An eight-year-old kid emptied his scumbag father's warehouse and followed his grandparents into

"Pu'er, if you don't get up soon, I'm leaving with Daddy!" Jing Chunxi's voice came with the sound of "bang bang" knocking on the door, ringing in his ears like thunder.

Pu Ge'er was so startled that he jumped up from the bed and shouted in a panic, "Sister, I'm coming!"

He jumped out of bed and realized that it was already dawn. He panicked and shouted outside, "Brother Wang, why didn't you call me?" His tone was full of complaints, "Hurry up and help me find some riding clothes."

Brother Wang hurried in, holding a copper basin for washing up, with an innocent look on his face: "Don't worry, sir, I'm not late. I usually get up at this time. I saw that you were still quiet, so I was just about to call you."

He was originally walking slowly, but when he saw Pu Ge'er's anxious look and heard the young lady urging him outside, he realized that things were not simple.

He quickly put down the copper basin, rummaged through the boxes and drawers in a hurry, found a neat set of riding clothes, and hurriedly helped Pu Ge'er put on his clothes.

After tying his hair up, Pu Ge'er didn't even bother to wash his face. He grabbed the cold tea on the table and took a few sips. The cold touch made him clear his mind immediately.

He looked back at Brother Wang and warned in a low voice: "No need to follow me, stay at home and don't go anywhere!" After that, he rushed to the backyard like a gust of wind.

At the dinner table, Jing Yi had already finished two large meat buns and was slowly scooping meat porridge from his bowl. Pu Ge'er looked around and didn't see his mother. He habitually asked, "Dad, sister! Where's mother?"

Jing Chunxi rolled her eyes at him unhappily and tapped the edge of the bowl with her chopsticks. "Don't you know that Mom is feeling sleepy?" she urged. "Eat quickly, don't dawdle."

Jing Yi wiped the corner of his mouth, a sly look flashed in his eyes: "No hurry, wait until the school starts, then I'll ask Aunt Mi to lead the people out of the courtyard over there."

The location they wanted to investigate was at the back of the courtyard, and the back door of the courtyard was usually open. If they did not send Bilian, her daughter, and the servants away, their whereabouts would be easily exposed.

Jing Chunxi put down his chopsticks and glanced at his cheap father, but couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth, deliberately dragging out the tone: "Still - Daddy is thoughtful."

……

Jing Yi carried a hoe and Pu Ge'er held a hatchet in his right hand. They stepped on the weeds growing out of the cracks in the bluestone slabs in front of the courtyard gate and entered directly through the main gate.

As they walked through the courtyard, they startled the swallows nesting under the eaves, and a dark figure flew over their heads. The back door was also open, so they walked straight to the back.

Behind it is an open space dyed golden by the morning glow. Ridges neatly divide the vegetable plots, and the newly emerged spinach seedlings look like emeralds scattered on the ground.

Several late-blooming roses are crowded at the edge of the vegetable field, and the edges of the petals are already curled.

Three crooked pear trees stood sparsely, with a few shriveled autumn pears hanging on the branches, and transparent resin on the insect-eaten peels.

Sure enough, a hundred steps away from the wooden fence was the Daqing Mountain. The mountain appeared indigo in the twilight, and the pine trees growing stubbornly in the cracks of the rocks cast their shadows on the vegetable fields.

"There is no wall here." Jing Chunxi was the first to notice something strange.

Because she practiced climbing the wall every day at the hour of Yin, she knew every gap in the bricks and stones outside Qingshan Villa. However, because of the obstruction of the two houses, she had neglected the small section at the back. It turned out that there was no wall here, and it was directly connected to Daqing Mountain.

"We'll all look carefully along the mountainside for several dozen feet, paying attention to whether there are any bricks or stones."

Jing Yi finished speaking, tilting his shoulder and slamming his hoe down onto the ground. With the first strike, the sharp blade made a dull "chi" sound as it sliced ​​through the earth, lifting a palm-thick lump of mud and revealing the damp, ochre-red soil beneath.

After digging a few hoes in a row, he went to the left.

Jing Chunxi and Pu Ge'er walked to the right. "The grass is too long." Pu Ge'er's voice was muffled. After a few steps, his trouser legs were covered with cockleburs, and the serrations on the edges of the grass leaves left tiny red marks on the back of his hand.

He wielded the machete like a clumsy woodcutter, the blade always slipping from the grass stems, only shaving off a few scattered leaves. The cut dandelions released white fluff balls that stuck to his eyelashes.

"Be careful of snakes, hang this purse on your waist." The medicine bag that Jing Chunxi took out from his arms exuded a strong smell of realgar, and when he threw it over, it brought up a pungent wind.

She grabbed the hatchet and with the first stroke, she "swooshed" through a clump of reed-like weeds, followed by a few bushes and thatch, which raised itchy hairs as they fell.

It was obvious that no one had set foot here for many years. The dogtail grass grew taller than Pu Ge'er's shoulders, and the edges of the Miscanthus leaves were like small saws, leaving tiny scratches on Jing Chunxi's face.

A clump of wild roses suddenly sprang back, its thorny branches lashing her wrist, leaving an immediate red mark. Startled grasshoppers clattered against them, and one particularly large one leaped directly into Pu Ge'er's collar, startling him.

After chopping about ten feet, less than the width of a stand, Jing Chunxi was tired.

Pu Ge'er suddenly squatted down and took out a bird's nest made of hay from a clump of dry wild oats. Five or six chicks, their pink skin just beginning to show signs of down, looked like they were covered in a layer of gray mist. They huddled together, their tender yellow beaks opened to the sky, the blue film on their eyelids still lingering.

Jing Chunxi shook his sore arms and looked back, and saw Jing Yi standing a few dozen steps away, with his hoe stuck diagonally in the soil.

He tilted his head back, the skin on the back of his neck stretched into a tense line, his gaze fixed on a spot on the mountainside. The setting sun stretched his shadow very long, extending all the way to Jing Chunxi's feet.

"You, look from over there at a height of about three or four feet on the middle mountain to see if there is a bulge there." Jing Yi's shout startled the sparrows in the grass, and their gray wings flapped across the darkening sky.

"Okay!" Jing Chunxi responded. The two men dropped what they were holding, and the hatchets made a clanging sound as they fell on the gravel.

Pu Ge'er didn't dare to move while holding the bird's nest. He could only tilt his neck and look up.

His gaze passed through the layers of locust branches, seeing only a crisscross of light and shadow. "There are too many trees. I only see trees and grass," he replied as a baby bird defecated in his palm. The warm sensation startled him, and he nearly dropped the nest.

Jing Chunxi took a few steps back, breaking a dead branch on her step. She kept adjusting her angle to look upward. But the mountainside was filled with nothing but swaying treetops and overgrown shrubs. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting blinding spots that forced her to squint.