stonecrandall Chapter 695 Success
Chapter 695 Success
"Okay!" Xiao Dang replied, grabbed the faded cloth bag from the corner of the wall, and ran outside. The strap of the bag was worn rough and hurt her palms. As soon as she stepped out of the house, she bumped into Yan Bugui, who was strolling around the yard with his hands behind his back.
Yan Bugui, who rarely gets a day off today, was wearing a slightly worn gray cloth jacket and had a relaxed look on his face. Seeing Xiao Dang leaving at this time, he couldn't help but stop and squinted his eyes to ask, "Xiao Dang, isn't it the weekend? Where are you going in such a hurry?"
Xiao Dang was secretly delighted—she was just worried about having no witnesses. But her face remained innocent as she smiled sweetly, her voice soft and gentle: "Second Uncle, I'm going to see my master. He said he has some work to teach me today, so I need to go early, or I might miss it." She knew Yan Bugui was a notorious chatterbox; there wasn't a single trivial matter in the courtyard that he didn't know. As long as he knew where she was, she'd have a living witness to prove her alibi—perfect!
Yan Bugui gave an "Oh," and stroked the few sparse hairs on his chin. He knew that Xiao Dang was learning embroidery from an unknown master, and although he looked down on her somewhat—it was better for a girl to stay home and do needlework to supplement the family income than to learn such a "not filling" skill—he still praised her, saying, "Good girl, it's good that you're willing to learn. Having a skill to rely on will prevent you from being poor in the future, which is better than anything else." After saying that, he walked towards the front door with his hands behind his back. He still needed to go to the morning market to buy some cheap vegetables, because if he went late, all the wilted greens would be sold out.
Xiao Dang watched his retreating figure, a subtle smile playing on her lips, like a sour fruit hidden beneath the leaves. She deliberately lingered in the courtyard a little longer, bumping into Uncle San's idiot Zhu as he emptied his chamber pot, and then meeting Aunt Wang from next door carrying a laundry basin. Whenever anyone asked, she would say she was going to find her master to work, describing the story in great detail, even knowing exactly which alley her master lived in, making sure most of the people in the courtyard knew where she was going.
After confirming that everything that needed to be said had been said and everyone who needed to be seen had been seen, Xiao Dang quickly left the courtyard. But instead of heading towards her master's house, she went around to the back wall of the courtyard—there was an inconspicuous dog hole there, which she had discovered when she was a child playing hide-and-seek with Bang Geng. Later, the adults had blocked most of it with bricks, leaving only a gap just big enough for a child to squeeze through. Over the years, it had long been completely hidden by waist-high weeds, and there were piles of rotten wood at the base of the wall. Apart from her, no one knew that this was a place to sneak in and out.
She parted the overgrown foxtail grass, the dew on the blades dampening her cuffs, cool and refreshing. She crouched down and carefully crawled through the dog hole, her knees scraping against the muddy ground, leaving a black stain on her trouser leg, but she didn't care. This was a route she had observed countless times: crossing this open space piled with miscellaneous items, bypassing Grandpa Zhang's woodpile, she could reach her own window directly, without encountering anyone along the way, not even the most vigilant Second Aunt.
She pulled a small porcelain bottle from her cloth bag. The bottle was rough, made from a broken earthenware jar that had been glued back together. Inside was a sleeping potion her master had given her. It smelled somewhat like dried mugwort. If she just held it to Jia Cai's nose for a moment, the boy would fall into a deep sleep, completely unconscious, not even uttering a sound, let alone crying. Xiao Dang gripped the bottle tightly, her palms slightly sweaty, and glued it shut—almost there. As long as she got Jia Cai away, handed him over to that "distant relative" her master had mentioned, and got the money, everything would be over.
Xiao Dang squatted under the old locust tree outside the Jia family's courtyard wall. The locust leaves rustled overhead, casting dappled shadows. Her eyes, like those of a fledgling animal, were narrowed warily, fixed on the peeling wooden door. The weeds at the base of the wall grew above her ankles, their edges serrated, making her bare legs itch and tingle, but she didn't dare move—she was waiting for an opportunity, a chance to quietly carry Jia Cai away.
Her younger brother had sneaked over to her while delivering coal ash to the Jia family. His face was flushed, and he whispered, "Sister, only Uncle Dongxu is home at the Jia family's house right now. He's slumped on the kang (heated brick bed) smoking his pipe, so much so that he can barely lift his eyelids. Cai'er is crying in the inner room, but he won't even bother to look up." Xiao Dang felt a weight lift from her heart, but her nerves tightened even more. Everyone in the courtyard knew about the Jia family's mess. Jia Dongxu was a notorious good-for-nothing, unable to lift a finger, spending his days smoking and drinking. But Jia Zhangshi's eyes were as sharp as needles coated with poison; she could come back from visiting at any moment. If she caught them, she'd probably lose her life.
She waited for about the time it takes to smoke two pipes of tobacco, pressing her ear against the rough wall. She heard Jia Dongxu yawning indistinctly from the courtyard, followed by a muffled thud from an elbow hitting the edge of the kang (heated brick bed). He must have turned over and fallen into a deeper sleep. Xiao Dang held her breath and crouched down like a cat to the courtyard gate. She gently pushed it with her fingertips—the gate wasn't locked, it was ajar, with a small crack, and she could see a few old clothes drying in the wind.
This was something she had calculated accurately. Jia Dongxu was notoriously lazy, and he always left the courtyard gate open like this, ostensibly to "let it breathe," but in reality, to save the effort of unlocking it repeatedly.
Xiao Dang tiptoed in, his shoes scraping the ground. The courtyard was quiet, save for the sparrows chirping and pecking at the rice grains under the eaves. The door to the main room wasn't closed properly, just ajar. You could see Jia Dongxu's leg lying across the kang (heated brick bed), his trousers rolled up, revealing his filthy ankle. His pipe lay on the ground, still emitting faint sparks, and a pungent smell of smoke filled the air.
Jia Cai lay in a cradle against the wall in the inner room, wearing a faded, pilling little jacket with frayed cuffs. He was kicking his chubby little legs, playing with his toes, humming softly, and drool dripping from the corner of his mouth. Xiao Dang's heart pounded like a rabbit trapped in her chest. She tiptoed over, carefully bent down, and gently picked up the child.
To her surprise, Jia Cai didn't cry. Instead, he opened his big, dark eyes, looked at her, giggled twice, and tugged at her clothes with his chubby little hands. Xiao Dang breathed a sigh of relief—her efforts over the past few months hadn't been in vain. Ever since she learned that the childless couple in the neighboring village were willing to pay a silver dollar for a boy, she had been going to the Jia family's house every day, using the excuse of helping Qin Huairu with laundry and preparing vegetables to find ways to coax Jia Cai. She picked wild jujubes from outside the wall for him, taught him to clap his hands and play "flying insects," and even secretly slipped him the candy she had saved up for half a month, watching him put it in his mouth and smile with his eyes narrowed. All for this moment, to make him let his guard down.
But she dared not let her guard down. The child, though small, was very clever, and his cries were especially loud. If he woke up and started crying halfway through the journey, alerting the neighbors in the courtyard, everything would be over. Xiao Dang pulled a small oil-paper packet from her pocket. Inside was a sleeping potion she had asked the clerk at the town's pharmacy to get for her. She had already mixed it into a small piece of rice cake according to the clerk's instructions. That rice cake was something she had exchanged for with her own saved food rations; it was sweet, and the child would surely love it.