After visiting the rooms upstairs, Jiaojiao came downstairs, ready to drag Yu Rou to see the mud-brick house she had mentioned before.

As they reached the hallway entrance, a few boys noticed and joined in.

What started as a plan for two turned into a group activity.

When they reached the door of Li Shu’s house next door, Jiaojiao paused, recalling Xiaohei, who used to enthusiastically greet her every time she passed by, and called out, "Xiaohei?"

But the grocery store, which had tied Xiaohei for years, showed no sign of movement.

Next to her, Ruan Wei explained, "Xiaohei was sold off the year before last."

"Sold off?" Jiaojiao frowned and looked over.

Ruan Wei nodded, saying, "A few years ago, Uncle Li worked as a mason in the big city, but unfortunately fell from a building and died. His wife took his compensation and left the next month, leaving Li Boxue with his grandparents. Without anyone to work, the family couldn’t manage, so they sold Xiaohei."

"But didn’t Uncle Li go to high school? How come he ended up as a mason?" A high school education in the eighties was quite valuable.

"That, I don’t know." Ruan Wei shook his head, having only heard Jiandang mention it afterwards.

Jiaojiao raised her head, looking at the mud-brick house from the eighties, feeling a bit sad at heart. No wonder everyone’s conditions in the village were better. As she looked around, most people had built new houses, except the Li Family.

Jiaojiao didn’t know what to say for a moment and continued on.

Along the way, they encountered many children who curiously hid by the door looking at them. Jiaojiao glanced over; she didn’t recognize any of them.

At a certain spot, Ruan Lei suddenly stopped, pointing at a patch of ground, and laughed at Jiaojiao incessantly.

Jiaojiao was baffled by his laughter. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

The others were too.

Ruan Lei then said, "Here, this is where Jiaojiao was blinded by a handful of mud thrown by that kid Xiu Cheng, fell and chipped her front tooth, and cried for ages... Later, she always covered her mouth when speaking... Hahahaha..."

"Brother!" Jiaojiao’s face turned red with anger, she tried to run up to cover his mouth, but her little height could only reach his shoulder after jumping for a while, eventually getting so mad she only managed to kick at his knees.

The others also laughed upon hearing this, eventually breaking into collective laughter.

Yu Rou didn’t find it particularly funny but laughed along with the others.

Lu Zishu, who didn’t know the Ruan Family at the time, voiced a curious question, "No way, her front teeth didn’t fall out then. I remember very clearly, she was eating when Yang Tao frightened her and she hit the table, that’s when it happened."

Lu Zishu had a deep impression of this incident too.

Because Jiaojiao loved being stylish from a young age, when she lost her front teeth that time, he said she looked like an old lady when she laughed, and for that, Zhao Li gave him a good scolding.

Could it be possible for some people to lose their front teeth twice?

"..." Jiaojiao.

She was so annoyed that her heart hurt, didn’t bother responding, rolled her eyes, and walked forward in a huff.

The others, seeing she was really angry, dialed back their teasing a bit.

Jiaojiao sprinted straight to the old house in front of the Ruan Family’s previous home before stopping.

"I didn’t expect it to be so well-preserved." Jiaojiao, somewhat surprised, marveled, feeling it looked exactly like it did in her memories, unchanged at all.