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Chapter 51 The Elders

Lin Wanmo took out a small silver box, which had a strange shape and looked like a miniature shrine.

Uncle Shen handed his pipe to Uncle Mao.

Uncle Mao took it reluctantly.

Uncle Shen was embarrassed and angry: "What? Do you still despise me?"

Uncle Mao said, "Who dares to despise you? I don't smoke, and your cigarettes are choking and smelly in my mouth..."

Uncle Mao wiped the cigarette holder several times with his sleeve as he spoke.

Lin Wanmo opened the box and found dozens of shadow puppets inside, both male and female.

Uncle Mao lit a cigarette, took a deep breath, and blew it at the shadow puppets.

Gray smoke enveloped all the shadow puppets, and after a moment, they suddenly came alive.

"Ahem, ahem, the weather is getting colder every year..."

"Why did you wake us up again?"

"Gou Wa, do you miss your dad?"

"Nizi, why are you like this? Oh my, you should come and accompany me soon."

The small room suddenly became noisy, and dozens of people spoke at once, each saying their own words and looking for their own descendants.

One of the puppets walked up to Mr. Shen with his hands behind his back and reached out to touch his head: "Dog boy."

Uncle Shen had to bow his head to him.

"father."

This is his father Shen Yongji.

The shadow puppets in the silver box are the ancestors who died in Hegong Lane since the first generation.

But people like Xu Yuan's second uncle, who did not inherit the alley's heritage and left the alley early, are not qualified to enter the silver box after their death.

This thing is the "ancestral shrine" of Hegong Lane.

Uncle Mao's mother has been asking why you have lost weight. You must not have eaten well. You can't just deal with it alone.

If you don't know how to mend your clothes when they're torn, your butt will be exposed after two days of wearing them.

Find some needle and thread, and I'll sew it up for you...

As she said this, she was about to cry: My child was left alone in the alley to suffer.

Aunt Wang was also held hands by a pair of shadow puppets of an elderly couple, who asked about her well-being.

Her father still complains that he never arranged a marriage for his daughter when he was alive, and raised her into a real "old maid".

Aunt Wang was about to burst into tears, and Lin Wanmo coughed softly: "Grandpa and grandma, you have limited time to come back, let's talk about business first."

Uncle Shen and the other two breathed a sigh of relief.

The elders all said that Mo Ya was right. So they sat down according to seniority - and after another round of courtesy, another pack of cigarettes passed.

Lin Wanmo glanced secretly at the ancestral shrine, where a small shadow puppet was lying.

He has a square face, thick eyebrows and old eyes, a short gray beard under his chin, and three obvious wrinkles on his forehead.

Lin Wanmo sighed quietly to himself.

In the ancestral shrine, the only shadow puppet that has not yet "come alive" is Xu Yuan's father.

The residents of Hegong Lane are called "sinners", which is by no means just a stigma in the world of the living.

For example, she couldn't sell her crafts to outsiders at a reasonable price. For example, if people in the alley made a move outside the alley, they would be "punished". For example... after death, one would walk through the Yellow Springs Road and have no place to return to!
Uncle Shen had already told the elders about Xu Yuan's situation in detail, and also informed everyone about the current disagreement among the four people.

Dozens of elders began to discuss.

However, they were not as polite as Mr. Shen and his three companions. After discussing for a while, they started arguing. The ones with higher seniority could not win the argument, so they hit the younger ones on the head and yelled at them for using their seniority to bully others.

The younger ones didn't dare to fight back, so they just spread out their limbs and leaned against the elders' feet: "Hit me, hit me to death! I'm already buried, and you still hit me..."

In an instant, the situation became chaotic.

Uncle Shen and his three companions had long been accustomed to this; every time they invited the elders out, this was the situation.

After a while, when the smoke cleared and their time was up and they were about to return to the box, they would quickly reach a conclusion. Usually, it was Xu Yuan's grandfather who started the conversation.

But for some reason today, Xu Yuan's grandfather didn't say anything. He only asked about Lin Wanmo's situation at the beginning.

After about a quarter of an hour, the shadow puppets, which had originally had loud voices and were full of fighting spirit, suddenly became tired.

"The time has come."

"Lao Xu, please send a message."

Grandpa Xu Yuan was rubbing a pair of walnuts in his hands, and he hummed but didn't speak immediately.

Just as everyone thought he was making his final deliberations, a shadow puppet suddenly emerged from the silver box and stood up, speaking in a low but steady voice:
"This is Ayuan's 'fate', he has to choose for himself."

Lin Wanmo was surprised: "Master, you are back..."

Xu Huanyang turned his head and glanced at his apprentice... and second wife, as if he wanted to say something, but his whole body went limp and he floated back into the silver box.

Xu Yuan's grandfather coughed and said, "Huan Yang is coming back soon. This matter is of great importance, so he came over temporarily to express his opinion."

Xu Huanyang spoke, and the other shadow puppets expressed their support.

Gradually, the smoke completely dissipated, and the shadow puppets on the table yawned one by one and floated back into the silver box.

After the last person returned to his seat, Lin Wanmo closed the ancestral shrine and put it away respectfully.

Uncle Shen snatched his pipe from Uncle Mao and said, "Alright, let's go back. Let's do as Xu Yuan's father said."

Coming out of Uncle Shen's house, Lin Wanmo still had a stern face: "Fourth Uncle, I have something else to tell you..."

……

In the backyard of the county government office, Song Lu was busy covering up the redness and swelling of Fu Jingyu's eyes with a box of his daughter's watercolors.

Fu Jingyu's whole body was stiff, he was not used to it.

"That's not necessary..."

Song Lu glared at him angrily: "Sit still! Don't move."

After a while, Song Lu rubbed the gouache evenly and took a red-haired mercury glass mirror: "Look, can't you see it now?"

Fu Jingyu relaxed his whole body, it was finally over.

The Fu family and the Song family are old friends. He and Song Lu studied together under Ma Tianshou since childhood.

The junior sister is two years younger than him. Since she was five years old, she has liked to act coquettishly and insist on helping him "put on makeup".

But after she turned twelve, she felt embarrassed to play this kind of childish game of house.

Today I feel like I have rediscovered the joy of my childhood.

But Fu Jingyu felt so strange...

"Let's go, we still have a mission today."

The two men each took their swords, hung them on their waists, and went out.

Today, it is forbidden to: bury the dead, go near the river, and have sex.

Fu Jingyu and Song Lu arrived at Hegong Lane and entered from the west entrance.

Fu Jingyu didn't know if it was an illusion, but he felt that the old lady in the basket shop looked at him with a very "kind" look.

Aunt Wang didn't think that the Quhuisi was a good place to go - except for the Hegong Lane they protected, no other place in the world was safe.

The two young captains from the Extermination of Filth Division came to the depths of the alley again, in front of the Xu family's door. This time, Song Lu went forward and knocked on the door, and a beautiful woman opened it.

She is half a head taller than Song Lu and has a slim and beautiful figure.

Song Lu had no choice but to half-raise her face and ask, "Where's Xu Yuan?"

"God knows!" The stepmother was in a bad mood today. The child had grown up and had his own ideas. Even his biological mother couldn't control him, let alone her, the stepmother.

Xu Yuan ran out early in the morning without eating breakfast.

He didn't tell me where he was going. When Lin Wanmo heard the noise and chased after him, the boy had already slapped a piece of calligraphy on each leg, and with a whoosh he jumped over the courtyard wall and disappeared without a trace.

　Asking for a monthly ticket!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)