5: Ancestral hall robbed

Under the dim yellow oil lamp, he whipped around, his face pale and his lips trembling, unable to utter a single word.

He instinctively hid the piece of dark wood heart, which he had just pulled back through the window and was still damp with the night dew, behind his back.

The bone-chilling cold touch seeped through his thin clothes and reached his spine, instantly freezing his entire body's blood.

Only one thought screamed frantically in his mind:

"It's over! There's a camper... no! I've been discovered!"

"Qinghe?"

Madam Li Zhang's voice was urgent and low, a mixture of heartache and reproach:

"What are you doing? It's the middle of the night and you're not sleeping. What filthy thing are you holding?"

"You even poked such a big hole! What if you catch a cold? You just got your life back, can't you let your mother have some peace of mind!"

She moved forward two more steps, carrying the lamp.

That meager light completely exposed Li Qinghe's figure, leaving him nowhere to hide, and illuminated the pitch-black, filthy lump of wood behind him that was covered in wet mud and moss.

At this moment, Li Qinghe's mind was a complete blank, just like when someone works hard all night to fix a program's BUG, only to find that after restarting and trying to log in, the damn System program won't run at all.

The wisdom of his past and present lives combined seemed to have been thrown to the dogs at this moment! No, this life has no wisdom, he's a pure idiot!

"Wait? I'm a fool in this life!"

Playing dumb would solve it! Thinking of this, he abruptly lowered his head and hunched his shoulders, imitating the muddled and foolish self from his memories.

An indistinct whimper came from his throat, and his other empty hand clumsily and unconsciously scratched at the mud on the edge of the kang.

"Wu... wu... picked... picked up... bright... bright..."

He tried hard to imitate that past dull and broken tone, hiding the wood even deeper in his arms as if it were some incredible treasure.

Madam Zhang's steps paused.

Under the dim light of the oil lamp, seeing her son's familiar foolish appearance was like a bucket of cold water, instantly extinguishing the doubt and anger that had just risen in her heart.

In its place was deep heartache and helplessness.

"That's right, he's only been better for a few days. His mind probably isn't fully clear yet!"

"This child, hasn't he loved picking up strange junk and bringing it home since he was little? Stones, rotten wood, dead bugs... Before he was foolish, and now... sigh, I'm afraid the root of the illness hasn't been completely removed."

Madam Zhang sighed tiredly, the worry and helplessness on her face completely drowning out that bit of doubt.

She stepped forward, her rough but warm palm habitually feeling Li Qinghe's forehead and then his cold hands:

"You don't have a fever... why are your hands so cold! Treating a piece of rotten wood like a treasure and even poking a hole in the window!"

Her nagging complaints softened, saturated with a deep sense of fatigue:

"Put that thing down quickly! If you get sick from the cold, you'll have to drink bitter medicine again! Mother will find a rag to plug this hole first!"

She didn't glance at the "rotten wood" again, turning to rustle through a broken chest at the head of the kang for scraps of cloth, muttering to herself:

"Tomorrow I'll have your father get some paste to mend the window... You child, you just settled down for two days and now you're causing trouble again..."

Only then did Li Qinghe's tense body relax bit by bit. When the night wind blew, the cold sweat on his back felt chilly.

Looking at his mother's hunched back as she searched in the dim light, and hearing those familiar, mundane complaints, it felt like an invisible barrier that temporarily eased his previous anxiety.

He quickly stuffed the dark wood heart into the gap at the very bottom of the kang mat, pressing it down firmly.

Madam Zhang found a scrap of cloth and, by the flickering light of the oil lamp, used the needle and thread kept at the head of the kang to clumsily but quickly sew a few stitches, managing to plug the hole.

Having finished all this, she gave a big yawn, rubbed her aching eyes, and tucked in the corner of Li Qinghe's quilt:

"Go to sleep, don't mess around anymore, alright?" There was an unquestionable exhaustion in her voice.

The oil lamp was blown out, and the room fell back into darkness and silence.

Li Qinghe lay on the kang, listening to his mother's light footsteps as she left, the soft click of the door closing, and the rustling sound of her lying down in the next room... After a long time, his heart, which had been in his throat, finally thudded back into his chest.

"That was close! Luckily, playing the fool is also my forte!"

He let out a long breath of turbid air.

He had managed to fool his mother for now. But as for the Ancestral Hall... Just as dawn was breaking, a roar filled with shock, anger, and confusion broke the morning silence of Li Family Village.

"Which scoundrel! Dares to crawl through the Ancestral Hall's dog hole?! Are you tired of living?!"

The shout came from the direction of the Ancestral Hall; it was the aged but vigorous voice of Seventh Great-Uncle, the hall guardian.

Soon, Seventh Great-Uncle's shouting spread throughout the small village.

Li Qinghe lay on the kang, his heart skipping a beat. It was happening, just as expected!

Seventh Great-Uncle had gone on his morning rounds and immediately discovered that the dog hole behind the Ancestral Hall's back wall, which was usually hidden by clutter, had been pried open!

Fresh soil and a few strands of withered grass were scattered at the entrance. Filled with shock and anger, he immediately rushed into the Ancestral Hall to carefully inspect everything inside and out.

The ancestral tablets? Not one was missing, all neatly arranged. The offering table and incense burner? Untouched. There were just some messy footprints and traces of dragged dust on the floor.

Valuable bronze and tinware? They were all sitting safely in the corners, with the thick layer of dust on them undisturbed.

Even for the high beams, Seventh Great-Uncle tremblingly brought a ladder and climbed up to look—except for a patch of dust that had been rubbed off, they were empty!

"You be the judge! Which heartless person did this?! Crawling through a dog hole just to rub off some old dust without taking anything valuable?! Were they so full they had nothing better to do?!"

His hand, covered in age spots, trembled as he pointed at the shallow drag marks and footprints on the ground.

"Look at these prints, the build isn't large! It must be some mischievous monkey from the village! If I catch him, I'll skin him alive and whip his backside raw!"

Several elders gathered around the dog hole and the marks on the ground, looking at each other in confusion.

Stealing? Doesn't look like it. A prank? This was a bit too bold, daring to crawl through the Ancestral Hall's dog hole.

Finally, after discussing for a long time, the group could only curse a few times:

"Ignorant pup!"

Then they had several young men of the clan go door-to-door to announce that every family should control their children, and the matter was eventually dropped.

Li Qinghe listened to the faint discussions from outside at home, his heart finally settling down.

No one knew that something had been hidden on the beams. Even Seventh Great-Uncle, who guarded the Ancestral Hall, didn't know of the existence of that "dark wood heart," let alone anyone else in the village.

That thing had probably lain silently inside the beam for several generations, and the people of today had long since forgotten it entirely.

Its only current value existed within the flowing moonlight of last night.

He quietly reached his hand under the kang mat, stroking that cold and rough piece of wood.

The scene of the shimmering blue light characters from last night was deeply etched in his mind.

"Autumn Moon River Qi Nurturing Art!" Every word and every rune of that formula was incredibly clear!