In my memory, our family had never had much money. Grandpa was just a kind old man.
I also knew that when Grandpa was young, he had gone to the big city—Shanghai—to make his way in the world.
But his way of making it was following his big brother around, slashing people and collecting protection money.
Grandpa never went into detail. What he talked about most was returning to his hometown, Bountiful City, and working boats at the docks.
It wasn't until last year that I began to suspect Grandpa was part of the trade.
Based on that assumption, his time in Shanghai when he was young, following his big brother around collecting protection money, became worth examining.
After all, everyone around our hometown knew about him working boats there.
That meant one period of Grandpa's youth might have been anything but ordinary or simple...
Grandpa had only returned to his hometown to marry and have children after he was over forty. He was already over sixty when he got me as a grandson.
But Grandpa never mentioned it, leaving only two possible reasons.
First, he didn't want to talk about it.
Second, he couldn't talk about it.
I took a deep breath and spoke to Mao Jing.
"I want to know too, but my grandpa won't say anything.
It wasn't until last year, when I went back to my hometown with you all, that I saw how unusual my grandpa was.
I asked him before I left, but he didn't answer me with a single word."
At that, I took a drag from my cigarette and finally stubbed it out.
Mao Jing also put out his cigarette, looking at the moon as he said,
"You've already entered the trade and stepped into the Feng Shui world.
And you said