Li Zhuiyuan raised his head, looking at the desk before him, the lamp, and Volume 5 of Jianghu Zhiguai Lu, which he had only just flipped a few pages into.
That's right — he had fallen asleep; but he knew this was no dream.
He couldn't understand why, at the very last moment, the old woman had chosen to "let" him out.
He didn't want to use the word "saved," because she was also the one who had dragged him into that birthday banquet.
Perhaps it was hard to describe her with simple labels like "good" and "evil" — she was, after all, a fusion of a human corpse and a cat's, itself a manifestation of complexity and contradiction.
Li Zhuiyuan closed his eyes, pressed his fingers to his temples, and kneaded them slowly.
Back when he was in school in the capital, he had always felt he was walking a one-way street: however dense the traffic and the crowds, all he had to do was follow the road onward.
But after coming back to his hometown, he found that though the roads there were narrow, often pocked with potholes, with few cars or people, these field paths crisscrossing between the rice paddies instead often left him lost in choices.
He could feel it himself — since coming home, especially in the days since meeting Little Oriole, the changes taking place in him.
He was observing harder, pondering more earnestly, speaking more carefully, dealing with nonhuman beings… it truly wasn't easy, because there was no margin for error.
In any case, it had made him less and less like a child of only ten.
Before, being a little kid — how simple that was.
Suddenly Li Zhuiyuan's eyes flew open, shock showing in them.
Himself —
why would he have that sort of thought?
What did he mean, "before, being a little kid was so simple"? He clearly IS a little kid right now?
He began to feel flustered, to feel fear, and his arms wrapped around himself without his willing it.
In that moment, what surfaced in his mind was, of all things, a memory from early childhood: sneaking glances at his mother in front of the mirror each morning after she got up.
His mother breathing deeply at the mirror, over and over striving to press something down, as if it might break through the skin and burst out.
Li Zhuiyuan rose, walked to the wardrobe — there was a mirror in the middle of the cabinet doors.
He looked at himself in the mirror and, all at once, felt oddly like a stranger to himself.
He raised his hand, touched the mirror — touched his own face in the mirror.
He began to wonder what sort of person, exactly, lay beneath this face.
He dared not think any further. He turned away, breathing deep again and again, telling himself over and over in his heart: I am Li Zhuiyuan, I am ten years old this year, my grandpa is Li Weihan, my grandma is Cui Guiying, my great-grandpa is Li Sanjiang.
At last he recovered his calm, and the innocence of a child returned to his face.
What he had felt before was a terror in no way lesser than the moment the Cat-Faced Old Woman found him in the kitchen.
Because he had a vague feeling: if he hadn't stopped that line of thought just now — if he had let it keep spreading — then very likely, the next time he looked at himself in the mirror… he would show deep loathing.
Luckily he had strangled it in time — just like his mother, who, after those deep breaths at the mirror, would once again put on her gentle smile.
"Hoo…"
Li Zhuiyuan shrugged and checked the time: half past three in the morning.
Had he actually slept, or not?
He had none of the feeling of having slept, yet he didn't feel sleepy — in fact he felt better than after an ordinary night's rest.
Was it because his consciousness had left his body, letting the body throw itself wholly into rest, without a single stray thought?
Li Zhuiyuan pushed open the door and walked out. The night wind at this hour carried a chill, mixed with some of the damp of the dew and rain the early morning was about to bring.
Downstairs it was already quiet — or rather, it had never been noisy at all.
But he didn't quite dare go down alone to look. Reason's sense of safety could never outweigh the fear of the unknown.
Just then, the window of Great-Grandpa's bedroom was flickering on and off. Though it wasn't flashing the standard distress rhythm of three long and three short, Li Zhuiyuan pushed open the bedroom door at once and went in.
On the bed, Li Sanjiang was bleeding; his left hand gripped the lamp cord by the headboard, yanking it again and again.
His neck hurt so much he couldn't shout, and he was terrified that no one would see — more terrified still that he'd snap the cord, or that the switch would bounce up and jam.
Luckily, he saw Li Zhuiyuan pushing through the door.
"Xiao Yuanhou…"
Before Li Sanjiang could weakly get the call out, he stretched out his hand — and then saw his great-grandson bolt out the door without a moment's hesitation.
Well, he knew the child had gone to call people. But how to put it — Xiao Yuanhou hadn't run to the bedside to ask anxiously and fuss over him a bit, and that left his heart a little hollow.
The consoling words that had just reached his lips — "Great-Grandpa's fine," "Don't cry, Xiao Yuanhou" — had to be swallowed back down unsaid, and it felt stifling.
Li Zhuiyuan ran downstairs, ignoring the fear of the first floor. The lights down there were off, but by moonlight he could see the eastern side of the floor piled full of paper effigies.
Yes — the paper effigies were still there. With one glance Li Zhuiyuan even spotted the Fat Chef standing against the wall.
The vast majority of paper effigies were custom-made in the traditional way, but on that basis, to answer the call of a diversified market, special ones were also made to a family's particular requests.
For instance, if a family worried their departed kin wouldn't eat well down below, they'd burn a cook to send down to him.
And for some old men who had gone early, the old wives — worried that if a young maidservant were burned down, they would have lost their own place by the time they themselves went down — would order crones who looked even older than themselves.
Out on the courtyard, Li Zhuiyuan went straight to the west room and knocked on the door:
"Auntie Liu, Uncle Qin, open up! It's me, Xiao Yuan — something's happened to Great-Grandpa!"
The door opened.
Standing in the doorway was Uncle Qin; behind him Li Zhuiyuan could see Auntie Liu, a broom in her hands, sweeping.
"Xiao Yuan, what's wrong?" Uncle Qin asked.
"My great-grandpa's hurt. He's bleeding a lot. He needs to be taken to the clinic."
"I'm coming — I can stop bleeding and bandage wounds." Auntie Liu dropped the broom, pulled a cloth kit from the cabinet, and rushed out the door, Uncle Qin following right behind.
Li Zhuiyuan glanced at the paper scraps swept into the dustpan, then at Uncle Qin's and Auntie Liu's backs.
Did they not even take off their clothes to sleep at night?
His gaze swept over the east room. She — she should be awake too, right?
But Li Zhuiyuan didn't go knock at the east room. He ran back instead, and passing the pile of paper effigies on the first floor once more, he walked up to the Fat Chef, reached out, and touched it.
At the lightest touch, the Fat Chef fell to pieces, collapsing into a heap on the floor.
And that set off a chain reaction — in an instant, all the paper effigies began to "topple," like a game of felled building blocks.
Soon, the east half of the first floor, which had looked so crowded, became utterly empty, its only remains being scraps of paper and splintered wood strips scattered across the ground.
Li Zhuiyuan wasn't frightened — he wasn't even surprised. Very calmly he stepped over the paper scraps, ignoring the crisp crackle underfoot, and came to the stairs and went up to the second floor.
Back in the bedroom, he saw Auntie Liu already bandaging Great-Grandpa.
A faint herbal smell hung in the air, something like guilinggao, the turtle jelly — so the medicine must have gone on first.
Uncle Qin changed out the blood-soaked mattress pad and bamboo mat, spread clean ones from the cabinet, and lifted the bandaged Li Sanjiang onto the bed.
Seeing Auntie Liu finish and start tidying the cloth kit, Li Zhuiyuan came up and asked: "Auntie Liu, how is my great-grandpa?"
"He lost a good deal of blood, and the wounds aren't light, but they're all external. They've been seen to — no need for the clinic. He just needs to rest and recover."
Li Zhuiyuan looked at Li Sanjiang lying in bed and found that a good deal of color had already returned to the old man's face.
Auntie Liu was looking at Li Sanjiang too. Truthfully, she was also quite astonished. The old man was plainly very advanced in years, yet his qi and blood were abundant — outwardly he looked aged, but at his core he was supremely hale.
Any other old man or woman his age — one careless fall, and they might well be sent off. He had taken this many gashes and lost this much blood, yet it was as if his vitality hadn't been touched at all.
"Xiao Yuan, call us if anything comes up," Uncle Qin said to Li Zhuiyuan.
"Mm, okay. Thank you, Uncle Qin, Auntie Liu."
Uncle Qin and Auntie Liu left. Li Zhuiyuan picked up the tea mug, poured in some hot water, and carried it to Li Sanjiang's bedside.
Li Sanjiang's head rested on the pillow, his right arm dangling across his chest; he took the mug in his left hand and drank it down in little sips.
When he finished, Li Sanjiang let out a sigh. "Xiao Yuanhou, from today on, let's put the fortune-transferring ritual on hold for a while."
"Okay, Great-Grandpa."
"Once your Great-Grandpa's mended, we'll pick it back up."
"Mm." Li Zhuiyuan took the mug back and set it aside. "Actually, there's no need to pick it back up at all, Great-Grandpa."
"You little child, too young to know a thing — don't spout rubbish."
"Okay, I won't say it."
Li Zhuiyuan took off his shoes, climbed onto the bed, came alongside Li Sanjiang, and sat with his back against the headboard rail.
"Go sleep, Xiao Yuanhou. Your Great-Grandpa's fine now."
"Did Auntie Liu not ask how you got hurt?"
"I told them I took a fall."
They just believed that?
Li Zhuiyuan had a great many things he wanted to ask, but he didn't know where to begin — and from the look of it, Li Sanjiang had no intention of saying.
After a long while, Li Zhuiyuan spoke: "Great-Grandpa, how do I learn?"
If in the Little Oriole affair he had been only a dazed boy meeting such things for the first time, then tonight, he had truly felt powerless.
Hearing this, Li Sanjiang thought the boy had finally come awake and meant to buckle down and study.
He even felt secretly smug. So the fortune-transferring array had worked after all — hadn't Xiao Yuanhou turned over a whole new leaf?
Good, very good. As long as the child was willing to strive and learn, a little of his own blood was worth spilling.
Only — Li Sanjiang in his early years had been a wild, feckless one, and later, even though he'd gone off to make his way in Shanghai, it was dealing with rogues and strays of every stripe. In all his life, he had never properly attended school.
He'd learned his characters back then just so he could read the gossip pages in the Shanghai newspapers.
But the shopworn old truths, he could still preach.
"Xiao Yuanhou, don't you go reaching for what's beyond your grasp. Lay your foundations solid first — only then can you walk farther later."
So — he still had to keep reading Jianghu Zhiguai Lu?
"I understand, Great-Grandpa."
"Mm. Understanding isn't enough — you have to do it. Steady and solid, one step at a time; only then will there be achievement someday. Don't be like your Great-Grandpa: in my youth, everything I did was one hammer-blow here, one club-swing there, all over the place, and only when I got old did the regret come."
"Great-Grandpa's done plenty of amazing things too, though."
Li Zhuiyuan looked at Li Sanjiang, bandage marks all over his body, and a guess formed in his heart. That jiangshi — could it be connected to Great-Grandpa?
First, Great-Grandpa was the only one in the house who had been injured. Second, the spots bandaged most heavily on him matched, to a striking degree, the areas where the Old Woman had struck the jiangshi.
So —
was this some method that Great-Grandpa had used?
"Ha! Your Great-Grandpa's impressive skills are plenty. So, boy, you'd better study hard — one day you're sure to do better for yourself than your Great-Grandpa did."
Li Sanjiang didn't mean the unorthodox trade. What he prided himself on was his knack for running a livelihood and living comfortably. As for the unorthodox trade… he didn't even understand whether he counted as having entered it at all, so he simply ignored the matter.
"Mm, I know."
Li Zhuiyuan believed that as long as he kept reading, he would find out just what method Great-Grandpa had used today.
Just then, Li Sanjiang began to snore. He had bled; he was tired; he had fallen asleep.
Li Zhuiyuan picked up the thin quilt beside him and gently covered his great-grandfather's belly, then closed his own eyes as well.
As if he'd taken another little nap — when Li Zhuiyuan woke, it was light outside.
He climbed around the still sound-asleep Li Sanjiang, got off the bed, and went out to wash up.
While brushing his teeth, he looked, out of habit, toward the east room.
Behind the east room sat the little girl. Today she wore a red dress, her feet resting on the doorsill.
Beside her, Grandma Liu was combing her hair.
Li Zhuiyuan smiled, and his heart brightened a little. He picked up his washbasin and went back inside.
As he left the terrace edge, Qin Liang raised her head and looked over.
"Hm?" Liu Yumei lifted the comb away. "Did Grandma pull and hurt you?"
Qin Liang took her gaze back, looked straight ahead, and said nothing.
Liu Yumei went on combing, saying with a smile: "You played an awfully long time last night. Can you tell Grandma what was so fun?"
Qin Liang didn't answer.
Out on the courtyard, Auntie Liu began setting out the wooden stools and getting breakfast ready.
Washed and tidy, Li Zhuiyuan came down the stairs to find the first floor swept clean and empty.
When he reached the courtyard, Auntie Liu smiled at him: "Xiao Yuan, breakfast."
"Okay, Auntie Liu."
Li Zhuiyuan sat down. On the wooden stool lay a bowl of white congee and a salted duck egg.
"What are you doing staring blankly here instead of eating?" Auntie Liu set down a bowl of jellied fish.
"I'm still muddle-headed from sleep."
"It's good to be young — eat well, sleep well." Auntie Liu walked off, smiling.
Li Zhuiyuan silently picked up his chopsticks. He remembered that at last night's tail banquet, the Cat-Faced Old Woman had sent people to call the hosting family: the Fat Chef had gone upstairs, and several paper-effigy grannies had run out to call at the east and west rooms.
Great-Grandpa had been hurt and bleeding — yet they acted as if nothing at all had happened.
Li Zhuiyuan picked up a piece of the jellied fish with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth. It melted on the tongue, studded with soybeans and chili, wonderfully fragrant — a perfect match for congee.
Just then, from not far off, Grandma Liu came over leading Qin Liang by the hand. Qin Liang sat down; Grandma Liu squatted beside her and began the daily pre-meal "prayer."
Today she hadn't put her hair up in a bun. Her smooth hair fell loose over her shoulders, and against the red dress she looked both lively and dignified.
Thinking of how silly she had looked in last night's dream, Li Zhuiyuan couldn't help laughing out loud.
Some people really do have that kind of special charm. She needn't know how to do anything at all — she didn't even need to speak. She only had to stand there, and you could take one look at her and feel delight at once.
It was like that exquisite, finely made vase he had once seen with his mother in a museum storeroom, fresh from the earth.
As if she'd heard the laughter, Qin Liang turned her head and looked at Li Zhuiyuan eating across from her.
Liu Yumei, in the middle of her persuading, looked over too, puzzled.
Li Zhuiyuan was faintly startled. What — interactions from last night's dream could carry over into the waking day?
Li Zhuiyuan pointed at the congee bowl before her and called softly: "Eat."
Qin Liang lowered her head, picked up her chopsticks, and began sorting the various pickles and the cut salted duck egg into categories; then, matched against the congee, she began her meal.
Liu Yumei's eyes went wide — she looked like a woman who'd seen a ghost.
Qin Liang ate even faster than Li Zhuiyuan. By the time he set down his own chopsticks, she was already back inside, seated on the doorsill.
Auntie Liu's figure appeared in a flash — this time she beat him to collecting the bowls and chopsticks.
"Thanks, Auntie Liu."
"Next time, just leave them here when you're done and I'll collect them. You wouldn't want to get your Auntie Liu fired, would you?"
"I understand, Auntie Liu."
"Xiao Yuan, come make tea for Grandma." Liu Yumei's call came over.
She was sitting in a bamboo recliner, a tea set on the side table beside her.
Li Zhuiyuan walked over. As he did, Qin Liang, seated on the doorsill, followed him with her eyes.
Liu Yumei noticed. She lifted a hand, signaling Li Zhuiyuan to stop.
He stopped, and looked toward Qin Liang as well. He began to step backward — and Qin Liang's gaze went on following him.
Liu Yumei stared at Li Zhuiyuan with a scrutinizing eye.
"Grandma, still making tea?"
"Make it."
Li Zhuiyuan came over and set about making the tea.
Liu Yumei kept her attention on her granddaughter. The girl was looking this way. Ha — it had been ages, being caught in her granddaughter's gaze again, and she had this boy beside her to thank for it.
"Xiao Yuan…"
"Grandma…"
The two spoke at once, and both paused. Just as Liu Yumei decided not to yield and to go on speaking, she heard Li Zhuiyuan's quicker tongue:
"Grandma, why do you live at my Great-Grandpa's place?"
Liu Yumei smiled. "Just scraping out a living, that's all."
"But you don't lack for a living — you're rich. This tea set, and the jade thumb ring you said yesterday you'd give me — they could already buy a house in the capital."
Then Li Zhuiyuan added: "Though the big wave in the antiques market hasn't come yet. Selling in ten years would be the better deal."
The collection-loving grandparents of the work-unit family compound had started ten years back, sounding out news and quietly buying up old objects in the hutongs and alleys — but they only bought, never sold, saying these were antiques of a prosperous age: hold them some years, then sell, or leave them to the grandchildren.
"Xiao Yuan, you even know antiques?" Then Liu Yumei straightened up slightly, her face going serious. "Did your Great-Grandpa tell you?"
The antiques trade runs on trained eyes and stored-up knowledge. How old was the child before her? Liu Yumei would never believe he could judge it himself.
Li Zhuiyuan shook his head.
Never mind the collections the grandparents in the compound loved to show off — tagging along with his mother through the museums of the capital, he had seen more antiques than anything else. And many true treasures were never put on public display.
"Xiao Yuan, Grandma lives here because the air here is good, the climate is good — good for A-Li's illness."
"Oh, I see. And Grandma, what was it you were about to ask?"
Liu Yumei was a little taken aback. He just believed that?
She asked: "Then why is A-Li watching you?"
Li Zhuiyuan said, a little shy: "Maybe I looked at her too many times these past few days. She feels shortchanged, so she wants to look back and even the score."
Liu Yumei: "…"
Sure enough — the child hadn't believed a word she'd just said.
"Grandma, your tea."
"Mm."
Old one and young one sipped their tea. The light turning in the tea was nothing but wits.
When the tea was finished, Li Zhuiyuan meant to go read. He went first to the toilet behind the house, and both passing and returning by the east room he greeted Qin Liang; she gave him a full staring salute.
Before he even reached the main house, Great-Grandpa's hoarse roar came up from the first floor:
"What is this, what is this? Where are my paper effigies? Where have they gone?!"
Li Zhuiyuan watched his great-grandfather fly into such a rage that he all but bounded off the ground, stamping his feet without pause once he came down.
Auntie Liu came over and said: "A little rain fell last night. It blew in, and the whole lot was ruined."
Li Sanjiang frowned. "What?"
Li Zhuiyuan said: "Great-Grandpa, you can get out of bed already?"
"Of course — your Great-Grandpa's body is hale and hearty… no, wait. We're talking about the paper effigies. How exactly did this happen?"
Li Zhuiyuan: "Auntie Liu's got it right. The rain blew in."
"This…" Li Sanjiang's mouth hung open. "This, this, this…"
Auntie Liu said: "Uncle, it's all right. Qin Li and I will hurry and stay up nights remaking them. The delivery won't be affected."
"The delivery isn't the point — it's the materials…" Li Sanjiang choked with vexation. The loss to his paper-effigy stock hurt more than the gashes in his own body did.
He had money — this house, these tables and chairs and bowls and dishes, this paper-effigy workshop… but he saved nothing, living wide and easy. With a whole storeroom of goods suddenly gone, money was bound to get tight.
"Xiao Yuanhou, run an errand to Blind Liu for your Great-Grandpa. Ask her whether she's worked out the date for Niu Fu's mother's posthumous birthday yet. If she hasn't, tell her to get it done quick."
"Eh?" Li Zhuiyuan froze for a beat. Seeing that Auntie Liu had already left to fetch raw materials, he walked up to Li Sanjiang: "Great-Grandpa, you're in this state, and you're still going to do the posthumous birthday?"
"Isn't it exactly because I'm in this state that I have to go all the more!"
"With your body like this now — what if you run into some danger at the Niu family's…"
"What use is a body if there's no money to spend?"
For a moment, Li Zhuiyuan had no idea how to answer.
"Xiao Yuanhou, this Great-Grandpa has always lived this kind of life. A rotten life like mine earned its cost back long ago — but I'll not be strapped for cash. Be good, listen: go pass the word for your Great-Grandpa. And one more thing I'll tell you. This job isn't just me and Blind Liu. Your Great-Grandpa has also called in a fellow of the trade — heh heh. I reckon he'll arrive tomorrow, and that old fellow, together with the young one of his house, is formidable indeed. And remember this: you must not tell Blind Liu how I am right now. She's timid — if she knew, I'm afraid she'd shrink away!"
Li Zhuiyuan nodded, and could only go make the trip to Liu Jinxia's home.
Cuicui's grandma on her father's side — that is, Cuicui's father's mother — was ill and in the hospital; Li Juxiang had taken Cuicui to the health center to visit her, so neither was home.
Liu Jinxia had set out a bridge table since morning; when Li Zhuiyuan arrived she was having a fine time.
Hearing the message Li Zhuiyuan passed on, Liu Jinxia shook the ash off her cigarette and said: "The day after tomorrow — the very day after tomorrow. The morning of the day after, we go together to Niu Fu's house in Shigang."
Li Zhuiyuan: "Granny Liu, isn't that a little rushed?"
"Rushed? The sooner the job is done, the sooner the silver comes in, heh heh heh. Besides, with your Great-Grandpa there, what is there to worry about?"
If you knew what state Great-Grandpa was in right now, you wouldn't think that way.
Li Zhuiyuan went home and reported the date to Li Sanjiang.
"Good. Good, good, good."
Li Sanjiang, lying in the rattan chair on the second-floor terrace, happily slapped his thigh and reached out to give a pull on the rope beside the wall. At the rope's top end hung a black wooden box nailed to the wall.
First came some hissing like falling snow; after another pull, the voice of a storyteller came through.
Li Sanjiang closed his eyes, lit a cigarette, and listened to the storytelling between drags. Battered with wounds as his body was, an unconstrained, devil-may-care air still showed on him.
As if sensing that Li Zhuiyuan was still standing beside him, Li Sanjiang said:
"Xiao Yuanhou, this is the life your Great-Grandpa chose for himself. Whatever work is dangerous, that's the work I do. Why? Because the work isn't tiring, and the pay is fat. That, right there, is your Great-Grandpa's lot."
Li Zhuiyuan nodded. He took out Volume 5 of Jianghu Zhiguai Lu, walked to the southeast corner of the terrace, sat down, and began to study.
As before, every time he turned a page he would lift his head and glance down at the girl below.
He found that the girl was also looking up at him.
Very nice. Eye contact was easier on the eyes still.
Only, as he went on watching, Li Zhuiyuan discovered that every time he raised his head to look down, their eyes would meet.
Even Grandma Liu downstairs followed her granddaughter's line of sight upward.
So every time Li Zhuiyuan wanted to feast his eyes, he had to take in a glance of Grandma Liu along with it, and the eye-feeding turned rather strange.
So, from then on, until he had finished this Volume 5, Li Zhuiyuan did not look down again.
He went inside, brought out Volume 6, and after sitting down, looked down: Grandma Liu had already taken the chair nearby and was reading a newspaper, but Qin Liang still held that upward-gazing posture.
She wasn't going to keep her head tipped up like this the whole time, was she?
This gave Li Zhuiyuan a twinge of guilt, and while he read, a faint restlessness kept him from settling fully.
Grandma Liu, reading her newspaper downstairs, had in fact been watching the terrace from the corner of her eye all along. Seeing the child pop his head out at ever more erratic intervals, she gave an inward snort:
So this is men. Conscience-easy when free to come and go as they please; restless the moment responsibility ties them down.
But soon, Liu Yumei put down her newspaper in shock — because she saw Li Zhuiyuan come running down from upstairs. Passing in front of her he gave her a smile, then walked straight toward her granddaughter.
"You—"
Before the words could leave Liu Yumei's mouth, she saw the boy actually bend down, meaning to take her granddaughter's hand.
"Dangerous—"
Liu Yumei knew all too well what terrible reactions her granddaughter had to being touched by outsiders — this boy would be scratched until his head ran with blood. Even she, the girl's own grandmother, dared not make any overly affectionate gesture.
Then, with a scrape, Liu Yumei sprang to her feet — she had actually just seen the boy take her granddaughter's hand, and her granddaughter stand up along with him.
This was… what on earth?
This morning, when her granddaughter had stared at the boy, she had even made a point of using the tea-making to get close for a good look — to see whether some unclean thing hung on him, drawing her granddaughter's gaze.
But an interaction like this was already beyond Liu Yumei's understanding.
Li Zhuiyuan held Qin Liang's hand. It was warm, and soft.
"Your neck will get tired if you keep looking up like that. Come up and keep me company while I read, all right?"
Qin Liang looked at Li Zhuiyuan and said nothing.
"If you don't speak, I'll take it as a yes."
Li Zhuiyuan bent down, picked up the stool Qin Liang was sitting on, and led her by the hand toward the house.
Liu Yumei made no sound to stop them. Quite the opposite: once the first shock passed, watching the backs of the boy and girl walking off hand in hand, her eyes at once welled with tears.
She pressed her hand over her mouth, terrified that the sob in her voice would slip out.
She even bit down on her own elbow with her teeth, to confirm that this was no dream.
"Bang!"
In the first-floor room, Auntie Liu, busy making paper effigies, dropped the whole basin of paste in her hands; it splashed the floor far and wide. Luckily Great-Grandpa was up on the second floor — otherwise he'd be hopping with heartache all over again.
"Craaack—"
Uncle Qin, in the middle of fitting together the frame of a paper house, snapped its beam clean in two.
The two looked at each other, each sure their eyes had deceived them. What had they just seen? A-Li, led by an outsider's hand, walking up the stairs together?
They dropped their work at once, ran out to the courtyard and, not seeing Liu Yumei, went on to the east room — where Liu Yumei stood before the memorial tablets, weeping for joy:
"Did you see it? Did you see it? Our A-Li, our A-Li…"
…
Li Sanjiang, listening to the radio storyteller, was humming a little tune. He leaned sideways for his tea mug and had just taken a mouthful of water when he saw Li Zhuiyuan walking out of the stairwell hand in hand with Qin Liang.
"Pfft!"
The water in Li Sanjiang's mouth sprayed straight out.
"Great-Grandpa, want me to top up your water?"
Seeing Li Zhuiyuan leading Qin Liang straight toward him, Li Sanjiang waved his hands at once:
"No, no, no — no need! You take her with you, keep her away from me! No, hold on — you're also…"
Li Zhuiyuan led Qin Liang to the southeast corner and set down the stool.
"Sit."
Qin Liang sat down.
Li Zhuiyuan sat back in the rattan chair and picked up his book. He had barely turned one page when he felt something was off, and got up again: "Stand up a moment."
Qin Liang stood. Li Zhuiyuan moved her little stool aside, replaced it with a slightly taller one — the stool Sister Ying Zi had carried up yesterday — and set it at his own side.
"Sit."
Qin Liang looked at the new stool and did not sit.
Li Zhuiyuan was a little puzzled, but then, as if something had occurred to him, he wiped the stool with his own sleeve:
"Sit. It's clean now."
Qin Liang sat down.
Li Zhuiyuan set the book on the wooden stool as well, no longer hugging it to read lying back.
The two of them sat very close, heads nearly touching.
Qin Liang's gaze stayed on him, and he too, while reading, could keep the girl's face within his field of view.
The girl's hair was lifted by the wind now and then, brushing against his face; her fragrance lingered without pause at the tip of his nose.
The feeling was very strange.
Reading and eye-feeding going on at once —
Li Zhuiyuan felt he had found the highest-efficiency way to read.
From far off, Li Sanjiang went from terror, to fear, to worry, to sheer disbelief…
After watching for a long while, and confirming that the girl would only sit there obediently, staring at his great-grandson, with no danger arising, his eyes… showed approval!
This Xiao Yuanhou really wasn't the same as his mother had been at that age.
Back in school, Li Lan had often received love letters. That girl's response was to carry every love letter she received straight to the principal's office desk.
That day, goodness knew how many boys had their parents summoned to school; the principal's office rang with the crack of whips and the smack of palms.
"Not bad, very good. Our Xiao Yuanhou is smarter and sharper from the cradle than his mother was back then, heh heh."
Li Sanjiang closed his eyes and went back to his storytelling.
Toward noon, Li Zhuiyuan felt an urge to relieve himself — probably from all the tea he'd drunk with Grandma Liu that morning. He asked Qin Liang:
"Do you need the toilet?"
Qin Liang said nothing.
"Then sit here. I'll go and come right back."
No response.
Li Zhuiyuan got up and ran downstairs, around behind the house. The great vegetable garden at the back would normally have been fair ground for marking wherever he pleased — but he had barely come to a stop when he heard footsteps behind him. He turned his head and found Qin Liang.
She had followed him.
"Uh…"
He could only betray the teachings of Brother Pan Zi and Brother Lei Zi: he turned, lifted the curtain, and stepped into the outhouse.
He had barely come to a stop again when the curtain lifted — she came in too.
Li Zhuiyuan had no choice but to lead her out of the outhouse. "I came here to relieve myself. If you follow me in, I can't go. Stand right here and wait for me to come out — okay?"
No response.
He lifted the curtain again and went in. He waited a while; hearing no sound of the curtain lifting, only then did he undo his waistband.
Beside the outhouse stood a water vat. He scooped water with the ladle, washed his hands, and came out — and saw Qin Liang, obediently standing in place this time.
"Do you need the toilet? How about you go now too."
Qin Liang walked toward the outhouse and lifted the curtain — but her hand was caught. She stopped, turned back to look at Li Zhuiyuan, puzzlement in her eyes.
The same puzzlement as last night at the banquet table, when Li Zhuiyuan told her to eat and then wouldn't let her eat.
Li Zhuiyuan was a little worried — could she use the toilet by herself? Going by how Grandma Liu cared for her every day…
In short, he knew very little about Qin Liang. He only knew that… she was pretty.
Li Zhuiyuan was about to go find Grandma Liu and ask — but when he looked up toward the passage, he saw Liu Yumei's head poking out.
"Grandma Liu…"
"Our A-Li can eat by herself, use the toilet by herself, bathe by herself. Our A-Li is just like any normal person."
"Okay." Li Zhuiyuan nodded and let go of her hand.
Qin Liang went into the outhouse.
Li Zhuiyuan stayed where he was, feeling Liu Yumei's burning gaze sweeping over him, again and again.
"Xiao Yuan."
"Grandma Liu."
"Just keep taking our A-Li out to play. Keep taking her to play."
"Okay, Grandma Liu."
The sound of hand-washing came from the outhouse, and then Qin Liang came out, both hands held out before her.
Grandma Liu hurried to remind her: "Wipe your hands, wipe your hands."
"Oh."
Li Zhuiyuan stepped forward, took Qin Liang's hands, and wiped them on the front of his own top.
"There. All clean."
Qin Liang drew her hands back.
On the way back up to the second floor, leading her along, Li Zhuiyuan fetched a clean towel and draped it over his own shoulder.
Back at the northeast corner of the terrace, Li Zhuiyuan sat down to read, and once Qin Liang sat, that pretty face came into his line of sight.
Volume 6, finished.
Li Zhuiyuan stretched, then stood, walked to an open patch, and solemnly performed the National Middle-School Students' Radio Calisthenics.
He had just finished and taken out Volume 7 when Auntie Liu's call came up from downstairs: lunch.
Li Zhuiyuan and Qin Liang went down.
Li Sanjiang ate apart from that household; this time was no exception. Qin Liang was led over there by Grandma Liu.
Once Li Sanjiang was seated, he took out the bottle of baijiu.
"Great-Grandpa, you're injured. You can't drink."
"Bah — your Great-Grandpa's half in the grave already. Every extra drink is pure profit."
Ignoring his great-grandson's counsel, Li Sanjiang poured himself a cup full to the brim. He had barely taken a mouthful and lifted his chopsticks to grab a bite of food to press it down when he saw a figure suddenly walk over.
It was Qin Liang.
Behind her came Liu Yumei, and Auntie Liu who had followed along.
"I'm sorry — everything was ready on our side and we were just sitting down to eat when A-Li ran off from the table."
"Come, A-Li, go back and eat with Grandma first. Once you've eaten, you can go play with Xiao Yuan."
Qin Liang wasn't pulled along. She simply stood there, looking at Li Zhuiyuan.
And with every tug of Liu Yumei's, her eyelashes began to twitch, her body to tremble, little by little.
Liu Yumei could only let go, not daring to pull again.
Apart from his grudge against the four white-eyed wolves of Li Weihan's household, Li Sanjiang was no petty man. He waved a hand: "Let the girl eat here. Add a pair of chopsticks."
"Then thank you." Liu Yumei hurried to thank him. "Sorry for the trouble."
Li Sanjiang waved his hand. "Not at all. The two little ones get along and can play together — that's good. Each has a playmate; it spares the loneliness."
Auntie Liu brought bowls and chopsticks and a little stool.
Li Zhuiyuan took the towel from his shoulder and wiped the stool for her: "Come sit and eat with us."
Qin Liang didn't move.
Liu Yumei: "A-Li, come sit down and eat with us."
Qin Liang still didn't sit. But she turned herself sideways toward Li Sanjiang — though she wasn't looking at him, the meaning was plain.
She didn't want to eat with Li Sanjiang.
Li Sanjiang had been raising his cup for a drink; seeing this posture, he said, a little at a loss:
"Then… shall I go?"
Liu Yumei said nothing. Inwardly she rejoiced: her granddaughter was actually expressing emotion now — and not through one of those frenzies.
Li Zhuiyuan didn't answer either. He silently wiped the little stool down once more.
Li Sanjiang smacked his lips. "Heh. Heh heh heh. Oh, forget it. Ting Hou, divide out the dishes for me — I'll sit over there."
"Oh — yes, yes, thank you, Uncle. Truly, sorry for the trouble."
Auntie Liu portioned out the dishes at once and set up a separate table for Li Sanjiang in another spot.
At last Qin Liang sat down.
Liu Yumei looked at Li Zhuiyuan, full of expectation: "Xiao Yuan, tell A-Li to eat."
It had been like this in the morning too. Every time, she herself had to coax patiently for ages — and one sentence from this boy, and her A-Li ate.
"One moment." Li Zhuiyuan got up and ran to the kitchen.
Qin Liang too was about to rise — but then Li Zhuiyuan came back carrying four little saucers and one small bowl.
Li Zhuiyuan portioned the dishes, picking each into its own little saucer, then ladled soup into the small bowl.
In Qin Liang's eyes, it seemed, a little more brightness appeared.
Watching this scene, Liu Yumei felt a touch of curiosity.
Li Zhuiyuan: "All right — eat."
Qin Liang picked up her chopsticks and began to eat.
One pick of food from each saucer, one bite of rice, working down the line; after she had gone through the row of saucers, she took a sip of soup, then began the cycle again.
Liu Yumei was astonished: her granddaughter seemed, this time, to be eating with ease — even with a trace of girlish relish.
"You can do it like that?"
Li Zhuiyuan smiled. Everything left in the serving plates was his, and he started eating too.
Thanks to his old desk-mate at school being a severe case of compulsive order, he naturally knew how to get along with this kind of person.
Qin Liang ate fast. On the last round, every saucer was emptied with the final pick of food, the soup was finished with the last sip, and the rice was used up exactly.
She set down her chopsticks.
Li Zhuiyuan took the towel, folded it over, and wiped the corners of her mouth and her hands. The towel was large; it could be divided into many functional zones.
After the meal, Li Zhuiyuan took Qin Liang back to the terrace to read.
Of this Jianghu Zhiguai Lu, he was reading faster and faster. By dusk he had reached Volume 12.
He felt that tomorrow this pace could be pushed up another notch. In a few days he would have finished the beginner's encyclopedia — and then he could go treasure-hunting in the basement boxes again.
In between, when he drank water, he gave Qin Liang water; when he went to the toilet, he took Qin Liang to the toilet.
He wasn't much of one for snacks, but afraid she might get hungry, he opened a few bags of snacks and shared them with her.
Every time afterward he wiped her hands for her — and the towel, because he used it himself too, grew dirtier and dirtier.
Li Sanjiang grumbled, a little disgruntled, asking why Ying Zi hadn't come to give him his lesson today.
Li Zhuiyuan figured his sister must be at home digesting the problems he had helped her solve yesterday.
But Li Sanjiang reckoned Ying Zi had found Li Zhuiyuan too hard to tutor, and was unwilling to come anymore.
Dinner: once again Li Sanjiang ate alone at his own table.
This time, Liu Yumei had portioned the dishes into little saucers for her granddaughter in advance — but when Qin Liang sat down, she did not pick up her chopsticks.
Li Zhuiyuan took his own chopsticks and fine-tuned the amount in each little saucer.
Qin Liang picked up her chopsticks and began to eat.
Liu Yumei: "A-Li, Grandma was careless — I didn't control the portions."
Inwardly, the old lady: hmph — as if Grandma doesn't remember just how much you eat in one bite! This girl, doing it on purpose!
But the old lady felt no resentment, only joy — because all of these were good signs. It wasn't her throwing tantrums she feared; it was her shutting herself away like a block of wood, as before. That would be true despair.
Liu Yumei turned her head to look at Li Sanjiang, sitting alone drinking his gloomy cups, then at Li Zhuiyuan before her, and marveled in her heart:
After living here so long — had her run of good fortune finally come?
After dinner, Li Zhuiyuan didn't plan to read by lamplight at night. He had read rather a lot today and felt tired; he meant to go bathe and sleep.
Looking at Qin Liang, who still wanted to follow him, he said, earnestly:
"A-Li, you go wash up and sleep, and I need to sleep too. Tomorrow we'll read together again — all right?"
Qin Liang said nothing.
Li Zhuiyuan turned toward the stairs — then stopped and looked back. She hadn't followed him; she had obediently gone off with Liu Yumei toward the east room. Only then did he set his mind at ease and go upstairs to bathe.
After his bath, Li Zhuiyuan meant to take that dirty towel out and give it a proper scrubbing — and found that the towel that had hung on his shoulder all along was gone.
"Did I leave it somewhere?"
…
In the east room, watching her granddaughter, washed and ready, lie down on the bed to sleep, Liu Yumei's old heart was greatly comforted.
Smiling, she walked out of the inner bedroom and came to the shrine of memorial tablets.
She had a great many things she wanted to say today — to A-Li's grandpa, to A-Li's maternal grandparents, and to A-Li's mom and dad.
She had guarded her for so long, and now at last she had hope of recovery. Surely they, and all the ancestors in their ranks, would be glad of it.
After all, A-Li was, here and now, the sole remaining heir's bloodline of the two families, Qin and Liu.
Sitting down before the tablets, Liu Yumei was just about to open the conversation when she suddenly noticed that something about this six-tier tablet rack seemed wrong.
By rights, no one could have touched this place. There were only so many people in the house, and when Qin Li and Liu Ting cleaned, they would never dare lay a hand here.
But what exactly was wrong?
Liu Yumei looked the rack over top to bottom, carefully, several times — and at last found the blind spot hidden right beneath the lamp.
On the third tier, in the very middle position, the tablet that had belonged to A-Li's grandpa — her own husband — was gone!
In its place,
folded into a small square and set there…
a dirty towel.
Chapter 12