Tang Yuan jogged all the way back. By the time she reached the entrance to Grandfather’s courtyard, she was already panting heavily.
She did not hurry inside. Instead, she stood by the gate for a while, waiting until her breathing settled down. Only then did she quietly open the gate and slip inside.
When she entered the room, the two little girls were still sleeping soundly. Tang Yuan quickly took off her clothes, climbed onto the kang, pulled the quilt over herself, and went to sleep.
Before drifting off, she was still wondering how things had gone over there.
What Tang Yuan did not know was that the household of Eighth Grandfather had already descended into complete chaos.
Old Madam Zhao was sprawled unconscious in the courtyard, and the smell could be detected from far away. She had been so frightened that she had literally lost control of her bowels.
Eighth Grandfather had actually woken up when his wife got out of bed. The moment he heard her screaming in the courtyard, he rushed outside. Naturally, he also saw the figures beneath the tree outside the courtyard.
He was now so weak in the legs that he could not even stand. He could only slump down on the threshold of the main room, his face deathly pale.
His sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren were even more chaotic. Children were screaming, women were crying, and everyone was running around in panic.
Several nearby households had heard the commotion and got up to light their lamps. They wondered what had happened and came over to take a look.
Old Madam Zhao’s screams had been so horrifying that people couldn’t help wondering whether something had happened to Old Eighth.
Everyone headed toward Eighth Grandfather’s house, completely failing to notice the household of Cheng the Crooked, whose home stood just one wall away.
The weather had been chilly these past few days, so Cheng the Crooked’s wife had kept their kang burning extremely hot every night. It was so warm that sleeping on it felt like being baked on a griddle, which made Cheng the Crooked curse his wife for being such a wasteful woman.
After sleeping on that scorching kang for several days, Cheng the Crooked had become severely constipated. Fortunately, that night he finally felt the urge to go.
He hurriedly put on his shoes and rushed to the outhouse. After finally relieving himself, he felt tremendously comfortable and headed back inside.
But just as he reached his doorway, he saw the two figures outside Eighth Grandfather’s courtyard.
Cheng the Crooked was not particularly old, and his eyesight was still good. With just one glance, he froze where he stood.
It took him quite a while to recover before he finally shouted, “Oh, my mother!” and scrambled back into his house.
In other words, Cheng the Crooked had actually seen the figures of the Black and White Impermanence even before Old Madam Zhao had.
Tang Yuan had originally intended only to scare Eighth Grandfather’s family. She never expected someone else to see them first.
If she had known, she could only have apologized silently in her heart.
Regardless of how chaotic things had become around Eighth Grandfather’s house, the culprit behind it all, Tang Yuan, was currently sleeping soundly on the kang.
In the middle of the night, someone knocked on Grandfather’s gate.
Hearing the noise, Auntie went out to open it, still wondering who would come knocking at such an hour.
Tang Yuan heard voices while she was half asleep. She wanted to open her eyes and see what was happening, but she was simply too tired. Her eyelids felt unbearably heavy, and she soon sank back into deep sleep.
It was not until the next morning that the younger members of the household learned what had happened the previous night.
Grandfather and Second Granduncle had gone over there during the night. Auntie and Second Auntie had gone over that morning. None of them had returned yet.
They finally came back around breakfast time and brought everyone the details.
The previous night, both Eighth Grandfather and his wife had collapsed.
The incident had even alarmed the village head, who summoned Old Medicine Grandpa during the night.
Eighth Grandfather was relatively fine. After taking some medicine, he already seemed much better that morning.
Old Madam Zhao, however, was in a much more serious condition.
She had lost control of her bladder and bowels during the night, the corner of her mouth had become crooked, and half of her body was unable to move.
She had suffered a stroke.
For a while, everyone discussed the strange incident.
“Yuan’er, was that Black and White Impermanence outside your family’s courtyard last night the same Seventh and Eighth Masters you saw before? Did your grandfather appear in your dreams last night and tell you anything?”
Big Cousin could not contain his curiosity and finally asked.
Everyone else also stopped eating and looked at Tang Yuan.
Tang Yuan took a sip of the corn porridge in her bowl. Then she raised her head and stared at everyone with a pair of innocent, wide eyes before shaking her head.
“I don’t know either. I slept really soundly last night. I didn’t even dream. My grandfather didn’t come looking for me.”
What Tang Yuan was thinking was:
If you ask me, I don’t know anything. I know absolutely nothing. I’m an obedient little girl. How could I possibly know anything?
Seeing that they could not get anything out of her, everyone stopped asking.
After breakfast, the eldest son of Eighth Grandfather came over.
This time, he had brought the twenty-five taels of silver and the deed to the eight mu of land.
It was as though the two things were burning his hands. He dropped them off and hurried away without even looking back.
Tang Yuan stared at the silver and the land deed in her hands.
She closed her eyes and silently said to the original owner of this body:
The things are finally back in your hands. You can rest easy now. From now on, I’ll live well—with your share of this life too.
Grandfather looked at the silver in Tang Yuan’s hands and explained to everyone that, because the Black and White Impermanence had appeared the previous night, Eighth Grandfather’s entire family had been frightened out of their wits.
Originally, they had intended to give up the house altogether and return both the house deed and land deed because they considered the house unlucky.
But their original home was merely an adobe house, and no one had lived there for three years. More than half of it had already collapsed.
With so many people in their family, rebuilding it would cost far more than twenty-five taels.
In the end, they discussed it and decided to keep the existing brick-and-tile house.
Now that these two major assets had been recovered, there were still some things Tang Yuan needed to reclaim.
Most importantly, her grandfather’s books.
Her grandfather had passed the provincial examination and become a successful candidate during the Hongwu era. He had considerable talent when it came to studying.
After marrying her grandmother, he had taken the metropolitan examination twice but failed both times. Eventually, he stopped trying.
The family owned more than twenty mu of farmland and two shops in the city. He also taught at his father-in-law’s academy.
In other words, he was essentially a wealthy gentleman who lived a comfortable life.
Then disaster struck.
The crops failed, and food became impossible to buy everywhere, forcing the family to travel north.
Even after traveling thousands of li northward through countless hardships, Grandfather had never thrown away a single one of his books.
Therefore, Tang Yuan absolutely had to get those books back.
As for the clothes, chairs, tables, cabinets, and other household belongings, Tang Yuan figured that Eighth Grandfather’s family had already used them for years.
She didn’t want those things anymore.
After Tang Yuan mentioned the books to Grandfather and Second Granduncle, Grandfather said they should wait a few days.
Things were still chaotic over there. Once the household had settled down, they could go over and retrieve the books.
Perhaps Grandfather went over again after breakfast to mention the books.
Before lunch, the eldest and second sons of Eighth Grandfather came over again.
This time, they had come to deliver the books.
The two brothers each carried a large basket on their backs, and the precious books that had once belonged to Tang Yuan’s grandfather had been carelessly tossed inside.
Tang Yuan was furious.
After she carefully took the books out and arranged them neatly into stacks, she suddenly realized something was wrong.
According to her memories, her grandfather had owned several entire bookcases filled with books.
So why were there so few now?
Eventually, Grandfather explained.
There wasn’t a single person among Eighth Grandfather’s children and grandchildren who had any talent for studying.
After moving into Tang Yuan’s family’s house, they had never regarded the books as valuable.
Whenever they needed to start a fire while cooking, they would simply tear pages out of the books and use them as kindling.
The paper caught fire extremely easily—much better than dry grass.
After several years of this, the fact that even these few books remained was already considered fortunate.
Second Granduncle was absolutely furious.
As the head manager of the largest bookstore in the city, no one understood the value of books better than he did.
Yet this entire family of ignorant people had actually used precious books as firewood.
They truly had no idea what they were doing.