HPDBC Chapter 52
Chapter 52
Chapter 52
After Wen Qian left, Ren Jie introduced her in the group chat, and quite a few people came out to greet her. Wen Qian also sent a friendly sticker.
She answered one question at a time, quite uninterestingly and without much enthusiasm to start new topics. The chat soon quieted down.
As for the classmate reunion they mentioned, she could find a time and say she couldn't make it when it came.
Or perhaps she would be gone from here even before the reunion.
For Wen Qian, whether in the past, present, or future, interpersonal relationships were never a necessity, or one shouldn't invest too much thought into them, that's just how it was.
Of course, she understood that if she were a bit more flexible, things might be a little easier.
But her flexibility would only be applied to work, when she needed a job to earn a living.
Her best friend from before gradually lost contact with her after getting married and having a child. Now, even when Wen Qian reached out, they could hardly chat. She didn't force it.
Relationships were never one-sided.
After returning home, Wen Qian immediately set out, walking up the mountain, crossing over two peaks through a large Oak Forest to a small village called Oak Bay.
Five households were scattered here, the last remaining being an elderly couple.
Other families had either moved to the nearby Liuhe Village streets or went to the cities.
By the time Wen Qian was in high school, only that one elderly couple remained.
Later on, it was said that the grandmother passed away due to illness, and with their family members all studying or working outside, the grandfather could hardly take care of himself.
Wen Qian's grandmother had mentioned that the old man would often go to town to buy food because he couldn't cook well himself. Luckily, he had some money to frequently buy things in town.
A few years later, the grandfather became increasingly senile until one day he passed away, leaving the village completely deserted.
The houses in the village gradually became overgrown with weeds and trees.
After returning home from wandering about, Wen Qian had passed through that area. Below the old houses were ponds and terraced fields, with two or three adjoining ponds.
When her grandfather was still around, she had used a fishing net to catch fish there. There was even a pond where they grew lotus roots.
Wen Qian's memories of this village included beautiful lotuses and emerald green lily pads.
Now, she thought, it must all be in disrepair. She didn't know if she could still dig up any lotus roots.
However, the ponds now were probably quite deep. Even if there were free lotus roots to dig up, she wouldn't risk it.
For the other two ponds, she tried using a fishing net to catch fish. At home, there was an old dragnet as well as a sticky net she had bought herself.
From the fallen bricks, she collected any intact ones.
To save costs when building, these single brick walls were made hollow, using single bricks for non-load-bearing walls.
The back wall of Wen Qian's own house was also a single brick wall, allowing her to easily punch a hole for the stove's chimney pipe when installing a heater.
Now that it was Wen Qian's turn to dismantle walls, she could easily identify the ones prone to collapsing without needing to judge the structural integrity. For walls already fallen, she just needed to remove the bricks, leaving behind any adhered mortar to be cleaned later. For now, she prioritized collecting the bricks.
This solo demolition was physical labor for Wen Qian. She started meticulously but became more haphazard later on.
She used her spatial rent's power to directly collect the scattered wall sections, leaving the task of sorting them into individual bricks for when she had time. Now, she just collected them en masse.
She also didn't want to make too much noise in the village for long in case someone passed by. How would she explain herself?
So it was better to work quietly. As for the crashing sounds of falling walls, if anyone heard, so be it.
She could just hide in the woods. Who would know what she was up to amidst the overgrown vegetation?
Collecting the walls crudely in large chunks like this and moving swiftly to the next house, Wen Qian spent three days amassing quite a collection of bricks.
The last building was a two-story house that Wen Qian initially thought she shouldn't touch.
But upon closer inspection, it seemed this house was also abandoned.
The sand, stones, and bricks that had once filled the walkway under the front porch had collapsed.
The concrete slabs above were also in shambles, and the steps in front of the main entrance were impassable.
A tree had grown as thick as Wen Qian's calf by the steps, its branches reaching up to the second floor.
The wooden windows had rotted away, and peering through the broken glass, the first floor's ceiling had grown moss from the leaks.
Both stories seemed to have been leaking, rendering it uninhabitable.
However, demolishing the two-story house was too difficult a task, so she only took away the bricks from the adjoining kitchen and the livestock shed.
If the two-story house were to accidentally collapse, Wen Qian's life could be in danger, so she decided to let it be.
But she was determined to take away all the scattered sand and bricks from the hallway downstairs.
After removing the last of these items, it was already noon. Wen Qian did not return home to rest but instead went to the edge of the pond, where she found a grassy spot to sit and eat her lunch.
As she ate, Wen Qian's gaze turned towards the lotus pond.
It seemed she had found herself another task to do.