Famine and Chaos: Weaving Cloth in Exile to Escape the War

The house was extremely simple, with only an earthen stove, a broken pot, and two broken bowls.

There was no kang (heated brick bed) in the room. At this moment, Grandpa Su was lying on a pile of dry straw on the ground, covered with a thin and tattered quilt, his eyes closed and motionless.

"Grandpa!" Su Heng rushed over as soon as he landed.

Jing Zhichun quickly stepped forward, squatted down, and reached out to check the old man's breath.

Ugh.

She slowly withdrew her hand and silently closed her eyes.

The person is already dead.

"Grandpa! Grandpa!" Su Heng rushed over, grabbed his grandfather's arm and started shaking him. "Grandpa! Your grandson is back! Look at your grandson!"

But Grandpa didn't respond; his arm was stiff and had long been frozen.

Su Heng wiped his face, which was covered in blood, and called out again, "Grandpa, your grandson is back."

"Grandpa, please wake up, please wake up!"

Grandpa Su kept his eyes closed with a kind expression and remained motionless.

Startled, Su Heng quickly pulled her grandfather's arm into her own. "Grandpa, let me warm you up. I'll warm you up soon."

Seeing this, Kyoto Haru turned her face away, tears streaming down her face.

She has killed people and witnessed many deaths.

The death of Old Master Su was the only person who made her feel even slightly sad.

Just then, Su Heng burst into tears. He knew that his grandfather had died.

Grandpa starved to death.

Su Heng knelt and cried for a while. He got up, his legs wobbling, walked to Jing Zhichun and knelt down again, looking up at Jing Zhichun.

"Madam Shen, my grandfather starved to death. Could you give me a little bit of food so I can cook him a bowl of porridge... and let him eat before he leaves?"

Jing Zhichun quickly helped the boy up, sighed, and said, "The barbarians will be attacking soon, and we can't wait to cook porridge for your grandfather."

We need to bury your grandfather quickly, otherwise his body will be gnawed by rats.

Upon hearing this, Su Heng swayed slightly, his small body trembling: "Barbarians? Madam Shen, have the barbarians really attacked?"

Jing Zhichun nodded. "The news is true, child. Listen to me, let your grandfather rest in peace first. Once you're settled, burn more paper money for him. He'll receive it in the afterlife and be able to buy some food."

Su Heng received a definite answer. He looked back at his grandfather on the haystack, and after a while, he climbed back and kowtowed three times to his grandfather.

Suddenly, his forehead hit the ground with a loud thud.

"Grandpa, it's my fault for not being able to provide you with a hot meal... After the barbarians leave, I'll hunt pheasants and rabbits for you, and offer them at your grave so you can eat your fill."

After Su Heng finished speaking, he wiped away his tears with his sleeve and asked Jing Zhichun, "Madam Shen, how should my grandfather be buried so that he won't be bitten by rats?"

Jing Zhichun looked at the sky outside, then at the frozen ground beneath her feet.

"There's no time to bury them in a pit; the ground is too hard. There's only one option left: cremation."

Upon hearing about cremation, Su Heng's tears streamed down her face again. "Burned? Does that mean my grandfather won't even have a grave?"

"You can take your grandfather's ashes with you. When you reach a peaceful place, find a good burial site and bury him there. If your grandfather's spirit is still here, it will follow you."

Su Heng stared blankly at Jing Zhichun, then turned to look at his grandfather's calm yet gaunt face.

He was only eight years old and didn't even have the strength to dig a hole. The ground was frozen solid, and he had no choice but to listen to Madam Shen.

Su Heng asked uncertainly, "Madam Shen, if you take my grandfather's ashes, will he really follow me?"

Kyoto Haru nodded: "Yes. I will."

Su Heng received an affirmative answer, stopped crying, and went to his grandfather.

He bent down and pressed his face against his grandfather's frozen face, saying reluctantly, "Grandpa, your grandson will take you with him. When the fire starts to burn, it will hurt, so you must run fast."

Jing Zhichun's eyes also reddened as she listened. She walked over and gently patted Su Heng's shoulder: "It's getting late, child, we need to hurry."

Su Heng nodded, reluctantly letting go of his grandfather's arm: "Okay, thank you, Madam Shen."

"You're welcome. Where is your woodshed?"

"At the back of the house."

When Jingzhichun walked to the back of the house, she saw a tall stack of firewood piled up against the wall, all covered with old straw mats.

She lifted a corner of the door, took out a full bundle of firewood, walked to a sheltered open space a dozen steps away from the mud-brick house, and put the firewood down.

Su Heng followed, his small body swaying unsteadily, clutching a few thin branches and a handful of dry grass tightly in his arms.

The two remained silent and soon piled up a small stack of firewood in the open space.

Jing Zhichun carried Grandpa Su to the woodpile.

She said to Su Heng, who was wiping away tears beside her, "Child, say one more word to your grandfather."

Su Heng knelt beside his grandfather and touched the old man's frozen hands.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but couldn't say anything. He just pressed his face against his grandfather's face and instantly burst into tears again.

Jing Zhichun glanced at the sky and said to Su Heng, "Go inside and see if there's anything your grandfather used to use. Bring it all and send it away with him."

Su Heng reluctantly let go of his grandfather and went inside.

As soon as Su Heng turned and went inside, Jing Zhichun immediately bought three large barrels of high-efficiency fuel oil from the system and quickly poured it onto the woodpile.

Without hesitation, she took out a lighter and lit the fire.

The flames suddenly shot up high and instantly engulfed Grandpa Su in the woodpile.

Just then, Su Heng also came out of the house and saw that the flames had already shot into the sky.

He paused, then staggered to the fire and knelt down with a thud.

Her small body convulsed incessantly, and she cried silently.

Seeing this, Kyoto Haru sighed softly.

Right now, time is extremely tight.

By the time this pile of firewood burns through on its own, it will probably be dark.

Therefore, she could only use fuel to make Grandpa Su walk faster.

The fire raged on, billowing thick smoke and sparks that were whipped high by the wind, standing out starkly against the grey sky.

The exiled prisoners living in several dilapidated houses nearby all saw the fire and assumed it was Old Master Su's house that was on fire, but they only muttered a word and then stopped looking.

After an unknown amount of time, the flames gradually died down, leaving only glowing red embers and a pile of grayish-white ash.

Jing Zhichun noticed a broken pottery jar with a chipped rim inside the house.

That was the only relatively intact container in the Su family's possession.

She picked up the earthenware jar, found two thin wooden sticks, squatted down beside the ash heap, and carefully scooped the remaining bone fragments, one by one, into the jar.

Su Heng stopped crying and kept looking at Jingzhichun until the jar was seven or eight-tenths full.

Jing Zhichun then used a relatively clean piece of rag from the Su family's house to seal the mouth of the jar, and tore off a corner of her own undergarment, twisted it into a thin rope, and tied the rag tightly.

She held the pottery jar in both hands and handed it to Su Heng.

"From now on, this is your grandpa. Hold on tight and come with me."