Qin Nan stood in front of the old house she hadn't seen in a long time, dragging her luggage, filled with longing. After five years apart, she thought she would be overjoyed to return, but she never expected people's hearts to be like this.
Although it should be commonplace for Qin Nan, how can a person remain unmoved, numb, and indifferent?
Qin Nan took her grandfather to the capital for medical treatment, and five years passed away. Qin Nan had no choice but to return to her hometown with her luggage and her grandfather's ashes.
He had planned to bury his grandfather and then settle down in his old family home, but the neighbor who had asked him to help rent the old house sold it without permission and ran away with the money.
When they left, neither the grandfather nor the grandson was wealthy. Since the neighbor had been with them for over twenty years, they gave him the property deed so he could rent out the property and collect some rent to ease the burden of medical expenses.
For the first three years, I received monthly payments from my neighbor. After three years, the neighbor suddenly informed me that someone had died in the old house.
The house couldn't be rented out. When the police came to investigate, Qin Nan and his grandson were not around for many years and were not involved. Later, the matter was settled. The neighbors said that no one dared to rent it after the incident, so the rent was cut off for two years.
Unexpectedly, when Qin Nan returned today and went to visit the old village chief, she learned that her home was gone. The old village chief was a close friend of Qin Nan's grandfather. He had been living alone in the old house for many years, while his three children all had their own families and were working hard in other places.
Qin Nan initially wanted to give the house deed to the old village chief, but he was too old and lived some distance from the Qin family's old house, so he couldn't afford to go through the hassle.
The old village chief said he didn't know before, but later he found out that Qin Nan's neighbor was ostensibly helping people find rental houses, but in reality, he was specifically looking for people from other places to sell their houses. Just a few days ago, the neighbor's family suddenly moved out overnight, and they also sold their own two-story house with a yard. Nobody knows where they went.
Qin Nan took out the key to the old house's storeroom from his pocket. Because he was going to rent a house, Qin Nan had put all his and his grandfather's belongings in the storeroom before leaving and gave the key to the village chief.
Although the house is an old house, the unexpected passing of my parents left behind many belongings, so the storeroom is the only room in the house with a security door.
Although it looks out of place in the quaint old house, there are thieves eyeing the house, so we have to be careful.
Qin Nan could only stand at the door waiting for a buyer to discuss taking his belongings. As for where he would go afterward, Qin Nan had no heart to think about it anymore, as his savings had long been gone in order to pay for his grandfather's medical treatment.
Fortunately, he found a decent job after graduation, but one job was far from enough. He had to work several jobs at the same time to barely cover his grandfather's medical expenses and the food and lodging for the two of them.
So, although Qin Nan is good-looking, gentle, and caring, he is still single at the age of 28 and has no energy to care about anything else.
After her grandfather passed away, some people showed interest in her and some confessed their love to her, but Qin Nan smiled and rejected them all. Then, she packed her luggage from the rented basement, took her grandfather's ashes and her huge debts, and left the capital to return to her hometown.
Qin Nan looked at the old house's gate, still a heavy wooden door, but it had obviously been renovated. She remembered that the old house had two courtyards with a backyard. To the left of the entrance was a grape trellis corridor, which bordered a lotus pond with fish and frogs. It was very noisy in the summer, and her grandfather often got up in the middle of the night to chase away the frogs, afraid of waking Qin Nan.
To the right of the entrance is the toilet, which was built for entertaining guests. My mother loved cleanliness, and both toilets in the old house were very clean and tiled. Although the tiles were made by my father and grandfather from many broken tiles they picked up from a tile factory, they were decorated with great care.
The toilets next to the main gate are decorated in the style of modern public toilets. Although there are only three squat toilets for men and three for women, the fact that they have running water for flushing is quite modern.
It's been so long, I wonder how it is inside now, and whether previous tenants have taken good care of it.
Upon entering through the main gate, you are greeted by an open space paved with patterned tiles. Grandpa practices Tai Chi here every day, and the whole family can have outdoor dinners in the evenings.
Beyond the open space is the main living room, a house consisting of three rooms on the left, center, and right. The roof is covered with beams, and the walls are white with blue tiles. Copper bells hang from the upturned eaves.
Qin Nan looked up at the copper bells on the eaves, which could be seen even from outside the door. When the wind blew, the copper bells rang crisply.
The central room of the reception room is furnished like in ancient times, with a main seat, guest seats, and a tea table. To the left is a sofa set and a display shelf, and to the right is a tatami tea room. The three rooms are separated by a screen.
To the left of the main living room is a lotus pond and a corridor. A wall connects the main living room and the courtyard wall, separating the lotus pond from the inner courtyard.
To the right of the main living room is a well, and there is a wall separating the toilet, the well, and the inner courtyard. However, there is a door in this wall with a lock, a very old-fashioned brass lock, which is a symbol that the inner courtyard is off-limits to unauthorized personnel.
The reception room in the middle of the main living room is backed by a decorative partition with beaded curtains on both sides. Behind the partition is the back door of the main living room, leading to the inner courtyard.
The inner courtyard is like a traditional courtyard house. On the left is the toilet, with the same layout as the toilet at the main gate. On the right is the warehouse, which is divided into two floors. The lower floor is spacious and has storage shelves, while the upper floor is a small attic. The attic is lined with wooden planks and has a bed board and wiring. When Qin Nan was in school, she loved to curl up in the attic to read.
The attic has windows, the kind with clear glass, so it's comfortable to be there no matter the weather. The old house has brick and stone walls, so it's not particularly hot inside, even in summer. All of Qin Nan's books, both textbooks and extracurricular books, are kept in the attic.
There are bookshelves in the attic, with transparent glass panels that can be locked, mainly to keep out mice. The family used to have a cat, but it died of old age, and Grandpa was so sad that he didn't keep any more.
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