Chapter 111.2

“Uncle Xue, we also have a custom in Nantong. When we visit someone’s home and their family is going to pay respects to the ancestors, we’re supposed to go along and bow too.”

“All right then. When we set out tomorrow, I’ll come get you.”

“Okay, Uncle Xue. I’ll wait for you.”

“Aren’t you going to draw?”

“I won’t draw anymore, Uncle Xue. I’ll write your birthday couplets and the longevity character for you instead. My calligraphy is pretty good.”

“Good, good, good. Then I really have to thank you, Xiaoyuan.”

Li Zhuiyuan returned to his room.

Visit the ancestral graves?

Li Zhuiyuan remembered that Fatty Wu’s future father-in-law and mother-in-law had run into trouble after visiting a grave.

The old couple busied themselves preparing dishes until late into the night, while Li Zhuiyuan finished the birthday couplets and longevity character early.

At around four in the morning, Xue’s father came to knock on the door.

He only knocked lightly and called out in a low voice. He had assumed young people would not be able to get up, so he was planning to go by himself.

To his surprise, the moment he knocked, the door opened from inside. Both of them already had bags on their backs and were fully prepared.

Xue’s father said, “You don’t need to carry so much stuff.”

“It’s fine, we’re used to it. Let’s go, Uncle Xue.”

“Ah, all right then.”

Xue’s mother was not going, but if Xue Liangliang had been home, he would have had to go along as well.

Xue’s father had originally prepared a shoulder pole with two baskets hanging from it, filled with offerings and paper candles.

Seeing that, Runsheng simply picked them up himself.

“How can I let you do that? They’re heavy.”

Runsheng shook his head. “It’s nothing. They’re light.”

After leaving town and heading toward the back mountain, Runsheng still strode along as fast as ever despite carrying things on his back and shoulders, which cut the travel time down considerably.

Just as dawn was breaking, the three of them arrived at the Xue family ancestral graves.

The moment they got there, Li Zhuiyuan noticed there was something unusual about them. This was a mountain hollow with three rises and two dips, in other words, three hills standing side by side. A river lay in front, a mountain at the back. It could be called an excellent burial site.

When the ancestral graves had first been chosen years ago, they had probably hired a proper feng shui master to select the location.

The Xue family ancestral graves were on the middle hill. If nothing unexpected had happened, the eastern and western hills should also have held someone else’s ancestral graves.

“Uncle Xue, whose ancestral graves are on those two hills?”

Xue’s father thought for a moment and said, “They should be graves too, but I can’t remember whose.”

“Xiaoyuan, should I go take a look?” Runsheng asked.

“Go ahead, Brother Runsheng.”

Runsheng dashed down the slope and ran over there, while Li Zhuiyuan helped Xue’s father lay out the offerings.

Not long after, Runsheng ran back. “Xiaoyuan, there are no graves on that hill.”

Xue’s father stared in shock. “How is that possible?”

He might not remember whose they were, but in his subconscious he was certain they had been there.

Runsheng then ran over to the western hill. When he returned, he said, “There aren’t any graves there either.”

Puzzled, Xue’s father said, “That can’t be right. I remember there should have been graves. Once I get back to town, I’ll ask around.”

“Uncle Xue, let’s take care of this first.”

Li Zhuiyuan knew that even if they went back to town now, no one would be able to tell them whose ancestral graves had been on those two hills.

At the same time, when a place ought to have something but did not, it became a little too obvious.

Somewhere deep inside, he had a premonition that these three places were probably something like array eyes.

Fortunately, Li Zhuiyuan had already sorted out his strategy and decided to continue according to the original plan. Otherwise, these three hills would have become the key points where he tried digging tunnels.

“All right, I’ll pay respects at the ancestral graves first.”

Xue’s father began the ancestral rites, first pouring wine, then burning spirit money, and finally kowtowing.

When Xue’s father kowtowed, Li Zhuiyuan suddenly sensed a slight disturbance at the topmost grave, the one with the highest rank.

He immediately entered Walking the Shade and saw a faint blue radiance rush downward straight toward Xue’s father.

Li Zhuiyuan raised his hand, instinctively wanting to block it, but after lifting it, he lowered it again.

Because this was not a malevolent spirit. It was blue radiance.

When people said an ancestral grave was “sending up blue smoke,” this was what they meant. They had mistaken blue radiance for blue smoke.

Generally speaking, only when the ancestors had truly accumulated virtue and been buried in an auspicious site, and when their descendants were upright and good, could they receive the shelter of blue radiance, what people called ancestral blessing.

This counted as a kind of benediction. It could only bring benefits, never harm, so he had no reason to stop it.

The blue radiance entered Xue’s father’s body, but he felt nothing at all and continued kowtowing.

When the ritual ended, Xue’s father began packing things up, and the grave site showed no further movement.

Li Zhuiyuan could not help wondering whether the process had not reached the right step yet.

If his judgment had been wrong, and the thing driving events was not Xue’s father’s birthday celebration itself but some guest who would come on the actual day, then his coming early this time would have been pointless.

The three of them returned home.

Li Zhuiyuan had originally wanted to ask Xue’s father about which out-of-town relatives and friends would be coming to the big birthday feast a month later, but the moment he broached the subject, Xue’s father began to grow visibly sleepy, yawning nonstop and nearly dozing off in his chair several times.

Xue’s mother came out, saw this, and hurriedly said, “You got up too early. Go sleep for a while. Rest a bit, then get up again. We still have guests to receive.”

Xue’s father nodded groggily. He had only just started to rise when he nearly fell over.

“Brother Runsheng, help Uncle Xue to bed.”

“Got it.”

Runsheng reached out and practically lifted Xue’s father one-handed, carrying him into the house and upstairs.

Li Zhuiyuan looked toward the stool where Xue’s father had been sitting earlier. Such overpowering drowsiness?

Could it be... the ancestors wanted to send him a dream?

After Runsheng took Xue’s father upstairs to sleep, he began putting up the birthday couplets and longevity character.

Before long, two families of relatives arrived, followed by two neighboring families next door, and the courtyard instantly became lively.

At that moment, a young man from the neighboring house walked in carrying a huge bamboo basket and shouted with a grin,

“Haha, Auntie, we set out on the boat early this morning and happened to net a big one. I’ve never even seen such a huge fresh catch before. Hurry and get it cleaned up. Let’s stew fish soup at noon. We can count this as the Dragon King of the river sending it over to celebrate Uncle’s birthday.”

Inside the bamboo basket was a huge fish.

Runsheng suddenly bent down and whispered into Li Zhuiyuan’s ear, “This fish is unclean.”

Li Zhuiyuan immediately looked at the young man who had brought the fish. The fellow was barefoot and bare-chested, his skin dark from the sun. From the way he interacted with the others around him, Li Zhuiyuan confirmed that he really was the neighbor next door.

Li Zhuiyuan could not detect anything unusual about him. He was not a malevolent spirit, nor was he possessed.

Moreover, his speech and behavior were perfectly natural, and none of his micro-expressions seemed wrong, which proved he probably was not lying.

So this problematic fish really had been caught by him unintentionally.

But the fish itself was very likely deliberate. It had been waiting for someone willing to take the bait.

Xue’s father had only just returned from paying respects at the ancestral graves, and this fish had “followed” right after. There had to be a connection.

Xue’s mother cried out in alarm, “My goodness, such a big fish. How am I supposed to kill it by myself?”

“Aunt Xue, let Runsheng help you kill it.”

“Runsheng, can you?”

“Of course.”

Runsheng took the basket from the young neighbor and carried it toward the back kitchen, with Li Zhuiyuan following behind.

Outside the kitchen there was a small side door leading to a tiny courtyard of a few square meters that was usually not used.

Runsheng set the basket down there and turned to look at Li Zhuiyuan.

“Brother Runsheng, take it out.”

“Got it!”

Runsheng reached in and hauled the big fish out. The fish seemed abnormally docile.

Li Zhuiyuan pressed both hands into cinnabar paste and drew two red streaks along either side of the fish, finally bringing them together at its head.

At once the fish began struggling violently. Its eyes turned red, its scales blackened, and beneath its lips grew two rows of sharp, fine teeth.

Li Zhuiyuan realized that its appearance at this moment looked seventy or eighty percent like the big fish he had seen in Ah Li’s “dream.” The greatest difference was still its size.

It no longer had any trace of being a fish at all. It looked more like a wild beast struggling frantically.

Fortunately, Runsheng was strong and knew how to apply force properly. Otherwise, even two or three ordinary adults would probably have been unable to hold it down.

“Xiaoyuan, go get my Yellow River Spade.”

“We can’t kill it like that.” Li Zhuiyuan shook his head and pulled a Dissolution of Evil Talisman from his pocket.

Runsheng understood. He pinned the fish’s body down with his knee, freed one hand, and wrenched the fish’s head upward, forcing its mouth open.

Li Zhuiyuan quickly stuffed the talisman into the fish’s mouth, pulling his fingers away just before its jaws snapped shut to bite him.

The moment the talisman entered, the fish struggled even more violently, to the point that even Runsheng’s weight was being pushed into trembling.

But very soon, the fish’s scales began turning white, its reddened eyes rapidly dimmed to gray, and the force of its struggle weakened more and more.

At first, the scales slowly began to powder away, and then the flesh did the same, like honeycomb coal after it had been burned out.

Crack...

The fish’s body split apart completely. In the very center was a black swim bladder that had somehow survived under the power of the Dissolution of Evil Talisman and was still bouncing.

Something seemed to be wriggling inside it.

Runsheng swallowed.

“Brother Runsheng, you can’t eat this.”

“Heh.” Runsheng gave an embarrassed smile.

Li Zhuiyuan pulled out another Dissolution of Evil Talisman and threw it at the black bladder. The talisman covered it and immediately began to burn. The bladder burst open, and from inside, black slender things like earthworms began straightening their bodies in one last struggle. Looking closely, one could see neat, tiny scales all over them.

In the end, these things also turned into white powder, leaving on the ground a pattern like a firework in full bloom.

To completely suppress and destroy this thing, he had used up two Dissolution of Evil Talismans.

It was hard to imagine how terrifying the consequences would have been if this thing had really been thrown into a pot, stewed into soup, and eaten.

And this still was not its true body.

Li Zhuiyuan walked back into the house just in time to see Xue’s father, who had gone upstairs earlier to sleep, now slowly coming down while holding his forehead, shaking his head as he muttered something to himself.

“Uncle Xue, what’s wrong?”

Xue’s father said blankly,

“Xiaoyuan, when I was sleeping just now, I dreamed again of an immortal elder. That elder told me some things.”

“What did the immortal elder say, Uncle Xue?”

“I think it’s just that what you think about by day appears in dreams at night. A dream like this can’t be taken seriously.”

Li Zhuiyuan was startled. The first immortal elder had been him, faking it by transmitting his voice. But this second one was very likely the real thing.

Yet because he had pretended to be one yesterday, it had actually made Xue’s father stop believing what this “real immortal elder” had said.

“Uncle Xue, what if the immortal elder had some other instructions? Please try to remember. What exactly did he say in the dream?”

“This immortal elder said I should hurry to Zhengmen Village and set out offerings with a blood bowl for worship.

He said that as long as I did this, it would ensure my family line continued and my descendants would carry on.

You see? Isn’t this just because the real immortal elder came yesterday, and then I had a similar dream myself? Even the reward of blessing me is exactly the same.”

“Isn’t Zhengmen Village the place you told me about?”

Xue’s father nodded. “It probably happened because yesterday I told you about the expedition team, and then by chance that got mixed into my dream just now. Who would go to a place like that? Anyway, I’m not going.”

According to local records, Zhengmen Village had originally been a village under Min’an Town, but more than two hundred years ago it had been swallowed by floodwaters.

Its location was southwest of Min’an Town. From many years ago until now, rumors had never stopped circulating. People claimed that someone had once seen a village there, and that there were still living people in it, dressed in all kinds of clothing.

There was even someone in Min’an Town now who claimed he had been to Zhengmen Village.

This man would show up whenever any family in town held a banquet. The host family would deliberately heap rice into a large bowl for him, cover it with dishes, and let him sit alone in a corner, disheveled, while he ate.

According to the old folks, every place had such a fool. Though mad and mentally unsound, he did not hit people or harm them. The whole town fed him from a hundred households, and in doing so he also kept peace and safety for everyone.

Last month, an expedition team of six young people heard the legend of Zhengmen Village and wanted to go exploring. The team was made up of university students. A warmhearted auntie from the general store brought them to the Xue family, since the Xues had also produced a university student.

Although they were not from the same university as their son, Xue’s father and mother still warmly hosted them for a meal and a night’s lodging. They also asked Xue’s father about Zhengmen Village, and he told them some of what he had heard, finally advising them not to take the risk. First, they would not be able to find it, and second, even if they did, it would be bad luck.

But the young people had not listened at all. The next day they set out anyway, and they even brought along the town fool as their guide.

A week later, the fool came back by himself, while the six explorers vanished without a trace.

People in town all said the expedition team must not have found Zhengmen Village, and after sending the fool back, they had left overnight. The fool had some money in his pocket, which was presumably the guide fee they had paid him, and he had even used it to buy a lot of candy from the general store.

But Xue’s father and mother did not think so, because the six young people had really liked the stinky mandarin fish Xue’s mother cooked. They had said that once they got back, they would come again to eat at their home.

The old couple could tell that had not been mere politeness.

But they never returned.

Xue’s father had even secretly gone to the police station to file a report. After taking his statement, the police said they would contact the university to verify the matter. A few days later, when he went back to ask, the police told him the university had replied that no students from their school were missing.

Because his own family had produced a university student, Xue’s father knew very well that it had still been summer vacation at the time. How could the school have checked whether any students were missing?

So the matter became an unresolved mystery with no leads, something that had been weighing on Xue’s father and mother ever since.

By now, Li Zhuiyuan could almost say with certainty

that the place he truly needed to go this time was Zhengmen Village!

“Hahaha, feast time, hahaha, feast time!”

An adult man’s laughter came from outside.

The fool had arrived.

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