Chapter 461: Return Home
Chapter 461: Return Home
After a fruitful journey in the Peach Blossom Realm, Liam and his companions reunited with their parents in Qiantang. However, according to Liam's grandfather, the Engagement Ceremony might have to wait for some time. So, the four parents decided to focus on their work for now, while he took the two younger ones along to visit the family library.
"Our family has been a Sorcerer Family in Chang'an for about five or six hundred years", Liam's grandfather said proudly on the plane. "For centuries, our family has been engaged in the cultivation of various Magic Plants. Now, one-third of the herbal potion ingredients in Northern China are supplied by us."
"The Magic families of China, this is something to look forward to", Hermione said excitedly, touching the Phoenix Mark on her arm. "In Britain, I never had the chance to visit those Wizard Manors, let alone having the opportunity to bring my parents along."
After the plane landed, they stayed at the People's Hall for a night. As Liam's hometown for both of his lives, Chang'an in the mid-1990s was far less prosperous than it would be 20 years later. The morning was still disrupted by the sounds of bicycle bells on the streets. The motor vehicle lanes seemed quite empty, with only a few private cars scattered around.
Riding in a rented old Jeep, they bumpy drove southward. After more than an hour, they saw a majestic mountain range stretching endlessly before them.
"We're almost there", Liam's grandfather said, looking at the Qin Mountains from the passenger seat. Sure enough, the car stopped after another half-hour. Hermione stepped out and saw a beautiful little village in the river valley below. Smoke curled up from the chimneys, and she even spotted someone plowing the field by the river with a water buffalo.
"Is this it? But it looks no different from an ordinary village", Hermione remarked.
"Of course not", Liam's grandfather replied, walking up from behind. "In China, there's no such thing as a traditional Wizard Manor like in the West. Here, traditional Sorcerers prefer to live in the same region with their blood relatives. If the family has a long history, they often form villages where the entire clan lives together."
"It's incredible", Hermione said, her eyes wide with excitement, gazing at the village in the river valley. "This is a completely different world!"
Upon entering the village, Liam's grandfather led him to greet many of the villagers. Liam realized that his seniority in the village was in the middle range. Among his peers, there were roughly equal numbers of people two generations older and two generations younger than him.
Finally, they arrived at the large house that served as the village committee office. The house was simple and unadorned, differing from the other houses only in that its walls were made of blue bricks and large tiles, unlike the mud-brick and tile houses that were common in the village.
"What are we doing here?" Liam asked curiously. The room's layout was typical of most village committee offices of that era: a brown desk by the window, two drawers locked with a large iron padlock, a few file folders and notebooks on the desk, and a small cabinet of the same color behind the chair. Apart from these, the room was quite empty. Upon entering, they noticed a wooden stand with a washbasin and a small pile of farming tools in a blind spot by the door.
"Be patient, be patient", Liam's grandfather said, noticing Liam's impatience. "You need to learn to wait. Good things come to those who wait."
With that, he retrieved a hoe from the corner and pressed it against a mark on the wall. The back wall immediately began to move, just like the wall at the Leaky Cauldron. The bricks started to shift outward from the indentation, forming a small hole that gradually expanded into a large archway wide enough for two people to walk side by side.
"Come in", Liam's grandfather invited. "This is the Ancestral Hall, where your engagement ceremony will take place. The Elder has chosen a good day for the ceremony, twenty-one days from now, which aligns well with your birth dates. During this time, you two will stay in the East Wing. You can come out for lunch, and in the afternoon, when your uncle arrives, he will show you around Chang'an, the core area of Chinese Sorcerers."
"Right, take this." Grandfather handed Liam a wooden token as he and Hermione were about to enter the side room to put away their luggage. "This is an Identity Token. With it, you can access the Library in the back. However, your little wife can't enter yet. She'll need to have her name added to the Family Register after the Engagement Ceremony to lift these restrictions."
Liam's name was recorded in the Family Register when he was first adopted as a child. This is why, even as an adopted son, he was treated no differently from the biological children.
After bidding farewell to Grandfather, who was eager to catch up with old friends in the village, Liam entered the side room assigned to him. The decor was very similar to the inn's style, but everything, from the two wooden beds to the tea table and stools, looked aged and finely crafted.
Surprisingly, there was a small, old television on the table, about fifteen inches in size. Of course, this was small compared to the 40-inch rear-projection TV in Liam's previous life. In this era, such a small TV was considered a fashionable item. What was even more surprising was that such a place had a TV at all.
The TV had a button on the side. Turning it to the left showed regular TV programs, while turning it to the right displayed programs from the Celestial Empire Sorcerer TV. However, in this era, Sorcerer programs were mostly news and lectures, with occasional educational programs and movie recordings for Muggles interspersed.
"Britain doesn't have anything like this", Hermione said, somewhat dejectedly, after checking the TV programs. "The Muggles in Britain have better and more advanced living conditions. But the Wizards' lives seem to be stuck 100 years ago. The only thing I find strange is where the electricity for China's Wizards comes from."
"From what I know, they have a way to generate electricity using Magic", Liam explained. "This is much easier than modifying a TV. I think the only reason Britain doesn't have a Wizard TV station is because there are too few people who need it. Running a Wizard TV station or selling Tvs to Wizards would only result in losses. You see, if they can make a Magic radio that works at Hogwarts, it's technically feasible to create a TV that functions in the Wizarding world. The only reason Britain's Wizarding world doesn't have this is because they don't need it."
After lunch in the village, Liam and Hermione visited the Ancestral Temple. The main hall, where the memorial tablets and other items were kept, was closed, so they only looked at the exterior layout. Besides noticing the magical defenses, many of the buildings were hard to identify by their purpose.
They had planned to rest after the visit, but at that moment, Liam's grandfather entered with an elderly man who looked a lot like him.
"Our Liang En has grown so much. When I saw your photos, you were just a little kid who didn't even reach your grandfather's waist. Now you're getting married", said Liam's great-uncle.
Liam's great-uncle was his grandfather's younger brother. Unlike his non-magical brother, he had a significant talent for Magic. After graduating from Kunlun Academy, he furthered his studies at the Celestial Empire Sorcerer Academy in Chang'an for three years and then stayed on as a faculty member. According to the plan, Liam and Hermione would spend the time before the Engagement Ceremony exploring the Chinese Wizarding world with him.
"Are you ready?" Liam's great-uncle was a straightforward and decisive person. "If you are, let's get going."
(End of Chapter)
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