Under One Person: Lifting the Ball to Soar

Most of the people in the mourning hall are masters who have achieved success in Qi cultivation. If they start wailing at the top of their lungs, it would be like a thunderclap, louder than the firecrackers that the whole village set off when they were eating New Year's dumplings last night!

……

Lu Piao, who was visiting his seventh grandfather's house with his parents and brother, heard some strange noises. Upon careful listening, they turned out to be extremely strange crying sounds during the New Year.

Lu Piao wondered: Who would beat their children during the Chinese New Year? Are the adults fighting over the New Year's money again? Something's wrong, it seems like more than one person is crying?

The closer they got to their destination, the louder the sound became. When they arrived at Seventh Grandpa’s house, Lu Piao was stunned:

"Dad, Mom, and Brother, aren't we here to wish Grandpa Seven a happy new year? Yesterday at the banquet, I saw him playing drinking and finger-guessing with others. He was drunk and even did 18 somersaults while dragging young people to compete. He was so happy. Who is dead at his house after a night of mourning?"

Lu Ci cursed in his heart: Damn it, I already said I had a show today but I still didn’t keep a low profile and Piaoer is watching me!

If you, old man, reveal your true identity later, I, the patriarch of the Lu family, will make things difficult for your entire lineage!

The corners of Old Man Lu's mouth twitched as well. He was thinking about skinning his own uncle and frying his bones. However, he put on a sad face and said to Lu Piao solemnly:

"Don't say anything more, just go in."

As soon as he stepped over the threshold of the Seventh Master's house, the welcoming filial son cried out in a voice full of exaggerated sorrow:

"The sun rises in the east and sets in the west,

The dead never return to their hometown.

Dear neighbors and friends,

Stay up late to enjoy the night visit of the Prime Minister.

......"

Then I heard a group of people shouting in unison: "Alas, Master is back..."

The first thing I saw when I entered the door was the black and white portrait of Grandpa Qi placed in the middle of the mourning hall!

Lu Piao looked stunned: Is Seventh Grandpa really gone? This shouldn't be the case!

The high-decibel crying could almost burst a person's eardrum. Shocked, Lu Piao's head was in a mess. He looked around at the dozens of relatives of his seventh grandfather who were in mourning and heartbroken...

When I came to my senses, I had already followed my parents and second brother to the coffin of my seventh grandfather. I looked at his body and walked around the coffin.

The old man lay quietly in the coffin with his eyes closed. His wrinkled face covered with age spots seemed to still have a look of joy. Even the corners of his mouth seemed to have a hint of absent-minded and nonsensical smile.

Lu Piao rubbed his eyes and looked carefully again. Sure enough, the strange smile on Grandpa Qi's face was gone, leaving only calmness.

Oh, I must be confused and saw it wrong!

Lu Piao's parents and brother, who were secretly observing him, breathed a sigh of relief, secretly complaining that this old guy was so unreliable that he was pretending to be dead...

It was also the first time that Lu Piao experienced up close the sudden death of someone he knew, and he was hit hard mentally!

I was filled with sadness, and couldn't help but think of the voice and smile of Grandpa Qi at the New Year's banquet yesterday, when he ate and drank to his heart's content, taking advantage of his age and acting crazy and weird...

Wait! What did our family come here for?

If it wasn’t for the New Year’s money, I would never have said goodbye to my warm bed at ten o’clock in the morning and ran to visit someone else’s house!

How come Grandpa Qi was fine yesterday and now he is lying in a coffin?

Lu Piao was confused, and the master of ceremonies who presided over the funeral read out loudly:

"A filial son breaks the bowl and is led to the West!"

Then, the dazed Lu Piao suddenly felt something in his hand...

When I looked down, I didn’t know who had handed me a bowl!

Dozens of people in the mourning hall looked over, and even the volume of their wailing dropped to a low level like a receding tide.

Lu Piao had a puzzled look on his face, and muttered as he looked at the bowl in his hand, "I know this, in 'Life Events', smashing the bowl to pieces symbolizes that the dead cannot be resurrected, but..."

Lu Piao looked at his brother and asked curiously, "Why is this bowl made of steel?"

Lu Ci: "Don't waste your time, just throw it away if I give it to you!"

"That's not right. The bowl should be thrown by the son himself. At the very least, it should belong to Grandpa Qi's family. It's not right for me to take over the mantle, right?"

Lu Shu's eldest son Lu Hong came over and said respectfully:

"Third Young Master, I want you to break this bowl because I want to take advantage of your divine beauty and bring some blessings to my father. Please don't refuse!"

Although Lu Piao could not recognize several of his fellow villagers, he was also confused by the messy generation rankings of his large group of relatives.

But no matter what, he knew that as long as they were of the same generation as his father, it would be right to call those older than his father "uncle" and those younger than his father "uncle".

Seeing that the man in his seventies or eighties was probably older than his father, Lu Piao made a careful calculation in his mind and said:

"Sir, your words are too polite. Just call me Lu Piao."

Since the host said so, Lu Piao no longer refused. He picked up the bowl and slammed it to the ground. His iron fist hit the ground and flew far away.

As if at a command, the entire mourning hall began to wail like thunder!

. .

Chapter 14 How dare you deceive the heaven

Lu Piao was still wondering how a proper New Year's greeting turned into a funeral?

There were three loud "dong dong" sounds beside me, and my father, mother and two brothers all knelt down.

As the three most famous guests of the Lu family knelt in front of Lu Shu's coffin, it was as if an invisible hand suddenly pinched the mouths of the filial sons and grandsons present. The deafening wails that had just sounded suddenly fell silent, and the messy mourning hall became clear again in a very strange and absurd way.

Lu Piao felt again that everyone was looking at him sideways, and each and every gaze fell on him because they were afraid of being discovered but couldn't help but look at him.

He calmed himself down and looked around.

Lu Piao felt that although everyone seemed to be crying loudly and sadly, it seemed like thunder without rain, and only the sound could be heard but no tears could be seen...

It seems like it’s all about skills, no emotion!

Eh? Look at the little kid in the big sister's arms over there.

Is it...looking at me while grinning at me in a sneaky way!

There were people kneeling on the ground in the eerie mourning hall, and only Lu Piao was standing alone...

The more you try to hide something, the more obvious it becomes. The atmosphere becomes eerie.

When I think about how Grandpa Qi died in an unclear manner, and how all his descendants who came to mourn him looked so strange...

Lu Piao just felt creepy!

It was like being in a classic scene from a horror movie. From time to time, I could hear indescribable ghost cries and hallucinations. My goosebumps stood up and my sanity dropped exponentially...

Swallowing his saliva in fear, Lu Piao tensed his nerves and was ready to escape into the fairyland at any time!

Lu Ci lowered his head with a fierce expression, cursing in his heart: What are these idiots in Grandpa Qi's family doing? Are they acting? My third brother has noticed something strange!

Old Man Lu also hates those idiots in Uncle Seven's family.

But once the arrow is shot, there is no turning back. The father remained calm, pretending to be sad, and turned to his youngest son, urging him:

"Piao'er, kneel down and give your seventh grandfather a ride."

"Oh." Although Lu Piao was frightened, he was ready to kneel down and kowtow as his father said.

But before he could bend his legs, something surprising happened again!

Lu Shu, who was lying in the coffin, stood up straight, stood proudly on the coffin and looked down at Lu Piao. His withered old face seemed half sad and half happy, half crying and half laughing, which was indescribably weird and terrifying!

Lu Piao was almost frightened to death and fainted!

If I wasn’t worried about my mother, I would have run away to the fairyland!

As for dad and second brother Lu Ci, the two grown men of course had to stay behind to cover for their wives and children while they escaped!

When Lu Shu saw Lu Piao's face turn pale with fear, he knew that his performance of a dead ghost had frightened the child, so he immediately explained:

"Don't be afraid, Third Young Master. I'm not a ghost!"

Lu Ci stood up in a rage and said angrily, "Grandpa Qi, why did you stand up when you were not lying in the coffin?"

"I……"

Lu Shu thought that according to the setting, his emotions should be sadness, hesitation, helplessness, pain, despair, and despair...

The image should be old, decayed, pitiful, dying, half-dead...

But when he thought about going to the fairyland, he couldn't help laughing from the bottom of his heart, and his facial muscles were distorted due to his failure to control his expression, making his old face look hideous and disgusting.

The old man simply stopped pretending, and laughed out loud with his heart full of energy! …

The roaring laughter shook the whole area, and the profound cultivation accumulated over nearly a hundred years made the dust on the beams fall to the ground!

The fear and doubt in Lu Piao's heart were also swept away by Grandpa Qi's happy laughter!

"How can I watch the Third Young Master kneel before an old man like me? It's really embarrassing for me!"

Lu Shu simply sat down in the coffin and was at eye level with the ten-year-old child in front of him. He made a face at first, then took out a thick red envelope that he had prepared earlier and handed it out.

Lu Piao was dazzled by the dazzling Chinese red under his nose, and his eyes immediately opened to the money. He happily took the red envelope:

"Thank you Grandpa Qi!"

After the lucky money was in his pocket, Lv Piao once again carefully looked at the faked Lv Shu, with doubt on his face, looking solemn and hesitant to speak...

His expression changed again and again, and finally he asked with a smile: "Grandpa Qi, what are you acting in?"

Lu Ci and his father sighed sadly in their hearts: Piaoer must have discovered that we have teamed up to play him!

As for Lu Piao, he was actually holding the red envelope in his pocket, thinking something completely different from what his father and brother thought:

Damn, is it auspicious for Grandpa Seven, who is equipped with a seven-piece set of shroud clothes, to receive a red envelope from this old man? Is this money suitable to be spent in the world of the living?

Lu Shu said cheerfully:

"Death is a major event in life, and funerals are great gifts in life, but a person himself knows nothing about his afterlife. How can this be possible?

"I, Grandpa Qi, want to experience the scene of everyone mourning for me while I am still alive!"

He spent his remaining years living alone and alone.

Without exception, the end of life is endless loneliness!