Chapter 21 Old Man Zhang

  I let out a loud cry and sat up with a start, looking at my old mother beside me. It turned out to be just a dream! My mother helped me wipe away the cold sweat on my forehead, her face tense with worry as she asked: "Son, what's wrong? Did you have a nightmare?" I hastily hugged her, saying: "Yeah, I had a weird dream, it scared me to death." My mother gently patted my back and whispered in my ear: "Silly child, whatever is in your dreams will always be there. You can't escape! You can't escape!" Her voice became eerily shrill towards the end.

  I was shocked and immediately pushed her away, only to see my mother's face begin to distort and transform, finally turning into a green three-eyed ghost face!

  Just as I was stunned, she pounced on me fiercely, a pair of ghostly hands with long black fingernails grasped my neck tightly! "Wang Can, Wang Can!" "Son, wake up, son..." With all my might, I suddenly opened my eyes wide, and the dazzling light made my eyes dizzy. Looking at the faces of my parents in front of me, cold sweat broke out on my forehead, thinking: Is this still a dream? At that moment, I suddenly felt a piercing pain in my left arm! I quickly lifted up the quilt, and as soon as we three saw it, we were shocked to tremble all over! That three-eyed ghost face had grown bigger overnight!

  It grew over 10 centimeters overnight! It's already grown from my shoulders to my arms! My parents were also frightened, and we quickly put on our clothes to go find that Second Uncle. As I was hastily putting on my clothes, I thought to myself: This old swindler is just a charlatan! All the bowing and burning of paper and incense last night was all for nothing!

  After seeing the second uncle, he was also confused, only to see him carefully examining a ghost face for half a day, and finally sighed: "Ah, it seems that our child has offended something in that temple!"

  The three of us were left speechless after hearing this, it was a bunch of nonsense. Just as we were at a loss for what to do, a middle-aged woman with a plump body and big buttocks walked in, swaying her hips. I took one look and recognized her - wasn't she my aunt's older sister? This woman was notorious for having a foul mouth, anything that came out of it would instantly turn sour.

  She squeezed into the house with her stout body, and gave me a glance. I took one look at her and knew that she was going to say something unpleasant. And indeed, she said: "Oh my, I'm telling you, Xiaocan, what kind of bad things have you done? Why can't you make amends no matter how many times you kowtow and burn incense? I know it now, did you speak ill of our ancestors? That's why they're blaming us! You don't understand anything, do you?" After finishing speaking, she shook her head with a sigh.

  Your grandfather's, you've done something bad! If it weren't for my little brother calling you "Auntie", I would have beaten you up! Just as I was scolding her in my heart, my old man suddenly got angry. Only to see my dad slap the table: "I'm telling you, sister, can't you say something good? My kid is a bit mischievous, but he'll never do anything bad, doesn't this father know that?"

  The old lady quickly pulled the old man over and he finally sat down, still huffing. The old lady smiled at the woman: "Sister, since the child has gotten into this trouble, he's not feeling well in his heart. You mustn't take it to heart, he's just got a bad temper, don't bother with him." After saying that, she pretended to glare at the old man.

  After being scolded by her father-in-law, the woman's face was already a bit unbearable, but her mother-in-law gave her an excuse to save face. She sat down on the chair and said in a nasal tone: "I didn't mean anything else, I'm also worried about the kids, who doesn't want to solve the problem early and let our children be good?"

  You still dare to speak! I coldly sneered in my heart. Just then, the woman suddenly turned her eyes and said: "Hey, do you think it's possible that there's something strange about the old man's box of things?"

  As soon as I heard her finish speaking, my heart skipped a beat: that piece of stone with a dark glow!

  As I thought of this, I hastily pulled out the strange stone from my pocket and saw that it was now emitting a faint black glow. After telling them about how I got it, Dad scolded me severely at the time, then stretched out his hand to take the stone. I quickly dodged and said to Dad: "Dad, I just touched this thing and made a ghost face, you must not move, we can't both be affected!" Dad rubbed his hands helplessly and kept sighing.

  My second uncle looked at the stone in my hand and rolled his eyes. After about half a day, the old man finally spoke up and said: "You kid, oh! It's done, there's no use regretting it now. If this box of things or this stone really is the problem, then I think we should go find someone to ask!"

  Everyone asked him who he was looking for. The old man twirled his beard and said, "This person's surname is Zhang, named Zhang Shouyi, he's the oldest in our area, calculating his age, he's probably over a hundred years old now. I think maybe he can recognize the child's great-grandfather. Let's try our luck!"

  This old man named Zhang Shouyi lives not far from us, and it only takes a 20-minute drive to get there. Along the way, the old man briefly introduced himself to us. It turned out that before liberation, his family was a well-known large landlord in the suburbs of this city, but unfortunately, after liberation, the campaign to overthrow the landlords and evil gentry took away all their property. Later, with the emergence of the Red Guards, this old man's family completely fell from power.

  The old man's house was easy to find, three dilapidated tile-roofed houses with weeds growing on the walls. My father held the gift and respectfully knocked on the door, which was opened by a middle-aged man. This man looked at us in surprise, I reckon their family hadn't had any guests for a long time.

  My second uncle explained our intention to the man, especially emphasizing that we were descendants of Wang Sigou. But unexpectedly, after listening, the man said he didn't dare make a decision and told us to wait. Before we could react, he slammed the door shut with a loud bang!

  I was indignant in my heart, thinking how could this be? Your family is already so poor and broken, yet you still put on such a pretentious show? But since we came to ask for help, I didn't dare to make any mistakes. So I just quietly waited on the side. After about 5 minutes, I heard a creaking sound, and the door finally opened again. The man nodded at us: "The old master said that only the descendants of the Wang family can enter, others are not allowed to meet him!" He then stepped aside with his head lowered.

  What a weird old man, but since he can see us, it means we've come to the right place, this old fellow must know my grandfather! As I spoke, my father and uncle walked into the courtyard with me, while others stayed outside.

  Without any ado, we directly entered the middle house and saw an old man who was sitting steadily on a high-legged armchair. My father and uncle hurried to greet him, and I also bowed to him respectfully under my father's instruction.

  After a minute of silence, the old man finally raised his eyelids: "I said you kids are descendants of Wang Sigou? Good, good. In that case, Shuwen should be your father?"

  When the old man asked, Lao Die hastily replied with a smile: "Old man, what you said is absolutely right, Wang Shuwen is indeed my father."

  The old man finally showed a hint of a smile: "Good, good, Tree Wen has become the master, time really flies! Hehe..." ?? Si Xiao Yin Men 21

  I heard him call me "grandpa's kid" and I thought it was hilarious, but in this situation, I didn't dare laugh out loud because if I did, I'd probably end up crying. We chatted for a bit, and after the old man had finished being sentimental, he turned to the middle-aged man and said: "Don't you see we have guests? Hurry up and serve tea, what's wrong with you?" The middle-aged man responded with a "yes" and then walked out.

  As soon as I saw the old man's demeanor, I thought to myself: This old fellow is quite something! He must have been a tyrannical and overbearing person in his youth, or how else could he have become like this now, still exuding an air of intimidation? The old man waved his hand for us to sit down and asked, "It's been many years since I've seen Shuwen, is he doing all right now?"

  When he asked about my grandfather, the three of us felt a little sad in our hearts. My uncle sighed and said to him: "My father... has passed away."

  "Ah, I didn't expect it to be like this." After finishing speaking, the old man fell silent for another minute. Until the middle-aged person brought over a few bowls of hot tea, the old man finally came back to his senses: "Children, actually, we're not outsiders. In terms of generation, you two should also call me 'grandfather', and that little brat should call me 'great-grandfather'. Not for anything else, just because your grandfather Wang Sigui is my fourth brother!"

  This is really unexpected! We just thought it would be good if the old man could recognize my great-grandfather, but we didn't expect their relationship to be so close. So, my father and uncle quickly got up, gave the old man a bow, and respectfully called out: "Grandfather." As for me, I also kowtowed on the ground and gave the old man a loud bow, calling out: "Great-grandfather."

  This call, people seem to be closer. The old man was delighted, his eyelashes opened, and he ordered the middle-aged person to cook, saying that we should stay here for dinner. So we coaxed him with a smile, calling him "Grandpa" this and "Grandpa" that. Later, my father mentioned our purpose, and the old man listened and smiled slightly: "The things in that box, I know, the Qinghua porcelain plate inside was given to Shuwen by me."

  We were all stunned after hearing this, and didn't expect him to be involved in this matter! My father saw that the conversation had reached this point, so he told my grandfather about the ghost face on my body. After listening, my grandfather's eyes widened in surprise. I quickly took out the stone from my pocket and let my grandfather take a look. This old man stared at the stone for over ten seconds, and finally shook his head and sighed.

  Suddenly, the old man slapped the table: "You little turtle grandson, we risked our lives to destroy that thing back then, and your great-grandfather died holding this stone. How did you dare bring it up again?"

  We didn't expect the old man to react so strongly, his loud shout scared everyone in the house. The old man was pounding his chest and stomping his feet, scolding: "Wang Shuwen this little bastard, doesn't listen to me! I told him that stone can't be kept, can't be kept! Who knew he would hide it, if I had known earlier, I wouldn't have given it to him!" After scolding, the old man glared at his wife with a fierce look and started panting heavily.

  We were all frightened, and hurriedly called out to the old man, who was massaging his chest and back. After a few minutes, he finally began to recover. He waved at us, indicating that he was fine. Once he had calmed down, he shook his head with a bitter smile and said, "Ah, you little rascals are really not letting me have an easy time!" After a brief moment of silence, he began to tell us a story from before the liberation.