Chapter 25 Section ten

But Mrs. Zhong Yao didn't go to the city the next day, because the third grandma Gu died and she had to help out at the Gu family. Third Grandma Gu's death, other people only know that she was suffering from tuberculosis, and she was reluctant to spend money to take medicine to die.Only a few of them understood that she didn't have to die so quickly, or she would have been brought up slowly, so she wouldn't have died. If Mrs. Zhong Yao hadn't gone to fight with her over a dead chicken, if Mrs. Zhong Yao had snatched her away The chicken that went returned her.Her death was completely out of anger!

Even though Gu Tiancheng didn't know what to say, he never thought of his wife enough to want her to die.Since he was so angry, how could he be calm? While eating lunch, my wife moaned for a while, then died.Gu Tiancheng jumped up and cried; Zhaodi cried when he saw him cry; Aaron also cried when he was still a child. A sound of crying came from the yard through the forest pan, and from the forest pan to the scattered neighbors.So when Ah Sanma was burning down the paper, the aunts, sisters-in-law, aunts and sisters rushed in first, and the first one to come was Zhong Yaosao. As soon as she entered the room, she pulled Gu Tiancheng up from the side of the bed and said, "Ouch! When she died, she didn't even lift the cover, and her three souls and seven souls went out together? Don't cry, go up quickly , Take the cover off!"

She also burst into tears before spoofing and recruiting her younger brother.And looked at the male and female neighbors and said: "Really, Mrs. Gu, she seems to be short-lived there! How good it is on weekdays. When seeing us, she is always kind and doesn't say a word! ... The heart is so kind, one month ago. When the beggar came, I said I was sorry, it was getting cold, and I was still wearing the shabby single shirt. You see, at that time, Third Grandma Gu took out a rotten jacket from Master Sangong and followed him. … A person like this really deserves to die! Girls are only a little old, and in two or three years, wouldn’t it be nice to die after recruiting a half-adult brother?... However, Third Grandma Gu is too tight and sick. She is so fierce, and she is always reluctant to pay for medicine. Every time I see her, I always have to persuade her, and I say: "Third grandma, it's not like you can't afford medicine, why are you risking your life? Don't talk about these ordinary medicines." , a pair of tens of hundreds of coins, even a pair of taels of silver, you should eat it. Lord Sangong is not a person who only recognizes money, he also hopes that your illness will be cured, I heard him complaining about you You don’t want to take medicine, why are you saving so much? Besides, you don’t have a son, so you’re afraid that if you eat up all your belongings and your son, he won’t be filial to you?’… You just try to persuade her, she always smiles and says she’s better Speaking of being so pitiful, the day before yesterday I heard that she had a recipe for medicinal chicken. I knew it and was reluctant to kill the chicken, so I killed a chicken and sent it to her. You see, this person is too weird. He will not accept me if he lives or dies. Hen, she wants to give me back one of her egg-laying hens!... Such a good neighbor, who knows, will die! Don’t say that Sangong is sad, but we are also heartbroken!"

Gu Tiancheng simply didn't know what to do after death, he just stood here and there, holding his daughter by the hand at any time, for fear that she would follow her mother away. An elderly male neighbor asked him what to do with the coffin and the quilt, "You have to ask a yin and yang to open the way on the field, and it depends on the day, it's a seven evil spirit!" He entrusted all this to this man old neighbor.But Mrs. Zhong Yao wants to participate in the control everywhere, as if she is also a member of the Gu family.There was only one thing that the old neighbor thought she had done right, and that was to send Ah San to report the news to Grandma Gu's natal family thirty miles away.

Neighbors came to help, and none of them worked on an empty stomach, and this was thanks to Mrs. Zhong Yao, who made four meals a day, all by herself in the kitchen with two or three female neighbors.It's also considered frugal. In a few days, I only ate up the jars of salted vegetables and boiled eggs that Gu Sanmai was reluctant to eat.In addition, only when entering the big funeral and offering food for the head, the cook was called to make several seats, and a pig and some chickens were killed. Only one sister-in-law came to Gu San's mother's family.When I entered the door, I counted and cried.Cry that her sister is too pitiful. She has suffered for the Gu family for more than ten years. When she fell ill, she didn't consult three doctors, and she didn't take tonic. , "You are usually afraid that your natal family will come to gain some glory for you, and you are dead now! Can you take away your belongings!" She cried again that her brother-in-law has no conscience, why didn't she come to inform her earlier, so that her natal family could send her sister off alone? In the end, she cried again that her sister had no children, why didn't she make up her mind earlier, and hold a baby among relatives, and there are some people who hold spirit tablets!

A lot of crying made Gu Tiancheng feel very uncomfortable. Mrs. Zhong Yao called him into the kitchen and said to him: "This kind of mother's family is not sensible! It's mourning, it's just cursing. It’s wrong to scold you, which family is willing to die properly? If someone else’s family died, wouldn’t that be sad? It’s even more wrong to scold the dead! It's time to understand, and it's so ugly to be scolded like this, other people listened to it, how ugly! Look, haven't I ever had a quarrel with your third grandma? If you want to talk about enmity, it's so deep! Hearing about her death the day before yesterday, I was so terrified that I rushed here, and after weeping sadly for her, I told everyone about her benefits..." After the funeral, her sister-in-law was about to grab her things and go back, saying that her sister was dead , she couldn't bear to live here anymore, seeing Zhaodi.Thinking of the situation of my brother-in-law looking for a step-wife in the future, "If there is a stepmother, there will be a step-father. It will be difficult to recruit a younger brother in the future! If the uncle's family is good, I will take her away. Now, I have to take my aunt's things. I want to go back and do memory, I have recruited my younger brother, and I am willing to visit my uncle and aunt, so let’s see each other again!" The name is memory, but I can’t wait to move all the things of the Gu family.

This time, Gu Tiancheng was angered, and honestly, he started a big fight with his wife's sister-in-law.If it wasn't for everyone to stop her, she would almost be beaten up by her brother-in-law.She is not weak either, just beating and scolding and making noise, but finally opened the cabinet, and stuffed all the delicate and soft jewelry into her bosom and luggage as much as she could, thanks to Mrs. Not afraid of suspicion, he kept saying that it was for the sake of recruiting his younger brother in the future, and only by betting and arguing with her was a part of it saved, making the onlookers laugh at her for being too nosy, and admire her bravery, while Gu Tiancheng was grateful she.

For officials and gentry, the first thing to do in funerals is to wear clothes.The country is not very particular about it, and Gu Tiancheng doesn't know it either.Just following the customs of the country, from the first seven days, he invited old people who are half of the Dharma source altar, half Confucianism, and half Taoism to do the rituals. From the dawn of the sky, the gongs, drums and wooden fish are beating, except for three meals a day and one night snack. , There is really not much time to rest, and the noise will last until midnight.It was like this every day, making the noisy neighbors tired of it.Fortunately, the friends who do things are deeply human. After reading the scriptures in the daytime, and before the midnight snack, they must sing one or two high-pitched operas or silk-string operas.

It is rare for country people to listen to operas. In a year, only in the spring when the opera is sung, there are ten days of entertainment for the ears and eyes.So even if it is a cappella, everyone can listen to it with enthusiasm.Gu Tiancheng also sang a few words. One night, after drinking two glasses of wine, he heard the lively beating of gongs and drums, which made him forget what it was like in his house. A dragon robe was played. After finishing the ceremony, not only the Gu family, but also the neighbors and Mrs. Zhong Yao felt a deep tiredness.Gu Tiancheng slept soundly for three days before he pulled himself together and rushed into the provincial capital to Yao Bo's house on Daqiang Back Street to discuss the matter of burying his wife.