Section 12

"We'd better dig it up soon. I'm afraid he won't be able to wait much longer either."

"Besides, it's early in the year, so there aren't many people around there. The sooner we dig it up, the better."

Liang Ying went pale. "Then I'm coming with you."

Gu Jinshui shook his head. "No. I've asked Shanhu to help. Digging takes strength, and if you stay home, you can be ready to help us."

Liang Ying nodded quickly and opened the window for him. She watched him leave, her heart in turmoil.

Shanhu was already waiting near the Liang Family Old Residence.

As soon as Gu Jinshui arrived, Shanhu slipped over to meet him. "Brother, I gave the old night watchman something to make him sleep. He's out. The shovel's here."

"Good." Gu Jinshui nodded and was about to climb over the wall when Shanhu stopped him. "Brother, I saw Sister-in-law's cousin sneaking around nearby just now."

"Liang Renyi?" Gu Jinshui frowned.

Shanhu nodded. "He left a while ago. Looked to me like he was scouting the place."

Why had they all shown up at once?

Gu Jinshui's brow furrowed.

He glanced at the sky. "You do the digging. I'll keep watch. Let's make it quick."

Shanhu agreed.

They moved swiftly, vaulting over the wall in no time. They had already scouted the mulberry tree. Gu Jinshui listened for movement by the foot of the wall, and Shanhu soon dug something up. "Brother," he called softly.

"Found it?" Gu Jinshui hurried over.

Shanhu lifted out a wooden box. It looked like a woman's old dressing case.

Gu Jinshui examined it. It had no lock, but he couldn't open it. He tucked it inside his coat and was about to tell Shanhu to fill the hole when footsteps sounded outside.

Gu Jinshui signaled Shanhu, and they hid behind some nearby bushes.

Before long, a familiar figure clumsily climbed over the wall.

Gu Jinshui looked closely in the moonlight. It was Liang Renyi!

The Fourteenth Day of Being Overheard ### Liang Renyi was heavyset and clearly had little experience climbing walls. Watching him struggle made Gu Jinshui wince. At last, he made it over.

Liang Renyi hurried to the Chinese pagoda tree. When he saw the hole in the ground, it was obvious someone had dug there.

He froze, then exploded.

"Who did this?"

Shanhu couldn't help laughing. Gu Jinshui quickly covered his mouth, grinning mischievously as he shook his head.

Shanhu understood what his boss meant and nodded.

"Damn it! Damn it!" Liang Renyi dropped to the ground and felt around in the hole, so furious he could have spat blood. He had come by often these past few days to scout the place. He wanted to get a clear picture of things, and if he found what Father Liang had left behind first, he wouldn't have to test Liang Ying.

After all, Liang Ying wasn't a fool. If he tested her too often, she might notice something.

But he had arrived just a little late tonight, and someone had already dug up the place.

The hole made it plain: someone had taken whatever was buried there and left the pit behind!

Rustle, rustle...

Two people's voices suddenly came from outside.

"Mom, are you sure you saw someone go in?" The voice was unmistakable. Gu Jinshui recognized Song Jianshe at once.

"I'm sure. I saw it with my own eyes!"

Huang Xirong sounded utterly certain.

At the sound of their voices, Liang Renyi jumped. He clapped a hand over his mouth, not daring to make a sound.

Gu Jinshui was puzzled. He could understand Liang Renyi coming here, but how had Song Jianshe and his mother found the place?

Still, their timing was perfect.

Gu Jinshui had been worried Liang Renyi might search the area. Now an idea came to him.

He turned to Shanhu and whispered a few instructions. Understanding dawned on Shanhu's face, and he nodded. "Go on, Brother."

Gu Jinshui nodded, then crouched low and crept toward the front along the fence.

Liang Renyi noticed nothing. He was too busy listening to the voices outside.

Huang Xirong rubbed her hands together and blew on them for warmth. "Son, how many valuables do you think are in there?"

"Plenty, I bet!" Song Jianshe swallowed, greed shining in his eyes. "Didn't people say Liang Ying's family were big capitalists? Those capitalists were sly. They must've left at least seventy or eighty gold bars."

Seventy or eighty gold bars?!

Liang Renyi's blood heated at the thought.

Then his eyes reddened with anger. That thieving mother and son had stolen his goods and were standing outside discussing the haul. They had some nerve.

"Catch the thief!"

Glass shattered at the front of the house, followed by a shrill cry.

Liang Renyi flinched. Before he could react, lights sprang on up front, and dogs barked as the neighbors began shouting.

"A thief? Where?"

The old night watchman woke with a start and sprang up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

Gu Jinshui mingled with the arriving neighbors and called in a high-pitched voice, "I heard the thief's out back! Hurry, sir, catch him!"

In the rush, no one stopped to think. They all surged toward the back.

Liang Renyi was terrified. Sweat broke out on his forehead. Forgetting the hole, he ran for the back wall and scrambled to climb it.

"There! There's the thief!"

Someone spotted Liang Renyi at once.

"So he came here to steal! Everyone, help me! Don't let him get away!" The old watchman was furious. He led the charge toward Liang Renyi.

No one noticed Shanhu quietly slip away behind the crowd.

Liang Renyi was so frantic he nearly burst into tears.

He glanced back at the crowd swarming after him. Perhaps his ancestors were watching over him at that critical moment, or perhaps he was simply lucky. Either way, he finally made it over the wall and landed with a thud.

"He's over the wall!" several young men shouted.

Some ran around to the other side, while others climbed over after him.

Liang Renyi had no time to think. Ignoring the scrape on his forehead, he ran for his life. When he spotted a man and a woman ahead, hatred made him grit his teeth.

"Stop! Give me back what you took!" he shouted.

Song Jianshe and his mother had no idea what he meant, but with a crowd chasing them, they didn't dare stop!

"Brother." Shanhu met Gu Jinshui at the mouth of an alley.

Gu Jinshui grunted. "Nobody followed you?"

"No. They all went after Liang Renyi." Shanhu gave him an honest-looking smile. "That was a clever plan, Brother."

Gu Jinshui smiled and patted his shoulder. "All right. Go home and get some sleep. Work as usual tomorrow."

"Got it." Shanhu agreed without asking questions.

Liang Ying waited at home for an hour, her nerves on edge.

One moment she worried Gu Jinshui would be caught; the next, that he would run into someone. Just as she could no longer sit still, a tap came at the window. She hurried over and opened it. Gu Jinshui planted his hands on the sill and climbed straight in.

"Are you all right?" Liang Ying poured him a cup of hot water from the thermos.

Gu Jinshui took a sip and felt warmth spread through him. He pulled the box from inside his coat. "Is this it?"

Liang Ying's gaze fell on the box.

Her lips trembled. She reached toward it, then hesitated.

After so many years, she had thought she'd forgotten everything from her past and accepted her lot. But seeing the dressing case her father had left her still made her heart tremble.

She gently pressed a raised flower on the box. With a soft click, it opened. The top compartment was packed with gleaming gold bars, along with several jade thumb rings and pendants whose quality was obvious at a glance. Below lay a thick stack of property deeds: the deed to the Liang Residence, deeds to several shops...

"Dad..."

Liang Ying's voice shook.

Tears slid down her cheeks.

Gu Jinshui was first stunned by what was inside the box, then his heart ached for his wife. His father-in-law had thought of everything and made sure his daughter would be provided for.

In those earlier years, gold was worth more than anything else.

If his wife had gotten this box sooner, she would at least never have had to worry about food or other necessities.

"Keep the box," Gu Jinshui said softly, putting an arm around Liang Ying's shoulders. "You'll have something to remember him by."

Liang Ying sniffled and shook her head. "No. When my dad was alive, he said money only had value if you used it. We should use it when we need to."

As they spoke, urgent knocking sounded at the door outside.

Gu Jinshui signaled Liang Ying with his eyes. She wiped away her tears and closed the box. He went to the window, opened it a crack, and looked out.

Huang Xirong was knocking. Song Jianshe stood behind his mother, arms folded and shivering all over.

Lin Lianhua came to open the door, and Huang Xirong and Song Jianshe hurried inside.

"Brother?" Song Mei was holding a kerosene lamp. Her eyes widened when she saw Song Jianshe soaked through. "What happened to you two? How did you end up like this?"

"Why are you asking questions? Have some sense and go make your brother a bowl of ginger water with brown sugar," Huang Xirong scolded.

Song Mei didn't dare say more. She murmured an acknowledgment and hurried off to boil water.

Lin Lianhua quickly brought Song Jianshe a change of clothes. Once Song Mei returned with the ginger water and he had drunk it, he told them what had happened that night.

Song Chaohua was listening too.

It turned out Liang Renyi had chased Song Jianshe and his mother for quite some distance that night. They had nearly been caught. After thinking it over, Song Jianshe had come up with a plan. He knew Liang Renyi couldn't swim, so he deliberately ran to the lake and jumped in, telling Huang Xirong to hide.

Sure enough, Liang Renyi hadn't dared enter the water. He had cursed furiously, but, afraid the people behind him would catch up, he could only leave.

"It's all that damned Liang Renyi's fault." Huang Xirong gritted her teeth and slapped her thigh. "Why was he chasing us? We hadn't even managed to climb over the wall."

Song Jianshe was puzzled too.

Holding his bowl, he said, "Liang Renyi kept shouting for us to give his things back. Mom, did you take something of his?"

"What things? I watched him all night, and I never saw him drop anything," Huang Xirong said. "I think he was making false accusations!"

Was he?

Song Jianshe had his doubts, but none of it made sense.

"It hurts just thinking about it," he said. "What if Liang Renyi took something valuable from the Liang Family?!"

"Achoo! Achoo!"

Xu Fenglai hurried to the cupboard and took out two quilts to cover Liang Renyi.

He was still shivering, and he kept cursing between shudders. "It was them. I know what I saw."

"Did you really see Huang Xirong and her son?" Xu Fenglai asked doubtfully.

"Yes, it was them!" Liang Renyi ground his teeth. "I know Song Jianshe's voice. Besides, they knew there were gold bars hidden at Liang Ying's family home. If they didn't know about them beforehand, why would they go there to dig?"

Liang Renyi strongly suspected Song Jianshe and his mother had been the ones digging that night.

At the mention of gold bars, Xu Fenglai's eyes lit up. "Then let's make them give them back!"

"Are you stupid?"

Liang Renyi sneezed and wiped his nose with a handkerchief. "You go to their door and demand them back—then what? What if they flatly deny it? Besides, those things aren't ours. They belong to Liang Ying. If we make a scene and she gets them, we'll be the ones out of luck."

"Then what do we do?"

Xu Fenglai was frantic. "The people arranging our trip abroad said everything's expensive over there. If we don't get more money, what will we—and our Liang—eat and live on once we're abroad?"

Liang Renyi's expression darkened.

He gritted his teeth. "Don't worry. I won't let this go."

The Fifteenth Day of Being Overheard ### "Achoo! Achoo!"

Song Jianshe was sneezing in his room early the next morning.

Grandpa Sun heard him when he got up and glanced toward the East Wing Room. "How did Jianshe catch a cold?"

"I forgot to close the window last night. Lianhua, go to the post office later and ask for leave for me," Song Jianshe told Lin Lianhua.

Lin Lian