August 15, 2002. Contacted by a resident of Zulong County. Audio file 01420020815.wav.
"...This is my great-grandfather. When he heard me tell him you were looking into that matter, he asked me to bring you here."
"Sorry for the trouble."
"Great-grandpa. Great-grandpa!"
"Ah! Ah... little one..."
"Great-grandpa, they're here!"
"Oh, oh. Sit down, sit."
"Hello, sir. My surname is Wu."
"Mm, mm..."
"My great-grandpa can't hear very well."
"It's all right, I can hear just fine. I can hear the little girl's voice just fine. You're in the business, aren't you, little girl? Ah..."
"Yes."
"Great-grandpa..."
"Go on, go on. I'll talk to them."
"All right. Call me if you need anything. I'll be right outside."
"Mm, mm."
Tap, tap, tap...
"What should we call you, sir?"
"Me... You can call me A-Long. That's what they called me when I was little. The temple priest picked me himself. There were three little ones born that same year: me, A-Feng, and A-Gui. One of the three of us was supposed to become the temple priest someday."
"Are you talking about the Three Ancestors Temple?"
"That's right. The Three Ancestors Temple... Sigh... People nowadays wouldn't know about it. It was gone when I was five. The Three Ancestors Temple and Three Ancestors Village were both gone."
"You mean there used to be a Three Ancestors Village here? We couldn't find any place by that name on the map."
"It's gone. Must've been a hundred years now. At least eighty or ninety... How old am I... I must be... a hundred this year... Oh, I can't remember. I only remember things from when I was little. When I was five, the Three Ancestors Temple was gone, and so was the village. The whole village belonged to the masters. The three of us were