Chapter 99: A House Full of Filial Piety (1)

Speaking of falling, everyone had more to talk about.

First, when you get old, you're not afraid of anything else, just of being immobile and suffering. Once you lie there unable to move, a person's spirit fades in two or three months.

Second, it's hard for the family to take care of them. With so much work inside and out, being tied down by the injured patient and unable to go out, having to serve them at any time...

The one lying down suffers, and the one taking care of them suffers too.

There are no filial children by a long-term sickbed; that's the truth.

Everyone chatted about this topic, sighing over age and health.

But Song Tan watched coldly. This group of old men kept talking, but they kept drinking and smoking, none of them taking health preservation seriously. She was truly speechless inside.

Song Youde also had a small glass of wine. Thinking of someone younger than him passing away just like that, he sighed: "Sancheng, since you're going, go take a look after eating and stay there to lend a hand."

"No need to rush back; we have people at home. When we had things happen at our house before, their family came too. You have to go."

That's the rule in the village: if you go to help when others have something happen, they will come to help when you have something happen.

Of course, if you don't go to help others, then when it's your turn, naturally no one will lend a hand.

Rural rules are strict and there are many customs, unlike in the city where you pay enough money and get one-stop service for everything. Here, many things require friends and relatives to organize together to get done.

The people eating also calculated: "They just passed away? Then the burial must be the day after tomorrow morning. We're all in the same village, and we've exchanged gifts before, so we'll just wait until tomorrow to go pay our respects."

Yunqiao Village still practices earth burial. The rule for earth burial is to carry the coffin up the mountain early in the morning, but the hosting of guests and performing of rituals all happen on the second day after the person passes.

The person just passed, and there's a series of things to do: setting up the mourning tent, inviting the Daoist priest, preparing cigarettes, alcohol, and tea, hiring the chef... there's so much to do!

Song Sancheng couldn't sit still either. After eating, he put down his bowl and chopsticks and went directly over: "I'll go see the situation first."

The rest of the group discussed and discussed, then all took their tools and went up the mountain.

The young man operating the excavator didn't know where Zhang Yanping found him, but he was a one-in-a-thousand honest person. Seeing everyone leave, he thought for a moment and simply went up the mountain to continue working.

If it were other old hands, if they were paid by the day, they wouldn't necessarily slack off, but they definitely wouldn't work overtime.

Once he started moving, everyone naturally got busy, and before long, they had thrown the matter to the back of their minds.

There are many elderly people in the village, so it's normal for one or two to pass away.

Unexpectedly, after only an hour, Song Sancheng came back up the mountain angrily, holding his rake again.

Song Tan was also there with Qiao Qiao helping to rake up stones and wood scraps. Seeing her father's angry face amidst the roar of the machinery, she had to raise her voice:

"Dad, what happened?"

He went to help others, so why did he come back like this?

Song Sancheng was furious: "Don't mention it! Those three children of the Zhang family are truly not human!"

Once gossip started, the few old men working couldn't help but get excited and quickly asked:

"What happened? Are the children unfilial?"

Someone advised: "Sigh, Old Song, look on the bright side. Once children are raised, they fly away. What can you expect from them?"

"Exactly, you don't see them three times a year; just keeping up appearances is enough."

If only that were the case!

Song Sancheng was filled with uncontrollable anger:

"What do you know? This isn't a matter of being filial or not; they've grown wolf hearts and dog lungs!"

Wow!

Song Sancheng is an honest man. If he describes people like this now, there must be something major!

Just listen to Song Sancheng:

"As soon as I got there today, I heard their eldest son talking on the phone with the funeral director, his voice so loud, saying to pick the most expensive! He wanted the best burial clothes, an ice coffin, and a lively funeral ritual..."

"I thought, don't our elders just want to leave with dignity? This child is okay; after-death matters are matters, and appearances are appearances, right?"

"Who knew Zhang Wang would swing his hoe at his son's head? After everyone pulled them apart, I found out what was really going on!"

Every village has some lazy people, but Zhang Wang and Aunt Zhang were definitely not like that.

The couple, one with a slight limp and the other not saying much, were both capable.

In those years, enduring famine and shortages, they managed to raise three children.

They married early and had children early. The eldest child is forty this year, and the youngest daughter is thirty-one or thirty-two; they all have families of their own.

Although they didn't come back often, whenever Zhang Wang mentioned his children, he was full of pride: today saying the children called again, tomorrow saying the children wanted to eat home-grown vegetables, the day after saying the children bought something special to see the elders...

Old people, don't they just hope for filial children?

This is the norm in the village.

But whether life is cold or warm, only each family knows.

Last week, the day Song Tan went out to buy Jin Yingzi, Zhang's eldest son called saying he wanted to eat the pearl flowers from home.

Pearl flowers are a local wild vegetable. When the branches just sprout buds, there are little buds one by one. Blanching them and stir-frying with meat, or cooking in noodles, has a very unique taste.

Aunt Zhang took a basket and went up the mountain. Who knew that when coming down, she wasn't careful and fell, breaking her leg.

Because she didn't have a phone, it took until mid-morning for Zhang Wang to find her. He dragged a neighbor to help carry her into the house, and only then did he call his son. The son said impatiently:

"Mom, you're such a big person, why do you keep running up the mountain? Is there a lack of food or drink at home!"

Then he added: "I'm at work, how can I have time to go home? It'll take several hours to get back! Isn't my sister in town? Tell her to hurry up and find a car to take you to the hospital."

The call was transferred to the daughter.

The daughter wasn't happy either, saying: "In the village, sons are supposed to provide for the elderly. Mom, you can't rely on me for everything just because I'm close! With such a big thing as a broken leg, you have to call my brother. Tell my brother to call 120."

Good heavens, in their area, 120 is willing to come, but one trip costs five hundred.

Just the one-way travel time takes over an hour and a half. By the time the ambulance goes back and forth and the person is sent to the hospital, it would probably take four hours.

And in the mountain valley, the elderly don't know how to use location services. When the ambulance reaches the fork in the road, Zhang Wang still has to ride his motorcycle to lead the way.

Who can afford to wait?

Finally, they found the driver of the village bus and hurriedly found a car to send her away.

Halfway there, the old lady's condition didn't look good, and the driver was scared, so he hurriedly sent her to the town hospital.

———Author's Note———

Pearl flowers are really delicious, a type of wild vegetable.

Some village rules say you can't carry a dead person in a car, or you'll have bad luck for a long time. Drivers are very cautious.

7017k ===== CHAPTER 100 =====