At the foot of the city's south side, wild grass grows lush and green.
In the tall weeds, Han Wenzheng carried offerings in one hand and wielded a sickle in the other, forcefully carving a path through the tall grass.
The three of them followed the newly opened road and continued their winding journey.
Wandering through the weeds for what seemed like an eternity, we finally reached the foot of a steep cliff.
A weeping pine tree grows on the steep cliff, its branches spreading horizontally and winding downwards.
Under the pine tree was an inconspicuous little mound.
There wasn't even a monument in front of the mound.
He Youyou glanced at Butler Qian.
The housekeeper immediately understood and gave him a knowing look: "Tomorrow, have a stonemason make a tombstone."
Han Wenzheng arranged the offerings one by one in front of the grave.
The steward took out the incense burner and paper money.
He Youyou lit three incense sticks herself, placed them in the incense burner, and burned a handful of paper money.
He clasped his hands together and bowed several times towards the grave.
“Ali is living with me now, and I will never mistreat him. Sister, if you know this in the afterlife, you can rest assured.”
Han Wenzheng knelt down on the ground and respectfully kowtowed three times towards the grave.
This child wasn't the kind of person who was emotionally expressive. After kowtowing, he didn't mutter anything or chat with his birth mother.
Instead, he knelt silently, his expression solemn, his thoughts unreadable.
He Youyou and Butler Qian both stood silently by, mourning.
The two people had completely different thoughts.
Manager Qian: The child is so pitiful, it breaks my heart.
He Youyou: I'm exhausted, my legs hurt.
This journey has been incredibly arduous.
There isn't even a proper road; carriages can't get in.
How did they manage to find such a remote place for the burial?
If I have to accompany you through this every year, how can I bear it?
After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Han Wenzheng finally completed his internal dialogue and stood up.
He looked at He Youyou with a hint of apology on his face: "Mother, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."
He Youyou forced a smile and said, "It's nothing."
After saying that, he looked at the grave again, his face showing reluctance.
“Ah Li, your birth mother’s grave is here all alone. No one ever comes to visit her. I can’t bear to see her like this. I have an idea and would like to hear your thoughts.”
“Mother, please speak freely,” Han Wenzheng said respectfully.
He Youyou glanced at him, then at Butler Qian.
“I think we should move your birth mother’s grave to a nearby ancestral grave in the Han family, and choose an auspicious site for her to be buried in a grand and respectful manner. We can have a stonemason make a monument, and you can write the epitaph yourself. We can also find an empty room, set up a small ancestral hall, and enshrine your birth mother’s memorial tablet so that her soul can have a place to rest and that her offerings can continue.”
He Youyou had a well-thought-out plan: she definitely couldn't move the Han family's ancestral graves there. But finding a plot of land nearby was still an option. Every year during Qingming Festival, they could sweep and pay respects at both graves together, saving them the trouble of traveling such a long distance.
It's really hard on the legs.
Thump—
Han Wenzheng knelt down again.
The housekeeper was also somewhat moved.
He Youyou: This child's habit of kneeling is probably incurable.
Then I thought again: He will be a subject in the court in the future, and he will have to kneel before the emperor every day.
If you start practicing more now, you can develop iron knees.
"Mother, your child is deeply grateful and has no way to repay you!"
As he spoke, he picked up the hoe he used to clear weeds from the grave mound and strode over to the grave.
He circled the grave mound a few steps, measured it with his feet, raised the hoe high, and shoveled it down forcefully.
He Youyou panicked.
Uh...no...
Why is he digging now?!
What happens after it's dug out?
Is he planning to carry it away?
Isn't it a bit...too scary?
He Youyou felt a chill run down her spine.
Child, don't act impulsively.
“Ah Li, we need to choose an auspicious day for moving the grave. Let’s invite a master to calculate it in a few days and find an auspicious day… You do it like this…”
Isn't that disrespectful?
Han Wenzheng dug a few times with a hoe, squatted down, reached in and pulled out a rectangular piece of wood from the ground.
Upon closer inspection, He Youyou noticed a line of vertical characters written on the wooden strip—
The tomb of my late mother, née Su Luoluo.
It turns out that the grave wasn't without a tombstone; Ahri had buried it in the ground and hidden it.
He Youyou murmured, "Su Luoluo, what a beautiful name."
Han Wenzheng respectfully placed the wooden tombstone aside, but did not stop.
He continued to swing the hoe in his hand, digging deeper and deeper.
He Youyou was dumbfounded: This... if we dig any further, things will really get out of hand.
She looked helplessly at the housekeeper beside her.
The housekeeper's gaze also revealed a sense of bewilderment.
Both of them were wondering what to do if they really dug to the bottom.
Why don't we send Lao Qian out now and find a few more people to move this grave today?
But is it not right to treat matters of ghosts and spirits so lightly, so carelessly, so perfunctorily?
That's immoral...
At this point, Han Wenzheng had already dug a pit nearly three feet deep.
He Youyou could tell that the child had made remarkable progress in his recent training; he was really strong and worked really fast, digging this deep in no time.
As the two were pondering this, they suddenly noticed that Han Wenzheng had made another move.
He jumped into the pit and squatted there, digging around.
After rummaging around for a while, they pulled a square bundle out of the ground.
He emerged from the pit with the bundle in his hand, walked up to He Youyou, and placed the bundle on the ground.
Due to its age, the cloth covering the bundle had begun to rot.
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