The Lost Tomb Vol. 7

Chapter 24: The Story of Letters

When I heard that, my back was cold and my hands shook. After a long time, I managed to ask, "Why was your grandmother like this? Was there anything strange about her?"

"The nanny found me later. It turns out she had gone to the bathroom. After that, I was afraid of my grandma until I got older and she told me that this was how Huo women practice soft kung fu. You have to sleep hanging so your bones achieve maximum flexibility. She's been sleeping like this since she was nineteen, so now she can't sleep in a bed at all. She has bone spurs in many places, but it doesn't hurt if she hangs like that."

"Damn, then your grandfather must have practiced for quite a while before his wedding night." Fatty said.

Huo Xiuxiu ignored him and continued: "Because it traumatized me, I kept thinking about the words she spoke."

Judging from her own account and my observation of her, she was a girl who had her own outlook, thought independently, and was a critical thinker. As a result, she was still bitter about her grandmother's sleeping posture and sleep-talking at that time. Of course, this kind of bitter feeling didn't exist at that time. The reason why she felt that this sleep-talk had some unusual meaning was because she heard the same phrase many times after this.

As she grew up, she began to believe that her grandmother, who seemed as strong as a rock, had a huge knot in her heart.

This knot was such a big secret that her grandmother probably wouldn't disclose it until she died. But Huo Xiuxiu was sure that it had something to do with that sentence.

"There's no time."

What did she mean, there's no time?

It was hard to say whether it was curiosity, the wheels of fate at work, or what she said about hoping to untie the knot in her favorite grandmother's heart, but she began to pry into the matter. To my surprise, the little girl showed amazing skills in researching this case. The clarity of her thinking and her grasp of things weren't proportional to her age.

"The girls in our family are usually beautiful and smart, and the boys are handsome but often stupid." She explained, "I don't know why, maybe it's because the girls are brought up by their grandmas from childhood. My brother only knows how to play around all day long. He's not serious at all."

"Checking up on your grandma and aunt isn't a serious matter, either." Fatty added.

She thought for a moment, probably feeling that what he said was right, and then sighed, "In short, after checking everything, my grandmother's knot became mine."

She started to seriously look into this matter probably four years ago when she was fifteen years old. There were no clues besides the sentence "there's no time". If it were me, I probably wouldn't have been able to start at all, but she had a breakthrough that I couldn't imagine.

She initially wanted to find her grandmother's diary, but unfortunately, not everyone was in the habit of keeping one. Her grandmother used to have very little information written down, unlike my family. My grandmother was from a good family (yes, my grandmother), so her educated sons and grandson were more or less bookish. Even when Uncle Three didn't speak, he could pretend to be at least thirty percent scholarly. The Huo family's style was more utilitarian and business-like. Women had to fight, go into the tombs, take care of their husbands, and teach their kids. They didn't have time to practice calligraphy and write articles. Therefore, Granny Huo's temperament in those days was definitely not on par with Lin Daiyu's  [1], and there certainly wouldn't be too many words left behind.

But Huo Xiuxiu didn't give up completely, and found many old letters that were kept in file boxes. She read several boxes worth with the mischievous idea that she might be able to peep through her grandma's love letters. Unfortunately, all the letters were basically business contacts and had nothing she wanted to know.