After consulting it, Ye Chen found that the old lady’s background was very simple, but seemed to have something extraordinary.
The old lady’s surname was Jiang, her name was Nan Qiao, she was born and grew up in the mountains of Shu Nan since she was a child, and married not even far away, but to a young man from the same village.
And for the next fifty years or so, it is probable that she rarely left this small mountain village, for every census, she was the permanent resident of her family and the information was clearly marked that it was her own cooperation during the census.
At its peak, the village had only about forty households and three hundred people, but now the population loss is so severe that only about ten households and forty people, mostly middle-aged and elderly, are still living here.
So it seemed that the old lady should be the most ordinary old person left behind in the mountain village, having lived a simple and ordinary life all her life.
But the reason why Ye Chen felt that she seemed a little bit extraordinary was because of her name, Nan Qiao.
Ye Chen had read a lot of books in his childhood under his father’s tutelage, so he could tell at a glance that this Nan Qiao came from the line “There is a tree in the south that cannot be rested on.” in the poem “The Book of Songs – State Wind – Han Guang”.
An eighty-year-old woman could not have been given such a name if her parents had not been readers.
Eighty years ago, the gold content of a scholar was not the same as today.
Moreover, Ye Chen still remembered that when he met the old lady in the underground cell in Mexico, she had told himself about the origin of the Phoenix Bone Vine bracelet, her ancestor was a famous doctor during the Tang Dynasty, and this Phoenix Bone Vine was pa*sed down from her ancestor.
Pa*sing on an object is easy, but pa*sing on a skill is too difficult, the former requires only handing over something to the next generation, while the latter requires “teaching” the next generation what she has learnt in her life. The former may only take a second, but the latter may take a lifetime.
Moreover, although the old lady had only briefly described the origins of the Phoenix Bone Vine, this was proof that the old lady’s family had been handed down in order since 1500 years ago.
This is an extremely rare thing.
In other words, to be able to ensure that the family’s legacy was in order in a feudal society that had been in unparalleled turmoil for over a thousand years was proof that the family was very strong.
For example, if a family died after a turmoil and only a small child remained, and this child begged for a living and was eventually adopted and given a new surname and a new name, it would be extremely rare for him to remember his original surname, and for him to remember the basic information about his ancestors and the core of his family heritage. It would be a fool’s errand to ask him to remember the basic information about his ancestors and the core points of his family’s heritage.
But if he is strong enough, it is different. Even if he dies in the turmoil and is only a small child, but his family has ancestral property, gold and silver, a collection of books and a family tree, and with the help of relatives with foreign surnames, the child will still be able to carry on the family legacy when he grows up.
Of course, this kind of strength is not necessarily about having enough money and social status, but can also be some kind of special ability. If a certain craft has been pa*sed down through generations and can keep each generation fed, then the family, most likely, will also be able to keep on pa*sing on the family.
However, the old lady had said that the family’s ancestral medical skills had long since been broken off, so it must be that their ancestors, must have had other extraordinary abilities.