Chapter 35 2. Grandpa's unknown wife and children

In 1952, a new round of campaign against "huidaomen" was launched vigorously across the country. Grandfather seemed to have a premonition of something, one day after the church meeting, he left me alone.He walked up and down with his hands behind his back, as if he wanted to say something, but he hesitated several times. It's the first time I've seen him in this state after following my grandfather for so long.After a long time, he said to me: "Big head, if you have a chance, you can wash your hands and do something else." I was so frightened that I quickly knelt down, "Grandfather, I have never had a second heart! I will never betray you in my life! Grandpa!" At that time, the rumors were tight, and I thought Grandpa thought I was going to leave the stage.

The grandfather said desolately: "I'm serious, you entered the industry late, and you don't have any lives on your hands. After entering, you can still come out. Don't cheat anymore, live a good life! Live a normal life!" I said timidly: "Grandpa, the wind is tight, so I just skip the stage, and come back after the wind has passed." Grandpa shook his head, "You don't understand, you don't understand." After a long silence, the grandfather said: "Big head, there is something..." At this point, the grandfather paused, his voice trembling.

I listened quietly, and my heart jumped when I heard it. At the end of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945, my grandfather went to Shandong for antiques. My grandfather likes to collect. There is news that there is a dragon-carved jade birch from the Qianlong period there to sell.It rained heavily that year, and my grandfather suffered from severe rheumatism. The next day in Shandong, his legs hurt so badly that he couldn't lift them up.Later, through the introduction of a local antique dealer, he invited a female doctor to give him acupuncture and moxibustion. Grandfather said: "Some doctors give you needles, want to take off all your clothes and still can't find the acupuncture points, but that girl, I was wearing a sweater at the time, she let me lie on my side on the kang, every needle was accurate!"

The grandfather said that he fell in love and planted the seeds. After the child was born, the woman took the child and stayed in Shandong alone.My grandfather appeared as an antique dealer in Shandong, and the local antique dealers also regarded him as the person in charge of the circle, so my grandfather told the woman that he was an out-and-out antique dealer.Since then, my grandfather has been going to Shandong every six months, and has been struggling to hide his identity. Only then did I understand why my grandfather sometimes went far away without his feet, and no one knew where he was going.Grandpa will tell us what we should know, and no one dares to ask what we should not know.

Those who are Po are not allowed to marry casually. If they want to marry, then that woman must also develop into Po.Otherwise, it's too dangerous.Because the human heart is the most difficult to control, if my wife knows that she is cheating, no one can guarantee that she will do anything. Therefore, if there are any marriages in the hall, they are all approved by the grandfather. After those women become Ah Bao, they usually play the role of "Zhafei", such as psychics, witches, Taoist nuns and so on.And grandpa, in everyone's eyes, never had a woman. This news is really a bolt from the blue. If the Batou people know that the grandfather still keeps such a trick, then it must be completely reversed. If someone proposes to cut the grandfather at this time, I don't think anyone will object.

The grandfather said: "It's not that I'm sorry for the brothers, I just want to leave a seed for the family. In the sixth year of the Republic of China, my family members all died. These years, I also want to live a peaceful life. There is no chance, you have, you have to make good use of the days to come." My grandfather told me that after his death, if I was still alive and the rumors were not tight, he would give me a chance to visit her mother and son.Speaking of this, the grandfather smiled, "It's a boy, the incense can continue." My grandfather also told me a secret: he buried a box between two big locust trees at the pass of Yuejialing Mountain outside the city, and it was full of real goods.Grandpa said he would spit out what he had to spit out, but he had to leave some money for the two of them.Later, when the grandfather's house was ransacked, although many things were stolen, no one knew that there was still a box of treasures.Grandpa will always have a backup.

This reflects the grandfather's economic acumen.During the years when the Kuomintang has been in power, the monetary system has been in chaos. From "Yuan Datou" to "Sun Xiaotou", from French currency to "Golden Yuan Notes", plus various copper coins, mints, and shopping coupons circulated privately by the people, there are no less than ten kinds of currencies. There are several kinds, but my grandfather only hides "hard currency". He never believes in the white paper currency. Even when the legal currency was just issued and the purchasing power was relatively high, he held on to the real money tightly.He would rather exchange some legal currency every once in a while than sell short.Later, after inflation, it proved that grandfather's decision-making was too wise!Otherwise, what is left to the family now is a box of waste paper.

Over the years, my grandfather has hoarded a lot of gold bars, silver dollars, and silver ingots, as well as antiques such as jade biscuits and pocket watches that were given to rich families when they showed Feng Shui.My grandfather asked me to give the box to his wife and children one after another when I had the opportunity. My grandfather repeatedly told me not to give it all at once, otherwise it would bring disaster to them, or even kill them!If I am short of money, I can enjoy it myself. I was so frightened that I quickly knelt down and cried, "Grandfather, I dare not!" I timidly asked my grandfather, "Why do you trust me?"

Grandpa smiled and asked me back: "Big head, why did I let you join the hall?" I was stunned for a long time, and suddenly realized!What he recruited was not a Bao, but someone who could take care of his funeral.All of these are the last game of my grandfather. He has been pulling the net at the top of the game. All the heads are the pendants of this net. In the end, I became the one who collected the net. Grandpa has been observing me in the teahouse for a long time. When he left after drinking tea, he deliberately dropped the money on the ground many times. I picked it up, chased him, and returned it to him. He was testing my greed for money; Later, when Erbatou took me to the kiln, he deliberately sent someone to follow him. He was testing my lust. After all, he wanted to entrust his wife and children to me, so he had to guard against it; Things, it was a test of my scheming; he took me to Sichuan to fight against Qin Baichuan and those bandits, it was a test of my courage and loyalty.

Thankfully, I withstood the test.I can't help but feel that my grandfather has been in charge of the hall for so many years, and has countless brothers, but in the end there is no one who can be trusted.Is it because others cannot win the trust of him, or is it that he cannot win the trust of others? I said, "Grandpa, run away, you have many friends in Hong Kong." Grandpa smiled wryly: "I won't run away." I don't understand: "Why?" The grandfather sighed for a long time, and said, "Don't run away. In the future, you will understand."

Afterwards, he went to the ancestral hall in the backyard where the tablets of the ancestors of the "Jiang Xiangpai" were enshrined. This time he didn't let me follow in. He asked me to wait outside the door. Just like that, he slowly closed the door. I don't know what my grandfather said to my ancestors, but after waiting for a long time, my grandfather came out.I vaguely saw that grandpa's eye circles were red. In the following months, more than 300 "huidaomen" across the country were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of "huidaomen" leaders and backbones were punished.Grandpa, because he was too deep, he would "pull the carrot out of the pit" in any place, he was finally exposed, and finally, because of a series of heinous acts such as murder, arson, bribery, fraud, and deceiving people, he was sentenced to death. got the death penalty. Before the grandfather went to the execution ground, he didn't pull his pants down in fear like other people. He walked very calmly. In my opinion, it was not like going to death, but more like relief.He finally didn't have to lie to others anymore, and finally didn't have to rack his brains to weigh life and death. Several Batou who came over from Dabatou and Xipai were also sentenced to death because they had a murder case in their hands. The rest of the more than 200 people, large and small, were also given the punishment they deserved according to the severity of their crimes. discipline.I was sentenced to five years. I still couldn't figure out why my grandfather didn't run away, and didn't allow any Batou and little feet to run away. This means that he single-handedly sent "Jiang Xiangpai" to a dead end!Grandpa said that I will understand in the future, when will I understand? The long sentence is as difficult as the dark night. In the prison, I often think of the past years, my dead mother, my grandfather, and the drunken life and dreams. Grandfather certainly could not have imagined that society would undergo such a drastic change after his death. He could not have imagined the fervor of the Great Leap Forward, let alone the frenzy of the "Cultural Revolution" and the intensity of "destroying the Four Olds."After all, he was just a conspirator, not a politician, and no one could predict the ups and downs of the next two decades.That box did not dare to see the light of day again until the 1980s. After he was released from prison, the first thing he wanted to do was to visit his grandfather's widow and son.But there is no money in hand, and even money is not enough.I found a part-time job in the town's public-private supply and marketing cooperative to earn money and save money. At that time, the whole country was smelting steel, and more than 1,000 steelmaking furnaces were built in a small town. The fanatical members of the commune dug iron ore all over the mountains and fields, wishing to throw all the pots and pans at home into the steelmaking furnace to melt them. I'm really afraid that they will accidentally dig out the treasure box in the mountain pass. Some days at noon, the sun scorched the earth, and people stayed at home to escape the heat.I sneaked to Yuejialing in the back mountain alone, and looked from a distance, and found that the two big locust trees that used to be there were no longer there.Startled, I ran a few steps and came to the corner of the mountain pass, where I paced up and down, measuring the positions of the two trees by feeling, and after confirming the range, I left.I know that in the social environment at that time, no matter how much wealth you had, you couldn’t spend it. No one dared to spend it, and no one dared to take it. Everything was a planned economy, not to mention that it was stolen goods. In the spring of the second year, I finally saved enough money, and according to the address my grandfather gave me, I went to Shandong. It took a lot of effort to find them.When they met, the woman was stunned.I saw that she was only in her thirties, which means that she was only eighteen or nineteen years old when she and my grandfather died, and my grandfather was fifty years old when he died, which means that there is a difference of more than twenty years between them. The woman looked me up and down, "You are?" I have mixed feelings, and the scenes of grandpa's life are tumbling in my mind, "I... I am grandpa's apprentice, and I will come to see you on his behalf." "Grandfather?" the woman asked puzzled. I immediately realized that I almost slipped my tongue, so I hurriedly said: "It is your husband, he is my master, and we are both in the antique business." I promised my grandfather to keep his secret forever. The woman seemed to be frozen, she stared blankly at me for a long time, tears welled up, "He...is he still there?" I couldn't help but cried too, "Grandpa suffered from a cold in 1952, and later he contracted a lung infection. In the end... he couldn't be saved..." The woman burst into tears. I wiped away my tears and said, "Before my grandfather died, I kept thinking about you. Over the years, we merchants have been undergoing reform by the government, and we have never been free to visit you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry." While chatting, a voice came from outside the house: "Mom!" For the first time, I saw the blood of my grandfather, the corners, the eyes, exactly the same as my grandfather. The woman hurriedly wiped away her tears and said, "Boy, come here and say hello to uncle." I hurriedly said: "No way, no way, I am the grandfather's apprentice, and my son and I are of the same generation!" I took out a few candies from my pocket and gave them to the child.The child happily put it in his mouth and ate it with gusto. I can't help but sigh, ten years in Hedong, ten years in Hexi, who would have thought that the father of this poor boy was once a powerful figure, who would have thought that his grandfather spends a lot of money every day, and his descendants are so poor. I left some money for them and came back. I didn't dare to mention the treasure in the box, for fear of causing trouble. I originally planned to visit the two of them every one or half a year, but I didn't expect that the separation would last for three years. Beginning in 1959, the whole country entered a great famine, three years of natural disasters, many people starved to death.At that time, how hungry are people?There was a small ditch half a foot wide when carrying the corpse outside the town. Several men tried it all, but they dared not take a step. They were so hungry that they had no strength at all.Once when I went to the toilet, I lifted my pants, and as soon as I stood up, there was darkness in front of my eyes, and I fell to the ground. As a result, there was a broken rusty iron pot in the corner, and my forehead just hit the edge of the pot, and the blood flowed all over the place. .It's not that he doesn't miss their mother and son, it's that he really can't take care of himself anymore. The second time I saw my grandfather's widow was in 1963. Time has passed, and the woman has aged a lot, and the child has grown a lot taller.Two years later, when we met again in 1965, her temples had grown white, and her son had grown up and joined the army.When I got home, I felt extremely relieved. At night, I burned a few yellow watches at the place where my grandfather was executed, and my grandfather could rest in peace in heaven.I began to think about how to give her the box. In the second year, the vigorous "Cultural Revolution" began.I was 38 years old that year.In June, the commune issued the slogan of "abolishing the old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits that have been poisoned to the people by all exploiting classes for thousands of years," and called on everyone to "clean up all ghosts and monsters." I dug a deep hole in the backyard, buried the box, and piled thick chicken manure on top.I think it might be safer that way. During the "Cultural Revolution", I didn't dare to walk around, let alone visit the two women, for fear of causing trouble and implicating them. History finally came to 1976, the "Cultural Revolution" was over, and a few years later, I had some spare money. In 1979, I once again set foot on the train to Shandong. How's it going. Grandfather's wife is much richer than the last time I saw her, and she has become the director of the local Chinese medicine clinic.Seeing me coming, she shed tears of excitement, and she asked me how have I been all these years? Have you been criticized during the "Cultural Revolution"?I said everything was fine, and I told her that I was also married and had children, twins, both 10 years old.I asked her, has my son been demobilized?She happily told me that her son has become a company commander and made first-class meritorious service on the Vietnam front. I couldn't help but sigh, good luck tricks people, my grandfather was deceived all his life, but his son is loyal to the country, this can be regarded as repaying the debt for the grandfather. I think it's time to give her the box left by grandpa. I said to her, "Grandpa left some antiques and gold bars before he died. Grandpa told me that I will give them to you when the news is not tight. These I am old and old, I dare not give it to you, for fear of causing trouble, now that everything is over, I should give it to you." When the heavy box was placed in front of her, she covered her mouth and cried. After crying for a long time, I also cried, thinking of my grandfather and the past years. Her next move was beyond my expectation. She said, "Give me a job. I joined the party in 1966, and I am also an old party member. These things belong to the state. This is a matter of principle." I looked at her stupidly for a long time, then sighed and said, "Okay. But there is one thing you must keep, that is the dragon-carved jade bik. My grandfather only knew you when he went to Shandong to search for that piece of jade. Keep it Make a memorial." She held that piece of bi in her hand, pressed it to her heart, and cried again.Walking out of her house, I looked up to the sky and sighed, "Grandpa, I have done everything you told me to do." When we parted, looking back at my grandfather's widow, I felt extremely bitter: "Grandfather, why didn't you run away with her?"