novelraw Chapter 36 Demolishing Grandpa's House
Chapter 36 Demolishing Grandpa's House
Tong Yuheng's eyes searched around Fan Dayong's house. In the small courtyard, there was a chicken coop under the window. Chickens were no longer allowed to be raised at this time, so why did they still keep such a chicken coop?
The chicken coop was about waist-high, and there was some firewood thrown inside. The small plywood door was unlocked. Tong Yuheng squatted down and quietly crouched at the entrance of the chicken coop, reaching in to move the storage space inside.
She groped around on the ground and finally found a cover with an iron ring under the brick floor. Pulling the iron ring, she saw a wooden box inside, about 30 centimeters wide and 20 centimeters high. Tong Yuheng opened it and smiled.
Inside were some gold, silver, jade, and jewelry items, with a layer of small yellow croakers at the bottom, numbering over thirty. There was also a bankbook with 3000 yuan in savings, but it was written in Sun Xianglan's name and bore her seal.
Haha! This isn't some kind of compensation left for me, is it? The seal is still here, I feel bad refusing the money!
But that matter has to be done tomorrow morning. Right now, I have to take care of something else.
She's going to tear down Grandpa's house! Ever since Grandpa was sent to the countryside, the Tong family's little courtyard has been empty. Everything inside has been ransacked; the yard is full of holes. Even the floor inside the house has been dug up, and the original kang (heated brick bed) has been dismantled and is now a mess. So no one lives there; it's been empty all this time.
When she saw her grandfather this time, he secretly told her the Tong family's secret: her great-grandmother had hidden gold bars, jewelry, and some valuable trinkets in the walls of her room and the partition, and no one had noticed that the wall was ten centimeters thicker than the normal partition wall.
Tong Yuheng sneaked into the house and dismantled the wall of the partition room. Without even picking through the pieces, he put the dismantled bricks and the bags of things into his spatial storage.
Then they pried open the roof beam, and the two rooms collapsed with a loud crash! The main beam also disappeared in an instant!
Tong Yuheng dashed away, needing to leave before anyone could react, creating an alibi. She quickly returned to Chen Liying's dormitory, warmed her hands and feet on the radiator, and gently slipped into bed, falling asleep back-to-back with Chen Liying.
Chen Liying's colleagues returned early in the morning. While they were still asleep, Tong Yuheng had actually been awake for a while and was organizing the things he had brought back yesterday in his spatial dimension.
Great-Grandma left behind a lot of things, at least more than ten times more than what Fan Dayong had stolen through his heinous crimes!
Grandpa said that Great-Grandma had said back then that she would leave these things to her, the eldest of her great-grandchildren, so that she could decide how to distribute them among her younger siblings. The eldest child has a great responsibility to take care of her younger siblings, so she should rightfully receive more inheritance.
She didn't hold any patriarchal views and didn't believe that all the Tong family's wealth should go to her grandson; after all, she, as the woman, had earned it all. Giving the lion's share to her great-granddaughter was perfectly reasonable!
Grandpa said that her mother and uncle didn't know about this; they only told her. He also told her not to tell her younger sisters. It's not a good thing for their family to be hiding these things right now. Too many people will talk, and it might leak out.
Tong Yuheng was not one to mistreat his sisters; he would give each of them a share as part of their dowry.
She got up first and told Chen Liying she was going home to pack her things. They weren't going to the train station until 7 p.m., so she didn't need to ask for leave to see them off.
After having breakfast at home, she asked her mother to go to the state-run restaurant to buy some food for the train journey, and then asked Yuyao to take her younger sisters to the park to take some photos as souvenirs. The camera was also obtained from that "money-grubber," and it even came with a few rolls of film.
She was all alone at home now. She packed up some things from the kitchen; this time, there really wasn't much left to take. Before Tong Jiahui even returned, people from the neighborhood committee arrived. They said her grandfather's house had collapsed, and someone had stolen a beam from their roof.
"Oh? Is that so? Do you know who stole it?" Tong Yuheng asked.
"Who knows? But it's your maternal grandfather's house after all. Let me ask you if you want to go and check it out, and whether you want to report it to the police?" The woman from the neighborhood committee was in her thirties, and she looked at her with a scrutinizing gaze.
"No need, my mom has already cut ties with my grandpa! Besides, that house has been dilapidated and uninhabitable for a long time, what's the point of us going there?"
Tong Yuheng dismissed the woman, his face turning cold. This woman, she must have heard some rumors too, right? Someone reported that the Tong family was wealthy, and she said the roof beam was missing—did she suspect there were gold and silver treasures hidden inside?
Hehe, let them go and track down that "thief" who stole the roof beam!
The roof beams in my great-grandmother's room were made of precious huanghuali wood, but they were disguised so that most people couldn't tell the difference. My grandfather said it was a pity that the beams couldn't be taken away; they might even be chopped up by the Red Guards for firewood. That was very valuable wood!
So Tong Yuheng set his sights on that roof beam and didn't forget to store it in his spatial storage as well. He decided not to demolish the other house that hadn't collapsed, since nothing was properly hidden inside. Besides, the simultaneous collapse of both houses would be too obviously deliberate, so he decided against it.
Refusing the request from the street staff to visit the collapsed building site, Tong Yuheng disguised herself as a stylish and arrogant woman, applied lipstick, made her face snow-white, wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses, and took Sun Xianglan's passbook and seal to the bank to withdraw money.
Before that, she had forged Sun Xianglan's signature on several pages of paper. The matter was handled very smoothly. The woman looked to be in her thirties, and even her mother would not recognize her if she suddenly saw her.
Tong Jiahui returned with a lot of food, and as soon as she entered the door, Tong Yuheng told her about her grandfather's house collapsing. Tong Jiahui remained silent for a long time. That was the place where she had lived as a child, filled with many memories. Now, before she had even left, the house had collapsed. Did this foreshadow that she could never go back to the way things were?
"Mom, don't overthink it. Isn't this great? Those people are making such a fuss that we can't stay here, and they can't stay here either. Isn't this good?" Tong Yuheng comforted her.
"Ugh... let's go, out of sight, out of mind!"
Compared to their mother's disappointment, the younger sisters were quite excited. They went ice skating and took pictures in the park, having a great time. At noon, each of them ate two steamed buns and then started packing the things they needed to bring.
Tong Jiahui didn't plan to publicize her family's departure. In the afternoon, she told the two neighboring families that she had given a key to someone from her work unit's housing management office, and the house would be allocated to someone else.
The letters of introduction, household registration certificates, and migration certificates issued by the educated youth office and the local police station were all kept with Tong Yuheng, and were only taken out when needed. Keeping them with her was the safest option.
After finishing dinner at the state-run restaurant, the family went back to pack their belongings and prepared to leave. Looking at the small courtyard where they had lived for over ten years, it was empty and there was nothing left for them to miss.
Home is where your loved ones are!