Chapter 350: 359 Returning Home

A great river with wide waves, the wind blows the scent of rice flowers across both banks.

In Yunzhou, there is no river longer than the Tongyang River. Starting from Jiugao Mountain at the northernmost point of Dongshan County, it flows southwest, passing through the five counties of Dongshan, Dansheng, Zhengyang, Riyang, and Yuxia, before rushing into the sea.

When it first leaves the mountain pass, the Tongyang River is still a clear little stream. Gradually, it flows into the plains, nourishing thousands of households, irrigating ten thousand acres of fertile fields, gathering into canals, and sweeping up mud and sand. By the time it reaches Yuxia Jun downstream, it has already become a turbid, surging yellow river.

The seat of Yuxia Jun, Mu City, is built right on the banks of this yellow water.

Mu City is a famous city with a long history, spanning nearly a thousand years. It has witnessed countless joys and sorrows, the rise and fall of several dynasties, and all the various changes in the human world since the Calamity Moon.

Just a few decades ago, although Mu City was already a county seat, it was known for its high walls and deep moats; it was a military stronghold rather than a prosperous metropolis, with a population of no more than one hundred thousand within its walls.

Later, as the Yin Calamity intensified and the wilderness became extremely dangerous, the government organized the surrounding populace to move into the city. Gradually, the inner city could no longer hold them, so they had to build more walls outside, and then built again and again.

Over several decades, Mu City has built three layers of walls, with a population exceeding one million inside and out. Houses stand like scales on a fish, the streets are filled with a constant flow of carriages and horses, and it is now a super-metropolis in every sense of the word.

However, the expansion of Mu City has been primarily to the east, because to the west of the city lie continuous mountain ridges, which serve as a natural barrier for the city's defense and also contain the graves where the ancestors of the city's people have rested for generations.

On one of these hillsides, many scattered graves are buried. Most of these graves belong to small, single-surname families without ancestral graveyards. But most of the families were relatively well-off, so the graves were built quite neatly, and they even pooled money to hire a grave-keeper to watch over them, so they would not end up like the destitute, wrapped in straw mats and stuffed into a mass grave.

On the hillside, in front of a grave where a husband and wife were buried together, someone had just swept the tomb. Fresh flowers and fruits were placed before the stone tablet, and incense and candles had been burned, leaving a faint, lingering scent of smoke. The tombstone had just been wiped clean, and the names of the tomb owners, "Late Father Tang Guangyi, Late Mother Tan Letao," were clearly visible.

The young man who had just been sitting quietly in front of the grave burning paper money stood up, sprinkled the last of the wine in his hand over the soil of the grave mound, and silently walked along the overgrown mountain path toward another small grave on the other side.

Not far away, a young man with a pale complexion also watched him silently. He did not approach, but watched the young man's figure as if he were looking at a piece of scenery.

The young man arrived in front of the other grave. That grave was much smaller; the mound was only three feet wide, seemingly not enough to bury a coffin. On the dirt mound stood only a two-foot-tall wooden plaque, with no name written on it, only a single sentence.

"The door is unlocked, feel free to come and go."

It was just that the script used for this sentence was something ordinary people could not understand.

The young man came before the grave, studied the handwriting on the wooden plaque, suddenly grinned, and crouched down to dig the soil with his hands.

The young man watching from afar was slightly startled when he saw this, but he did not speak.

At this moment, someone nearby shouted loudly: "Hey! Where did this little grave-robbing thief come from? Daring to dig up a grave in broad daylight, you are too arrogant, you... you... aren't you that little someone from the old Tang family?"

The young man turned his head and saw a little old man with sparse hair approaching with a cane. He did look somewhat familiar. He gave an "eh" and said, "Grandpa Zhao? It's me, Tang Zhao."

The old man, Grandpa Zhao, looked carefully at the young man's face and sighed, "Right, right, it's you, Tang Zhao. Although it's been several years and you've grown up, this appearance... I really couldn't mistake it." Only then did he put down his cane.

Tang Zhao gave an embarrassed smile. This Grandpa Zhao was indeed an old neighbor of his family—not a next-door neighbor, and they weren't too close, but they always ran into each other around the neighborhood. Back then, their meetings were very plain; at most, they would nod and pass by.

Years had passed, and seeing a familiar face again brought a different feeling; the sense of intimacy from back then had increased tenfold, as if he were seeing a relative. He asked, "It's been many years, Grandpa, how is your health? How is your family?"

Grandpa Zhao said, "Hey, my health is fine, look, I'm still sturdy. As for the family, no disasters or illnesses. It's just that the boy in my family is good for nothing; he's quite old now and can't do anything right. If he had even a little bit of ambition, would I be out here doing this grave-keeping job at my age?"

Having said this, he looked Tang Zhao over, noticed his scholar's attire, and said, "Have you earned a title and returned home in glory?"

Tang Zhao laughed, "No, I'm not good at studying; I didn't even pass the Scholar exam. Look at me, do I look like I've returned in glory?"

Grandpa Zhao looked disappointed and said, "No glory, just returned home? Sigh, then there's no excitement to see. But you're still young; it's normal not to pass at this age. Back then, I saw your eyes were bright, you had the look of someone naturally blessed, and you were smart and clever—a seed for a scholar. You'll definitely pass with high honors in the future."

He was an old man with many words, and without waiting for Tang Zhao to reply, he continued to ramble, "Don't blame me for saying this, but if you had gone to a proper school, you would have earned a title long ago. I advised your father that even if he didn't send you to an academy, he should have found you a proper teacher. Look at that teacher of yours, he talked in a mystical, rambling way, had a strange accent, and was always squinting at people—you could tell at a glance he was up to no good."

Tang Zhao just found it amusing and didn't bother to argue with the old man, only saying, "You've misjudged him. Teacher Chen had poor eyesight, he was highly nearsighted, so he always squinted when looking at things; he wasn't a bad person."

Old Man Zhao tutted, "So, are you still studying under him now?"

Tang Zhao stopped smiling, looked at the grave behind him, and said, "My late teacher passed away four years ago. This is his grave."

Old Man Zhao said "Oh," squeezed out a look of sorrow, and said, "He's gone? What a pity, he was a scholar after all. I remember he was much younger than me. How did he pass away just like that? So you're here to add soil to his grave? I thought you were digging it up."

Tang Zhao said, "I am indeed digging up his grave."

Ignoring Grandpa Zhao's dumbfounded expression, Tang Zhao smiled and said, "Teacher had instructions before he passed for me to bury him elsewhere, but I was young and weak at the time and couldn't fulfill his final wish, so I could only bury him here first. Now that I've grown up, I've come back to help him relocate his grave."

Only then did Grandpa Zhao breathe a sigh of relief and say, "That's more like it. I was saying, you're such a refined student, how could you do something illegal? I remember your family's house was sold; do you have a place to stay now that you're back? If not, you can stay at my place."

Tang Zhao thanked him, "Thank you for your kindness, but I won't disturb you. I have things to do while I'm back. I only have these two or three days of time, and I'll be going back to see neighbors and such. Staying at an inn will be fine."

Grandpa Zhao said "Oh," and remarked, "If you can afford an inn, you must have made a fortune. And you say you didn't return in glory? Hey, tell me, you're not planning to take back your ancestral home, are you? Let me tell you, causing trouble won't work. I know you young people have spirit and always want to pay tooth for tooth. You're too young and don't know how dangerous it is; those people have great power..."

Tang Zhao laughed, "Grandpa, have you been listening to too many storytellers? First, that house was bought by my father, it's not some ancestral home. Second, I sold the house voluntarily at the time; although it was a cheap sale, it was my own urgency, and the other party paid honestly, so I accepted it. There's no reason to settle old scores. Don't worry, I didn't come here to fight."

Seeing Grandpa Zhao breathe another sigh of relief, Tang Zhao asked, "But you just said those people have great power... I remember my old house was sold to a shopkeeper along the street. Is it not him anymore? What kind of great power is living inside? Was it requisitioned by the government?"

Grandpa Zhao said, "You don't know. If it had been requisitioned by the government, that would be one thing. If you went to ask, at most they wouldn't give it back and would chase you out, but there wouldn't be any danger. Now, your house has become some kind of 'hall,' belonging to a fierce and evil gang called... the Five Poisons Society."

Tang Zhao raised an eyebrow and thought: What a coincidence?

After sending Grandpa Zhao away, Tang Zhao dug out Chen Zong's box.

Yes, Chen Zong was in the box.

According to Chen Zong's wishes, he was to be cremated and then placed in an ordinary lacquer box.

Chen Zong said it would be best to scatter his ashes into the sea.

Even Tang Zhao couldn't understand Chen Zong's desire to have his bones ground to dust and scattered, but who told him to ask for it? The person was already gone, could he not respect his final wish?

It was just that scattering them into the sea was too difficult for a person; Yunzhou was far inland, thousands of miles away from the sea. Where would he find the sea? Tang Zhao hadn't even seen the sea yet.

But even if he hadn't seen it now, he would see it sooner or later. He also hoped that one day he could stand at Borrowing Momentum to watch the vast sea, or even set sail on a long voyage; at that time, he would fulfill Chen Zong's wish.

In fact, Tang Zhao occasionally thought that perhaps the place Chen Zong wanted to go to in the end wasn't the sea, but the hometown he could never return to.

Tang Zhao's hometown was by the great river. When looking into the distance while flowing downstream on the Tongyang River, it felt as if he were looking at his hometown. Chen Zong probably hoped his hometown was on the other side of the vast sea. If so, his ashes would drift with the waves and eventually drift across the ocean to return to his original home.

After putting Chen Zong away, Tang Zhao and Jiang Shenyi went down the mountain and entered Mu City before the city gates closed at dusk.

Four years later, Mu City was mostly the same as before, only it seemed there were more people. The relocation was still continuing, and there were refugees; one could often see temporary shacks set up on the streets.

Tang Zhao and the others had traveled quickly, arriving much earlier than the agreed time, leaving two or three days of free time before the exam.

So, Tang Zhao, familiar with the path, took Jiang Shenyi to... an inn.

There was no help for it; he actually had no relatives in Mu City. It was his parents' generation that had followed the crowd of migrants into the city, living within the second ring of walls. If he had even one relative, his parents wouldn't have ended up wandering the world as soon as they passed away.

As for childhood friends and neighbors, of course he had them, but having just arrived in the city, dusty and tired, and not yet settled, would it be too strange to go see the neighbors first?

It is said that things remain but people change. Having left his home for four years, there was no one he couldn't wait a moment to see upon returning. No wonder Tang Zhao didn't quite understand "homesickness."

Fortunately, he was very familiar with Mu City, especially the middle city within the second ring of walls. He quickly found a cheap and clean inn, asked for two rooms, and went to sleep early.

The next morning, as soon as Tang Zhao pushed open his door, he saw a young man standing in the courtyard who looked somewhat familiar. Behind him were four big men, each of them broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, looking like martial artists at a glance. In the corners around them, there were a few more people guarding the four entrances, not letting anyone in.

Once these few stood in the courtyard, they were comparable to the street-clearing Yama; the entire courtyard was silent, with not a sound to be heard, save for Tang Zhao and the person still in the room with the grave atmosphere nearby.

Tang Zhao was taken aback, thinking to himself: I am not looking for trouble, so why is trouble coming to find me? Could it be a creditor? I do not recall having any unsettled debts in Mu City.

He then saw that young man, upon seeing Tang Zhao, bow respectfully and say, "Young Master Tang, I have come under the orders of the Manor Master to pay my respects to you, sir."