When I was five, my grandpa was teaching me calligraphy in the courtyard one day when three fierce-looking people walked in.
"Wang Tianlong, Village Chief Wang, long time no see!" A person with long, white hair said coldly to my grandpa.
"You are?" My grandpa looked bewildered.
"Wang Tianlong, you truly are a busy man with a short memory. Take a good look, who am I?" The person brushed aside the messy hair covering her face.
This time, I saw clearly; it was an Old Grandma.
She placed a bag she was carrying heavily on the table and roared at my grandpa, "Great Village Chief Wang! Do you recognize me now?"
"You're Hu-Mei?
Hu-Mei, weren't you dead?" My grandpa was greatly surprised.
"Old man, you're the one who's dead!
I'm here today to settle our grievances. If you don't die, will I die first?" The white-haired Old Grandma said viciously.
"Hu-Mei, you're joking. What grievances are there between us?
However, there's one thing I don't understand. When you died, I personally carried you into your coffin.
I was the one who prepared you for burial.
I, along with eight other people, personally escorted you up the mountain and watched as everyone covered your coffin with earth.
How can you still be among the living?
Besides, even if you became a ghost, I would be able to tell.
You're neither human nor ghost now. Why have you come to find me?"
My grandpa was the Village Chief of Eren Village.
It is said that when I was born, various lords came to claim me, and my grandpa was already accustomed to it.
He wasn't afraid; he was just curious.
"Open this bag and look!" That person ignored my grandpa.
"What is it?" My grandpa wondered.
"You'll know if you open it, won't you?"
My grandpa glanced at her and slowly opened the bag.
"Gold bars? I estimate there are at least a hundred. What do you mean?" My grandpa opened the bag and looked inside. This time, it was different from before, quite inexplicable.
"It's simple. This child belongs to me, and these one hundred jin of gold are yours!" The Old Grandma pointed at me and said to my grandpa.
"Hahaha, Hu-Mei, do you think I haven't seen money before?" My grandpa burst out laughing.
"What, not enough? I'll double it!" She took the bag another person was carrying and placed it on the table.
"Don't waste your efforts. Even if you add a hundred times more, it will be in vain.
You all should leave. I won't make things difficult for you."
"Old man, don't refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit!
If you don't agree, then don't blame me for resorting to force!" That person's eyes suddenly glinted with malice.
"Just you all?" My grandpa looked at them coldly.
"Then let's try!" That person suddenly pulled up a stool and sat down.
"Let's try!" My grandpa also pulled up a stool and sat down.
In my impression, isn't fighting two people exchanging punches and kicks?
Why did both of them sit down?
I saw the two of them gesturing with their hands and feet in the air, non-stop.
Perhaps that person couldn't win, so the other two also sat down and gestured with both hands at my grandpa.
After a while more of gesturing, my grandpa suddenly pointed with both hands, and the three people collapsed to the ground, spitting blood.
"You are severely injured. Without ten years, you won't recover your former power.
Take your things and get out!" My grandpa stood up and threw the two bags in front of them.
The three people didn't pick up the bags, but instead, they menacingly threw out a sentence: "Wang Tianlong, you wait, we will have this child!"
Then they helped each other out, leaving behind two bags of gold bars...
As soon as they left, my grandma returned from the vegetable garden with freshly picked vegetables.
"Tianlong ge, what happened?" My grandma, seeing my grandpa spitting out a mouthful of blood, panicked.
Afterward, I saw my grandpa and my grandma whispering. I couldn't understand what they were saying.
"Jiaomei, I've at least bought Xiaolong ten years. After another ten years, it will be up to Xiaolong!" I heard my grandpa say at the end.
My grandma's name is Xue Xiaojiao, and my grandpa often called her Jiaomei.
Before this incident, I always slept in the same bed as my grandpa and grandma, in between them.
But that night, my grandpa moved to another room to sleep, and I stayed in the same room as my grandma.
In the middle of the night, I heard a lot of noise in the hall.
I also heard my grandpa and my grandma talking.
There seemed to be many other people in the hall, arguing about something.
"Master Wang, let me take your grandson for a month. I guarantee to bring him back to you completely unharmed. You can name your price!" After the noise quieted down, I heard someone say.
"Get out! As long as my two old selves are here, none of you will lay a finger on my grandson!" My grandpa said resolutely.
"Wang Tianlong, since you're unwilling to lend your grandson, then hand over the secret manual your master left you." Another person said.
"Get out!" My grandpa was very direct.
"Wang Tianlong, do you intend to take these things into your coffin?" I heard someone say.
"Get out! Can't you understand human words?" My grandpa said coldly.
"Old man Wang, do you want to die?" I heard someone say fiercely.
"For me to die, you don't have the ability yet!" My grandpa's tone remained icy.
"Who wants my husband to die?" I heard my grandma roar, followed by the sound of a sword being drawn.
The sound was like a series of firecrackers streaking across the sky. From the sound of it tearing through the air, one could tell it was a Peach Wood Sword.
The room instantly fell silent.
I didn't understand these things when I was little, but as I grew older, I learned that my grandpa's master was my grandma's father, making my grandpa and my grandma fellow disciples.
As for why these people came to cause trouble at my house, I wasn't clear. My grandpa and grandma never mentioned it to me. They just wholeheartedly taught me to memorize the Ma Yi Shen Xiang, Di Tian Sui, Qing Nang Jing...
When I got tired of memorizing, my grandma would teach me to cultivate Dao Qi. Only when I was older did I realize that this was also a type of Qigong.
One night, not long after, another group of people came to cause trouble at my house.
Although these all looked like people, they had a very strong fishy smell.
Later, I found out that these were all snake spirits, fox spirits, Weasels, and various mountain spirits and ghosts from the mountains.
These people also argued with my grandpa, and even came to blows.
As a result, my grandma intervened, and these people naturally didn't fare well.
I couldn't understand why those people and the beings from the mountains wanted to borrow me for a month.
After that night, no one came to bother my family for ten years.
As I gradually grew up, I would ask my grandpa and grandma about the things that happened when I was little.
My grandpa didn't say anything, but my grandma told me that those people wanted to snatch me, they wanted me!
"Snatch me? Want me?" I was confused.
"Grandma, I'm not part of their family, why would they want me? Why snatch me?"
"To be honest with you, those who came to snatch you were not just people, but also mountain spirits and ghosts!" My grandma said.
"If it's people coming to snatch me, I can understand that, at least I can do something for them.
But if they are mountain spirits and ghosts, what would they snatch me for?
Do they want to eat me?" I felt a chill of fear.
"Xiaolong, you'll slowly understand these things later.
However, before you turn fifteen, they won't come again; we've reached an agreement."