Chapter 15 A memory that I didn't have before
While Cheng Yang was lying in the hospital anxiously looking for a wife, Shi Xiaoai had already brought Mingrui and Mingxi to the cemetery.
The Yuncheng cemetery is right next to the crematorium, and the two places are only ten minutes away.
The original owner's parents are also buried here.
To be honest, Xiao Ai hesitated for a long time before coming here.
She didn't want to bring such a young child here.
Although she herself didn't have so many particulars, she knew some customs from her family elders in her previous life and knew that it was not appropriate to take very young children to the cemetery.
But after thinking about it, she still brought them here.
Because she felt—
The children's mother is no longer with us, so she has the responsibility and obligation to take the two children to see their grandparents and great-grandfather.
Let them see how well the original owner raised the children.
There is another reason besides this.
When she came here today, she specially brought a set of clothes from the original owner, intending to bury the clothes in front of the grave of the poor woman's parents.
Shi Xiaoai had no way to buy a piece of land and erect a tombstone for her.
Doing this can be considered as building a cenotaph for her.
Even if the two children knew nothing, she had to bring them to kowtow to their biological mother.
"Comrade, the trees are planted. Is there anything else to do?"
The two masters who helped to erect the tombstone added the final rubble to the pine tree planted in front of the grave, then stood up together and looked at Shi Xiaoai and asked.
"No, this is fine. Sorry for bothering you, Master."
According to custom, Xiao Ai stuffed a pre-packed red envelope into each of the two people's pockets. Each envelope contained one dollar.
This is the money given to the masters who come to help in addition to the management fee paid to the cemetery.
The cemeteries at that time were different from those in later generations, and there were no well-maintained cemeteries to choose from.
It is called a cemetery, but in fact it is just a barren slope fenced off by the government for use by local citizens.
To choose a cemetery, you just need to go to the cemetery office and pick an empty space on a topographic map they provide. They will then circle it on a piece of paper and write your name, thus proving that the land belongs to you.
Afterwards, the cemetery will send a master to assist you in digging holes, burying, planting trees, and erecting tombstones.
Of course, all of these require payment.
Cemeteries are state property and are not sold to the public. They can be used free of charge.
But you have to pay the management fee, which is fifty yuan in total for ten years.
The red envelopes given to the masters are calculated separately.
After this trip, Shi Xiaoai's already empty wallet was reduced by half.
The masters left happily holding the red envelopes.
It was neither a weekend nor a day for memorial services. Once they left, only the mother and her two children were left in the cemetery.
Shi Xiaoai took out the white sugar cakes she had baked from her backpack and placed them next to the new grave together with the bulk wine she had bought from the daily necessities store at the entrance of the alley.
Then light the incense sticks and paper money bought from the cemetery.
While burning paper, she whispered to the tombstone, "Grandpa, although I am not your biological granddaughter, since I have come here and inherited the house you left behind, you are my biological grandfather. In the future, I will worship you like a biological granddaughter.
Try the sugar cakes I made. They're full of sugar and so sweet. You used to love your granddaughter so much that you gave all the sugar to her. You must have not had any sugar in years, right?
From now on, I will be the one to honor you. I will often make all kinds of delicious food for you, so that you will never be without sweets.
After saying that, she beckoned the two children over and introduced them to the tombstone, "Grandpa, this is Xiaorui, and this is Xiaoxi. They're both very pretty, aren't they? Take a good look at your great-grandson and great-granddaughter! I brought them here to see you today. You must be very happy, right?"
Shi Xiaoai gestured to the two children to kneel down and kowtow three times to their great-grandfather, and the two children did so obediently.
After paying homage to the old man, Shi Xiaoai took Mingrui and Mingxi to the other side of the cemetery and found the graves of the original owner's parents.
She also took out the offerings and placed them there, and made the same promises to the two old men.
They promised that they would take on their daughter's duties and visit their graves every year. They also promised to fulfill their responsibilities as mothers for the original owners and take good care of Mingrui and Mingxi.
Afterwards, she also asked the two children to kowtow to their grandparents.
After all the procedures were completed, Shi Xiaoai took out an oilcloth bag from her schoolbag. Inside the bag was the clothes that the original owner had worn when she went to the branch secretary's house.
That poor woman lost her life wearing this dress.
Shi Xiaoai placed the clothes next to the tombstone, and then whispered in her heart: "I'm sorry, I can't save your life. All I can do is bury you next to your parents so that your family can be reunited.
I will take good care of Mingrui and Mingxi, bring them up, see them grow up, and never let them suffer any grievances. Please believe me on this.
Go with peace of mind. You've had a hard life in this one, so you need to live well in your next. I hope you'll be safe, happy, and worry-free for the rest of your life."
After Shi Xiaoai finished speaking, the green pines in front of the grave danced without wind, making a cheerful rustling sound and bringing a burst of faint fragrance.
Shi Xiaoai took the iron hoe she had just borrowed from the cemetery office and started digging a hole behind the tombstone near the grave mound.
The two children knelt obediently in front of the monument as she requested, watching everything quietly.
When sorting clothes yesterday, Shi Xiaoai told the two children that she wanted to bury the clothes here so that they could accompany grandma and grandpa on her behalf.
So they didn't show any surprise at this time.
It was not yet the twelfth lunar month, the weather was freezing cold, and the ground was as hard as stone.
Shi Xiaoai dug with great effort, and soon her hands and feet became frozen stiff.
She put her hands together and rubbed them vigorously, then stepped down. Suddenly, a dull clicking sound came from the front end of the iron hoe, as if it had hit something hard.
Xiao Ai thought she had hit a rock and squatted down to move it away with her hands. But when she looked into the pit, she found that the shovel had hit what seemed to be a tattered piece of oilcloth.
At the same time, her head ached, and a memory she had never had before suddenly appeared in her mind!
That was a plot that did not appear in the story outline and should have come from the original owner's memory.
Memories are scattered images, in which there is a figure of a girl with a black veil wrapped around her arms.
At that time, she was just like herself now, struggling to dig a hole with a shovel, and then putting something into the hole.
Shi Xiaoai's heart skipped a beat and she quickly looked around.
After making sure that there was no one else around, he carefully took out the object wrapped in the oilcloth.
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