The old man’s son sighed and said to me, “Talking about this really frustrates me. My old man has a piece of scrap iron that he treats like a treasure, saying he found it in the mountains and that it’s valuable. He kept telling me to go to the county to ask if it could be sold, but I thought he was just being crazy. I don’t know why, but a while ago, that distant relative found out about it and actually found someone willing to buy it for a decent price. But then, the old man got all excited and refused to sell, which made that guy stick around, pestering us all day long in this mountain valley. It’s driving me crazy.”

I glanced at the silent oil bottle and felt a pang of understanding. It seemed that the old man’s refusal to sell wasn’t because of us, but rather to avoid that distant nephew. A piece of iron? Could it be that the old man had something similar to what we found under the bed of the silent oil bottle?

Ah Gui, smoking nearby, chuckled and said, “Why don’t you just sneak in and take it from your old man? You could sell it for cash, and when the government comes to collect, they wouldn’t give you a dime.”

The son replied, “It’s not that I don’t want to, but that old man is crafty. One time I said I’d throw that thing away to keep him from getting obsessed with it, and he hid it away. I couldn’t find it after that. Ah, thinking about it makes me want to slap myself. I never thought that scrap iron would actually be worth something. If I could pull off this deal, it would be like a golden egg falling from the sky, and I wouldn’t have to worry so much about my son’s schooling.”

Listening to him, I couldn’t help but sigh. On the surface, the son seemed a bit unreasonable and somewhat resentful of the old man, but I could see that this family was indeed struggling, and we shouldn’t meddle in their family affairs.

At that moment, the silent oil bottle suddenly asked, “Did your father hide the item two years ago?”

The son thought for a moment and then nodded, saying, “Hey, how did you know?”

I immediately understood the silent oil bottle’s implication and continued, “Your father must have hidden the item in the mountains. He’s worried, so he goes to check on it every now and then. That’s why he’s been acting strangely.”

Upon hearing this, he sighed and said it made sense. Ah Gui added, “So your old man really cares about this. You should try to persuade him again. If you really steal it, he might just shoot you.”

The son replied, “That’s right. My old man has a terrible temper, and I don’t want to argue with him. If it comes down to it, I’ll just let it go. But that distant relative is really persistent. I’m afraid that with his temperament, if he sees this as blocking his financial path, our family won’t have peace in the future.”

As we chatted idly while waiting for Old Man Panma to return, his son told me quite a bit about him, helping me understand the old man better.

Panma is a local native who has lived on this land for several generations and is one of the few remaining old hunters. Most of the younger generation have assimilated into Han culture, usually only hunting during the slack farming season, while most of the girls have married out of town. Later, with the development of tourism in the area, the situation began to change.

Speaking of which, Old Man Panma is quite a local celebrity, known for his excellent marksmanship—he can hit a target from a hundred steps away—and his agile skills, especially at climbing trees. In the past, during festivals, he was highly regarded, as everyone relied on him to hunt wild boars and distribute the meat. However, as the economy developed and he grew older, he gradually became less valued, which led him to become somewhat cynical and particularly stubborn. As a result, his relationship with his children also deteriorated.

This kind of elderly person is like a classic example; I know quite a few. My former neighbor was an old Red Army soldier who often lamented the decline of moral standards and looked down on us young people who he thought were irresponsible. This is a typical case of someone who can’t come to terms with themselves. Thinking about it, it seems that the greatest ability of a person is to torment themselves.

As we chatted, we waited at the old man’s house until the afternoon, but he still hadn’t returned. No matter how much I tried to hide it, I couldn’t suppress my anxiety; on one hand, I was afraid something unexpected might happen, and on the other, we had been waiting too long.

The old man’s son felt embarrassed and told us he would go look for him, but unexpectedly, he also didn’t come back. We waited until evening and really couldn’t wait any longer.

A Gui was quite upset, cursing under his breath about how unreasonable the father and son were. Just as we stepped out, we happened to run into the old man’s son rushing past, followed by a group of people, and they didn’t even greet us, heading straight up the mountain.

I noticed the old man’s son had an unfriendly expression. A Gui was puzzled and grabbed someone to ask what was going on. The person replied, “The son of the Alai family found Old Man Panma’s clothes on the mountain, and they were covered in blood. Something might have happened to him, and we’re looking for people to search the mountain near where the clothes were found.”

“Where exactly did they find them?” A Gui quickly asked.

“In the Water Buffalo Head Gully. The son of the Alai family found them while hunting on his way back,” the person said.

“That’s so far away?” A Gui was very surprised.

I had no sense of direction regarding the local place names, so I asked, “Where is that?”

“That’s the mountain pass in front of Zhoudu Mountain and Yangjiao Mountain. It takes most of the day to get there,” A Gui explained to us. “You guys head back first; I need to go take a look.” With that, he followed after them.

I exchanged a glance with the silent oil bottle, feeling indescribable; I thought to myself that I really had predicted this, and something had indeed gone wrong.

The oil bottle’s expression was solemn, showing no signs of emotion, but his footsteps followed closely behind. I quickened my pace, thinking that this matter was truly strange, and we needed to understand it clearly.