furrowed brows across from him slightly relaxed, and Xu Chuang was a bit puzzled, “Why not?”
Ji Yuchen said, “Since they didn’t come looking for me after the accident, I won’t look for them either. Compared to my amnesia, they have more information and broader channels. Instead of searching aimlessly, staying close to where the accident happened is the most efficient way.”
He had considered going to the city to find people because he felt the town’s police weren’t reliable and didn’t plan to address his situation. But after careful thought, he abandoned the idea. He was skeptical about the initial traffic accident assumption because if it had happened nearby, a rescue team would have come quickly. But nearly two months had passed with no outsiders visiting the village, indicating his presence here wasn’t a high-probability event. Since it wasn’t, he didn’t know where to search, so staying put was more prudent.
Ji Yuchen believed that all accident investigations involved expanding the search area. If someone was looking for him, they would eventually find this place.
A strange joy rose in Xu Chuang’s dark eyes, and he couldn’t suppress his smile, hurriedly asking, “Did you get carsick again on the way back? Are you thirsty? Hungry? Want some midnight snack?”
Ji Yuchen realized he was a bit hungry, covering his stomach and licking his lips. Xu Chuang went to cook some sweet lotus seed porridge, waiting for him to drink it before going to sleep.
They hadn’t slept long when Xu Chuang’s phone suddenly rang in the middle of the night. Words like “difficult birth” and “can’t make it” spilled from the receiver, waking Ji Yuchen.
He was a bit dazed because Xu Chuang’s phone hadn’t rung much since he arrived, and the ringtone was unfamiliar. Ji Yuchen vaguely recalled the last time it rang was when Wang Zhi called to ask about his back and offered to bring more patches if needed.
Ji Yuchen heard Xu Chuang getting up in the dark, half his body leaning over the bed, asking, “What’s wrong…”
Xu Chuang said, “The sow at the pig farm is having a difficult birth. I’m going to check it out.”
He quickly dressed, not forgetting to pat Ji Yuchen’s head before leaving, telling him to keep sleeping and that he’d be back soon.
After Xu Chuang left, the room was so quiet it felt like time had stopped. Ji Yuchen lay in bed for a while, unable to sleep, so he got up, put on a jacket, slipped on his shoes, and slowly walked towards the pig farm.
He didn’t check the time before leaving, not knowing how late it was. Outside, it was pitch black, with only a light bulb hanging by the roadside dozens of meters away, illuminating the path to the village entrance.
In the mountains at night, everything depended on the sky. When there were no clouds, moonlight would light up the forest, making it pleasant to walk outside. But today was different. Xu Chuang had said it looked like rain, and since evening, the sky had been overcast, now so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. Ji Yuchen pulled his jacket tighter and quickened his pace.
As he approached the village entrance, he saw the pig farm lit up and slowed his steps. There was a side door where the light was, and he could hear people inside, their voices chaotic. Ji Yuchen knocked twice, but no one answered, so he pushed the door open and went in.
Inside the small gate of the farm was a dedicated compartment. Ji Yuchen had never been there before, but it seemed relatively clean. He peered over the fence towards the crowd, seeing a large sow—its belly almost touching the ground—and two middle-aged women, a young girl, Xu Chuang, and a middle-aged man standing nearby.
The man seemed to be the pig farm owner, his voice matching the one on the phone, shouting at the woman across from him, his tone not very polite: “You told me there’d be no problem! Why can’t it give birth? I’m telling you, if I lose this pig, along with the piglets inside, you’ll have to compensate me this much!”
The man gestured a number with his hand, and Ji Yuchen couldn’t tell if it was hundreds or thousands. The woman, hands on her hips, retorted, “It’s not my fault! I told you to control its diet, but you didn’t listen, kept feeding it so much. Look how fat it is, can’t even push, how can it give birth!”
She spoke with an air of indifference, rolling her eyes. The man turned his gaze to Xu Chuang, then swept over the others, waving his hand, “I don’t care! You figure it out! But I’m telling you, if I lose this pig, you’ll be paying for it!”
With that, he stormed out of the pen, spotting Ji Yuchen and snapping, “What are you looking at? Where did you come from? Get out, get out!”
Ji Yuchen quickly thought on his feet, saying he was there to bring something for Xu Chuang, something needed for the delivery.
Hearing this, the man hurriedly let him in, then went outside to smoke. Ji Yuchen stood outside the fence, watching from a distance, not daring to disturb Xu Chuang.
He had heard that the pig farm was an investment from outsiders, and the villagers initially thought Qiantang Village was about to develop, everyone excited. But later, they realized the investors were just taking advantage of the low costs, not caring about transportation fees, making it more cost-effective than elsewhere. So the pig farm owner wasn’t from the village, and Ji Yuchen had heard he rarely visited, not expecting to meet him here.
He saw the people inside in a frenzy. The two middle-aged women were Aunt Li and Aunt Zhang from the village. Ji Yuchen had seen them before but wasn’t familiar. They worked at the pig farm, seemingly in charge of deliveries.
Aunt Li, with a loud voice, was still fuming from her earlier argument with the owner, complaining non-stop about how he never spoke up but was quick to blame when things went wrong. Aunt Zhang tried to calm her down, then turned to discuss with Xu Chuang. They all seemed a bit conflicted, and Xu Chuang said something to them before going to change clothes.
The young girl standing by hadn’t joined the discussion, seemingly the owner’s assistant, dressed unlike someone from Qiantang Village. She came out of the pen, nodded slightly at Ji Yuchen, and asked, “Are you here to help too? Why aren’t you going in?”
Ji Yuchen said he was just there to find someone, but it didn’t seem like the right time.
The girl didn’t say anything else, standing with him outside, watching the sow slowly circle around.
Ji Yuchen was puzzled, “What are they doing now? Aren’t they supposed to help it give birth?”
The girl said, “I don’t really understand either, but they said the pig’s position is wrong, and it can’t give birth. It was lying there for a long time, and now they’re making it move to see if it can correct the position. It looks pretty exhausted.”
Ji Yuchen watched the sow being herded back and forth in the aisle, looking so weary it seemed like it might collapse at any moment. He muttered to himself, “What if it can’t correct the position… They can’t just keep making it walk, right…”
To him, difficult births could be fatal, and he didn’t know if it was the same for pigs. The girl shook her head, “If it still doesn’t work, they might have to use a labor-inducing injection and pull the piglets out from inside.”
Pull… out?…
Ji Yuchen suddenly shivered, as if the drowsiness from getting up in the middle of the night had vanished. He focused intently on the scene inside, watching as they herded the pig back to the delivery room. It lay there for a long time, still no movement.
He couldn’t help but feel nervous, wondering if the worst-case scenario would be like the owner said, losing both the mother and the piglets. Inside, there were grunts and groans, and Ji Yuchen thought the pig was a great mother, enduring so much to give birth. It must be more painful for it than anyone else.
Xu Chuang, having changed into his clothes, took a needle and injected it. Ji Yuchen flinched at the sight, quickly turning away.
After a while, he heard a cry from inside, and Aunt Li cheered, “It’s out, it’s out! Once the first one is out, the rest will be easier!”
The previously tense atmosphere became a bit more lively. Ji Yuchen turned back to see Xu Chuang, wearing gloves, holding a piglet, seemingly pulled out from the mother’s belly. He rubbed his eyes, craning his neck to look inside, watching as the sow successfully gave birth to a litter. The piglets were cared for by Aunt Li and Aunt Zhang, placed in an incubator. Xu Chuang removed his gloves, waiting nearby for a while, seeing no further need for his help, then turned to leave.
He hadn’t taken a few steps when he saw Ji Yuchen, his fair face tinged with a bit of redness, unsure if it was from the heat or something else. Xu Chuang quickly walked over, tying his clothes around his waist, asking, “Why did you come?”
Ji Yuchen sniffed, feeling a bit teary-eyed, stammering, “I woke up and couldn’t sleep, so I thought I’d come and see…”
Xu Chuang’s expression was a bit complicated, as if he thought Ji Yuchen shouldn’t be there. Ji Yuchen tilted his head, looking at the sow and its newborn piglets, asking Xu Chuang, “Are they all okay? Are they healthy?”
Xu Chuang nodded, reassuring him.
On their way home, the sky was already lightening. Ji Yuchen kicked a small stone by the roadside, suddenly saying, “I won’t eat pork anymore.”
Xu Chuang turned to look at him, “Why say that all of a sudden?”
Ji Yuchen replied, “It’s so hard for them to give birth, having a whole litter at once. If they have a difficult birth, they might lose their lives. If I have to eat any of the ones born here, I definitely couldn’t do it.”
He still felt a lingering fear, even though he was a bit nearsighted and couldn’t see clearly, just hearing it was enough to be nerve-wracking. Ji Yuchen thought, luckily, he wasn’t a woman and didn’t have to give birth, or he’d rather hit his head and die.
They didn’t delve into the topic further. Xu Chuang said if he didn’t want to eat it, they wouldn’t make it. Ji Yuchen asked, “So you won’t eat it either?” Xu Chuang laughed, “We eat from the same pot, how could I make something you don’t like?…”
Ji Yuchen was delighted, asking if they could go see the newborn piglets tomorrow. Xu Chuang readily agreed, saying they could go anytime as long as the owner wasn’t around.
[Author’s Note]
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