Time flies.
Two days passed quickly.
“Little Wei, I’m all ready. When are Uncle and Aunt coming?”
Qiu Xiaolin walked out of the room, accompanied by Lu Lianxue. They were dressed as usual, but upon closer inspection, both had clearly put in extra effort to dress up.
“Your outfits today are great. Thumbs up.”
Zhang Wei gave them a thumbs-up, revealing a row of white teeth.
After picking up Qiu Xiaolin in the Northeast, Zhang Wei first introduced her to the Huang family, letting them know who Qiu Xiaolin was and giving them a heads-up. Then, he took Qiu Xiaolin to tour the Northeast for a day, and the Huang family began preparing an improvement plan for her.
Due to the ancestral worship, Zhang Wei brought Qiu Xiaolin back to Xiamen City a day in advance to meet up with Lu Lianxue.
At this moment.
Lu Lianxue and Qiu Xiaolin smiled:
“Do we look good? That’s good, that’s good.”
“Hehe, Little Wei, I’ll tell you something secretly. Actually, I’ll tell you openly. Little Xue’s outfit was bought yesterday. She specifically dragged me along to shop for the whole day, trying on who knows how many clothes before buying it.”
Qiu Xiaolin giggled.
Lu Lianxue pinched Qiu Xiaolin and playfully rolled her eyes, saying:
“Don’t talk about me. Little Mantou, you were the same. You picked with me all day. Don’t try to distract me. I remember you were agonizing over your choices yesterday.”
“Not at all. I was watching you try on clothes, and I wanted to try them on too. Alright, alright. It’s mainly because I haven’t seen Uncle and Aunt for a long time, so I had to dress up.”
Watching the two girls happily joking, Zhang Wei smiled.
Ring ring.
The phone rang, interrupting Zhang Wei’s conversation with Qiu Xiaolin and the others. He answered and heard it was his father, Zhang Ping.
“My dad is downstairs. Let’s go down.”
Zhang Wei pulled Qiu Xiaolin and Lu Lianxue out.
Not long after.
Outside the residential building in the neighborhood.
Zhang Ping and his wife were in a Mercedes SUV, standing by the building entrance, looking around expectantly.
“Honey, stop looking like that. It’s embarrassing. People might think you’re a thief waiting to be caught.”
Zhang Ping’s wife said with a mix of amusement and exasperation.
Zhang Ping scratched his head and chuckled, “I’m just looking for my future daughters-in-law. I haven’t seen Little Lin in a long time, and I want to see what that girl Lu Lianxue looks like. Little Lin said Lu Lianxue is even prettier than a celebrity, haha. My son really takes after me, inheriting my good looks.”
Just as Zhang Ping was about to continue, he caught a glimpse of the building exit out of the corner of his eye, and his eyes lit up instantly:
“They’re here.”
He saw Zhang Wei walking out, holding Qiu Xiaolin’s hand with one hand and Lu Lianxue’s with the other. Seeing this, Zhang Ping immediately pulled his wife over.
As soon as they met.
Zhang Wei immediately introduced Lu Lianxue and Qiu Xiaolin to Zhang Ping and his wife:
“Dad, Mom, am I great today? I brought Little Mantou and Little Xue. You should recognize Little Mantou, right? This is Lu Lianxue, who I told you about on the phone yesterday.”
“Uncle and Aunt, it’s been a long time. You haven’t changed at all. Not only is Aunt well-maintained, but Uncle is also so good at staying youthful.”
“Hello, Uncle and Aunt.”
Hearing Qiu Xiaolin and Lu Lianxue’s words, Zhang Ping and his wife smiled warmly. Zhang Ping laughed heartily, “Little Lin, you’re such a sweet talker, haha. My son, you should learn more from Little Lin. Look at her eloquence. You both go to university, but the gap is so huge.”
Zhang Ping looked at Lu Lianxue and said, “You must be Lu Lianxue, right? You’re as beautiful as your son and Little Lin said. You really look like a celebrity. No, celebrities aren’t as beautiful as you. My son must have prayed a lot, otherwise, how could he have won your heart? Son, tell me, how many times a day do you chant for good fortune?”
Lu Lianxue blushed, “Uncle, you flatter me. I’m just average. Little Lin is prettier than me.”
After some conversation and introductions, Zhang Ping and his wife didn’t linger. They suggested, “Let’s talk while we get in the car. It’s not good to park by the building entrance, haha. Let’s go, let’s go. I’ll drive. Honey, you chat more with Little Lin and the girls. Son, you sit in the passenger seat. The place for ancestral worship is a bit far. I’ll drive first, and then you can take over.”
“No problem.”
Zhang Wei nodded.
On the way to the ancestral worship, Zhang Wei wasn’t idle. Seeing Qiu Xiaolin and Lu Lianxue chatting animatedly with his mother, he didn’t interrupt. He turned to his father and asked, “Dad, where are we going for our ancestral worship this time? It’s so far.”
“We’re going to an unnamed mountain. I don’t know its name. Your grandfather didn’t know either; they just called it Unnamed Mountain. It’s a very remote place. If the car breaks down there, we’ll have to camp on the mountain.”
“If that’s the case, Dad, you’re lying to me. I remember you used to brag a lot about how wealthy our family was, like rich landlords. Why is our ancestral grave so cheap? Don’t wealthy people find famous auspicious burial grounds? An unnamed mountain doesn’t sound like an auspicious place at all.”
“Go away, go away. I might lie to you about other things, but I’m not lying about this. Your grandfather, your grandfather’s father, and your grandfather’s father’s father all said the same thing. Our family was indeed a wealthy one.”
Zhang Ping was driving and was about to light a cigarette. He glanced at his wife and Qiu Xiaolin in the rearview mirror, then put the cigarette away and continued, “Our ancestors were quite wealthy. As for why we didn’t find an auspicious burial ground, I actually asked my dad. Back then, people were quite superstitious. Why would the ancestral graves be built in such a remote mountain gully, and the graves themselves aren’t grand enough?”
“In that remote place, I reckon if you, my son, don’t go to pay respects in the future, no one will even know there’s a grave there. A hundred years from now, it will definitely become an unclaimed grave.”
“What did Grandpa say then?”
Zhang Wei’s curiosity was piqued. He usually didn’t bother asking about ancestral matters. In his opinion, ancestral matters were in the past, and asking about them was just listening, not really related to him. After all, the family’s living standards weren’t built on ancestral accumulation but on his father Zhang Ping’s own hard work.
“Your grandfather said that the original ancestral grave wasn’t here; it was moved here after some incidents. The original place was a prime feng shui spot, and it’s said to be a tourist attraction now. That’s definitely an auspicious place.”
Zhang Ping said directly while driving, “The reason for moving here seems to be that our ancestors offended some enemies and were afraid they would seek revenge.”
“Son, you’re in college, you must have studied history. You know that ancient enemies are no different from modern ones. If they get angry, they won’t just kill people; they’ll even dig up your ancestral graves, or even perform some curses on your ancestral graves. Ancient people were very superstitious about these things. If ancestral graves are disturbed, it can lead to the extinction of the family line.”
Zhang Wei nodded noncommittally. As a ghost exorcist, he knew that ancestral graves could indeed affect descendants. For example, professions like physiognomists and feng shui masters, who are ghost exorcists, knew these tricks.
At that moment.
Zhang Wei asked curiously, “So, what did our ancestors offend that they had to move their graves to such a remote place? By the way, Dad, what did our ancestors do to be wealthy people? Officials? Merchants? Or scholars and artists?”