Chapter 3: , All-manager

Hearing this, Zhang Zhiyong raised his head in disbelief: "Can't be, Grandma Chun just died, she's not at home?"

As if to verify his words, as soon as he finished speaking, firecrackers crackled at the crossroads.

Accompanied by a chorus of heart-rending cries, this was clearly the descendants crying for filial piety.

According to the local customs of Shangwan Village, at the moment the deceased stops breathing, firecrackers must be set off at the door of the deceased's house immediately.

Then one must go to the Ma Huang Temple to set off a string of firecrackers, burn a stack of paper, and insert three sticks of incense.

The elders say this is to notify the underworld to open the temple gate and send the deceased's soul down, otherwise, the soul wandering in the human world is prone to becoming a lonely ghost.

As for the children crying for filial piety, besides grief, it is also a ritual that must be followed, otherwise, it is taboo, and villagers won't dare to come and help.

The villagers almost didn't know about the broken relationship between the Chen and Li families; on this point, the two families were surprisingly tacit and didn't spread it outside.

Or rather, the heads of the two families, Li Jianguo and Chen Gaoyuan, were both knowledgeable and cultured people, with a different pattern from the women, and they would still greet each other if they met.

That's why there was the scene of Zhang Zhiyong enthusiastically arranging things for his brother.

The old Li family was located at the crossroads, separated from the river dam by seven or eight rice fields. Li Heng was soaked all over when he ran home.

The main room door was wide open. As soon as he entered, he smelled a strong medicinal scent. Li Jianguo was squatting in front of an earthen jar, brewing Chinese medicine. Seeing him puffing his cheeks and blowing hard on the bamboo fire tube, it should have been not long after he started the fire.

Li Heng looked at his father in a gray-looking Zhongshan suit, with patches on the collar, and pot ash on his face and forehead, and suddenly felt a bit heartbroken:

"Dad, brewing medicine."

Li Jianguo wiped his forehead with his sleeve, turned his body slightly, and his kind face carried an expectant look: "Back, how was the harvest today?"

"Need you ask, I went out and got at least 5 jin."

Li Heng proudly handed over the bamboo basket, which was full of small fish, shrimp, loaches, and stone climbers.

In the middle, there were also a dozen river crabs with their pincers removed.

A rough glance, it was no less than five and a half jin.

Although he wouldn't manage crops and often slacked off when doing hard labor, when it came to catching loaches, touching fish, going up the mountain to catch wild rabbits, and hitting wild chickens, these side-door things, Li Heng was full of talent and self-taught. Among the twenty or so households at the crossroads, he considered himself second, and no one dared to come out and compete for first.

Li Heng looked around and asked: "Where is Mom?"

Li Jianguo wasn't afraid of meat and fish, reached into the bamboo basket and rummaged, "Feeding the pigs in the back."

Pricking up his ears to listen, noticing the muffled pig squeals coming from the backyard, Li Heng immediately handed over the camellias in his hand.

Looking at the bright red and romantic camellias, Li Jianguo looked surprised, and then humorously said:

"What day is it today? This is against reason."

Li Heng winked: "Don't worry, this isn't for you, take it and give it to Mom.

Didn't you often send flowers to her in the past? It's been many years since I saw you send any."

Li Jianguo stared at the camellias in a daze. After a while, he smiled, took the camellias, and turned to go to the backyard.

Today's wind sent romance back to the days when they met twenty years ago.

Not long after, Tian Run'e came out. She found an empty bottle, filled it with water, and inserted the camellias one by one.

Seeing this, Li Heng lay on the table and teased in a literary style: "Mom, you can't trap all your love in a vase."

Tian Run'e asked subconsciously: "Then what should I do?"

Li Heng gestured and said: "Wait for the petals to wither, dry them and make them into sachets to send back to Dad. This is called following your sweetheart like a shadow."

Tian Run'e's face couldn't hold up, and she laughed and scolded in a low voice: "Slippery tongue!"

Then she sighed secretly. No wonder the sensible Chen Zijin was ruined by the brat; this mouth is really...

Zhang Zhiyong on the side was stunned! A piece of "damn, damn" floated in his heart. Can it still be like this?

With wet clothes sticking to his body, Li Heng felt uncomfortable, so he took a bath to save time.

Looking at himself in the mirror, he had to sigh: Mom's genes are really strong!

If he were to film a movie, there would be no such thing as Ken Takakura.

He had also watched the movie "Manhunt" and watched it repeatedly several times. It was ordinary, and he didn't know why it was so popular in the country at this time?

Could this be the so-called tough guy's tenderness, things are precious because they are rare?

Satisfied with his appearance, growing to 178 at 17 wasn't short in the south, but he was malnourished, and those few ribs made him feel terrified.

Small fish and shrimp don't need to be processed and can be put directly into the pot; loaches need to be raised for a few days to spit out the mud and sand.

And the larger stone climbers and crucian carp need to have their internal organs picked clean with bamboo sticks.

As for the river crabs that could sell for a good price in later generations, heh! There were too many of these things in this era, and they were all used as fertilizer. Unless you were particularly greedy, you wouldn't eat a few.

Although five and a half jin of fish and shrimp looked like a lot, under the nimble hands of Li Heng, Li Jianguo, Tian Run'e, and Zhang Zhiyong, it was visible to the naked eye that it was bottoming out.

Just as the four were chatting and processing the miscellaneous fish, a middle-aged man, Chen Gaoyuan, came straight across the road.

Chen Gaoyuan, dressed in mourning clothes, knelt down to the couple Li Jianguo and Tian Run'e as soon as he entered the door, saying his mother had passed away and asking the couple to help.

Kneeling is a local custom, but whenever someone passes away in a family, the filial son will wear white cloth and go door-to-door to ask people for help.

Shangwan Village has about 3,000 people. Excluding the Chen family, Li Jianguo is the only university student in the village, has seen the world, and does things with rules.

Because of this, every time there is a wedding or funeral in the village over the years, everyone is accustomed to going to his door first to call him to be the "All-manager."

All-manager, as the name suggests, means everything must be managed.

How much money to spend on weddings and funerals, which neighbors to call for help, which neighbor to arrange to do what, how many bowls for the flowing water banquet, what dishes to serve, including various purchases and calling Daoist priests to enter the venue, all are handled by the All-manager for the host family.

Ordinary people can't do this kind of work.

And Li Jianguo has outstanding eloquence, strong ability, wide connections, and handles things fairly, so the old and young men are relatively convinced, and he is the only candidate for "All-manager."

Some people even joked that Li Jianguo was fired well; ever since the old village chief passed away, the village had lacked such a person who could take on major events.

Li Jianguo hurriedly threw away the stone climber in his hand, helped Chen Gaoyuan up with both hands, and comforted: "Gaoyuan, please mourn! I'll change my clothes and come over."

Chen Gaoyuan took the opportunity to stand up and said to Tian Run'e: "Sister-in-law, your craftsmanship is good, please help arrange the dinner later."

When an elder in the host family passes away, there are a lot of things for the filial sons and grandsons to be busy with, and serving tea and cooking are generally done by neighbors helping out.

Ever since Chen Gaoyuan's wife rejected the two families becoming in-laws, although the two families were only separated by a road, she hadn't been to the Chen family for half a year.

In a sense, the wives of the Chen and Li families are currently facing each other with black faces.

Thinking about having to set foot in the Chen family, Tian Run'e felt very awkward inside, and there were ten thousand unwillingness in her heart.

But the deceased is the greatest, not to mention that the famous and prestigious Chen Gaoyuan had personally come to the door to open his mouth, so it was not easy to refuse, otherwise, if it spread out, she would get a reputation for being "narrow-minded."

After weighing it, Tian Run'e finally agreed and said warmly: "Okay, I'll go get a string of firecrackers."

Old thinking is at work; when visiting the home of the deceased, one must set off a string of firecrackers, which is called "seeing the living." It counts as an unspoken rule.

However, firecrackers can be large or small, and ten or twenty people can enter the door together; no one cares about this. It's not particular, and it doesn't cost much money anyway.

After Li Jianguo and Tian Run'e left the main room, Chen Gaoyuan's gaze naturally fell on Li Heng.

For this boy who coaxed his eldest daughter into bed, he didn't react as fiercely as the women in his family, but his mood was also quite complicated.

After the incident was exposed, he once found an opportunity to secretly ask his eldest daughter: "Zijin, what is going on between you and Li Heng?"

At that time, Chen Zijin lowered her head with a red face and pleaded for Li Heng: "Dad, I was voluntary, don't blame him."

A "voluntary" sentence forced Chen Gaoyuan to suppress various opposition voices in the family, not making the matter big, and not making it public.

Even every time he returned to his hometown, he would take the initiative to give Li Jianguo a cigarette and chat for a few words.

This is also the reason why the villagers didn't know that the wives of the Chen and Li families had secretly broken up.

Past events emerged in his heart, and Chen Gaoyuan asked Li Heng: "When are you going to school?"

Li Heng answered: "School starts on the 12th."

Today is the fifth day of the first lunar month, and there is still a week or so before school starts.

Hearing this, Chen Gaoyuan silently patted Li Heng on the shoulder, said "study hard, get into a good university," and left.

Perhaps it was because he felt something after seeing Li Heng, Chen Gaoyuan returned home, found his wife, and again used a consultative tone to say:

"A-Lan, why don't we let Zijin come back? Send her grandma on her last journey."

Zhong Lan exploded when she heard this, and her peaceful face was instantly filled with anger:

"Chen Gaoyuan, what do you want to do? If my daughter comes back like this, I'll hit my head and die for you to see!"

Chen Gaoyuan, who had experienced many hardships, had a very stable mentality and didn't get angry with his wife, just sighed and said: "I'm just afraid that Zijin will blame us in the future."

Zhong Lan pulled a long face and looked at him coldly.

Seeing this, Chen Gaoyuan completely gave up the idea of letting his eldest daughter come back.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 4 =====