On the fifteenth day after the Spring Equinox, when the handle of the Big Dipper points to position B, the Qingming Festival will arrive.
On this day, everyone surnamed He in Helu Village will bring sacrifices to the ancestral hall to worship their ancestors first. There is nothing new about the offerings. They are just cooking a good meal of food and wine, and then picking them up to serve to their ancestors in the ancestral hall. Burn incense, then kowtow three times and pray. Then we go to the ancestral graves on the mountain to remove weeds, place some simple fruits, and burn paper money and gold ingots to express our condolences to our ancestors.
Qingming and Hanshi are celebrated together, and the Cold Food Festival commemorates Jie Zitui. Jie Zitui and his mother were burned to death in Mianshan. From that day on, Duke Wen of Jin ordered that every year during the Qingming Festival, which is also the day when Jie Zitui died, no fire would be made to cook and only cold food would be eaten. Therefore, this day was also called the Cold Food Festival.
Starting from the Tang Dynasty, the government would give officials a four-day holiday on this day. In the Song Dynasty, it became a seven-day holiday, allowing officials to worship their ancestors. This kind of statutory holiday in Baijia is quite humane, but considering the inconvenience of transportation and the fact that officials often go to different places for their official duties, it is obviously not feasible to return to their hometown for sacrifices in a few days. Sacrifice can only be performed in front of the ancestors’ spiritual tablets.
On every important festival, there will be a corresponding holiday under the camphor tree. All the bamboo weavers are housewives in the village. Men are not good at sacrificial rituals. Cooking and cooking requires the efforts of housewives. If they are not allowed to go back to worship, it will cause trouble. Family conflicts.
These women received a lot of wages here in Liangchuan. During this sacrifice, Liangchuan could clearly see in the ancestral hall that the vegetables and meat they bought were much better than before, with rich styles and colors, and the combination of meat and vegetables was not monotonous. Every household When praying for the ancestors, the expression on his face is no longer gloomy, but his frown spreads and a smile appears on his face. Because there is still hope in life and life is getting better and better.
Liang Chuan and Yi Niang have no ancestors to sacrifice today, and Liang Chuan's ancestors have not been born yet. . As for Yi Niang, she was too young when she left home. She didn't even remember the way home, let alone those strange ancestors. Liang Chuan asked Yi Niang to buy some food and wine and made a full table.
Today Liang Chuan originally wanted to ask Ye Xiaochai, Yang Xiu, Li Erhua and the three of them if they wanted to take a trip to Dafu Mountain. The relatives of the three of them were killed by bandits in Dafu Mountain. There was no place to collect the bodies, so they could only sacrifice them remotely in Dafu Mountain. .
Zhaodi also went home today. No matter how poor the family is, they still have to worship their ancestors today. Forgetting their ancestors means denying themselves.
There is also no news about Li Chuyi and his family. The old man died and he didn’t even know where his grave was. Today I was also feeling depressed, so I led Heibi to the mountain early.
People were coming and going in the ancestral hall, and everyone was worshiping their ancestors. They were the only ones sitting in the room deserted, eating good wine and food, but three women were sitting on the table in silence. He didn't speak or eat quietly, but the tears kept flowing down his face. Every festive season, we miss our loved ones even more, and passers-by feel like they are dying.
Liang Chuan couldn't sit still looking at this scene, so he might as well take them for a walk. Yi Niang also left together. It was unpleasant to see other people at home missing someone, but her own family was indifferent.
Since returning from Dafu Mountain, several people have never gone back. This is their nightmare place, why come back?
Yi Niang prepared some paper money for incense and candles for the three of them, and put a jar of wine in a bamboo basket. She didn't bring any meat or vegetables, but she brought some fruits to prepare for worship at Da Fei Mountain.
He Baozheng happened to be going to Xinghua to deliver mosquito coils. When he saw that several people were about to go on a long trip, he asked and decided to take a few people with him to Xinghua.
He Baozheng has been selling mosquito coils smoothly these days, with a smile on his face every day, and his waist is straight in front of his wife. A penny can stump a heroic man, but now he finally doesn’t have to worry about money. .
It was rare for He Baozheng to see Liang Chuan's family all in action. He originally wanted to tease a few people, but when he saw that the faces of several women seemed wrong, he swallowed his words knowingly. I chatted with Liang Chuan about the situation of selling mosquito coils in the past few days and the feedback from the two restaurants.
According to He Baozheng, not only the restaurant praised this mosquito coil, but many guests also began to pay attention to it.
I noticed this mosquito coil and asked about the ingredients in the mosquito coil and where this good thing was made. Many businessmen said that they have seen a lot of sandalwood in many places they have traveled to, but the price of sandalwood is too high and it is unrealistic to use it to repel mosquitoes.
This kind of mosquito-repellent incense is used in medium-sized families. During summer activities in the living room, if the mosquito net cannot be hung, you can light a plate and put it on the side. No more mosquito bites.
He Baozheng didn't leave his contact information before. The shopkeeper and the clerk in the store only said that a half-disabled old man sent it to sell it. The address was He Lu, but they didn't know the specific location of He Lu. The merchants were confused when they heard He Lu's name, let alone asking them to find He Lu's specific place, because they had never heard of this place at all. Fortunately, the shopkeeper of Xiating Lou knew He Lu, but the shopkeeper of Dadi Restaurant didn't know where this small village called He Lu was.
Liang Chuan told He Baozheng that if you do good deeds, you must leave your name, otherwise there will be no place for people to come to thank you. When I got to the store to deliver the mosquito coils, I told them that my place of residence was past Shima Bridge, walked to the end, and asked about the He Family Ancestral Hall.
The feeling of making money is also addictive, because it makes money much faster than farming. He Baozheng listened to Liang Chuan's suggestion and doubled his production scale, adding fifty more molds, and then made money from Ye Xiaochai every day. Purchase some materials there, and if not enough, go to the mountains to collect them yourself. One day's work during the day was enough for him to work alone. In terms of raw materials, as soon as the Wanda store issued a notice, many villagers actually went up the mountain to collect these materials. There are too many raw materials on the mountain, and they cost little. It is easier than collecting firewood, and the price is quite attractive. Why not.
When they arrived in Xinghua, Liangchuan led the four women to Dafeishan alone without taking He Baozheng's oxcart. The original Dafu Mountain was inaccessible. Ever since the bandit den was discovered and many passers-by lost their lives, it has become a forbidden place that everyone talks about and becomes jealous of. It is said that the bandit leader has not been found yet, and Wan Shang has gone up the mountain. When you encounter this evil star, who can you turn to for redress?
There used to be traces of a trail on the mountain road, but now a few months have passed, spring grass has appeared, and even the trail can no longer be seen. The scenery on the mountain is still okay. If there were no such sad past events, it would be the same pleasure in life to go for an outing on Dafei Mountain during the Qingming Festival, accompanied by four young and beautiful girls.
Liang Chuan once asked the three of them in private. Yang Xiu and Li Erhua were both married and had children, but their children and husbands were killed by these gangsters. As for Ye Xiaochai, Liang Chuan had had several heart-to-heart talks with her, but he refused to talk about relevant matters. Even Yi Niang didn't get any information about her family background from her.
Liang Chuan once wanted to send them back to their hometown. After all, that was where they came from and there were still relatives and friends there. But without exception, the three people rejected Liang Chuan. They said that it was good here now and their life was carefree. If they went back, they would not only be looked down upon, but they might also be exterminated. Why bother to go back and find someone unhappy? Sometimes it takes more courage to live than to die. Liang Chuan gave them a chance to be reborn. Bearing the humiliation and bearing the burden is harder than anything else!
Now that the three of them had made up their mind, Liang Chuan couldn't say anything else. He repeatedly stated several times that when they wanted to go home, they would just say it and Liang Chuan would send them home safely.
Women in ancient times, the water thrown out by a married woman has been difficult to collect since ancient times.
Dafei Mountain in spring is more lively than Helu Back Mountain. The mountain is full of wild fruits, colorful butterflies and bees, and hares and pheasants appear in the grass from time to time. Liang Chuan is still in the mood to observe these. The group of people found a huge stone and planned to use this stone as a tomb for the three deceased relatives to express their grief.
The three of them didn't know whether it was because they were sad or because they revisited their old place and remembered the dark and ravaged years. As soon as the worship service began, tears flowed down silently at first, and then the three of them hugged each other and burst into tears.
Yi Niang looked distressed, her eye circles were already red, and she bit her lip tightly to prevent herself from crying. She set up the fruit plate and placed it directly on the ground. After that, two white candles were placed and lit, paper money was placed in a stack of three in front of the sacrifice, three small porcelain bowls were placed, and half a bowl of rice wine was poured out.
After getting ready, let the three women begin to speak and worship. They just held her and cried uncontrollably. . The cries spread throughout the hills along with the mountain wind, making the mountains move and the spring eclipse.
"Everyone is gone, so crying is not an option. Yi Niang and I don't know whether our relatives are dead or alive. It would be better if they died. We can also cry with you, but we don't even know whether we are alive or dead. We want to be with you." You can't visit your relatives together from afar..." Liang Chuan also felt miserable. The four women came here to see this carefree and unrestrained boss. They didn't expect to see such a sad scene from him today.
Yi Niang is the most emotional. Liang Chuan's words made her suppressed emotions burst out in an instant. She hid in Liang Chuan's arms, hugged his waist tightly and let her tears wet Liang Chuan's clothes.
When others are worse off than you are, you feel a little relieved. Ye Xiaochai was the first to calm down, his face expressionless, but he just let the tears remain on his face without moving to wipe them. She picked up the three incense sticks, lit them on the white candle, put out the flames on the incense sticks, held them in both hands, stared blankly into the distance, slowly bent down and bowed three times, and then inserted the incense sticks in the In front of the stone is the soil.
Then came Yang Xiu and Li Erhua.
The fragrant green smoke on the ground curls up, and when the mountain wind blows, it floats among the mountains, rivers and land.
