Chapter 4: Departure (Part 2)

  A quiet night is just a prelude to a stormy new day.

  Early in the morning, as soon as the sun rose, Da Tou and Er Ya got out of bed. Lin Chun also dressed up, and after washing up, the three began to discuss last night's plan.

  Dahou saw Lao Lin and Old Lady Lin both went out, so he started giving signals to Lin Chun. Lin Chun heard the sound and quickly gathered clothes and quilts with Er Ya. Dahou took advantage of no one being at home to take the clothes out and hide them.

  In order to prevent Old Man Lin and Old Lady Lin from not allowing the three siblings to take away their clothes, Lin Chun thought that he must first take away all the things that can be taken away, regardless of whether they are useful or not, and absolutely not leave any behind. Now his leg is still not fully recovered, and making money is still a blur, so he will not give up these items at all.

  Lin Xiaohua went out on a date again last night and only came back at dawn. Lin Chun heard the noise, so she must be sleeping soundly now. Neither Lin Lao Tou nor Lin Lao Tai made breakfast, they just steamed two buns, one for each of them, no one else had any, so they wouldn't go wake up Lin Xiaohua either. Lin Chun told Da Tou and Er Ya to keep their voices down, so nothing happened.

  Watching the big head move things to almost done, Lin Chun covered the two empty wooden boxes at the head of the bed, and there was only a broken cloth sheet and a thick layer of straw left on the bed. Lin Chun remembered that Pei Wushuang had hidden something under the bed when he was alive. Lin Chun asked Er Ya to fetch a shovel from the yard and dug the soil under the bed, which was indeed soft.

  After digging for a while, Lin Chun touched something like a jar. He carefully pried it open with his hands. The bottom of the bed was dark and not very visible. Lin Chun dug out the jar and crawled out from under the bed.

  "Sister, what is this?" Er Ya was very curious about the thing Lin Chun dug out from under the bed, her two eyes shining brightly, full of desire for knowledge.

  "Sister also didn't know, it should be left by mother, I saw mother dig several times."

  Lin Chun wiped away the dirt on the jar while speaking, and took a closer look. It seemed to be a small ceramic jar, black and glossy, with an indistinguishable color. Lin Chun carefully opened the cloth wrapped around the mouth of the jar, which was very old and had apparently been buried for a long time.

  Lin Chunjing gently poured the contents of the jar onto the bed, and it was an object wrapped in a piece of cloth made from scraps of cotton. It couldn't be seen clearly what it was, but the cotton cloth felt very soft to hold, not the kind of fabric that ordinary poor families could afford.

  Er Ya's eyes became increasingly bright, as if she had discovered a treasure. Lin Chun picked up the cotton cloth, and inside, there were objects wrapped in layers of cotton, square and flat. Er Ya leaned forward, very interested, watching closely. Lin Chun took out an object from the cotton cloth, it was a jade token, its entire body crystal clear and white, with the character "double" from Pei Wu Shuang's name on it. It seemed to be Pei Wu Shuang's identity token.

  "It turned out to be a beautiful stone!" Er Ya suddenly realized.

  "Second sister, don't let anyone know that sister found something at home, or else something big will happen, do you understand?" Lin Chun looked at this extraordinary jade pendant and knew it was definitely not an ordinary thing. It's very likely related to Pei Wushuang's origins. In Da Ya's memory, she only heard that Pei Wushuang was a maid from a wealthy family who made a mistake and was kicked out, and happened to be brought back home by Lin Daren and married as his wife.

  The Lin family was poor, and Old Man Lin and Old Lady Lin were selfish parents who didn't spend money to marry off their daughter-in-law, so they were naturally happy and didn't ask many questions. However, Lin Chuan looked at the jade pendant in his hand and felt that Pei Wushuang's background wasn't that simple, perhaps there was an unknown story behind it.

  Lin Chun took the jade pendant and instructed Er Ya once again, preparing to start acting out the plan they had discussed last night to get away from her cruel father and uncle.

  Er Ya listened to Lin Chun's reminder and nodded obediently, indicating that she knew the importance of the matter. Just then, Da Tou returned home after hiding something outside. The three of them discussed for a while and decided to start implementing their plan to escape from home. At noon, Lin Lao Tai cooked lunch and unusually allowed Da Tou and Er Ya to eat a bowl each. She also asked Da Tou to send a bowl to Lin Chun to eat. Lin Chun knew that this was his last meal before death, so he ate it very quickly, as he had not seen rice for many days.

  After eating, Da Tou went to the village chief's house, Er Ya went to Dashan Bo Bo's house. Lin Chun twisted the bed sheet into a rope and threw it onto the big beam on the roof, waiting for Da Tou and Er Ya to bring people back and perform a thrilling hanging scene.

  "Village head, village head!" Da Tou hadn't even reached the village head's door when he started shouting loudly. Lin Chun wanted everyone in the village to know, the more noise the better, so it would be beneficial for himself. So Da Tou, having received instructions, let out his voice freely.

  Village chief Lin Tianliang was having lunch at home when he heard a shout, and hastily put down his chopsticks and went out the door to see Dahou running towards him with sweat dripping from his brow. "Dahou, slow down! What's wrong? Why are you in such a hurry?"

  "Village chief, grandfather, save my elder sister, please save my elder sister! My uncle and grandfather want to sell her into a brothel, she would rather die than go, and is trying to hang herself at home!" Da Tou repeated Lin Chun's words verbatim. The neighbors of the village chief's household heard Da Tou's shouting and all poked their heads out, whispering to each other after hearing what he said.

  "Oh my god, what a sin! Poor Da Ya, her father is gone, her mother is dead, and just two months ago, she was beaten by her aunt until her leg was broken. Now Lin Er Lang wants to sell her into prostitution, it's really true that an orphaned child is like a rootless grass!"

  "Yes! This Old Lin and Lin Er Lang are too heartless, Da Ya is only nine years old, still a niece, still a granddaughter!"

  "It's all right, Village Chief, we absolutely can't let them sell Da Ya into a brothel! Otherwise, the reputation of our Lin Family Village girls will be ruined. Who would still want to marry a girl from our village?"

  The village chief, listening to the words of his neighbors, was also very indignant. He knew that if he didn't thoroughly resolve the matter with Lin's family, the days ahead for Da Ya and her three siblings would not be easy either. So he called his eldest son, Lin Dafu, to go to Old Man Lin's house, and many of the neighbors followed the village chief and Lin Dafu to Old Man Lin's house.