Translator: SJade, Editor: Dj22031
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The three siblings who had been away for a month came back. Everyone in the village knew what they were doing back this time. Many grandmothers and aunts pulled them and told them that Ye Qingshan died unjustly and that they were really pitiful.
Ye Ning and Ye Lan were older, and they just felt uncomfortable. But Ye An cried loudly, saying that his mother didn’t want him anymore, and now that his father was gone, he would be a child without a father and mother in the future.
“Don’t be afraid, the eldest sister and the second sister are here.” Ye Ning pinched Ye An’s face. After raising Ye An for a month, he had become whiter and fatter. He looked like Li Fang. He would definitely be a very handsome boy when he grew up.
“Xiao Yan’s mother, they have a lot of things to do at home. Let them go back and get busy. If you need any help, just come to me.” Seeing the three siblings walking away, she said with emotion, “It’s pitiful that they don’t have anyone to look after them at such a such a young age.”
“What a pity. Didn’t you see Ye Ning join the pharmaceutical factory as a formal worker. Now that Ye Lan has passed the high school entrance examination, Ye Ning will help introduce her to the factory. With a dual-employee family, they will definitely find someone from the city.”
“When Ye Ning gets married, would she have to be afraid that she won’t be able to raise a younger brother like Ye An?” An older lady thought that Xiao Yan’s mother was just showing fake compassion.
When Xiao Yan’s mother heard her grandma’s words, she suddenly felt sick all over her body.
Her daughter Wang Xiaoyan and Ye Ning were the same age. They were the only two girls of the same age in the village. It was inevitable to compare. Wang Xiaoyan had been helping at home since she graduated from elementary school. At the age of seventeen, she married him to a carpenter from the next village. She was very proud of herself for a long time. She thought Ye Ning was still studying and spending her family’s money. While her daughter was already married to a craftsman and had no worries about food and clothing in the future. She felt that she was doing the right thing. She didn’t expect Ye Ning to be able to enter a pharmaceutical factory and bring her younger brother and sister to the city. If she had known, she would have let Xiaoyan continue to go to school. If two couldn’t be brought in, one could always do it. If their family had two workers, it would be more prosperous.
No one had lived in the house for a month, and a layer of dust had accumulated. Ye Ning asked Ye Lan and Ye An to clean it first. She would go to the next village to see if the coffin was ready.
The wood for the coffin was provided by themselves. Many old people would prepare the coffin wood early. One year, Ye Ning’s grandfather found two good camphor trees on the mountain. He went to the brigade secretary at the time and spent a lot of money to buy those two trees. Three coffins could be made out of it. The old couple had one coffin each and kept the rest untouched. Who would have thought that this last coffin would be used on Ye Qingshan.
The coffin had been prepared. The camphor wood was very fragrant. The most important thing was that the camphor wood was insect-proof and was the best coffin material for ordinary people. Ye Ning’s eyes instantly turned red when she saw the coffin was ready.
“Thank you, I’ll find someone to carry it tomorrow.” Ye Ning rushed home immediately and took Ye Lan and Ye An to her uncle’s house.
Logically, this kind of thing should be done to Old Man Ye, but unfortunately Old Man Ye was really chilling. Ye Ning didn’t want Ye Qingshan to not even have peace after his death, so she simply avoided him and goes to her third uncle. He was the patriarch of the Ye family and Ye Qingshan’s uncle, so he could also help her take care of it.
They carried five kilograms of meat, two bottles of wine and two packs of cigarettes. This was not a small gift. Seeing what they were carrying, the third uncle said angrily: “We are all a family. Your father is gone, so we should help you. Why are you still carrying these things? Take them back later, otherwise I will be really angry.”
“Uncle, just accept it, otherwise we will feel uneasy.” Ye Ning put the things down and said to her third uncle: “I don’t know about funerals at all. I understand, Xiao Lan doesn’t even understand, so we have to ask you to give me some advice on all aspects of the matter.”
Third uncle smoked a dry cigarette and sighed: “Your parents are not here, and over there in the old house…it’s better to keep everything simple for this funeral.”
Ye Ning and Ye Lan looked at each other. They knew that their third uncle was thinking about them and was afraid that they would spend too much money on the funeral.
“Thank you, Third Uncle, for thinking about us. We don’t want to make it big, but… it can’t be too simple. Generally speaking, it’s still necessary.” A grand funeral couldn’t be done, but it couldn’t be too shabby either.
The third uncle nodded, “You are all filial children. Ask Master Wu to take care of the cemetery. Where is the coffin?”
“I wanted to ask uncles next door to help carry it over tomorrow.” Ye Ning added: “We bought Baibu, but we really don’t know what to give as a gift. I want to ask your opinion. The other thing is the banquet dishes. Xiao Lan said four cold, four hot, a total of eight dishes. She also said that some people will add chicken and duck. We also want to ask for your opinion. I’m not particularly sure.”
“Just give out soap as a gift in return. It’s cheap and practical, and the banquet… As things get better these days, some people like to show off and make two dishes of whole chicken and duck. Most people don’t like it. That’s all. If you want to do it well, you have to put it on display. The most important thing now is how many people you want to invite and make a list for me. Later, Ye An will follow me and call on people.”
Ye Ning nodded without hesitation. After having lunch at the third uncle’s house, the three siblings returned home and discussed who to invite.
Their mother was an educated youth and had no relatives to invite. The relatives were all from their father’s side, most of them in the village. Those outside were relatives like aunts and uncles who had married outside. Apart from Ye Qingshan’s biological sister, there were only two aunts who moved around every year, these three people must be invited. Other cousins such as the third uncle’s daughter would be fine even if they didn’t invite her.
“Do you want to invite uncle?” Ye Lan asked as she saw Ye Ning writing names one by one.
Uncle? Ye Lan had forgotten that they didn’t have a maternal family, but Ye Qingshan did. His biological mother was from Xiangshe Village. They had to walk more than 20 miles to get there, and these 20 miles were not flat land. There were several mountains to climb. When her step-grandmother wanted to marry Ye Qingmei to a lame man as her wife, Ye Qingmei went over the mountains and ridges overnight to find her uncle in Xiangshe Village. Then her uncle’s family took more than a dozen people with hoes and poles to climb up here. On the other hand, they didn’t bother step-grandma and just beat Old Man Ye. If it hadn’t been for the intervention of the grandpa, Old Man Ye’s legs would have become lame.
Later, her uncle made the decision and asked her aunt to marry into Xiangshe Village. It didn’t matter if she was biased or not. She wouldn’t be bullied under his nose. Ye Ning didn’t know the details. She heard from the villagers that her aunt introduced her husband’s relatives to Ye Qingshan. Ye Qingshan disagreed and married Li Fang. The brother and sister had some unpleasant quarrels over this matter. After all, it was his younger sister. When Ye Qingshan got married, her aunt was considered rich and powerful. Later, it seemed that she and Li Fang had a conflict, Ye Qingshan helped Li Fang, and then there was less contact between the siblings.
“It’s time to call, let’s go and call in person.” Since their uncle was the eldest, they also needed to ask him to come out and help.
After writing down all the people to be invited, Ye Ning took out another piece of paper, arranged them from big to small, and showed them to her third uncle to look over.
“You need to invite your uncle. There’s no big problem with anything else. But we have to add a few people. These are people who had a good relationship with your father. I’ll write them down and you can go back to them for help. With their help, it will be much easier for you.”
Third uncle wrote down three names, then handed them to Ye Ning and asked her to prepare for them first. Ye Ning nodded.
There were indeed many things to do, and she had to ask her neighbour uncle next door to help carry the coffin. She had actually said this before, but she had to say it again.
Not long after arriving home, Ye Ning heard a knock on the door from outside. When she opened the door, she saw that it was one of the people among those that her uncle had just written.
“Uncle Zifu, why are you here?” Ye Ning quickly invited them into the house.
“We’re not coming in. We’re just here to ask if there’s anything we can do for you. Just tell us.” Ye Zifu looked at the pale Ye Ning and took out an envelope from his pocket.
“It costs a lot of money to organize funerals. You have just started working. Xiao Lan and Xiao An are both in school. The expenses must be very high. This is our intention. We will take the flowers first. If they are not enough, we will think of a way.”
Ye Ning looked at the money stuffed into her hands and thought in her heart. It was heavy. These three uncles were brothers who wore the same pair of trousers with Ye Qingshan[1]. Their family conditions were also not good. Although she didn’t know how much money was in it, they must have collected the money for a long time.
Ye Ning returned the money to Ye Zifu, “Uncle Zifu, you should also know that I sold the land at home, so the family actually has some money. There is no problem in organizing funerals. You can take the money back and I will ask for money, if I need it.”
None of the grown men were very good at talking. Ye Zifu held the money and said calmly, “Then if you want to use it, just tell me.”
“Definitely.” Ye Ning thought for a while, and realized that there was something that really needed the help of the three of them, “Uncle, the day after tomorrow Master Wu will come to fix the ancestral hall. Then the tomb will be dug, and the stones will be transported up tomorrow. I am worried about who to look for. Please help me with this.”
When they heard that they could help, the three of them nodded quickly, “Don’t worry, we’ll find someone to pull the stone later, and we will pull it up before the day after tomorrow.”
The three siblings sent the three uncles away. Then the siblings went to neighbour’s house next door once again asked them to help carry the coffin. It was already five o’clock in the afternoon when they got home, and before they could sit down, someone from the old house came over.
“Ye Ning… You didn’t go to your grandpa for such a big thing as your father’s burial. Instead, you went to Ye Laosan? I think you are really ready to break off the relationship, right?” Auntie said while supporting her step-grandma over.
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[1] Growing up with someone.