I realize that I haven't finished posting the rest of this story! I'll post Part 5 and the Epilogue later (in a week or two). There are 10 stories total and we are on story #6 (which is so long, I'm posting it in several parts, hence "Part 4" for this post).
Part 4
After this, the four boys tried to find time to meet together and find out what exactly was behind the other building they saw. Now that they knew that it once was where the emperor stayed, they imagined that it must be a super nice place.
“Yes, but this was years ago. Remember, it was when he was our age. That was a long time ago!” Said Chen Min.
“I would love to see it still,” said Xi Wei.
“Me too,” said Chen Yang.
“Ok, let’s go.” Said Chen Min.
They walked around the wall but found no easy way to climb up and over it. Finally, Xi Wei had an idea: “What if we climb up that tree and use that branch to help us get over the wall.”
“Hmmm, that might work,” said Chen Min. “Let me try first.”
Chen Min climbed the tree and found that it wasn’t so hard, but he didn’t want Xi Wei or Chen Yang to try it because it was a little difficult. However, he knew that if he said that they were too young to do it, they would be angry about it. Instead, Chen Min decided to just be quiet and not say anything.
“Chen Min, are you ok?” Asked Chen Yang.
“What’s going on?” Asked Xi Wei.
It was quiet for a few minutes until Chen Min said, “I’m thinking of a way to get down.” Another few minutes later, there was “thud” as he jumped to the ground.
“Was that you? Are you ok? What do you see?” Asked Xi Bing.
“Can we come up too?” Asked Xi Wei.
“Yes, I’m ok.” Chen Min answered. He walked around the inside and found two small houses and lots of plants growing. There were places where it looked like there used to be more houses, but were taken down. In their place were rows and rows of plants.
“Oh, I thought I heard something,” said a girl’s voice. A girl of about seven years old said. Her hair was long and braided in two braids. “Are you all right? Did you climb and jump from that tree?”
“Uh, yes.” Answered Chen Min.
“Wow, did it hurt? That looks like a big jump!”
“Well, yes, it did hurt a little, but not too much.” However, Chen Min had a bad scrape on his knee. When the girl looked down and saw the blood, she immediately told him to follow her.
“My mom can help you.” The girl said.
“No, I can’t. There are other boys- my friends- waiting outside.” He said.
“Oh, I thought you were alone.”
“No, my little brother and some friends came along. Do you suppose they can come in too?” He asked.
“Yes, yes, of course! But before anything we need to get you some help. Stay here, I’ll have my mom come and help you.” She said. She rushed off saying, “Mom, mom!”
Within a few minutes she came back with her mom, who had some water and a towel to clean the wound.
“What made you think of jumping from that tree? That’s really high!” The mom asked.
“Well, I, I, I,” Chen Min hesitated. “I really wanted to see what was behind this wall. I saw the door, but it was locked and I didn’t want to get into trouble.”
“Trouble?” Well, now you’ve gone and hurt yourself. Does your mother know that you’re here?” She asked.
“No. I do have some friends and my little brother outside waiting for me.” He said.
“Oh, well, bring them in. Yan, go and open the door for them.” The mom directed to her daughter.
In a few minutes the rest of the boys were at Chen Min’s side. “Ouch, that looks like that hurts!” Said Chen Yang.
“So, what exactly are you boys doing out here?” The mom asked them.
“We saw this place and heard that it was where Emperor Lin stayed when he came to visit years ago. We wanted to see how it was like.” Said Chen Min.
“This is how it is.” the mom said. “After the emperor left, no one wanted to live here because it’s outside of the city walls. However, my grandparents wanted to live here. They took down some of the buildings so there would be more room to grow vegetables. We sell our vegetables in the city.” The mom explained.
“We saw some tomatoes and other vegetables grown in the forest in between the trees. We thought that’s where all of the vegetables come from that are sold in the city,” said Xi Bing.
“No, most of them come from here. Of course some of them come from the forest. People don’t want to cut down a lot of trees because then it’s more obvious that there’s a city here. The reason we’ve been able to live here so long without any bad guys coming is that it’s hard to find this city. If everyone started cutting down trees to have bigger places to grow vegetables, it would be more easy to find the city.” She told them.
The boys stayed there a good hour or two. Tan Yan, the little girl, showed them all around and told them which vegetables were which. She said that hardly anyone came to visit them and it was great to have new friends. The boys often went to play with her and called her family the “Vegetable family” since they grew so many vegetables. Even Xi Jing, Xi Bing and Xi Wei’s older sister came occasionally with them.
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