Actually, when my mother turned into a paper person and my father woke up without being surprised, I had doubted my father, and even speculated that this man named Lin Yutang was definitely an extraordinary expert. But at this point, the most subversive thing my father said should be my grandfather. Previously, the role I suspected my father played in all of this was just a minor one at best.
To have my father make a paper person and then turn a soul sealed in a glass ball into a living person, what kind of supernatural ability would that require? But thinking about my impression of my grandfather, everything seemed so chaotic. How did it all come to this? How did someone who seemed unimportant suddenly become the focus?
When I said this, neither I nor my father spoke again. He was pondering, and I was pondering as well. My grandfather wasn't an ordinary person, and my father had mentioned that my grandfather had had an extraordinary experience during his years in the military. But speaking of my grandfather's years in the military meant I had to mention one thing, and that was my second uncle. The origin of all the stories in Linjiazhuang became confusing because of the arrival of this man, who looked exactly like my father. He was my second uncle, and my father had once said that if my second uncle really was the child of my grandfather during his years in the military, then he would be my elder brother, not my second uncle.
This was a contradiction in terms of the timing.
My Lin family owed a "debt." That was undeniable, because all the signs indicated that the red coffin was aimed at us, the Lin family, specifically at Lin Xiaofan and his ancestors. My grandfather was a very frightened person, and that could be proved in two ways. First, the escape word he gestured to me when he returned as a deceased person, and the second was his hidden existence in Linjiazhuang, possibly to avoid creditors.
But who was the creditor? It seemed that all the problems now were focused on the red coffin, but I was more inclined to suspect one person, my second uncle.
I closed my eyes tightly, thinking about the expressions of my grandfather and my second uncle when they met. My grandfather didn't know about my second uncle's existence, but when my second uncle mentioned a place name, Shandong Liaocheng, and mentioned that my grandfather had left a gun for my second uncle's mother, at that time my grandfather, in a state of extreme fright, said, "It's you!!"
My grandfather died later, and at that time we attributed the cause of his death to my grandmother's strike with a shoe, but now I can see that it wasn't, it was just my grandmother's action to divert our attention, nothing more.
The true cause of my grandfather's death was my second uncle's arrival; he was the person my grandfather was most afraid of for collecting debts!
If this hypothesis were true, everything seemed to fall into place. When my grandfather saw my second uncle coming to collect a debt, he died in fright, and after his death, knowing that the creditor was about to come, he tried to remind me to leave quickly. But we didn't have the heart to leave, or his warning hadn't had an effect on us.
So this led to the subsequent events. Therefore, my second uncle was the mastermind behind all the situations my family had encountered.
I lit a cigarette, and a third face appeared in my mind, the calm face of my second uncle, who seemed to have many secrets hidden within, and I found it difficult to believe that he was a bad person.
I also couldn't believe that he was the mastermind behind the situations my family had encountered.
Everything is so confusing and chaotic.
At this point, I couldn't make sense of it at all.
"Xiaofan, everything will pass. The only thing to be grateful for is that you're safe. Now that it's all over, whether you understand or not, don't think about it," my father said, patting my head.
After saying this, he gave me something - a glass ball with a red figure inside, resembling a miniature person.
"Your mother has already gone back. It's getting late. Let's go back too," he called out to me.
I held the glass ball, looking at the figure inside, feeling a bit dazed. It was hard to imagine that the figure inside was the same person who was right in front of me the night before.
"Dad, can my mom still turn into a person?" I suddenly asked.
My father was stunned for a moment and chuckled, "If your grandfather were alive, maybe he could, but he's already dead."
I didn't say anything, but carefully placed the glass ball in my pocket close to me. I hadn't told my father yet that my second uncle had already said he wanted to train me to be a yin-yang master.
When we got back home, my second uncle was leaning against the wall. When I opened the door, he was still looking at me with his eyes open. I said to him, "Still not sleeping?"
He patted the edge of the bed and nodded at me, "Xiaofan, come over. Your second uncle wants to talk to you."
I was ecstatic. After my father's revealing talk, I was even more confused. What I needed most now was honesty from my second uncle!
I took off my shoes and got on the bed, lying beside my second uncle. Suddenly he asked me, "Has your dad told you anything?"
I nodded and said, "He told me about my mother's background and everything else, and of course, he mentioned my grandfather at the end. Turns out he was the most secretive one."
I glanced at my second uncle with the corner of my eye, because I was sure that when I mentioned my grandfather, he would definitely have a reaction. Sure enough, his eyebrows twitched for a moment. "Yes, he was a mysterious man," he said.
"Xiaofan, I'm not here to collect debts. Your grandfather's death has nothing to do with me. No matter what happens, please believe me," my second uncle said. When he said this, his tone was very calm. Although he was reproaching my grandfather, there was no hint of hatred in his words.
"No matter what, he is already dead. I know he's not an ordinary person, but after so many years in the Lin family village, he lived a quiet life and even in death, he's not at peace. Second uncle, I can't say I don't suspect you, it's impossible. If I've wronged you, I apologize. If you're really related to the so-called creditor of the Lin family, please tell him that when a person dies, it's like a lamp extinguished. My mother has already turned into that, if he has any grudge, come after me, don't target my father," I told my second uncle.
He just looked at me, with a very helpless expression in his eyes.
Finally, with a soft voice, he said something I couldn't quite understand: "Beneath the buried land lies bones, as well as buried ambitions."
I didn't understand this sentence, but it made me feel cold all over on that hot night.
I took out the crystal ball and said to my second uncle, "Second uncle, when will you teach me to be a yin-yang master? I need power urgently now."
When I asked this question, I suddenly realized something. This changed the way my second uncle looked at me. Initially, he said not everyone could become a yin-yang master. Now suddenly he wanted to teach me to be one. I hadn't been struck by divine inspiration or a bolt from the blue, I had just had a bad time in the village for a few days.
A yin-yang master, bridging yin and yang.
Living for the sun, dying for the moon.
The sudden teaching from my second uncle was because my mother was a paper person. I was a living father, having a child with a "deceased mother."
This was the condition for me to become a yin-yang master.
And my second uncle? —— He was also a yin-yang master.
As for my grandmother whom I had never met, was she a dead person, or a paper person? I couldn't help but think mischievously. I had heard people say that serving in the military for three years can turn a mother pig into a sable. Seeing even a female mosquito made me think of double eyelids. Could it be that my grandfather, lonely while fighting in the military, made a paper person himself, turning her into a living person just like my mother, and then eventually abandoned her, and only later had my second uncle?
My head exploded.
Could the figure in the red coffin be my second grandmother, that is, my second uncle's mother? Was my second grandmother the actual creditor, coming to reclaim the debt my grandfather owed?
Thinking this way, everything seemed to make sense.