Chapter 19: A Huge Sum

Chapter 19: A Huge Sum

“You… You guys…”

The behavior of Feng Kuang and the others nearly made Liao Haode faint from anger. They were so close to finding his mother’s remains, but who would have thought these kids would give up now.

They refused to admit they were scared. Instead, they found an excuse, especially Feng Kuang, who spoke up, saying, “Uncle, wouldn’t it be… inappropriate if we stepped on Great-Aunt’s body?”

People always hold fear toward the unknown. Like tales of ghosts and gods—no one has ever seen them, but they still feel scared deep down.

The thought of a dead person’s bones lying beneath their feet sent a chill through these fiery young men. They pushed the task onto each other, but no one dared to go down again.

“If you won’t do it, I’ll do it myself!”

As the saying goes, a dog doesn’t dislike a poor home, and a son doesn’t dislike his mother’s looks. Seeing the fear on their faces, Liao Haode rolled up his sleeves and slowly climbed down into the pit. This was where his old mother was buried. He didn’t dare to jump down directly and disturb her resting place.

“Grandpa Liao, let me help you.”

As he spoke, Ye Tian’s small body slid down from above. He had slept in graveyards at night before. He had seen plenty of bones and didn’t care even at midnight. Now, in broad daylight, there was even less to fear.

His own nephews and grandnephews wouldn’t help, but Ye Tian, an outsider, came down. Liao Haode couldn’t help but feel moved. His lips quivered as he said, “Good… good. Ye Tian, Grandpa Liao will definitely thank you.”

“Uncle, I’ll lend a hand too.”

Seeing Liao Haode and Ye Tian, one old and one young, staying down there, Feng Kuang felt embarrassed. Besides, he was counting on his American uncle to invest in an antique shop for him. If he didn’t help now, he wouldn’t have the face to bring it up later.

“We’ve reached the coffin. From here, we can only use our hands to clear the soil. Hmm, don’t worry about the area outside the black line.”

After Feng Kuang came down, Ye Tian explained the things to pay attention to. But he had only spoken halfway when his small eyes suddenly fixed on something behind Feng Kuang. He said in a trembling voice, “You… there’s something behind you!”

“What?!”

Hearing Ye Tian’s words, Feng Kuang immediately felt his scalp tingle. Goosebumps instantly covered his body. It was as if a rocket booster was attached to his backside, and with a “whoosh,” he scrambled back up to the top of the pit.

“Ha, hahaha…” Watching Feng Kuang’s reaction from the pit, Ye Tian laughed so hard he doubled over.

“You… you, I’ll beat you up, kid…”

When Feng Kuang looked back, still shaken, he heard Ye Tian’s loud laughter and realized the boy had tricked him. Glancing at his uncle, his face flushed bright red.

“Enough, Ye Tian. It’s almost dark. Let’s finish this early and go back. Grandpa Liao will have someone kill a chicken and cook a meal.”

Liao Haode also found Ye Tian’s behavior both funny and annoying. But since he was just a child, he couldn’t say much. He could only coax and persuade him with nice words.

“Okay, Grandpa Liao. Your position is near the head of the coffin. Be careful.”

Ye Tian didn’t cause trouble this time. After explaining the position to Liao Haode, he picked up a small shovel and started clearing the soil outward. Feng Kuang hesitated for a moment up above, then reluctantly climbed back down into the pit.

“Hey, Ye… Ye Tian, come… come take a look. What… what is this?” After about ten minutes of cleaning, Liao Haode’s trembling voice sounded.

Ye Tian looked where the voice came from. Under Liao Haode’s hand, a slightly yellowish skull had appeared. He quickly said, “It’s the skull, Grandpa Liao. Please be gentle.”

Jiangnan had lots of rain. Plus, the coffin used when Liao’s mother was buried wasn’t very good. After the coffin decayed, soil seeped in. Her clothes and flesh had long since rotted away.

“Mom, your son has come to see you. Your son has brought Dad to see you.”

Seeing his mother’s bones, sorrow welled up in Liao Haode’s heart. With a “thump,” he knelt in the soil. This fifty-six-year-old man started wailing like a child, his face smeared with dirt.

Having left his mother as a youth, Liao Haode’s years of longing turned into heartbroken sobs at this moment. It moved Feng Kuang and the others to wipe away tears too. They kept calling out “Great-Aunt,” making the surroundings echo with crying.

“Little Yezi, Grandpa Liao has made a fool of himself in front of you.” It took a long while before Liao Haode finally stopped crying.

“Grandpa Liao, it’s okay…”

Ye Tian’s eyes were also a little red. Hearing those sobs, he thought of his own mother. But Ye Tian didn’t know why his mother had abandoned him and his father.

Perhaps stirred by the crying, Liao Haode’s younger relatives all climbed down into the pit and helped collect the bones. Over an hour later, the entire grave was cleared. All the bones were moved to a new coffin placed beside it.

As for whether the owner of this grave was indeed Liao Haode’s mother, any doubt vanished after a gold hairpin with a phoenix carving on its tip was unearthed.

Liao Haode recognized it at once. It was his mother’s former ornament. He had even helped his mother put it on when he was a child. Seeing the object made him think of the person, leading to another wave of grief.

Seeing Liao Haode reluctant to leave, Feng Kuang stepped forward and said, “Uncle, it’s dark and the road is hard to walk. Shouldn’t we head back early?”

“Alright, let’s go back.”

Due to the political environment in China at the time, the crackdown on feudal superstition was still very strong. After gathering the bones, the group quietly carried the coffin back onto the horse cart and returned silently to the village.

…

The Feng family’s dinner that evening was especially lavish. A large carp weighing seven or eight jin, a hen that was still laying eggs—dishes they couldn’t even have during the New Year normally—now covered the entire table.

“Ye Tian, eat, have more…” Liao Haode kept putting food into Ye Tian’s bowl. It seemed only through this method could he express the gratitude in his heart.

Feng Kuang and the others at the table also looked at Ye Tian with an indescribable expression. What had happened today far exceeded the scope of their understanding.

Ye Tian wasn’t polite either. After wolfing down his meal, he patted his little belly and said, “Grandpa Liao, that’s enough. I’m full.”

“Little Yezi, tell me… how should Grandpa Liao thank you?” Having fulfilled his father’s last wish, Liao Haode had set down a heavy burden and felt much lighter.

But at the same time, Liao Haode owed a huge favor. Ye Tian wasn’t some occult master wandering the Jianghu; he was just a child. Yet precisely because of that, Liao Haode found it difficult to handle.

If it were a professional feng shui master, he could simply pay the appropriate fee. But Ye Tian was a child. Giving too little money would be taking advantage of a kid, and Liao Haode couldn’t convince himself to do that.

But giving too much money also felt inappropriate to Liao Haode. He understood the current situation in the country. An ordinary worker only earned a few dozen yuan a month. If Ye Tian or his family suddenly received a “huge sum” of money, it might not be a good thing for them.

Ye Tian didn’t have so many thoughts. Hearing Liao Haode’s words, he asked curiously, “Grandpa Liao, didn’t you promise Master you would help repair the Taoist temple?”

“This… that’s a different matter, Little Yezi. What do you want? Money or something else?”

Liao Haode was taken aback. He really hadn’t connected the two things. First, the temple was already being repaired, and it wouldn’t cost him much. Second, in Liao Haode’s mind, Ye Tian had done all the work from start to finish. It didn’t have much to do with that old Taoist.

Seeing Liao Haode’s sincere attitude, Ye Tian tilted his little head and thought for a long moment before saying, “Hmm? Then, Grandpa Liao, how about you give me another one hundred yuan?”

“How… how much? One hundred yuan?”

Hearing Ye Tian’s words, Liao Haode nearly fell off his chair. He never expected Ye Tian to name such a “large” amount.

In Liao Haode’s heart, his parents’ joint burial was more important than anything. Ye Tian had helped fulfill his wish. He would have been willing to pay eighty or even a hundred thousand.

Moreover, if he had hired a top feng shui master in Hong Kong or Taiwan, it would have cost that much too. So Ye Tian’s request created a huge contrast in his mind.

Seeing Liao Haode’s expression, Ye Tian thought he had asked for too much. He then said timidly, “Is… is one hundred yuan too much? Then… fifty is okay too!”

You see, in Ye Tian’s mind, one hundred yuan was a huge “fortune.” It could buy new clothes for himself, his father, the old Taoist, and, well, also for Yu Qingya.

“No, no, don’t say anymore, Little Yezi. Take this money first.”

Before Ye Tian could finish, Liao Haode pulled out a stack of ten-yuan bills featuring workers, peasants, and soldiers from his bag and stuffed them directly into Ye Tian’s hand.

“This… Grandpa Liao, isn’t it too much?”

Ye Tian was startled by Liao Haode’s action. This thick stack of money had to be at least one or two hundred yuan, right? He had only helped find a grave, which took less than half a day. Could he really eat, drink, and also get this much money?

“Not too much, not at all…”

Liao Haode waved his hand. After a moment’s thought, he stood up and said, “Little Yezi, come on, I’ll take you home. Feng Kuang, you come too…”

It was hard to explain things clearly to a child like Ye Tian. Liao Haode wanted to find Ye Tian’s father to express his gratitude. Moreover, just moments ago, some other ideas had occurred to him that he needed to discuss with Ye Tian’s parent.

“Go home? Okay…”

Ye Tian was momentarily stunned. Then he stuffed the stack of bills into his small schoolbag, placing it together with his Master’s Luopan. But at this moment, in Ye Tian’s mind, the money was far more important than the Luopan.

Sitting on the horse cart driven by Feng Kuang, a bit of clarity dawned on Ye Tian. It seemed that practicing geomancy and feng shui, fortune-telling and physiognomy, could be a very “lucrative” business?

Of course, this thought was just a tiny sprout in Ye Tian’s mind.

Born in New China, raised under the red flag, learning from the good example of Lei Feng every day—for someone of his generation, Ye Tian’s ideal was still to become a scientist and contribute to the Four Modernizations of the motherland.