After being reborn, I have seven older sisters.

Zhao Yongjie breathed a slight sigh of relief, then shouted loudly to the militia group from his own Zhao Family Fort village, "Disperse, disperse! Everyone pack up, we'll head back in a bit!"

Meanwhile, Huang Quangang also gathered the militiamen of Lishuping Village together, gave them a quick briefing, and then told the deputy captain to lead the team back to the village first, while he would go back later.

Everyone, including the deputy captain, knew that he was going to his father-in-law's house in Songjiazhuang to meet his beautiful yet-to-be-married wife.

So, amidst the envious cheers of the crowd, they raced like the wind towards the distant dirt road, disappearing into the lush green fields in no time.

After Huang Quangang greeted Zhao Yongjie, he put his arm around Song Chunsheng's shoulder and was about to turn and leave when he suddenly remembered something.

"Yongjie, have you caught the group of people who were robbing graves in your village the other day?"

Upon hearing this news, Song Chunsheng immediately looked at Huang Quangang with curiosity, wondering why grave thieves had suddenly appeared.

Even if Zhao Yongjie's commune is closer to the county town and has more convenient transportation, and the villagers' lives may be better, the elderly in the village probably don't have anything valuable buried in the ground when they are buried, so how could there be grave robbing!

Zhao Yongjie shook his head with a worried look. "The commune has also transferred militias from several nearby villages, including our village's militia team. Dozens of people have been staking out the villages and fields for over ten days, and we haven't caught a single ghost!"

Huang Quanguang frowned slightly. "What did the commune leaders say in the end?"

"They didn't have any good ideas either. They just told us to withdraw the militia from the other villages and leave only our village's militia to guard the area. They said they would call in others to help once they had a real lead!"

"So now, have you figured out whose grave those people stole?"

Whose grave is it?

Zhao Yongjie pursed his lips thoughtfully. "I heard from the elders that the large mound where the hole was dug up used to bury some ancient general, but nobody knows exactly who it was!"

Hearing this, Song Chunsheng finally understood what the two people were talking about.

It turns out there have been tomb raiders in the village!

This is understandable, as many villages in the south of their county, including Songjiazhuang, where Song Chunsheng lives, are all located right next to the long Qinling Mountains.

Standing at the city gate of their home, looking south, the towering and majestic Qinling Mountains instantly come into view.

He remembered that the teacher had told them this before in history class.

From the Qin Dynasty two thousand years ago until the Tang Dynasty, this county was not considered a particularly auspicious place in the eyes of the ancient rulers, but because it was adjacent to the Qinling Mountains, which are known as the dragon vein of China, it has been the final resting place of many historical figures and feudal nobles throughout history.

However, once those ancient artifacts that bear witness to Chinese history and civilization are dug up by those unscrupulous tomb raiders and scattered, it will probably be very difficult to get them back intact!

On the way home, Huang Quangang told Chunsheng that similar grave-digging incidents, like the one that happened in Zhao Yongjie's village, had occurred in several other villages in the county's communes before, but in the end, nothing came of it.

No one knew even the most basic information: where did those grave robbers come from, were they locals or outsiders?

Therefore, Huang Quangang felt that the incident that happened in Zhao Yongjie's village would probably not yield any results.

As soon as the two entered, they saw Liu Yan'e and Song Mantun had returned from the fields and were chatting with an old man in the main hall!

Upon seeing the old man, Chunsheng's face immediately broke into an irrepressible smile. He ran over, grabbed the old man's arm, and said with a smile, "Grandpa, you've come!"

The old man in front of us is named Song Chuanling, Song Chunsheng's grandfather, and Song Mantun's father.

The old man from Chuanling had four sons and two daughters in his life. His fourth son was named Song Manyu, who died of smallpox at the age of five.

Both of his daughters married into nearby villages, and since separating from his sons, he has been living with his third son, Song Manjiao.

Since his youth, the old man had been an expert at feeding and tending livestock, so he stopped working in the fields more than a decade ago and instead took charge of caring for the hundred or so livestock in the production team.

Although the old man was nominally living with his third son, he actually ate and slept in the team's animal shed.

Neither Song Manyao nor Miao Suzhen wanted to be branded as unfilial, so they would occasionally have their child deliver a meal to their elderly father.

Before dawn today, the old man took two cows to the commune's veterinary station for treatment and didn't return until an hour ago.

So this morning, when Chuntao and Chunxing went to the animal shed to find their husbands, they were unable to tell their grandfather that Chunsheng had come back to life.

It wasn't until the old man returned to the farm and went to see his grandson's body with tears in his eyes that he discovered the room was already empty!

At this moment, when the old man saw his grandson again—just as everyone had said, he was not dead, but standing before him, full of life and energy—

He was both excited and shocked; his lips trembled for a long time, and he couldn't utter a single word.

He simply used his calloused hands to rub Chunsheng's shoulders and arms back and forth.

He couldn't hold back any longer, and two streams of tears instantly welled up in his long-dead eyes.

Song Mantun and Liu Yan'e, who had been standing by watching the grandfather and granddaughter, were startled and quickly helped the old man sit down in a chair, constantly comforting him.

"Father, Chunsheng is alright now. You're so old, you shouldn't be sad; it's bad for your health!"

Chunsheng knelt down in front of the old man, wiped away his tears, and gently placed the old man's hands on his own face, smiling as he said, "Grandpa, don't cry! I'm fine. I was just a little dizzy from choking on water, but I'm all better now!"

The old man smiled and said, "Alright! I won't cry anymore, I won't cry anymore!"

Only then did Chunsheng notice that his grandfather's two fingers on his right hand were completely wrapped in white gauze, and there were several bloodstains on the back of his hand.

"Sir, how did you hurt your hand?"

The old man smiled kindly and explained, "It's nothing, I just accidentally scratched it while working!"

When Chunsheng's gaze inadvertently fell on his mother and father's faces, he noticed that they looked rather unwell, as if they were preoccupied with something on their minds!

Just as he was about to ask what was going on, Chunmiao lifted the curtain and walked out of the house in the courtyard, with her sixth sister Chunzao following closely behind.

As Chunmiao wiped the red liquid off her fingers with a damp towel, she complained unhappily to Liu Yan'e and her husband.

"What era are we living in? Why are the people in our village still so superstitious? Look at what they did to my grandpa's hand, those two long cuts! We should go find Song Yonghong's dad and let him judge this for us!"

Before Liu Yan'e and her husband could speak, the old man from Chuanling, who was sitting in a chair, quickly waved his hand to his granddaughter, "Forget it, Chunmiao! We're all from the same village, don't bother the Party Secretary with this little thing, it won't sound good if word gets out!"

From the brief exchange, Chunsheng immediately sensed something was wrong, so he promptly asked,

"Sister, what happened? Who cut Grandpa's hand?"

"Who else could it be but those..."

Just as Chunmiao was about to answer her younger brother's question, her mother, Liu Yan'e, immediately interrupted her.

"I think... we should listen to your grandpa's opinion on this matter!"

Grandpa Chuanling nodded and smiled, "That's right, it's not a big deal!"

"Hey, isn't that Quan Gang, Zao's son-in-law, standing next to Chunzao?"

The old man had been somewhat absent-minded until he noticed his grandson-in-law, Huang Quangang.

"Grandpa, it's me, Quan Gang!"

As Huang Quangang spoke, he walked towards the old man.

As soon as the old man saw his grandson-in-law arrive, he immediately stood up from his chair with a big smile on his face. After looking Huang Quangang up and down for a while, he said to his son and daughter-in-law with great satisfaction.

"Quan Gang is a good kid. You've found a good son-in-law for Chunzao. I thought he was good the first time I met him. He has a very upright character."

"The kid who came back from the army is definitely different from the boys in our village who have never been far from home; his eyes reveal a certain intelligence!"

"Alright! Chunmiao has already bandaged my hands, so I won't keep them! Quan Gang came all this way, so you guys hurry up and cook for the kids, and the whole family can have a good chat!"

As the old man spoke, he started to walk out, and no matter how hard Song Mantun's family tried to stop him, they couldn't.

"Are my second brother and sister-in-law home...?"

Just then, Song Mantun's sister-in-law, Miao Suzhen, shouted and rushed in from outside!