The next day, Chen Xia brought his family, followed by Chen Shuqin and Lin Hui to Qingfeng Village in Xipu Commune.
Chen Shuqin actually grew up here when she was a child. Although she was only 7 years old when she went to Hong Kong, she already had some memories of it.
In order to help her find the hometown in her memory, Chen Xia specially arranged a motorboat to travel by water. Yuezhou is a famous water town in the south of the Yangtze River. Even though it is autumn, the scenery on both sides of the river is still as beautiful as a painting.
This made the two Hong Kong guests very excited, and they kept taking pictures with their cameras.
"Wow, Xiaoxia, look, this is Taiping Bridge, right? I walked across it when I was a kid, it hasn't changed at all."
"That mountain, is it Osmanthus Mountain? I seem to smell the fragrance of osmanthus. When I was a child, my mother often took me there to pick osmanthus flowers to make cakes and pastries."
"Are we almost at Qingfeng Village?"
Along the way, my aunt became very excited and talked a lot. Maybe she didn't even realize it herself. This is called "homesickness". This should be the case for overseas wanderers who return to their hometown after decades in this era, right?
When Chen Shuqin saw her hometown, Chen Yigen on the shore also saw Chen Xia and the others coming by boat. They had contacted each other in advance.
So Chen Yigen asked the people on the shore to set off firecrackers quickly, and even the drum band of Qingfeng Primary School was brought out again.
The pier suddenly became lively. As expected, with the "atmosphere group" leading the way, it was different and lively.
Chen Shuqin had been away for many years and no longer recognized the people in her hometown. The moment she stepped onto the dock, Chen Xia kept introducing her:
"This is the current clan leader, Fourth Uncle, and this is Second Uncle, Third Uncle, and Seventh Uncle. Come on, come on, let Fifth Uncle come over."
Chen Shuqin hurriedly greeted everyone one by one. Her good professional ethics had trained her to be very graceful in her greetings.
"Hello, Fourth Uncle. I am Chen Defa's youngest daughter."
Chen Yigen was excited. "Okay, I know, I know. I held you in my arms when we were little. Is Brother Fa in Hong Kong now?"
"Brother Fa?" Chen Xia's mind had gone off topic, and he was only thinking about Brother Xiao Ma who used banknotes to light his cigarette.
"My father is in good health. I'm here on a business trip to the mainland and I'm here to scout for him. He said he wanted to come back to his hometown to visit during the Lunar New Year."
After Chen Shuqin finished speaking, there was a burst of applause from the surroundings:
"Brother Fa is coming back! That's great! He was the first person from our village to venture into Shanghai, and later the first to venture into Hong Kong. We idolized him so much when we were young."
"Yes, every time Brother Fa came back, he would tell us about the excitement of Shanghai, and we loved hanging around him."
"Yes, yes, I like to hear that too. The last time he came back, it was Decai and I who rowed the boat to see him off."
The old men were excited and recalled their youth all at once. Chen Shuqin smiled as she listened, and it was obvious that she was very interested in what her father looked like when he was young.
Hearing everyone talking about how good my dad was back then made me extremely happy.
Which father is not an idol in his daughter’s eyes?
Chen Yigen shouted, "Come on, Xiaoqin, go pay your respects to your ancestors first, as well as your grandfather and mother. When they died, they missed your family very much."
Speaking of this, Chen Shuqin felt depressed. She lived in Qingfeng Village when she was a child. Her father was always away from home. She grew up with her grandparents. In the end, she didn't even know that they had died. She was very unfilial.
Hong Kong people are very superstitious, but Chen Xia, the reborn person, is not interested in this kind of superstitious tricks.
The Chen Family Ancestral Hall was protected. At least the house was not demolished and the ancestral tablets were hidden.
Normally they would just secretly take it out for worship during the Chinese New Year. This time when Chen Shuqin came back, she invited all the ancestors out for the first time to meet their son who had come to Hong Kong.
Chen Xia thought that this aunt was treated well enough, considering that women were not allowed to worship their ancestors in the past.
Chen Shuqin knelt down respectfully, kowtowed, and burned incense. She was very serious and earnest throughout the whole process, which made Chen Yigen very satisfied. This showed that even though they had been in Hong Kong for many years, they still recognized their ancestors.
When it comes to recognizing ancestors, the Chaoshan people in Hong Kong are even more exaggerated, and this has also led to the flourishing development of superstitious activities throughout Hong Kong.
Even though life and thinking in Hong Kong are very Westernized, people still take ancestor worship very seriously, and Feng Shui masters are particularly popular.
Chen Shuqin had been busy with social engagements in the morning. When the villagers of Qingfeng heard that guests from Xiangjiang had come, they all rushed over as if they were watching a peep show and surrounded them in three circles.
Chen Xia had known that this situation would occur, so he had prepared red envelopes and candies early on, as it was difficult to buy gifts anyway.
Each elder in the village was given a red envelope of 50 yuan, and all underage children were given a red envelope of 20 yuan.
More than 10,000 yuan was given out at once, which is definitely a huge sum of money, but the red envelope must be given out.
Returning home in glory is all about this moment. Besides, this money is not a huge sum for Chen Shuqin. After all, it is for the face of Chen Defa and the face of the Chen Xia clan.
The villagers who received such a huge sum of money all praised Chen Shuqin and Chen Defa's family, and also told her about Chen Xia's "benevolence and righteousness".
How could they not be happy? If Chen Xia was a small "big spender", now there was another big "big spender"...
In the eyes of the villagers, the Chen Defa and Chen Decai family are indeed of the same bloodline. They all have the habit of spending money. They have strong genes.
I wonder if Chen Shuqin would be so angry that she would return the red envelopes if she knew what the villagers were thinking.
In the afternoon, Chen Shuqin went to see her old house again. When Chen Defa wanted to go to Hong Kong and had no money for the trip, Chen Decai had already decided to sell all the houses and land for money, so it was no longer her family's house.
At that time, Chen Decai and his parents, wife and children stayed in the ancestral hall for some time. Later, they built a few thatched huts before they settled down. It was really hard.
This is also why after Chen Defa became rich in Hong Kong, he insisted on leaving half of his property to his younger brother's family. This was what he owed to his younger brother and his children.
However, later on, Chen Decai's family turned a disaster into a blessing. Because their family was very poor and had nothing, they were classified as poor peasants after liberation.
Due to the deliberate concealment of the facts by the village cadres, the three brothers Chen Bingkun were forced to join the army.
In the afternoon, Chen Shuqin went to her grandparents' graves to pay her respects before coming to the Qingfeng Pharmaceutical Factory outside the village.
The purpose of her visit this time was a "business inspection", but work was more important. As for returning to her hometown to recognize her relatives, she had to wait for her father to come back in person to pay her respects. She just did it as a token of her appreciation.
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