Chapter 579: Been driven out

A few days later.

"Sir, are you leaving?"

Kong Qiu stood by the roadside, looking at Li Er, his eyes full of reluctance.

In these past few days following Li Er, he has learned so much.

The principles that he had read countless times in the study but never understood, once Li Er casually pointed them out, suddenly became clear.

He had never felt so clearly how close he was to 'knowledge'.

Li Er looked at him and gave a faint smile.

"The world is vast; you and I will surely meet again."

Kong Qiu bowed deeply, performing a great salute.

"Sir, your teachings I keep in my heart; should I ever achieve anything, it will all be thanks to you."

Li Er shook his head.

"No need to worry about me; if you keep propriety in your heart, you will not lose your way."

"Go on, go do what you ought to do."

Kong Qiu straightened up, glanced at Li Er, then at the smiling Yu Lin beside him, turned, and strode toward Qufu City.

After a few steps, he suddenly stopped and turned back.

"Sir, take care!"

Li Er nodded.

Kong Qiu looked again at Yu Lin, opened his mouth as if wanting to say something.

Yu Lin grinned at him.

"In the future, take on more disciples and spread your learning."

"Also, don't misuse the Body Refining Technique I taught you; it could really kill someone."

"Teaching with warmth, striking with lightness!"

Kong Qiu nodded firmly, then turned and walked away without looking back.

His silhouette gradually faded into the morning light.

Li Er gazed in that direction, silent for a moment.

"He will have a great future, extraordinary, extraordinary......"

Yu Lin nodded: "That's only natural."

"Only after thousands of years does such a person appear."

Li Er smiled, but did not respond.

The two stood side by side, gazing at the distant horizon.

Sunlight poured down, warm and cozy.

"Let's go."

Yu Lin turned and walked toward the green ox leisurely grazing by the roadside.

Li Er followed.

"Return to Qu Ren Li?"

"Otherwise?" Yu Lin swung onto the ox's back, sitting behind Li Er, "Or are we going elsewhere?"

Li Er also climbed onto the ox's back and gently patted its head.

The green ox lowed, stepped forward, and headed west.

They continued on their way.

They passed through stretches of fields and villages.

After more than half a month, they finally entered the borders of Chen State.

Familiar mountains and rivers, familiar roads, familiar accents.

Li Er sat on the ox's back, watching the scenery by the road, saying nothing.

Yu Lin also remained silent.

The two walked in silence until the village entrance of Qu Ren Li came into view.

The green ox stopped.

Li Er dismounted and stood beneath the old scholar tree at the village entrance.

The old tree was still there, its trunk having grown a notch thicker since he left.

The characters he had carved as a child on the trunk had been worn by time into indistinctness, leaving only faint traces.

The few elders who used to sit under the tree basking in the sun had been replaced by a batch of unfamiliar faces.

Several children playing by the road saw him, stopped, and curiously sized him up.

"Who are you?" a bold child asked.

Li Er looked at them, and for a moment it seemed he was seeing himself from decades ago.

He smiled.

"I used to live here."

The children half-understood, then ran off to play.

He continued forward.

The dirt road remained the same dirt road, but the houses along it were either new, old, or collapsed, leaving only piles of yellow earth and a few rotting logs.

Li Er walked while looking.

That was Chen Shen's house.

Back then, every time he passed by, Chen Shen would call him in for a bowl of water. Now that house has no one living in it, the lock on the door has rusted.

That was Second Uncle's house.

When he was a child, he fell from a tree, and it was Second Uncle who carried him back on his back.

Now that house has a new owner, a middle-aged stranger is chopping firewood at the door.

That was Er Gou's house.

He was his second lackey back then, the kid who followed him shouting 'Big Brother'.

Now that house is also empty; according to Chen Hui, he went to Song country a few years ago and never came back.

Li Er didn't speak, just walked silently.

Chen Hui came up from the roadside to meet him.

"Big Brother! How did you come back?"

Chen Hui quickly walked up to Li Er, looked him up and down, also glanced at the green ox behind him, and finally fixed his gaze on Yu Lin.

"Yu... Mr. Yu."

Yu Lin nodded at him.

Chen Hui turned his head, looking at Li Er, his face full of surprise and puzzlement.

"How did you come back? Weren't you an official?"

Li Er smiled.

"I was driven out."

His tone was flat, as if saying something quite ordinary: "I might as well come back to have a look."

Chen Hui was stunned for a moment, then also laughed.

"Being driven out is fine; coming back is good, coming back is good."

Li Er looked at him and asked:

"And your father?"

Chen Hui's smile faded.

"He's gone, five years ago."

He paused, then said:

"When he left, there wasn't much pain; just a sleep and it was over, that could be considered a blessing."

Li Er nodded.

"Then that's good."

The two chatted a few more sentences.

Chen Hui told him about the changes in the village over these years—whose elders are gone, whose children went where, whose houses collapsed and no one repairs.

Li Er listened to each, occasionally nodding.

Finally, Chen Hui suddenly remembered something, pointing toward the east of the village.

"Right, your mother is still here."

"Hmm." Li Er looked in that direction.

Those two Wooden Houses still stand.

One old, one new, standing side by side there.

The plot in front of the houses was tidied up neatly, planted with some ordinary vegetables.

The pomegranate tree by the fence has grown tall and thick, its branches laden with sour, unripe fruit.

The courtyard gate was half-closed.

Li Er stood at the gate, not entering.

He saw a few washed clothes hanging in the courtyard, saw newly chopped firewood piled in the corner, saw a pottery jar on the windowsill with a few wildflowers inserted.

Everything was so familiar.

Everything seemed as if it had never changed.

He stood there, looking for a long time.

Then he pushed the door open and walked in.

The door opened.

A person walked out from inside the house.

That face was exactly the same as thirty years ago.

Delicate features, gentle demeanor, with a faint smile.

Her hair was still simply coiled, her clothing still that plain coarse cloth.

Time left no trace on her.

She stood at the doorway, looking at Li Er.

Li Er also looked at her.

A middle-aged person with graying hair and a face weathered by wind and frost.

A woman who still looks young as ever, as if she will never age.

He stared at that face, identical to his memory, and suddenly didn't know what to say.

Li Shi spoke first.

"You're back?"

Her voice was still the same, not high nor low, gentle like a spring breeze.

Li Er nodded.

"Hmm."

Li Shi didn't ask why he returned, didn't ask what had happened over these years, didn't ask what he planned to do next.

She just smiled.

"Just being back is enough."

She turned and walked toward the house.

"Hungry, aren't you?"

Li Er followed behind, watching her silhouette.

That silhouette was exactly the same as the one in his childhood memories.

He suddenly recalled that many years ago, every time he came home after running wild outside, she would ask the same.

She wouldn't ask where he had been or what he had done, just asked, "Hungry, aren't you?" and then turned to cook.

Back then, he thought it was taken for granted.

Now he knows how rare that is.

"I'm hungry," he said.

Li Shi's voice came from inside the house.

"Alright, in a moment, I'm going to cook now."

Li Er stood at the doorway, watching her busy silhouette at the stove, and suddenly smiled.

He remembered something and shouted:

"Mother, I also brought a cow back."

Li Shi didn't even turn her head.

"Let it go out on its own to graze; we have no place for it to stay at home."

Li Er turned his head toward the courtyard outside.

The green cow stood by the fence, stretching its head to look inside, its dark eyes full of anticipation.

Li Er waved at it.

"You heard, right? Go."

The cow blinked.

"Moo……"

"No need for that.............."

It lowered its head, turned, and leisurely walked toward the fields outside the village.

Li Er watched its silhouette, then glanced at Li Shi busy inside, his smile deepening.

Cooking smoke curled up from the roof.

The sunset dyed the whole village a warm orange‑red.