Su Yufan gave a cold laugh.
Her mother might be gone, but that didn’t mean just anyone could take her room!
The first stop in returning to one’s roots was the room where her mother had once lived.
“That room was painstakingly carved by my grandfather for my mother. It has the wardrobe she liked, the dressing table, the full-length mirror, and the screen.
Do you know how much effort my grandfather poured into that room?
Using openwork carving techniques, he carved layered scenes of landscapes and figures, flowers, birds, insects, and fish so vividly they seemed alive. The forms are beautiful and elegant, refined and unique. Do you even know how to appreciate them?
I’ll give you one hour. Move all your things out and make room for my mother.”
Su Yufan was no pushover. At a time like this, she had to be firm.
Now that she had no one to rely on, she had to become her own support.
“You—you… As if I care! I’ve been sick of living there all these years anyway! I’ll give it back to you!”
Zhao Wulan was eager to send this unlucky nuisance away as soon as possible, so she chose to swallow the loss in silence.
Inwardly, she cursed Su Yufan ten thousand times over.
“Don’t forget to clean it properly. I’ll be waiting in the room next door.”
Zhao Wulan cursed under her breath and did not reply. Very soon, she rolled up her bedding and came out.
Su Yufan sat on a chair in the second-floor room the whole time, holding the urn. This chair had been carved out by her grandfather, chisel stroke by chisel stroke, and represented the Su family’s woodcarving craftsmanship.
It was also a work her grandfather had always been proud of.
Every part of this house had been carved with a tremendous amount of effort from her grandfather. Su Yufan suddenly wanted to stay—
to properly search for things she had never noticed before.
From above, she looked down over the courtyard. Its layout was a traditional Bai residential style.
This was a typical ancient building with four wings and five skywells, nearly three hundred years old.
The roof was laid with blue bricks and plain tiles, and tile cats were placed along the ridges, symbolizing the devouring of bad luck and the bringing of good fortune.
Most of the doors and windows were decorated with hand-carved openwork floral woodcarvings. The patterns included flowers, birds, insects, and fish, and the craftsmanship was exquisite. Among them, the carvings on the seventy-two lattice doors were the most refined.
Her grandfather had used openwork carving techniques to carve patterns such as magpies on plum blossoms, mandarin ducks playing in water, and white cranes flying among pines on the transoms, skirt boards, decorative beam ends, hanging posts, and corridor railings.
The beams, bracket sets, and sparrow braces were also adorned with exquisite auspicious-cloud woodcarvings. They were not only decorative, but also served to connect and support the architectural components. It was a very typical mortise-and-tenon structure, extremely solid, with no room for even the slightest error.
The main beams inside the gate and both sides of the gate tower were painted in color. The two walls were painted with images such as the Eight Views of Jianhu Lake, displaying Jianchuan’s natural scenery and cultural landscape.
The walls and roof were decorated with cobblestone walls, making them sturdy and durable while giving them a distinctive texture and beauty.
The screen wall was the place where the building’s artistic ornamentation was most concentrated. Raised blue bricks formed rich and colorful three-dimensional patterns, with plaster paintings at the center of each group.
She remembered that her mother, grandfather, and grandmother had completed it together.
There had once been a small fish pond here. When she was little, she had kept fish she scooped up from Jianhu Lake inside it.
Now, beside the screen wall, marble inlaid with natural landscape patterns complemented the white walls and blue tiles, appearing fresh and elegant.
Although some minor changes had been made in the details, overall, it still looked the way her grandfather had designed it.
At this moment, Su Yufan suddenly seemed to understand her grandfather’s craftsman’s heart.
Had her mother once often stood here, looking down? Every brick and tile of the courtyard wall, every scene and object, could be seen clearly.
She had never truly examined this home.
Since childhood, she had liked new things, houses included.
She liked the newer layout of three wings and one screen wall. Compared with this sort of enclosed courtyard with skywells, it was more open and received clearer, brighter light.
But at this moment, moved by the scene before her, she finally distinguished between the concept of a home and that of a house.
Yet the Su family was left with only her.
Downstairs, Xili Bufa was cooking with Wang Fugui as if this were his own home.
Su Yufan did not wait for long. Once Zhao Wulan moved out her clothes and personal items, the room’s original beauty immediately appeared before her eyes.
She remembered how her mother had liked to braid her hair in front of the dressing table.
And from now on, no one would ever braid her hair for her again.
She placed her mother’s ashes on the three-door cabinet, pressed her palms together, bowed, and wept as she murmured, “Mom, I’ve brought you home.”
After staying in the room for quite a while, Xili Bufa knocked on the door. “Su Yufan, I steamed some ersi and stir-fried yellow-braised chicken. Come downstairs and eat a little?”
Su Yufan forced herself to rally. She could not collapse, or others would think she was easy to bully.
After putting her emotions in order, she went downstairs and ate with everyone.
The others in the He family had already eaten, so no one paid them any mind, and they were even too lazy to greet them.
Xili Bufa seemed more like the master of this house, arranging food and drink for the four of them and assigning rooms.
Su Yufan found a four-piece bedding set and changed the sheets, then stayed in her mother’s room.
After they had eaten their fill and gone to sleep, Zhao Wulan gave Xili Bufa a scolding.
“Who do you think you are? Since when is it your place to stick your nose into my family’s affairs?
You didn’t help us speak, and you even waited on them with food and drink. Do you really think of this place as your home?
Don’t forget, you’re an apprentice of the He family, not a dog of the Su family!”
Xili Bufa did not take these insults to heart. He only said calmly, “Master’s wife, I study woodcarving here, and I’ve paid tuition and lodging fees. I have not been eating and living here for free.
And the rent for the house was what Master told me to give to Auntie Su. The house belongs to the Su family.
Su Yufan’s grandfather was my master’s master. By sentiment and reason, I should do these things.”
“Heh… I once thought that since you had studied at the Royal Buddhist Academy of Siam, you were some Buddhist disciple who cherished compassion, a Buddha who would save all beings. Turns out you’re just a biased fool!
What kind of spell did Su Yufan cast on you? Why are you speaking for her like this?”
“Master’s wife, please speak with some courtesy. And please don’t bring up my past.
I have already chosen the path of an ordinary person. I only want to quietly finish learning woodcarving and go back to repair temples.
I have no other distracting thoughts, nor any selfish intentions.
I simply sympathize with what happened to Su Yufan and am speaking the truth. Please show mercy with your words and accumulate virtue and blessings.”
Zhao Wulan was full of anger. How could she listen to any of this? She screeched, “Stop always pretending to be so pure-hearted and free of desire.
Ever since you went to Kunming and met Su Fengxia, you’ve often come back looking as if your soul had flown away.
You didn’t even keep those monastic precepts anymore, and you even returned to lay life. Who knows what shameful relationship there was between you and Su Fengxia?”
These words directly ignited Xili Bufa’s anger. He forced it down and raised his voice to retort, “Master’s wife, my conscience is clear.
I went to Kunming to purchase the newest varieties of flowers only so I could observe them and sketch them for carving. Auntie Su was considered a distant relative of mine. It was perfectly normal for me to visit her.
If you continue to insult the dead like this, beware of retribution.”
Hearing this, Zhao Wulan grew even angrier and shouted, “Who are you saying will suffer retribution? You’re cursing me!
Don’t think I can’t do anything to you! Do you still want to learn carving or not?
Believe it or not, I’ll have your master drive you out of Jianchuan!”
“Jianchuan is not ruled by the He family. I will not lower myself to argue with you, nor do I want to quarrel with you.
Whether I stay or leave, after Auntie Su’s funeral is over, I will discuss it with Master.”
Su Yufan could not sleep. This kind of old wooden house had no soundproofing to speak of. If there was even the slightest noise, she could hear every word clearly.
So Xili Bufa had once studied at the Royal Buddhist Academy of Siam. Then why had he returned to lay life?
It was not some unspeakable secret. Why did he not want anyone to mention it?