Chapter 93 Old Stories

After saying that, he looked at Sun Juan meaningfully, then walked away slowly with the teacup in his hand.

Sun Juan stood there. It was a clear autumn day, but she felt cold all over. Director Wang's words were like an invisible net that tightened instantly.

Not only did he know what Qiuyue wanted from her in the letter, he also explicitly warned her not to spread it and even wanted to censor what she copied. What on earth was he trying to cover up? The big hat of "stability and unity" weighed heavily on Sun Juan's heart.

She returned to the office in a daze, but it was still empty.

The afternoon sun shone through the window, but it couldn't dispel the chill in her heart. She subconsciously looked at the corner where the bundles of newspapers were hidden. Fortunately, the old magazines were well pressed and seemed no one had touched them.

The script for "The Lights of Liushu Village" lay spread out on the table. The "light" symbolizing a new life seemed to mock her current situation. Sun Juan forced herself to sit down at the table. She unscrewed her pen and wrote a line: "...The spring breeze blew into Liushu Village, and the girls' hearts came alive. They were no longer satisfied with..."

But the words "ancestral hall", "clan elders", and "stone nodding" kept flashing through her mind... The beautiful new life described in the script and the heavy and injustice-filled old world in the warehouse tore her apart violently, making her upset and unable to type a single word.

She stood up irritably and wanted to get a cup of hot water to calm herself down. When she passed by Director Wang's desk by the window, she glanced at it habitually. On the desk was spread out a thick, yellowed copy of "Qinghe County Chronicles (Republic of China Volume)". Next to it were Director Wang's reading glasses. It was obvious that he was still reading.

Sun Juan paused. County annals? As if possessed, she took a few steps closer, her gaze fixed on the open page. The chapter was titled "Local Customs and Clan Governance." Her heart skipped a beat, and her eyes eagerly scanned the vertical rows of traditional Chinese characters.

Suddenly, her breath was choked!

In the lower middle of the page, a line of bold black letters is clearly printed: "Zhou Clan Ancestral Hall".

The Zhou Clan Ancestral Hall?! Isn't this the same ancestral hall where the booklet records the story of Zhou Laosan being wrongly accused and Wang hitting his head against the pillar?!

Sun Juan's heart began to beat wildly. She couldn't help but move closer, eagerly reading the record. Below the brief description of the Zhou clan ancestral hall, there seemed to be a few lines of small notes, like supplementary explanations. However—

The areas where those lines of small characters were written were rudely and fiercely smeared out with blue-black fountain pen ink. The ink was thick and soaked through the paper, covering it tightly, as if to completely obliterate something. The ink had not yet completely dried, and it emitted a dazzling luster in the sunlight.

Who did that? Director Wang? Was he reading right here? What was he trying to hide? Could this obliterated content be the record of Zhou Laosan's unjust case?

Sun Juan stared at the glaring, hideous ink stains, and felt a cold fear instantly gripping her, even worse than when she was in the dark warehouse. The forcibly erased words, like the secret wrapped in rags in the warehouse, screamed silently, pointing to a secretive past.

Director Wang's seemingly gentle smile now cast a chilling shadow in her heart.

The letter to Qiuyue was on its way, and Director Wang was waiting for her "transcript." The secrets in the warehouse, the history being erased before her eyes... like an invisible net, tightening ever tighter. Is the booklet hidden in the newspaper truly safe? Sun Juan stood in the afternoon sun, feeling cold all over.

…

A few days later, a registered letter was delivered to Gu Qiuyue, who was studying in Beijing. Seeing the familiar signature of "Qinghe County Cultural Center" and the beautiful handwriting on the envelope, a warm smile appeared on her face. She opened the letter and read with interest Sun Juan's description of her experience in sorting out the "junk", and then unfolded the copied papers and the yellowed and fragile fragments of yellow mounting paper.

"The bluestone road...the high ancestral hall...the clan elders laugh...at the bottom of the clear river, the stones nod..." Gu Qiuyue recited these scattered words softly, her delicate eyebrows slightly furrowed. These fragments of songs carried an indescribable heaviness and implicit resentment, which were completely different from the cheerful folk songs she was familiar with.

Especially the line "Where can I find justice? At the bottom of the clear river, the stones nod...", which reveals a sense of sadness that injustice cannot be redressed.

She picked up the fragments of genuine yellow paper and carefully identified the blurred and faded ink on them against the light, feeling the unique rough texture of the paper with her fingertips. This was definitely not an ordinary ballad.

Sun Juan downplayed it in the letter, but based on Gu Qiuyue's understanding of Sun Juan, she sent these things specifically and mentioned "clan elders" and "ancestral hall", so there must be a story behind it.

A trace of doubt and vague uneasiness passed through Gu Qiuyue's heart. She carefully put the fragment into a book and looked out the window, as if thinking about something. Sun Juan didn't mention anything else in the letter, but this "new thing" was heavy, revealing the depression of the old era. She decided to go to Qinghe Town to inquire about it in person when she had the chance.

Gu Qiuyue gently closed the book with the scraps of yellow paper and placed it on the desk. Outside the window, the autumn sun in Beijing was shining brightly. She could hear the loud conversations of several classmates downstairs. It was a very positive scene, but her mind seemed to be hooked by those fragile old pieces of paper and drifted towards the distant Qinghe Town.

She recognized Sun Juan's handwriting, and the tone of the letter was as relaxed as possible, saying only that she had come across some "interesting old ballads" while tidying up the warehouse. However, Gu Qiuyue keenly caught the hesitation between the lines, as well as the heavy resentment revealed in those lines of copied lyrics.

"The elders laughed"? "The stone nodded"? How could this be just some ordinary country folk song? It was clearly an accusation condensed from blood and tears!

She thought of Sun Juan's character: kind, dutiful, and even a little timid. If she hadn't really encountered something that made her feel unusual or even uneasy, she would never have copied these "junk" and sent them to her.

In that warehouse, there is probably not only dust and old papers, but also heavy past that no one wants to open.

"We have to figure this out." Gu Qiuyue whispered to herself.

Should I write back and ask directly? Sun Juan worked at the Cultural Center, under Director Wang's supervision. Writing a letter might not explain it clearly, and it might even cause trouble for her. The best way was to go and see for myself. Of course, the school was not without students from Qing and Qinghe who had been admitted, but younger people might not know about such a long-standing past.

She stood up and prepared to go to the cafeteria to get food. When she reached the door, she couldn't help but look back at the books on the table - inside them were fragments of the old times in Qinghe Town, silently telling a story of injustice that had been forgotten.