Entering the house, Mrs. Yao's personal maid Pomegranate took off her cloak.
Mrs. Yao looked around at the furnishings in the room, which were the same as before she went to Beijing. She sighed and said, "It's true that a golden nest and a silver nest are not as good as my own straw nest, so my hometown is better."
"That's not true. As soon as I entered the gate of our house, I felt my heart was opened." Pomegranate agreed.
"Okay, if there's Aunt Hu here, she'll take care of her. You're tired from the journey, so go and have a rest."
"Thank you, madam." After pomegranate said, he saluted the two of them, bent down and left.
Mrs. Hu stretched her neck, stared at Pomegranate's back and disappeared, then turned back
"This little girl, I haven't seen her for three years, has already made her mark. She needs to look presentable and be well-behaved."
Mrs. Yao snorted, "Looking at her, I don't know what she is thinking."
Mrs. Hu was stunned: "You haven't asked her to serve the master yet? Didn't you mean..."
Mrs. Yao sighed, took Mrs. Hu's hand and said: "Mommy, you don't know, when I went to the capital, there were two girls with whom I had the same relationship. Who would have thought that after not seeing each other for two years, he didn't even say a word?
He said hello and quietly took people into the room."
Mrs. Hu held Mrs. Yao's hand in return and said: "Which man doesn't cheat, let alone the old man? When you took advantage of the old man to go to Beijing, you sold his two girls who were married to each other. I think he was also unhappy. It was just to get angry with you."
What?"
"I know I did it in a hurry, but I brought the pomegranate just to apologize to him and to serve him. But he didn't have the face to do that to me, so I simply made him greedy and unable to eat it."
Mrs. Yao pursed her lips, looking like a little girl complaining to her mother.
"Why are you bothering? Those two cousins stayed in the capital, why didn't I see them?" Mrs. Hu thought about the people she saw, but it seemed that they didn't have these two numbers.
"They deserved their misfortune. The night the old man passed away, they went to the street together to look at the lights. When the old man got angry, he beat them. I struck while the iron was hot and sold them both."
Mrs. Hu nodded, "It sold well. I don't know how many twists and turns it will cause when I bring it back. But having said that, our eldest master is already clean and tidy. You don't know how many years you have been gone. The third master has carried two
Auntie Fang also added three additional rooms."
Hearing this, Mrs. Yao almost spit out the tea she just drank, "Isn't the third lady making trouble?"
"It's useless to make trouble. At first, the old lady was suppressing the third master, but the first two of the third ladies are girls, and they haven't been happy in the past few years. The old lady is afraid that the third master will lose their incense, so now she turns a blind eye.
Eye-catching."
"Then you gave birth to a boy?"
Mrs. Hu shook her head, "The third aunt gave birth to two girls, and now one of the first aunts is pregnant again. The old lady has spoken. If a boy is born, I will lift the aunt.
No one can compare to you. You have both children, and I feel sorry for you. You didn’t see it just now, but the way the third lady looked at you made you burst into jealousy.”
"Humph, she is still thinking about the old lady's intention to marry her? She is really evil." Mrs. Yao frowned and put down her cup heavily.
"That's because I'm jealous that you're doing well."
Mrs. Hu took a comb, combed Mrs. Yao's hair, and said: "I see that the eldest girl is becoming more and more calm. Her appearance and demeanor, if you ask me, even the eldest ladies from the county magistrate's family can't compare to her."
Speaking of Mengying, Mrs. Yao's face darkened, "Don't praise her anymore. Let me ask you, have you gone to the Liuyuan Festival in the past few years when I have been away?"
"We've gone, and we haven't missed any of the seasons." After Mrs. Hu finished speaking, she gave Mrs. Yao more tea.
"It doesn't arouse any suspicion, does it?" Mrs. Yao picked up the cup, took a sip, and asked.
"No, I'm being cautious. Last time the second lady asked, I said that a distant relative of mine died in a foreign country and I went to pay homage to him."
"It's better to go less often in the future. It's not good to be gossiped about." Mrs. Yao said sadly.
"You've been walking this way for two months, right? Has it been a smooth journey?" Mrs. Hu changed the topic at the right time.
Mrs. Yao put down her tea cup and said leisurely: "It's really dangerous..."
*
Mr. Yao took a short rest here and then rushed to the old house.
The memorial shed is located outside Mr. Yao's study in the outer courtyard. It is tall and has elegiac couplets hanging high.
Now Mr. Yao Er has sent messages to his relatives, and condolences are coming one after another. Mr. Yao is the eldest son, standing at the door of the mourning hall, holding his hands to welcome the guests.
Mrs. Yao, along with her daughter-in-law and grandchildren, knelt in the mourning hall and burned paper money.
Mr. Yao is the only son in the family, but he also has cousins. He is the fourth eldest son. There are two elders and the sixth elder alive. Currently, the affairs of the clan are in charge of the sixth elder.
The sixth old man suggested to Mr. Yao that it would be best to bury him after three days. His reason was that Mr. Yao had already passed away to the immortal world for almost a month, and it was best for him to be buried as early as possible.
Mr. Yao nodded in agreement, and asked Mr. Yao again. Mr. Yao also agreed that the day when the spirit would appear would be three days later.
I also asked Mr. Yin and Yang to calculate the time, and it was determined that the spirit would appear on the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month.
Before the funeral, a filial son must stand guard in front of the funeral. None of the three brothers wanted to rest, so they all stayed in front of the funeral.
Mr. Yao felt that his father had left in a hurry, so he performed his last act of filial piety; the two brothers had to show their filial piety in front of outsiders.
Let's say that when Mr. Yao was kneeling on his knees, a young man suddenly came to him and said that the second lady wanted to invite him.
Yao Qingjiang beat his numb legs twice, and was supported back to the inner courtyard by the servant.
As soon as he left, Qingluo asked the little maid to report it to Mengying.
Not long after, Mrs. Liu, Mrs. Yao's second wife, came over with a food box and said she was looking for Shi Lanxiu.
Dong Sheng stopped him with his hand and said: "Our madam said that we have been tired from the road recently and haven't seen any guests. Madam, please come back."
The second lady is already ugly. When she is angry, her eyes will widen, and she will pull her neck and shout: "Am I an outsider? We are our own family, you dog slave, how dare you stop me!"
But no matter what he said, Dongsheng didn't let her in.
Mrs. Yao Er was rejected, but it interfered with the old man's funeral, but she couldn't get angry and returned to the old house angrily.
Qingluo was so lifelike that she imitated the arrogance of the second lady, which made Hongying giggle, while Mengying fell into deep thought.
Second Aunt came to see Shi Lanxiu, what are you doing?
At this juncture, it is definitely not as simple as chatting about family affairs, but asking about Butler Song.
It seems that what Song Decheng said is right. Yao Qingjiang has a guilty conscience, but he is also too impatient. It is only the first day and he is so anxious.
If I release the bait myself, I don’t know what kind of fish I can catch.
*
Three days passed by in a flash, and on the day when the ghost was born, the sixth old man took a mirror and opened it to the chariot, horse, and cow man. The old man Yao raised the earthen pot and threw it, and the hearse behind him slowly started.
Several young children in the neighborhood, encouraged by their elders, rushed to grab the offerings of fruits beside the memorial tablet.
This is a custom in Qixian County. When an old man dies, it is said that children will be blessed if they eat the tribute before his death.
Mengying followed Mrs. Yao with her two maids. According to the rules of Qi County, when a person dies and bids farewell, one cannot cry. The person can only cry after he is buried.
The hearse was followed by a car of paper bundles, including horses, horses and men. They were made to look lifelike and must have cost a lot of money.
Without asking, Mengying could guess that this must be the work of two uncles, so that outsiders would know how filial they are.
A large group of people came to the Yao family's ancestral tomb, and naturally joined the coffin with Mrs. Yao.
After the coffin was lowered and the soil was cultivated, the sixth old man sang loudly: "Good luck, fourth brother, my filial son and great grandson are crying!"
The cries came like a flood, and most of the people cried loudly, with few tears, and most of them were crying for outsiders to see.
Mengying looked at her father and younger brother in front of her, crying a little uncontrollably.
My grandfather loves his younger brother very much, and it is normal for others to feel sad.
My father's mood has stabilized along the way, so why is he so sad now?
Mengying looked at the two aunts next to her, supporting Mrs. Yin, and her two sons were also with her.
When your parents are alive, you still have a place to come from; when your parents are gone, you only have a way back home for the rest of your life.
I'm afraid that at this moment, when my father saw his grandparents coffin together, he felt a little envious of his two brothers. They still had an old lady, but he had no elder relatives.
After burning the paper bundles, everyone supported each other and returned to the old house, where there were still many guests who needed to be entertained.
Mengying's sharp eyes noticed that the second aunt and the third aunt each grabbed a handful of soil on the spot and walked back quickly. This was obviously a custom.
Looking at Mrs. Yao and Mrs. Yang, she stared blankly at the two sisters-in-law, wondering whether she should arrest her or not, or Mrs. Hu whispered something in Yang's ear.
Mrs. Yao also bent down to grab a handful, wrapped it in a handkerchief, and quickly chased her two sisters-in-law.
Obviously, the one who goes home first will be the winner. As for the details of doing these things, Mengying has no time to care about it, and she is too lazy to care about it.