"I want to know what exactly is inside the box." I raised the box and asked.
"I want to know too." The old woman spoke sarcastically. "No one has ever truly opened the box. They say there is disaster inside, as well as hope. In any case, terrible things will happen to anyone who opens it."
"Out of curiosity, many people in our clan died. After that, no one ever opened the box again to see its true contents."
"Your grandmother was probably the first—and the last."
"In any case, she took the thing inside the box. But from the looks of it, her fate was also tragic. Defying fate naturally brings heavenly retribution."
At that, the old woman sighed, her words filled with sorrow.
I said in a low voice, "May I ask what your relationship with my grandmother was?"
"Come to think of it, I should have been her teacher." The old woman raised her head and looked at me with cloudy eyes. After a while, she said, "I really never expected your grandmother to actually succeed."
"They say there was something unimaginable inside the box. It could make the living perish, bring the dead back to life, and allow all things to exist forever."
"But no one has truly seen it. You must have seen what was inside the box too, right?"
I shook my head and said, "I've never heard of it."
"Forget it. It's all in the past." The old woman shook her head and glanced at me. "Keep the box. As for the good deed your grandmother did, once I get to the other side, I'll give her a thorough scolding."
I looked dejectedly at the box in my hands and said, "Did my grandmother give up a thousand years of duty to save