A courtyard house; Li Yunlong, a subordinate of the deputy director of Harbin Military Engineering I

When Zhang Renfeng arrived at Yi Zhonghai's room, he saw Yi Zhonghai crying and wailing, foaming at the mouthfuls of white foam, looking utterly miserable.

He kept shouting "no descendants" one minute and "I don't want to die" the next.

Liu Haizhong stood to the side, at a loss. He wanted to help but didn't dare to reach out. He gestured with his hands in the air for a long time, and finally could only rub them back and forth.

As soon as he saw Zhang Renfeng come in, he looked at him like he'd seen a savior. "Second Uncle! Second Uncle! What... what are we going to do? Do you think he might have eaten lychees and gotten poisoned? I heard that eating too many lychees can cause lychee disease..."

Zhang Renfeng walked quickly to the bedside, reached out and touched Yi Zhonghai's forehead, which was burning hot, like a furnace.

"Lychee disease my ass, this is malaria!" Zhang Renfeng turned and shouted at Sun Bing, "Sun Bing! Bring the car over here and take him to the military district hospital."

Sun Bing responded and turned to run.

Yi Zhonghai vaguely heard Zhang Renfeng's voice, grabbed his wrist, and cried, "Second Uncle...Second Uncle, save me...I haven't left any descendants yet...I can't die..."

Zhang Renfeng patted the back of his hand. "Don't worry, you won't die. Malaria is very common in the south; a quinine injection will suppress it. You just have a problem with the change in environment and eating too many lychees. Your resistance is weak, and you got bitten by a mosquito. When you get to the hospital, just rest and don't do anything unnecessary."

Military Sub-district Hospital.

The military doctor was a middle-aged man in his forties, speaking Mandarin with a local accent. Upon examining the symptoms, he immediately said, "Malaria, it's definitely malaria."

He quickly gave Yi Zhonghai an injection of quinine, prescribed some medicine, and instructed the nurse to put him on an IV drip.

Yi Zhonghai lay in the hospital bed, with an IV drip attached. His fever gradually subsided, and he stopped trembling so much.

He opened his eyes and saw Zhang Renfeng standing by the bed. Tears welled up in his eyes again. "Second Uncle...you saved my life..."

"Alright, alright, stop with the nonsense." Zhang Renfeng waved his hand. "Just take good care of yourself. The army doctor said your illness comes on quickly but goes away quickly; you'll be able to get out of bed after a couple of injections. Just eat less lychee in the future; your stomach can't handle it."

After he finished speaking, he gave the army doctor a few instructions and then took Sun Bing back.

Over the next few days, Liu Haizhong followed his elder brother Zhang Rende, busy with various tasks. In Guangxi Province, there is a custom called secondary burial, which can also be called bone-collecting burial, or, to put it more nicely, gold-collecting burial.

This is considered a secondary burial, usually when a loved one passes away. A simple burial is performed using an ordinary coffin. It is a temporary burial, and the long-term feng shui is not considered. Ordinary coffins are generally used.

Generally, every three to eight years, after the body has completely decomposed and only clean bones remain, the grave is opened on an auspicious day. The bones are then washed with water from pomelo leaves and wiped clean with white wine. If the bones turn golden yellow, it is considered very auspicious, symbolizing prosperity and good fortune. Hence, it is called "picking up gold."

Zhang Rende explained to Liu Haizhong while wiping his hair. Liu Haizhong was horrified by what he saw.

Wearing a short jacket, Zhang Rende squatted by the grave, put on coarse cloth gloves, and carefully picked out his parents' bones one by one, arranging them on a wooden board covered with pomelo leaves.

His movements were extremely skillful, clearly indicating that he had consulted with local elders.

He kept explaining the intricacies of each step: "Look at the white color of these bones, it means the soil is bad and has seeped in, we need to move them. I've inquired, the sunny side of that hillside behind the village, the feng shui master said it's a good spot, we'll bury the golden altar there later."

Liu Haizhong stood far away, covering his nose, his face turning green.

He wanted to help but didn't dare, standing there helplessly, muttering "ouch, ouch," "Master, the bones are rotten like this, and you still... still have to be so particular?"

"You don't know anything!" Zhang Rende said without looking up. "We people from Guangdong and Guangxi believe in this: if the bones are cleaned up, our ancestors can rest comfortably in the afterlife, and our descendants will prosper. You northerners don't follow this tradition, and we don't blame you, but don't make sarcastic remarks."

Liu Haizhong quickly shut up and took two steps back.

Zhang Renfeng was young and knew nothing about this custom.

Since his elder brother wanted to deal with their parents according to the old customs, he saw no need to stop him.

He stood there for a while, watching his older brother work diligently, then turned around and went to do other things.

Yi Zhonghai, now in the hospital, is basically out of danger thanks to the meticulous care of the military doctors.

He will probably remember this experience in Guangxi Province for the rest of his life.

Unfortunately, while at the hospital, the military doctor, who was from Guangxi Province, mentioned that his grandfather did indeed have a folk remedy that could cure all sorts of difficult and complicated diseases, including infertility.

However, the prescription was complicated and the ingredients were hard to find, so it would take at least a year and a half to cure the illness.

Yi Zhonghai's eyes lit up when he heard that.

He lay in his hospital bed, weak as he was, but his mind was perfectly clear.

What he feared most was having no children. In previous years, Gao Cuilan's belly had not shown any signs of pregnancy, and he endured all the gossip from the neighbors, both openly and secretly.

But if the lineage really ends, how can Yi Zhonghai face his ancestors in the afterlife?

Having lived in the North for decades, he had witnessed firsthand the fate of families without heirs—their houses were divided among relatives, their land was seized by the clan, and there was no one left to burn paper money or visit their graves. During festivals, while other families were bustling with activity, the courtyard of the family without heirs was cold and deserted, and not even a dog would want to enter.

The more he thought about it, the more frightened he became, and the more he felt that his biggest task in life was to solve this problem.

He spent the whole afternoon discussing it with the army doctor, who eventually gave in to his persistent requests and agreed to help him contact the old doctor who knew about folk remedies.

Upon learning that he would have to stay in Guangxi Province for at least six months, Yi Zhonghai nodded without hesitation.

Zhang Rende and Liu Haizhong carefully collected their parents' remains and placed them in a golden urn.

Jintan was a large, coarse pottery urn, several times larger than an ordinary urn, big enough to hold an entire set of human bones. The mouth of the urn was sealed tightly with lime and yellow mud.

The jar is decorated with simple patterns, not particularly exquisite, and was specially ordered by Zhang Rende from a pottery shop in town.

On an auspicious day, Zhang Rende, Liu Haizhong, and Zhang Guilin moved Jintan to a newly selected location on a sunny slope behind the village.

The golden altar was placed inside, the soil was filled in and compacted, and a mound half a person's height was built on top. A blue stone stele was erected, with the names of the parents and their birth and death dates engraved on it. The inscription read, "Respectfully erected by filial sons Zhang Rende and Zhang Renfeng."

Liu Haizhong witnessed the whole thing and was completely stunned.

He had lived half his life in the North and had never seen such a custom before.

He stood in front of the new grave, watching Zhang Rende kneel on the ground and kowtow three times, muttering, "Father, Mother, your son is unfilial, it has been twenty years since I came back to see you. Now I have brought my younger brother with me to kowtow to you." He stood behind him and bowed three times as well, his face filled with nothing but awe.

Zhang Rende stood up, brushed the dirt off his knees, turned to Liu Haizhong with a grin, and said, "What? Stunned?"

Liu Haizhong nodded, swallowed, and said, "Master, I'm truly impressed. You people from Guangdong and Guangxi are so particular."

Yi Zhonghai has already made a decision.

Zhang Guilin went to the hospital to persuade him, "Brother Yi, you're not fully recovered yet. Are you really going to stay here for a year or two?"

"Guilin, you don't understand." Yi Zhonghai leaned against the headboard, his face still pale, but his tone was firm. "I've been in Beiping for almost twenty years, tried everything, but nothing worked. Now that I finally have an opportunity, I can't give up like this. I, Yi Zhonghai, must not let my lineage end."

Zhang Guilin wanted to persuade him further, but Zhang Rende walked in at that moment, carrying a bag of fruit. He placed it on the bedside table and said, "Alright, Guilin, don't try to persuade him anymore. He has his own ideas, and no one can stop him. Zhonghai, if you really want to stay, then stay. I've taken care of the military doctor; he'll look after you. You can go back to Beiping whenever you're cured."

Yi Zhonghai's eyes reddened, and he choked out, "Master." Zhang Rende waved his hand, "Don't bother with these formalities. Focus on getting better."

After hearing about Yi Zhonghai's decision, Zhang Renfeng had nothing to say.

He asked the military doctor to help take care of him, and also instructed the local military district comrades to keep a close eye on him, as Yi Zhonghai was a northerner alone in Guangxi Province, and he was suffering from language barriers and acclimatization issues, so that nothing might happen to him.

The military district officials readily agreed, saying they would assign someone to keep an eye on things.

The day before his departure, Zhang Renfeng, accompanied by his old comrades from the Seventh and Eighth Red Armies, went to pay respects at the martyrs' cemetery.

The cemetery is built on a small hill outside Baise City, shaded by green trees, with neat stone steps. In the center stands a monument with the eight characters "Eternal Glory to the Revolutionary Martyrs" inscribed on it. The cemetery contains thousands of neatly arranged tombstones, each engraved with a name and date of birth and death. The youngest was only fifteen years old, and the oldest was just over thirty.

Zhang Renfeng stood before this forest of steles, motionless for a long time.

The wind rustled through the pines and cypresses on the hillside, as if his fallen comrades were greeting him.

The old comrades who accompanied him also fell silent; some took off their hats, while others lowered their heads to wipe their eyes.

Zhang Renfeng looked at each tombstone one by one, and the names came into view—some he recognized, and some he had never heard of before.

From the Red Seventh Army Uprising to the Longzhou Uprising, from Baise to Hunan and Jiangxi, from the Long March to the War of Resistance Against Japan, those comrades who fell on the road now lie quietly in this land.

Zhang Renfeng stood in the cemetery for more than two hours, walking slowly from one monument to another, as if he were saying goodbye to each of his comrades.

His old comrades did not disturb him, but stood at the bottom of the stone steps and waited.

A few days later, the staff of Yunnan Province also arrived one after another, and everyone focused on the hilltops where they had retaliated against the insurgents years ago.

......

By mid-month, the South China working group had secretly arrived at the Guangxi-Vietnam border.

They met with Commander Wei of the military advisory group in a small border town.

Commander Wei joined the Baise Uprising at the age of sixteen. After entering the Soviet area, he went to the Red Army Cadre Regiment as a battalion commander, which was the same regiment where the old brigade commander had been. Therefore, he had a good relationship with the old brigade commander.

Later, like Commander Zhang, he joined the New Fourth Army.

He was working in Fujian Province and was Li Yunlong's superior in his unit; the two hadn't seen each other for many years.

As soon as Commander Wei saw Zhang Renfeng, he strode forward to greet him, clasped his hands together and shook them several times, saying:

"Zhang Baopo! It's been so many years, how come you've grown so tall? I remember back in Baise you only reached my shoulder!"

Zhang Renfeng smiled and shook hands in return, "Commander Wei, you haven't changed at all, still as capable as ever."

The two held two-day meetings in the temporary command post in the border town to determine their division of labor and tasks after entering Vietnam.

Regiment Commander Wei was responsible for overall coordination and liaison with the Vietnamese high command, while Zhang Renfeng was responsible for specific military training and operational guidance.

There is a clear division of labor, and everyone performs their duties.

In August, Zhang Renfeng joined the delegation and met with Brigade Commander Chen in Vietnam.

When the old brigade commander met Zhang Renfeng, he hurriedly introduced the Vietnamese representatives.

He spoke of President Hu on the left and General Wu on the right, mixing Vietnamese, French, and Mandarin, and occasionally throwing in a few words of Cantonese.

It must be said that the old brigade commander was simply a genius at social interaction.