When the village chief saw them packing their things to go visit the grave, he smiled and said, "You go ahead and do your work. I'll come back in the afternoon."
Cheng Tianyuan saw him off, then packed up pastries, bacon and rice cakes, incense candles and flowers, took his parents and daughter-in-law, and walked towards the mountainside together.
Ahu was not idle either and helped carry things.
"The mountains on your side are quite short, almost the same as those in the county town."
Cheng Tianyuan explained: "Actually, these are not mountains at all, just some hills, which are not even comparable to the hills in the south. The deceased ancestors of each family are buried here. We usually come to visit the tombs during the Qingming Festival."
Ahu said "Oh!" and said with a smile: "It's not far from the county seat and the roads are open. When you buy a car, it will be very convenient to come back at any time."
Xue Ling explained: "Yes! Even if you live in the city in the future, you still have to come back from time to time. After all, your roots are here!"
"Sister-in-law, that's a good thing to say!" Ahu praised with a smile.
Cheng Tianyuan glanced at Xue Ling tenderly before continuing to walk forward.
After walking for about ten minutes, I quickly saw two small hills with dots of people on them, obviously villagers who came to visit graves.
Cheng Muhai explained with a smile: "Our ancestral grave is on the mountainside. It can be reached in a short walk."
The hill was not difficult to climb. The group slowly climbed up and soon arrived.
Cheng Tianyuan and Ahu were busy pulling weeds and cleaning up the surrounding area.
Liu Yingze and Xue Ling laid out the offerings for worship, lit incense and candles, and burned some small paper ingots.
After being busy for more than half an hour, everyone packed up and headed down the mountain.
Ahu was chewing rice cakes while looking at the small stream beside him.
"Hey! Is there any fish here? I suddenly want to eat grilled fish!"
Cheng Tianyuan answered with a smile: "Yes, the meat of the stream fish is very delicious, but it is difficult to catch. When I was a child, I and other boys in the village would occasionally come here to catch fish. Most of the time, we had to block both sides and then slowly touch it inside."
Liu Ying quickly shouted: "We can't go down now! The water is too cold!"
"Yes!" Cheng Muhai explained: "Spring has just arrived, there has been a lot of rain recently, and the weather is sometimes very cold in late spring. You can't go down and touch it, be careful of catching a cold!"
But Ah Hu wanted to eat grilled fish yearningly, and muttered: "Your yard is big enough, set up a tree branch, light some piles of firewood, kill the fish, apply some salt oil and chili sauce, and the fish will be eaten quickly."
superior……"
"Brother Ahu, stop talking. You're making me greedy." Xue Ling said with a smile: "I haven't eaten grilled fish for a long time. When you said that, I was moved."
When Cheng Tianyuan heard that his young wife wanted to eat fish, he really couldn't bear to let her down.
"There are a few fishing nets in the corner of my yard. They haven't been used for several years and I don't know if they can still be used. When I get home soon, I will take them out and have a look. Then I will come over and scatter them around to see if I can catch a few."
"I'll help you!" Ahu said with a smile, "I'm very good at catching fish! I lived by the river, and when I was a kid, I spent summers fishing in the water. This is my old profession!"
It was only after ten o'clock when we returned to Cheng's house, and it was still early.
I haven't been back for a long time, and a thick layer of dust has accumulated in my house.
Cheng Muhai and Liu Ying quickly started cleaning up, while Xue Ling hurriedly helped.
Ahu and Cheng Tianyuan dug out the fishing nets, knitted them together, and happily ran back to the stream to catch fish.
After working for more than an hour, the house was finally clean.
Liu Ying said with a smile: "I will go to the kitchen to light a fire, heat up the rice cakes, and then make some rice porridge to eat."
"Okay."
At this time, Ahu's hearty laughter sounded outside the house!
"The fish in the stream have been raised all winter, and they are very fat! Look! This one weighs at least two pounds! Wow! Why are there so many fish in the stream in your village? It's awesome!"
Cheng Tianyuan also seemed surprised and explained: "Maybe it's because no one caught them in winter! I remember there weren't that many when I was a kid."
Ahu said with a smile: "You go find firewood, and I'll go to the well to kill the fish."
Cheng Tianyuan responded and quickly walked into the kitchen.
"Mom, just make some rice porridge. We caught a lot of fish outside, and Ahu said we would make grilled fish. Let's eat the fish together with some millet porridge."
"Caught a fish?!" Xue Ling was so excited that she ran out happily regardless of the broom in her hand.
Cheng Tianyuan smiled, took her hand and walked towards the yard.
“I thought I could only catch a few small fish, but after several nets, I caught more than 20 fish, all of which were very big!”
Cheng Muhai and Liu Ying hurriedly followed them out to watch the excitement. The fishing net was dirty and covered with mud. There were big fish flapping inside, and they opened their mouths wide and exhaled.
"Hey! There are so many! Go get a big bucket and put it in it."
Liu Ying quickly fetched a big wooden barrel, and while washing away the rain with a smile, she fished fish into the barrel.
The fish in the stream are very energetic, and most of them are still alive after being brought back like this.
Ah Hu quickly fished out a few dead fish, disembowelled them, took off the fish scales, and cleaned them up cleanly.
Cheng Tianyuan came in and twisted some green bamboo, split it with a sickle, cleaned it, and threaded the fish.
Cheng Muhai on the side took out a pile of firewood from the kitchen and lit it carefully.
Ahu shouted: "Auntie, bring some peanut oil and chili sauce!"
"Hey!" Liu Ying quickly took out the things.
Ahu smeared the oil on the fish and explained: "I used to run long distances all year round. We could encounter any kind of weather on the road, and we often had nothing to eat. There was nothing delicious in the wild, and wild animals would not dare to eat it. Fortunately, there were still fish. When we got to the water,
I tried my best to find fish to eat while I was there. I’m really good at making grilled fish! My fellow cyclists always asked me to make grilled fish. Haha! I haven’t eaten grilled fish for many years now!”
Cheng Muhai patted his shoulder and said warmly: "There are so many here, enough for you to eat all at once!"
"Yes!" Liu Ying said with a smile: "If you can't finish eating, just take a walk. Anyway, your truck can hold everything."
Everyone laughed.
After ten minutes, the grilled fish was ready. There were three grilled fish in total.
Everyone shared the food, and they all thought it was delicious. They praised it as they ate.
Ahu ate a lot, so he made two more and grilled them. He couldn't help but ask: "Ayuan, do you have any wine? Let's take the opportunity to have a few drinks!"
Cheng Tianyuan said without thinking: "Of course! There are two jars of rice wine at home -"
"No, no!" Xue Ling quickly stopped and explained: "You have to drive later, and you can't drive after drinking, otherwise it's not safe."
Ahu licked the corner of his mouth and smiled: "Just a few mouthfuls!"
Cheng Tianyuan poured a small half of the bowl to him and advised: "Not too much. Anyway, we will go back in the evening, there are still several hours, it should be fine if you drink some."
After Xue Ling had eaten, she cleaned the yard and then went back to her room to take a nap.
After Ahu drank half the bowl, he secretly asked Liu Ying to pour more.
"Auntie, this rice wine is old, isn't it? It's very fragrant! Give me another bowl!"
Liu Ying felt very fond of this cheerful young man. Hearing him say that the rice wine was delicious, she quickly turned around and brought a large bowl.
"Drink! I'll pour it for you after you finish!"
"Hey! Thank you, aunt!"
"My family, why are you so polite!"
So Ahu ate grilled fish and drank wine, until he finally passed out drunk by the well in the yard and fell asleep.