Hidden moth

Chapter 11 Ideal and Reality

The "secret room" had been empty, but now it was filled with some things. Three microwave-sized cardboard boxes, each filled with firecrackers, and several trays of red confetti, ranging from one thousand to ten thousand, were placed on the floor.

It was hard to tell whether He Kao was laughing or crying on his face, because these things were his and Xiaopang’s favorite toys when they were kids.

Even if the police found these firecrackers, it seems they wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Who doesn't set off some firecrackers during the Chinese New Year? The leftovers should be stored somewhere safe. The quantity and value of the case don't meet the standard of a crime, so at most they'll get a warning.

Either the situation was urgent and there was no time to move the last few things away, so Xiaopang moved them to the secret room on the third floor and even propped up the plywood to block the door, or Xiaopang left it there on purpose.

He Kao suspected the second situation, otherwise why would they move so many things away, leaving only some firecrackers and double-kick firecrackers, and even move them from the first floor to the third floor? Isn't this just idleness!
He Kao was certain that the police hadn't brought a police dog, and the search was sloppy. They opened the main room door and found the items were gone, and only briefly scanned the second and third floors.

What's so good about a bare-bones house? As for this room, it's obviously empty. There are two sheets of plywood against the wall. Who would have thought that there was a secret door and a secret room behind the boards?

Xiaopang thought that if they found anything, it wouldn't be a big deal, and it would also scare He Changshan and Zhou Yan. But the police didn't find anything and just left.

Some might find it strange that the police search was so perfunctory. In fact, the entire process was not rigorous.

They searched He Kao's residence after receiving a report without notifying the owner in advance. It can also be explained that they did not want the news to leak out. The police only tried to contact He Kao when they arrived at the door, and when they could not get through, they directly broke the lock and entered the house.

When the items were clearly not found, Section Chief Hu called He Kao and threatened him to confess and cooperate with the investigation. Fortunately, He Kao already had a clue and firmly denied any involvement in the matter, demanding compensation for the losses.

Section Chief Hu was angry and was willing to find someone to compensate for the lock, but he was unwilling to go through the formal process.

But if you think about it carefully, it seems that every link has been carried out according to the formal procedures. The police launched an investigation after receiving the report, and the search also had formal documents. At most, there were some minor flaws, but there were no major problems.

He Kao could understand this. This was how grassroots work was. It was impossible for everything to be carried out perfectly as imagined. The daily paperwork reports and a bunch of messes were annoying enough. This was already considered fulfilling one's duties.

He Kao went around the other rooms on the second and third floors, but found nothing else. He went downstairs, got his toolbox, and started repairing the door. The police were quite considerate, only damaging the lock. A high-quality security door was good.

From his great-grandfather to He Kao, five generations of his family have been carpenters. He Kao learned his craft from his grandfather from a young age and is skilled in all kinds of handicrafts, so changing a lock is no problem for him.

The ancestor worshipped by carpenters in the old society was called Lu Ban, who did not only carpentry work, but also various crafts.

If he is willing, he will have no problem getting a senior carpenter certificate. His pure craftsmanship may not be as good as his grandfather's, but he has minored in drawing, structure, machinery, parts, materials, etc. during his college years.

A student majoring in computer science took those courses as a minor, partly because of family influence and interests.

He Kao's undergraduate major was computer technology and applications, a major that seemed to allow him to learn a little bit of everything but not be specialized in anything. This was also because he had no experience at the time and no adults at home to guide him.

So why did He Kao take the postgraduate entrance exam after graduating from undergraduate school? It was also for employment purposes...

After quickly changing the locks, He Kao wiped the messy marks on the main room floor tiles and put the furniture back in place. While arranging the furniture, he suddenly realized why he bought a square stool for the apartment.

The entire set of furniture on the first floor was made by my grandfather himself. At that time, he had two apprentices to help him. All the wood used was old wood that my grandfather had saved.

Gathering lumber and hiring a carpenter to craft furniture is a long-standing tradition in this area, but the He family didn't have to hire a carpenter. All the furniture was made from the same wood, known locally as silverwood, a wild hickory tree.

Unlike the walnut and walnut imported from North America, its wood color is almost crescent white, it is very hard and tough, and it is polished smooth like fat and jade. After years of oxidation, the surface will gradually approach the color of old ivory.

This kind of tree should still exist in the deep mountains, but it is almost invisible in the hilly areas near Qiyuan.

When my grandfather was in his prime, he also participated in the farmland water conservancy project organized by the government. At that time, a lot of trees were cut down on the construction site. He picked out the best materials and bought them at a very cheap price, saying that he would leave them for his eldest grandson to make furniture for his wedding. Anyway, the rural area was big enough to accommodate them.

He really did what he said. Perhaps the only regret was that He Kao had not yet married, but his grandfather helped him build a house and prepare furniture.

Looking at the room's nearly ivory-colored silver-thread wood furniture—except for the table, all the chairs, stools, cabinets, and shelves were of the same style and in even numbers—He Kao thought for a moment, then pulled out his phone and bought another square stool, the same size as last time.

Then he went to the "secret room" on the third floor, took out a lot of firecrackers, put them in black plastic bags and put them in his backpack.

He put on his backpack and locked the door to the house and the courtyard again. His eyes were full of confusion. This time, he didn't plan to leave the key at his aunt's house. I heard that in psychology, a house is often an image of the "self", so what is the key?

In reality, He Kao held no grudge against his aunt's family, nor was he without affection. Regardless of the reason for their willingness to adopt him as their own, He Kao was grateful.

Let me make an assumption that I shouldn't mention. If his grandparents were no longer around, the only ones who would have adopted him would have been his aunt's family. I wouldn't ask for good conditions for him, but at least they would have been able to raise him.

My eldest aunt had a bad temper and gave people the impression of being a shrew who was good at scolding people on the street. Few people in the village or town dared to offend her. In this contrast, my uncle became an honest and kind man who always apologized to people privately on my eldest aunt's behalf.

When He Kao was a child, he also sympathized with his uncle, but after growing up, especially after experiencing recent events, his views have changed.

The eldest aunt is always asked to do things that offend people, which makes full use of her fierce personality. Since there is no son in the family and she cannot show weakness, the benefits and reputation of a good person go to my uncle. This may be a survival strategy in the countryside.

For example, in this case, He Kao didn't believe that it was just his aunt's idea. He fully understood his uncle's mentality. After all, he also had the same surname as his uncle.

It cannot be said that his aunt's family has not taken good care of him over the years. He has eaten many meals at his aunt's house. When he was a child, he received New Year's money every Chinese New Year. When he was admitted to university, his aunt also gave him a not-so-small red envelope.

As for his cousin He Shan, after hearing that He Kao was almost adopted into her family, she always had some resistance to him and liked to find fault with him. He Kao found this very funny. Could it be that his eldest aunt's family had some kind of throne that they were afraid he would take?

He Kao now somewhat understands his grandmother. In a place like the countryside, his aunt's family is really in need of a male heir. In short, He Kao simply doesn't want to keep the key to his aunt's family anymore. It was already afternoon when he went to Huang Si's house. The gate was open. Huang Si's mother was hanging something out to dry in the yard. When she saw him, she asked, "Xiao Kao is back. Have you eaten yet? I'll heat it up for you!"

He Kao: "I've eaten, so please don't bother me, Mother Chen."

Of course he was lying. He hadn't eaten lunch at all. It wasn't necessarily out of politeness, but he didn't want to bother Mrs. Chen. If it really was lunchtime, he wouldn't mind adding a pair of chopsticks and eating a free meal.

He Kao had eaten many meals at his aunt's house since he was a child, but he had eaten even more at Huang Si's house. Many times, he was naughty and got into trouble outside and was afraid to go home, so he slept at Xiaopang's house.

Xiaopang's mother's surname was Chen, and He Kao had called her Mother Chen since they were in school. Mother Chen had specially set up a bunk bed in Xiaopang's room, with Xiaopang sleeping on the lower bunk and spare bedding and sheets on the upper bunk.

If He Kao stays here overnight, I will move the things on the upper bunk away so that he can sleep there.

Mother Chen: "Where did you eat? I just put away the food here, I'll heat it up for you quickly!"

He Kao: "I'm not lying to you. I've really eaten. I'll be going back to the city soon. I'll leave these two keys with you. The locks on the door over there have been changed."

Of course, Mother Chen had also heard about the He family's affairs. She just sighed, took the key and said, "Okay, I'll take care of it for you! It's not easy to get a taxi here, so you can drive my car." As she spoke, she handed over another set of car keys.

He Kao: "No need, I can just take an online taxi. There's nowhere to park this car."

Mother Chen: "There are parking lots under your apartment and office building. Give the key to Huang Si and ask him to drive it back. He hasn't been home for a few days! By the way, has he found a girlfriend recently?"

He Kao quickly said, "Okay, I'll drive the car over to Xiaopang and pass on your message. I don't know if he's dating or not, so you should ask him."

He Kao drove out of Pugang Town. This was an electric car that had just been released last year, costing just over 200,000 yuan. Mother Chen had bought it specifically for Xiaopang. She said having a car would make it easier to date.

But Xiaopang didn’t need the car for work on weekdays, and he found parking troublesome, so he parked it back in his hometown.

Mother Chen retired two years ago. Before retirement, she was a specialist at the town tax office. After retirement, several companies wanted to hire her to do financial accounting or something, but Mother Chen was re-hired and is still working now.

He Kao did not go back to the city directly. He turned a corner and got on a simple gravel road. He stopped in a hilly area beside a river, where there were many wild bamboos.

This type of bamboo is relatively thin, only two fingers thick at most, but its walls are thick and resilient, making it suitable for fishing rods. He Kao took out the tools he had with him and sawed off a number of small bamboo tubes, all near the roots.

The bamboo joints at this location are shorter and the bamboo walls are thicker. As a child, He Kao often used them to make homemade grenades, calling them bamboo mines. He was certainly not a criminal; his main purpose was to fry fish in the creek.

Xiaopang left him a batch of firecrackers and double-kick fireworks on the third floor, which were their favorite toys when they were young.

Children in the countryside loved setting off firecrackers during the Lunar New Year. Back then, He Kao had very little money and could only afford the cheapest small firecrackers and double-kick firecrackers. Nowadays, many city kids have never seen double-kick firecrackers, let alone set them off themselves, as they are quite dangerous.

A standard firecracker is about 1.5 centimeters thick and 15 centimeters long, with a short fuse located about a quarter of the way down. The charge is segmented, so after the first blast, the top half explodes into the air, where it then explodes again.

If it is ignited and then released and placed in a sealed steel tube, it becomes a simple mortar.

Children generally don’t dare to light firecrackers, but He Kao dared to do so. He even dared to hold the firecracker in his hand and light it, letting it explode and fly out from between his thumb and index finger.

This was a very dangerous way to play, and it seemed to be inconsistent with He Kao's cautious character. In fact, cautiousness was just a superficial habit, not his inherent character, not to mention that doing so was also a form of self-protection.

The children in the village were all impressed by him and thought he was so awesome! He Kao was never bullied by his peers since he was a child, partly because of the firecrackers.

Huang Xiaopang was so impressed by He Kao that he offered to play with him. However, they didn't have much money to buy firecrackers, and even had to be frugal when buying small ones. They often picked up the ones that had been used but not exploded.

They would break open the firecrackers and take out the gunpowder inside. When they had enough, they would run to blow up bamboo for fun.

Drill a hole in the bamboo, pour gunpowder into the bamboo tube, insert a fuse and ignite it, emitting a series of short and dense explosions. The entire bamboo, right to the tip, will explode into a piece of flower-like bamboo strips.

That was a real firecracker in the literal sense. Inspired by this, He Kao also made bamboo grenades.

Fishing is now banned in major rivers, but when He Kao was a child, the nearby rivers were popular for fishing. Some used nets, others used electric shocks, drugs, and explosives. Back then, country kids, more than just mischievous, would try to catch fish.

For example, I had heard of a method where you fill an ink bottle with quicklime, pour some water into it, quickly screw the lid on, and throw it into the pond. It was said that this method would also fry fish. I had tried it before, but the results were not very satisfactory.

This is a dangerous behavior that should never be imitated. He Kao is lucky to have lived to this age without becoming disabled.

Later, he "developed" bamboo bombs, a side effect of his family's carpentry skills. To bomb fish, he had to solve the problem of waterproofing the time-delay fuse and also experiment with the optimal bamboo material and size.

Throwing bamboo bombs into river bends and ponds actually brought up fish. Many fish weren't killed by the bombs, but simply stunned, and could be caught with a dip net.

When he was in junior high school, he and Xiaopang were throwing bamboo bombs to catch fish in the river bend. They were caught by Xiaopang’s father. They were taken home and almost had their butts beaten... After entering high school, they stopped playing these games.

After seeing those firecrackers and double-kick fireworks today, He Kao had the idea of making bamboo bombs again. It was not because he was itching to try it, but just in case. He hoped that he would not need to use it, but if he encountered an accident, at least he would have a way to protect himself.

**
(End of this chapter)