Chapter 24: The Rooftop

So, An Qimin had lied to me. He had indeed served in the military and was once married to a military doctor. This Wang Yong was also a military doctor and had been their matchmaker. However, when An's wife was eight months pregnant, she went into premature labor, and neither the mother nor the child survived. A few nights later, An Qimin and Wang Yong went out for drinks. On the way home, Wang Yong, with his sharp eyes, spotted a basket in the bushes. Emboldened by alcohol, the two of them carried the basket back to An Qimin's house.

But when they went to look inside, a cry rang out—the cry of an infant! It gave them both a terrible fright, sobering them up almost instantly. Staring at the basket, they wondered what to do. If they put the baby back, what if the poor thing didn't make it? But if they kept it, how would they explain it if the parents came looking?

Eventually, An Qimin decided that since he needed an heir anyway, he would raise the child himself. He had Wang Yong forge a birth certificate, claiming the baby hadn't died but was alive and well. The basket was discarded, and the items inside were hidden away by Wang Yong, intended to be revealed to the child when they were older. But unexpectedly, something went wrong; An Qimin had swapped the contents! What he had obtained was an apology letter from An Qimin, and the cloth bundle I held was exactly that. The original items had long since vanished.

When I asked why this fake version was in An Qimin’s home, Wang Yong looked just as bewildered, telling me only to look at the letter and adding that An Qimin used to give him one every year. He laid the letter flat on the table. I saw it was filled with An Qimin’s instructions, nothing more than requests for Wang Yong to look after An Mingshan, and it seemed to have no value. But then, I accidentally spilled my lemonade on the paper. As I went to wipe it clean, a miracle occurred: a line of text appeared on the paper, reading: "··—·/·—/—·/——·/—··/··/—·/——·".

"This is Morse code," I said. "It spells 'fangding,' which is the pinyin for 'rooftop.' By the way, what did he do in the military?"

"He was a communications officer and a code expert," Wang Yong replied.

"No wonder," I said. "The rooftop he mentioned..."

"It must be his ancestral home," Wang Yong suggested.

"Where is that?" I asked.

"Shaanxi," he said.

"Shanxi?"

"No, Shaanxi. His roots are there, so it must be..."

"Oh, I see," I said. "You mean we have to go to Shaanxi and dig up their ancestral graves? That’s a bit heartless, isn't it?"

"What are you thinking?" Wang Yong countered. "He must mean the rental property in the photograph."

I was speechless; the place in the photo really was just a rental property.

"Where is it?" I asked.

"You're in luck," Wang Yong said. "That rental is on the outskirts of this city. I’ll take time off tomorrow to take you there."

"I'll come to pick you up tomorrow," I said.

"No need, these old bones can still move," he replied.

"Then I’ll be heading back," I said. With that, I left and returned to the inpatient ward.

It was past seven in the evening at the hospital. Just as I reached the door, I heard a heated discussion inside. They clearly didn't know I had returned, so their voices were quite loud.

"Director," An Mingshan was saying, "I simply cannot serve him anymore! At home, I do all the chores—laundry, making the bed, sweeping, mopping, cooking, washing dishes—it all falls on me. I’m like a maid; I might as well be dressing him and feeding him too! And him? He does nothing. He’s a total armchair loafer! Only when I specifically ask for help does he bother, and even then, he looks so reluctant. I honestly don't know if he’s taking care of me or if I’m waiting on him like a master."

"Do you want to know why?" the Director asked.

"Of course I do," An Mingshan replied. "But at least he has some conscience; he knows I’ve sacrificed so much for him and treats me reasonably well."

"I never imagined his self-care skills were so poor," Liu Shan added. "He had the nerve to criticize me!"

"I only heard this from the Master and my niece," the Director said.

"Your Master..." An Mingshan and Liu Shan said in unison.

"No one knows his real name," the Director continued. "We only know his secular surname is Zheng, his Taoist name is Yunyangzi, and he holds great prestige. He is the President of the Council and one of the founders of the entire Supernatural Bureau system. It was he who specifically named Shucheng (for us to invite). Sigh, come to think of it, it’s understandable that the boy turned out this way..."

***

**Reader’s Corner**

**Question:** Mr. Author, do you know Morse code?

**Answer:** I do. Morse code, invented in 1837, is a method of transmitting text information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer. It was developed by the American painter Samuel Morse (1791–1872), known as the "Father of the Telegraph," though some attribute its invention to his assistant, Alfred Vail (1807–1859).

Morse code is a fascinating system that uses binary states. It consists of short signals called "dots" (di) and longer signals called "dashes" (da), with specific intervals between them to denote characters and words. The standard timing is: a dot is 1 unit, a dash is 3 units, the gap between signals is 1 unit, the space between letters is 3 units, and the space between words is 7 units. Morse code is widely used today, most famously in the distress signal "SOS" (··· ——— ···), chosen because it is easy to transmit and recognize, not because it is an abbreviation.

I learned it using English textbooks. I memorized the code table first, then practiced by spelling out vocabulary words in Morse code while studying. I also used training tools to listen to the signals and transcribe them into characters, gradually increasing the speed until it became second nature. I’ve also self-taught various encryption methods, such as keyboard ciphers, rail fence ciphers, and Caesar shifts. People around me don't always understand why I do this, but I believe that one day, what I have learned will prove to be of great use.