This is a small mountain village at the foot of the mountain.
Villagers dig holes to live in, commonly known as cave dwellings.
The second uncle Yang Dong's house has a total of four holes in the cave, plus a breeding room next to it, it can be regarded as five holes.
The mourning hall is located in the cave dwelling in the middle. People in the courtyard are dressed in plain clothes and are busy going in and out.
Seeing Yang Jun's family, everyone looked at them.
Wang Yuying did not stop and led Yang Jun and others straight to the mourning hall.
There was no crying or tears.
Yang Jun's family knelt in front of the mourning hall and kowtowed three times respectfully.
The second uncle, Yang Dong, was wearing mourning clothes, holding a locust tree in his hand, lowering his head and choking with sobs.
"Sister-in-law, you are late. My mother couldn't wait for you. Yesterday afternoon..."
Yang Dong cried until his voice became hoarse. He tore his hair with all his strength, seeming to blame himself for not taking good care of his mother.
"His second uncle, don't blame yourself. Our mother is already eighty-three and has passed away. If you want to blame her, blame me. You have been responsible for taking care of this family all these years."
After kowtowing, Wang Yuying knelt aside and added a few pieces of fire paper to the brazier.
The firelight in the ash basin flickered towards Lao Gao, illuminating every detail of her face, and the crystal tears in the corners of her eyes were shining brightly.
"My mother couldn't close her eyes before she died. She kept saying that she wanted to see her eldest grandson." Yang Dong raised his head and glanced at Yang Jun, sighed, and lowered his head in silence.
Yang Jun said nothing, his heart felt as heavy as a big stone. He knelt down silently and looked at his grandma lying on the coffin bed.
Grandma was only a little over 1.5 meters tall, skinny, and her hands were very rough. Years of hard work caused her back to be arched, and she lay on her side on the coffin until she died.
His face was covered with a layer of white paper, and his face could not be seen, but the silver hair shocked Yang Jun greatly. A few sparse hair stuck to his scalp, adding a bit of vicissitudes of life.
Yi Qiushui and the others followed Yang Jun and knelt beside the coffin. Even Yang Laosi, who had always been naughty, knelt beside him obediently.
There were several people kneeling there in the mourning hall. They were men and women, old and young. They all stopped crying at this moment and kept staring at Yang Jun's family.
Yang Jun knew that only his closest relatives could kneel in the mourning hall. If he guessed correctly, the young man with a face that looked a bit like Yang Anguo must be Yang Anbang, and the younger woman must be his wife.
, and two children, a boy and a girl, were kneeling next to them. They must be their children.
There is a middle-aged woman in her forties next to her. Due to fatigue or malnutrition, she looks older than Wang Yuying. If you guessed correctly, that person is his second mother Qin Xiuzhi.
At this time, people were crowded outside the mourning hall.
The people in the village heard that the eldest daughter-in-law of Old Yang's family had come with her family, and they all came to watch the fun.
Their ancestors have lived in the mountains for generations and rarely go out. Some of them have never even been to the town in their lives. They just want to come and see what the people in the city look like.
It doesn't matter at first glance. Only after meeting each other do you understand what the urban-rural gap is.
Everyone in the Yang family has thin skin and tender flesh, and their clothes are also bright and beautiful. Especially Yang Mei and Yi Qiushui are like gods descending from heaven. They have never seen such beautiful people.
People in the village stood outside the mourning hall and pointed at them, guessing their identities.
At this time, the second aunt Qin Xiuzhi stood up and drove everyone out.
"What's there to see? I've never seen people from the city? Go and get busy."
"Second Aunt, I really asked you to say that, I have never seen anyone from the city." Someone in the crowd replied, and everyone burst into laughter.
The second mother Qin Xiuzhi's face darkened and she feigned anger: "My family, An Guo, is also from the city. You go and see him."
"That's different. Although Anguo is eating from the public family, he is still a rural person at heart."
"That's right, just like Anguo's rustic look, he doesn't look like a city dweller at all."
The second mother was immediately unhappy when she heard this. After all, her son is holding a public job, so why should he be looked down upon by you guys who are just digging in the dirt?
The second mother pointed at them one by one with her arms akimbo and said: "What's wrong with Anguo, our family, and what's wrong with the people in the countryside? He ate four pounds of roast duck and twenty white-flour steamed buns in one meal in the city. I asked you who has eaten it before?"
My wife Xiangxiu’s monthly salary is twenty yuan, can you earn so much in a year?"
The second mother, Qin Xiuzhi, was full of fire, pointing at the group of people and counting them one by one.
When everyone heard this, their faces turned red and they all stopped talking.
Qin Xiuzhi always showed off in the village that Yang Anguo was a popular hot drinker in the city. Whenever she saw envious looks on other people's faces, her second mother felt proud from the bottom of her heart.
Everyone was so embarrassed that they didn't want to stay any longer, and they all left in disbelief.
When the second mother saw that everyone had dispersed, like a winner, the corner of her mouth curled up.
She turned around and looked at Yang Jun and others, and said to Wang Yuying with a smile on her face,
"Sister-in-law, is this Junzi? He looks really energetic."
Wang Yuying heard this, raised her head and said to Yang Jun: "Junzi, this is your second mother, calling someone."
"Second Mom!" Yang Jun called out, followed by Yi Qiushui and Yang Mei behind them.
"Okay, okay." The second mother looked at them with a smile: "The ones from our Lao Yang family are better. Look at how handsome they all are."
Then, she looked at Yi Qiushui and said, "Ah, is this Junzi's mother-in-law? She's so beautiful."
Yi Qiushui was embarrassed by the praise. She blushed and called out shyly: "Second Mom!"
Later, the second mother Qin Xiuzhi glanced at her eldest daughter-in-law Zhao Hongmei, and the faster she looked, the more unpleasant she became.
They are also the granddaughter-in-laws of Lao Yang's family. One is a white swan and the other is an ugly duckling. They are completely different. The second mother looks at her daughter-in-law, and the more she looks at her, the more she dislikes them.
The second mother praised everyone in the Yang family again, and then he walked up to Yang Dong and whispered for a while with a grimace.
After hearing this, the second uncle Yang Dong frowned and said nothing.
Seeing this, Yang Jun quickly asked: "Second uncle, what difficulties have you encountered?"
Hearing this, Yang Dong raised his head and glanced at him, then sighed and said with a blush,
"Your second mother is worried about Xiaoyi."
"Not enough mourning clothes?"
Later, Yang Dong expressed the pain in his heart.
It turns out that this was all a waste of time.
The family's money and cloth coupons were only enough to buy clothes for the dutiful son. As for the others, they could only find a piece of white cloth to tie around their arms. Like those outside the door, they all brought filial piety cloth from their own homes.
This is how it is in the village. No matter whose family dies, they all bring their own mourning clothes. If they can't find any white cloth, they can only take out the cloth from their own steamed buns.
Therefore, Yang Dong and Qin Xiuzhi were worried about the filial piety of Yang Jun's family.
The few cloth tickets at home were saved by living frugally. These were only enough for the dutiful son to wear alone. As for Qin Xiuzhi and other family members, they only tied a piece of cloth only as wide as a finger on their arms.
After hearing this, Yang Jun felt very heavy.
He knew that life in the countryside was hard, but he didn't expect it to be even harder than he imagined.
It was a waste of time, but they couldn't even afford mourning clothes, so the whole village had to borrow them from each other.
However, he was relieved when he saw that no one in the village was wearing clean and unpatched clothes.
Rural people live a life where the children pick up the clothes of adults and wear them, the middle child wears the leftover clothes of the elder brother, and the third child then picks up the clothes of the second child...
When I was little, my clothes were covered with patches. By the time I wore them, I no longer knew what color the original clothes were.
"I still have some cloth tickets here. Let's go to the town to buy some white cloth. Don't make people laugh." Wang Yuying sighed and took out a bulging handkerchief from her clothes.
When she returned to her hometown this time, she had brought back all the money and tickets. Looking at the thick stack of money tickets in the handkerchief, Yang Dong felt a sore nose and almost cried.
My mother has worked hard all her life, but in the end, she couldn't have a decent funeral.
Yang Dong took the money from Wang Yuying's hand with red eyes, waved to the young man beside him and said,
"Anbang, go to the town and pull out a few feet of white cloth. Go back quickly."
"I know, Da."
Yang Anbang responded, took the money and tickets and went out.
Then, the village party secretary Wang Dayan came.
This is an old man in his fifties, dressed in standard Shanxi style, wearing a sheepskin waistcoat, a white cloth belt tied around his waist, his head wrapped in a white towel, and holding a cigarette pot in his hand.
After he came in, he first said hello to Yang Jun's family, and then squatted at the door of the mourning hall and smoked a dry cigarette.
Everyone was discussing the old lady's funeral.
"Yang Laoer, I looked at the days and found that the 9th is a good day to be buried. What do you think?"
The reason why Wang Dayan is called Wang Dayan is because it is said that when he was a child, he could see things in the underworld. Therefore, when children in the village were frightened, old people were laid to rest, and ancestors were worshipped, they all came to him. Over time, everyone called him Wang.
big eyes.
Later, as he grew older, his eyes could no longer see those things, but everyone got used to it, so his nickname has been given to this day.
We are now in a new society, and the higher authorities advocate the eradication of feudal superstition. However, if someone encounters something, we still ask him to take care of it.
No, Wang Dayan, as the general manager of the funeral and Mr. Yin and Yang, came to Yang Dong to discuss how to arrange the funeral.
"Brother Big Eyes, we can't do it on the 9th. It's my mother's birthday. Can you change it to the 11th?" Yang Dong shook his head after hearing this.
Birthday and burial dates cannot be chosen on the same day. This is a rule.
Wang Dayan thought for a while, shook his head and said: "It is not appropriate to break ground on the 11th, so we can only do it on the 13th."
Rural events are very particular, and the days chosen should not be chosen randomly.
Red events generally use even days, while white events can only use single days, that is to say, only single days such as one, three, five, seven, and nine can be used.
If there is a death in a family, the spirit will usually be suspended for five or seven days. If the day is really unlucky, it can only be used for nine days, but it cannot exceed eleven days at most.
Today is the 3rd, and there are still ten days before the 13th as Wang Dayan said.
Yang Jun felt a headache when he thought about staying here for ten days.
During these ten days, I couldn't eat well, sleep well, and didn't even have a place to take a shower. In fact, these can be easily solved. The biggest headache is the problem of going to the toilet.
When Yang Jun thought about the dry toilet, he felt a chill and his whole body shivered.
He swore that he would never go to a dry toilet until he died.
