plum city

Chapter 5 Hard Currency
After walking inside for seven or eight minutes, Fang Yan saw the sign for West 8th and followed the stone path up the mountain. Fang Yan reached row No. 12, turned around and walked sideways inside.After walking a few steps, I saw a master waiting in front of the grave of my adoptive father and mother. He was squatting there smoking a cigarette. Next to him was a mud bucket with half a bucket of cement slurry and a brick knife stuck in it. .

Seeing Fang Yan coming, the master stood up, threw the cigarette butt on the ground, stepped on it, and twisted it left and right.

The master was a little surprised and asked: "Is it you?"

Fang Yan nodded and said it was me.

"one person?"

"Yes, alone."

"Are you from out of town?" The master continued to ask, but Fang Yan didn't say anything.

"Put it down, don't carry it, it's too heavy."

The master nodded his chin to the ground. Fang Yan placed the two urns on the ground and took a breath.

The master is right, it is indeed a bit heavy.

"Did you bring a photo?" the master asked.

Fang Yan said he had brought it, so he took out his wallet from his pocket, took out a two-inch photo of his adoptive father and adoptive mother, and handed it to the master.

The master took off the keychain from his waist. There was a pair of small folding scissors hanging on the keychain. He opened it without any gestures. The connected keys were still jingling, and the photos in his hand quickly turned around. Just cut it into an oval.It was embedded into the reserved position on the tombstone, not too big or too small, just right, which made Fang Yan secretly admire.

After embedding the two photos, the master turned sideways and inserted himself through the gap between the tombs. He reached behind the tombstone of Fangyan's adoptive parents. He lifted the cement cover on the tomb with both hands, turned around and placed it in front of the row of tombs at the back. In the aisle, he looked up at Fang Yan, who had empty hands, and asked:

"You didn't bring anything?"

Fang Yan asked, "What do I need to bring?"

"Yellow paper, the one that warms the hole and presses the tombstone."

Fang Yan said "Oh" and then said: "I didn't bring it."

The master shook his head slightly: "Not particular?"

The dialect is not particular.

The master took out his lighter from his pocket and lit it. He reached in with the lighter and circled the tomb on the left twice. This was considered a warm cave to remove the moisture inside.After warming the left one, he lit the lighter again, reached into the tomb on the right, and circled it twice.

He then asked Fang Yan: "Do you have any coins?"

Fang Yan asked again: "Why do you want coins?"

"Pad under the urn."

Although Fang Yan knew that there could be no coins in his wallet, he still took out his wallet, opened it, looked at it, and then confirmed to the master: "No."

But he immediately thought of a question and asked: "Why is there money under the urn?"

"One is to remove evil spirits, and the other is to do it for your own good." The master said.

"For my own good?" Fang Yan wondered.

The master explained: "This money is called advance money. What does it mean? Letting it go is to bless the next generation to have money."

Fang Yan couldn't help but laugh: "So there is such a saying."

He looked at his wallet. Not only were there no coins in it, but there were also no banknotes. Nowadays, using cash is frowned upon, so who would use it anymore.

Fang Yan saw that there was only a stack of dollars and euros in his wallet, which Noi had put in.

Many times, Noi is a bit arrogant. For example, when going to the mall, she must bring her dialect with her to shop-in-shops selling gold, silverware and jewelry, even if she doesn't buy anything.She told Fang Yan that this could remove bad luck.

"Also, if there is a kid pestering you, when you get here, the kid will leave and you will be clean."

Noi told Fang Yan that Fang Yan didn’t understand the logic. Noi explained:
"I still don't understand. The brats are all greedy for money. When they get here, they will naturally go for gold and don't bother to pay attention to you." Fang Yan said: "Then why don't you go to a bank or a store that sells ghost coins? Then Isn’t it more attractive to them?”

Noi was stunned for a moment, then snorted: "Gold is hard currency. Who doesn't know about gold in ancient and modern times, at home and abroad, in the world of Yin and Yang? Do you understand?"

If you think about it, it makes sense. Gold is indeed hard currency.

When Noi put money in Fangyan's wallet, he also said that money can remove evil spirits. Carrying money with you is more auspicious than carrying a credit card and QR code.Since the RMB banknotes were unavailable, Noy stuffed a stack of U.S. dollars and euros into Fangyan's wallet.

Fang Yan looked at his wallet and took out three US dollars with a denomination of one hundred. He handed the two US dollars to the master and said to him:

"Master, please help me advance US dollars. I hope they can bless me to earn more US dollars. US dollars are also hard currency."

The master couldn't help laughing and said yes, it's up to you.

The master took the two dollars and put one in a grave. Fang Yan also gave him the other dollar and said to him:

"This is a red envelope for you. Sorry, I didn't bring any RMB."

The master was stunned for a moment, then took it and stuffed it into his pocket, saying thank you to Fang Yan, thank you.

The master asked Fang Yan to hand him the urn of his adoptive father first, and he put it into the tomb on the left, and then put the urn of his adoptive mother into the tomb on the right.

"Is there anything else you want to give them without me sealing the tomb?" the master said looking at Fang Yan.

The dialect is good.

The master used a brick knife to spread the cement slurry, smeared it on the cement edge of the tomb, and spread it in a circle. Then he put the cement cover on it, and used the brick knife to knock around the cement cover so that the cover could absorb the cement. Seam.Then I rolled out cement slurry to seal the gap between the cover plate and the front tombstone so that rainwater would not seep in.

After finishing all this, the master put the brick knife into the empty bucket, straightened up, and said to Fang Yan:
"You stay with your parents for a while, I'll leave first."

The dialect is good.

Fang Yan sat down cross-legged in front of his adoptive father and adoptive mother's grave, facing each other. He took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit one, and placed it on the side of the tombstone next to his adoptive father. He tried to move as far to the side as possible. He knew that his adoptive mother could not smell the smoke. .

Fang Yan stared at Fang Guofei's words and the photo of his adoptive father for a long time without saying anything. He even thought it was strange how he could be so calm without even having an inner monologue.

Fang Yan then stretched out his hand, and gently slid his fingers along the horizontal and vertical lines of his adoptive mother's name on the marble tombstone, and whispered in his mouth:

"Mom, you have worked hard in this life."

After a while, he said again:

"Mom, thank you! I will be your biological son in the next life, okay?"

Tears suddenly welled up in Fang Yan's eyes, and he felt sad.

Fang Yan sat in front of the grave of his adoptive father and mother for more than half an hour. In the mountains in March, the wind was still a bit cool, but the noon sun shining on people made people feel a little drowsy.

Fang Yan stood up. After sitting on the ground for a long time, his legs and feet were a little numb. He stood there and rubbed his hands along his thighs downwards.He clenched his hands into fists and hit them lightly on his knees.

Feeling that he was fine and could walk, Fang Yan looked at the photo of his adoptive mother on the tombstone and said softly:
"Mom, I'm leaving."

Dialect raised his hand towards the photo of his adoptive father on the tombstone as a greeting.

Fang Yan turned around and walked down the hill. When he arrived at the parking lot and got into the car, he saw the little girl and two other people standing against the wall at the door of the office, basking in the sun and staring at him.

Fang Yan started the car, walked out of the mountain gate of the cemetery, and turned left.

He did not go back to the city the way he came. He wanted to go to Meicheng, a small town more than 100 kilometers away.

With his adoptive father gone, Fang Yan is ready to implement the plan he had thought up long ago. He is going to find his biological parents.

When he found them, Fang Yan had no other ideas. He just wanted to ask them something he had wanted to ask them since he was a child:
"Why don't you want me?"

(End of this chapter)