Jiang Xi was initially worried that once the temperature rose and the snow melted, the mountains and villages would be wet and muddy.
But when the time actually came, she couldn't help but admire the wisdom of her ancestors.
These stone houses are all built on flat ground, but the courtyards of each household and all the roads in this small village are all sloped slightly from west to east.
There is a man-made water channel at the base of the wall on the east side of each courtyard, with stones on both sides to prevent water seepage.
There is a 20-centimeter drainage outlet in the southeast corner of the yard. All the melted snow in the yard will automatically flow into the water ditch against the wall and then flow out from the drainage outlet.
Eventually, the water from this small village will flow along the irrigation canals to the fertile fields in that plain area.
Whether it's melting snow or torrential rain, the water can't seep in, and the land in the village can dry out quickly.
However, some courtyard walls were completely collapsed, and two-thirds of the irrigation ditches were buried under the broken tiles and ruins.
Jiang Xi and Yan Zheng had to take a few more days to clear away the stones and clods of earth and reopen the irrigation ditch.
After the snow melts, it can no longer be drunk as water. Jiang Xi suddenly remembered that Lingdang had reminded her in her dream that there was a spring behind that yellow brick house.
After she finished speaking with Yan Zheng, the two of them went to the mountain behind them to search again.
It's actually not hard to find. Just 20 or 30 meters from the house into the mountains, you'll see a pond about two meters wide. The water flows from top to bottom, and it's clear and not small. It's enough for daily washing and drinking.
At this moment, she truly felt that the Bell Dream was indeed helping her.
**
After finishing his work in the courtyard, Yan Zheng worried that the woods would be too damp after the snow melted, and that the firewood would be soaked. So he went to the woods ahead of time and collected enough firewood for the next half month, piling it up in the courtyard.
Thus, the two of them were busy for another half month.
The weather was still chilly despite the sudden warm spells, and the knee-deep snow that covered the mountains had finally melted away.
Jiang Xi had been thinking about the bell, and finally the day to go to the cave arrived.
Yan Jing'an was not fully recovered, and Jiang Xi was afraid that he would be tired, so she did not call him, but asked Yan Zheng to take her there.
The cave was no different from before. When Jiang Xi walked to the cave entrance and saw the scene inside, she recalled the peaceful and prosperous scene she had seen in her dream. It was hard to connect that scene with the dilapidated and rotten cave she saw now.
She felt a sense of unreality about being there.
I walked up to the wooden house in my dream and took down the bell from the hook on the eaves.
She said to Yan Zheng, "It's this bell. When that little girl was taken away, she was still clutching it tightly in her hand. It was a keepsake that her father gave her."
She also had a special feeling for these bells. It was these bells that led her into a dream, told her where there was a clean water source, and warned them that the raw water in the mountains was not safe to drink.
Yan Zheng put his arm around her shoulder and said in a deep voice, "Taking her to her grave will fulfill the long-cherished wish of the father and daughter and end this bond between you."
Jiang Xi looked at the bell and nodded.
The two left the cave and followed Jiang Xi's memories from her dream to the cemetery at the top of the mountain.
The spring chill was still in the air. Although it wasn't as cold as the dead of winter, the mountain wind was still quite biting. Jiang Xi's nose was red from the cold, and Yan Zheng tightened her scarf even more.
The mountain was covered in mud from the recent snow melt, so the two walked with extra caution.
Yan Zheng remained vigilant throughout the journey, his eyes scanning his surroundings like a taut leopard, his gaze never leaving Jiang Xi.
Jiang Xi was preoccupied with her own thoughts and didn't keep track of the time. She only remembered that it took them a long time to reach the top of the mountain. Following her memory, they passed through a forest and saw the cemetery.
When I finally saw it, I was utterly shocked. Hundreds of graves, large and small, were buried on this mountaintop. There were no magnificent buildings or exquisitely carved beams and painted rafters; just the sheer scale of it was enough to make one's heart tremble.
Jiang Xi held Yan Zheng's hand and walked all the way to the small grave. After hundreds of years of wind and rain, the grave, which was originally half a person tall, was now less than Jiang Xi's calf height.
I fear that in another one or two hundred years, this place will be razed to the ground by wind, frost, rain and snow.
Jiang Xi took down the pair of bells and placed them on the small grave.
She whispered, "It's returned to its rightful owner. Thank you for reminding me in the dream."
As if she had completed an important task, she breathed a sigh of relief: "I hope there really is a netherworld, so that your family can meet again."
"Look there."
Jiang Xi's wandering thoughts were pulled back.
Following Yan Zheng's gaze, the cemetery was surrounded by tall trees, making the entire cemetery desolate. However, in a corner diagonally opposite them, there was an unusually large tree that seemed to block out a third of the sky above the cemetery.
There was a stone tablet under the tree, which seemed out of place since most of the graves here didn't have any.
Jiang Xi had never seen it in her dream before. Perhaps it was carved by someone else, or perhaps the original owner of the dream did not want her to discover it.
Yan Zheng said, "Let's go take a look."
Jiang Xi nodded, and the two walked along the perimeter of the tomb complex to the stone tablet.
The stone tablet was taller than a person. Years of wind and rain had left the surface of the tablet mottled and the characters were missing or incomplete.
However, Jiang Xi could still clearly see the first few large characters.
—The tomb of the great-uncle of the Du family during the Ming Dynasty.
Below that were small prints, all in classical Chinese and traditional characters. Jiang Xi leaned closer to read.
According to the records above, there was a large family called the Du family in the Wu County, Changzhou, and Jiading area at that time.
Later, years of drought and food shortages led to widespread suffering and political turmoil. The Du family was then persecuted by the imperial court. At that time, the head of the Du family ordered people to select about a hundred members of the Du clan from Wu County, Gaoyang, Changzhou and other places who shared the same surname but had different origins. They then traveled south to the mountains to avoid disaster.
The text then describes how the Du clan multiplied and thrived in this area, cultivating crops and developing animal husbandry. The remaining text recounts some plagues and major events they experienced during this time.
Jiang Xi already knew all this and wasn't interested, but the surname Du and the name Gao Yang made her think.
"Gaoyang, the Du family? Why does it sound so familiar?"
Something seemed to flash through her memory, but she couldn't grasp it.
Yan Zheng, standing to the side, was puzzled. He could only vaguely understand the traditional Chinese characters on the inscription. So he casually asked, "Does anyone in your family have the surname Du?"
Does anyone in your family have the surname Du?
Yes, that's right.
“My maternal grandmother’s surname was Du. I remember when I was very young, she mentioned that her hometown was originally a place called Gaoyang. She left with her father when they fled famine.”
As if she had thought of something, she looked up again and read the stone tablet from beginning to end.
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