Chapter 367 Father Gu: I want to use the resources I have on my son-in-law

Wuhan.

A family compound.

In the room, Gu Caiwei was opening a letter sent from Fujian and pulling out three pages of writing from the envelope.

The words on the letter paper were written in a vigorous and powerful manner, showing that the sender had excellent calligraphy skills.

This era is different from later generations. Due to the rampant use of various electronic products, people have fewer and fewer opportunities to write with pens, so handwriting generally does not look good, and even college students are no exception.

But it may be a bit of an exaggeration to say that every college student of this era can write well, but it is an indisputable fact that most college students write well.

The person who wrote the letter to Gu Caiwei was none other than Deng Yunheng, who was working in Fujian.

Moreover, this was not the first letter Gu Caiwei had received. She had received a letter from Deng Yunheng years ago, and she wrote back to him.

This letter is the second letter sent by Deng Yunheng.

After admiring the other party's calligraphy, Gu Caiwei began to read the contents of the letter.

Gu Caiwei read slowly, line by line, and it took her more than ten minutes to finish reading the three pages of the letter.

After reading the letter, Gu Caiwei immediately took out the letter paper and wrote a reply to the other party.

She racked her brains and spent almost an hour to finish writing the reply letter, but it turned out to be four pages. Gu Caiwei couldn't help but reveal a hint of shyness in her eyes. The other person only wrote her three pages, and she replied with four pages. This seemed a little unreserved!

However, soon, Gu Caiwei began to comfort herself that she wrote on an extra piece of paper mainly to avoid waste.

After all, writing three pages or four pages requires the same envelope and one stamp, so it is definitely more cost-effective to write four pages.

After comforting herself, Gu Caiwei put the letter into an envelope, wrote her name and address as well as the recipient's name, address and zip code on the envelope, sealed the envelope with glue, and finally put a stamp on it.

After doing all this, I saw that it was almost time, so I went to the kitchen to prepare cooking.

After learning cooking from her mother for nearly a month, Gu Caiwei's cooking skills are not that high, but at least some simple dishes are no longer difficult for her, especially green vegetables, tofu and steamed Wuchang fish, which she can make taste pretty good.

Anyway, her father loved the food she cooked. Every time she cooked, her father would eat half a bowl of rice more, which gave Gu Caiwei great motivation to cook.

Forty minutes later.

Father Gu and Mother Gu came back together.

After entering the house, Father Gu sniffed, and a smile appeared on his serious face. He said, "Weiwei, what delicious food did you make? Why does it smell so good?"

Upon hearing this, Mother Gu couldn't help but roll her eyes at her husband. She knew her daughter had made homemade tofu just by smelling it. Fortunately he had the guts to ask.

Gu Caiwei brought a plate of tofu out from the kitchen and greeted them, "Dad, Mom, you're back just in time. It's time to eat!"

Father Gu laughed and said, "I just wanted to eat tofu today. I didn't expect that you, Weiwei, would make tofu. That's great."

Gu Caiwei smiled and said, "Dad, please don't be disgusted by my cooking."

Father Gu went to wash his hands, came back and sat down and said, "No, I think the tofu made by my Weiwei is the most delicious."

Soon, the family of three served their meal and started eating.

There were three dishes, one was home-cooked tofu, one was stir-fried vegetables, and one was steamed egg. They were all very common dishes, but Gu's father ate them with gusto and even ate half a bowl of rice more than usual, supporting his daughter's cooking with practical actions.

After dinner, Gu Caiwei made a cup of tea for her father.

Father Gu drank his tea leisurely, and his fatigue from a day's work instantly dissipated.

Mother Gu asked, "Old Gu, my brother has been at the level of a director for several years. Now my father has retired. He is forgotten. Even if I want to give him a push, I can't do anything. As his brother-in-law, you have to help keep an eye on him. If you have the chance, give him a hand."

Father Gu nodded and said, "Okay, I will help keep an eye on it, but some of the resources I have, if possible, should be used on my own son-in-law. It's not that I don't take care of Donglai, but mainly because his potential is so great. The hall level is basically his upper limit. It's inevitable that it would be a waste to use resources on him."

Mother Gu also thought it made sense. As the saying goes, good steel should be used where it is needed most. Her husband's resources are not unlimited. If they are used a little, they will be less. If her younger brother has a bright future, then it will be worthwhile to use the money on him. But the problem is that her younger brother's career potential is limited. If she really uses the resources in her husband's hands to force him to a higher position, the cost would probably be greater than the gain, which would not be worthwhile.

Thinking of this, Mother Gu couldn't help but look at her daughter and asked, "Weiwei, did you hear what your father said? While your father has a lot of resources in his hands, you must hurry up and find your son-in-law, so that your father can cultivate him well, otherwise these resources will be taken advantage of by outsiders."

Gu Caiwei smiled bitterly and said, "Mom, you can't let a girl take the initiative in this kind of thing, right?"

Hearing this, Mother Gu's heart moved and asked, "Weiwei, tell me honestly, do you have any feelings for Deng Yunheng?"

Naturally, Father Gu also knew Deng Yunheng. To be honest, after hearing the other party's conditions, he was quite satisfied. It didn't matter if he had no background, as long as he had strong abilities. After he became his son-in-law, he could use the resources at his disposal to cultivate him.

With the help of his father-in-law, it should be no problem for him to get promoted while staying at the department or bureau level.

As for moving up further, he can't be of much help, but as long as he can be promoted smoothly in the early stage, then his age is his biggest advantage. As long as there are no accidents in the future, he should be able to be promoted smoothly.

After all, graduating from Peking University is a huge advantage.

Gu Caiwei said embarrassedly: "Mom, how can I answer this question? I haven't even met him in person!"

Mother Gu pondered and said, "Originally, I was thinking of letting you write letters and talk slowly, and then see if your personalities are compatible after you get to know each other, but the key is that time waits for no one. Your father doesn't always have the resources he has. Some resources are time-limited, and if you miss them, they will be gone."

Father Gu interrupted, "Don't be too hasty. You must find out the other person's character."

Mother Gu said, "That's for sure. You can't marry a man with bad character, no matter how outstanding he is."

Gu Caiwei blinked her eyes and continued, "As the saying goes, a person's handwriting reflects his character. There should be no problem with the other person's character."

Gu's mother, a calligraphy enthusiast, also believed this statement and agreed: "Indeed, from his handwriting, we can see that his character should not be bad."

Father Gu took a sip of tea and said, "If he has good character and is excellent, then hurry up."

Mother Gu thought for a moment, then looked at her daughter and said, "Weiwei, how about I go to Fujian with you?"

Gu Caiwei was surprised and asked, "Mom, do you mean that we should go directly to Fujian to meet him?"

Mother Gu nodded and said, "Anyway, he is a public official, and we know what position he holds. We can go to his workplace to observe him. If there is no problem with his appearance and his reputation is good, then we can meet him directly to discuss. Anyway, the two of you wrote letters to communicate with each other, and you were originally planning to date."

Gu Caiwei was also a little moved when she heard this, but she still asked a little embarrassedly: "Mom, is this okay?"

"What's wrong with that? The ancients said that those who achieve great things don't pay attention to small details. As long as the result is good, the process is not important."

At this point, Mother Gu looked at her husband and asked, "Old Gu, what do you think?"

Father Gu pondered and said, "I have no objection, but this is not a peaceful era. If you really plan to go to Fujian, I will send two people to protect your safety."

Seeing that her husband had no objection, Mother Gu made the decision and said, "Then it's settled."

Gu Caiwei thought of the letter that had not been sent yet and said, "Mom, even if you want to go, you can't go so soon. Wait for a while, I will write him a few more letters, and we will be familiar with each other. It won't be too late to go then."

Mother Gu paused, nodded and said, "Okay, then we can go there in May or June. The weather will be hot by then, so we won't have to carry so much luggage, and we can also taste the lychees there."

Gu Caiwei finally breathed a sigh of relief. With two or three months of buffer time, she and Deng Yunheng could write several letters to each other, and they would not be as unfamiliar with each other as they were now. Even if they met then, it would not be too awkward.

Naturally, Father Gu had no objection. Compared with people of that era, his ideas were very open-minded.

…

Naye Village.

On the second day of the second month of the lunar calendar, the village must hold a community ceremony.

In Shuangwang territory, every place where there is a community has a community head. As the name suggests, the so-called community head is responsible for arranging all matters related to the community.

The head of the community does not have to have a high prestige in the clan like the head of a clan. The head of the community only needs to be honest, fair and have the ability to organize and run a community.

The head of Naye Village is named Deng Yunkun. When Deng Shirong planned to reclaim his own mountain into an orchard, he selected several honest and hardworking villagers in the village to help, including Deng Yunkun and his two sons.

Working as a community is not just a clan affair. The Naye Deng clan is scattered across more than 20 natural villages, and working as a community is also carried out in different natural villages.

For example, when Naye Village formed a community, it joined together with several natural villages, including Yangdipo, Hengmenkou, Zhadu, Shanying, Shanggaoxing and Laowu. The clansmen scattered in other natural villages also formed a community together with several nearby villages.

At this time, the butcher in the village was slaughtering pigs, and Deng Yunkun was checking accounts with his subordinates.

After checking the accounts, Deng Yunkun said with emotion: "Thinking back to the past, many families would just keep accounts and pay back the money they owed slowly. Moreover, most of the time, two families would join together to do a cooperative. For those who could do a cooperative on their own, their family conditions were already very good.

In the past few years, no one owes the cooperative money anymore, and each family does one share, and many families even do two or three shares. This change is really too fast. "

The tribesman in charge of collecting the community money laughed and said, "Yes, in the past, every household went to collect the community money, but the money they could collect was very little, just enough to cook the community porridge. There was no time when they didn't owe the community money, and some families even owed the community money for several years.

Now, under the leadership of the clan leader, every household in our clan has become wealthy, and we will never owe the community money again in this life."

When the clan leader was mentioned, all the clan members present began to praise him.

For the Naye Deng clan, the clan head is as great as the leader.

Especially those members of the clan who were originally extremely poor, they were extremely grateful to the clan leader.

After all, if there was no clan leader to lead them to prosperity, how could they live the kind of godly life they have now, with no worries about food and clothing and tens of thousands in savings?

While the villagers were busy with the community, Deng Shirong was accompanying Dean Huang and his party walking down along the village river.

At this time, the new village river has been almost dug, but some huge rocks still need to be moved over and laid on both sides of the river, so there is no rush to drill through the reserved river section and let the river water flow to the new section.

However, this no longer affects Dean Huang's design work.

After walking along Xincun River from beginning to end, the assistants brought by President Huang took photos and made relevant records.

When walking back, Deng Shirong asked, "President Huang, how long will it take for the renderings to come out?"

Dean Huang smiled and said, "We only need to make some minor changes, and we will be able to produce the renderings in about half a month."

Deng Shirong said: "Then when the renderings come out, call me."

Dean Huang nodded and said, "There is also this sewage treatment plant. I will set it up for you at the very downstream of the river. Then the treated sewage will be discharged directly downstream. What do you think, Boss Deng?"

Deng Shirong smiled and said, "Sure, let's do it."

Although the discharged water has been treated and will not cause pollution, it is, after all, treated from dirty water. It is better to discharge it downstream rather than into the river section in the village.

After the two sides finished talking about the business, Dean Huang asked, "Boss Deng, I just heard that your village was slaughtering pigs. Is there a wedding?"

Deng Shirong replied: "Today our village is holding a community ceremony. You should know about this community ceremony, right, Dean Huang?"

Dean Huang suddenly understood what he said. As an expert in ancient architectural design, he had a better understanding of Chinese folk culture than most people. He naturally knew what a community was. He smiled and said, "That's really a coincidence. Can I go and see the community site?"

"Of course you can. There is nothing taboo about this. It's a good opportunity to let Dean Huang and you guys have a taste of our community porridge today."

"That's great. I've always been interested in these folk customs."

…

After returning to the village, Deng Shirong, who had nothing to do, took Dean Huang to the site of the community ceremony to let him experience the folk culture of the countryside of Bobai County, Guangxi.

When they came back, the large pieces of pork were already being cooked in the large iron pot.

Boil the pork thoroughly and the water will become broth. Then add rice to cook porridge. When it is almost cooked, add pig blood and season it.

The porridge cooked in this way tastes really good, especially when eaten on the spot, it has a special flavor.

Deng Shirong took Dean Huang and others to experience the fun of eating community porridge on the spot.

After eating the porridge, they started to distribute the meat.

As mentioned before, the most equitable thing in rural areas is the distribution of meat, especially the distribution of meat. All parts of a pig will be cut into small pieces and then distributed equally according to the number of shares made by the community.

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Basically, every portion of the soup contains pork, pork liver, rice intestines, large intestines, pork lungs, pork hearts, pig ears, ribs, pig feet, pig tails, etc.

Because the branches were extremely fair in their distribution, whenever people in the countryside of Bobai mentioned anything about fairness, they would always use the branches as a comparison.

Dean Huang and others also witnessed the entire branch process, which was so detailed that they praised it.

After bringing back the community meat, Deng Shirong prepared a large table of dishes to entertain Dean Huang and others.

After eating and drinking, they stayed at Deng Shirong's house for another night. The next day, Dean Huang and others left by car.

…

The Qingming Festival to ancestor worship does not only refer to the day of Qingming, but the entire month before and after.

In later generations, whether it was ancestor worship or mountain clearing, the Naye Deng clan generally arranged it after the spring equinox, and then chose Saturdays and Sundays to carry it out. This made it convenient for working people to arrange time to come back to clear the mountains and worship their ancestors.

Although we do not have a two-day weekend like in later generations, Deng Shirong still set the time for ancestor worship as the first Saturday and Sunday after the spring equinox. Originally, it should be stopped after two days and resumed on the next Saturday and Sunday.

However, Deng Shirong didn't want to waste time like this, so he set a time for five consecutive days to worship his ancestors.

Seeing that the ancestor worship ceremony was only two days away, Deng Shirong convened a meeting of the clan members who were responsible for ancestor worship matters. These clan members were basically members of the ancestral hall's board of directors.

After everyone arrived, Deng Shirong said, "Dear clan members, we will start worshipping our ancestors the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow, relatives and elder sisters from all over the country will arrive. I wonder how everyone is preparing?"

Deng Yungui said: "Uncle Jiu, we are all ready."

"Last year, when the ancestral hall was opened, quite a number of clan members from all over the country came to attend."

Deng Shirong picked up the pipe and stuffed tobacco into the pipe mouth while saying: "This year is the first time to worship our ancestors after more than 20 years. After the influence of the ancestral hall's opening last year, I believe that the number of clan members from all over the country who come to participate will definitely be much greater than last year.

Therefore, everyone should prepare in advance and entertain these clan members well."

Deng Yunqiang smiled and said, "Don't worry, Uncle Jiu, we have already thought about this problem. Even if the number of clan members who come to participate in the ancestral worship this year is twice as many as the number who came to participate in the enthronement ceremony in the ancestral hall last year, we can still entertain them well."

Deng Shirong lit the tobacco with a lighter, took a few puffs, and then said, "Since everything has been arranged, I feel relieved!"

Next, everyone talked about some details of ancestor worship.

After finishing the serious business, they chatted about family matters for a while, and when it was getting late, they left.

…

Deng family of Xintian.

Not long ago, the ancestral land had sent brothers to tell them the specific time of ancestor worship. Seeing that they would be returning to the ancestral land tomorrow, the clan leader Deng Changfa gathered all the clan members to discuss returning to the ancestral land to participate in the ancestor worship tomorrow.

When everyone was present, Deng Changfa said, "My fellow tribesmen, the Naye ancestral land will be preparing for ancestral worship the day after tomorrow. We will go there early tomorrow. Anyone who wants to participate can sign up."

"I want to go."

"Head of the clan, count me in."

"I want to go. I missed the ceremony at the ancestral temple last year, so I absolutely cannot miss it again this year!"

"Count me in, too. I also want to go see the new ancestral hall in our ancestral land to see if it is as beautiful as the other brothers say."

"And me, I want to go too."

“…”

As soon as Deng Changfa finished speaking, all the clansmen signed up enthusiastically.

There is no need to say much about the clan members who attended the ancestral hall enthronement ceremony last year. They were treated as honored guests by their brothers in the ancestral land last year. Now that the ancestral land has started the ancestral worship ceremony again after more than 20 years, they naturally will not be absent.

Those clan members who did not attend the enthronement ceremony in the ancestral hall last year were boasted about by their brothers who attended. They all regretted not attending. Now that the ancestral land is being used to worship their ancestors, they naturally do not want to miss it again.

As a result, the number of applicants more than doubled compared to last year.

Deng Changfa couldn't help but smile when he saw this. For an important event like ancestor worship that concerns the entire clan, of course the more lively it is, the better. The more people participate, the more prosperous the descendants will be, which is a good thing for every clan.

Therefore, Deng Changfa said happily: "Okay, let's count the number of people now, gather at the brigade at ten o'clock tomorrow morning, and then set off together."

…

A similar scene also occurred among the clan branches in various places.

After the ancestral hall was opened, those relatives who had never been to the Naye ancestral land became extremely curious about the ancestral land. At the same time, they also wanted to see the new Naye Deng ancestral hall that was praised to the sky by other brothers in the clan.

As a result, the number of clan members registering from all over the country began to increase dramatically, basically doubling.

As I said, the thing that ancestor worship is least afraid of is too many people. The more people who participate in the worship, the better. Therefore, clan members from all over the country have no intention of limiting the number of people.

…

The next day.

Relatives from all over the country crowded onto the trucks arranged by the clan and headed towards the ancestral land of the Ye Deng family in a mighty procession.

These trucks were all decorated with large flags of the Deng family. Some clan members even moved gongs and drums onto the trucks and played them along the way, making the scene very lively.

When passing through some towns, the residents there were all talking about it.

"Hey, what are they doing with the gongs and drums and the Deng family flag? Are they starting a clan fight?"

"What kind of clan fight is this? It looks like they are going to worship their ancestors."

"Why is there such a big fuss about ancestor worship?"

"You are still too young, so you don't understand ancestor worship. These years, everyone has just been clearing the mountains, and few surnames worship their ancestors. But in the past, ancestor worship was common. The Deng family probably resumed ancestor worship, and I don't know when our Zhang family will resume ancestor worship."

"What's the difference between ancestor worship and clearing the mountain?"

"There is a big difference. To clear the mountain, you just need to clear the graves and offer some pork as sacrifices. But to worship the ancestors, you need to drink the 'rites' and the tribesmen need to kneel down and recite the sacrificial texts. In short, the ceremony is much more complicated than clearing the mountain."

"It sounds interesting, so why don't we Zhangs worship our ancestors now?"

"It's not just the Zhang family that doesn't worship their ancestors. All the surnames haven't worshipped their ancestors in recent years. I won't go into details about the reasons. Anyway, if anyone dared to do this in those years, it would probably not end well. Even now, no one has recovered. They are so scared."

"Now that the Dengs have started to worship their ancestors, everything should be fine, right?"

"Well, it should be alright now. Let's go back and tell the clan. It's definitely too late this year. We Zhangs can resume ancestor worship next year."

“…”

Because all the relatives of the Naye Deng clan from all over the country basically take the Bolong Highway when they go to their ancestral homeland of Naye, every once in a while there are a few trucks with big flags of the Deng family passing through the towns and villages along the Bolong Highway.

Seeing this scene, people with other surnames were extremely envious.

It must be said that the contrast is actually very strong, as people with my surname are just doing simple mountain clearing, while people with other surnames are holding ancestor worship ceremonies in a lively manner.

It’s just like during the holidays, your family is just a quiet place with only a few people, while your neighbor’s family is lively with several tables set up. The atmosphere is really different.

With the stimulation of the Deng family's ancestor worship, I believe that more surnames will join the ranks of ancestor worship next year.

…

The entrance of the new ancestral hall of the Deng family in Naye.

At this time, just like the previous time when the ancestral hall was enthroned, there were 500 tables set up at the door, and various snacks and teas such as candies, biscuits, melon seeds, peanuts, melon strips, and twisted dough candies were prepared on the tables.

On the makeshift stove next to it, twenty or thirty pots were cooking pork. The aroma of meat kept wafting away, making people salivate with the smell.

When it was noon, relatives and aunts began to arrive one after another.

Speaking of this, we have to talk about the rules of clearing the mountains and worshiping ancestors in Shuangwang. The married sisters of the Deng family can come back to participate when the clan is clearing the mountains or worshiping ancestors, but their husbands and children cannot participate.

[The author's grandfather passed away early, but the author doesn't even know where he was buried, and has never been to pay homage to him. It's not that he doesn't want to go, but it's the rule in Shuangwang that grandchildren can't go to pay homage to their grandparents.]

With the arrival of relatives and aunts from all over the place, the scene began to become lively. The Naye Deng family had already arranged special personnel to entertain these relatives.

Some of these clan members were visiting for the first time, and they all went to visit the new ancestral hall of the Naye Deng family first.

Needless to say, everyone was shocked. Even though their fellow brothers had told them how awesome and beautiful the ancestral hall was, the feeling of seeing it with one's own eyes was completely different from seeing it from others' words.

As for Deng Shirong's family merit stele, it also gave these clan members a little shock, mainly because they had already heard the general content from their brothers in the same clan. After they had sufficient mental preparation, they were naturally not so shocked when they read the family merit stele again.

After visiting the ancestral hall, these clan members were shocked, but also felt a sense of pride.

After all, Naye Dengshi is their ancestral land, and the ancestors enshrined in the ancestral hall are also their ancestors.

It is normal for them to be proud of the awesome Deng family.

(End of this chapter)