Back to 1984: Hunting in the Mountains

Walking forward on the weeds, Yu Qiutang searched for his mother's grave based on his memory.

This cemetery is particularly messy.

In the early days, people would look for places with good feng shui for burial, so there was no planning. Later on, they could only look for suitable places in the reserved space.

As a result, there are no strict distribution rules for graves.

In addition, many graves are planted with pine and cypress trees, which gradually grow into tall trees and block a lot of views.

It is really not easy to see the overall layout clearly.

Yu Qiutang found the path where his mother was buried, and saw from afar his father crouching over the grave, picking dry wormwood from the grave.

He looked a little lonely and old.

He doesn't look like a man in his fifties at all, he looks more like an old man in his seventies or eighties.

Yu Qiutang couldn't help but sigh that eyes can really deceive people.

In my previous life, I always thought that my father was very tall and great, and even later in life, I was still suppressed by his shadow everywhere.

But now, when I look at my father again with a different mood, I find that he is just a little old man. Even in terms of physical condition, he is far from being comparable to myself who is in the prime of my life.

He came to the grave and placed the things on top of it.

My mother’s grave is very simple, with no pine or cypress trees, no other decorations, and not even a tombstone. There is only a small stone slab on the grave with the words: Tomb of my wife Yang Zijuan written on it.

Yang Zijuan is Yu Qiutang's mother.

Her hometown was originally in another town about ten kilometers away from Qingquan, at the bottom of a valley.

The fact that Yang Zijuan and Yu Qiutang were able to be together was entirely thanks to the matchmaker.

Yu Qiutang seldom went back to her grandmother's home because the people there didn't care much about her mother as a married daughter.

He clearly remembered that he had four uncles, but after his parents died, only two of them came.

The other two said that they were working in other places and were not notified.

But who knows the specific reason.

I vaguely heard my mother say that the reason she was unwelcome was because she was divorced. In order to successfully divorce, she returned part of the betrothal gift to her ex-husband.

It is equivalent to my grandmother's family returning the money they have put into their pockets to other people, and they are naturally very reluctant to do so.

It seemed that because of the need to reduce my mother's share of the betrothal gift, the wedding originally arranged for my third uncle also fell through.

So my third uncle has always been dissatisfied with my mother.

What’s even worse is that my third uncle never found a suitable wife in his life, so his resentment became deeper and deeper.

Later on, I heard that the two of them hardly spoke to each other.

My third uncle never came to their house until he died.

In this era, if there are many brothers and sisters in a family, complex interpersonal relationships will be formed.

Sometimes it’s hard to blame anyone because we all influence each other anyway.

There were four sons and two girls in my grandmother's family. My mother was the youngest. There was also an aunt, but she died very early.

Therefore, the mother is lacking in the affection from her family.

"I haven't been here for a few months, and there are so many wormwoods on the grave. We need to clean them all up, otherwise if we light a fire later, it will catch fire on the grave and cause disaster."

My father stood on the grave and muttered.

Yu Qiutang said hurriedly: "Dad, don't stand on it. This tomb is very old. Be careful not to step on it and fall down."

"Oh."

Yu Dejin came down from the grave again, and maybe he went down too fast and almost fell down.

Yu Qiutang hurriedly used his shoulder to support him.

The two men began to pull up the wormwood from both ends.

These are all Artemisia selengensis. If left unattended, they can grow more than one meter tall on the grave, as big as a small tree.

It seems very unlucky.

This is the reason why people laugh at others for not having sons by saying that the grass on your ancestors' graves has grown as tall as trees.

According to custom, women are not allowed to visit graves.

If there is no son in the family, the grave will be covered with grass.

After spending several minutes, the two of them finally cleaned up all the weeds in the wind, and it finally looked like a grave.

But he also saw several small holes that were dug by someone unknown. "Damn it," Yu Dejin cursed inwardly and scooped up soil with his hands to fill the holes.

I don't know if the connection is open.

"Come on, come on."

My father was the first to kneel in front of the grave and distribute the paper money brought by Yu Qiutang. Suddenly he saw that the stone with Yang Zijuan carved on it was covered with moss, so he knelt over and wiped the stone clean with the hem of his clothes.

Yu Qiutang came over and knelt beside his father, watching his movements.

After he came back, he never visited his mother's grave, not because he missed her or because he was unfilial.

He just hadn't figured out how to face his mother.

This sounds complicated.

It's actually quite complicated.

He had been thinking that he would think about how to visit his mother after things here were almost dealt with and the dust had settled.

At that time, he might tell his mother that his son has become successful and will take good care of the children and himself.

All these things that I was not qualified to say in my previous life, I can now say them seriously to my mother in this life.

I was pulled here by my father today, so it was just a temporary measure.

So when I knelt in front of my mother's grave, looking at the cold words on the stone, I felt a moment of confusion, but then came endless sadness and grief.

Those past events that were hidden deep in the memory and not easily touched suddenly came flooding in. The head could not contain them and they almost poured out from every part of the body.

"Your mother must be happy that your plan was successful today. Before she left, she held my hand tightly and refused to let go. She insisted that I would take care of your life in the future before she was willing to leave.

Do you think she worries too much? If she doesn't tell me, then I won't care about it. Let alone you, even Chunsheng, I haven't neglected what I should have done, right..."

Yu Qiutang listened to his father nagging like Xianglin Sao.

I don’t know whether I was saying this to him or to my mother.

He opened the matches, lit a pile of burning paper, and buried the incense in the pile of paper. In this way, after the paper burned out, the incense would naturally be lit, and finally he just had to place it on the grave.

When his father saw him start to burn paper, he also took a stack and put the papers into the fire one by one, watching the papers quickly turned black by the flames and then slowly devoured into ashes.

Yu Qiutang recalled that when he followed his father to burn paper in the past, he was always asked to shout: "Mom, come and pick up money, I'm giving you money", etc. But today he was not asked again.

Instead, after a while, my father murmured to himself, "Juan, come, take some more money to spend. When you were alive, I had no money to give you. Now I'm giving you more. Don't live in poverty in the afterlife."

"Juan, my son went to propose marriage today, and the girl's family agreed, so we'll get married on the ninth day after the Chinese New Year. Your wish has finally come true, I didn't lie to you... I didn't do anything, it was all my son who made it happen.

If you want to blame me for not having any ability, then go ahead. I really don't have much ability. I have been thinking these days that I don't know what I am trying to do in this life. I have been trying so hard, but it seems that I have not accomplished anything.

You were right before..."

Yu Qiutang listened to his father muttering, and suddenly it stopped. He turned around and looked at his father. The firelight flickered, and his father's eyes were moist and his expression was very gloomy.

Yu Qiutang had an idea and wanted to say to his father, you are just hypocritical. I don’t see you really do much in your daily life, and now you are pretending to be sad.

What about the liar?
But seeing that my father was not in a good mood, I didn't say much. This depressed mood continued until I sent him home, and it still didn't get better.

This made Chen Meidi very annoyed.

I wondered what happened to Yu Qiutang's father.

Yu Qiutang put his father down and prepared to go back, but Chen Meidi said, "Qiutang, your brother has gone to your place. When you go back, ask him to come back quickly."

Yu Qiutang didn't expect that Yu Qiushi would actually dare to disobey the Empress Dowager's order, so he agreed and said he would go back and tell her.

When he left, he saw his father's desolate back and felt a little reluctant.

When I returned to the new courtyard, I found everyone was there.

When they saw him come back, they immediately surrounded him to ask about the result. They learned that it was basically correct and the matter was finalized, and everyone was very happy.

Yu Chunmei even said that it was worth celebrating, and Wang Haofeng even went to the village butcher to buy a few pounds of fresh meat, and came back to celebrate.

Therefore, the meal at around four o'clock in the afternoon was particularly sumptuous.

Yu Qiutang was impressed by the delicious food, thinking that at this time, some of his neighbors had not yet had enough to eat, but they were not too restrained in their lives. Under his influence, everyone lived a very comfortable life.

Suddenly I felt very comfortable.

Life was hard in my previous life, and I was always thinking about saving money. I wished I could break every penny into two cents to spend.

But in the end.

It is not an ordinary life. When I get old, I still have many regrets and don’t feel very satisfied.

So he understood something.

People's happiness is different at different times.

When I was a child, I loved eating candies, but I no longer like them when I grew up. When I was a child, I loved playing hide-and-seek, but I found it childish when I grew up.

When I was young, I thought about what to do after I made a lot of money. But after I became rich, I had lost my original desires.

If you keep waiting for the time to come and wait until you are fully prepared before doing something, you may never be able to enjoy the happiness that this thing brings.

That's why he lets his family eat well and satisfy their appetites without wasting food.

Only then would he take Mi Yahong and Mi Wenren around the village to satisfy the children's tiny vanity.

For him, these are extremely simple things, but for the children and family, they bring boundless happiness.

Considering that Yu Chunju cannot be exposed to the wind, the food is placed indoors.

Yu Qiujiang and his sister, Yu Chunmei, Yu Qiutang, Yu Qiushi, Yu Xiaowei and Yunyun, and Wang Haofeng.

The others are close cousins, only Wang Haofeng is an outsider.

Fortunately, everyone knew that he and Yu Qiutang had a close relationship like a brother, and they had long been accustomed to his presence.

There were eight dishes on the table, a rare feast.

Just as they were about to eat, Wang Haofeng mysteriously took out a bottle of Rongcheng liquor from under the table and shook it in front of Yu Qiutang and Yu Qiujiang.

"It's a good day, let's have some drinks?"

Yu Qiujiang smiled rarely: "Then drink some."

Yu Qiutang did not object either.

So Yu Chunju took out three small wine cups and placed them in front of them.

In the room, she was not wrapped up so tightly that most of her face was visible.

Only then did Yu Qiutang notice that this cousin was actually very pretty and pretty.

She does not have the big face that is common among girls in Rongcheng, but a small face like girls from the south. Although she has single eyelids, her eyes and eyebrows are curved, her nose is small, and her mouth is also small. Together with the curvature of her face, she has a unique kind of beauty.

She's like a little maid from Dream of the Red Chamber.

After she put down the wine cup, she shrank back to Yu Chunmei and stayed close to her.

Maybe it’s because Yu Chunmei is not in good health, so she can feel a little safe.

"Tangtang, great! Now you're ahead of us. Another thing you're better than me in. Awesome!"

Wang Haofeng raised his glass and asked Yu Qiutang to drink.

Yu Qiutang raised his glass and clinked it with his, then drank it in one gulp. This liquor had a strong taste, probably 52°, and it had a burning taste when it entered his throat.

Wang Haofeng grabbed the wine glasses and filled them both up.

"Fengzi, how are you and Liu Chunyan doing?" Yu Qiutang remembered that he hadn't paid attention to this matter recently.

"Don't mention it, I can't do it!"

Wang Haofeng paused dejectedly, "I can't get that girl. You can tell me how I, Wang Haofeng, am not good. I have the height and character. If she is willing to marry me, I will definitely support her well and not let her suffer. Why doesn't she agree?"

Everyone couldn't help laughing when they saw his expression.

Yu Qiushi especially laughed even more happily.

Yu Qiutang remembered Chen Meidi's instructions, so he urged Yu Qiushi to eat quickly and go home after eating, so as not to let Chen Meidi kill him.

Yu Qiushi agreed.

When he mentioned his mother, his smile immediately disappeared and he felt that the food in the bowl didn't taste so good anymore.

He must like it here compared to the cold environment at home.

"Don't be in a hurry, take your time. But you still need to make more money. Look, you don't even have a decent house now. If a girl marries you, where will she live with you?" Yu Qiutang said.

"Don't I have a house?"

Yu Qiujiang said unhappily, "Your place can't be called a house. It's like a doghouse. You can live there by yourself, but if a girl comes here, who would want to live in a place like that with you?"

Wang Haofeng said helplessly: "Brother Jiang, you really don't give me any face when you talk to me."

"If you don't like it, then don't listen to it, and it's better not to eat at our house!"

Yu Qiujiang didn't give him a good look.

But in fact, after spending some time together, with Yu Qiutang as the middleman, the relationship between Yu Qiujiang, Wang Haofeng, and Yu Qiyuan has become much closer.

They are basically good friends who can get along well with each other.

"Eat quickly or it will get cold!" Yu Chunmei urged them to eat, worried that they would get angry.

"Eat, eat. Sister Chunmei still cares about me!" Wang Haofeng said with a smile.

Yu Chunmei pointed at him with her chopsticks and smiled.

Everyone was eating and chatting, and they were enjoying themselves when they suddenly heard someone outside shouting, "Is Uncle Qiu home?"

It was a child's voice, and sounded similar to Yu Xiaowei's.

Yu Qiutang thought the voice was familiar. He was trying to recall where he heard it when he saw Wang Haofeng frowning. "Why is he here?"

"Who?" Yu Qiutang asked.

"It's Wang Xiaolu."

Wang Haofeng stood up and walked outside.

Wang Xiaolu?
Yu Qiutang later remembered who this child was. It was the child he rescued last time but for whom he did not receive any money in the end.

Later, he felt that there was no need to haggle over the money with the scabby people. Since those scabby people had no intention of giving it, they would cheat no matter how you asked, and you would be in a difficult position.

I gradually forgot about it, but I didn't expect the child to come back again, and I didn't know what he was doing. (End of this chapter)