Just at the You hour, every household in Changping county had shuttered their doors.
The people who used to sing or watch plays were nowhere to be seen, afraid of getting mixed up in trouble.
Madam Lu walked ahead, moving as if she knew the way by heart, the same as when they were at the granary in the capital.
Chen Ji watched the woman he’d only met that day — Aunt Ping — and felt a strange sensation: in the past, whenever he was with others he had to worry about everything, be meticulous about everything.
Except for Zhang Xia, no one else could share the burden with him.
Yet following this Aunt Ping, it felt as if he didn’t need to think at all; he could just walk along.
For a moment he felt like he’d been returned to the very first day he’d come into this world.
That scrawny old man who once guided him home to the Taiping Clinic, hands clasped behind his back, like someone leading a homeless stray cat into shelter.
Madam Lu didn’t look back. “Hurry up,” she said.
Chen Ji roused himself. “Okay.”
They turned left, turned right, and came to Dao Yi Alley.