After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

Chapter 273 The Yellow Springs Inn (Part 1)

As the curtain fell, Liuying asked, puzzled, "Are they talking about the person in the bamboo forest? Why doesn't Madam tell them the truth, instead of letting them keep searching like this?"

"What should we say? Should we tell them that we killed that person?" Lu Zhiyuan retorted. "They've disappeared without a trace, so even if we told them, they wouldn't believe us. Why bother? Let them search. They'll give up when they can't find him anymore."

Liu Ying pursed her lips and nodded.

She didn't think Lu Yun was wrong to kill that person.

He appeared suddenly, intending to harm the lady; he deserved to die. She only felt sorry for the mother and daughter; even though they were already dead, they continued their aimless search.

He tilted his head and asked again, "Madam, do you know that person? Your expression becomes particularly strange when he is mentioned."

“He looks a lot like one of my friends, a friend from my childhood.” Lu Zhiyuan closed her eyes: “No matter how much he looks like him, he’s not him. A fake is still a fake.”

Liu Ying seemed to understand, but was about to close her eyes to rest when she suddenly remembered something: "That old woman said she found her son-in-law in Miao Village. We all know what Miao Village is like, and we've all seen what that man looks like. I'm sure he's not from Miao Village."

Liu Ying spoke with absolute certainty: "Who else could it be but someone from Miao Village? Master Ye, Madam Ye, Miss Ye, he can only be the Master Ye that the village chief and Miao Han mentioned. Miao Han said Master Ye was hacked to death, and the village chief also said he was dead. What if he's not dead? He's a person, not a piece of wood. If he was hacked to death, he would at least try to escape, right? Or maybe he didn't escape, but was just thrown out by those villagers as if he were dead. He's not dead; he was saved by that old lady just now."

Liu Ying continued her analysis: "The old lady said that he was seriously injured and only wearing his undergarments. She took the clothes of the dead man next to him and covered him with them. Is it possible that the villagers only recognized the clothes and not the person, and since the clothes were stained with blood, they mistakenly buried the dead villager as the murdered Master Ye?"

With his eyes closed, he patted Firefly's head and praised, "Smart!"

The truth is not important. What matters is that Miao Han was erased, and the resurrected Master Ye was also erased. There is another one in this world, or countless others like her.

Each "she" experiences a plot from a novel she has read before.

It was daylight when we left the Miao village, but it was completely dark when we arrived at the inn. Unlike the darkness in the Miao village, this darkness was normal. Looking up, we could see not only moonlight and clouds, but also stars.

The post station wasn't as large as I'd imagined, sitting there all alone. A clearly worn flag hung on the flagpole in front, bearing only the words "Post Station." The plaque was also devoid of any other words. Black border, white background, black characters—it didn't resemble a post station, but rather a mortuary for storing corpses.

Lu Zhiyuan followed behind Lu Yun, watching him knock on the door. After about fifteen minutes, the door slowly opened from the inside. It wasn't the old man typical of post stations, nor the young, scarred, or weathered official, nor the slender, graceful female manager, but an ordinary woman with plain features and average looks. Behind her followed a chubby little boy of about seven or eight years old.

The woman was dressed in plain clothes, as was the little boy, and even the lantern they carried was made of white paper.

There are many white lanterns, but these are only used in mortuaries or when families hold funerals.

Her heart skipped a beat, and Liu Ying whispered, "Could I be that unlucky? We just came from that lifeless Miao village, and now we've arrived at this dreary post station."

The voice wasn't loud, but the woman and her son heard it. The little boy, his eyes red, tugged at the woman's sleeve. The woman turned and glanced at the little boy, who immediately composed himself.

"Please rest assured, my husband is not at the post station and will not bring any bad luck to you. If you are concerned, there is a farmhouse fifteen miles ahead."

"Please don't be offended, madam. My maid is just outspoken and didn't mean to offend you." Lu Zhiyuan nodded. "We need two superior rooms, bath water, and some food. If it's too much trouble, we don't need hot water, just some food will do."

"No trouble at all, there are other guests at the inn." The woman, leading her child, stepped aside. "Please, esteemed guests, I will go and arrange hot water and food first. I will have Afu lead you to your rooms."

Lu Yun had already stepped inside when he heard the name "Afu" and stopped.

"Your name is Afu?"

The little boy looked up and gazed into Lu Yun's eyes: "Can't I be called Afu? I've been called Afu since I was born. My parents hope I'm a lucky person."

Ignoring the little boy's objections, Lu Yun patted his head and said, "Afu is a good name. I was also called Afu when I was a child."

The little boy blinked and asked him, "So what's your name now?"

“Lu Yun, Lu is the Lu of land, Yun is the Yun of sun, which means upright, fair, sunny and positive, and has a bright future.” Lu Yun looked at Lu Zhiyuan: “It was my wife who named me Lu Yun.”

"Madam means 'wife,' right? I've heard noble people call their wives that." The little boy asked earnestly, his voice still childish. "I had one name when I was little, and another name when I grew up. Can't I use the same name when I'm little and when I'm grown up? Ah Fu? Wouldn't it sound bad if I were still called Ah Fu when I grew up? My surname is Ren, what name should I have when I grow up?"

"Ah Fu!" the woman turned around: "Don't disturb the guests!"

The little boy lowered his head and mumbled a reply: "Oh!"

Liu Ying thought he was cute and teased him on purpose: "When you were little, you were called Little Afu, and when you grew up, you were called Big Afu. Your surname is Ren, not Big, so you should be called Ren Afu."

"Ren Afu?" The little boy lowered his head and repeated it several times, then said with a bitter face, "It doesn't sound good, it sounds like someone is being bossed around. My father said, I don't ask to get ahead, I just ask not to be a slave."

Liu Ying pouted: "So what if we're slaves or maids? He's a slave and I'm a maid, and we're doing just fine."

As she spoke, she squatted down and pinched the little boy's nose: "Let me tell you, being a slave or servant isn't scary, what's scary is following the wrong person. Of course, there's nothing wrong with not being a slave or servant. Everyone wants to be free."

The little boy scratched his head, seemingly understanding but not quite: "My mother said that when I grow up, she will hand over this post station to me. I will not be a slave or a maid; I will become the little manager of this post station. The little manager cannot be called Afu; Afu is the name of the young shop assistant."

Lu Zhiyuan corrected, "Afu can be the name of a waiter or the name of a shopkeeper. It's not that you become a waiter because you're called Afu, but rather that the waiter just happens to be called Afu. Afu is your nickname, right? When you enter the private school in the future, you will have another name, a name that also contains your parents' expectations and hopes."

"Really?" The little boy's eyes lit up as he looked at his mother.

The woman nodded gently, and the little boy, overjoyed, skipped and hopped, carrying a lantern, to lead them to the guest room.