Back to 1984: Hunting in the Mountains

"Cousin, what do you think? Don't embarrass me. We are just going to burn some incense and leave after that. There is no other meaning."

Wang Ruixiang saw that Yu Qiutang's expression had eased and continued to plead.

Yu Qiutang was silent for a moment, then said, "Well, you can go in, but you must follow my requirements."

"What do you want?"

Yu Qiutang stated his request. Wang Ruixiang was somewhat resistant at first, but Yu Qiutang told him that this was his bottom line.

In the end, Wang Ruixiang agreed.

Yu Qiutang asked his third sister to help Wang Ruixiang and Wang Ruirui dress in heavy mourning clothes.

After all, they are our biological children.

It’s not for them, it’s just to prevent Fourth Uncle from being laughed at.

After getting dressed, he asked Yu Xiaoyun to bring Wang Ruirui in. Wang Ruixiang held a square wooden plate on his head, with a candle, some burning paper and incense on the plate.

He had to kneel and use his legs to move from outside the gate to the yard.

In full view.

Wang Ruixiang naturally felt ashamed at first, but seeing that Yu Qiutang was very persistent, somehow he finally agreed.

Seeing him kneeling on the ground, Yu Qiutang took him in, step by step from outside the gate along the side of the crowd, and went around to the place in front where the filial sons were kneeling to return the greeting.

Originally Yu Qiushan was on duty here, but now it has changed to Wang Ruixiang.

Those kneeling were basically relatives, and except for those who were too young, almost everyone else knew Wang Ruixiang.

I don't know the reason.

I thought he was too sad, so he performed this ceremony and came in from outside the door burning incense.

Yu Dejin and his old brothers saw Wang Ruixiang and then looked at Yu Qiutang standing next to them. Although they didn't know what was going on for a moment, they didn't say anything.

It was an important stage in the family memorial service and they didn't want to cause any unnecessary trouble.

Wang Ruixiang’s episode did not affect the normal operation of the family sacrifice.

At around two o'clock in the morning, as the last wave of cousins ​​left, the family ceremony finally ended.

Among the people in the yard, only the closest relatives were still kneeling, while the others had basically paid their respects at home and then taken a rest, so there were not many people around.

Even my cousin who was boiling water began to doze off beside the stove.

Every time someone passed by the boiling water stove, he would suddenly wake up and subconsciously touch the kettle, but when his hand reached halfway, he realized that it was not the person who came to add water, so he yawned and fell into half-drowsiness again.

The relatives here were in no mood to sleep, so they all sat on the floor, leaning against the wall and taking a nap.

The body has to be buried at around five o'clock, so it's too late to go back to sleep.

After all, the elders were old and quite tired. They did not have much energy left after persisting until midnight, so they were basically asked to find places to rest, leaving only a few younger generations on the field.

After discussion, Wang Ruixiang and Yu Qiyuan kept vigil, Yu Qiujiang and Yu Qiushan went to see if the cemetery was arranged properly, and Yu Qiutang stayed here to guide the Yin Yang and the drummers to eat dumplings and take a short rest.

According to custom, dumplings should be cooked for them after the family sacrifice.

Meanwhile, other people also stood up and asked Yu Qiutang to take a rest, but Yu Qiutang refused.

He felt that he couldn't get a good rest if he didn't bury the person in the ground.

By the time he had settled everything, it was already past three o'clock. He returned to the mourning hall, sat on a cushion, leaned against a pillar and took a nap.

When he was going to bed, he saw Wang Ruixiang kneeling silently beside him. He wanted to say something, but when he thought of his fourth uncle still lying in the coffin, he held back and said nothing.

Look at the Buddha's face without looking at the monk's face.

For the sake of Fourth Uncle, just bear with it.

Around five o'clock, the butler and the substitutes came back one after another.

Everyone started discussing the process of carrying the coffin out.

Yu Qiutang didn't understand much about this, so he stood behind the crowd and listened. He only knew that the final decision was for Wang Ruixiang to hold the bricks, Yu Qiujiang to carry the soul-guiding banner, and Yu Chunxing and Wang Ruirui to shout to the sky together.

He could see that his uncle was very dissatisfied with the agreed result.

I thought that with my father's personality, he would strongly oppose it, but he was surprisingly calm, so it was settled.

The people who carried the coffin were all cousins.

The custom is not to allow younger generations to carry the coffin, so people like Yu Qiutang did not have the chance.

Half past five.

As the sound of suona began, sad music immediately filled the entire yard.

People were immediately plunged into sadness.

After a passage of Yin-Yang scriptures, with the sound of "lift the coffin", the coffin was lifted up and placed on the shoulders of eight people.

In front, some younger generations, mainly children, each chose to hold a paper craft and lined up in a long queue to go out.

Among them, paper figures and paper horses are the most popular.

Some children even argued over it and would not stop until adults stepped in to mediate.

Visiting graves is a family matter, and outsiders are not allowed to go.

So, for example, nephews and others could not go, and many children cried on the spot.

They don't understand the sadness of adults.

Just thinking about the fact that I didn’t get the chance to get the paper horse and was left at home, I felt as if I was abandoned by the whole world and I was so sad.

The parents tried to persuade their children patiently at first, but when they saw that they were too ignorant and making too much noise, they prepared to find a stick and give them a good beating.

But at this time, someone would always take some delicious food from the altar and give it to the crying child, which would immediately solve the problem.

The sound of suona is melodious and the funeral procession is grand.

All paper items, banners, and sacred mountains present here must be burned.

If everyone carries one in their hands, the scale will be quite grand.

From a distance, it looks like a winding white dragon is walking on the path in the field.

Yu Qiutang is also a scale of the white dragon.

He was in a very front position, silently carrying a huge spirit tablet. The tablet was more than two meters high and one meter wide, in the shape of a house.

It would have taken two people to lift it, but he carried it all by himself and his tall body was able to handle it perfectly.

In the crowd, it stands out.

The group walked slowly to the cemetery.

After the sky was bright, the outlines of houses in the village could be vaguely seen in the distance.

According to the original plan, Fourth Uncle's grave was to be placed on Yu Qiutang's land.

This piece of land is backed by Houtouling Mountain, so it can be said to be built against the mountain.

The Feng Shui is still quite good.

The cemetery was also dug by a professional.

Rongcheng has always practiced burial, and even after forty years, there is still no custom of cremation here.

Regardless of whether it is a custom or not, or whether the government does not enforce strict control, it persists anyway.

The area is vast and sparsely populated, so you can always find a place to bury your dead.

The difference is that nowadays people can bury the dead in their own farmland, but in a few decades, they can only be buried in public cemeteries.

Yin and Yang chanted melodiously again.

Since they couldn't understand what was being said, everyone just stood there waiting silently. It wasn't until they heard the word "kneel" that they finally understood and knelt down on the ground in unison.

At the moment when everyone knelt down, the sound of suona suddenly and sharply pierced the dawn.

"My brother~"

The sad cries of the young sister-in-law followed closely, and an overwhelming sadness spread. Almost all the women were crying, and the men all lowered their heads, and many of them had red eyes.

Then there was the continuous crying. It continued until the coffin was lowered into the grave and the first shovel of soil was sprinkled on it, and the crying finally reached its climax.

Afterwards, the men stood up, each with a shovel, and slowly sprinkled all the dug soil into the grave. After a circle, it was visible to the naked eye that the soil next to it had gone down a bit.

The rest is for the person doing the job to quickly sprinkle it in.

Then a new mound of earth was piled up for the grave.

Then the fire was lit. Everyone stepped back and watched the flames fly into the sky. All the paper-made objects turned into ashes along with the flames.

During this process, the women kept crying.

Keep it on for several hours.

That's why the crying sounds come one after another. Except for the ones who are really sad in the front, the ones behind are taking turns crying.

Yu Qiutang was calm at this time.

Basically, everything that needs to be done has been done.

Once a person is buried in the ground, what remains is the living's business, and they can deal with it in any way they want.

He remembered something and turned around to look around, only to find that Wang Ruixiang and Wang Ruirui had quietly left after spreading the soil.

He felt that his fate with Wang Ruixiang was probably over.

There wasn't much affection to begin with. The only bond we had was with my fourth uncle. Now that he's gone, what reason is there to continue the relationship?

Let him go.

Yu Qiutang no longer hated Wang Ruixiang. No matter what Wang Ruixiang's mentality or reasons were for attending the family memorial service at night, it was also an explanation to his fourth uncle.

As for the rest, he, as a nephew, couldn't take care of much.

After returning from the grave, we had a buffet, which was mostly attended by relatives and friends.

After this meal, the buffet will be cleared.

Various things in the yard should be taken down, cleaned up, and then returned to the neighbors.

This is no small amount of work.

Just as we borrowed them from each family back then, we have to return them one by one now.

For example, even if Yu Dejin borrowed 72 carts to save face, it would take time to pay them back.

Fortunately, there are many children in the family and they can all help, so it is not a big problem.

The next two days were spent cleaning up the scene.

By the first day of the twelfth lunar month, everything was packed up and my aunt and uncle returned to the provincial capital. When my aunt left, I was still crying. I felt like a person made of tears and would never stop shedding tears.

Second aunt left soon too.

She left very casually, just said goodbye and said she was leaving, and in the blink of an eye, she was gone.

I didn't even have time to deliver it.

The younger sister-in-law was not in a hurry and planned to live in Yu Deshui's house and take care of her mother for a while.

Yu Deshui knew the situation of his younger sister's family and was not in a hurry to send her back, so he just stayed there.

My second uncle and his family have also returned.

Yu Qiutang hadn't seen Second Aunt for a long time and noticed that she didn't look well. He secretly asked Yu Qiushan and learned that Second Aunt had some problems with her lungs and that she had a tumor.

It has not yet reached the stage of cancer, but you still need to be careful.

Fortunately, their family is rich and can afford the treatment. If it were in the countryside, the patient would probably have been dead by the time they were examined.

It won’t cost a lot of money for treatment.

When my second uncle went back, he was a little bored.

He had always been full of energy, smiling and looking gentle, but this time he looked obviously tired.

Before leaving, like an old lady, she reminded her two brothers and family members at home to take care of their health and to tell them if they had any problems and not to hide anything.

He said that there is room for negotiation and solution to everything. Now there are only three old brothers left, and he really dare not give up any of them. He just wants everyone to live in peace and stability until old age.

Yu Qiutang was not in a hurry to let Yu Chunxing go back. He planned to let his elder sister spend the New Year here first.

With that broken family and that trash Wang Youcai, how can they give my elder sister a good New Year?

He couldn't make direct decisions for his elder sister about what happened next, but at least he wanted her to have a good New Year. After working hard for half her life, his elder sister might not have even had a good New Year.

He also took the opportunity to take care of his health. He felt sorry for his two nephews who were so thin.

Of course my second sister was also anxious to go back. She didn’t bring her children with her when she came, so she missed them a lot, and she also missed her students.

Yu Qiutang prepared to send her off personally.

By the way, go and help take care of those wild boars.

The second sister is more independent and strong than the eldest and third sisters. There is not much he can do to help. Since the wild boar is her concern, he might as well help deal with it.

Taking some time off in the afternoon, Yu Qiutang went to the town.

I just came back two days ago and encountered a lot of trouble. Bear meat and other things were delivered to Wu Meifen by Yu Xiaowei and Wang Haofeng.

The money has not been recovered yet.

Of course, what’s important to him is not to collect money, but to say hello.

See what the bear paw has and whether it meets people's needs.

Wu Meifen treated him like a family member. Since he had promised to do something for her, he certainly couldn't take it lightly.

When we arrived at the town, there weren't many people because it wasn't a market day.

When he went there, Wu Meifen was not there.

I heard from Lao Liang that he seemed to have gone home.

He waited in the store for a while before Wu Meifen came over. She looked a little haggard, but when she saw Yu Qiutang, she still forced a smile.

"I'm here. I've heard about your family's affairs. The dead cannot be resurrected. Don't be too sad."

After a few days of suffering, Yu Qiutang's sadness has been diluted a lot. Now when he thinks back to how he felt when he first heard the news, it seems like a year ago.

He smiled and then nodded.

"By the way, are you here to get the money?" Wu Meifen took out the key from her pocket and went to open the safe.

Yu Qiutang said hurriedly: "No hurry, I just want to ask if the customer is satisfied with the goods, if..."

"Satisfied, how could he not be satisfied? It's such a new thing, and he's still not satisfied. Is he going to heaven?"

Wu Meifen squatted down and spoke as she opened the safe.

After opening the box, he did not take out the money immediately. Instead, he pulled out a document and handed it to Yu Qiutang.

Yu Qiutang took it and found that it was a purchase contract. Both parties had signed and stamped it with each other's seals.

At this time, house buying and selling was still very simple and the process was much shorter.

I didn't expect to get it so quickly.

"Look……"

Wu Meifen unfolded another map, which was the layout map of Qingquan Town.

There is an area circled in red ink on it.

"See? These places are all mine now. I plan to continue expanding. It would be best if I could expand them further toward the back and east, so that this entire triangular entrance will be mine."

Yu Qiutang nodded.

Either that or there is a big boss behind him. This kind of awareness and foresight is not something that ordinary people can have.

He looked at the map, recalled the development of the streets in his previous life, and drew a mark on the north with his finger.

"I suggest you continue to expand to the north. The current location of the town government is too close to the south and backed by the Nangou. The environment is not good and it will have to be moved sooner or later. I think the best location is this area."

Wu Meifen looked around with her chin lowered, and her eyes suddenly lit up. (End of this chapter)