Chapter 59
Yang Ye stood in the alley and saw the chained door. Two heavy chains intertwined around the doorknob. The house number plate beside it had faded completely, leaving only a few stubborn strokes of calligraphy.
A winter breeze blew through the alley, stirring up the pile of dead leaves on the steps. The creeper vines on the neighboring courtyard wall were already mostly dead, their brown vines clinging to the gray wall like the bulging veins on an old man's arm.
The alley was eerily quiet, the only sound being the distant cries of scrap collectors. Their calls, with their characteristically old Beijing emphasis and drawn-out syllables, sounded like pebbles tossed into an empty alley, only to be blown away momentarily by the wind.
Just as Yang Ye stretched out his hand to touch the door, the rust on the door knocker fell off.
Before coming here, she'd wandered through several nearby alleys. The bricks and tiles looked the same, but the doorway decorations and appearance had long since changed. The elderly people living by the walls were all unfamiliar faces. She'd thought she'd be able to find some trace of the past, even an old locust tree, but after walking for more than two hours, those memories seemed to be elusive.
"Boss Yang, have you been waiting for a long time?" The agent Xiao Zhang ran over.
Yang Ye turned around and rubbed his rusty hands on the corner of his clothes. "It's okay. I just walked around here and it feels like a lot has changed here."
Xiao Zhang smiled and nodded. "This area is full of old houses. The government renovated them a couple of years ago and repainted and renovated many of the nearby alleys. You haven't been back for a long time, so it must look a little unfamiliar."
As he spoke, he pulled the key from his pocket and turned it half a circle, but it didn't open. Xiao Zhang frowned and shook the key hard, causing the chain to jingle.
"That's strange. It could still be opened when I came to see it last week," Xiao Zhang muttered. He squatted down to check the keyhole.
The keyhole was still fine, so he pulled out the key and tried to insert it into the keyhole again. But the key got stuck as soon as it touched the metal edge. He turned it back and forth several times, but could only hear a muffled sound. He turned back and smiled embarrassedly at Yang Ye, "Maybe the keyhole is stuck. Wait a minute, I will open it soon."
"It's okay, take your time, I'm not in a hurry." Yang Ye stood by and glanced at the mottled door frame. The red painted wooden door was severely faded, and the original texture of the wood was exposed at the edges.
Xiao Zhang held the key and repeatedly inserted it into the keyhole, but it always got stuck at the last step. He tutted, squatting on the ground with his eyes almost touching the keyhole. Suddenly, the key got stuck in the keyhole. He tugged it down, the sound of metal rubbing was piercing, and even his breathing became tight and rapid.
Yang Ye saw him lower his head to look for the keyhole again, "How about I give it a try?"
Xiao Zhang stood up with an awkward smile. He made way and wiped the non-existent sweat from his face. "You try it, maybe this door recognizes its owner."
"It's not that mysterious," Yang Ye said, and the key turned gently. With a click, the lock was opened.
"You still have a way." Xiao Zhang breathed a sigh of relief. He went to push the door. Just as his hand was on the door, he heard a muffled sound of something falling from inside, as if a rusty iron sheet was torn in half, with the twisted sluggishness of old wood. As the door hinge turned, Yang Ye also heard the sound of the wooden valve cracking.
"Look, the door bolt was broken by the thief," Xiao Zhang pointed out the place.
Yang Ye saw that inside the door, near the bolt, there was an irregular crack in the wood, and there were several crooked marks on the edge, as if it was left by the tip of a knife.
"No one has lived here for so many years. I didn't expect that the first person to open the door would be a thief." Yang Ye curled his lips, and the ending tone was tinged with self-mockery and a bit of nonchalant helplessness.
She raised her hand and touched the peeling paint on the door frame, her fingertips stained with the grayish-white powder. The house had been empty for decades, and she remembered that the last time the door was closed was probably in autumn, because the next month, she felt a cold in Hangzhou that was completely different from Beijing. In the first month after moving to Hangzhou, that winter, she was so cold that she rubbed her hands together in her room, and even with several layers of quilts, she couldn't sleep at night. In that month, she lost count of how many times she had a fever and how many times she recovered. Now, she seemed to have become accustomed to the biting, sticky, and damp cold of Hangzhou winters, and was not used to the dryness here.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the moss spreading at the base of the wall and the weeds growing wildly from the cracks in the stone. Yang Ye paused as she entered the door. She suddenly felt that being robbed wasn't such a bad thing.
Xiao Zhang had already walked in, and the thick dust on the ground was raised with his footsteps. "He might have just arrived in this area and was not very familiar with it. He just stumbled in here by mistake. The police said he didn't take anything. He might have searched the house a few times, saw that there was nothing, and gave up."
Yang Ye didn't say anything, but just took a closer look at the broken door bolt.
Sunlight streamed through the crabapple tree in the yard, slanting in through the dusty windows, illuminating the tiny particles floating in the air. The furnishings in the house remained exactly as they had been when she left. The old sofa in the living room, its leather cracked and ripped, its springs protruding to support the tattered sponge. The statue of Guanyin on the altar was covered in dust, its porcelain-white face still as compassionate as ever. She lowered her eyes, silently observing the many years that had unfolded in the house. The dust settled again and again, and she took in the silence that filled the room, the emptiness of the years.
"Your house has been empty for more than 20 years, right?" Xiao Zhang looked around.
"Thirty years and four months," Yang Ye said softly.
Yang Ye walked over to the low cabinet in the corner, which was covered in dust. She found a napkin from her bag and wiped it away, revealing the dark red paint underneath.
"You remember it very clearly," Xiao Zhang said, "then this house has been closed since your elders' generation."
Yang Ye opened the drawer, and there was nothing inside except a few yellowed newspapers with the bottoms stuck together. She remembered that this should be where some seals and pens left by Xue Shangyang were placed.
"Strange, why is it gone?" Yang Ye said to himself.
Her muttering was very soft, but Xiao Zhang still noticed it. Xiao Zhang put down his phone and came over to take a look. "Did you lose something important?"
Her hand touched the cold cabinet, she lowered her eyes, and after a while she slowly shook her head, "It's not a valuable thing, maybe I have a bad memory and I may have taken it away before."
Xiao Zhang's sneakers kicked up dust on the ground. He took a picture of every corner of the house with his phone and looked up. "The old beams in your house look pretty solid, but the walls are very damp. It's okay, it will be fine after some repairs."
She didn't respond, her gaze around the room landing on the recliner beside the sofa. The mahogany frame of the handles had long since cracked, and the dark satin cushions were riddled with holes from moths. In the dust rising from the room, she seemed to see Xue Shangyang sitting there, sipping a cup of tea, the sunlight filtering through the window, casting dappled shadows on his face.
"Your furniture used to be high-end, right?" Xiao Zhang took a photo. "Look at the frame and the structure. This kind of furniture is rare even now."
"Yeah." Yang Ye retracted her gaze. At that time, transportation was not as convenient as it is now. She had to wait for many months just for these furniture. Sometimes there was chaos outside, and the time would be extended even further.
Their movements disturbed the floating dust, and Yang Ye felt her throat itch after just a few words. She sniffed, and the dust that had accumulated for years seemed to have found its way, rushing into her nostrils.
Although she raised her hand to cover it, she was still a step too late.
Yang Ye suddenly coughed, the thick dust choking her and bringing tears to her eyes. She fumbled to open the window, but the window sill was already covered in dense spider webs, with the shrunken corpses of many small insects on the web.
"Are you okay?" Xiao Chen handed over a tissue. "There's too much dust in this old house. You need to be a little more careful when you walk."
"Thank you." Yang Ye took the tissue.
Walking through the main hall, the courtyard looked even more desolate. The stone trough where she'd once kept her koi was now rusted black, and the crabapple tree they'd transplanted when they got married had long since withered, leaving only a few bare branches stubbornly lingering.
Xiao Zhang followed her gaze and said, "It's a pity that the tree died. If it had been taken care of earlier, maybe it could have been saved."
"Do you know this kind of tree?" Yang Ye looked up at him.
"How would I know? I just guessed it based on the thickness of the tree trunk. A tree this thick, if well cared for, could probably live quite a long time."
Yang Ye walked closer to the tree trunk and his palm touched the rough bark.
"How's the market going now?" she asked, looking up at the treetops.
"The market is good. The seller I told you about two days ago was attracted by the location of your old house." Xiao Zhang immediately became interested after hearing her question. "Look at your courtyard, it's square, with two entrances in front and back, and a well-lit central hall. It will definitely sell for a good price. What's more, the seller also said that he can pay for the emptying of the things inside, saving you the trouble of moving."
Her hands brushed against the cracks of the crabapple tree, the rough bark scraping against her fingertips. She bent down and picked up the few remaining dead leaves on the ground. She twisted the dry leaves between her fingers, until they crumbled into tiny pieces and fell from her hand.
"Boss Yang, look..." Seeing that she was still hesitant, Xiao Zhang took another half step forward and said, "Do you have any other requirements? About the price, about the house? Just tell me, I can communicate with the other party."
Yang Ye asked, "Did the other party say what they were going to do with the house?"
"Oh," Xiao Zhang said, "It seems that the other party has returned from studying in the United States and wants to convert your house into a B&B."
"In the B&B here?" Yang Ye turned his head.
"Your location is great. It's only one or two kilometers away from Prince Gong's Mansion and Shichahai. You can walk there. Although it's in an alley, it's still quite charming," said Xiao Zhang.
"That's true," Yang Ye replied. Xue Shangyang had bought this house because of its location.
Her eyes swept across the yard inch by inch. Yang Ye squatted down, reached out to move the pile of stones at her feet, and touched the exposed roots of the crabapple tree.
Xiao Zhang continued, "Boss Yang, the price they offered is quite reasonable. According to the current market price, you will have to pay several hundred more per square meter. I know you still have feelings for the old house, but then again, you haven't lived here for so many years. It's not only a pity to leave the house empty, but over time, the exterior walls and old beams will easily deteriorate. It would be a pity to leave it empty, don't you think?"
Yang Ye stood up and shook off the sand and mud on his hands.
"Boss Yang," Xiao Zhang said from behind her, "why don't you just give me a price you want and I'll talk to you."
She took a deep breath. The sun was shining brightly above her head, casting her shadow very long on the ground.
"Three days," Yang Ye said, "I'll give you an answer in three days."
Xiao Zhang looked at her for a long time without saying anything, and searched in his trouser pocket. "Then I will come to see you in three days. I will leave the key here for you."
"Thank you," Yang Ye said softly.
She stood in the yard and looked up at the dazzling sky.
Shangyang, I'm back.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
