"Chen Ye, are you still sleeping?" There was a boy in a gray cloth blocking the door. His cuffs were polished and his chin was raised to the sky. "Master Tang said that I will give you a decent last night. Go to the Northeast early tomorrow morning and don't be an eyesore in the capital."
Chen Ye blinked and looked away from the boy's face, scanning the old luggage stacked in the corner and the crumpled ticket pressed on the corner of the table - a hard-seat ticket to the Mudanjiang Forest Farm in Northeast China in the spring of 1978.
He raised his eyes and spoke in a calm tone, as if he was talking about what he had eaten today: "It's cold in the northeast, so I'll give you an old cotton-padded jacket."
He was truly born again.
"I'm asking you for an old cotton-padded jacket. Either you go back and tell Chen Jianye now; or, tomorrow I freeze to death on the train, and a branch of the Chen family dies in a foreign country. Do you think it sounds good to the public?"
"You're lucky, but the young master thinks it's unlucky and wants you to take it and get out of here!"
Chen Ye bent down to pick up the cotton-padded jacket and weighed it. It was not too thick, but it was better than nothing.
He raised his head, saw the servant about to leave, and suddenly said: "By the way, tell Chen Jianye that the snow in the Northeast is heavy and the road is slippery, so he should be more careful."
The servant was stunned for a moment, cursed "crazy", and left without looking back.
Chen Ye didn't pay attention, folded the cotton-padded jacket and stuffed it into his luggage, then touched his chest - there were no old buttons there from Lin Xue in his previous life, but there were things more precious than buttons.
It's a masterpiece, but not many people see it.