Chapter 5: The Bai Family Household Register

In the old city area of Ruiyun City, there was a street with a very nice name, called Shuxiang Street.

This area used to have many schools. Most of these schools had relocated by now, and the development of the new city area had slowly turned this place into a forgotten corner of the city, where very few people came.

The original dozens of stationery shops and bookstores had either moved away or closed down. The sounds of reading and pages turning gradually became hard to hear on Shuxiang Street.

At the end of Shuxiang Street, there was a bookstore that was still open. Its name was interesting, called “Missing Book.” On both sides of the door was a couplet. The characters were very faint, a bit chipped and worn, but they were clean, just like the surrounding environment, and it was pleasantly quiet.

“Shi Ye Shi Ye, Zhi Hu Zhi Hu.”

The warm spring noon sunlight came from the horizon, driving away the last remnants of winter’s chill. It shone through the not-tall, not-dense poplar trees into the doors and windows of the Missing Book store, casting a mottled pattern.

An old woman held a book and leaned on a recliner. A blanket covered her body, and reading glasses rested on the bridge of her nose. A black cat curled up at her feet. The cat looked extremely lazy, contrasting with the old woman’s serious reading posture, yet they seemed so harmonious.

Yang Qi pushed the door open and entered. The black cat’s ears perked up slightly, but then it didn’t even bother to open its eyes. It was extremely familiar with this footstep. The old woman just pushed her reading glasses up and continued reading.

“Granny Bai.” Yang Qi approached, coming to the old woman’s side, and said softly but with excitement in his voice, “I have something to tell you.”

He wanted to tell this old woman, who had shown him great kindness, that he had changed, that he was no longer foolish.

“Go eat first, then help Auntie Chen wash the dishes. The little ones in the back are being noisy, go keep an eye on them. Whatever you have to say, wait until after my nap.”

The old woman still did not look up. She gave her usual instructions, her voice carrying a hint of tiredness. After speaking, she pulled the blanket covering her up properly, closed her eyes, and the only response was the black cat rubbing against her feet a few times.

Seeing this, Yang Qi did not speak again. He turned around, closed the bookstore door, but did not lock it. Very few people in this area came to buy books now, so he was not worried about anyone disturbing Granny Bai’s rest.

Behind the bookstore was a courtyard formed by several single-story houses. The houses were not tall, but the area was quite spacious. This was the place where Yang Qi had grown up. Yang Qi was an orphan, abandoned by his parents when he was very young and raised by Granny Bai. Granny Bai once told Yang Qi that when she found him, there were two notes on him. One note had the character “Yang” written on it, and the other note had the illness Yang Qi suffered from written on it. Besides these two notes, Yang Qi also had a longevity lock and a gold bracelet, both fine items likely from a wealthy household. Granny Bai only mentioned this once and never brought it up again.

Yang Qi now naturally understood the reason he was abandoned, but he did not have any particularly strong emotions about it. He never thought about tracing his origins. For him, this place was his home, whether in the past, present, or future.

Besides Yang Qi, Granny Bai had also adopted six other orphans, all younger than Yang Qi, and each had some problems, more or less, or could even be directly called disabilities. This place could be considered a small orphanage. But the words “orphanage” and “orphan,” Granny Bai never allowed anyone to mention them. She said this was a home.

Granny Bai’s ancestors all came from scholarly families, producing several successful scholars in imperial exams. During the Republican era, it was still a large family. If life could be divided into seasons, for Granny Bai, everything before the age of twenty was spring, and everything after twenty was a cold winter.

That year, when she was twenty, the family declined. A few years later, they suffered a disaster that wiped out the family. Only two younger sisters and she survived. The two sisters were taken to Hong Kong by relatives, and she got married. Later, her husband died during the war years, leaving no children behind. She never remarried for the rest of her life.

Later, relying on the property left by her ancestors, she lived alone but resiliently in this not-so-big city. She had bought the houses around this courtyard long ago. She did not lack food or clothing, but she lacked too many things that should have been there. After adopting Yang Qi and others, her life finally saw some change.

“You’re back. The food is still warm, you should eat first.”

A woman in her forties walked out of a room. She was Auntie Chen. She had been helping here since Yang Qi could remember. After more children were added to the courtyard, Auntie Chen also stopped Granny Bai from hiring other help. She said these children were pitiful, and she was afraid that hiring someone casually might not be careful or thorough enough and could hurt the children. Mostly, she handled everything herself. Occasionally, her husband would come to help with the heavy work. She had been doing this for over ten years. There were words of complaint sometimes, but they were only spoken and never acted upon.

The children in this courtyard were very different from normal children for various reasons. Sometimes they could make Auntie Chen cry from anger, sometimes from pity, and sometimes from being moved. After crying, she would wipe her tears and continue working. She had thought about leaving, but she never could bear to. Auntie Chen and her husband never had children of their own, and to a large extent, they treated the children in this courtyard as their own.

After finishing the still-warm meal and washing the dishes, Yang Qi forced his eyes open wide. He watched several of the kids playing and roughhousing in the courtyard. Secretly, he thought, actually, we have always been very happy children. We don’t worry about food, we don’t worry about clothes, there’s no hitting or scolding, no abuse. Auntie Chen is good to us, Uncle Chen is good to us, Granny Bai is good to us. We just suffer some scornful looks from society, but that’s really nothing.

“Auntie, let me do that.”

Seeing Auntie Chen carrying a large basin full of clothes, Yang Qi went over and took it from her. Then he began to hang the clothes to dry in the courtyard.

“Ah Yang, you seem a bit strange today.”

Auntie Chen was naturally very familiar with Yang Qi. She could tell from his every move that Yang Qi was different from usual. She asked, puzzled.

“I’m better.”

Yang Qi gave Auntie Chen a bright smile in return.

“Better?” Auntie Chen was stunned.

“Yes, better. The illness on my body is completely gone.”

Yang Qi smiled even more brightly. Even a trace of moisture appeared in his eyes — the feeling of sharing good news with family was moving.

“Really?”

Auntie Chen immediately put down what she was holding, came to Yang Qi’s side, reached out and touched Yang Qi’s forehead. She stared at Yang Qi for a long time. Her eyes were already flooded with tears, and she was extremely excited.

“It’s not cold. It’s really not cold anymore.”

She then reached into Yang Qi’s collar. Auntie Chen discovered that the coldness on Yang Qi’s body was gone; his body temperature had returned to normal.

“Quick, go tell your Granny Bai this good news!”

Auntie Chen pulled Yang Qi’s hand and walked towards the bookstore, her hand trembling slightly. Yang Qi was the first child in this courtyard, the child Auntie Chen had watched grow up. Although he had always been a bit simple-minded, he was the most well-behaved and obedient one. He had helped with many things since he was little. Now that he was better, how could she not be happy! Her feeling was absolutely the same as hearing that her own long-ill son had suddenly recovered. Auntie Chen choked back sobs.

“Granny Bai is sleeping. Let’s tell her later.”

“Child, this is a huge good thing. No need to wait.”

Just as Auntie Chen and Yang Qi entered the bookstore through the back door, the front door of the bookstore was also pushed open. Three people walked in. Two men with angry expressions dragged a child. The child was struggling the whole time. He was not big, but his strength was considerable, nearly making it hard for the adults to hold him. Yang Qi recognized the two adults; they were neighbors from the area. And Yang Qi was even more familiar with the child; he was one of the children from the courtyard. He had become half-witted after a high fever as a child, and he was extremely strong. Granny Bai had named him Huang Man.

Seeing Auntie Chen appear, one of the men, surnamed Li with a prominent birthmark on his left cheek, said indignantly, “Auntie Chen, you came just in time. You have to discipline this child properly!”

“What happened with Manzi? What trouble did he cause again?”

Auntie Chen hurried over and practically pulled Huang Man away from the two adults over to her side, afraid Huang Man might get hurt.

“This child is too much!” The man with the birthmark surnamed Li said angrily and loudly. “When he causes ordinary trouble, we neighbors and people on the street don’t say anything. But today, he really went too far! Not only did he scratch Lao Wang’s car with stones, but he also threw all the clothes I had drying outside into the river. Most infuriatingly, he caught my Samoyed dog and killed it with stones! He killed it directly with stones! This is too cruel! This child is truly, truly too much. If this continues, what are we to do? There will be no peace for the neighbors!”

“Yes! This child is too violent. He looks small but has so much strength. Just now, Old Li saw this child beating the dog and went to stop him. One person actually couldn’t hold him back! If I hadn’t gone to help, who knows where he would have run off to!” The other man, Lao Wang, was also furious.

“No! I didn’t!”

Huang Man, hearing the words of these two adults, immediately roared out. He struggled again, his eyes wide open, his face red. How could Auntie Chen hold him?

Seeing this, Yang Qi immediately picked Huang Man up.

“Stop causing trouble!”

Yang Qi gave a low shout, and only then did Huang Man quiet down. Yang Qi knew very well that Manzi would not lie. Even if he had done something very wrong, he would admit it. Recalling in detail the expressions on the two men’s faces as they spoke, every tiny muscle twitch appeared in Yang Qi’s mind. Yang Qi always felt that the anger of these two men seemed somewhat fake.

Hearing the words of these two neighbors, Auntie Chen was somewhat stunned. Huang Man usually caused a fair share of trouble, but he had never done anything so outrageous. For a moment, she didn’t know what to do, wringing her hands anxiously.

“Uncle Li, Uncle Wang.”

Yang Qi held the now-quiet Huang Man by the hand and spoke to the two men. “Manzi is usually mischievous, but he wouldn’t go this far. As for scratching a car or throwing clothes into the river, he might be capable of that. But you say Manzi killed a dog. That is something Manzi would definitely not do. Although Manzi’s mind isn’t very good, he is extremely good to animals. Which dog or cat on this street doesn’t treat Manzi with great affection when they see him?”

Seeing the usually well-known “Fool Yang” speaking so coherently and logically, the two men were stunned momentarily, but soon the man with the birthmark shouted again. “What do you mean, kid? Are you saying we’re framing him? What ‘affection for animals’? Everyone knows this child’s mind isn’t right. Who knows if he just went crazy! We both saw it with our own eyes. How could it be false?”

“It’s no use talking to a foolish kid like you!” That Old Li turned back to Auntie Chen. “Auntie Chen, you run this orphanage here. We neighbors and people on the street haven’t said anything about it, and we’ve even helped out a bit where we could. But this child Huang Man and some of the other kids are just too mischievous. What are we neighbors supposed to do? They all have illnesses, so we can’t hit or touch them! It’s getting worse and worse. This is going to make the neighbors have no peace! Where’s Old Mrs. Bai? We want to talk to her!”

“We will compensate for the losses. We will educate the child.”

A voice came from near the window. Granny Bai had already woken up. She straightened her blanket and sat up. Looking at these two men, she said in a not-loud but extremely firm tone, “But listen well, both of you. This is not an orphanage. Not a single child in this courtyard is an orphan. They are all registered on my Bai family household register!”