Chapter 6: Mom's Treasure

  Early in the morning, Xiuxiu came to ask Xingye for help with her hair. There was a New Year's party at school and she was the class leader as well as the little hostess. Today, she wore her most beautiful clothes and her face was rosy red. Xingye trimmed her bangs and styled her hair into a bun on top of her head. The little girl held up the mirror and admired herself left and right, looking so happy that she thanked Xingye and went to school with her backpack full of joy.

  Xīng yè de xīn qíng què zěn me yě gāo xìng bù qǐlai, mǔ qīn de bìng qíng yuè lái yuè lì hài, zhǐ néng dà bǎ de chī zhǐ tòng yào, qīng xǐng de shí guān yuè lái yuè duǎn, xīng yè zhēn pà shuì zháo de mǔ qīn jiù zài wèi guò lái. ā pó kàn le mǔ qīn de zhuàng kuàng tōu tōu gēn tā shuō, rén kǒng pà guò bù liǎo nián le, yǒu xiē shì wèi yào zǎo zuò zhǔn bèi.

  It's been almost a month since Father had the accident, and the lies that Xīng Yè hastily fabricated have already begun to show obvious cracks. However, Mother has been unusually uninterested in this matter. She often talks about childhood stories with her two brothers or some of her parents' daily habits and food preferences, but she doesn't mention a single word related to Xīng Yè's life.

  At this time, Liu Yifah came to Luo's village again. Xingye had no mood to socialize with him anymore. Although the compensation amount was still different from what Xingye had expected, he readily agreed on the compensation issue. Knowing that Liu brought money, he immediately wrote a reconciliation letter, thanked San Shu and San Shu, didn't say much, took the money and went home.

  Leaving Liu Yaofa still in a daze, looking at the reflection of last night's starry sky, he had prepared himself for another collision, but he didn't expect it to be so smooth. Looking at the reconciliation letter in his hand, it should have been prepared by his own side, but he hadn't even prepared yet, and that little girl settled it with just a few words, and even wrote down the contract with a flourish, before he could even react, she had already left. This was also too crushing for him, really solving the problem but leaving him feeling somewhat depressed.

  It's entered the twelfth lunar month, and this year's first snow has fallen. On a snowy night, I trudged through the snow to look for Old Lady Luo San.

  Third Aunt came to find Xing Ye secretly twice, yes, it was secretly. This woman who is usually outspoken and daring, because she bears that kind intentioned lie, doesn't dare face You Yue. Xing Ye told her about the unusual reaction of Mother's message to Father, she also didn't know why it would be like this, only repeatedly guaranteeing no one will tell You Yue the truth.

  Xīng yè jiē guò sān shěn dào dé rè shuǐ, xī le xī bí zi, xiǎo liǎn gòng de hóng hóng de.

  Translation:

  At midnight, she took over the hot water from her third aunt, sniffled a little, and her small face was frozen red.

  "Third Aunt, Grandma said looking at me and Mom's appearance, we probably won't make it past the New Year."

  "Alas," seeing Xing Ye's red eyes, Luo San Aunt could only accompany her in sighs. Normally when neighbors chatted, they often talked about Xing Ye's mother's illness, who didn't know about it?

  "It's already the end of the year, and construction has stopped. Those who went to purchase materials should have returned by now. My mom will probably need to ask my uncle and aunt for help again to get things done."

  Third Aunt looked embarrassed, not that she didn't want to help with this matter, but because she didn't know how to explain why the construction site had stopped work and the person in charge of purchasing raw materials hadn't returned yet.

  "Third Aunt, I'll try to calm down and not be too anxious, but I don't know what to say. Sigh... Yezhu, teach me, whatever you say, I'll do."

  "Thanks, Auntie. I know it's not a good lie to tell, but just say my dad called and said he can only come back at the end of the year. As for the reason, you can blame it on my dad or say the phone signal was bad, got cut off, anything will do."

  Third Aunt hesitated "Can this be done?"

  "Only this way, can drag a moment is a moment, can't deceive also no way, did my best."

  Things seemed to be going unusually smoothly, and San Shu's lies sounded stuttering and unconvincing when heard in the quiet of the night. She listened with a frown on her face, but surprisingly, her mother didn't raise any objections, as if everything was perfectly normal, and she didn't even get a chance to say the supplementary words she had prepared.

  "My third aunt said suspiciously: 'I feel like your mom seems to know something too?'"

  The starry night could not answer her.

  At night, I washed my mother's hands and feet under the starry sky, massaged her whole body as usual, and persuaded her to rest early.

  "I slept a lot in the afternoon and now I'm full of energy. Come on, help me get up, let's have a chat."

  These days, Yu Yue has no strength to lean against the pillow, can't say two sentences without getting tired, and can only lie down every day. Tonight, Xing Ye saw that her spirit was indeed good, carefully put down the pillow, hugged her up and put her down well. She had no strength at all, and she had lost a lot of weight, probably not even 70 or 80 kilograms, otherwise Xing Ye wouldn't have been able to hug her up tonight.

  "Yèzi go get the suitcase from the cabinet." Yúyǔ Yuè hinted at Xīngyè.

  Xīng yè looked at the old-fashioned black leather trunk on top of the wardrobe, which had been there since he could remember. He stood on a stool to reach it, but fortunately, the trunk was not small and not too heavy either. After wiping off the dust from the trunk, Xīng yè placed it on the bed.

  "This is still what I brought back then, old thing, open it." The brown box had black leather edges, and upon closer inspection, although it was old, the workmanship was exquisite.

  Inside the box were two books, a blue leather notebook, a small stack of letters, and a black lacquer inlaid jewelry box.

  "What is this? It's really beautiful!" Although Xing Ye was even more curious about the contents of the envelope and diary, she first picked up the jewelry box. The jewelry box was indeed beautiful, with a glossy black lacquer finish and copper-colored corners that shone like oranges. On the lid of the box were inlaid shells forming flowers, grass, butterflies, and fireflies, simple yet exquisitely crafted, likely an antique from years ago.

  "Jewelry box, it was given to me by your great aunt, and it was given to her by her master when she got married, it should be an antique now, do you like it? I originally wanted to keep it for you too, but take it from me first." Yu Yue explained.

  At night, she put the jewelry box on her body, rubbed it for a moment with her hand, and opened the lid.

  First, take out a white silk handkerchief with an embroidered pattern of a cat chasing butterflies, which is a typical Suzhou embroidery, exquisite enough to be considered a work of art. However, in one corner, a red thread was used to scribble a "moon" character, ruining the overall aesthetic.

  Yu Youyue looked at it for a long time, raised her head to look at Xing Ye's curious face, and handed the handkerchief over to her.

  It was my elder brother who gave it to me, a proper Su embroidery. I was only ten years old at that time and liked it so much that I was afraid of losing it, so I embroidered a "moon" character on it to indicate ownership. How silly I was back then, ruining such a good thing and still feeling complacent about it!

  Because I liked this handkerchief, second brother thought I was closer to big brother than him and got angry, so he went all out to find it for me, at that time he was only twelve years old.

  The starry night saw her mother holding a string of beads in her hand, with two round and large beads that seemed to be pearls, the rest were green turquoise, and some unknown white stones, even several red plastic beads, messy on a thin string, the connection at the end of the string was also tied with a knot, the materials were mixed, the workmanship was rough, in the eyes of the starry night who had seen many exquisite jewelry accessories, it really didn't look good.

  "Doesn't look good, huh?" Yūgetsu asked Seiya. Seiya nodded slightly and whispered, "It's quite ordinary, but it was made by your uncle himself, right? That changes the meaning."

  "Yes, at that time, many things were unbuyable no matter how much money you had. Your younger uncle searched for a long time to find these. I thought they were great back then and showed them off to the neighbor's kids for a long time. See these two big pearls? They were taken from the imperial beads of a high-ranking official in the Qing dynasty, genuine Dongzhu pearls, but the kids treated them like marbles."

  "Eastern pearl? I've only heard of it, but never seen one before." Xing Ye took the necklace and examined it closely. The two pearls shone with a silvery halo under the lamplight, indeed not comparable to ordinary pearls.

  "You kids have seen some good things, but back then during the destruction of the Four Olds, so many good things were destroyed. Your grandfather was most heartbroken about those ancient books and paintings, saying they were national treasures that were torn up, burned, or sold as waste. Your uncle had the biggest guts, knowing your grandfather liked them, he secretly went to the waste collection station to pick some up. He was so angry with your grandfather, but didn't dare to keep them at home for fear of causing big trouble, and couldn't bear to throw them away either. So he took a huge risk and hid them, making your uncle promise not to pick up these things again. It wasn't until after the Gang of Four was smashed that your uncle magically pulled out many of the good things he had hidden, saying 'I put them outside, I didn't bring them home!' Yu Youyue thought of her rascal second brother and her crying-with-laughter father, and she couldn't help but laugh too."

  "That little uncle of yours didn't do a great thing, did he? He left the country with a huge cultural legacy." In his heart, Xing Ye thought that this little uncle was either reborn or had a great economic mind, as these things are now worth a fortune.

  "Yes, it was later donated by your grandfather to the country."

  One sentence shocked the starry night to grow up, what was said in that sentence, 'Life is indeed too fast with great ups and downs.' This matter can only be done by people of my grandfather's generation who have a higher sense of awareness.

  "My grandfather is indeed just like I thought, upright, majestic and selfless. He can't be measured by modern standards!" In her heart, Xing Ye thought that if someone did this kind of thing in modern times, most people would think they had been hit on the head by a door, and quite severely at that.

  "Does it look like the image in your mind?" Yu Youyue took out the last thing from the box, a photo.