Chapter 1: Why Is There Child Labor?
“Cry, oh cry through the seven stages, crying to the first seven stages, the first stage is the Homesickness Pass~ Grandpa turns back to gaze at his homeland~”
“Grandpa lies in the coffin, I kneel on the ground beside, to spare Grandpa from trials and disasters~ I cry the seven stages of mourning for Grandpa.”
“……”
Jiang Lixuan looked at the tiny figure kneeling and wailing on the ground, mixed in with the mourning team, with a face full of suspicion about life, and couldn’t help but wave his hand towards Zheng Feiyu, who had just finished kowtowing and was climbing up from the ground.
“Zheng Feiyu, this mourning team your family hired isn’t very professional, they’re exploiting child labor!”
“Child labor? Where did the child labor come from?” Zheng Feiyu, completely baffled, looked in the direction Jiang Lixuan pointed, and at a glance, saw the small figure kneeling on the ground, mimicking the aunt next to her by opening her mouth and wailing loudly.
And in his ears rang her childish and crisp wailing voice: “Holding a stick of incense, the incense smoke rises to the nine heavens, door hangs door paper, second door hangs white banners, Grandpa ascends to heaven~”
Zheng Feiyu: “!!!”
No way! When did a little girl sneak into this mourning team!
Isn’t this just causing trouble!
Before Zheng Feiyu could call his mother, a sharp voice rang out: “Yuanman! Who allowed you to come! Get out!”
The next second, a short and fat figure nimbly squeezed into the mourning team, stretching out fat hands to lift the little girl up from the ground.
Yuanman deftly rolled on the ground, dodging the woman’s reaching hand, her childish and cute little face still streaked with tears, her little mouth chattering as she said: “Hey! Aunt Zheng, Old Man Zheng died, so I’m here on behalf of my grandpa to see him off!”
“If you mind that I’m small, then you don’t have to pay me for mourning, just let me eat a meal.”
Aunt Zheng’s mouth twitched, grinding her teeth: “Who asked you to come mourn!”
She turned around and grabbed a few white flour steamed buns from the table nearby, stuffing them unhappily into her arms: “No food, only steamed buns! Take it or leave it!”
Yuanman didn’t mind, grinning as she hugged the steamed buns, sniffling her nose and saying to her: “Thanks, Aunt Zheng. For giving me food, I’ll give you a word of advice.”
“If you don’t want to die, leave here quickly.”
Her round, watery eyes scanned the mourning hall, her gaze landing on the corpse placed in the main hall.
In her line of sight, a blood-clothed female ghost was crouched on Old Master Zheng’s corpse, the female ghost firmly gripping Old Master Zheng’s neck.
“Seven days from now is the day she takes revenge, and by then, you Zheng family members who used her ‘money’ won’t survive.”
The blood-clothed female ghost seemed to hear Yuanman’s words, slowly lifting her head, revealing a deathly pale face with a big gash on the head, sinisterly warning her: “Don’t——meddle——in——idle——affairs.”
Yuanman puffed out her little chest. Aunt Zheng had given her a meal, so one reminder didn’t count as meddling!
Aunt Zheng: “……”
Aunt Zheng took a deep breath, turned around to inspect the surroundings: “This dead child is talking nonsense again! Watch how I teach you a lesson on behalf of your grandpa! Honey! Where’s my broom!”
Yuanman: “!!!”
She decisively turned her head, hugged the white flour steamed buns, and scampered off on her short legs.
Those short legs pedaled like bicycle wheels, especially amusing and funny.
Zheng Feiyu curiously watched the little girl’s nimble disappearing back, leaning close to Aunt Zheng to ask: “Aunt, who is this kid?”
The anger on Aunt Zheng’s face softened a bit when she saw Zheng Feiyu: “It’s Feiyu.”
Mentioning Nan Yuanman, Aunt Zheng looked especially speechless: “Who else, the child Old Man Nan at the village entrance took in.”
“That Old Man Nan was never reliable when young, and now the child he raised is just as cheap as him! Lawless!”
At the end, she couldn’t help lowering her voice, saying: “Feiyu, don’t go play with her. I heard before she’s a child born in a coffin, very bad luck, be careful not to catch the bad luck!”
After muttering badly about Nan Yuanman, a trace of sorrow appeared on Aunt Zheng’s face: “It’s just pitiful for your grandpa, worked hard all his life, good days hadn’t even started, and he was sent off with one cup of wine. Fortunately you came, to see him off.”
“He can rest in peace down there now.”
Hearing this, Zheng Feiyu’s mood grew heavy, gazing slightly sadly at the smiling old man in the black-and-white portrait, his eyes a bit hot.
Because his family did business, Zheng Feiyu rarely saw his grandpa, and this time coming back for the funeral was with the Jiang family’s fifth, Jiang Lixuan.
Jiang Lixuan came to Batang Village to find a relative.
Right, relative…
Zheng Feiyu suppressed the heat in his eyes, turned to find Jiang Lixuan: “Brother Xuan, what does the relative you’re looking for look like? Got a photo? My aunt lives in the village and knows everyone here, she can help look!”
Jiang Lixuan was just withdrawing his gaze from that disappearing small figure, frowning upon hearing this, his handsome face full of reluctance: “Where would I have her photo…”
Before finishing, Jiang Lixuan remembered something, pulled out his mobile phone, and flipped to a photo in the album: “I don’t have hers, but I have her mom’s, will that do?”
As he spoke, he handed the photo to Aunt Zheng.
Aunt Zheng craned her neck to look. In the photo was a particularly skinny girl with a pretty face, wearing a floral padded jacket, two pigtails, looking very awkward at the camera.
“This face… hiss, isn’t it just what that dead child Yuanman would look like grown up??”
……
Meanwhile.
At the village entrance of Batang Village stood a particularly rundown tiled house.
A small, dusty figure in a gray patched cloth shirt came bouncing over hugging white flour steamed buns.
She stood at the doorway, looked left and right, saw no one, then confidently pushed open the broken wooden door, shouting in a childish milky voice: “Grandpa, I’m back from begging! There’s white flour steamed buns to eat today!”
The room inside was silent, no response.
Nan Yuanman didn’t mind not getting a reply, she carried the steamed buns to the stove, carefully placing the ones in her arms into a large bowl with a chip next to the stove.
She sniffed the wheat fragrance in the air, couldn’t help sucking her fingers, savoring the lingering steamed bun scent in the crevices.
She had only begged for three steamed buns today, eating sparingly by herself could last three days, with grandpa it would only be two.
She’d have to go beg again later.
Not sure if going to mourn at Aunt Zheng’s again would get more food.
Nan Yuanman thought with her little head, her hands didn’t stop, carefully and preciously breaking off a small half of the steamed bun into her own special small bowl, then opening the iron pot, scooping warm water to mix with a large bowl, eating a waterlogged fullness with the steamed bun.
Then grabbing the remaining large half steamed bun, she toddled on short legs to the living room.
The tiled house had no electric wires, no light bulbs, extremely dim inside, with small square coffins placed in every corner, and in the center of the living room a large coffin, looking especially eerie and weird.
Nan Yuanman was already used to the darkness here, skillfully going to the table with the spirit tablet, lighting the candle.
Then turning to knock on the coffin: “Grandpa, time to get up and eat.”
“Grandpa?”
Silence from the coffin, Nan Yuanman frowned her little brow, put the steamed bun on the table, preparing to fetch a small stool to stand on and lift the coffin board when.
Suddenly from outside came a strange man’s voice: “This is the place, right?”
“Anyone home?”
New book release! Metaphysics cute kid theme! Babies, support a lot, don’t stockpile early, weak new books that get stockpiled can die easily, so I’m counting on you all, hope you like the new story I’m bringing!
1. All metaphysics knowledge comes from various books and the internet, please don’t scrutinize too much, love you all mwah!
2. Brain left in storage~
