As night fell, Lu Shiyi carried the sacrificial wine and food, and Su Jin carried a bamboo basket covered with cloth, following Lu Bairen and Du Ruo out of the farm through the side door.
Lu Bairen was walking in the mountains holding a flashlight on the way to worship his ancestors. He was a little dazed. He had been away for many years, and only two or three times did he bring Du Ruo back to worship on the Ghost Festival.
"Grandpa, we have to act quickly today. I don't know when the members of the Pigeon Committee will come." Lu Shiyi said in a low voice.
It was dinner time for the villagers. The four of them were having dinner in Lu Bairen's yard when Lu Shiyi suddenly suggested coming over to worship their ancestors.
Lu Bairen walked quickly towards the cemetery, following the path he remembered and looking at the tombstones. He found that there was already weeds in front of his parents' tombstones.
"We can't weed, so let's just hold the ceremony like this." Lu Bairen stopped Lu Shiyi from weeding. He took the wine that Lu Shiyi handed over and said, "Dad, I'm back with Ayi. This is Maotai. If you don't have a special wine ticket, you can't get it at all!"
Lu Bairen poured a whole bottle of Moutai in front of the tombstone, while Du Ruo burned gold ingots in a basin in front of the tombstone.
After all the gold ingots turned into ashes, Du Ruo used a stick to scrape the ashes into ash, and then took some soil from the side to cover them, so that the ashes and soil were mixed together before stopping.
"Take away all the snacks!" Lu Bairen stood up and turned to look at the torches going into the mountain below. "Let's go back from the side immediately."
Lu Bairen didn't care about being seen by the villagers, he just didn't want to cause trouble for Lu Shiyi.
Not long after the group left, Peng Sanjin led the members of the Pigeon Committee over. They walked around in front of each tombstone, looking at the ones that had no weeds pulled out. Even if there was a smell of alcohol or ashes from burnt paper, they pretended not to see it.
During the Ghost Festival, every family would offer sacrifices to their ancestors privately. If there were no instructions from above, they would not do such a sinister thing to prevent the worship of ancestors.
"Director Peng, let's come back later so that most people can pay their respects to their ancestors." The members of the Pigeon Committee knew that the two hours after dinner were the most popular time for paying respects to their ancestors.
"No!" Peng Sanjin shook his head. According to his guess, no one would offer sacrifices as usual. "It should be after 10 o'clock that the most people will come. We are here for two hours. Anyone who comes here will be unlucky."
The members of the Pigeon Committee dispersed and each found a place to stand.
It only said that they had to watch for two hours and could call it a day if they could catch five people. If it weren't for the high pay for this job, no one would stay by the ancestral grave so late at night.
After dinner, some villagers from the foot of the mountain hurried up the mountain in the dark, but were caught as soon as they arrived at their respective graves. When they were about to shout, the members of the Pigeon Committee covered their mouths to prevent their shouting from disturbing the people entering the mountain.
Lu Shiyi and Su Jin sent Lu Bairen and Du Ruo back to the yard, but he did not put the snacks for the offering on the table.
"Grandpa, the snacks on the table were made by Xiao Jinxin. I took the snacks for the sacrifice back home for breakfast." Lu Shiyi told Lu Bairen, "You can't eat too much. Let grandma watch you eat two pieces a day."
Lu Bairen loves sweets. As he gets older, even his health doctor tells him not to eat too much sweets, for fear that he might get diabetes.
In the imperial capital's compound, many old men have been diagnosed with diabetes and often go to the general hospital to get insulin.
"It's done," Lu Bairen immediately drove them away. "Your grandma is watching over us, so it's definitely going to be fine!"
Lu Shiyi had no choice but to get up and walk out with Su Jin. The young couple strolled under the starry sky and walked along the wall towards their home. They heard many people whispering something in the distance.
The team members are all far away from home. Whenever something happens, they will burn paper in the direction of their hometown and then tell the elders about their situation.
The team members on the farm have formed a tacit understanding that when they see similar situations during important holidays, they just pretend they didn't happen.
After returning home, Su Jin hurried back to the bedroom. Hanhan was still sleeping on the big bed. Because Hanhan was older, she put Hanhan in the space less often.
In order to make Hanhan sleep comfortably in the space, she specially decorated the house in the space to be the same as the one outside.
"Wife, grandpa seemed to be in a much better mood when he came to pay homage to his ancestors during the Ghost Festival this time." Lu Shiyi remembered that every time he came back to pay homage to his ancestors, Lu Bairen would cry bitterly and would definitely fall ill when he returned.
Lu Shiyi sat with Su Jin in the rocking chair in the yard. They looked at the sky, and he told Su Jin what happened between Lu Bairen and the clan.
"Grandpa originally wanted to move my great-grandfather and great-grandmother's tombs to the imperial capital, where cremation is practiced," said Lu Shiyi, who had accompanied Lu Bairen back. He was 10 years old at the time, and the first time he saw Lu Bairen, he was so angry that he almost pulled out a gun.
At that time, Uncle Yang hugged Lu Bairen tightly and tried his best to persuade him that he could come back at any time.
"Didn't the clan visit their graves? According to grandpa's situation, the clan should help take care of the old man's grave." Su Jin had heard the team members in the village mention the cemetery within the group.
There are five-guarantee households in the village. Their children all died in the army. After the elderly passed away, the younger generations in the clan would go to visit their graves.
"Wife, the elders are not good people, otherwise, why would they kill us?" Lu Shiyi sneered, "The elders are involved with those people, so they must have some clean hands. We are so close to the border, if they pass on information to the outside world, it will definitely cost them another fortune."
After the elders saw the family being exterminated, the villagers' attitude towards them changed. They no longer had the final say, and even Lu Boyuan could discuss matters with the old masters.
"Ayi, are there still people hiding in several villages?" Su Jin was curious about why Lu Shiyi secretly arranged people to go to each village to conduct a survey after the summer harvest.
Lu Shiyi raised his right eyebrow: "It's not about hiding people, but about seeing how many have been corrupted."
It turned out that although there was no harvest in the farmland, several elders in the clan lived a comfortable life.
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