Aoba Office

The old man didn't show up, and was very rude. He just asked us three strangers to help us with the work.

But looking at the situation in the basement, the archives here in Huixiang really don't have the manpower. Of course, the three strong men who were sent here can't escape.

There are two elderly people here, so we can't refuse them directly.

We lifted up our pants and walked to the filing cabinets, and the three of us got busy.

The basement is full of old files. Logically speaking, they should be managed by information technology now, and these files should also be scanned and entered into the database. However, some paper documents are still retained, which is equivalent to a backup. Furthermore, in a few decades, if it is possible to make a documentary or conduct a news interview, it will definitely be more interesting to take out paper files and film them than to retrieve the entered information in the database.

I have dealt with Minqing's Archives Bureau before. When they were looking for Ye Qing and the others, the thin man and the fat man went to the archives office several times and asked for help to look through the oldest paper files.

Minqing City is much more prosperous than Hui Township, and the administrative level is also higher. The conditions of the Archives Bureau are naturally much better. At least it is impossible to store the archives in the basement, where they will not see the light all year round, and there is a risk of flooding. The thin man said that some of the filing cabinets were sealed, almost like a bank vault. Of course, the files related to Ye Qing and the Six Villages of Workers and Peasants were not qualified to be placed in such a special filing cabinet.

I took out the files from the bottom of the filing cabinet. They were all wet, dripping with water. When I opened those document bags, I found that the yellowing papers inside were originally illegible, and when soaked in water, most of them were destroyed. Even some archives themselves have become brittle and soft due to being too old, and the current situation is even worse.

I was a little helpless, so I could only take a rough look at the names and categories recorded on these archives, work first, and then see if there were any documents about the history of Huixiang.

"Ahem..."

On the other side of the room, the old man coughed twice. The uncle pushed him to rest, but he refused. The voices of the two old men became softer, but continued intermittently, as if they were chatting about everyday matters.

Lu Qiaolan called me.

I walked over and took a look, and saw a file folder spread out in her hand. The inside was filled with plastic film bags, which were not sealed, but still had a waterproof effect.

Lu Qiaolan called me there, of course, not because she was simply surprised that there was such a folder in the archives, but because of the contents of the file.

The plastic bags were filled with torn pieces of paper. Judging from the appearance of the paper, they were much older, and the characters on them were also in ancient Chinese.

It looked a bit difficult for me.

Lu Qiaolan pointed to the complete sentence and said to me: "This is the local chronicle of Huixiang before. Here it is written about disaster relief and food distribution, and then the number of deaths caused by the disaster."

I was a little surprised, I didn't expect Lu Qiaolan to understand this.

Lu Qiaolan didn't notice my expression and pointed to a torn piece of paper next to her, "It mentioned here that a wealthy businessman at that time passed by Huixiang and donated some money."

She turned another page.

"Is there any earliest record?" I asked hurriedly.

"This one doesn't seem to be the earliest one. However, I saw the story about Caotou Road." Lu Qiaolan turned the page forward and pointed it out to me. "It's not as exaggerated as the story I heard last time. It's just that someone offended the local people. The local ruffian was buried in the ground and was already dead when someone found him. The records here are incomplete, that’s all.”

I looked twice and felt dizzy. I gave classical Chinese back to my Chinese teacher after I graduated from high school. Now, after many years, I am looking at real classical Chinese, not to mention the changes in traditional and simplified characters, and the lack of punctuation, which makes it even more difficult to read.

Lu Qiaolan put the file aside and read another one.

These files are filled with broken pages, and almost all the papers are damaged. It is unknown what happened back then and where these things were found.

I helped Lu Qiaolan search here and read some contents.

Zhuang Huai also came to help. Like me, he knows nothing about ancient Chinese prose. He can only pick out the most easily recognized characters and phrases and make guesses to determine the year.

The three of us were getting involved when the two old men came over.

The uncle said dissatisfiedly: "I asked you to help, but you are just lazy here!"

"Hey, he is not from our archives in the first place." The old man advised.

I directly asked which of these archives contained the earliest content. Just judging from the order of arrangement in the filing cabinet, it seems that they are not arranged by year.

The old man shook his head, "These things were scattered when they were delivered."

The uncle added: "Mr. Zhou sorted it out for a while and sorted it out a little. After he died, no one took care of it."

"Mr. Zhou?" I asked confused. This last name makes me a little concerned.

"He is an old man from our archives. He came back from studying abroad and studied in college. After he came back, he first went to the capital to teach. Later, when he got older and retired, he returned to Huixiang." The old man replied.

"Go back to Huixiang?" I repeated the old man's words again, always feeling that there was some key hidden in it.

"Yes. Mr. Zhou said that his ancestors were from Huixiang and later moved away. The specific reason is not known. He came back because he wanted to find his roots. Before he could sort out these things, he died of illness." The old man sighed.

"We saw some tombstones in Wailing Ridge before, with the word 'Zhou' engraved on them," Zhuang Huai said.

The two old men were surprised.

"Is it possible that the ghost crying at the grave is Mr. Zhou's ancestor?" the uncle asked in surprise.

Of course we cannot answer this.

Even if it is true, Mr. Zhou passed away this week.

"Does he still have family here?" I asked.

The old man shook his head, "He returned to Huixiang alone. I heard that his wife passed away before, and he has no children."

"Where are his belongings?" I asked again.

The old man continued to shake his head.

The old man next to him slapped his forehead, "There is a pen, have you forgotten it? Or did you tell me that it was left to you by Mr. Zhou? It was worth a lot of money back then. What's the name of that pen? I always want to ask you to borrow it." , use it to show off to her man."

The old man looked like he was thinking and reminiscing, then shook his head and said with a smile: "As I get older, I can't even remember this."

"Can you show us that pen?" I asked expectantly.

If Mr. Zhou turns into a ghost, his relics may be the clue to find him.

The old man still shook his head, "I don't know where he put it. I haven't seen it in many years."

This is rejection.

I feel something is wrong.

"Oh, everything has changed. Now there is nothing left. When we die, no one will remember Mr. Zhou. Mr. Zhou even taught me some foreign languages ​​back then." The uncle said with emotion on his face.

"Yes." The old man was also sighing.

The two of them were going to the bathroom, so they came over to take a look. After saying this, they were about to go up.

The middle-aged man was still trying to persuade them to take a rest and wait until other staff came to get these things, but the old man refused with a smile. His father also loudly reprimanded him for not having a hard-working and down-to-earth work attitude.

The voices of the three people faded away.

Zhuang Huai and others left and said, "I'll find a chance to go to his room later."