As they were talking, the ox cart came to a stop. A young man by the side of the road wanted a lift to Yangliu County. Du Chunzhi immediately fell silent; while the driver had been singing along the way, it had been fine for the two of them to whisper, but now that there was someone else sitting nearby, they had to be careful what they said.
The young man was quite talkative, and within a short time, he had spilled the details of his entire life: his eighty-year-old mother, his sickly wife, his three-year-old child, the pigs in his pen, and the melons in his fields.
Upon reaching Yangliu County, Zhao Laoliu helped Du Chunzhi off the cart. The young man offered kindly, "Uncle, Auntie, you don't seem familiar with the area. Tell me where you need to go, and I’ll take you there."
Chapter 51