After returning from my cultivation journey, I built a farm through fortune telling.

Chapter 86

The wilderness survival show "Where Are You, Grandpa?" has officially premiered!
Nowadays, there is no such outdated rule that girls and women cannot go to sweep the tombs. Except for Grandma Bai, Second Grandma Bai, and Aunt Bai, all the descendants went to sweep the tombs. However, even with twenty-one filial sons and grandsons, they could not find a way to see their great-grandfather after searching for half an hour!

"I don't believe it! I remember there was a rock by the path. If I find the rock, I'll find the path."

Baihe put down the basket he was carrying, took out a sickle, and started chopping at small branches, determined to find the lost path!
Bai Chen searched for a long time, but seeing the lush greenery all around, he was at his wit's end. He picked up his sickle and walked towards Bai Lu: "Sister, why don't you calculate it for us, or can you ask Grandpa to send us our location? Didn't we just burn a Huawei phone for him last year?"

"Even Grandpa can't figure out how to use a Huawei phone, how do you expect Great-Grandpa to?"

Bai Lu's fingers were practically calloused from pinching: "Don't rush me, I'm calculating!"

She frowned again as she spoke: "I've located the ancestral tomb, but I can't figure out the path up the mountain—it's all mountains and grass, there's no path at all! I remember we cleared that path last year, right? Now it's overgrown with weeds, there's no path left!"

"Isn't that obvious? Every year when we sweep the graves, we always clear the weeds—where is that spot? Let me look in that direction!"

Every year when we go to sweep the tombs, we're either looking for the way or on our way to find the way!
Bai Chen was used to it.

"That!"

The egret pointed.

Bai Chen walked in the direction Bai Lu pointed, and after searching for a while, he finally found the stone by the path that Uncle Bai had mentioned.

The stone wasn't very big, and it was already covered in moss and weeds. If he hadn't had such good eyesight, it would have been a miracle if he hadn't found it in another half hour!

"Dad! Uncle! Over here!"

Bai Chen waved.

We've finally found it!

Upon hearing the call, Uncle Bai and the others swarmed over. He clapped his hands and said, "I knew I couldn't be wrong. This is it. Let's cut these weeds and tidy up the hill. Grandpa's grave is just up there."

As he spoke, he chopped down a small tree blocking his path with his sickle.

In Jiangxi Province, there is another folk saying for tomb sweeping: "paying homage to the mountain."

Mountain!
Very mountainous!

Extraordinary mountain!
The higher you go up the mountain, the more desolate it becomes. The mountains around Dongshi Village have the feel of an undeveloped primeval forest. Bai Lu couldn't figure out which feng shui master chose this burial site!

They really do bury people wherever they can find a mountain!

Aside from being far away and desolate, I don't see anything particularly good about the feng shui here!
Apart from the children, everyone carried, shouldered, or lifted the offerings; even the egret carried a little golden pig on its back.

It always rains during the Qingming Festival. Just as I was about to go up the mountain, a light drizzle started.

Everyone wore a straw hat to shield themselves from the rain, as it was inconvenient to use an umbrella while walking on the mountain path.

Everyone had a raincoat in their bag or basket, and if the rain got heavier, they would put it on and continue on their way.

I've gotten used to it over the years.

Baihe led the way, clearing away the weeds and trees that were in the way, but not too thoroughly, otherwise the people below would have no tree trunks to lean on.

Even egrets struggled to climb such a mountain path, let alone young girls like Baiqing.

Bai Qing was exhausted. She rested for a while, supporting herself on her knees, then reached out to grab a small tree beside her, intending to continue climbing. But the tree wasn't cooperating; "crack—" it snapped, and she almost fell.

"careful!"

The egret behind her bypassed the two people, reached out to support her, and stepped steadily on the muddy ground.

Bai Qing clutched her chest, still shaken, and looked down the mountain she had climbed dozens of meters. She didn't dare to imagine what she would be injured if she fell. Although there were people behind her, they might not have caught her, or they might have rolled down with her.

"Everyone be careful, falling from this height is no joke," Bai Jiang warned.

Every year during the Qingming Festival, it is a good day to test the filial piety of children and grandchildren. Walking more than 10 kilometers is just the basics, and free climbing is also the basics. Bai Lu has sighed more than once, wondering how the ancestors were carried up there back then.

And what they were carrying was a coffin!

After the funeral procession begins, the coffin must not touch the ground!

They set off at 8:30, and it's already 10 o'clock. They've only just found their great-grandfather. Grandpa Bai walked around the cemetery, nodded, and said, "Hmm, not bad, this is his father's grave!"
He said to his second grandfather, "Look for Houtu."

"Yes," Second Grandfather replied, his back hunched, and climbed up with his hoe on his shoulder.

My great-uncle twisted his back while carrying cement on a construction site when he was young, which caused a vertebra to prolapse. He endured it and eventually recovered. Although he didn't usually feel much pain, his back became hunched as he got older.

The graves here are not the kind of high, cone-shaped mounds of yellow earth, but rather graves shaped like the Chinese character "山" (mountain). The vertical stroke of the character "山" serves as the boundary, with the two sides high and the middle concave. The mound is one meter higher than the altar for worship. Not far behind the grave is a round earthen mound, called "后土" (Hou Tu).

When you find Houtu, you should also offer incense.

Bailu thinks her grandfather and father are pretty amazing. Why is that?

Because the graves here don't have tombstones, finding out whose grave it is depends entirely on memory.

This is also the main reason why people worship the wrong ancestors every year.

They climbed up the mountain exhausted, tidied up the weeds in the graveyard, and went through the whole process of offering incense, candles, paper money, and other offerings. Then another group of people arrived, saying that this was their ancestor. They said that if the ancestor had gone to the wrong grave, it would be fine, but if they had worshipped at the wrong grave, their ancestor would be turning in his grave.

The older generation confirmed that this was indeed the grave of the great-grandfather, so the men of the Bai family began to clear weeds and tidy up the grave, determined to make the resting place of the great-grandfather beautiful.

The rain stopped halfway through the repairs.

Once the weeds are removed, the soil is exposed, and the grave is easily visible from a distance, making it extremely conspicuous.

Around the Qingming Festival, all the graves hidden under the green grass were "exposed," and many people only then realized that the places they often camped were actually graves, or that the routes they often took passed through several graves...

After the cemetery was repaired, each family brought out their offerings and arranged them in a row. The two golden pigs from Bai Lu's family and Uncle Bai's family were placed in the center, with chickens on one side. The other families also offered chickens, various pastries and fruits, yellow glutinous rice, and rice wine.

The altar was lined up in a row, and everyone began to light incense and candles, burn incense, offer wine, and burn paper money. Led by Qin Xiu, the women chanted incantations as they offered wine.

May my great-grandfather bless my family with peace and good health.

May my great-grandfather bless our family with lots of money.

A very simple and unpretentious wish.

Every Qingming Festival, Qin Xiu would pray to her great-grandfather, but she would never burn three yuan's worth of incense or make a wish for three hundred million yuan. However, her great-grandfather and great-grandmother seemed not to hear her prayers.

Over the years, I haven't made much money, and I haven't been to the hospital much.

"White egret, bring the two of them over to burn paper money for the old man."

Qin Xiu poured out her heart to her ancestors, sharing everything she wanted to say. After finishing, she respectfully bowed with three incense sticks in hand, and while burning paper money, she called all the children over.

When offering prayers to our ancestors, the whole family must be present, with no one missing, for fear that if even one person is missing, the ancestors will fail to bless them.

"Alright, I'm coming!" The egret was sitting on a tree branch. Upon hearing this, she quickly jumped down. The ground was muddy from the rain, and she slipped and almost fell to her death on her ancestor's grave.

Bai Chen reacted quickly and tugged at her arm, preventing her from making a fool of herself.

The three squatted down next to Qin Xiu, looking at the various kinds of paper money in the basket. There was also a burlap sack next to them, which contained all kinds of paper products: buildings, cars, computers, televisions, mobile phones, pots and pans, clothes, shoes, etc. Some were 2D and some were 3D. The 2D ones were burned directly, while the 3D ones had to be folded out before burning.

There was even more paper money, including ordinary yellow paper and large-denomination ghost money certified by the Heaven and Earth Bank with a face value of one billion. It was a thick stack, and Baihe burned a whole ten stacks.

Of course, other small denominations of ghost money, such as 50,000 or 100,000, were also burned. After all, our ancestors needed some spare change to buy small things.

However, the smallest denomination is ten thousand!
It's even more outrageous than the Vietnamese dong.

Bai Chen winked at Bai Lu: "You know, we've burned through almost a hundred billion, so Grandfather down there should be doing alright, right—if he hasn't been reincarnated yet!"

"How much RMB did you spend to buy all those hundreds of billions?" Bai Lu's lips twitched slightly. "At this rate in the mortal world, the underworld would have been inflated long ago! Do you think the rulers of the underworld are stupid?"

Bai Chen paused in his burning of paper money: "So you mean..."

“The underworld only recognizes yellow paper.” Bailu shook the paper money in her hand: “This style, or copper coin style made of yellow paper, will also work! Burn an odd number of paper each time; you won’t receive an even number in the underworld. It’s best to burn three pieces each time.”

Bai Chen quickly counted the yellow paper that Bai Jiang had brought and found that there were only four bundles. So he decided to give one bundle to each person, without favoritism. As for his great-grandmother, who was not related to him by blood, he would leave her for another time.

"Are there really so many rules? We don't even burn that much yellow paper every year! And if we keep burning it haphazardly like we used to, wouldn't our ancestors never receive it?" Bai Chen suddenly thought of something else: "Should we call out names before burning paper money? Or write names down?"

“You definitely don’t need to burn paper money at a grave, but you do at a crossroads—look at Dad and the others, they burn three sheets at a time. You just don’t know the rules!”

Bai Chen looked at it and realized it was true. He couldn't help but mutter, "Nobody taught me! And when they saw me burning it like this, they didn't correct me! But the ancestors could receive some money, though they would definitely have to live a tighter life."

He sighed again as he spoke: "...No wonder! They haven't blessed me with great wealth all these years! The money my ancestors burned for me isn't even enough to cover my expenses. It's good enough if they don't come to my dreams and curse me. Bless me? You're dreaming!"

What are you two whispering about?

Qin Xiu came over with a bundle of firecrackers. Seeing the three siblings burning paper money and muttering something to themselves, she noticed that they still had several stacks of ghost money from the Heaven and Earth Bank that they hadn't burned yet. She quickly said, "Hurry up and burn the paper money for Grandpa. I'm going to set off the firecrackers!"

This year, Qin Xiu has had good luck and made some money. She even bought firecrackers that are ten meters long. Because they are so long, they have to be arranged in a winding pattern several times on the gravesite to fit them all.

Bai Chen unfolded the ghost money and shook his head inwardly: "Burning it is pointless, Grandpa, you've suffered! Next time, I'll buy you lots of yellow paper—Sis! Yellow paper isn't worth much! Why does the underworld only recognize it?"

Egret: "..."

She keeps asking questions she can't explain!
She doesn't know either!
That's all she knew, and it was only after Master Qingxu had briefly mentioned it to her.

After burning the paper money for the dead, Bai Chen also divided up the yellow paper money from his uncle's house. As soon as his uncle looked over, Bai Chen said, "Uncle, I've divided the paper money. One for each of you. Don't take the wrong one!"

Uncle Bai sighed, "Why bother with this? Burn as much as you have, burn as little as you have. There's no need to be so particular. Our ancestors won't blame us!"

Bai Chen gave him a deep look. Uncle, there's a reason why you're living like this!

So casual! If I were the ancestor, I wouldn't protect you either!

A thousand firecrackers exploded in the cemetery. After all five families had finished setting off their firecrackers, the smoke from the firecrackers lingered in the cemetery for a long time!

After offering another toast and patting off the firecracker paper stuck to the offerings, you can put the offerings back in the basket. Then, share some fruits and biscuits with everyone, tidy up, and you can go down the mountain.

Next up is Grandma Baijiang's grave.

On the next hilltop.

Bai Lu strongly suspects that the feng shui master that Grandpa Bai hired back then was a fake. Who would bury their parents separately, and so far apart!

No, in Baijiang, the great-grandfather and great-grandmother are buried separately, and the younger great-grandmother is buried even further away. What does that mean? Is it a tradition of Dongshi Village?

After the elderly couple passed away, they never spoke to each other again.
After overcoming numerous obstacles and traversing mountains and rivers, they finally arrived at Grandma Baijiang's grave at one o'clock. They were so exhausted that they didn't have time to clear the weeds. Each family found an open space near the grave to rest and took out the food they had brought from home to eat together.

Of course, it's impossible to go home for lunch when you're out sweeping tombs. Cooking in the mountains is also troublesome, so every year at this time, each family brings an insulated lunchbox to pack their lunch.

After eating their fill, they worked even harder to repair the ancestors' graves!

Time was tight and the task was heavy. After finishing the worship and cleaning up the offerings, they rushed to another event. The mountain where Bai Jiang's great-grandfather was buried was an 800-meter-high mountain. The great-grandfather was buried halfway up the mountain, which exhausted everyone so much that they didn't want to talk anymore.

Because they were so tired, not to mention the children, even the adults had fallen several times, but they still got up and kept going because it was almost 3 o'clock and they expected to arrive at 3:30. If they cried and fussed for a while longer, they definitely wouldn't be able to get home before dark.

In the dead of night, in the desolate wilderness!

A few years ago, they tried it. When they got home, it was dark, the mountain road was difficult to walk, and it was dangerous at night. They didn't dare to travel and had to spend the night in the mountains. They spent that night in fear!

(End of this chapter)