"Yes, I heard that Zichuan was not happy about this marriage from the beginning..." A woman spoke first.

But then he was interrupted by another woman: "How do you know that Zichuan is not happy? You are not a roundworm in his belly."

At first the woman said: "If Zichuan was really happy with this marriage, he wouldn't have gone to Changhuaizhou a few days ago."

"Also, Zichuan is already thirty years old, and his marriage has been postponed again and again. He is pretending to be someone else, but he can't get that person. That's why he never cares about his marriage!"

"That person, you don't need to tell me, you all know who he is, right?"

Several women looked at each other in confusion. At this moment, Ms. Liu, who had started the conversation in the first place, quickly dropped her face and said, "Shut up now. My Qing'er, you guys are also trying to grab each other? Qing'er's ears are very sensitive.

It will be heard later, it’s amazing!”

Mrs. Liu, who loves gossip the most, was the first to jump out and intercept the other people's comments, and even glanced nervously behind her at the old Mu's yard.

She dared to chew on anyone's gossip, but Liu would never dare to talk about Qing'er's.

The other women also quickly shut up. Yang Ruoqing didn't want to offend, and she didn't dare to offend. Everyone turned to chat about the funeral of Lao Mu's family...

Yang Ruoqing didn't have such long ears, so she couldn't hear the noise outside. Even if she had such long ears, she couldn't distract herself from listening to the gossip at the moment.

Because, as the adopted daughter of Zichuan's mother, she was assisting Mu Zichuan in organizing the funeral.

In the west room, older women such as Mrs. Sun and Wang Cuilian had already entered.

The first thing everyone did was to quickly come up and remove the curtain from Zichuan Niang's bed, and then pull away the pillow under Zichuan Niang's head.

"Third Aunt, why did you take away my mother's pillow? My mother always couldn't sleep well when she was alive. She couldn't sleep without a pillow!" Mu Zichuan stood aside and asked with some confusion.

Sun was stunned for a moment, then lowered her voice and said: "This is the custom in Mianniu Mountain. You cannot let her see your toes after death. This is not good for her, nor is it good for her descendants."

.”

At this moment, Wang Cuilian went over and gently took off a pair of Zichuan's socks, put them together with the pillow and gave them to Muzichuan.

"This is...?" Muzichuan became even more confused.

Mrs. Sun added: "This is also the custom in our area. If you put socks and pillows on the roof, your mother will rise to heaven and become a god instead of suffering on the ground..."

At this point, Mu Zichuan understood.

He nodded with coaxing eyes, stretched out his hands to take the pillow and socks that his mother had used before she was alive, held them in his arms, turned around and left the house.

Looking at his leaving figure, both Sun and Wang Cuilian had distressed faces, and Yang Ruoqing couldn't bear to look directly at him.

"Let's do it later," said Sun.

"Qing'er, you are your godmother's adopted daughter. Go get an earthen basin and use it to burn the toilet paper later."

"In addition, there are incense candles, uncooked rice, and firecrackers. You can get these things. I will ask Zichuan to remove the door panels and other things later..."

Yang Huazhong was an upright person and Yang Ruoqing's father, so he would naturally come to help him both in public and private matters.

Several respected old men in the village were sitting in the main room, and they invited an old woman from Lijia Village who specialized in funeral arrangements to come over and preside over the overall situation.

Those who remove door panels, light incense and candles, find tailors to sew mourning clothes, contact Taoist priests, report funerals to relatives and friends...

With the help of everyone, preparations were made in an orderly manner.

When Muzichuan's uncle's family came to pay their respects, Zichuan's mother had already put on her shroud and moved from the bed to the door panel to lie down.

The mourning hall was built in the main room, and all the objects related to the red festival that had been prepared for the wedding were moved to other rooms and locked up.

In the empty main room, a white curtain was pulled up in the middle, and a large and conspicuous word "Dian" was written in black ink on the white cloth.

This is the elegiac couplet. Behind the elegiac couplet is the coffin, but because Lady Zichuan died less than twenty-four hours ago, the coffin is empty now.

The body is still placed in the west room where Zichuan Niang is.

There was a door panel in front of the bed in the west room, and Zichuan Niang was lying on it, with her hands folded on her chest, and a handful of joss sticks in her hands.

Two layers of scented paper covered her face, and on the ground above her head was the earthenware basin that Yang Ruoqing had found earlier.

Mu Zichuan, who had already changed into linen mourning clothes, was kneeling there and burning paper money into the earthen basin.

Yang Ruoqing also sent people to fetch Baby Luo from the school. At this moment, mother and daughter were also filial piety. Yang Ruoqing took Baby Luo and asked her to kowtow to Zichuan Niang, the "Ganga Po".

After it was done, let her sit aside obediently, with Wang Cuilian, Sun and the others accompanying her.

Then, Yang Ruoqing glanced at Muzichuan who was burning paper money. Muzichuan had been in a trance for most of the day, immersed in a world of sadness and could not get out.

Yang Ruoqing sighed secretly, but got up and walked towards him.

Before he could say a few words of comfort to him, a woman's mournful cries could be heard in the yard outside the house.

"It should be your uncle and aunt who are here. Get up quickly to greet them." Yang Ruoqing quickly reminded him.

Mu Zichuan just raised his head, his eyes were red and swollen like peaches. He stood up stiffly, but almost fell down.

Both Sun and Wang Cuilian were startled. From his angle, if he fell, he would definitely hit the door panel, and then accidentally knock Zichuan Niang's body to the ground, which would be bad...

Fortunately, Yang Ruoqing had quick eyesight and quick hands, and she was able to hold him up.

"Zichuan, I know you feel sad, and I feel bad too." Yang Ruoqing said in a deep voice.

"But my godmother has already passed away. Now, you have to turn your grief into strength, and you must first arrange the funeral of your godmother smoothly, so that she can be happy as soon as possible!"

After hearing her consolation and seeing her pretty face in white clothes with tears on her face,

Mu Zichuan's heart suddenly moved, and in a daze, it seemed as if she was his wife and Baby Luo was his daughter.

Their mother and daughter accompanied him through this difficult time of losing his mother...

"I'll pick up uncle and the others." Mu Zichuan said hoarsely, trying to stand firm and walk towards the door.

Soon, Mu Zichuan's two aunts, two cousins, and cousin Liu Doukou all rushed into the west room crying.

Five women gathered around the door and cried loudly.
Chapter completed!