Lao Guo was an old man with a dark complexion, not tall, a bit limb while walking, plus a little hunchback. With such physical condition, he could not find any decent job suitable for him except guarding tombs here for the rich. And it paid well, with a handsome earning of 5,000 yuan per month. Where else would he be able to find such an easy job in his case?
Therefore, Lao Guo had always been responsible and diligent for the cleanup work of the whole cemetery, for fear that he might get fired if the Qin Family were not satisfied.
Lao Guo was once a farmer from the nearby village, which had already been exploited earlier. And strictly speaking, Lao Guo actually belonged to the relocation households in Beijing City, and they would probably receive a considerable sum of compensation for resettlements if their old houses were in the suburbs, let alone those in downtown areas. Holding so much money in hand, Lao Guo was supposed to enjoy his old age in peace with children gathering around, but why had he come here to guard tombs? Was he really such a hard-working man that he had been resolved to contribute the rest of his life to the society?
Apparently not. There were quite a few ins and outs, actually. Lao Guo’s sons and daughter were all ungrateful souls, who had deceived their father and taken all his money away and kicked him out at last. As no one had been willing to take care of the old man, Lao Guo had become lonely and helpless. Under this circumstance, he had been introduced to the tomb-guarding job by his fellow villagers when the job had shown up just in time. At that time, Lao Guo would pray for a job that could guarantee that he had enough to eat and wear, for which he would do anything, including excavating someone else’s coffins, if he could—let alone guarding tombs for the rich, with unexpected monthly pay.
As a result, Lao Guo had stuck to the job for quite a few years since then.
Coming back home with nothing else to do, Qin Sheng moved a chair out in the yard, poured two cups of tea he had just made for both of them and said, “Uncle Guo, have a try.”
Keeping all the mumbling to himself, Lao Guo dared not to taunt Qin Sheng to his face, for fear that he might be sacked by his master. Therefore, he took over the teacup with both hands and politely replied, “Xiao Qin, I’m a rough old man, and I’m not used to being called Uncle. Just call me Lao Guo.”
Qin Sheng showed his empathy after hearing what Lao Guo had said and ascribed it to the true quality of an ordinary honest man. He grinned and said, “All right. As I’m about to stay here for a month, I’ll call you Lao Guo, and you can call me Xiao Qin.”
“OK, OK, OK.” Lao Guo nodded with three OK in a row. Then he sipped at the tea that Qin Sheng had poured for him and complimented with admiration, “Great tea! I have never tasted anything refined like this before.”
Apparently, Qin Sheng knew clearly that such small favors were more useful than real money for ordinary people like him who would always fuss about these trivial things. The reason? Real money would foster his voracity, while small favors could last long. Therefore, Qin Sheng said straight after him, “I brought quite a few of it when I came, and I’ll leave it all to you when I’m gone.”
“Hahaha, that would be inappropriate.” Lao Guo turned down his proposal in words, but deep in his heart, he was thrilled.
Qin Sheng didn’t continue with the conversation of which they both had been fully aware. Socializing with different people was such an interesting work that could season his life with all kinds of joy and fun.
It was such a lovely day today. The sun was shining warmly through half the mountain top, and unnamed were birds singing in the forest while the spring water was floating from not far beyond. Qin Sheng read a book over a cup of tea and gradually dozed off in nature’s peace and quiet.
Soon, it was lunch-time. Qin Ran had suggested sending up there a chef to cook, especially for them, but she had been turned down by Qin Sheng, without any hesitation. Then Qin Ran had suggested delivering meals at regular hours every day and had been turned down by Qin Sheng, again, saying that he could not get used to being served by others like this, and would prefer cooking all by himself.
Qin Ran had wanted to say something more but was interrupted by Qin Sheng. “Sis, you really don’t need to keep your eyes on me during this period. I am old enough to take good care of myself, and if I do need help, I will call you.”
Qin Ran had meant well for her younger brother, for fear that he might suffer from the bed conditions here. But now that Qin Sheng had firmly refused several times, she would probably let it go.
Lao Guo had always been preparing meals by himself. With all the daily necessities and pots and pans ready at hands, he only needed to shop in the market nearby and return to cook, which he had gotten quite used to.
While lunch-time was approaching soon today, Lao Guo was not sure about Qin Sheng’s arrangement. Thus, he had to ask him by saying, “Xiao Qin, I will go prepare for our lunch. You can keep reading.”
It was not until now that Qin Sheng came around. He rose quickly from his chair and said, “Lao Guo, I will cook from today on, and I’ll leave the shopping, washing, and cleaning-up all to you. But I’ll be on vegetarian diets during the mourning period, and I will cover all the expenses for your extra meals from the nearby restaurant if you can’t get used to it.”
Lao Guo was caught off guard when he heard that and refused hastily. “I can’t do that.”
“That’s the deal.” Qin Sheng put down his book, followed Lao Guo into the kitchen, and said, “Show me what we’ve got right now, and we will have to make do with that. I will write you a menu later for your reference when you go shopping this afternoon.”
It was both unexpected and uneasy for Lao Guo to accept the extra favor from Qin Sheng. What surprised him more was the fact that the rich young man could even cook. The only thing he wasn’t sure about was how good it tasted.
40 minutes later, Qin Sheng successfully made three dishes and a bowl of soup out of the materials in hand, in which the soup was simply made of tomatoes and eggs. After a taste of it, Lao Guo was astonished by the dishes on the table, and he could not help giving his thumbs-up and praising. “Yummy! Xiao Qin, I have never thought that you were such a good cooker. I’m about to get a great feast today.”
Qin Sheng grinned and said, “Then you shall enjoy your lunch as you wish.”
When the lunch was over, Qin Sheng went to unpack his luggage in his room. He then walked the way up to his mom’s tomb and began talking to her when Lao Guo had gone shopping.
The limited hours spent over the old house the last time had given him just a short stay. But now Qin Sheng could well use this one month, which was long enough for him to talk with his mom about what had happened over the past 20 years or so. That was in order to assure her of her son’s well-being, allowing her to rest finally in peace.
For the rest of the month, Lao Guo had been getting along extremely well with Qin Sheng and began to grow an impression better than ever. He could hardly pick any flaws on the young man, and what he saw from him had totally changed his stereotype view on those rich kids—he had always believed that those rich kids, like Qin Sheng, were totally spoiled. He presumed that the young man was just posing to be obedient and would leave soon before he could long withstand the hardship.
However, Qin Sheng’s behavior had stunned Lao Guo quite a lot. Besides cooking, Qin Sheng also did the laundry. He washed all his clothes all by himself, together with Lao Guo’s, too, without extra effort.
Meanwhile, Qin Sheng would take the initiative in all the physical labor and the errands, without troubling Lao Guo, which gave him a sense of illusion that Qin Sheng had come here to enjoy rather than guarding tombs. Qin Sheng was far better a son than those of his, who were definitely ungrateful souls. Why wasn’t he lucky enough to have a son like him? It had been the most comfortable days in all his tomb-guarding years, except that it lasted only for one month.
Qin Sheng led a regular life there, almost the same as he did back in Xiamen. In the morning, he would get up and run through a rugged mountain road, which was nothing difficult because he had always been doing so back in Zhongnan Mountain when he had been little. He would practice shadowboxing after jogging for an hour, and when he would return, the breakfast would be just ready for him.
After breakfast, Qin Sheng would go see his mom with joss papers and fresh flowers sent from Qin Changan, who had been persisting in sending flowers at exactly 8 a.m. every day, with alterations never the same in a week. Half or one hour of accompanying his mom, Qin Sheng would stroll back and begin to prepare for the lunch, later after which, he would read over a cup of tea. In the afternoon, he would roam around the way down to the hills with Lao Guo, hoes, and shovels in hand, taking care of those wildflowers and grass. In the evening after supper, Qin Sheng would stay inside, reading and studying, and take a nice shower before going to bed. As he woke up at 7’o clock sharp in the morning, a brand-new day had come.
Sometimes, Qin Sheng would idle around with Lao Guo, not too far, getting familiar with the surroundings. He was also planning to climb the Great Wall one of these days.
Half a month soon passed by before one knew it. As the Spring Festival was approaching, there was a growing festivity atmosphere pervading in villages nearby, and that depressed Lao Guo a little bit.
That afternoon, Qin Sheng was having tea time with Lao Guo in the sun, and he asked casually, “Lao Guo, since I’ve been here for nearly half a month, why haven’t I seen your children visiting you even once? Or do you have no children?”
Upon hearing this, Lao Guo put down the teacup, lit a cigar, heaved a long sigh, and explained, “Sure I have. Two sons and one daughter. Unfortunately, they are all ungrateful souls. Otherwise, I would not have had to end up homeless, guarding tombs for you. I can fully enjoy my leisure if they don’t come back at me. Every time they showed up, they asked for nothing but my money. As for my two sons, they are nothing but total bastards who would beat me if I didn’t give them the money. Sometimes I wondered what had I done in my previous life to end up with such punishment by dear God. How I wish to have a son like you, in that case, it would be worth living my whole life.”
Qin Sheng frowned over his words, and he asked in curiosity, “Tell me about it. See if I can help.”
Lao Guo then told Qin Sheng about the ins and outs of his family all through the years as he had nothing to do right now.
Qin Sheng finally figured out the whole thing after hearing this ten-minute story of Lao Guo. He hadn’t expected that such an honest man had been living such a miserable life. Shame on those bastards. “The old man had exerted all his time and energy to raise you guys up, and when he needs your support for the rest of his life, and yet you’re so cruel to him.”
Qin Sheng squinted and said, “Lao Guo, I’ll figure out some ways later to wreck them a little bit. I won’t let them walk away from that easily.” He had tons of methods to deal with such scums.
Lao Guo refused in a careless way. “Don’t bother. I have gotten used to it long ago. I’ll be just fine as long as they leave me alone.”
They were hitting it off so well over the past half month that they had brought up these family issues. In return, Lao Guo asked, “Xiao Qin, I have long had this question for you that I don’t know whether I should ask you or not. Ignore me if you don’t feel like talking.”
“Go ahead and ask. I don’t have anything to hide,” said Qin Sheng carelessly.
Lao Guo started to talk slowly. “Being here for years, I have known most of your relatives from both the Qin Family and Zhu Family. But it was the first time I met you and learned that you are the son of the lady down there. Why hadn’t you come even once over the past years?”
“So that’s what it is about.” Qin Sheng replied with a bitter smile on his face. “You told your story, then I’ll tell you mine.”
Therefore, Qin Sheng briefed the weird story of his to Lao Guo, in a much simpler way. Lao Guo was shocked at the young man’s experiences, which were even more peculiar than his.
Lao Guo lost himself in Qin Sheng’s story until it was finished several minutes later. He sighed while shaking his head. “I see. No wonder I’ve never seen you before. Life is hard for both of us, except that you are luckier than me as you can relax and enjoy the rest of your life.”
With a faint smile flashed across his face, Qin Sheng said nothing more. A normal day had just gone smoothly away, with nothing special happening.
The next day, a stranger came uninvited. Qin Sheng didn’t expect to bump into one of those “leading actors” from Lao Guo’s story yesterday.
He had planned to look for Lao Guo’s sons and daughter later someday to have a little chat about life principles. Now it couldn’t be better since they had delivered themselves up to his doorstep today.
