The boy dared not cry anymore and stood there with his head lowered.
After a while, the man ca out. The two did look very much alike; to outsiders, they were father and son.
Only, the roles of father and son needed to be switched.
Liu Jinxia and Li Juxiang also ca out and saw the father and son off the dam.
"Brother Binbin." Li Zhiyuan pointed in the direction where the father and son were heading, "Follow them for a bit and observe, but don’t get noticed."
"Understood."
Although he didn’t understand why, Tan Wenbin still followed them. He was the type who could easily get absorbed in the atmosphere.
"Have so soda." Li Juxiang brought over a crate of soda and placed it on the dam.
Li Zhiyuan asked, "Aunt Xiang Hou, what was their visit about just now?"
"That man’s wife passed away a year ago. They are preparing a modest morial service for her and invited and Grandma Cui to host the ceremony at their ho."
A modest morial service ant conducting the rituals without a feast, typically just the family burning so offerings.
"It’s strange though, to invite you but not host a feast."
"Maybe he doesn’t get along well with the villagers and couldn’t manage to host one, that man, he has a bit of a weird temper."
"What happened?"
"When Grandma Cui asked about so specific details, he couldn’t answer. After she asked a few more tis, he seed aggrieved and almost cried, a grown man acting like that, tsk tsk."
"Aunt Xiang Hou, can we not go to his house for the service?"
"How could we not go? We’ve already taken the money."
Tan Wenbin hurried back, frowning as he spoke to Li Zhiyuan, "Brother Xiao Yuan, guess what I just saw. They hadn’t walked far when the father actually handed his son a cigarette to light up."
"Oh." Li Zhiyuan wasn’t particularly surprised, "Did you hear what they were talking about?"
"It was difficult to get close on the road. They ca on a tractor, which was parked at the crossroads ahead, and now they’ve left."
Li Zhiyuan walked into the house and pushed open the door to the back room, where Liu Jinxia sat behind a table, busy with so calculations.
"Little Yuanhou, what’s up?"
Li Zhiyuan approached the table and glanced at the eight characters written on the paper in front of Liu Jinxia. He picked up another pen and wrote down the result.
Liu Jinxia glanced at it and asked, puzzled, "What are you writing randomly?"
Obviously, Liu Jinxia did not recognize the correct answer; she’d always been calculating using her own thods, whether they were correct or not was secondary, it was more about the effort and intention.
"Grandma Liu, are those two really father and son?"
"If not father and son, what else could they be? Their faces are practically carved out of the sa mold. It’s such a pity for that child, losing his mother so early."
"Grandma Liu, the man is the son, and the boy is actually the father. He must be at least fifty years old. He has dwarfism."
"Dwarfism?"
"It’s when soone doesn’t grow tall."
"Oh... really?"
"Just now, Brother Binbin followed them and overheard their conversation. The man called the child ’Dad’, and the child called the man ’his good son.’
I didn’t believe it at first, but Brother Binbin swore to God that’s what they said."
"This..."
"So, if the father-son roles are reversed, what’s this morial service for the woman all about?"
"Yeah."
"Grandma Liu, just to be safe, maybe you shouldn’t go with Aunt Xiang Hou. You should return the money to them."
Liu Jinxia nodded slowly, with a serious expression:
"Alright."
Her agreent caught Li Zhiyuan off guard and made him uncomfortable.
Perhaps it was because he’d spent too much ti with Grandmaster, he was used to Grandmaster never listening to him.
"Are you really not going? You’re not just fobbing off a child here?"
Liu Jinxia opened a drawer, took out the newly received money, and slapped it on the table, indignantly saying:
"The family relationship they provided was all wrong. It’s clear there’s a problem with their intent to hold a morial service. How could I possibly bring Aunt Xiang Hou to their house? Who knows what might happen.
Only a fool would go!"
Li Zhiyuan felt a wave of relief wash over him.
"Little Yuanhou, thank you for telling grandma all this."
"Grandma Liu, shouldn’t you ask Brother Binbin or find out more about them in their village?"
"No need, our line of work values smooth and auspicious operations the most. Even if everything you said was made up, you, this clever child, ca to right after I accepted the job, and even if it’s false... I wouldn’t dare to go.
I only have this one life left and I hope to live a few more years to save up for Aunt Xiang Hou and Cui Cui in the future. I’m not like your Grandmaster who dares to do reckless things."
Li Zhiyuan nodded; he strongly agreed with her.
Bidding farewell to Cui Cui and as he headed ho, Li Zhiyuan was in a good mood, swinging the girl’s hand unconsciously.
Soon, the girl responded as well, joining in and swinging their hands together.
Tan Wenbin looked back and suggested, "Brother Yuan, it’s still early. I saw so fishing rods at ho, how about we go fishing now?"
"No."
"Oh, then I’ll go with Run Sheng."
Run Sheng: "I’m not going either."
"I notice you just parrot whatever Brother Yuan says. You really are like a little follower."
"I didn’t call him ’brother’."
Tan Wenbin: "..."
When they got ho, they saw Li Sanjiang sitting on the dam. Standing up, he said to Run Sheng, "Run Sheng, the general store just called. There’s work to be done, let’s go to Xiting Town to retrieve a corpse."
"Ah, alright, huh? Didn’t my granddad go to retrieve it?"
Run Sheng’s family was from Xiting Town, and normally his grandfather would have taken care of any corpses.
"This just gets angry, I only found out from the phone call too. Last week, after playing cards, your granddad was going to use the neighbor’s toilet and fell into the cesspit. It was only because the neighbor heard the noise that they fished him out.
Although he’s fine, he broke a leg.
That Shan Pao felt too embarrassed to say anything, and actually kept it from us!"
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