Chapter 463 Funeral
Manbao was led by Old Zhou and Qian to stand in the front. Taoist Shouqing held a magic sword in his hand with a serious face and muttered something.
Regardless of whether he could really summon the soul back, he was quite dedicated to his work. Manbao listened carefully and heard him muttering: "...the Zhou Yin couple died on a long journey in the past. There is no place to call their souls back to their hometown to receive the fruit and be reborn. I hereby declare this with all my heart... I will call their souls back from thousands of miles away to receive the fruit and be reborn. As a result, they have not been saved, and their cold souls have turned into the Jade Fairy..."
Shouqing turned around gracefully and thrust his sword forward, as if to clear a way for the dead souls. He looked at the gate with fierce eyes and dragged the sword all the way to the front of the mourning hall.
Old Zhou and Mrs. Qian both looked at the Taoist priest with sharp eyes, and Manbao also looked at him with his round eyes.
Taoist Shouqing let out a long sigh, took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat off his face elegantly before saying, "The deceased's soul has returned, and the funeral can now be held."
Qian suddenly burst into tears, turned around and threw herself on the coffin, patting it and crying, "Yin, Yin, how can you be so cruel? You haven't come to see me for so many years. I raised you with all my heart, even if you come to me in a dream once, it will be fine..."
The sweat that Taoist Shouqing had just wiped off appeared again.
Before Manbao could speak to him, Xiao Qian grabbed him and dragged him to the front along with Datou, who was wearing mourning clothes and holding the memorial tablet. "The time has come. Let's go with the banners and the funeral procession—"
Feng and He hurried forward to help Qian up, and suddenly they burst into loud crying. Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang, who had disappeared for a long time, rushed in anxiously, stood up by the coffin, and cried loudly, calling out "uncle" and "aunt".
Don’t worry about whether you can shed tears or not, just cry.
But Qian was really crying. Even little Qian couldn't help wiping away the tears from the corners of her eyes and choked up as she said some comforting words.
Old Zhou, holding his pipe and with red eyes, walked at the front. When the sound of suona started, everyone followed the coffin out of the village, crying loudly all the way.
But the villagers were not actually very sad. On the contrary, they were happy. Zhou Yin's open and honest burial removed the heavy stone that was weighing on the hearts of many people in the village.
Even Old Zhou and Mrs. Qian, although their eyes were red, were mostly happy in their hearts.
From today on, when they needed to worship their ancestors during the New Year, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Double Ninth Festival, they could openly burn incense and serve a sumptuous meal to Zhou Yin and his wife. They no longer had to secretly light three sticks of incense in front of their graves like before, and even had to find excuses to weed the graves...
Their cemetery was still chosen near a piece of land, but it was moved from the left side of Zhou's parents to the right side. Manbao followed Datou with a confused look on his face as he carried the coffin to the cemetery.
After watching the people put the coffin down, Xiao Qian wiped her tears and walked forward, pulling the two children to the front of the pit and said, "Come, you two aunt and nephew will scatter the first handful of soil together."
Manbao naively picked up a handful of soil and threw it on the coffin. Everyone shouted, and Zhou Dalang and others personally covered the coffin with soil.
The Zhang family members watched from behind and curled their lips, thinking it was too particular.
After the coffin was buried, the Zhou family members had to offer sacrifices once more in front of the grave. Taoist priest Shouqing led people to circle the grave mound thirty-six times and recited all the scriptures before the ceremony was completed.
This time, Manbao and Datou stood at the front again, kneeling down to kowtow to the dead soul. But this time, Zhou Dalang's seven brothers and sisters and a bunch of sons and daughters also knelt down, except for Old Zhou and Qian, who were still standing.
After the children had kowtowed, Qian finally squatted on the ground. Perhaps because she had been crying for too long, she couldn't stand up and sat down on the ground. She was too lazy to move. While burning paper money, she kept muttering in her heart: Don't worry, your sister-in-law will help you raise Manbao. She is a very smart child, just like you. You must also bless her health and safety...
After the funeral, everyone went home. Old Zhou's family was left behind. Manbao supported his mother with concern. Qian smiled at her. Although her eyes were red and swollen, she looked relaxed. "Mom is fine."
This comforted Manbao, and she became happy and grinned. As she walked back, Manbao curiously glanced at the grave next to her grandparents and said, "Huh?" "Look, Mom, someone came to weed this grave. But it's so strange, why aren't there any incense sticks?"
Everyone in the Zhou family was sweating. Before they could come up with an excuse, Manbao had already turned around and ran back, pulled out three incense sticks from Zhou Yin's grave, and ran back to stick them in front of the grave, which was also covered with new soil.
As she did in previous years, she followed her parents' instructions and muttered, "Any uncle or aunt in the tomb can come and have dinner with my uncle and aunt. It's more lively with more ghosts."
After thinking about it, I felt that my grandparents should not be left out of this matter, because in the past, when they came to visit the graves of my grandparents, they would invite the strange grave owner next door to eat. It doesn't make sense to invite this strange grave owner now and not invite my own grandparents, right?
So she ran back and lit three more incense sticks for her grandparents from her uncle and aunt's graves, and chanted something to invite them to come over and have a meal and drink with her uncle and aunt.
The Zhou family just watched her like that, and when she was done, they took her hand and took her home.
Forget it, we are all family anyway, so let’s eat together. I don’t think Zhou Yin and his wife will mind.
As soon as I arrived at the door of my house, I saw people from the village helping to clean up the dishes, tables, chairs and benches.
The dishes and chopsticks need to be washed, sorted and returned to each household, and the tables, chairs and benches also need to be cleaned. Of course, it is impossible for the Zhou family to do all these tasks by themselves. Usually, neighbors and fellow villagers help out.
Other guests from outside the family did not attend the funeral. After all, they were not related by blood, so they left early.
Now the only ones left are the Zhang family.
They were rummaging through the dishes when a village woman rudely shouted, "Stop rummaging. There are still leftovers these days. Don't break the dishes. You'll have to pay for them if you break them."
The Zhang family curled their lips and withdrew their hands.
As soon as they saw the people from the Zhou family coming back, the people from the Zhang family immediately rushed up aggressively.
Including the elderly and children, about 40 people stood opposite the Zhou family. Seven or eight half-grown children were pushed to the front. A woman shouted directly, "Zhou Jin, what happened to your children? We came here for a feast, and your two sons and grandchildren beat our children to a pulp?"
Old Zhou glanced at the children whose faces were bruised and some whose clothes were torn. Without even asking why his sons were fighting, he frowned and waved his hand, saying, "Alright, alright, we can talk later. We just came back from the cemetery. Are you determined to block our way here?"
(End of this chapter)
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