"Thump, thump..." The more anxious Young Master Liu became, the clumsier his hands grew. In barely ten minutes, he had turned the living room of his house upside down, looking as if a battle had just raged through it.

As fate would have it, at that exact moment, his father was walking home, still carrying his hoe after clearing weeds from their field, humming an old Shanghai tune with every third step. But upon pushing the door open, he froze. Seeing a stool here and a feather duster there, he immediately assumed they had been robbed. He spat into his palm, unhooked the hoe hanging from his shoulder, and prepared to deliver a heavy blow to the burglar still rummaging through the place. His mother followed right behind him, hoisting the earthenware jar used for tea high above her head, presumably ready to deliver the finishing strike.

"Old man, our... our house..." Mother Liu, Wang Guihua, craned her neck as she spoke.

"Shhh..."

"Listen to that sound, the thief hasn't left yet. Damn it, they're greedy. Let's sneak in quietly later, don't startle them!" Compared to Wang Guihua, Father Liu, Old Man Liu, was much calmer and even understood strategy, tossing in a couple of idioms for good measure.

"Right, right, right..." Wang Guihua nodded repeatedly, her admiration for Old Man Liu pouring out like a surging river, vast and relentless like a flood of the Yellow River. She thought: This man was certainly worth marrying; despite having "Honest" in his name, he was actually quite shrewd. In her momentary distraction, she almost let the tea jar slip from her grasp, startling Old Man Liu into quickly sidestepping, fearful of becoming collateral damage.

"Alright, alright, you stay outside, I'll go in alone. Put that earthenware jar down quickly, don't end up hitting me instead of the thief!" Old Man Liu said, fighting back a laugh and a cry.

"Then you be careful, Old Man."

"Mmm." Saying this, Old Man Liu cautiously nudged the door panel open with his hoe, squinted to take in the room, and then tiptoed towards the sound's origin—the large cabinet against the wall.

The sounds were intermittent, clearly indicating the thief was searching through the drawers, tossing things out, closing one thing only to open another—a veritable commotion. As he approached, a cold smile spread across Old Man Liu's wrinkled face.

"Ugh, where on earth did those things get put?!" A voice of mounting impatience muttered from behind the cabinet that stood in the center.

Hmph, you thief, looking for loot and still complaining about the effort? I've lived for decades and this is the first time I've seen such top-grade goods. Old Man Liu pursed his lips, then his eyes darted, and he sneered, "Who keeps valuable things in the living room? You should be searching from the kang bed first."

The person behind the cabinet seemed momentarily slow to react to the voice, merely dismissing it casually, "The kang? Impossible, impossible. Only a fool would stash those things near the head of the bed."

"Why is it impossible! If you leave your savings in the living room, aren't you inviting loss?" Old Man Liu actually engaged with the thief.

"Who said I was looking for money? I’m looking for joss paper and incense!"

"What? Joss paper and incense?" Old Man Liu nearly bit off his own tongue. What kind of era was this? He’d heard of thieves stealing gold and money, but stealing items burned for the dead? Did this fellow have some strange fetish?

"Exactly! I don't know where Mother put all that stuff. I remember seeing it in the cabinet last time. Did we run out? As far as I recall, no one in the neighboring houses has died recently!" The voice sounded utterly bewildered, scratching its head in confusion.

At this proximity, Old Man Liu could finally discern the voice—the inflection, the tone—it was unmistakably his good-for-nothing, habitually idle, troublemaking son.

"Damn it, you little brat, what in the world are you doing! Look at this mess on the floor, don't tear our house apart!" Rounding the cabinet, Old Man Liu saw his Young Master Liu crouched down, head buried in the mess, and couldn't help but curse.

"Dad! You’re back early today! Why the hoe? Oh, right, where have you put all our spirit money? I’ve been looking everywhere and can’t find it." Young Master Liu looked up, saw his father, and let out a sheepish grin.

"I was about to ask you the same thing! What do you need those inauspicious things for!" Old Man Liu growled in anger.

"N-nothing..." Young Master Liu pouted. "I was just thinking of burning some paper offerings for the ancestors, offering some incense."

"For the ancestors, burning paper, offering incense?" This time Old Man Liu truly suspected that his son’s brain had been kicked by the neighbor's donkey while grinding grain. After all, Young Master Liu knew nothing useful except causing trouble; the fact that he hadn't torn up the Liu family genealogy to make paper airplanes must have been a miracle. He didn't even know his great-grandfather's name, so what was there to worship?

"Yeah, hurry up and tell me where they are, I’ll go right now." Young Master Liu stood up from the floor, brushed the dust off his clothes, and urged him on anxiously.

"Wait a minute..." Old Man Liu dropped the hoe and waved his hand to interrupt him. "Son, do you have a fever or a cold? Do you want me to have Doctor Li from the village clinic check you? I gave him a package of vermicelli last time; he owes us a favor!"

"Me? A fever? A cold?" Young Master Liu pointed at his own nose. "No, absolutely not. I'm robust as an ox, I'm not sick."

"Then is your brain damaged?" Old Man Liu remained utterly unconvinced, determined to find some flaw in Young Master Liu’s behavior.

"Dad, what is wrong with you!" Young Master Liu was starting to lose patience with his father’s antics.

"It's not what's wrong with me, it's what's wrong with you!" Old Man Liu’s facial muscles twitched. Wang Guihua, who had overheard their conversation from behind, was looking at him with profound affection, even squeezing tears from the corners of her eyes. "Gou Shao [Young Master Dog/Darling], it's my fault for not watching you closely at home, causing you to hit your head."

"Mom, Dad, you guys... sigh! I'm not explaining it to you anymore!" Young Master Liu felt that even if he had three heads, eight mouths, four arms, and twelve legs, he couldn't make them understand the logic right now.

"Is it wrong for me to want to go visit the ancestors' graves?"

"It is not wrong!" Old Man Liu shook his head repeatedly.

"Then why are you both acting so bizarrely..."

"Child," Old Man Liu said with a pained expression, "the key is that from the day you were born until now, you have never once visited the Old Liu family graves! You don't even know your great-grandfather's name, so when you suddenly say you're going to burn offerings, how can we not worry that you've cracked your head?"

"Oh, I see..." Young Master Liu smiled sheepishly. To be honest, he genuinely couldn't recall his great-grandfather's name, and his grandfather's name... he thought... he seemed to have forgotten that too.

"The joss paper and incense are stored in the kitchen. If you need them, Mother can give them to you, but you must first explain clearly to Mother why you are suddenly running off to worship at the ancestral graves," Wang Guihua stepped forward and grabbed Young Master Liu's hand.

"Uh..." Young Master Liu wanted to confess the strange series of events from last night, but he feared worrying his parents (or rather, he feared his father finding out he had snuck out gambling in the middle of the night). So, after mumbling vaguely, he concocted a reason: "Well... hehe, hehe..."

"Stop grinning foolishly and talk business!" Old Man Liu wouldn't let his son, slippery as a loach, get away with this; he needed an explanation.

"Ahem, well, you see, aren't your son and Yanzi getting along quite well? We're having a good time. So, I was thinking of burning some incense for our ancestors, asking them to bless me so I can quickly marry Yanzi and bring her home to be a wife for you two old folks." Young Master Liu said this sentence, half true and half false, so he quickly lowered his head, afraid his father would see through his lie.

However, this gesture was entirely unnecessary. The moment 'wife' was mentioned, Old Man Liu and Wang Guihua's eyes lit up, and they exchanged knowing, mischievous grins—it was as if one had finally caught a big fish and the other had snagged a handsome young man. Seeing Young Master Liu lower his head, they dismissed any other thoughts and assumed their thick-skinned son was simply showing a rare moment of bashfulness!

"You little brat, you're not even that old yet! Thinking about planting seeds already!" Old Man Liu cursed with a smile, but his mouth split wide open.

"Hmph, our Gou Shao is absolutely right this time. Your mother gives one hundred percent support!" Wang Guihua shoved Old Man Liu aside, rolling her eyes. We're just eager for grandchildren; you old man, don't crush his enthusiasm.

"You..." Old Man Liu's retort was shut down by the glare.