"Who is it? What’s the matter?" Aunt Chen asked as she opened the door.
"Mom, it’s me, I’m back."
The moment Aunt Chen opened the door, Chen Zhu shouted loudly and with a hint of pride.
The voice that had appeared countless times in her dreams made Aunt Chen’s body tremble. She looked incredulously at the face before her, familiar yet somewhat strange. Was this her Da Zhuzi? He looked paler and chubbier, and although his eyes still held a touch of arrogance, there was now an added sense of confidence.
"Da, Da Zhuzi?" Aunt Chen reached out her hand in a daze, touching the face she had dreamt of countless times.
It was warm and soft, the real Da Zhuzi! Truly!
"Mom." Chen Zhu, seeing her tearful face filled with excitement and surprise, couldn’t help but feel a sting in his nose, as tears threatened to spill. "Mom, it’s me, I’m back, I really am back."
"Da Zhuzi, Da Zhuzi! Wuu, it’s really you, my son, you’ve finally come back. Mom was so worried about you!" Aunt Chen hugged her son, who was a head taller than she was, tightly in her arms, wrapping her hands around him as she sobbed heavily.
"Come, let mom take a look at you. You’ve been gone for three months, are you hurt? Have you been hungry or cold? Did you have enough silver? You didn’t run into any bad people, did you?"
Aunt Chen fired off a series of questions all at once. Chen Zhu didn’t even know how to respond for a moment but just smiled and wiped her tears, saying, "Mom, I’m fine, I’m really fine."
Having said that, he remembered Wang Qiaoxin, who had been standing beside him the entire time. Taking her hand, he introduced her to Aunt Chen, "Mom, this is Qiaoxin."
Seeing Wang Qiaoxin left Aunt Chen even more stunned. Her son had returned, and he had brought a woman with him—a very beautiful woman at that!
Her eyes swept over Wang Qiaoxin’s face and, almost unconsciously, glanced in the direction of Lin Yuan’s place next door. It was only a flicker, but the sensitive Wang Qiaoxin still felt it. She was about to politely address her as aunt, but her nose twitched, and she swallowed her words, only managing to give a polite tug at the corner of her mouth and nod at her.
Aunt Chen, after all, was just a rural woman unaware of such formalities. She didn’t care that Wang Qiaoxin hadn’t addressed her, but she felt somewhat constrained in the presence of such a beautiful woman.
Compared to Wang Qiaoxin’s fine silks and satins, Aunt Chen looked at her own patched clothes stained with oil and felt her old face could almost bleed from shame.
Before Aunt Chen could respond, Old Man Chen had already come out of the small house leaning on his walking stick fashioned from a tree branch.
As soon as he stepped out, he stumbled towards the door, "Is Da Zhuzi back? How did the exam go? Did you earn a high-ranking position for your father so I could enjoy good fortune?"
At those words, Chen Zhu’s movement to step forward and help his father halted, his feet as if nailed to the ground, immovable.
This was his mother and father. His mother’s first questions were about his well-being and whether he met any bad people. As for his father? All he cared about was whether he had earned a high-ranking position to bring him good fortune and nothing else.
"Dad, I’m back," Chen Zhu did not answer whether he had earned a high-ranking position, simply acknowledging his presence.
Old Man Chen was not one to let it go easily and pressed on, "I know you’re back; I’m asking if you earned a high-ranking position? Huh? Speak up, will you?"
Old Man Chen asked repeatedly while tapping his walking stick. The stick made a thumping noise on the ground. Those familiar with him knew he was getting angry.