The elderly man saw Summer walking back in, and he glanced at her before shifting his attention back to Leonardo. “There’s a way, but it’s not safe.”
Leonardo glanced back at Summer and said nothing else.
The rain still did not let up after several days, and the condition of the roads did not become any better. So even if people in the city were to send men to repair the power supply grid and cell towers, they would not make it there.
Leonardo and Summer could only continue their stay in the elderly man’s house for now.
The rain had also kept the elderly man from working on his farm. He spent most of his time sitting in the rocking chair by the doorway, looking out at the rain with his cat occasionally keeping him company.
The vegetables they ate came freshly from the ground outside.
Since Summer and Leonardo were staying with the elderly man, they naturally wanted to take over the job of plucking the vegetables from the ground and preparing the meals.
However, Summer had yet to master the skill of making a fire. Hence, the current arrangement was for the elderly man to make the fire, Summer to do the cooking, and Leonardo to do the dishes.
When Summer woke up the next morning, she aimed her ear at the roof to listen for any pitter-patter as the rain fell from above.
She listened for a while, then looked over at Leonardo. “The rain has stopped.”
He was sleeping on his back beside her with his eyes closed, seemingly still asleep. But Summer knew that he had been sleeping lightly for the past few days. His furrowed brows were a telltale sign that he was awake.
Sure enough, a few seconds later, he opened his eyes slightly and replied with a hoarse, “Mhm.”
Summer got up and moved around to the other side to get out of bed. She then put on her jacket and walked toward the door.
She had acquired a memory: she would wake up every morning and move over his legs on the tail side of the bed to get down.
She went downstairs, opened the main door, and walked out.
The house was built in the mountains, and there was an activity deck in front of it. Further out was the forest.
Right then, the mountains were covered in a blanket of white fog.
Fog after the rain meant that there was going to be clear weather.
Once the weather cleared, the power supply and cell signal would be restored. People would then come to repair the roads and Carl, as well as the others, would surely find them in the quickest time possible.
They were going to leave soon.
It had only been three days, but it seemed like a long time to her.
Summer looked down and saw the black plastic slippers on her feet. They were a bit large for her feet, and a huge part of them protruded from the back of her feet.
She stepped on the mud a few times, the slurry splashing onto her pants.
“Girl, could you please bring me a back basket?” The voice of the elderly men came.
Summer looked in the voice’s direction and saw the elderly man standing in a plot on the vegetable field, waving his soiled hand at her.
Summer could not see what he was doing in the distance. “Okay, right away.”
She carried the basket on her back and went over. The elderly man was crouching on the field and digging through a chunk of earth, looking for something.
“What are you doing?”
The earth was now completely soaked after days of rain. Summer rolled the trunks of her pants up to her knees and trudged carefully through the field.
The sticky earth that clung to her slippers was a few inches thick.
When she finally arrived in front of the elderly man, her slippers had completely disappeared in the heavy mud.
The elderly man scraped the mud from his hand and handed her a lump of something with a smile. “Do you know what this is?”
Summer looked at the lump for a few seconds. “Sweet potato.”
“You’ve seen this before?” The elderly man looked surprised.
“Of course. I’ve bought it from the supermarket before, but I’ve never seen one freshly dug out from the ground.” While Summer spoke, she squatted down and took another one in her hand.
She looked at it for a long time, then bit her lip. “This one’s a little small.”
“I’ll dig a few of them out. If they’re ripe enough, we’ll take them back. These ones will go into the sweet potato congee.”
Summer helped him pick the sweet potatoes up.
The last one looked clean on the outside, so the elderly man cut a slice and handed it to Summer. “Try this. The ones that look like this are usually crunchy and sweet.”
Summer took a bite. Just as the elderly man said, it was crunchy and sweet.
“Is it sweet?”
“Yeah, it’s so sweet!”
Summer carried the basket on her back while the elderly man walked ahead with a sickle in his hand. They chatted away as they walked back.
When they were about to reach the front of the house, Summer called out to Leonardo inside the house. “We have some exceptionally sweet potatoes, Leonardo!”
But there was no response from him.
“Could he still be asleep?” she mumbled to herself.
She followed the elderly man back to the house with that thought on her mind.
The moment she reached the front door, she noticed that there were some other people in the house.
Summer was transfixed for a moment, the expression on her face gradually fading.
Was it Carl and the others?
“Is someone else here?” The elderly man squinted as he tried to look inside.
“They should be my friends who’ve come to look for us.” Summer pressed her lips together.
The elderly man was stunned too. A few seconds later, he took the basket down from her back. “Go and have a look. I’ll make the sweet potato congee for you.”
Summer looked back and saw the elderly man stooping as he carried the basket on his back and headed into the kitchen.
Meanwhile, Summer headed to the main hall where there were windows. Right before she entered, she could not make out the people inside as her eyes had not adapted to the dim atmosphere.
Summer stepped in and finally saw their faces.
Leonardo was sitting in a wooden chair, and across him was another man. It was not Carl.
When Summer came in, the two men looked back at her.
Leonardo was expressionless. His eyes seemed to tell her that he was thinking of something.
The other man was smiling at her. “Summer.”
Summer could not believe her eyes. “Stanley… Stanley Bates, how come you’re here?”
Her eyes were not deceiving her; the man sitting opposite Leonardo was none other than Stanley.
Summer had learned from Leonardo that Carl had come to the mountains for Jessica. So, all this while, she thought that Carl was going to be the first person to arrive, though the chances of it being Tim were probably higher.
Leonardo did not bring Tim along, but in Summer’s eyes, Tim was a super assistant. He was capable of anything, to the point that he seemed omnipotent. There was nothing that he could not accomplish.
She never expected Stanley to be the first person there.
“Obviously, I’m here to look for you.” Stanley’s smile was frank and genuine as if he was there simply because he had searched for her after he found out that she was stranded.
Stanley appeared lighthearted, but the same could not be said about Summer. She felt like she was carrying a rock on her shoulder.
She had told no one but Leonardo about her visit to Jessica’s location.
It was not that she doubted Stanley’s ability, but without knowledge of her itinerary, how could he have possibly found her in such a short time? It was an impossible mission.