People worship their ancestors: I'm just burning some paper money, how did I become a Taoist ma

Looking at the document in his hand, Li Fengnian became increasingly excited!

All of these things combined are more than ten times more than yesterday!

Seeing this, the ghost messenger didn't urge him. After Li Fengnian calmed down a bit, he said, "Alright, everything's here. Sign here, and I'll have someone help you move it in. You can't move all this stuff by yourself."

"Thank you, sir! Thank you, sir!" Li Fengnian bowed repeatedly, took the brush from the ghost messenger, and signed his name in a crooked manner.

After signing the document, he remembered something, took out a few silver ingots from his pocket, and stuffed them into the hands of the ghost messenger: "You've worked hard, sir. This is just a small token, please accept it."

The ghost messenger accepted the gifts with a smile, and with a wave of his hand, the little ghost messengers behind him immediately sprang into action, hurriedly carrying the dozen or so cartloads of goods into Li Fengnian's courtyard.

The neighbors stared in disbelief as cartloads of gold and silver were carried into the yard.

After everything was moved, the ghost messengers and their underlings took their leave. Li Fengnian closed the courtyard gate and looked at the treasures piled up in the west wing, feeling somewhat at a loss for what to do.

He stood in the courtyard for a while, then went into the west wing, sat on the pile of gold and silver ingots, and cried and laughed at the same time.

"Li Mu, Xiao Ran, great-grandfather thanks you, thank you so much..."

After crying for a while, Li Fengnian wiped away his tears and stood up.

He walked into the main room, took out yesterday's memorial and today's new memorial from his pocket, placed them side by side on the table, and examined them carefully for a while.

"Li Mu is such a thoughtful child. His memorials are getting better and better."

Li Fengnian carefully folded the two petitions, kept them close to his body, then took a deep breath, a glint of light flashing in his eyes.

"Now that we're settled, it's time to get down to business with the children."

He walked out of the main room, took out several large bags of gold and silver ingots from the west wing, and then picked out a few decent clothes from his clothes to change into. He tidied himself up neatly and then went out.

……

That evening.

At Jiang Yiling's home in Tianhai City.

After taking a shower, Jiang Yiling sat cross-legged on the bed, wearing loose pajamas, holding her phone with a browser search page on the screen.

She hesitated for a moment, then typed a line into the search bar:

The correct way to pay respects to ancestors

Click search.

In an instant, hundreds or even thousands of search results popped up.

Jiang Yiling flipped through the entries one by one, her brows furrowing deeper and deeper.

"The correct way to worship ancestors: three things you must know..."

"When visiting graves during Qingming Festival, be sure to avoid these taboos..."

"A Complete Guide to Folk Ancestor Worship Customs: See if Your Family is Doing It Correctly..."

Various articles and various opinions abound. Some say that worshipping at a spirit hall is the most effective, while others say that worshipping at a cemetery is the only way to get results. Some say that the more paper money you burn, the better, while others say that sincerity is key and you don't need to burn too much...

There are all sorts of opinions, and no consensus can be reached.

Jiang Yiling spent most of the day flipping through the pages, but the more she looked, the more confused she became.

The so-called "correct methods" mentioned in these articles are either vague general principles or baseless folk tales, and there is no complete and workable specific process at all.

More importantly, she searched through all the search results but found no information about "forms", "seals", or "burning paper in circles".

"Strange..." Jiang Yiling put down her phone and frowned.

Logically speaking, if Li Mu's methods were indeed learned from books, then he must have read those books more than once, and there should be some related discussions and sharing online.

But after searching for a long time, she found nothing.

"Did he read some particularly obscure books? Or...did he figure these methods out on his own?"

Jiang Yiling thought about it for a while, and the more she thought about it, the more she felt something was wrong.

The practices Li Mu described—writing petitions, affixing seals, chanting scriptures, drawing circles, and burning paper money—sounded like a very complete sacrificial ritual, and shouldn't be completely untraceable!

"Who exactly is he? How does he know all that?" Jiang Yiling muttered to herself.

She recalled the scene she had witnessed at the cemetery during the day: Li Mu's focused and devout expression as he chanted sutras, and the flowing, elegant brushstrokes he used when writing the memorial...

How could an ordinary college graduate know these things?

Jiang Yiling became more and more curious as she thought about it, and felt that Li Mu was hiding a lot of secrets.

She rolled over, picked up her phone, opened WeChat, and went to Li Mu's Moments.

Li Mu doesn't post on his WeChat Moments very often, only once every few days, and the content is very ordinary—occasionally showing off the food he cooked, occasionally forwarding some news, and occasionally posting a sentence or two of his thoughts.

He looks like an ordinary young man.

But this ordinary man did something extraordinary—his great-grandfather appeared in his dream and appeared to him.

Jiang Yiling put down her phone, lay on the bed, stared at the ceiling, and replayed the scenes from the daytime in her mind.

After a while, she suddenly sat up, a determined light flashing in her eyes.

"No, I have to try!"

She picked up her phone, scrolled to Li Mu's WeChat chat interface, hesitated for a few seconds, then took a deep breath and pressed the voice call button.

"Beep—beep—beep—"

The call was answered after three rings.

"Hey? Jiang Yiling?" Li Mu's voice came from the other end of the phone, tinged with a hint of doubt. "It's so late, is something wrong?"

"Li Mu," Jiang Yiling said bluntly, "I'd like to ask you for a favor."

"What kind of help?"

"I'd like to ask you... to help me pay respects to my great-grandfather and maternal grandfather," Jiang Yiling said. "Just like you did today. Don't worry, I'll pay for everything and prepare everything. You just need to give me some guidance. I want to see if my great-grandfather and maternal grandfather can also appear in my dreams."

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone.

Jiang Yiling's heart was in her throat, fearing that Li Mu would refuse.

"Okay." Li Mu's voice came from the other end of the phone. "When are you free?"

"Tomorrow! I'm taking half a day off tomorrow afternoon, let's go to the Spirit Hall together."

"Okay. Then prepare everything you need tomorrow and call me when you arrive."

"Okay! Thank you, Li Mu! I'll treat you to dinner later."

"You're welcome."

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Yiling rolled around on the bed a couple of times with her phone in her arms, her face full of expectant smiles.

If we could really use Li Mu's method to make her ancestors appear in her dreams, that would be so worthwhile!

……

Meanwhile, at Li Mu's home.

Li Mu hung up the phone, looked at the three words "Jiang Yiling" on the screen, and shook his head helplessly.

He didn't expect Jiang Yiling to come to him for help so quickly.

But on second thought, it's not such a bad thing.

The way people in this world worship their ancestors is far too crude; they simply don't understand the intricacies involved.

The knowledge he gained in his past life is a powerful advantage in this world where everyone worships their ancestors. He might be able to make a living from it in the future!