Chapter 9: Liao Haode
Chapter 9: Liao Haode
“Huh, it really works?”
Just after Ye Tian silently thought the words “Arcane Repository,” his eyes suddenly brightened. Because that mysterious Tortoise Shell appeared again, spinning in his mind.
This made Ye Tian feel somewhat excited. Before this, he never knew how to use this thing. Now that he could summon it so easily, he believed he would definitely solve the mystery of this Tortoise Shell in the future.
“Hmm, why did the words for ‘Geomancy’ fade?”
Ye Tian suppressed the excitement in his heart and focused on the Tortoise Shell. Looking at it, he immediately noticed something different.
At noon, when he helped Miao Laoda with Feng Shui, Ye Tian clearly remembered that among the twelve characters forming six terms—Divination, Geomancy, Fortune-telling, Physiognomy, Dream Interpretation, and Auspicious Selection—the terms “Geomancy” and “Physiognomy” were distinctly glowing.
But now, the term “Geomancy” was a dull gray. Only the characters for “Physiognomy” had a faint light, clearly different from the surrounding words.
“Ye Tian, what’s wrong with you? This Sun Wukong candy figure my great-uncle gave you is really pretty…”
After seeing his great-uncle give the Sun Wukong candy figure to Ye Tian first, Guo Xiaolong kept staring at Ye Tian. He wanted to see excitement and joy on Ye Tian’s face, which would satisfy his own small vanity.
However, after Ye Tian took the candy figure, he just stood there frozen. This made Guo Xiaolong feel a bit upset, so he felt he had to remind Ye Tian where the candy figure in his hand came from.
As the saying goes, poor children mature early. Although they were about the same age, Ye Tian understood Guo Xiaolong’s little thoughts perfectly. He smiled and said, “Oh, it is very pretty, Xiaolong. How about… you take it first?”
Guo Xiaolong waved his hands repeatedly. He glanced at his great-uncle and whispered, “No, that won’t do. Great-uncle gave it to you, so you keep it. Otherwise, I’ll get scolded.”
“Alright then, thank you, Xiaolong. Your Sun Wukong is almost finished too.”
Ye Tian didn’t stand on ceremony. After replying casually, he looked toward Guo Xiaolong’s great-uncle, but his attention was focused on the words “Physiognomy.”
Just as Ye Tian looked at the old man’s face, the characters “Physiognomy” on the Tortoise Shell suddenly broke apart. The entire Tortoise Shell scattered along with them, forming many mysterious symbols that dazzled Ye Tian’s eyes.
However, having experienced reading the Old Taoist’s face before, Ye Tian wasn’t anxious. He only felt a slight dizziness in his head. After a few short seconds, several lines of text appeared in Ye Tian’s mind.
“Liao Haode, born 1933, went to Taiwan before 1949, moved to the United States in 1959… This return to his hometown is to bury his parents together, but the burial site of his mother cannot be found. He will return to the United States in three days…”
“So he really is from the United States?”
Looking at these lines in his mind, Ye Tian smiled. Although it wasn’t detailed, it was enough for him to understand Liao Haode’s life story.
More importantly, the Tortoise Shell actually calculated the purpose of Liao Haode’s return visit. This meant that this Luopan-like Tortoise Shell could not only deduce a person’s past but also divine their future.
“Can I help him? Can I calculate where his mother is buried?”
The lines of text in his mind were already slowly fading. Ye Tian suddenly thought of this problem. Even if he could figure out Liao Haode’s purpose for returning to the country, if he couldn’t help him, wasn’t it just like taking the candy figure for nothing?
“Six hundred paces from the village entrance, beneath two…”
Just as Ye Tian mentally pressed the Tortoise Shell for an answer, those lines had completely disappeared. Just when Ye Tian wanted to shift his attention to this question, a line of small text suddenly appeared in his mind.
“What does this mean? Which village entrance? Why is it so vague?” Looking at these quickly disappearing words, Ye Tian frowned.
Normally, for something like Dragon-Seeking and Acupoint Locating, you needed the person’s name and birth details. He had just thought about it, and the Tortoise Shell gave this kind of answer. Ye Tian didn’t know if it was true or false.
“Arcane Repository, come out…”
Somewhat unwilling to give up, Ye Tian silently called out again in his mind. The Tortoise Shell did appear for him, but the characters on it had all turned a dull gray color and could no longer be selected, leaving Ye Tian feeling rather helpless.
“Whatever, kids’ words don’t count. It’s up to him whether to believe it or not.”
Ye Tian mumbled to himself. Ever since this Tortoise Shell appeared in his mind, whether it was reading the Old Taoist’s face or helping Miao Laoda with Feng Shui, it hadn’t seemed to make a mistake yet.
However, Ye Tian couldn’t go directly and tell the old man. If the other person didn’t believe him, wouldn’t that be embarrassing in front of an overseas Chinese? After thinking for a moment, Ye Tian secretly tugged at the little fat boy.
“Ye Tian, what are you doing? My candy figure is almost ready.” Guo Xiaolong was very dissatisfied with Ye Tian’s action. His eyes kept glancing into the crowd, afraid someone might snatch his Sun Wukong candy figure.
“Hey, if you stick with your great-uncle, how many candy figures won’t you get to eat?”
Ye Tian flattered the little fat boy without any obvious trace and then said, “Xiaolong, your great-uncle came back this time for some reason, right?”
“Nothing special, just came back to see us. Oh, right, great-uncle gave our family lots of things too. I’ll tell you, the TV set in my house is the only one in our village. Ye Tian, come watch TV at my house when you’re free. The Bund is really good, Xu Wenqiang is the coolest.”
Guo Xiaolong didn’t understand Ye Tian’s question and rambled on a lot. He even mimicked Xu Wenqiang firing a gun, not even caring about the almost-finished Sun Wukong candy figure inside the stall.
Seeing Guo Xiaolong’s eagerness, as if he wanted to drag him home to watch TV right then, Ye Tian quickly said, “Ahem, Xiaolong, I’ll definitely go when I’m free. Right, I have to go now. Help me say goodbye to your great-uncle…”
“You’re leaving now? Okay then. I’m still going to walk around with great-uncle, we’ll go back later.”
Without someone to show off to, Guo Xiaolong felt a bit bored. However, he decided in his heart that when school started, he would definitely invite all his good friends over to watch TV.
“Alright, Xiaolong, goodbye…”
Ye Tian waved at Guo Xiaolong. As he was leaving, he suddenly leaned close to his ear and whispered, “Xiaolong, the thing your great-uncle is looking for is six hundred paces from the village entrance…”
It wasn’t that Ye Tian didn’t want to be clear. He simply didn’t know exactly where Liao Haode’s mother was buried. Anyway, with this clue, it meant he hadn’t taken the candy figure for nothing.
“What is my great-uncle looking for? What’s this about six hundred paces from the village entrance?”
Guo Xiaolong watched Ye Tian’s small figure squeeze into the crowd in the distance and shook his head in confusion. Turning his face back, he found his great-uncle standing in front of him, holding the candy figure.
“Xiaolong, your classmate left?”
Just by practicing this candy-blowing skill again, Liao Haode felt this trip to the market wasn’t wasted. After all, when he was little, he was just like these kids, eagerly wanting to buy a candy figure.
“Ye Tian left, great-uncle. He asked me to say goodbye to you…”
Guo Xiaolong took the Sun Wukong candy figure and looked at the old man beside him. He asked a bit curiously, “Great-uncle, did you come home to look for something?”
“Hmm? Xiaolong, why are you asking grandpa that?”
Hearing this, Liao Haode was stunned for a moment. Xiaolong’s parents knew the purpose of his return, but Xiaolong didn’t. There was no need to tell children about such things.
“My classmate said, grandpa, the thing you’re looking for is six hundred paces from the village entrance…” Guo Xiaolong scratched his head and still repeated what Ye Tian said before leaving.
“What? What did your classmate say?”
Liao Haode had only asked casually but never expected to hear such words. His entire body shook, and he grabbed Guo Xiaolong.
“Grandpa, he… he said the thing you’re looking for is six hundred paces from the village entrance. He didn’t say anything else.”
Seeing his usually kind great-uncle with a flushed face and wide, staring eyes, Guo Xiaolong’s little mouth quivered, about to cry.
“Six hundred paces from the village entrance, six hundred paces from the village entrance!”
Liao Haode muttered these words several times in his heart. He turned and said, “Xiaolong, let’s go, back home…”
At this moment, Liao Haode’s heart felt like it was swept by huge waves. Right now, he didn’t have the mind to wonder why Ye Tian would say such a thing. His whole spirit was focused on the words “six hundred paces from the village entrance.”
Before liberation, Liao Haode’s father was an official in the Education Department of the Nationalist government, working in Nanjing year-round. However, Liao Haode’s mother often lived in the countryside. After the age of ten, Liao Haode followed his father to study in Nanjing.
In 1949, when the Nationalist forces were collapsing, the situation was urgent. Liao Haode’s father didn’t have time to fetch his wife and took his son far away to Taiwan. That departure meant separation across the strait, a farewell forever.
After arriving in Taiwan, Liao Haode’s father found that millions of troops had poured into such a tiny place. Even many Generals lived in military dependents’ villages.
These so-called military dependents’ villages were houses built to accommodate the Nationalist soldiers and their families who were forced to move from various provinces of Mainland China to Taiwan. The buildings were low, and the environment was much worse than in Mainland China.
However, Liao Haode’s father was a talented man, fluent in several languages. After living in the military dependents’ village for ten years, he took his son to the United States, started his own company, and settled there.
Just last year, Liao Haode’s father passed away from illness in the United States. Before dying, he told his son to definitely bring his ashes back to China and bury them together with his wife. This was the reason for Liao Haode’s return trip.
Only after returning to his hometown did Liao Haode learn that his mother had passed away in the early 1950s.
And during that movement that swept across all of China, many families with overseas connections, even Ancestral Graves, suffered devastation. So even the older generation in the family couldn’t tell the specific burial site of Liao Haode’s mother now.
This result left Liao Haode somewhat disheartened. He was originally ready to return to the United States, but he never expected to suddenly receive such a piece of information.