The first house in the east wing of Erdaomen in our old house lives with the old grandson. That's what we call him. Now that I think about it, he was around 50 years old, not too old. He never got married in his life. At that time, his mother was still in her 70s and was in poor health. She lay in bed all the year round and could not get off the ground. The old lady's diet and daily life depend on him to take care of it. The whole hospital said that the old grandson was a dutiful son.

In our old courtyard, the old grandson is probably the most learned one. He is an English translator and is said to have returned from studying in the United States. He said he was a translator, but he didn't see him work for a day. Most of them came to the door and sent the things to be translated, and he earned the money at home. He lived in only one east wing, with a double bed against the wall, and he slept with his mother; by the window was a writing desk with his lifeblood—a typewriter. At that time, our group of children often came to his house to play. This is the first time I have seen this thing. I often secretly tap the small round keys on the keyboard to make a "bang bang" sound, which is very fun.

The old grandson likes to play with us children. It was one of his two major distractions outside of work at home. Another of his pastimes was snuff, and he was very particular about it. He has a lot of snuff bottles at home, packed in dark green tin boxes. When he is happy, he will open the boxes and let us appreciate the snuff bottles of different shapes and patterns. When he was busy, he would ask us to buy snuff for him. Every time he bought snuff, he would find a different snuff bottle from the box, as if picking out his guards. When he buys snuff, he must buy it from Tianhuizhai. We are all very willing to help him buy snuff: First, the old grandson will let us use the change we got for snuff to buy candy; second, we are also willing to go to Tianhuizhai to watch the fun.

Tianhuizhai is not far from our old home. This is an old snuff shop that opened during the Daoguang period. Snuff, as a smelling product, is rarely liked now, but in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, until the founding of the People's Republic of China, it had a market, just like cigarettes today. The old grandson told us in the vernacular that snuff is divided into ten grades, with different grades and different prices. The best snuff can buy 44 catties of foreign noodles at the price of one tael. good guy! I heard that we are all sucking our teeth and Hanako. So, we all want to see what is the secret of the snuff shop that sells such expensive snuff.

In fact, the store was really too small and unremarkable. It was on a high step, with a slender front, squeezed like a tuckahoe by the shops on both sides. Perhaps because we were so short at the time, the steps seemed higher. Our group of half-old children, men and women, took the money given by the old grandson and took Huan’er to Tianhui Zhai. The main purpose was to find change and go to Tongsanyi on the east side of Qianmen Street to buy sugar and eat it. There is probably not a single child in our old home who has not been to Tianhuizhai to buy snuff for the old grandson, and there is no one who has not eaten the candy from the old grandson.

The fun years passed quickly, and childhood and adolescence flew away like birds. By the year I graduated high school, the Cultural Revolution broke out. One day, a group of Red Guards broke into the old courtyard and entered the east wing of the old grandson. At that time, it was common for the Red Guards to rebel and raid their homes, so it was no surprise to see them—what surprised me was that the leader was actually a girl from our old courtyard. She is 3 years younger than me. Before, she was like a follower. She followed me and went to Tianhuizhai to buy snuff for the old grandson.

It was summer, the weather was very hot, and the old grandson was helping his mother at home when he thought that the Red Guards would march straight in. The girl who was 3 years younger than me pointed to the nose of the old grandson and said that he was an American spy and asked him to hand over the radio station hidden at home. The old grandson watched her grow up and was busy explaining to her that there was no radio station. She pointed to the typewriter on the desk and said, "Isn't this a radio station?" The old grandson called her by her nickname and said, "My child, that's a typewriter, and you haven't seen me type with it!" She said: "You use it to type during the day and send messages at night, thinking that our young Red Guards don't know?" After speaking, she led the Red Guards and began to rummage through things, and suddenly found out the old grandson's treasure—the dark green one. The tin box, she pointed to a line of small English words "Made in the U.S.A." printed on the box, and shouted to the Red Guards: "Look, there are American things here, and he still doesn't admit that he is an American agent." The old grandson called her by her nickname again and explained, "This is the American milk powder box that was used before." Then he opened the box, pointed to the snuff bottle inside and said, "It's not like you haven't seen it before. It's all snuff." She grabbed the box and threw it to the ground. The snuff bottle shattered and the snuff was scattered all over the ground. She asked the old grandson, "What is this? An American milk powder box? It contains American explosives! "

The old grandson never dreamed that this snuff bottle box would bring him such a big disaster. His mother was so frightened that she died a few days later. The old grandson lived a long life and lived until I cut the queue and returned to Beijing. I saw him when I went back to the old home, and he called the girl's name and said to me, "What do you think this child thinks? The milk powder box for snuff is said to contain American explosives."

I have never seen that girl again. I don't know what she will think now, will she still remember this past event...