Chapter 70.1

Li Xiao blocked Jiang Rou’s mouth, and the wooden bed creaked throughout the night.

The next morning, Jiang Rou woke up late. An An had gone to bed early the night before and had gotten up before six in the morning. She had come over to knock on the door and called out for her parents to wake up.

Li Xiao, disturbed by the noise, sighed and then got dressed, heading outside to carry her away. Father and daughter went out to build a snowman.

Jiang Rou did not get up. She turned over, pulled the blanket tightly around herself, and continued sleeping.

After a nap, she woke up at half past eight. Aunt Wang from next door, having calculated that the couple would not get up, came over later to deliver breakfast.

Li Xiao was preparing to take An An out to buy food but stayed when he saw Aunt Wang arriving.

When Aunt Wang saw An An’s red, cold little face, she smiled and asked, “Where is your mother?”

An An tilted her head back, smiling happily, and shouted, “Mommy is sleeping in.”

“We had so many mice at our house last night. They squeaked all night.”

Li Xiao: “……”

Aunt Wang did not think much of it and assumed that the house, having been unoccupied for a long time, had several nests of mice. She frowned and said, “So many mice?”

She thought Jiang Rou and her family, having grown accustomed to the good life in the south, might not be used to the conditions back in their hometown.

An An nodded vigorously, “Yes.”

Li Xiao turned his head to the side, trying to hide the embarrassment on his face.

Aunt Wang advised him, “Make sure to buy some rat poison when you get a chance. With so many mice, it won’t do; they might damage the house.”

Li Xiao nodded.

An An, eager, wiggled free from her father’s hand and ran up to Aunt Wang. “Grandma, what’s the good food?”

Aunt Wang smiled and said, “Grandma made buns. Come and taste them to see if they are good.”

“They must be super delicious.”

“Haha.”

Aunt Wang laughed heartily, finding An An to be the cutest child she had ever seen.

—o—o—o—

Inside the house, Jiang Rou lay in bed for a while before getting up. Li Xiao and An An had already finished their meal.

An An was playing in the yard, and Li Xiao had gone out for a while. Li Xin was not there either; she had left early to meet with her middle school classmates.

Li Xiao borrowed Uncle Wang’s tricycle and quickly returned with some yellow paper, firecrackers, paper houses, and money, saying that it was for burning for his grandfather and grandmother.

Jiang Rou wiped her mouth with a handkerchief, stood up, and said, “Let’s go together. Even though we’ve been married for so long, I haven’t been to visit them. Let’s take An An to pay her respects too.”

An An, still confused, looked up at her father, holding a bun in her hand and not understanding what they were talking about.

Even though she had been full earlier, seeing her mother eat now made her reach out for more. She wasn’t eating properly, only picking at the meat filling inside.

The bun that had been gnawed at—looked very messy. When An An saw her father return, she handed the now disfigured buns to Li Xiao without a second thought—she no longer wanted to eat them.

Li Xiao cast a displeased glance at her but took the bun and stuffed it into his mouth without any care.

When he heard Jiang Rou wanted to go too, Li Xiao considered it for a moment, nodded, and said, “Dress warmly; it’s cold up on the mountain.”

So, the family of three went out together to burn the paper. Before leaving, Li Xiao grabbed a hatchet, and Jiang Rou added an extra sweater for herself and An An.

An An was curious about everything in the City. Once on the tricycle, her little head kept turning as if she couldn’t take it all in.

Li Xiao drove the tricycle out of the City. His grandfather and grandmother were buried in a mountain outside the City. The mountain used to belong to Li Xiao’s family, but his father had sold it, and the money was lost gambling in a single day.

Speaking of these old stories, Li Xiao’s expression remained calm. He even joked with Jiang Rou, recalling how he had once taken Zhou Jian and a few others up the mountain to see ghost lights. There was a saying, “On the third day of the third lunar month, ghosts come down the mountain,” and he had been curious whether there were really ghosts. They had indeed seen ghost lights, and they had gotten lost on the way down, spending the night on the mountain and scaring everyone badly.

Although he was also scared at the time, he had held up bravely, afraid of being looked down upon.

Jiang Rou couldn’t help but laugh, not expecting him to have such a “middle school” phase.

Hearing Jiang Rou’s laughter from behind, Li Xiao couldn’t help but curve his lips into a smile and continued to talk about some mischievous things he had done in the past.

In Li Xiao’s mind, the old home was not something to be nostalgic about. He had returned this time because Jiang Rou had mentioned recently that she missed home and her parents. Since he couldn’t fulfill her wish, he thought it was their home too, so he might as well come back and take a look.

Now, it seemed that not everything here was unpleasant.

The tricycle eventually stopped by the roadside. Li Xiao led the mother and daughter down a path between fields. An An refused to be carried by Jiang Rou, insisting on walking herself. The water in the fields by the roadside had frozen, and when she accidentally stepped on the ice, she seemed to discover a new world and ran straight into the field.

Jiang Rou called out, “Don’t run too far.”

An An turned her head and smiled, “Mommy, come down too.”

Jiang Rou did not get down and reminded her to be careful.

An An continued to run around in the field, running ahead and waiting for Li Xiao and Jiang Rou to catch up, and then running further ahead.

After traversing several long sections of field paths, they reached the base of a tall mountain. The winding path led up the mountain. Jiang Rou called An An over and tried to pick her up, but An An ran away, insisting on walking by herself. She could not walk far before she fell, getting her clothes dirty.

She quickly got up, not crying, but turned around with her hands raised, wanting her mother to carry her.

Jiang Rou, already exhausted, could not carry her. She put her hands on her hips and gasped, “You didn’t want to be carried before, and now you’re all dirty, aren’t you?”

“Let your dad carry you; I can’t manage.”

Li Xiao bent down and picked her up. An An clung to her father’s neck, pouting, and whispered into his ear, “Mommy is mean to me.”

Li Xiao glanced sideways, raised an eyebrow, and smiled, “It seems like your mom heard that.”

An An turned to look at her mother and, seeing that she was watching, quickly covered her mouth with her hands and clung tightly to her father, too scared to look at her mother again.

Jiang Rou: “……”

After walking a long distance, they finally arrived at the gravestones of Li Xiao’s grandparents. It had been too long since anyone had visited, and the area was overgrown with grass and thorns. Li Xiao set An An down and used the hatchet to clear the grass and thorns around the graves, also removing the weeds from the tops of the tombs.

Jiang Rou and An An knelt in front of the two gravestones. After clearing the grass, Li Xiao took out the yellow paper, paper money, and paper houses from the bag and began lighting them one by one.

Jiang Rou saw that Li Xiao was about to take out everything, so she couldn’t help but stop him. “Save some to burn for your dad.”

Li Xiao paused, and after a moment of silence, he left some paper money and yellow paper in the bag.

An An, not understanding anything, turned to her mother and asked what they were doing.

Jiang Rou patiently explained, “This is your father’s grandfather and grandmother. You should call them great-grandfather and great-grandmother. They are no longer here, so we are here to pay our respects, burning some paper and money for them so that they don’t have to worry about food or lodging down there, and to show our filial piety.”

An An blinked her big eyes and asked, “So did they turn into ghosts?”

“Kind of.”

“But didn’t Mommy say there are no ghosts in the world?”

“……”

Previously, Jiang Rou had told her that there were no ghosts in the world to comfort her when she was sleeping alone.

Li Xiao, kneeling nearby, couldn’t help but chuckle silently at this.

Jiang Rou was at a loss and finally said, “It’s different. Let’s just bow now.”

An An pouted but obediently bowed. After bowing, she heard her mother’s prayers for the family’s safety and good fortune.

She imitated her mother and clasped her hands, sincerely saying, “Great-grandfather and great-grandmother, please bless Mommy to get into graduate school.”

Jiang Rou felt a warm feeling in her heart and patted her little head.

Li Xiao didn’t say much. He only mentioned that they had come to visit, and then he kept his head down, burning the paper, a few sheets at a time. After finishing, he stood up, asking Jiang Rou to take An An further away while he set off the firecrackers.

Jiang Rou took An An and moved farther away. On the mountain, there were some cultivated fields, but most areas were barren. Only a small vegetable garden had green vegetables growing. An An excitedly pointed to the garden and said to Jiang Rou, “Mommy, there are vegetables.”

She also tried to run towards the garden.

Jiang Rou quickly stopped her. “That’s someone else’s garden. We can’t pick from there.”

“Okay.”

The little one looked a bit disappointed on her face.

However, her disappointment was short-lived. Hearing the deafening sound of firecrackers, she was startled and clung to Jiang Rou’s legs, curiously asking, “Are great-grandfather and great-grandmother celebrating the New Year?”

In her impression, only during the New Year were firecrackers set off.

Jiang Rou wasn’t sure how to respond. “Well, kind of.”

An An was happy with the answer and said in her babyish voice, “Next time, let’s burn more money so that great-grandfather and great-grandmother can buy lots of things and have a good New Year.”

Jiang Rou’s heart softened. She squatted down, picked An An up, and kissed her little face.

She felt that An An was truly a kind little angel, always so heartwarming.

Li Xiao waited until the paper was burned and the firecrackers were all set off before coming over. He then took them to his father’s grave. Li Xiao’s father’s grave had apparently been neglected for many years, and the path to it was completely overgrown.

He took out the hatchet and cleared a narrow path, revealing a small tombstone. It was not as grand as his grandfather’s; there was no cement laid in front of it.

After burning the yellow paper and paper money, An An seemed to sense her father’s somber mood and quietly kept to herself.

After paying respects at Li Xiao’s father’s grave, the family of three left. When they reached the foot of the mountain, Li Xiao suddenly stopped, turned around, and looked back deeply.

Jiang Rou noticed he wasn’t catching up and stood still to wait for him.

Li Xiao turned his head and saw Jiang Rou and An An waiting not far ahead. He smiled slightly and walked over to take Jiang Rou’s hand. “Let’s go.”

The path between the fields was very narrow, only wide enough for one person. They walked one in front of the other, their hands swinging between them.

An An, running ahead, saw this and immediately turned around to run toward them. “I want to hold hands too.”