Grandson: Like a dilapidated house.
After leaving the train station, they found that this place was different from any of the cities they had seen before. There were countless pedestrians coming and going, and from far away, they could already smell the hot, fragrant scent of wontons. Xie Mingtu and Su Xiaoman first ate a bowl of wontons, then asked someone for directions to the place they were going.
Su Xiaoman propped her chin on her hand and listened as the person, speaking in a Beijing accent, described how to go south this way and north that way. Sitting on the small stool, she looked left and right, thinking, How am I supposed to know which way is south and which way is north?
She was completely turned around and could not find north… but the problem was, even normally, she could not find north. Su Xiaoman was someone with an extreme lack of direction.
Su Xiaoman: “…”
Xie Mingtu, beside her, had been listening carefully the whole time. From time to time, he nodded or asked detailed questions.
Su Xiaoman breathed a sigh of relief. She thought that between the two of them, as long as one person could find north, that was enough. She herself was just a useless little snack.
Coming to a city filled with thousands of courtyards and residences, large and small, along with all kinds of hutongs, Su Xiaoman found it both novel and frightening. There really were so many square courtyards and siheyuan here…
But for someone like her, who had no sense of direction, why did all these hutongs and courtyards feel like they looked exactly the same? There was not even a recognisable landmark.
…This was truly enough to make a person panic.
To find a place, did they have to count the houses one by one?
Su Xiaoman bit her lip. She felt that if she were the only one walking through these streets in the daytime, she could easily turn it into a ghostly maze for herself. No matter how she walked, why did everything around her seem the same? Even the voices in her ears sounded the same, all with the same accent.
Even the workers pushing tricycles and selling pickled vegetables, soy sauce, vinegar, and vegetables on the road — she had run into them several times already. Were they still in the same place?
“Mingtu, are you sure we’re going this way?”
Xie Mingtu smiled at her. “Why aren’t you calling me Brother Xiaotu anymore? Call me Brother Xiaotu, and I’ll tell you.”
“Have you become addicted to hearing that or something?” Su Xiaoman kicked his calf. “You’d better not lead me on a pointless detour.”
“Don’t worry, Manman. We’re almost there.”
…
The two of them stopped in front of a siheyuan. From the outside, it looked completely ordinary, no different from the other siheyuan around it, only a little more run-down. They unlocked the door and walked inside. After looking around carefully, Su Xiaoman finally realised:
Run-down. It was truly run-down.
It felt like a dangerous, collapsing house.
The roof was made of uneven grey-blue tiles, with patches of white snow piled over them. Quite a few spots were damaged, so the roof would probably need repairing. The white walls had turned dusty grey, the blue bricks were covered in moss, and the vermilion paint on the pillars was old and shabby. The side rooms on the east and west had half-collapsed.
If they were going to live here, the first thing they had to do was a full renovation of a dangerous building.
It was only a simple one-entry courtyard. There were about ten rooms in total. Xie Mingtu and Su Xiaoman picked one of the northern main rooms that seemed less dangerous and gave it a simple clean. What Su Xiaoman liked most was the small patch of land in the courtyard. There were a few trees growing there. The weeds on the ground had turned yellow, and the trees were left with only branches and withered leaves. Together with the dilapidated houses around them, the place looked even more cold, quiet, and desolate.
There was not much fresh green to be seen. Only when they had passed by a neighbouring doorway had they seen cabbages piled up like a small mountain.
All along the way, Su Xiaoman had wanted to sigh: so many, so many, so many, so many cabbages!!!!
Children on the road were singing: today cabbage stewed with tofu, tomorrow cabbage stewed with tofu, the day after tomorrow still cabbage stewed with tofu…
Xie Mingtu let Su Xiaoman sit and rest while he went to ask around. He fetched back several vats of water. Su Xiaoman cleaned the northern main rooms and side rooms with him. There was also some old furniture in the rooms. The unusable pieces were moved out, while the usable ones were kept.
Hearing movement from this side, the neighbours next door came over to ask questions.
“Isn’t that the old Meng family’s courtyard?”
“How long has it been since anyone lived there…”
“Why are there people here again?”
“Which family are you two from? The Xie family? You’re that… child? Aiyo, you look familiar. The old Meng family’s nephew.”
“You’ve come to the capital? Are you going to live here?”
…
With their family’s multi-talented Xie Gouzi around, Su Xiaoman did not need to worry about much else. Repairing the roof, fixing the windows — none of it was a problem. When he climbed onto the roof, he did not even need to borrow a ladder.
At noon, the two of them made do with a meal in the small kitchen. A warm-hearted auntie from next door kindly gave them quite a bit of cabbage and pickled vegetables. Su Xiaoman steamed some mantou, stir-fried a simple cabbage dish, and cooked a cabbage and egg soup. Paired with the pickled vegetables, it was just enough to fill their stomachs.
In an ordinary siheyuan, a middle-aged man sat on the stone steps at the doorway, wearing a black, worn-out padded jacket. A cigarette dangled from his mouth. His uneven, messy hair covered the top of his head, and an old, battered crutch lay beside his backside.
“Dad, isn’t this all your fault? Why didn’t you ask for that courtyard back earlier?”
“When little brother gets married in the future, will we all still have to squeeze into this house? What if there are children later?”
“Aunt and Uncle-in-law don’t live here anyway.”
“Brother, it was Grandma who didn’t agree before.”
…
Inside the northern main room, sitting on the heated kang, was a thin, frail little old lady. She was all skin and bones, wearing an old, colourful padded jacket and a hat. She coughed twice. Even though she was already so old, one could still vaguely see from that gaunt face that she had been a beauty in her youth.
“Mother, little sister said her youngest son has come to the capital. He’s going to live in that courtyard. From now on, that courtyard house will belong to him.”
The little old lady half narrowed her eyes. Her voice was sharp and thin. “It was originally hers.”
“Her youngest son — is that Yantang?” In this freezing twelfth lunar month, sitting on the warm kang, she grew warmer and warmer, her eyes narrowing as she started feeling sleepy.
Old Madam Meng had long since lost the ability to remember things clearly. Her memories were fragmented and scattered. Having lived for more than eighty years, the part of her brain responsible for memory had long been creaking and groaning, clamouring to go on strike.
Many things could no longer be remembered.
Hearing her son mention his younger sister’s youngest son, she wondered, what youngest son? Old Madam Meng thought for a moment and remembered such a person. Xie Yazhi had mentioned him several times in front of her, saying this youngest son of hers resembled the second brother. Old Madam Meng had never thought so.
Her youngest son did not resemble his second uncle in the slightest.
Old Madam Meng narrowed her eyes and looked at the third son before her. Only the two boys in Third’s family, Antai and Changtai, her two grandsons, gave her what little comfort she had left.
Her most beloved son was no longer alive.
The lame man standing before the old madam was the middle-aged Xie Zhongqi, Xie Yazhi’s third elder brother. He wore an expression of difficulty, not knowing how to explain what came next.
When Xie Zhongqi had first heard about this matter, his face had been full of disbelief. Such a thing had actually happened in his younger sister’s family.
His younger sister’s youngest son, Jiang Yantang, was unexpectedly not her biological son. He had been switched with another child when he was little.
Previously, Xie Yazhi had not dared to tell their elderly mother about this, afraid that at her age, she would not be able to bear such a shock. But now that the real youngest grandson had come to the capital with his wife, it was no longer appropriate to keep the old mother unaware.
Seeing that the old madam had got up today in fairly good spirits, Xie Zhongqi finally brought it up.
“Mother, it isn’t Yantang. Little sister’s youngest son before wasn’t her biological child. He was stolen and switched at birth. Aiyo, how could there be such a wicked, damnable person…” Xie Zhongqi explained to Old Madam Meng, from beginning to end, how his youngest nephew had been switched.
He had originally feared that the old madam would not be able to endure it. Who would have thought the old madam merely frowned and said, “I already thought he didn’t look like a child of her family. So he was switched… I haven’t met that biological grandson yet.”
“He’s come to the capital. I should meet him.”
Xie Zhongqi nodded. “Meet him. Yes, you should meet him.”
At this moment, a middle-aged woman in a blue padded jacket ran in from outside. She was Xie Zhongqi’s wife, Gao Mengyue. She came in calling them to eat. Xie Zhongqi and Gao Mengyue exchanged a glance, then had his wife bring their eldest daughter-in-law to help the old madam eat.
After the meal, the old madam fell asleep.
Gao Mengyue stood outside the courtyard and sighed. “Being a daughter-in-law in your family is truly hard to endure.”
People always said that after enduring as a daughter-in-law for ten thousand years, one would finally become a mother-in-law. But her mother-in-law had lived for far too long. Even now, she still had not managed to become the one in charge. She still had to live under this old madam.
Xie Zhongqi held a cigarette between his lips. “Whose family isn’t like this?”
“Hey, did your old madam really leave things behind back then? Otherwise, why would no one else in the Meng family know, and only our old madam know where things are hidden?”
“You should ask clearly where they are sooner rather than later, so we’ll know where to dig in the future. I think the situation these past few years is getting better and better…”
“When that nephew of yours comes over, let the old madam chat with him and give that courtyard to our second son.”
Xie Zhongqi shook his head. “Don’t even think about that. The old madam won’t agree.”
“Heh.” Gao Mengyue sneered. “The old madam in your family is the hardest to serve. Even to eat a meal, she needs people to bow and scrape in front of her and invite her again and again.”
Xie Zhongqi glared at her. “Isn’t that because of the sins you committed before?”
Ever since the Xie family had fallen, Gao Mengyue had not treated the old madam with any respect. She had even been harsh and mean. Later, after learning that the old madam might know where the Meng family had buried things, she immediately changed her face and willingly acted like a filial descendant.
Was it not all to trick the things out of her first?
Gao Mengyue pursed her lips. “I secretly kept some slices of meat. They haven’t gone cold yet. I’ll tell eldest’s wife to take a bowl back.”
“What use is it for the old madam to hide things? Your old Xie family only produced our eldest and second sons as descendants. Whatever good things there are, wouldn’t the old madam leave them to them? Could she possibly leave them to the Meng family?”
“She’s been married into your Xie family for who knows how many years.”
Xie Zhongqi said, “They are the Meng family’s things.”
Gao Mengyue said, “There are also plenty of Xie family things.”
“Back then, a batch was cleared away, but who knows how many things were left behind. No matter what they are, just like that courtyard, won’t they all belong to our two sons? The old madam doesn’t understand, but don’t tell me you don’t understand either?”
“Little sister’s family still has several children, and little brother’s family has two.”
Gao Mengyue laughed. “So what if there are three grandsons through a daughter? A daughter’s sons still have the word ‘outside’ attached to them. Little brother’s family only has two girls. What use can they be? They’ll both marry out. Whatever little brother has will end up being our sons’ anyway.”
Xie Zhongqi laughed along with her, heh heh heh.
“Isn’t it all because I know how to give birth?” Gao Mengyue said proudly, hands on her waist. Thinking of Xie Yazhi, she sneered a few times. “Your little sister really treats that youngest son of hers well. I heard he grew up in the countryside. Look at that carefully — she even arranged a university place for him. If you tell me there wasn’t your brother-in-law’s hand in that, I won’t believe it.”
“When we ask her to get our two sons jobs, she refuses to help at all. But her own youngest son is her precious heart.”
Xie Zhongqi said, “She did help look.”
“That job was too tiring, so our son didn’t want to do it. Couldn’t she get them into a university?”
“Ha, neither of them is made for studying. Don’t mess around blindly.”
Gao Mengyue said, “She’s also surnamed Xie. Shouldn’t she take care of the only two seedlings of your old Xie family?”
“That rural son of hers who was switched — he’s come to the capital? What’s his name? When is he coming?”
Xie Zhongqi said, “These few days after the New Year. Xie Mingtu.”
Gao Mengyue frowned and immediately asked, “What did you say? What is he called?”
“Xie Mingtu.”
The moment Gao Mengyue heard the name, she became anxious. “How can the youngest son of her Jiang family have the surname Xie? Tell me, what exactly is your little sister thinking? Why is he taking our Xie surname?”
Xie Zhongqi suddenly shuddered. He had not thought through this crucial point before. Now that his wife had said it, he realised that this youngest nephew of his actually shared the same surname as him: Xie.
What did their family mean by this?
“Your sister is quite cunning. Do you think she did it on purpose? She changed this youngest son’s surname to Xie, and now she’s having him come to the capital to meet the old madam. He’s even bringing a young wife with him, isn’t he?”
“How does she have the face to come using the Xie surname?”
“She changes his name and he becomes part of the Xie family? She must be planning something.”
Gao Mengyue pulled her sleeves together and said irritably, “Your sister has made a fine plan. That son of hers also wants to come and get a share of the old Xie family’s benefits.”
“Ask her what reason she has for making her son take the surname Xie. Our old Xie family still has two seedlings. Do we need her to give her youngest son the surname Xie?”
Xie Zhongqi said, “At first, I really didn’t think of that.”
Xie Zhongqi truly had not thought of it. When he first heard the name, he had not felt anything strange. Only now, after Gao Mengyue brought it up, did his heart give a jolt.
Could it be that his younger sister really intended to send this child to the Xie family?
“With that brain of yours, how could you have thought of it?”
Xie Zhongqi said, “She didn’t say it directly.”
Gao Mengyue sneered a few more times and mocked, “Do you really think Xie Yazhi’s wishful thinking can come true? A country boy from the rural village — she sends him in front of our old madam, but let’s see whether our old madam recognises this grandson of the ‘Xie’ family.”
“A grandson through a daughter is still an outsider’s grandson. No matter what, he can’t escape that word ‘outside’.”
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