Seeing his grandpa’s pale face and trembling limbs, Zhou Zihao grasped his grandpa’s hand: “Grandpa, don’t be afraid.”
Grandpa Zhou shook Zhou Zihao’s hand abruptly. His eyes looked sharper than ever before: “What happened to that snake? Did you kill it?”
“The snake doesn’t have a solid body. How can we kill it?” Zhou Zihao said with an innocent look: “We went back to the room to sleep when we saw it lying at your door, but the snake got in the room when I was about to fall asleep.” Then Zhou Zihao said with some complaints: “No wonder I felt that something was looking at me when I was sleeping here before. It was an ancestor.”
Grandpa Zhou was relieved when he heard that the snake was not injured. He leaned back in the chair and drank a cup of tea in silence before turning his head to look at Lin Qingyin: “You didn’t hurt it, did you?”
Ordinary people have no way to deal with snakes without solid bodies, but capable masters were different.
“No!” Lin Qingyin said in a usual tone: “I took them to admire the heroic appearance of the giant snake yesterday, and then I went back to my room to sleep without even touching it.”
Seeing that Grandpa Zhou took the matter about the snake seriously, Zhou Zihao nodded quickly to confirm Lin Qingyin’s words. Only then Grandpa Zhou was relieved.
Seeing that his family didn’t seem to dislike the snake, Grandpa Zhou finally spoke.
“I knew the snake’s existence, but I didn’t expect it to still guard our home.”
Hearing these words, even the old lady turned to look at Grandpa Zhou: “What’s going on?”
“Our family had been senior officials in the Ming and Qing dynasties. I don’t know how many children in our family have been trained, but they have been well-known scholars in Qi City. I also don’t know since when our ancestors developed such a habit, but generations of children and grandchildren were recording the great events and miracles that happened in the clan. Then these record books will be passed down from generation to generation. With this, the future generations of our family have a way to understand the life of their ancestors.”
“The record books left by our ancestors were passed to me. There are quite a few large boxes. I don’t have all the notes in my hand. From the Ming and Qing Dynasties to the present, hundreds of years had passed, only 10% of the total record is left. It is a small amount, but this one-tenth has taught me a lot of things that I have never dared to imagine.”
“The personalities of the people who take notes in each generation are different, and the focus of their records is also different. Some records were about the studiousness and discipline of our family. Some like to talk secretly about the government and some ancestors like to write anecdotes. There are also some strange things. Some of these strange things happened in the clan and some were just hearsay. However, they were written down because they were too interesting.”
While mentioning these recording books, Grandpa Zhou couldn’t help but show a nostalgic smile on his face. His tight body also relaxed.
“When I was still a child, it was in the year of wars. Although I simply went into the private school near the village, our teacher only taught us some characters and some poems, and nothing else. At that time, there were not so many books to read, unlike these days. We didn’t even have textbooks. We only learn whatever the teacher writes on the board. It was very boring. The extracurricular books are something that I can’t even think of. When I knew more words, I can no longer be satisfied with reciting poems and Analects every day. I always wanted to try and do something new. My dad couldn’t help but gave me a key to a brass lock.”
“Back then, the house I lived in was a handed-down house from our ancestors. Although it was not as big as one-tenth of our villa, it was also the best house in the village at that time. At that time, there were more than ten rooms in the front and rear courtyards of our house. However, one of them is locked all year round with a yellow-orange brass lock on it. When my brother and I were still young, we loved peeking at that door and betting each other to guess what’s inside.”
When Grandpa Zhou recalling that year, he couldn’t help but smile: “So I didn’t expect my father to give me the key.”
Grandpa Zhou picked up his teacup and drank the tea before continuing. Zhou Zihao was feeling impatient, but he could see that Grandpa Zhou was very happy while recalling those past events. So he suppressed his curiosity and listened patiently to Grandpa Zhou’s childhood stories.
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