lcionline Chapter 684 The peddler has arrived. He will take you away from this mountain to Chengdu.
Chapter 684 The peddler has arrived. He will take you away from this mountain to Chengdu.
Shi Xiaoniu seemed to have sobered up a bit. He rubbed his eyes and blinked in the darkness. "My father said it's not good outside the mountains."
"Is it bad, or is it impossible?" Lin Jiayou pressed. "Does he... have enemies outside?"
“Enemies?” Shi Xiaoniu repeated the word, seemingly puzzled.
He shook his head. "I don't know. I've been in this village since I was born, and my father never took me out. I only know what the outside world is like from the stories told by the peddler at the village entrance."
He thought for a moment and added, "My father also forbids me from talking too much with those peddlers. He says that outsiders are cunning."
After saying that, he yawned widely, turned over, turned his back to Lin Jiayou, and mumbled something indistinctly.
"Brother, don't think about it anymore, go to sleep. I'll take you to collect bird eggs tomorrow."
Soon, Shi Xiaoniu's breathing became steady and long again.
The room fell silent again, with only the chirping of unknown insects outside the window.
Lin Jiayou, however, could no longer fall asleep.
Enemy.
He thought of his mother, his maternal grandfather's family, and the complexities of the capital city that he couldn't understand...
Was the one-armed hunter who saved him also hiding from someone, just like him?
It's not that he doesn't want to leave, it's that he can't.
Once the thought arises, it's impossible to shake it off.
He suddenly felt that there seemed to be an inexplicable connection between himself and this taciturn man.
They are all trapped people.
The days passed by.
Lin Jiayou has even accepted the reality that he might stay here for a long time.
Just when he was able to distinguish the calls of several different birds in the forest, Shi Yong suddenly walked in from outside that morning.
The man's tall figure blocked the light from the doorway. He looked at Lin Jiayou, who was sitting on a small stool in a daze, and his voice was as deep as ever.
"Get up and go."
Lin Jiayou suddenly looked up. "Where are we going?"
Shi Yong nodded with his chin toward the village entrance.
"The peddler is here. He will take you away from this mountain to Chengdu."
For a moment, Lin Jiayou froze on the spot.
The man's previous refusal and warnings about the dangers outside the mountains were not, in fact, intended to trap him here.
He was waiting, waiting for the safest opportunity.
This silent, one-armed hunter wasn't trying to keep him; he was protecting him in his own way.
Lin Jiayou then realized that he really was a good person.
At the village entrance, a dark-skinned, lean peddler was loading several bundles of mountain goods onto an oxcart.
Shi Yong led Lin Jiayou forward and gave him a few concise instructions.
Shi Xiaoniu followed behind, his little face flushed red, clutching Lin Jiayou's clothes tightly, tears welling up in his eyes.
"Brother, are you really leaving? Can't you stay and play with me?"
Lin Jiayou's throat tightened. Looking at Shi Xiaoniu's face, which was about to cry, he wanted to promise him that he would find a way to come back and pick him up after he settled down.
But he swallowed the words back down his throat.
He glanced at Shi Yong's profile beside him and knew in his heart that this man would not leave this mountain.
A promise that cannot be kept will only cause deeper harm.
The peddler quickly packed up his things and waved to Lin Jiayou.
Lin Jiayou took a deep breath, took out the money bag that had been warmed by his body heat from his pocket, and handed it to Shi Yong with both hands.
"Uncle, I have no way to repay your life-saving grace. Please accept these."
Shi Yong didn't even look. He took Shi Xiaoniu's hand, turned around, and walked away.
"Let's go."
His retreating figure was resolute, without the slightest trace of lingering affection.
Lin Jiayou's heart sank. He sat on the bumpy oxcart and couldn't help but look back.
Shi Yong led Shi Xiaoniu back step by step to the small courtyard where smoke was rising from the chimney.
The man never turned around, but Shi Xiaoniu beside him stubbornly turned around again and again.
He waved vigorously in Lin Jiayou's direction, his figure growing smaller and smaller until he finally disappeared around the bend in the mountain path.
The oxcart bounced along the rugged mountain road, making Lin Jiayou feel like his bones were about to fall apart.
Only then did he realize what it meant to say that going up the mountain was not easy, but coming down was even harder.
The winding road seemed endless. With each turn, he couldn't help but look back, but all he could see were the continuous green mountains.
"Hold on tight, kid."
The peddler driving the cart glanced back at him, revealing a set of white teeth on his dark face.
"Brother Shi is a very honest man. He told me to take good care of you on the road. Are you hungry? Here's a dry biscuit."
As the peddler spoke, he took out a hard cake wrapped in oil paper from his pocket and handed it over.
Lin Jiayou accepted it and whispered his thanks. He knew this must have been arranged by Uncle Shi Yong.
That silent man, in his own way, paved the final stretch of the road for him.
Two days passed quietly as the oxcart swayed along.
When the outline of a city appeared in the distance, the peddler breathed a long sigh of relief.
"See that? That's Chengdu."
As evening approached, the oxcart finally stopped outside the city gate.
Lin Jiayou jumped off the car, and the moment his feet touched solid ground, a piercing pain shot through his feet, causing him to stagger before regaining his balance.
Looking down, he saw that the ill-fitting straw sandals on his feet were worn through and bleeding.
He raised his head and looked at the bustling ancient city before him.
The tall, imposing city walls cast long shadows in the afterglow of the setting sun, and people and carriages came and went at the city gate.
All of this made him feel a sense of unfamiliarity and excitement that he had never experienced before.
"Young man, I'll take you this far." The peddler jumped off his cart nimbly, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "When you get to the city, be careful in everything you do."
"Thank you, uncle." Lin Jiayou bowed deeply to the peddler.
The peddler waved his hand, shouted, and drove his oxcart into another road, quickly disappearing into the crowd.
Lin Jiayou stood alone by the official road, took a deep breath to suppress the confusion in his heart, and stopped a passerby who was walking in a hurry.
"Excuse me, how do I get to the prefectural government office?"
The man gave him a strange look, but still pointed in a direction.
"Keep walking along this main street until you see the largest stone lion, then turn left and you'll arrive."
"Thank you."
Lin Jiayou thanked him and then limped toward the prefectural government office.
His initial excitement had long been replaced by trepidation.
Will Lawyer Gu welcome my arrival?
Or will they, like those people in the Yongwang Mansion, see him as a nuisance?
A cool evening breeze blew by, and Lin Jiayou instinctively hugged his arms tighter and quickened his pace.