Chapter 32: Things Left by Grandma

“Hurry up and eat. After we’re done, let’s see what usable things are in the house.  Even if we do split up, someone like Lei Honghua won’t give us anything. 

Let’s pick out what we want while they’re gone. Pots, pans, farm tools, buckets… let’s choose some now, otherwise, when we need them, we won’t be able to buy them in time,” Qiao Jiangxin said.

Qiao Youfu and his brother exchanged glances and sped up their eating.

They’d already slaughtered the pigs and sold the grain; a house raid wouldn’t make much difference.

Their reputations were already ruined, but Qiao Jiuwang and Lei Honghua’s reputations were even worse.

It didn’t matter anymore.

After eating, everyone got busy.

Qiao Youcai went to the storeroom, where the farm tools were kept.  Farm tools were essential for farmers.

When the collective farms disbanded, the tools were distributed, and Qiao Jiuwang bought more later, so they had plenty.

Five sickles, he’d pick two good ones.

One four-pronged cultivator, one three-pronged.  He’d choose the four-pronged one; the other was too heavy for his aging father.

Hoes, carrying poles, baskets…

In Lei Honghua’s bedroom…

Liu Afang held a piece of cloth to her chest. “This is it, my sister-in-law gave it to me.”

“I asked her for it several times, and she always said she couldn’t find it.  She clearly hid it in the cupboard.”

Qiao Jiangxin looked at the coarse red cloth with plum blossoms printed on it.

Liu Afang explained, “After you were born, I was pregnant again. Your aunt came to see me, but I wasn’t home, so she gave this cloth to Lei Honghua to pass on to me.

The year I got married, your aunt had a baby, and my mother gave me some cloth, but we didn’t have any extra cloth coupons. 

I couldn’t let my newborn nephew be naked, so I gave up my cloth. Your aunt remembered, and after many years, she finally managed to get enough cloth to send me.”

While they were talking, Qiao Youfu entered.

“Jiangxin, have you seen a grey box?” Qiao Youfu asked, looking at the open wardrobe.

Qiao Jiangxin shook her head. “What box?”

Qiao Youfu scratched his head.  “My mother had a box. She said it was left by my grandfather. Inside were a pair of green jade earrings and two gold bracelets.”

“Last year, when talking about Widow Zhang, I asked Grandpa to sell the bracelets; Mom must have wanted me to get married. 

He agreed, then the next day said they weren’t gold, they were copper, worthless. 

But even if they were copper, they were Mom’s, and I wanted them.”

Qiao Jiangxin thought, “Were there characters of ‘Fu Lu Shou Xi’ (fortune, prosperity, longevity, happiness) engraved on them?”

Qiao Youfu shook his head. “I don’t know, but there were small squares on both bracelets, with characters inside that I couldn’t read.”

Qiao Jiangxin understood. That’s right.

In her previous life, she had seen them on Li Xiaoping and Qiao Jianguo’s wife, supposedly Lei Honghua’s dowry, one for each daughter-in-law.

She even saw Li Xiaoping showing them off to the new brides in the village.

Clearly, Qiao Jiuwang was lying. If they were copper, would Lei Honghua have hidden them for so long and passed them down to her daughters-in-law?

The more she thought about it, the more she realized Qiao Jiuwang was a terrible person.

Last time, it was her brother; this time, her uncle and father were his own sons!  Even in that situation, he could bear to keep those gold bracelets, not fearing his grandmother’s ghost.

They were his mother’s dowry, meant for her children.

Those two old geezers were shameless.

“Turn everything over. If we can’t find it, we’ll use hoes to dig.  It’s such a small room, it must be here. It’s Grandma’s dowry; we can’t let Lei Honghua have it.”

The three of them immediately started searching the room.

Liu Afang and Qiao Youfu searched the cupboards; Qiao Jiangxin searched the bed.

But they couldn’t find the box her uncle described.

Disappointed, Qiao Youfu went to Qiao Jianguo’s room, and Liu Afang went to check the bedding.

Unwilling to give up, Qiao Jiangxin carefully examined the room. It was a large room with a loft upstairs. Downstairs, half was taken up by a bed, and the other half had a wardrobe, chests, and baskets for drying clothes.

The entire room was easily visible.  She glanced at the floor and bent down to look under the bed.

Several jars of pickled vegetables were under the bed.

Lei Honghua wouldn’t leave them outside for fear of someone stealing them, so they were always kept under her bed.

Qiao Jiangxin pulled out the jars one by one. In later TV shows, landlords hid valuables under the bed or in brick cracks. Maybe Lei Honghua did the same.

Eight or nine jars; the outer five contained vegetables, the inner ones seemed empty, dry, and covered with boards and cobwebs.

She checked the floor; nothing.

As Qiao Jiangxin pulled out the empty jars to check the wall behind them, she noticed something wrong with the innermost jar.

She carefully lifted it out, removed the covering, and opened the lid.

Something was inside.

She reached in and pulled out two waterproof oil-paper packages.

One contained the palm-sized grey box her uncle described.

Inside were a pair of bright green jade earrings, a dark ring, and two gold bracelets engraved with “Fu Lu Shou Xi.”

Qiao Jiangxin picked up the other oil-paper package; it was heavy.

She carefully opened it; inside was another tightly wrapped oil-paper package.

She opened that, revealing yellowed newspaper.

Under the newspaper were neatly stacked silver dollars and two small gold bars.

Cursing inwardly, Qiao Jiangxin took everything out.

She found six or seven broken small wine cups in the kitchen, stacked them, and carefully returned the silver and gold to their original state.

For the other oil-paper package, she found two rotten pieces of wood covered in pig dung from the pigsty and used them to repack it.

She returned everything to its place, tidied the bed and wardrobe, and left the room with her loot.