The lady asked in surprise: "Where is your son?"
"He died of illness. He was already weak. He was haunted by a demon fox ten years ago, and then he became ill." As he spoke, Hong Haoyi couldn't help but turn his attention to a small leather bag around his waist.
The madam bit her lower lip and said thoughtfully, "So you are the last to be born."
"I am over eighty years old, and I am not afraid to say that I had one wife, three concubines and one maid, and they gave birth to five sons and six daughters. All of them died in infancy. The only one who lived to be nineteen also died of illness." Hong Haoyi tried. Yun Danfengqing, but still couldn't help but blush, "Some people say that I kill too much. I not only hunt rare and rare animals, but also monsters. Generally speaking, monsters have higher spirituality than ordinary beasts. Kill them, The more resentment you have, the more severe the consequences will be."
"Is it because of this that you sent away your belongings?"
"Not only that," Hong Haoyi thought the side dishes were quite delicious, so he couldn't help but take a few more bites, "I also heard that the situation in my grandfather's family is the same as mine."
"Oh?" Madam Tai's eyes flashed with a moment of vigilance, and then disappeared.
She was married to the second son of the Li family. Originally, the head of the family should have been the eldest son, but the eldest son died early. Later, her second husband passed away ten years after their marriage. Almost no male in this family lived past the age of forty. of.
She gave birth to two sons and one daughter, and now only her daughter is left, who has been married to the city. Her grandsons also died one by one, leaving only the two youngest grandsons to be raised by her.
"So I guess it has something to do with Feng Shui?"
The madam felt a little more relaxed: "Feng shui, right?"
"I asked several geography experts and they gave many examples." Hong Haoyi drank another glass of warm wine. "For example, a family's descendants all have lung diseases. The geographer said that the ancestor's coffin was penetrated by tree roots. The result of opening the coffin proved that, Sure enough, the bones of our ancestors were pierced through the chest by tree roots."
The wife listened intently, her eyes wandering among the wrinkles on Hong Haoyi's face, looking for traces of his youth.
"There is another family whose descendants all have foot diseases and are born with incompetence. As a result, tree roots are entangled in the ankles of their ancestors, coffins are soaked in water, and their descendants all have skin abscesses..."
"Then they opened the coffin and the Feng Shui atmosphere was ruined. How should we solve the problem?"
"Ancestors and descendants are connected by blood, and so are their qi and blood. The bones of our ancestors will not melt away in a day, and whether it is good or bad, our descendants will be affected every day."
"From this point of view, the only way to destroy the bones of our ancestors is through cremation."
Unlike previous dynasties, cremation was popular among people in the Song Dynasty, and even wealthy people often used cremation. Some scholars and officials objected, believing that cremation was disrespectful to the deceased, but it has become a common practice among the people and cannot be banned.
"Exactly." Hong Haoyi said, "I suspect that one of my ancestors was uneasy, which is why three generations of descendants of our family have been affected."
"So what do you want to do?"
"Please take me to the Li family cemetery."
The madam pondered for a moment: "I'll get up early tomorrow and I'll ask Xiaoyou to take you there."
"Okay." Hong Haoyi was very happy that she was so forthcoming.
"You can take it easy," the Madam stood up, "I still have to clean up. Xiaoyou will come to take you to the guest room later."
"Thank you."
The madam walked out of the side hall gracefully, and Hong Haoyi did not miss her uneasy expression.
This woman he once loved deeply was hiding something from him, and you could tell by the way she had something stuck in her throat.
The people he usually interacts with are either rich or noble, and those powerful people are all cunning. After coming into contact with these people more often, he sometimes feels that monsters are simpler and more predictable than people.
He had known this lady since childhood and was planning to get married, so he knew her temperament very well.
But that was her temperament sixty years ago. Who knows what kind of person Xiuxiu will be shaped by time? Even Hong Haoyi himself clearly knows how many times his personality has changed in his life.
So in fact, he didn't tell the madam all the facts.
The moment he opened the door, when he saw her appearance, he decided that he couldn't tell her everything.
"Outside the door!" He called to the servant who was standing outside the side hall waiting for instructions. He saw him walking in a hurry. He was a man in his thirties, "What's your name?"
"My name is Changsheng."
"Changsheng, add two more bottles of wine."
"Want some side dishes?"
"Just wine." Looking at Changsheng's hurried away figure, Hong Haoyi couldn't help but sigh. He is strict with his servants, but he is very kind to his servants in life. This servant named Changsheng has a yellow face and thin skin, and it seems that he is not living a good life.
Half an hour later, Hong Haoyi drank so much that he fell unconscious and fell asleep in the side hall.
After hearing the news, the lady ordered someone to help him to the guest room.
After they placed him on the bed and closed the door softly, Hong Haoyi opened his eyes.
He snored, but his ears were perked up to listen to what was going on outside.
His ears are very keen, which he has trained through hunting. Sometimes to catch certain prey, he must disguise himself as a tree in the forest and remain motionless for several days, using only his ears to judge the movements of the prey.
There are many sounds in the Li family residence at night.
He has been walking around here since he was a child and knows the terrain of the Li family house well. He uses his ears to judge the location of the sound and guess the direction of movement of the sound.
He heard someone outside his room, listening for his breathing, and after a long time he tiptoed away. From the weight and rhythm of his footsteps, he could tell that the person outside the room was the wife.
Soon, he heard someone whispering and flirting with the maid.
Then, in the middle of the night, the sound he cared about most finally appeared: a stumbling squeal, each step taken at a very small distance, like a toddler, but lighter and more sneaky.
Hong Haoyi temporarily stopped snoring and listened carefully.
It was exactly the same as what he had heard when he was a child.
※※※
Before the early morning sun warmed the ground, servant Xiaoyou took Hong Haoyi to the Li family's cemetery.
There are not many people buried in the cemetery, only his maternal grandparents and grandparents from the previous two lives, plus a few of their children, not even the wife's husband. Perhaps most of them were cremated. After all, in the Song Dynasty, due to the population explosion and lack of land, burial was more difficult.
Several willow trees were planted around the cemetery. The willows moved in the wind, adding a bit of sadness. In addition, these tombstones were old, making them look even more desolate.
Hong Haoyi carefully read the name and date of birth and death on each tombstone, and asked: "How long will it take for you to take care of it?"
"Every New Year's Eve, Qingming Festival, Zhongyuan Festival, and Chongjiu Festival, people come to pay homage." Xiao You said, "Sometimes the wife even brings people here in person."
Hong Haoyi stood up and pointed to a large cemetery next to him: "Whose family belongs to that one?"
"That's the "Leoze Garden" set up by the government. It's where the government buries the poor and the ownerless dead. Well, the temple next to it is in charge of the "Leoze Garden", and the area next to it is the "Ceremony Ground" for cremations. of."
"When you die, do you want to be buried or cremated?" Hong Haoyi touched the head of his great-grandfather's grave and asked casually.
Suddenly asked such an unlucky question, Xiaoyou hesitated for a while before saying: "Even if we can't reach the shore at both ends, our long-term workers from wealthy families, who are half-poor, will not accept the leakage of the garden, and the master must be willing to cremate it." It costs money.”
Xiaoyou didn't expect that his words were a prophecy. In three years' time, Daming Mansion would be plunged into war, and he would become an unknown corpse with no one to deal with it.
Hong Haoyi carefully looked around the grave of his great-great-grandfather: "My great-great-grandmother is missing, isn't she buried together?"
Hearing this, Xiao You also walked over and took a look: "I didn't notice it, why is it missing?"
"How many years have you worked for the Li family?"
"It's been twenty years since my wife took me in when I was fifteen."
"It's been so long?" Hong Haoyi asked, "Have you never heard the story of great-grandfather in the Li family?"
Xiaoyou tilted his head, indicating that he had never heard of it.
Hong Haoyi did not continue the conversation. His great-great-grandfather was actually a Liao native and was naturalized in the Song Dynasty, so he also had Liao ancestry.
On the way back to Li's house on foot, Hong Haoyi asked Xiaoyou again: "I remember that the Li family has a habit of placing food in a room at night and no one is allowed to enter or peek."
Xiaoyou asked in surprise: "You even know this?" This is a custom of the Li family, and there is no reason for outsiders to know.
"I didn't tell you, but I lived there for several years when I was a child and learned how to make crossbows in the workshop."
Xiaoyou was very excited after hearing this. He was deeply honored that the famous Beishen Soo would tell him this.
