After the family split up, my stepmother and scumbag father begged me to come home.

Lin Qianqian had no interest in telling old stories anymore. She looked at the meat and rice laid out on the stove and sighed.

"Without wine, this Dongpo pork is just missing something."

"It's alright if you don't have it, sister. It's okay. Hearing you say that makes me think it tastes really good." Lin Yulong quickly comforted his sister when he saw her looking worried.

He squatted there, then suddenly slapped his thigh, his eyes lighting up: "Sister, I remember now, we seem to have some wine at home!"

"Ah Long, stop messing around, we don't have any alcohol at home!" Lin Qianqian thought he was just trying to cheer her up and didn't take it seriously.

Lin Yulong remained silent and turned to rush outside. Before Lin Qianqian could call out to him, she heard a rustling sound in the courtyard. A moment later, he came running in, panting and with a smug look on his face, carrying a jar sealed with yellow mud.

The jar looked quite old; the red paper pasted on it had long since faded and was wrinkled, and you could vaguely make out the character for "wine".

"Ah Long, where did you find this?" Lin Qianqian was both surprised and delighted. She reached out and took the jar, which was quite heavy.

"It's right under the jujube tree!" Lin Yulong wiped the sweat from his brow, his face beaming. "I was playing with Hu Zi here the other day, digging in the mud, and I found it by chance. I was going to tell you, but I forgot. I smell a fragrance, is it wine?"

Lin Qianqian leaned closer and smelled it. A rich fragrance wafted from the mud seal, faint yet unmistakable.

"Yes! It's wine!" Her eyes lit up instantly, and she reached out to pat Lin Yulong's head. "Ah Long, you're truly my Aladdin's lamp! You can grant my every wish."

Lin Yulong didn't understand what Aladdin's lamp was, but seeing his sister happy, he grinned along with her.

Lin Qianqian found an iron spoon and slowly pried at the yellow mud around the mouth of the jar. The mud was sealed tightly, and it took her a lot of effort to pry open one ring. With another push, the entire seal loosened. She couldn't wait to lift the lid, and a rich aroma of wine wafted out, mellow and lingering, unlike the bulk wine sold in stores which was so pungent. Instead, it carried a sweet fragrance of fermented grains.

"It smells so good!" Lin Yulong sniffed hard, then leaned close to the jar to peer inside. "Sister, who do you think hid this wine? Why didn't they take it?"

Lin Qianqian picked up the jar and looked at it, then at the sediment at the bottom of the jar, pondering in her heart.

"I don't know either." She shook her head. "But it should be from our ancestors or the original owner. It's definitely not our grandparents. If it were theirs, they would have dug it up and drunk it long ago. How could it have been left unattended?"

She lowered her head, smelled the aroma of the wine, and smiled: "Who cares whose it is! Now it's ours."

Lin Yulong nodded, his heart beaming with joy.

Lin Qianqian had just taken the meat out of the basket when she suddenly remembered that she still had that silver ingot in her pocket.

She paused, glanced around, quickly stuffed the silver into the cracks between the bricks at the base of the wall, and then smeared it with a handful of dirt. She clapped her hands, then went into the kitchen.

Just as the meat was placed on the cutting board, a glance out of the corner of my eye revealed a figure peering into the courtyard from the wall.

It was none other than the original owner's aunt, Wang Hehua.

Lin Qianqian's eyelids twitched: "It can't be anything good."

She didn't make a sound, picked up the water from the bedside table to wash the vegetables, and deliberately swaggered into the yard. Sure enough, Wang Hehua quickly shrank back inside.

Lin Qianqian glanced at the location and then suddenly splashed it out.

"ah--!"

A scream came from outside the courtyard gate, which was then quickly covered by a hand.

"Who? Who's in the corner?" Lin Qianqian raised her voice.

Wang Hehua turned to run, but it was too late.

"Oh! Auntie?" Lin Qianqian laughed. "What are you doing squatting in the corner of my house all of a sudden?"

Wang Hehua's face flushed red: "Who... was squatting in the corner? I was just passing by! You splashed water all over me, didn't you even look where you were going—"

"Just passing by?" Lin Qianqian interrupted her, her voice soft but each word clear, "Auntie, my house is at the very end of the west end of the village. Where are you going? And why are you walking right up to the wall?"

Wang Hehua's lips trembled slightly, and just as she was about to speak, Uncle Zhang's head popped up on the top of the neighboring courtyard wall.

"Wang Hehua, why can't your Lin family just stay quiet?" He frowned. "They come looking for trouble every other day."

Feeling embarrassed, Wang Hehua glared at Uncle Zhang and said, "What's it to you!"

After saying that, he ran off without looking back, almost losing one of his shoes.

Lin Qianqian watched the hurried figure leave and slowly stopped smiling.

She turned around, nodded to Uncle Zhang, and went inside.