Chapter 100: My Ancestors Must Be Smokin’ That Green!
It’s the First Day of Lunar New Year.
Jiang Tao’s hometown has a custom of ancestral worship.
Honoring ancestors signifies not forgetting the kindness of those who raised us during the most festive holiday of the year.
There wasn’t any complicated ritual; simply put, it meant going to the graves.
To burn some spirit money for our ancestors and bring offerings.
The time for ancestral worship is generally between 8 AM and 12 PM,
as this period has the most vigorous yang energy between heaven and earth, which can strengthen one’s own yang energy.
After breakfast at my parents’ home.
Jiang Tao and Jiang Wen, father and son, along with Jiang Shijie and Jiang Shaojie, the two nephews, the four male members of the family set off to visit the graves.
Mom, Tian Xiaomei, was busy at home making lamp wicks.
Xu Li and Jiang Bing took Jiang Xue to visit uncles and elder paternal uncles’ homes in the village.
The ancestral graves of the Jiang Family Village villagers are all in the farmland outside the village.
Most of it is their own farmland, or land they exchanged with others from their own farmland.
Compared to the increasingly expensive mausoleums in the city, people exclaim that they can’t afford to die.
In rural areas, graveyard plots have remained cheap for decades.
The plot where the Old Jiang family’s ancestral graves are located was allocated to Jiang Tao during the family division, with an officially confirmed area of one mu.
However, he has never cultivated it himself; his parents have always been the ones to farm it.
Upon reaching the graves, they began their tasks. The elder first drew a circle around the ancestral graves.
Jiang Tao and his two nephews busied themselves taking out offerings and stacks of spirit money, printed to look like genuine banknotes, from their pockets.
In previous years, the spirit money for visiting graves was in denominations of tens of trillions and hundreds of trillions per bill, more exaggerated than Zimbabwean currency.
In recent years, the denominations of spirit money have gradually returned to normal.
They became normal denominations like five, ten, twenty, fifty, and one hundred, which at first glance look like real money.
After Dad finished drawing the circle and muttering his prayers.
Jiang Tao took out his lighter and began to light the fire, burning yellow paper and spirit money.
This time, real smoke rose from the ancestral graves.
After the ancestral worship concluded, the group returned home.
For lunch today, they would still eat at his parents’ home.
Jiang Tao brought over the fish, shrimp, and beef that Xu Li had bought at the market.
Old Jiang began preparing to cook.
Jiang Tao said he had something to attend to at home and went back to his own house, snacking on sunflower seeds.
This was not an excuse to be lazy.
He genuinely had something important to do, and it was a big matter.
Last night, he had dealt with the intelligence on his cousin Xu Jiantao overnight.
He still had intelligence on Old Sun to process.
“End-of-life care…”
“How do you provide care? Make a phone call to wish them a happy new year? Or…”
Back home, he sat on the sofa in the living room.
Jiang Tao took out his mobile phone and found Old Sun’s number.
After contemplating for a moment in his mind, he then dialed Old Sun’s number.
…
Capital City, Pingchang District.
Bai Ge Zhuang New Village was decorated with lanterns and streamers, exuding a strong Spring Festival atmosphere.
In Building 79, Room 101, there was a small guest room.
The curtains in this guest room were always drawn, leaving the room dim.
There was no bed or cabinet in the room, only a small round table that Sun Xiao Bao had salvaged from a garbage pile.
At this moment, five chairs were placed around the small round table, and four dishes were laid out on the table.
Seated there, besides Sun Xiao Bao, a living person.
The remaining were four black and white portraits of the deceased.
“Dad, Mom, happy new year to you both! I wish you both a happy new year.”
Sun Xiao Bao first toasted his parents with the first cup. After wishing them a happy new year, he tilted his head back and drank a small cup.
“Son, happy new year to you too. Let’s have a drink, father and son.”
“You scoundrel, happy new year to you too.”
Sun Xiao Bao toasted one cup after another, wishing his four deceased relatives a happy new year.
On the First Day of Lunar New Year, other families were reuniting, full of harmony and constant laughter.
Every year on this day, Sun Xiao Bao would talk alone at home with four portraits, but he didn’t feel lonely.
“You must miss me, right?”
“Soon, soon, I’ll be down to see you too.”
“A few days ago, I felt really unwell. I went to the hospital for a check-up, and guess what, everyone?”
“Late-stage liver cancer! Well, I won’t live for many more days.”
“The doctor said I have at most two months to live and told me to be hospitalized for treatment immediately.”
“I said, what the hell is there to treat? Can you cure cancer? Look at you guys, so arrogant.”
“In the end, the money was spent, and the person was gone. Isn’t that just wasting money!”
“…”
Sun Xiao Bao babbled on by himself, from shortly after 5 AM when it was just starting to get light, until past 9 AM when it was fully daylight.
Every year on this day, he spoke more words than he did in the entire year combined.
After chatting for over four hours, a bottle of Moutai had gone entirely into his stomach.
He didn’t treat himself like a patient at all.
In his last two months of life, Sun Xiao Bao had come to terms with it.
Eat what he should eat, drink what he should drink, live as comfortably as possible.
When the time came, he would report to King Yama.
“That’s all for today. You’re all silent, so I don’t know what else to talk about.”
After saying all he wanted to say, Sun Xiao Bao sat on the chair like a statue, lost in thought.
He heard the thudding footsteps of children running upstairs in his ears.
He heard the sounds of laughter and joy from his old neighbors’ family upstairs.
To say he wasn’t envious would be a lie.
But in the past, Sun Xiao Bao’s envy was limited.
But today, he suddenly felt an immense emptiness and loneliness, a profound sense of solitude.
He had no family, no friends or acquaintances, not even a single person to wish him a happy new year.
“Fifty-six ethnic groups, fifty-six flowers~”
A mobile phone ringtone from the living room interrupted Sun Xiao Bao’s thoughts.
After coming back to his senses, Sun Xiao Bao, with a small glimmer of hope in his heart, got up and went to the living room.
As if afraid the caller would hang up if he waited too long, Sun Xiao Bao practically jogged to the table and picked up his feature phone.
Seeing the two characters “Xiao Jiang” displayed on the small screen of the feature phone, Sun Xiao Bao’s dark face broke into a genuine smile, as happy as a child.
So, there was still someone in this world who remembered him, this old man!
“Hello Xiao Jiang, you’ve reached your hometown, happy new year! I wish your whole family a happy new year too.”
After answering the phone, Sun Xiao Bao cheerfully extended his new year’s greetings first.
“Old Sun, happy new year to you too. I’m wishing you a happy new year, and I hope you have good health and no illnesses or disasters in the new year.”
“You kid! Are you pawning your grandpa’s stuff again!”
“Don’t worry, your grandpa won’t be scavenging anymore, won’t cause you any more trouble.”
As Sun Xiao Bao spoke, his gaze swept over to a plastic bag placed by the wall of the TV wall shop.
Inside it were the steel rebar ends, about ten catties, that had hooked him twice.
Yesterday, Sun Xiao Bao, with his mobile phone, dry rations, and a thermos of water, went to the demolition area of Bai Ge Zhuang again.
This time, there were no accidents, and he successfully scavenged steel rebar ends.
During the Spring Festival, his thoughts had also become clear.
At this moment, receiving Jiang Tao’s call, Sun Xiao Bao felt overjoyed.
This feeling of being cared for and blessed was truly wonderful.
Sun Xiao Bao had been lost in his thoughts just moments ago.
When his time came, and he was extinguished like a candle.
Would anyone in this world remember that he had ever existed?
In the future, perhaps during festivals, there wouldn’t even be anyone to burn spirit clothes for him or visit his grave.
While alive, he was alone.
Upon death, he would also be a lonely wandering spirit.
Two realms, life and death, it was too bleak!
While chatting and laughing with Jiang Tao, a thought suddenly surfaced in Sun Xiao Bao’s mind.
Earlier, when Jiang Tao rescued him from under the floor slab for the second time, he had already thought about befriending Jiang Tao.
However, due to the successive misfortunes of his relatives, he feared bringing bad luck to Jiang Tao, so he abandoned that idea.
Now, having learned that his time was short, Sun Xiao Bao suddenly had an idea in his mind.
Whether to proceed with it or not, he still needed to observe Jiang Tao further.
“Old Sun, are you bored being alone in BJ?”
“Why don’t you come to our village to experience the Spring Festival atmosphere?”
“From the fifth to the fifteenth here, we have various temple fairs every day, it’s very lively.”
Listening to Jiang Tao’s enthusiastic invitation on the phone, if he hadn’t been sick and disaster-free before, Sun Xiao Bao would definitely not have agreed.
At most, he would have offered his thanks verbally and wouldn’t have burdened Jiang Tao.
“If I come to your place, will it be too much trouble for you? It’s the Spring Festival, and I’m just an old man…”
“Old Sun, you’re being too formal. I consider you a friend, what do you consider me?”
“We’re men, don’t be so indecisive. Give me a straight answer, yes or no.”
On the other end of the phone, Jiang Tao’s voice was enthusiastic and sincere, and Sun Xiao Bao felt a wave of warmth.
“Haha, since you’ve so cordially invited me, and I have nothing to do at home, I’ll treat it as a trip to your place!”
“I’ll go to the train station to buy a ticket right away!”
“No need to buy a ticket. I’ll arrange a carpool for you in the carpooling group. Get ready.”
“It will probably take at most an hour for someone to come and pick you up and take you directly to my doorstep.”
“Xiao Jiang, this is too much trouble for you! How can I possibly accept this!”
Hearing Jiang Tao’s thoughtful arrangements, Sun Xiao Bao was again deeply moved.
He was already considering immediately ending his test of Jiang Tao and going directly to a lawyer to draft his will and have it notarized.
“It’s no trouble. You prepare at home… You don’t need to prepare anything, just bring your mouth, and I’ll arrange the rest.”
“Oh, and Old Sun, there’s one more thing I need your cooperation with.”
“Oh? Cooperate with what?”
Sun Xiao Bao looked confused.
“It’s like this, I’m going to introduce you to my parents and my wife as my master, and that I’m learning feng shui from you.”
“When you get here, you’ll assume the identity of my master.”
Jiang Tao now truly understood the meaning of the saying, ‘one lie requires countless lies to cover it up.’
He had lied and made up a story for Xu Li, and now he had to ask Old Sun to cooperate with him in continuing the deception.
“Ah?”
When Old Sun heard Jiang Tao’s words, he thought his parents might not welcome him, which was why he was suggesting a fake identity. He immediately stated:
“Well, Xiao Jiang, if it’s inconvenient for your family, Grandpa won’t come to trouble you.”
“No, no! It’s very convenient here. This matter, consider it me begging you, alright?”
Jiang Tao continued, “Some things are hard to explain, so don’t ask why.”
“From now on, we are master and disciple, and you are a feng shui master. If you cooperate with me, I owe you a huge favor.”
“What’s owed between us? Alright, since you’ve arranged it, then Grandpa will cooperate with you fully! It’s just, just…”
“What if they ask me about feng shui or something…”
Sun Xiao Bao was thinking ahead, afraid that if he didn’t cooperate well with Jiang Tao, he might mess things up.
“It’s okay, no one will ask you that. This identity is essentially a cover.”
“Oh, alright then! If Grandpa can’t do it well and messes things up for you, don’t blame Grandpa.”
“No, no, I can’t thank you enough. Then it’s settled. Remember your identity, I’ll contact a car for you.”
After clarifying with Sun Xiao Bao on the phone, Jiang Tao hung up.
“That kid Xiao Jiang, is he afraid his family won’t welcome me, so he specifically gave me that identity? This kid is so thoughtful.”
After ending the call with Jiang Tao, Sun Xiao Bao was convinced that Jiang Tao’s request for him to “role-play” was definitely for his own good.
His good feelings towards Jiang Tao increased significantly, and he felt he had chosen the right person in Jiang Tao!
“If it weren’t for Xiao Jiang, my old life would have been over long ago.”
“Now that I can live for another two months, it’s all thanks to Xiao Jiang buying me time.”
“Xiao Jiang and I truly have a connection.”
“Moreover, this child is so honest and a reliable person.”
Recalling the moments of interaction with Jiang Tao.
In Sun Xiao Bao’s heart, Jiang Tao had basically passed the test and met his standards as an heir.
“Since they invited me so enthusiastically, I can’t go empty-handed.”
Sun Xiao Bao thought to himself, then walked to the door of the storage room and began moving wine boxes out.
One box, two boxes, three boxes, four boxes…
The remaining six boxes of Moutai in the storage room were all moved to the doorway.
Over twenty packs of Huazi were also packed into a box that had previously held instant noodles.
He planned to bring all of these to Jiang Tao and his parents as New Year’s gifts for the Jiang family.
He prepared the cigarettes and wine.
Sun Xiao Bao then, for the first time in a long time, went to the wardrobe in the bedroom and found the most expensive black mink coat his grandson had bought him and put it on.
Suddenly, a jolt went through his mind, recalling Jiang Tao’s request on the phone to act as a “feng shui master.”
So, Sun Xiao Bao put on a black Zhongshan suit over the mink coat.
You don’t say, you really don’t say.
Dressed like this, Old Sun did indeed look a bit like a fortune teller, appearing to have more integrity and demeanor.
He waited at home until around noon, 12 PM.
A Beijing-plated BAIC new energy electric car stopped downstairs from Old Sun’s home.
After confirming each other’s identities, the driver helped Old Sun load the six boxes of Moutai and that box of Huazi into the trunk.
Afterward, the driver drove Old Sun towards the direction of leaving Beijing.
It was now around 12:30 PM.
If there were no unexpected issues, Sun Xiao Bao would arrive at Jiang Family Village around 5 PM.
Meanwhile.
Jiang Family Village, Jiang Tao’s parents’ home.
Mom, Xu Li, and younger sister Jiang Bing worked together, and within half an hour, they had cleaned out a room for Jiang Tao’s master to stay in.
Jiang Tao’s parents were naturally hospitable.
Moreover, the person coming was a benefactor their son had met in the Capital City.
The couple naturally welcomed Old Sun’s arrival even more.
They even felt that letting him stay at their home might be beneath his status.
