Chapter Two: "shujin bird"(seven)

Autumn had passed, and winter arrived. When the first winter rain fell, Zhu Xiaobao, exhausted, walked into the Yuanbao Hall.

This time, he wasn't there to learn paper folding but to buy joss paper and candles.

Zhu's mother had passed away.

Ye Fengjun picked out the best paper and candles for him and didn't accept his money.

On the day of Zhu's mother's burial, Ye Fengjun also attended.

At the desolate grave, Zhu Xiaobao, dressed in mourning, knelt before the brazier and placed paper foldings and candles inside. His expression was calm, and sometimes, he would smile as if recalling something.

Ye Fengjun stood opposite him, yet before he could speak, Zhu Xiaobao suddenly said, "This is the most satisfying farewell I've ever had."

A seemingly random statement.

Ye Fengjun remained silent.

"The last time I bid farewell to someone was in the palace," Zhu Xiaobao's bright eyes flickered in the firelight. "It was on the eve of the empire's downfall. They were busy fighting over the gold ornaments made with the Cold Conquering Gold, as if whoever grabbed more could survive. I watched them from afar, without even the sentiment of saying goodbye."

Ye Fengjun was slightly stunned, then he spoke after a moment, "Your last farewell was a very long time ago, wasn't it?"

Zhu Xiaobao smiled, "For humanity, it was indeed a long time ago."

As the cold wind blew and ashes scattered, Zhu Xiaobao remained kneeling there, burning paper offerings.

The pile of paper folds beside him diminished until there was only one left.

"This was folded by my mother before she passed away. She didn't finish it; it's missing one wing," he lifted up a paper bird with only half a wing. "I don't know why she folded this at the end of her life. Perhaps it was just a coincidence."

His gaze lingered on the paper bird, delving into an incomprehensibly distant past.

Fly, fly away, anywhere will do, it's all the same, can't stay anywhere for too long.

But, perhaps it's because I'm getting old, feeling a bit tired.

It overlooks the city below, with a familiar feeling, as if it had left for hundreds of years, only to return.

Guided by the moonlight, it chose a household, for a simple reason: they kept many chickens, with roosters, hens, and a flock of chicks.

Silently, it landed in the chicken coop, squeezed in among the chicks of similar colors and sizes. It was afraid of the cold; otherwise, the emperor wouldn't have built a cold-proof platform for it back then.

However, obviously, it was more comfortable here than on the cold-proof platform. The chicks were soft, warm, and fluffy.

Most importantly, it was safe to be with them. No one would notice an "outsider" among the chicks, even though they looked quite similar. Still, it felt it should be even more beautiful.

In this household, there were only two people, a mother and her son.

Based on its observations in the chicken coop for several days, it knew this family's surname was Zhu, and the mother called her son Xiaobao.

Xiaobao was already fifteen or sixteen years old, a restless fellow with ants in his pants. He was always out early and came back late, spending a small portion of his time on odd jobs and most of his time idling around.

His mother, on the other hand, was much more diligent, skilled both inside and outside the home. Even the chickens she raised were healthier than those in other households.

She must have been good at cooking too because whenever mealtime approached, the yard would be filled with a strong aroma.

However, Xiaobao rarely ate with her. Even when he was at home, if his mother called him to eat, he would impatiently respond, take a few bites, and then leave again.

She liked origami, folding many flowers and animals. She placed the most satisfactory piglet in her son's room because Xiaobao was born in the Year of the Pig. However, one day when Xiaobao went out, his shoes were smeared with mud, and he casually grabbed the paper pig on the table to wipe them.

She saw it but didn't say much. After her son left, she picked up the already messy thing, carefully unfolded it, and behind the wrinkled and dirty paper was the crooked "Xiaobao, Safe and Happy" written in six characters.

She neatly folded the paper and put it in the corner of the cabinet.

She had been learning calligraphy recently, from Mr. Liu next door. This was the first time she had written six complete characters entirely on her own.

How did it know? Well, she laughed while squatting in front of the chicken coop, sprinkling husks as she spoke.

She had learned to fold plum blossoms. Today, she met an old friend she hadn't seen in a long time on the street. She accidentally broke two eggs while selling them... She would talk endlessly about all sorts of trivial or not-so-trivial matters in front of the chicken coop.

Indeed, she said more to the chickens than to her son throughout the day.

Xiaobao always seemed busy. When his mother told him to wear more clothes in the cold weather, he'd say he knew, he knew. When she told him to be careful when going out, he'd say he knew, he knew. When she wanted to chat with him, he'd either be busy going out to find friends or hiding in his room playing with crickets.

Sometimes she would sigh at her son's back, but soon everything would be fine again, muttering to herself, young people, they always have their own things to be busy with.

It chose to continue staying in the chicken coop until the chicks shed their down and grew feathers, and it remained the same.

Even though she was careless, she eventually noticed this outsider in the chicken coop.

It flapped its wings, ready to fly away.

"You're not a chicken..." She squatted in the chicken coop, her eyes showing surprise but no malice, "I've never seen a bird like you before. Were you injured and fell into my house? Or did you get lost?"

It chirped twice.

"Seeing you so small, I'm afraid you got separated from your parents and don't have the strength to fly back." She imagined its experience and reached out to touch its head, "If you don't mind staying in my chicken coop, then stay. When you grow up, you can fly back to find your parents. If something happens to you, your parents will be so sad."

It thought for a moment, folded its wings, and temporarily put away its intention to leave. There was no reason, it just felt like it could stay.

From then on, besides husks, there would be some grains of rice in the food sprinkled in, that was her favor to it.

And the best reward it could give her was to quietly listen to the things she said, which her son didn't have the patience to listen to.

Actually, what she said wasn't that boring. From astronomy to geography, from family affairs to gossip, some things were quite interesting.

Unfortunately, Xiaobao wasn't willing to give her too much time, as he had more important things on his mind.

That early summer, Xiaobao decisively left home. He said he was going to the army, to make achievements for his country and the emperor, to recover lost territories, to go to broader horizons.

She knew she couldn't stop him.

Xiaobao left with beautiful dreams of war, and his mother's figure hadn't disappeared yet. He seemed to have already seen himself in armor, returning victorious.

Only he didn't know that the battlefield had nothing to do with beauty.

He also didn't know that since he left, his mother suddenly seemed to have aged ten years, and she began to fold turtles day and night, because she heard from somewhere that as long as she folded 999 turtles, her loved ones who were far away would return safely.

However, after folding 999 turtles, Xiaobao still had no news. She asked people about the situation on the frontline, and all she got was that our army was not doing well.

For many nights, it would see her window stay lit until dawn.

On the hottest night of that summer, it flew away.

Finding someone wasn't difficult for it, even on the battlefield where blood flowed like rivers. What was difficult was... the person it found was already dead.

In a pile of uncollected bodies, it found Xiaobao. He still had his eyes open, with a look of shock and confusion frozen on his face.

It gently landed on him, and in the sky, the crescent moon slowly emerged from behind the dark clouds...