Enter the Room

  Chapter 62

  Song Jiyun stuffed a pair of pearl earrings into Zhao Qisao's hand.

  Yuan Yunzhong does not wear jewelry; she is going to the kiln factory, and her attire is simple and neat.

  On the two of them, this pair of pearl earrings is worth a few bucks.

  Since it's a lodging, you can't eat and drink for nothing.

  Sister-in-law Zhao Qi refused to take it.

  Song Jiyun courted her for a while before she accepted.

  But she also treated them with obvious enthusiasm, and said: "I'll go get you new bedding, I keep it for my wife."

   Song Jiyun didn't stop her, so he let her go.

   But when she turned her head, Yuan Yunzhong was standing under the eaves at some point, turning her head to look at her.

  Song Jiyun was about to ask what happened, but Yuan Yunzhong turned his head and looked into the yard.

  In the yard, Zhao Qi was dragging the big tree suitable for a beam to the west wing.

  He is not tall, but he looks very strong.

   Especially the shoulders and arms, when dragging the tree, the muscles are very strong.

   Song Jiyun was a little surprised.

Mrs. Zhao Qi took the quilt out of her room, went to open the door of the east wing, and said: "Miss Li, you sleep in the north wing today, and your brother sleeps in the south wing. The house is poor, I have wronged you. "

  Song Jiyun smiled and said a few words politely, and helped her carry the quilt inside.

   But she didn't expect that the wing room could look like this—an empty room with a wooden bed against the wall, and one of the legs of the bed was broken, so it was padded with bricks.

  Yuan Yunzhong slept in a better room than hers. Except for a plank bed, the four corners of the bed were all sound, and there was an extra bed at the head of the bed.

  Song Jiyun asked Mrs. Zhao Qi who made the bed: "How many children are there in your family? Why aren't you at home?"

  She said vaguely: "They have all gone out to work, don't worry about them, they will be back tomorrow morning."

  Song Jiyun asked strangely: "Is there still work around here?"

  Sister-in-law Zhao Qi didn't answer, but pulled the bed sheet with a smile, and said, "It's getting late, you all should rest! You have to go on your way tomorrow!"

  Song Jiyun responded with a smile, and Yuan Yunzhong went back to their rooms.

  But as soon as she returned to the room, she immediately locked the door, held up the oil lamp and began to touch the wall with her hand and look at the roof.

   After a long while, she sat on the edge of the bed with a solemn expression, blew on the lamp, and heard Zhao Qi and his wife return to the room. After waiting for a long time, she quietly opened the door latch and walked out lightly.

  The moon is dim tonight.

  The upturned eaves, roofs, and courtyards all melted into groups of black shadows, projected distortedly on the ground.

  The whole village is quiet and there is no light. Occasionally, a few dogs bark, which breaks the tranquility of the village and makes people feel frightened.

  Song Jiyun stared at the east wing where Zhao Qi and his wife were resting, and gently knocked on the window lattice of Yuan Yunzhong.

  No movement.

  Song Jiyun wondered whether to knock again later.

  The door of the room was quietly opened halfway.

  Yuan Yunzhong stood there tall and tall, his face was shrouded in black shadow and his expression could not be seen clearly, but a pair of black eyes were as deep and bright as black stones.

  Song Jiyun was slightly stunned.

  Yuan Yunzhong chuckled, and said in a low voice: "Miss Song, there is a door, why do you need to jump out of the window?"

  Song Jiyun was speechless, and said: "I have something to do with you. Should I talk to you in your room? Or go to my room?"

  Yuan Yunzhong pondered: "Is it not good? Even if we are brother and sister, we are still past the age of sitting together."

  Song Jiyun laughed angrily, pushed open the other half of the door, and said, "What do you think you are looking for?"

  The door made no sound in Yuan Yunzhong's hands, but made a loud "squeak" sound in her hands, which spread far in the darkness.

  Song Jiyun paused, and Yuan Yunzhong stepped aside.

  She stepped over the threshold, put her hands together backwards, and closed the door.

   It was getting darker in the room.

   "Yuan Yunzhong," Song Jiyun said in a low voice, "I suspect that we have just thrown ourselves into a trap and arrived at the lair of the group of people chasing us."

  The air in the room was stagnant.

   "What did you find?" Yuan Yun said in the middle, but his voice was rarely solemn.

   Song Jiyun frowned, and said: "You haven't stayed in the kiln, so you may not know some things.

"The kilns in the kiln are all made of bricks. But when the kiln is opened, these bricks can no longer be used. Others don't know, but in the Song family's kiln, those waste bricks will be sold at low prices to those who want to Poor families who build houses and cannot afford new bricks.

   "Because of the high temperature, this kind of brick is particularly fragile, easy to break, and easy to deform.

   "Look at the wall of Zhao's wing.

   "I just looked at it carefully, and it's all that kind of brick."

  Yuan Yunzhong pushed open the window lattice on the east side.

  The moonlight came in and shone on Yuan Yunzhong's shoulders.

  Song Jiyun began to pace back and forth: "There are also those firewood, all of which are pine branches.

   "How can ordinary people use pine branches to light a fire?

   "Only in the kiln factory, the oil carried by the pine branches can heat the temperature in the kiln to the required temperature."

   As she spoke, some details that had just passed through her mind before were strung together one by one like beads.

   "Do you remember, we said we wanted to rest in the village for a night, but Zhao Qi rejected us without even thinking about it.

  “They obviously don’t want us to enter the village.

   "What kind of village does not want others to enter?

   "And she wants to treat us to dinner. Erhe noodles steamed buns. People here don't eat this kind of steamed buns, unless they are kiln workers from the north."

  Yuan Yunzhong's voice was very calm, and said: "Even if this is the case, it can only mean that there are wild kilns here, and it may not be the people who chased us."

Song Jiyun stood still in the middle of the house, and said: "Only those kiln workers in the wild kilns, who have nothing but strength, will take risks and dare to do anything! Instead, they are idlers who depend on the rich and the rich, not so big courage."

   Anyway, these are just guesses.

   "Do you want to leave the village?" Yuan Yunzhong pondered, "Even if we leave the village quietly, we won't be able to return to the city before dawn. We might as well rest here for one night and leave at dawn."

   Song Jiyun knew that this was the best way.

  They have to go over mountains and mountains, and they must get lost.

  But she was still very uneasy, and walked to the window lattice: "Even if those people chase after us, they can't find us immediately, right?"

"That's not necessarily true." Yuan Yunzhong's tone seemed a little casual, "If there is a wild kiln here, the whole village must be involved. They should be very vigilant. No one is a fool! We can find others Maybe others can also find our strangeness.”

   As soon as he finished speaking, there was a sudden ferocious barking of dogs outside.

  Song Jiyun was taken aback, his voice tensed: "Could it be that someone entered the village?"

  She listened attentively, her hands could not help but tightly grasped the window lattice.

  Under the moonlight, her snow-white fingertips were faintly blue.

   Following the man's scolding, the barking stopped.

   It's just passing by late.

  Song Jiyun heaved a sigh of relief, and there was a thin layer of sweat on his temples.

  Yuan Yunzhong was slightly taken aback.

  He has never realized so clearly that Song Jiyun is afraid of her.

  He couldn't help but look at Song Jiyun.

  Her figure is still upright, her expression is still calm, and even her eyes are still bright and agile as before.

  Yuan Yun was soft in the center, patted the bed board like a ghost, and said in a teasing way: "If you are afraid that they will find you, why don't you go back!"

   Revised version…

  (end of this chapter)