Chapter 68

Yin Xiaoman’s heart grew colder and colder, and even her fingertips turned icy.

“Did all of this happen after you moved into my house?” It took her a while before she finally managed to ask with difficulty.

“Yes. Eh, no.”

Li Fang had just answered when she suddenly realized something was off.

She quickly explained, “Sister Xiaoman, do you think that the cause of our problem was your house, right? How could that be possible? If there really is a problem, it would be with us, what does it have to do with your house? Before we moved in, your whole family lived there for so many years, and nothing ever happened, right? Aiya, Sister Xiaoman, please don’t overthink it. If I’d known this would happen, I wouldn’t have told you.”

Her tone was full of regret. It was clear from her voice that she was speaking sincerely and not just brushing things off.

“No, I’m not overthinking.”

Yin Xiaoman shook her head. “I just think it’s a little strange. So many things happening all at once—it’s hard not to find it suspicious.”

“It really is strange.” Li Fang also nodded.

Then, as if on instinct, she glanced around, and leaned in close to Yin Xiaoman’s ear, whispering, “Sister Xiaoman, do you believe in feng shui?”

Yin Xiaoman lifted her head.

“Aiya, I was just saying, just talking nonsense.”

These days, words like that were too sensitive—Li Fang clearly regretted it the moment she spoke. When Yin Xiaoman stayed silent, she panicked and tried to explain.

“I believe.”

Yin Xiaoman looked at her. “Everything has its cause. Things that have been passed down since ancient times, all the way to today, must have a reason for existing. I believe in it.”

Hearing that, Li Fang’s eyes suddenly turned red.

When she looked at Yin Xiaoman again, her expression became noticeably more intimate than before.

She rubbed her eyes. “My grandfather used to believe in these things a lot. Our family had many books on the topic, like The Book of Changes. When my mom got married, he gave them all to her. But since my older brother didn’t believe in any of it, my mom ended up giving them all to me later on.”

“A few years ago during the revolution, my dad forced me to burn all of those books—he didn’t let me keep a single one. But ever since I was little, I had already memorized everything in them.”

“Sister, I’ve never told anyone this before, but I discovered that in the back part of Shuanggui Village, someone has left marks.”

“The Educated Youth Station keeps having incidents, and I’ve always suspected it has something to do with those marks.”

“What marks?” At this point, Yin Xiaoman was genuinely confused.

Previously, she had always believed that her dreams were connected to her father’s background, that those people who were rummaging around in their home were searching for something her father had hidden.

But she had never once dreamed of any kind of marks.

What was going on here?

“I’m not quite sure how to describe it,” Li Fang said hesitantly.

“It’s like… some of the stones along the road have clearly been moved, some trees have had their branches cut. And on the flat ground, there are a lot of strange little holes that have been dug. They’re all small details, easy to miss. Anyone looking at them individually wouldn’t notice anything odd.

But to me, it all seems intentional. I don’t know if someone’s trying to set up some kind of formation, or if they’re leaving signals for someone.”

Li Fang’s words made Yin Xiaoman’s heart skip a beat, and her expression turned instantly serious.

Although this girl wasn’t young anymore, she had gone straight to the countryside after graduating and hadn’t interacted with many people. Her thinking was relatively simple.

To her, those marks might look like some kind of feng shui arrangement. But to Yin Xiaoman’s ears, they sounded more like coded symbols left by some kind of organization.

She had spent a long time in the military; no matter what else she had learned, things like confidentiality protocols and methods used by spies were something the families of military personnel had been organized to study thoroughly.

Especially back when she was at Vanguard Camp, Yin Xiaoman had personally taken part in operations to capture enemy agents.

Li Fang’s account triggered her instincts immediately—it was no longer just a private matter related to her family. There was a strong possibility this was tied to something much bigger.

“Have you told anyone else about this?” Her tone finally turned serious.

Li Fang shook her head, looking a bit puzzled. “No? I’m just guessing, who would I even tell?”

“Good.”

Yin Xiaoman stood up and said to her, “Li Fang, I’ve got something urgent to take care of right now, so I can’t keep you. I’ve made some nice food these past couple of days—come over for a meal sometime, okay?”

Hearing that, Li Fang naturally didn’t insist on staying. She got up right away and took her leave.

After seeing Li Fang off, Yin Xiaoman didn’t return to the house. Instead, she went straight to the Research Team’s laboratory to find Elder Hua.

She had already made up her mind on the way there—this matter absolutely had to be reported to the organization. But before that, she needed to discuss it with her own people first.

When she arrived at Elder Hua’s office and had just begun to speak, Elder Hua immediately interrupted her.

He led Yin Xiaoman to a more concealed location—a special office used exclusively for confidential meetings. Without proper clearance, no one was allowed to enter.

Elder Hua then sent someone to fetch Shen Qingyun, and it was only after he arrived that Elder Hua let Yin Xiaoman continue.

Yin Xiaoman recounted everything Li Fang had said, word for word. She especially emphasized the experiences of the female educated youths and the marks in the back part of the village that Li Fang had mentioned.

Then she opened a cloth bag she had been carrying, and took out a wooden box left behind by her father—the one she had never shown anyone before.

“This was left by my father. I only discovered it by accident after he passed away. I haven’t been able to find the key to the box, so I’ve never opened it. I’ve never told anyone about this box before because I’ve always had a feeling there was something… off about it.

Later on, the reason I rushed to join the army family camp, and why I was so eager to lend our house to the brigade as the Educated Youth Station, was all because I was afraid this box would bring disaster to me…”

Yin Xiaoman spoke openly, revealing all her thoughts to the two people in front of her—everything, except the memories and dreams.

She had thought things through clearly. It was time to speak.

If she were to name the people she trusted most in this world, it would be the two in front of her.

One was her man, and the other was, as far as she knew, her only remaining relative. And she could feel—genuinely feel—that both of them were completely sincere toward her.

Yin Xiaoman’s words left both of them deeply shocked.

Shen Qingyun felt—finally, the case was solved.

What he had never been able to understand was why his wife had suddenly changed her mind—from being firmly against joining the military family camp to suddenly being desperate to go?

Now that he had seen the box, that question was answered instantly.

He also thought back to the time before he had returned to Vanguard Camp—how his wife had already written a letter back, taking care of the house issue in advance, and how beautifully she had resolved it all.

It was almost as if she had the ability to foresee the future.

It all seemed to come down to this box.

Its existence had always been a lingering shadow in her heart, keeping her in a state of constant fear and hypervigilance.

Thinking of that, he gently took Yin Xiaoman’s hand. His heart was aching for her.

Elder Hua, on the other hand, was shaken for a very different reason—he had never known about the existence of this box.

At least, his own wife didn’t have anything like this.

He ran his hand over the antique, clearly aged wooden box, then examined the delicate little lock carefully.

And he realized—Xiaoman was right. The box and the lock were too intricately crafted. Without the key, it would be impossible to open it without causing damage.

He looked up at Yin Xiaoman, and in that moment, he was certain—there was no need to say it aloud. This girl would never allow anyone to destroy something her father had left behind.

“Do you think those people were looking for this box?” he asked after a brief moment of contemplation.

Yin Xiaoman fell silent for a moment, then shook her head.

“I used to think so, but now I’m not so sure.”

She turned to Shen Qingyun. “You know that open field behind the village, right? It’s not that close to my house. If they were looking for the box, shouldn’t they be searching in my house? Why go to the back of the village? Why leave marks?”

Her words made Elder Hua’s pupils contract sharply. He abruptly cut off their conversation, his voice urgent: “What do the marks look like?… Where’s that Li Fang? Qingyun, go—go now, find her yourself!”

Shen Qingyun had never seen Elder Hua lose his composure like this. He didn’t even dare to ask questions—he just stood up and rushed out.

He hadn’t even left the room when Elder Hua could no longer sit still. He got to his feet and began pacing back and forth, clearly struggling to keep his emotions in check.

Yin Xiaoman watched him silently, not daring to ask anything.

Instead, after pacing for a while, Elder Hua let out a long sigh, then turned to Yin Xiaoman with a complicated look in his eyes. His voice was heavy with guilt as he said, “If I’m not mistaken, Xiaoman, this trouble may have been brought about by me… not by that box of yours.”

Yin Xiaoman immediately sat up straight.

“Uncle—what did you just say?”

She couldn’t help blurting out the title she had always kept hidden in her heart—it just came out in her shock.

Elder Hua’s words completely overturned everything she had believed until now.

All those dreams, and now the things Li Fang had said earlier today—she had been trying to piece it all together, going over the connections again and again. But no matter how hard she thought, she never could have imagined that this would somehow be tied to Elder Hua.

Hearing the way she addressed him, Elder Hua’s expression grew even more pained. His face was filled with guilt.

“Back when we were at Vanguard Camp, I saw the wooden tag you wore around your neck, remember? I asked you about your parents.”

Yin Xiaoman nodded. “I remember.”

“Everything you told me—your place of origin, your age—none of it matched your father’s records. But that tag… it was unmistakably from the Jiang family. That’s what confused me. I couldn’t make sense of it. In the end, I had no choice. I sent someone to your place of birth to investigate.

Looking back now, maybe I didn’t handle it carefully enough. Maybe I let something slip. And that’s how someone found out about you. Honestly, so much time has passed since then, I almost forgot about it. If you hadn’t just mentioned how the marks are nowhere near your house, I wouldn’t have thought of this angle at all.”

“I agree now too. This doesn’t look like some rebels learned about your father and came to your house searching for treasures. The way it’s happening feels more like an organized spy operation.”

Shen Qingyun was incredibly quick. As soon as Elder Hua finished speaking with Yin Xiaoman, he had already brought Li Fang in.

Li Fang, who had never experienced anything like this in her life, was especially frightened. Walking through such a long corridor and deep into the heart of the mountain, with the terrifying Battalion Commander Shen leading her…

By the time they reached the office, the poor girl’s face had turned pale from fear.

“Sister Xiaoman.”

When she saw Yin Xiaoman, it was as though she had found a savior. She quickly took two steps forward, bypassing Shen Qingyun, and rushed to Yin Xiaoman, tightly gripping her arm.

Her eyes were filled with desperation, almost on the verge of tears.

Noticing her anxiety, Elder Hua chuckled twice, then, with a kind smile, he pointed to a seat next to him and gently said, “Li Fang, don’t be afraid, there’s nothing to worry about. We brought you here today because we want to understand a few things.”