After coming out, Wang Qingsong furrowed his brows.

His cotton shoes had gotten damp from walking all day, making his feet feel icy cold and somewhat painful.

Ignoring this, he went to the team committee and found Zhao Datian.

Seeing him, Zhao Datian glanced at him and asked, “How did it go? Did you go to the hospital?”

“Yes, I did.”

“What did they say?”

“They prescribed some soybeans and a bit of protein meat. They said eating those should pretty much fix it.”

Hearing this, Zhao Datian sighed. This situation was actually the same throughout the entire village.

The team also had soybeans, but those were the village’s seed grain and absolutely couldn’t be touched. If they were, trouble would surely follow.

There are so many people in the village!
And there’s still the planting task for next year.

Taking a puff from his pipe, he asked, “So what did you come for? I’ll go to the commune tomorrow about your household registration, and I’ll get it stamped for you then.”

“Oh, I came to borrow a shovel and a sickle to tidy up Old Wang Xi’s house.”

Zhao Datian nodded upon hearing this: “Alright, the custodian isn’t here, so I’ll get them for you. Remember to return them after you’re done.”

After saying this, he got up and led him out.

They arrived at the door of a brick-tile house in the courtyard, where Zhao Datian unlocked the door with a key.

Inside were various farming tools.

Wang Qingsong picked up a shovel and a sickle, then smiled at Zhao Datian: “Third Grandpa, could I also borrow a box of matches? I’ll return it once I get my own.”

Each household was allotted only one box per month.

His family’s matches were naturally with Sun Xiuhe.

Actually, in the city, you didn’t need a ticket, but each purchase was limited to one box. He had forgotten to buy some during his last trip to the city because of his second brother’s issues.

Although the city limited the purchase quantity, it didn’t restrict the locations.

There are so many shops in the city!
Some villagers also went to the city to buy matches and resell them, and quite a few had been caught.

Zhao Datian smiled and took out a box of matches from his pocket, handing it to him: “Here, take it. No need to return it. Once your household registration is settled, you’ll be able to get match tickets too.”

There were only a few matches left inside, and the cover was already worn soft.

“Thanks, Third Grandpa.”

Wang Qingsong thanked him.

Then he took the items and left.

Returning to Old Wang Xi’s yard, he set the sickle aside and took the shovel to survey the yard.

It looked somewhat dilapidated; the earthen brick walls had weathered in many places and were overgrown with withered grass.

He wasn’t in a hurry to start working.

Treading on the snow and dead grass at the entrance, he walked into the house.

Looking at the doors that had fallen to either side, he decided not to bother with them for now. He would find the village carpenter to fix them later.

There was no other way.

This wasn’t a mountainous area; most of the nearby trees had been cut down a few years ago for fuel during the steel-making campaign. The trees around now had only grown in the last three years.

They weren’t very big.

If he were to buy wood, the cost would be very high.

If absolutely necessary, he would have to apply to cut down some of the smaller trees.

Buying was definitely out of the question; everything was done by hiring people. In the countryside, who would buy a door? Only the very wealthy would do that!

Once inside, he looked at the empty main room.

Only the incense table at the far end remained untouched; everything else was gone.

It was obvious that the villagers had taken them.

He went to the door where the incident had occurred and examined it closely.

It was an ordinary wooden door with a Bagua mirror attached to it.

This was similar to the one above the main entrance, not uncommon in the countryside as Bagua mirrors are believed to ward off evil spirits.

However, this one was a bronze Bagua mirror.

It had developed a layer of green patina.

Probably because they couldn’t afford a regular mirror, they had used an old bronze Bagua mirror instead.

Wang Qingsong didn’t pay much attention to it and continued to look around.

But after a while, he couldn’t find anything particularly unusual.

After hesitating for a moment, he finally stepped into the room.

It was the same inside.

Apart from a kang, there was no other furniture, except for some withered weeds growing out of the cracks between the bricks.

Nothing else was there.

He took the shovel and cut down the taller withered weeds.

There were a few spots inside with snow, which had fallen through holes in the roof.

After a few quick shovels, the inside looked much more open.

Looking around and finding nothing suspicious, he turned and left, heading to the adjacent room.

It was the same situation as the previous room.

Only a kang remained, but this one was a real heated kang, unlike the previous one which was just a simple kang.

This was a local custom.

Having two kangs in a house.

One was a regular earthen kang, and the other was a heated kang.

During the hot summer, they would sleep on both sides, but in winter, they would gather on the heated kang to save firewood.

Gathering enough firewood for an entire winter wasn’t easy.

Every winter during the farming off-season, when corn cobs and corn stalks weren’t enough, they had to go out and gather more firewood.

After tidying up this area a bit, he took a pile of the cut weeds outside.

Back in the main room, he opened the stove’s bottom panel.

He stuffed the dried weeds inside, took out the matches the captain had given him, opened the box, and found about a dozen matchsticks inside.

He took one out and started striking it.

After being used so many times, the matchbox’s striking surface had become soft, and it took several tries before the match lit.

Carefully, he lit the dried weeds under the stove.

A thick smoke emerged, but it soon dissipated, and the fire began to burn slowly.

Seeing this, Wang Qingsong felt relieved.

The smoke wasn’t backing up, which meant the chimney was functioning properly and wasn’t blocked.

Earlier, he had noticed that apart from some minor cracks, the kang wasn’t collapsing.

There were no cracks emitting smoke, indicating no fissures, so it should work fine.

After adding a bit more dried weeds, he quickly ran outside to check.

He saw white smoke rising from the chimney, faint because there wasn’t much firewood.

“Hmm, cooking won’t be a problem.”

Wang Qingsong muttered to himself, then went back inside to the kang and examined it for a while.

No smoke was coming from the cracks, so it should be fine.

The temperature probably hadn’t risen yet.

Assured that the room was livable, he finally felt at ease and returned to the yard.

He could cook and heat the kang.

All that was left was to fix the roof and gradually furnish the house, and it would become a new home.

Wang Qingsong shoveled the withered grass in the yard, muttering to himself: “Old Wang Xi was really wealthy, even laying bricks inside the house, just like a landlord’s house.”

As he worked, he listened for any sounds from the house.

He went in several times to check, but there was no reaction at all.

He wondered if his ability to pass through was related to the “ghost sounds” he had heard before.

That was the only connection he could think of.

Otherwise, he really couldn’t figure it out.

He cleared a lot of the withered grass from the yard, piling it up in a corner to deal with later.

“Maybe it only works when it’s almost dark?”

Pondering this, he thought of Widow Feng, who lived closest, and quickly put down his tools and ran back.

Xiao Zao was inside sewing clothes.

Widow Feng and Xiao Mai were asleep on the kang.

“Xiao Zao, I need to ask you something.”

Arriving, he quickly whispered to Xiao Zao.

Seeing him so anxious, Xiao Zao was puzzled: “What is it?”

“I want to ask, since you live so close, have you ever heard any sounds from Old Wang Xi’s house?”

Living so close for so many years, they must have heard something.

“Yes, I have! Why?”

Hearing this, Wang Qingsong was thrilled and quickly asked: “What time? Do you remember?”

Xiao Zao made a thinking gesture, then said: “I’ve encountered it twice, once at noon after school, and once in the afternoon when I went out to play.”

This made Wang Qingsong’s eyes light up, and he eagerly asked: “Do you remember the exact time?”

Hearing this, Xiao Zao shook her head: “I don’t know that.”

Wang Qingsong was disappointed.

But he understood; apart from the Team leader’s old watch, no one else in the production team had a watch.

Everyone judged the time by the sun.

He then pondered; his experience had been near dusk, Xiao Zao mentioned noon and afternoon, and the rumors he had heard before mentioned both night and day.

So there was no pattern at all!
What was going on?