Facing the concerned villagers, Ye Jian raised her hand to cover her forehead, as if she was a bit embarrassed. “My headache is gone. I was tripped by Ye Ying and accidentally fell. Perhaps I was too nervous about the examination at noon that I passed out.”
“Look at you! Why are you nervous about exams? Ye Ying is so good at school, just ask her to give you answers during the examination,” said the villagers jokingly. They felt great compassion for this orphan girl who was staying with her uncle’s family.
Currently, they were looking at her with kindness in their eyes, instead of judging her.
Ye Jian pursed her lips gently. Pretending to be anxious, she lowered her head, curled her hair with her fingers and murmured, “Long before the exam was over, she had handed in the paper and left. I couldn’t copy her answers even if I wanted to. I dared not hand in mine until the bell rang.”
Her words made the villagers burst into laughter. What an honest girl Jian was.
What they did not know was, Ye Jian was behaving in this way to prepare for the things that would be happening subsequently.
“Aunties and uncles, I’m going back to my home. I’ll see you around.” Ye Jian thanked them politely. With a gentle smile on her delicate and small face, she said, “I haven’t returned home in ages. I’m planning to clean my house.”
It was not until then that the villagers realized that she was going back to her home at the very end to the village. “Grandpa Gen should be at your house. He has kept a dog, so do remember to inform him before you enter the house.”
Of course, Ye Jian still remembered that dog. At that time, when she was wronged, she ran back to her house, crying. A big, black dog barked and rushed out from the house. If it was not Grandpa Gen who had appeared in time, Heiga would definitely have bitten her.
Later, as Grandpa Gen had told her, his black dog was no ordinary dog but a juvenile Tibetan Mastiff.
Across layers of peach blossom, Ye Jian saw her home hiding deep inside the sea of flowers. It was the same house from her memory.
The green and black bricks, as well as the pure white walls, still looked as new as before.
This was the time when peach flowers were blooming. The gentle spring breeze was stroking her face, and the flower petals were flying in the air.
After walking out of the forest of peach blossoms, Ye Jian returned to her home.
“Grandpa Gen, Grandpa Gen.” A few steps before Ye Jian walked out from the forest, she had raised her voice and yelled. Heiga was a Tibetan Mastiff. She yelled in advance to avoid repeating the episodes in her past life.
Before hearing any response from anyone, she had trotted out the forest of peach flowers.
Ye Jian halted her steps as she saw four unknown men eating noodles while sitting on the ground.
She nodded gently and asked calmly, “Is Grandpa Gen here?”
She glanced at them, and then subtly lowered her sight.
She saw that someone had secretly and swiftly put down an object that was placed on the wooden table. It… was a gun.
As she lowered her head and looked again, she saw that four men were wearing boots that civilians wouldn’t. Those… were military boots.
Their sitting positions were textbook-like. Their backs were upright straight, just like poplars.
Besides, they had the crew cut hairstyle, which was mandatory in the army.
These four men were soldiers.
They were sitting before her own house. Judging from their smiles, it seemed like they were having a relaxed conversation. They were a bit surprised at her appearance.
With an apron, which had turned white after being washed too many times, wrapped around his waist, Grandpa Gen smiled and said, “Here comes the Lao Tan pickled cabbage. I know you guys… Oh, Jian.”
She was a girl from this village. The four men stood up quickly. One good looking men, perhaps the leader of the four of them, said with brisk laughter, “Girl, don’t be scared, we are not bad people.”
Of course, she knew that they were not bad guys.
Besides, what sort of villains had she not encountered?
Scared? She had never been daunted by anyone.