Chapter 4 — After Rebirth, I Will Not Be a Widow Anymore

07

“But the person who died was not you.”

“After you died, I looked for someone else. Didn't I tell you in the beginning? Being a widow is fun. I forgot what you looked like.”

In my ear, it felt like something was badly broken. Dung Hinh's face was full of disbelief.

"How is that possible? You love me so much, how could you betray me?"

"My mother kept her secret for twenty years, looking at the Dung family's family is more important than her life. How could she stand by and watch her do something wrong to the fallen ancestors of the Dung family..."

He kept muttering, still holding on to a bit of an illusion.

"You are definitely lying to me. It was because of revenge that I married Tu Tam that I said such cruel words. You did it. My heart hurts so much for you."

"Imagining, what's the use of deceiving yourself and deceiving others? People will change."

"Your mother kept her virginity for decades, the years tormented her into a windy person. But she is human, she also craves love. Men use rules to force women to keep their virginity all their lives, building temples to chastity, but men can have concubines in groups. That's not fair."

Dung Hinh looks like he is deeply in love, but in reality he is amorous and has a very bad heart. Although the mother-in-law often retorts, her mind is not bad. After Dung Hinh died, he left no descendants. The nights were long and lonely and uncomfortable, my mother and I closed the door every day counting beans. Later, I called a tall and healthy servant into the mother's yard. That handyman was honest, gave him a bowl of rice, and before dawn he got up to chop wood. Later I discovered that he was also a good player in other aspects. He raised the model's yellow face to become more and more rosy.

“Ah, I forgot to tell you, in the future you will have a younger sister.”

Dung Hinh, who was already upset, heard my words, suddenly couldn't digest it, leaned back, and fainted. I laughed coldly, pushed the door and walked out. Just happened to be confronted by a young man who was listening outside the door. Tieu Nhi glanced at the chaos in the room, on the ground was still lying a bloody person whose life and death were unknown, so scared that his legs were shaking.

“Second, second lady... is truly majestic and majestic, her skills are extraordinary.”

I gave him a silver bar, curled my eyes and smiled.

“Know what to say and what not to say?”

Tieu Nhi repeatedly assured:

“I can't see anything.”

08

Meet the person you should meet and handle everything. I put my luggage on my shoulders. In a very quiet dawn, without telling anyone, I headed to the North. Xuan Dao knew that I could leave at any time, every night she held her small bag, guarded the door and never took a step away. Last night alone, I deliberately bought her several glasses of wine. When I left, she laid her head next to my bed and fell asleep, muttering in her dreams:

“Miss, when you leave, you must call this servant…”

I laughed out loud, silently promising in my heart: Xuan Dao, in the past that person always mentioned the golden sand border that filled the sky, lacking a sand barrier. Next time I'll take you there to plant some trees, okay? Leaving the bustling area of the capital, the further north you go, the more desolate it becomes. Along the way, we saw migrants losing their homes and starving people filling the fields. Skinny children compete with dogs for food. Occasionally there are new graves on the side of the road, not even a wooden sign. In front of the porridge distribution tent of the government officials, the line was so long that there was no end in sight. In the pot there is only diluted water, mixed with it sandy mud. In the past, in the deep back yard, the so-called bitter cold of the North and the chaos of war on the border, to me were just a few light words on a book page, or a few sentimental sentences that were neither painful nor itchy at a banquet. Now that we see it with our own eyes, we know how those two words "cold suffering" were written. The luggage on my back becomes less and less. I gave my clothes to naked beggar women on the street. Our money pockets are already bulging, one-fifth of which we use for ourselves. We donate three-fifths to porridge tents and pharmacies to do good deeds everywhere. The remaining one-fifth, after we crossed the mountains and passes and finally reached Luong Chau, was completely deceived. At the tea shop, I was asking for directions. An old man drinking tea at the next table stopped by.

"Little brother, you said earlier that you should find General Yen. I know where his army is stationed. The vegetables in the military camp were brought there by me."

The road was windy and tiring. For safety's sake, I blackened my face and changed into men's clothing a long time ago. Outsiders only think of me as a skinny and weak man. The guide took us out of Luong Chau city and into the rocky desert. The red sun was like a nail in the sky. The vast ground was steaming hot. I don't know how long I've been walking, the soles of my feet are blistered, and I haven't even seen the shadow of a military flag. During the conversation, I learned that the old man's son was drafted into the army, and there was no news for two years. Again, there were constant droughts and grain failures. His wife was seriously ill, and the cost of medicine to save her life was more than a year's harvest from the fields. While I was drinking water, the gentle old man suddenly pulled out a small knife, his hand shaking violently.

“I only need your money, not your life.”

In order not to anger him, I had to hand over all my assets. The old man counted money. Before leaving, he saw me wearing a patched shirt and being weak, so I couldn't bear to leave behind a sentence:

“Go thirty miles east. If you find that young and battle-hardened General Yen, he should be there.”

09

We are always careful along the way. Only when I was about to meet Yen Chinh, my heart was in turmoil and I fell into the trap. Thinking of Yen Chinh, I lifted my spirits and continued on my way. But going east until the sun set and night fell, we still could not see the barracks. I collapsed and lay on the ground. The body is sometimes hot and sometimes cold. Maybe because the night temperature suddenly dropped, I have a fever. The moon on the desert is so round. The river is like a waterfall. From afar came a few long wolf howls. Xuan Dao is right. There really are wolves in the desert. I want to laugh, but I don't even have the strength to laugh. The eyelids are getting heavier and heavier. I don't know how long it took, but the sand under my body sent a rhythmic vibration. At first it was the sound of horse hooves. Then there was the sound of hurried footsteps. Someone squatted down, opened my heavy eyelids, and shouted loudly:

"General, it's a fainted man with no weapons on him."

In a blur, I seem to see the figure of a horse rider leading the way. He lazily curled his lips.

"Avoid so many guards? It must be a Xiongnu traitor. Take it back for questioning."

Hearing a familiar voice in my memory, I finally closed my eyes contentedly. The young man in a brocade shirt was riding around on a horse, said to be Yen Chinh at eighteen years old.