Chapter 57

After lunch, at around two in the afternoon, Mingxi and his group finally arrived home. Wang Sufen heard the commotion and quickly came out to greet them. “Mingxi, come in quickly! The military has sent people over.”

Mingxi froze for a moment before dashing into the house, rushing straight into the east room. Seeing the two soldiers standing up, he immediately straightened up and saluted. The two soldiers returned the salute and stepped forward to shake his hand. “Comrade Li Mingxi, hello. We have an important matter to discuss with you.”

Seeing this, Grandma Li hurriedly ushered the rest of the family out of the room and thoughtfully closed the door behind her. Wang Sufen craned her neck to peek inside and then tugged at Grandma Li’s sleeve, whispering, “Mom, what do you think they came for? Didn’t Mingxi already graduate?”

Grandma Li took a puff from her tobacco pipe, remained silent for a moment, and then said, “I reckon they want him back in the military. These matters are confidential. Don’t go poking around or asking too many questions.”

Wang Sufen nodded repeatedly. “You’re right, Mom. I understand. I won’t say a word.”

Mingxi and the soldiers spoke inside for over half an hour before finally opening the door. One of the soldiers addressed Grandma Li and Li Muwu’s wife, saying, “The country has a research task that requires a batch of graduates from the military academy. Comrade Li Mingxi performed outstandingly during his studies and was an excellent graduate, earning recognition from the higher-ups. That’s why he has been specially recruited back into the military.”

Grandma Li and Wang Sufen exchanged glances, their faces lighting up with joy, nodding repeatedly in agreement.

Wang Sufen, seeing the unstoppable smile on Mingxi’s face, grinned so widely that her mouth could hardly close. “This is wonderful! Comrade soldiers, you don’t know how lost Mingxi has been these past few weeks at home. Going back to the military will finally fulfill his wish.”

Mingxi looked at Wang Sufen’s happy expression, hesitating to speak. Noticing something was off, Grandma Li couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong?”

Mingxi looked at his family with a complex expression. “Grandma, if I leave this time, I might not be able to come back for many years.”

As soon as he said this, everyone’s smiles froze. Wang Sufen was the first to react, turning away to wipe her tears. Grandma Li retrieved her tobacco pipe from her waist and took a few deep puffs. The room fell into silence.

After crying for a few minutes, Wang Sufen finally regained her composure. She turned around, wiped her tears with her rough hands, and choked out, “Mingxi, go with the soldiers.”

“Mama…” Mingxi, seeing Wang Sufen’s red, tearful eyes, found himself at a loss for words, his own eyes misting over.

“Mingxi, I know your heart belongs in the military. You studied for so many years, and I never really knew what exactly you were learning, but I do know that if you stayed home and went to work in a factory, all that studying would have been for nothing. Now that the country needs you, you should go and put your talents to good use. Your two younger brothers are still here, so don’t worry about home.”

In the family, Wang Sufen had always been known as simple and obedient. With her mother-in-law in charge and a capable daughter-in-law below her, she rarely made decisions. Normally, she would consult Grandma Li about even the smallest matters. No one had expected that she would be the first to support Mingxi leaving.

Grandma Li took a drag from her pipe, her voice low. “Mingxi, your mother says this because she cares about you. She doesn’t want you to waste all that knowledge you worked so hard to learn.” She tapped her pipe and nodded. “Go. Your eldest uncle did the same. Once you’re in the military, treat it as your home and follow the organization’s arrangements.”

Mingxi nodded and turned to the two soldiers. One of them immediately stood up and said, “Auntie, sister-in-law, we’ll be taking Mingxi with us now. The place he’s going is quite special, so he may not be able to write home often. But don’t worry, it’s a very safe location, and he won’t be in any danger.”

Grandma Li and Wang Sufen nodded repeatedly. Mingxi didn’t have much to pack, only a few changes of clothes and his water bottle—everything else would be provided by the military.

With his backpack on, he turned to look at his family one last time. Even though he had endured bleeding and sweating through tough training in the military without shedding a single tear, at this moment, his face was covered in them. Wang Sufen immediately turned and went back inside. The moment Mingxi stepped out of the door, she broke down, crying loudly.

Everyone knew that the military was the best place for Mingxi, but the thought of him being away for so many years was hard to bear. The heavy mood lingered in the Li household for days until Mingnan successfully got into the hydrolysis plant, bringing smiles back to the family’s faces.

At the time, upheaval was spreading across the country. Beicha, being a remote town, was slower to react, but some students who disliked studying took the opportunity to skip classes. Others, taking advantage of the fact that train tickets and meals were free during this period, formed groups to travel around, hopping on trains to visit places they heard were exciting.

Mingbei’s school was still holding classes, but attendance had dropped significantly. Many students wandered off in small groups, and over a dozen even took a train to the capital.

Mingbei, hearing his classmates’ thrilling stories, was tempted as well. But when he brought it up to Grandma Li, he received over ten hard smacks from her tobacco pipe, quickly putting an end to that idea.

Middle and high schools continued with lessons, but the elementary school where Zhenzhen studied had completely shut down. She wasn’t the least bit bothered by this—third-grade material was simple, and she could memorize an entire textbook just by flipping through it once. Spending a whole year in school seemed like a waste of time to her.

Perhaps noticing that all the men in the Li household were absent, Zhang Defu—who had been quiet for over half a month—began loitering around their house. After lurking for days, he finally seized an opportunity. One morning, when Li Mingzhong took Tianhu out for a run, Zhang Defu brought a few of his brothers and sons over.

Zhenzhen stood in the courtyard, watching Zhang Defu with a cold smirk. She had already noticed him sneaking around the house the past few days. That’s why she had deliberately sent Li Mingzhong away today—she was baiting the snake out of its hole to deal with this scumbag once and for all.

Holding a wooden stick in her hand, Zhenzhen grinned at Zhang Defu. “Oh? Haven’t had enough of getting bitten by my Li Mingzhong? You actually dare to come back?”

Zhang Defu looked at the chubby little girl in front of him and grinned smugly. “Don’t think I don’t know—your Li Mingzhong isn’t home. Right now, it’s just a few women in your house. But we’re neighbors, and I don’t want to make things ugly. So, just like I said last time: give me ten yuan and two sacks of grain, and we’ll call it even.”

Grandma Li and the others heard the commotion and came out of the house. Seeing seven or eight burly young men arriving, Grandma Li’s heart sank. She feared that their family was at a disadvantage this time.

Zhenzhen held a stick in her right hand and tapped it against her left: “Oh? In just half a month, your price has gone up? Your face must have been licked by a dog. But there’s something you might not know…” She flashed a sweet smile at Zhang Defu. “Take a look behind you.”

The group quickly turned around, only to see Li Mingzhong standing at the doorway, his eyes fierce like a vicious wolf! Beside him stood Tianhu, a dog of the same build. Although it looked a little dumb, the sharp teeth it bared made no one dare to underestimate it.

Taking advantage of their moment of distraction, Guihua quickly stuffed Doubao into Wang Sufen’s arms, pulled Roubao along, and pushed them both into the house. She then grabbed a pig-slaughtering knife.

Looking at the Li family, spanning three generations, ready to fight to the death, and with two wolfdogs eyeing them menacingly from behind, Zhang Defu suddenly felt his confidence wane. He swallowed nervously, his voice slightly shaky: “Well, we’ve been neighbors for many years, and I don’t really want a grudge with you. How about this? Give me five yuan and a sack of grain, and I’ll leave right away.”

Grandma Li sneered. “Zhang Defu, Zhang Defu… You’re already in your forties, and you’ve ended up like this. Aren’t you ashamed? If only you were willing to work hard—hauling logs at the lumber station—you could earn forty or fifty yuan a month. Isn’t that better than going around extorting people all day?”

Zhang Defu had been lazy since childhood. If he were the type to listen to such advice, his family wouldn’t have turned into a bunch of scoundrels. He tightened his grip on the stick and stepped forward. “Grandma Li, I didn’t come here for a lecture. Stop stalling. Everyone’s out working during the day in this area—no one’s coming to save you. If you don’t hand over the money now, I won’t be polite!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Red-Braised Chicken suddenly emerged from the yard, strutting step by step. Since every household raised chickens, no one paid it any attention. But just as it reached Zhang Defu’s side, it suddenly flapped its wings and jumped up, pecking his hand viciously. Blood immediately gushed out.

Seeing this, Zhenzhen laughed. “Red-Braised Chicken, you’ve eaten yourself so fat, yet you can still jump quite high.”

Red-Braised Chicken puffed out its chest and crowed loudly before launching into a frenzied attack on Zhang Defu. At the same time, Li Mingzhong charged forward with Tianhu. With a single bite, they snapped a thick stick in half with a loud crack. The Zhang family members, staring at the broken half of the stick in their hands, felt their legs trembling.

Chaos erupted as the chickens and dogs clashed with Zhang Defu’s gang. Zhang Defu’s younger brother, Zhang Dehai, seized the chance to lunge at Zhenzhen, aiming for her neck. But Zhenzhen dodged to the side and swung her stick hard into his stomach. Zhang Dehai doubled over in pain, his face contorting. Grandma Li took the opportunity to pull out her tobacco pipe and smacked him over the head several times, leaving his scalp covered in swollen lumps.

They had come in aggressively, but within a minute, they were fleeing in panic. Zhang Dehai, seeing his two younger brothers and nephew bleeding from dog bites, became even more terrified and ran straight out the front gate.

The Zhang family members were a ragtag bunch, each more delicate and afraid of hardship than the other. Seeing Zhang Dehai run, the rest followed, bolting away in the blink of an eye—leaving Zhang Defu alone.

He nervously took two steps back, seemingly reluctant to run and lose face. But he no longer had the courage to fight. Not only was the Li family difficult to deal with, but even their animals were ferocious. Feeling the searing pain in his leg wound, Zhang Defu blustered, “Just you wait!” Then he turned to flee, but after only a few steps, he tripped over the doorstep and landed flat on his face, eating a mouthful of dirt.

Laughter rang out from the courtyard. Zhenzhen clutched her stomach, laughing so hard she bent over. Guihua casually scooped two ladles of water from the courtyard vat and poured them into Li Mingzhong’s drinking bowl, her voice loud and clear: “Hongzhong, Tianhu, come wash your mouths! Biting such filthy trash is really disgusting!”

Li Mingzhong immediately barked twice, as if in agreement. Hearing the dog’s bark, Zhang Defu, who had just climbed to his feet, was so frightened that his legs went weak again. He scrambled away, rolling and crawling.

Patting Li Mingzhong’s head, Zhenzhen praised him, “You did great today! Tianhu was really smart too. I’ll go up the mountain later to catch a rabbit and stew some meat for you both.”

Li Mingzhong barked a few times. To Grandma Li and Guihua, it was just dog sounds, but to Zhenzhen, it meant: “What’s the point of a rabbit? One isn’t even enough to fill the gap between my teeth! Let’s drag back a wild boar instead!”

Zhenzhen tapped his head. After making sure the others had gone inside, she whispered, “It’s too chaotic right now. Dragging a wild boar back would be too conspicuous. Just bear with it for a few more days.”

Li Mingzhong drooped his head in disappointment and burrowed into Zhenzhen’s arms, taking the chance to bargain: “Then I want two rabbits—red-braised!”

Zhenzhen laughed. “No problem.”

Hearing about food, Red-Braised Chicken immediately ran over, flapping its wings and boasting, “What about me? I was the first to attack—I was super brave!”

Zhenzhen pushed its head down. Red-Braised Chicken was about to protest when it suddenly noticed a dozen grasshoppers on the ground. Without hesitation, it stomped on them with its big feet and feasted.

As the days grew colder, the Li family’s rice and flour containers remained full. Their two cellars were stocked with cabbage, potatoes, and radishes. Zhenzhen had also stored various wild fruits and nuts. Grandma Li directed Guihua to climb onto the roof and gather the dried beans.

Zhenzhen had found a mountain on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital. With no villages nearby, it was especially remote. Scanning it with her consciousness, she discovered a small, level mountain stream. She remodeled the area to resemble her space, leaving a narrow, hidden passage at the foot of the mountain for entry and exit.

After everything was set up, Zhenzhen chopped down three trees and, with a flick of her hand, turned them into a towering stack of firewood. Taking advantage of Mr. Wangwo’s deep sleep at night, she quietly relocated the Western-style house. However, she used a bit too much force when setting it down, causing a slight tremor.

Awakened by the brief shake, Wangwo groggily looked outside. Seeing the familiar starry sky and dark mountain stream, he yawned and went back to sleep.

The next morning, Wangwo got up and made breakfast. Zhenzhen walked in, grinning, with that day’s newspaper. “Teacher, you’re awake! How was your rest?”

“Very good, very good.” Wangwo held a bowl of noodles in one hand and a dish of pickles in the other. “Have you eaten? Join me?”

“I already ate,” Zhenzhen replied quickly. “I noticed the weather’s getting colder. Teacher, you might want to start heating early.” She pointed to a stove in the living room. “Each floor has a stove connected to the heating pipes in every room. My dad brought a lot of firewood last night—it’s all in the shed outside. You can grab some whenever you need it.”

Wangwo felt deeply guilty and uneasy. “I’m troubling you and your father again… I don’t even know how to repay you.”

Zhenzhen smiled and shook her head. “Helping others isn’t about getting repaid. My grandma always says we shouldn’t be that kind of person.” Sensing Wangwo’s unease, she quickly changed the subject. “By the way, Teacher, my dad met some people in urgent need of a place to hide. Would you mind if they moved in?”

Wang Wo quickly said, “This is your place. I’m already very grateful that you’re letting me stay here, so how could I have any objections? Besides, having people around to talk to makes things livelier.”

Seeing Wang Wo’s cheerful expression, Zhenzhen scratched her head a little embarrassedly and said, “It’s just that my father gathered information in secret. Those people don’t know us, so they probably wouldn’t dare follow me. But teacher, you’re a nationally renowned literary scholar. Could you help me write a few notes, making it look like you’re the one inviting them?”

Wang Wo pondered for a moment and immediately understood Zhenzhen’s concern. If he hadn’t been harboring thoughts of ending his life at the time, he wouldn’t have so easily trusted Zhenzhen either. After all, during the chaotic years of war, even children had been used as deadly weapons.

After living here for a few months, Wang Wo was completely certain, through his interactions with Zhenzhen, that she genuinely wanted to help him without any ulterior motives. She was not an enemy spy from the other side. So, without hesitation, he helped Zhenzhen write the notes.

That night, Zhenzhen led four people, using her abilities to evade the guards’ sight, and escaped into the mountains in the suburbs. She pushed aside the tall wild grass, leading them through a winding cave before arriving at a secluded place.

A beautiful Western-style house stood in the distance. The grass underfoot had turned yellow and dry, making a rustling sound as they walked. Two apple trees stood beside the house, their branches heavy with ripe apples. In the courtyard, a few hens pecked at the ground, while three or five birds chirped nearby. It was a scene of tranquility and leisure.

The four people, who had been tense all day, finally relaxed. They exchanged glances, their expressions lightening with relief. When they pushed open the door, Wang Wo, who had heard the noise, came out of his study on the second floor. They looked at each other in surprise and called out each other’s names in delight.

The four people Zhenzhen brought back included the renowned painter Su Weiran, whose classic works would later sell for billions. Zhenzhen believed he was undoubtedly a national treasure. Another was the Peking Opera master Xie Shurang, the youngest son of one of the most famous opera stars from the Republic of China era. Gifted and well-trained, Xie had already become one of the new Four Great Dan performers. The third was Xu Mengguo, an archaeologist and literary scholar whose poetry collections would become classics. The last was a woman named Yan Baozhu, a famous Peking Opera master also skilled in Kunqu opera. She was a disciple of Xie Shurang’s father, making her his senior sister.

All of them had been on the verge of despair, writing their farewell letters when Zhenzhen found them. They were already at their breaking point. If not for seeing Wang Wo’s personally written notes and familiar signature, they would never have followed a child.

Sitting on the sofa, their exhausted bodies finally relaxed, and they realized how sore they were. Having been through the same situation himself, Wang Wo immediately said, “Go take a hot bath, have a good meal, and get a proper night’s sleep. You’ll feel better.”

The house had a steady supply of hot water. When Zhenzhen was in her space, she used hot spring water for bathing. When she moved the house here, she also relocated a hot spring, connecting it directly to the original plumbing. Now, no matter when they used it, steaming hot spring water flowed. As for drinking and cooking water, she had it sourced from a mountain spring nearby—clean, sanitary, and refreshingly sweet.

The second and third floors of the house had many bedrooms. Su Weiran and the others each found a room on the second floor, while Yan Baozhu stayed on the third. Zhenzhen checked the food supplies in the storeroom and was relieved to find that the house’s original owner had been quite the wealthy type. The storage room was packed with bags of rice and flour, likely enough to feed these people through the winter.

With Wang Wo taking care of them, Zhenzhen felt at ease and left. She busied herself moving between the imperial capital, Jindu, and Magic City, collecting and scavenging various goods. Sometimes, when she saw supplies stolen by the guards, she would secretly take them all and set them aside, planning to return them to the state later.

In the blink of an eye, two years passed. Another spring arrived. As Zhenzhen had predicted, Ming Dong worked on the Anbei farm for more than half a year. His former school had since been renamed Anbei Agricultural School, and he was reassigned there to teach soil and fertilizer studies to workers, farmers, and soldiers from all over.

Nearly a year after leaving, Ming Dong returned to the school. There was no time for sentimentality; he quickly wrote a letter home to assure his family of his safety. The school assigned him the same single dormitory he had before. He wiped off the dust, washed and rehung the curtains, and restored the room to its former clean and tidy state. Standing in the familiar surroundings, he felt like he was home.

Anbei was not far from Beicha, so it only took a few days for Ming Dong’s letter to arrive. Upon receiving it, Ming Nan immediately rode his bicycle to the post office, retrieved the letter, and shouted as he entered the house, “Grandma, Sister-in-law, my brother sent a letter!”

Hearing this, the whole family put down what they were doing and gathered around him, urging impatiently, “Hurry up and read it! Did your brother get out?”

Ming Nan quickly tore open the envelope, skimmed through the letter, and nodded excitedly. “My brother is back at school teaching!”

Grandma Li gave him a playful smack on the head. “Stop summarizing and read it properly! I don’t want to hear your one-sentence version.”

Ming Nan didn’t even dare rub his head. Smiling, he read the letter aloud. Guihua listened, tears welling up as she smiled. Wang Sufen nudged her, saying, “Why are you crying? The good days are ahead.”

Ming Bei was stunned as he recalled Grandma Li’s confident guarantee from before. Her prediction had come true down to the last detail. He stared at her in amazement. “Grandma, you’re incredible! You guessed everything right!”

Grandma Li’s face was full of smug satisfaction. “Well, of course! That’s why I’m your grandma!”

—

#Author’s Note:

Let’s not scrutinize the hot spring plumbing issue too much, or I might cry, haha!

There are many painful aspects of this period in history. While researching the list of famous figures who took their own lives during that time, I couldn’t even finish reading it. So, in this story, I’m letting more cultural treasures and great figures survive. Some characters are based on real people, while others are fictional. Just keep that in mind. This part of the story won’t be explored too much further—we’re going back to our everyday life!