Chapter 491: Chapter 254 Grave Visit_3
"That one is your Uncle Jizu’s mother," Wu Lang pointed to another grave a distance away, even further down the hill.
Although there wasn’t a formal cemetery, the burial spots were chosen with great care according to gender and status within the family.
Lian Shouxin took care of the burnt paper ashes, then shouldered the shovel. He did not take the path that Old Master Lian had walked down the mountain but turned onto a side path.
Lian Shouxin was exceptionally silent today.
Lian Manman took the basket from Wu Lang’s hands, and without asking why, everyone simply followed Lian Shouxin in silence. Lian Shouxin stopped at a low slope at the foot of the mountain; before him lay a small grave. Although the grave was small, it was well-tended and without a single blade of overgrown grass.
Lian Shouxin set down the shovel and took the basket from Lian Manman’s hands. He gathered a few stones from nearby and arranged them into a small circle in front of the grave. Then he squatted down, lighting the ceremonial paper money.
The burning paper money turned to ash in the fire, swirling up, then falling back down to gather in a small pile in front of the grave.
Lian Shuxin murmured something softly, which Lian Manman didn’t catch.
After burning all the paper money, Lian Shouxin didn’t rush to leave but sat down beside the grave. Lian Manman wanted to ask who was buried in this grave but, seeing Lian Shouxin’s expression, she never voiced the question.
She thought that the person buried here must have been close to Lian Shouxin. But again, this was a solitary grave. So who exactly was buried here?
Lian Manman, Wu Lang, Xiao Qi, and Lian Yeye all sat down together. A wind blew through the woods by their ears, and an inexplicable sadness settled over the children’s hearts. Many people were buried on Nanshan, yet they had no connection to them. Even their Great Grandfather Taihe, they had never met. They really shouldn’t have felt sad.
Some fleeting yet very real sense of sorrow seemed to have been brought to them by the woods, or perhaps, it was Lian Shouxin’s sorrow that spread to them, infecting them with its touch.
"The one buried here is your young uncle," Lian Shouxin said softly, sounding almost as if the words were a sigh from the woods.
"Young uncle?" Lian Manman was a bit surprised. Wasn’t Lian Shouxin the youngest son of Old Master Lian?
"Your young uncle was two years younger than me; he died at the age of ten," Lian Shouxin said, looking into the empty space, slowly continuing, "That year was a year of famine, there was nothing to eat."
Those brief sentences were spoken by Lian Shouxin with an apparent calmness. However, Lian Manman knew the tumultuous waves of devastating sorrow that lay behind them, etched deeply into the hearts of those involved. She could not fully understand, yet could feel a heavy stone weighing down upon her own heart.
They sat in silence for a while until Lian Shouxin finally stood up.
"It’s time to go back."
Lian Manman and the others also stood up, ready to follow Lian Shouxin down the mountain.
"Watch your step," Lian Shouxin suddenly said, "don’t step on it."
Lian Manman, keeping one foot in the air, looked down and saw that in front of her on the slope was a tiny mound of earth, no larger than two palms. To call it a mound was to overstate it; it was barely higher than the surrounding ground and would be unnoticeable without careful attention.
"Dad, this, is it a grave as well?" Lian Manman asked.
"Oh," was all Lian Shouxin said in a low voice before shouldering the shovel and slowly making his way downhill.
Lian Manman carefully withdrew her foot.
"Brother, Xiao Qi, who do you think is buried here?" Lian Manman whispered.
Wu Lang and Xiao Qi remained silent. They had just been sitting beside that lone grave, and right in front of them was this tiny mound, hardly qualifying as a grave.
The children stood in silence for a moment, then Lian Manman crouched down, placing the paper flowers and longevity peaches she had picked by the mound, securing them with small stones. Xiao Qi and Lian Yeye did the same.
On the way down the mountain, the children were extremely careful, preferring to tread on the difficult gullies and ridges, knowing that, with one careless step, they might tread upon the resting place of a once small life.
That day, Lian Manman learned for the first time that solitary men and women without descendants could not be buried in the ancestral cemetery, and that children who died young didn’t even get a grave marker. Such children were often carried by their family members in a basket, and buried at random at the base of the mountains, at the edge of the fields.
The child of Lady Zhang had been brought out and buried by Lian Shouxin.
Neither Lian Manman, Wu Lang, nor Xiao Qi said anything, but they all concluded that the mound they had seen earlier contained that child. Lian Shouxin had buried him beside their young uncle’s grave, so that their young uncle could watch over the pitiful child, allowing these two unfortunate souls to rely on each other underground, not having to fear being alone and lonely.
