Young man: "Then he is about your age? Is he dead? How did he die?"
The old village chief shook his head regretfully: "He's been missing for over forty years. I'm afraid he's in great danger."
Xu Tianfang and Xu Huaiwen were both listening with their ears perked up, and they would look at each other from time to time.
The young man's mood was also affected by the old village chief's low mood, but he still pointed at the pile of things that had just been dug out from the cordoned area and said, "Who buried these things? Xu Zhilin has been missing for over 40 years. He couldn't have buried them, could he? Those boxes are made of wood. If they had been buried for over 40 years, they should have been destroyed long ago. How could they be preserved so well?"
The old village chief hesitated to speak.
The young man clapped his hands in delight: "I know!"
His companion was startled by his sudden surprise: "What do you know?"
The young man gave them a smug look and said, "Xu Zhilin must not be dead. He's been missing for over forty years, probably around the time of the founding of the People's Republic of China. His parents were revolutionary workers, so maybe he followed in their footsteps and went there." The young man pointed in the direction of Wanwan Island, "Sleeping on straw and tasting gall!"
The companion uttered a "huh" and did not comment.
The young man continued to think, "He must be lurking over there, waiting for us to give him the order. Then, with the help of our internal and external forces, we will definitely capture all the traitors."
Companion: "Have you watched too many spy movies? What about this box? How do you explain it? You've been talking for a long time but it's getting off track."
Young man: "Now many Taiwanese are coming back to trace their roots. Haven't you heard? He must have come back too, but his identity doesn't allow him to show up directly. So he brought back the treasures he collected from there and buried them next to his parents' graves. He will donate them to the country when he finds the opportunity."
My companion wanted to refute it, thinking that this statement was unnecessary, but he also felt that it was not completely impossible.
The village chief shook his head and said, "After Xu Zhilin became an orphan, he was taken away by his father's friend, a strange man named Hu."
Young man: "Hu?"
Village chief: "Yes, I never saw him come back after that. However, in 1954, a young man named Hu came to the village. He found my father (the previous village chief) and told him that Xu Zhilin had been missing for five or six years. He wanted to come on behalf of his brother to pay tribute to Xu Zhilin's parents."
Young man: "What happened next?"
"Later, my father asked me to bring him here secretly. When I brought him here, he gave me a pack of cigarettes and kept thanking me. He also said he wanted to talk to his 'old friend' alone. When I heard that, I went back.
Not long after, during the Qingming Festival, when we came to bury our ancestors, we discovered a small, unremarkable mound. I thought it was a cenotaph erected by the young man surnamed Hu for Xu Zhilin, which was understandable, so I kept it to myself. That box of things must have been buried at that time.
Young man: "So does this thing belong to Xu or Hu?"
The old village chief said: "I don't know whether it was surnamed Xu or Hu before, but now it is surnamed Guo."
The young man gave a thumbs up: "You are really aware!"
The old village chief's guess was half right. In 1954, Hu Xingyun had indeed buried a small box here, the same one Xu Zhilin had left at the Hu family's house. However, this box had been replaced by Lin Yi.
There was nothing new in the small box, nor were they treasures in the traditional sense. Instead, they contained some relics, photos, and diaries of Xu Zhilin's parents. If there was anything of value, it was a small silver necklace that Xu Zhilin's father and mother had given to him before they died.
The things in the big box that have been dug out now were taken out by Lin Yi in advance from an ancient tomb caused by soil erosion by the Yellow River. Even if he didn't do it, the ancient tomb would be washed out after a rainstorm next summer, and many of the burial porcelains inside would be destroyed. He took some of them out in advance, which can be regarded as protecting this batch of cultural relics.
As for the small box left by Xu Zhilin, he planned to bury it together with Xu Zhilin's ashes next to Xu's father and mother, so as to help him return to his roots.
Consider this as a gift he gave to Hu Xingyun.
The excavation of cultural relics over there has come to an end. Comrades from the Cultural Relics Bureau carefully carried boxes and chests and walked towards the car at the village entrance. The police followed closely behind, providing close protection. The old village chief instructed the young people to restore the grave to its original state with shovels.
The group of people quickly dispersed.
The TV station was going to film some interview footage of Lin Yi later, and the onlookers were all chasing after the camera.
Only Xu Tianfang and Xu Huaiwen lagged far behind, and they kept looking back at the small grave.
If, Xu Huaiwen glanced at his father and thought to himself: If, if they had brought Xu Zhilin's ashes back and buried them, letting him return to his roots, then perhaps, that box of treasures would have been in their pockets long ago.
Alas, one wrong step leads to another. Think about it, the government even came to his house to discuss the placement of Xu Zhilin's ashes with them. Why did they refuse at the time?
Perhaps, it was really destined.
Xu Tianfang felt very upset. No matter how much he thought about it, he could never imagine that this man surnamed Hu would actually hide such a box of treasures here. Moreover, he just donated it like that?
How could he be willing to turn away such a huge fortune? Xu Tianfang couldn't understand.
At the entrance of the village, in front of the interview car, a beautiful female reporter held up a microphone and asked Lin Yi, "Mr. Hu, what made you decide to donate these precious cultural relics to the country?"
Lin Yi: "Strictly speaking, these cultural relics do not belong to me. They originally belong to the country."
Female reporter: "Oh? Can you tell me more about it, Mr. Hu?"
Lin Yi: "It's a long story. Back then, my grandfather adopted the son of an old friend. These old friends are the two martyrs on the tombstone. They sacrificed their lives for the construction of New China. When they died, their son, Mr. Xu Zhilin, was just four years old.
My grandfather took him home and treated him as his own son. He and my father, Mr. Hu Xingyun, grew up together. This box of cultural relics was rescued by the two elders of the Xu family during their revolutionary work. They asked my grandfather to keep it for them and planned to donate it to the country when the time was right. Unfortunately, they passed away too early.
My grandfather gave this box to Xu Zhilin when he was twelve years old, and told him to wait until the founding of the People's Republic of China and find an opportunity to hand it over. But it was really a pity that before the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xu Zhilin was taken to Taiwan Island by the White Army and did not return to China until 1990.
The female reporter interjected, "So where is Mr. Xu now? Did he authorize you to make the donation on his behalf?"
Lin Yi shook his head. "For so many years, I have been trying to find out about him. Last month, I finally found out where he was. However, he passed away in early 1991."
Xu Tianfang and Xu Huaiwen, who were watching, were shocked. They immediately looked at each other, their eyes expressing the same question: "How did he know?"
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