Chapter 228: Can’t afford to die, can’t live enough [3200]

Giving birth is a technical job.

Some people did it as fast as pooping or peeing, and with a loud swish, the child fell to the ground.

Some people, however, procrastinate and are tortured to death, but still cannot give birth to a child, and in the end the doctor has to perform surgery.

It was not until the late night that Lu Yang returned to the Lu family's ancestral home in Shanghuai Village.

At this time, the coffin has been circumambulated and the relatives no longer have the opportunity to see it for the last time, as the coffin lid has been nailed shut.

Lu Yang had nothing to regret.

After all, he was just his uncle, not his biological father. And even if he was his biological father, he was just a drowned drunkard, so it would be better not to see him for the last time.

Besides, this time he was sending his daughter-in-law to give birth to his eldest grandson.

If my uncle knew about this in the afterlife, he should not only not blame me, but should be grateful to me.

"Yoko, how is it?"

The Lu family members did not sleep, they were all waiting for the result.

Of course, someone needs to be guarding the mourning hall tonight.

It’s just that there is no need for so many people, and everyone can take turns to rest. But now, no one has the mood to sleep at all.

All are guarding here.

Lu Yang even saw his long-lost daughter-in-law, Yin Mingyue, accompanied by his mother-in-law, both of them sitting in a far corner of the main room.

So I couldn't help but feel a little distressed.

The daughter-in-law is just the niece-in-law of the deceased, so there is no need for her to keep watch here.

She was probably worried about herself.

Well, he came back from thousands of miles away and hadn't even been home yet. He was busy running around and hadn't even seen his wife. He then drove to the county town. How could he not make people worry?

Blame me.

Lu Yang thought to himself.

He looked at his wife with an apologetic look.

However, although he was anxious to accompany his wife and take her home to sleep, he still had to get rid of these Lu family members first.

Lu Yang then took a deep breath and said, "Many of you can go to sleep peacefully. Mother and child are safe."

"My God!"

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, it was best that no one was killed.

Although it was very unexpected, a woman who had been married for only half a year and was at most five or six months pregnant, was bleeding from her lower body and was sent to the hospital to give birth, but both mother and child were safe.

But none of this matters anymore.

Even if they don't get along with Lu Youli and can't stand the trivialities of this brother, no one, including the brothers, sisters-in-law, and younger brothers, wants to hear bad news.

In general, I am still waiting in the mourning hall with a blessing attitude towards this relatively unfamiliar sister-in-law or sister-in-law.

But there is only one person who is different from the others.

Lu Yang's aunt.

This ignorant old country woman takes throwing tantrums as a common occurrence.

There had been a lot of wailing in the past few hours.

Sometimes she cried for her dead husband, sometimes for her daughter-in-law, worried that the second fat grandson of the Lu family would be lost. Sometimes she cursed the fifth son of the Lu family, wondering why she had given birth to such an evil son.
But they didn't mention that the essence of the accident was actually caused by Lu Youli's instigation, her greed and her throwing tantrums.

"Wahahaha, old man, did you hear that?"

"Grandson, it's a grandson. You have another big grandson."

"Look at you, you are unlucky, aren't you?"

"Before you died, we didn't even have a grandson. You just died, and the seventh day hasn't even passed yet, but you have two grandsons right away. Let me tell you something you don't want to hear, but I'm lucky, and you're not as lucky as me."

She is so proud!

I can't even close my mouth.

Others were apologizing to each other and whispering to each other, but in the middle of the night, she was talking to a coffin alone.

It's over, I just remembered it.

My daughter-in-law just gave birth, and my son is unreliable. He just beat my daughter-in-law. Does he need someone to take care of her?
I was just about to find Lu Yang to ask him clearly.

Turning around, there was no trace of Lu Yang, the nephew, in the mourning hall. He had already gone home with his wife and mother-in-law to sleep.

He is just a nephew, not his biological son. He has five biological sons and two biological daughters. Even if one goes to the hospital, there are still six here?

There is no shortage of people to keep vigil!
The next day was the day of the funeral. Lu Yang was very busy last night, and his wife was so exhausted that she didn't sleep for half the night, but she still insisted on getting up early.

The daughter-in-law also remembered to get dressed.

He pushed her back to the bed and said with a smile, "You've been tossing and turning for half the night, do you still have the energy? Although we are just the nephew and his wife, we don't have to bow in the road or walk barefoot during the funeral, but we still have to follow the procession and can't rest in between. I calculated that it will take several miles to get to the grave. You, be obedient and get some more sleep. I'll call you in advance when it's time. The funeral procession won't be that fast. It will take at least one or two hours to hold the memorial service, which is just enough time for you, a lazy little cat, to sleep."

If Lu Yang can love his wife more, then he will love her more.

Make up for the time I was not at home.

Yin Mingyue nodded obediently and made a "hmm" sound from her nose. She was indeed very tired and couldn't muster any energy.

Since her husband said so, she listened to him the most. In less than ten seconds, she closed her eyes and made a slight sound of slumber.

Lu Yang helped her cover the quilt.

Then he tiptoed back, slowly and leisurely, trying not to make any noise as he could, out of the room. "Son-in-law, where are you, Mingyue?"

Seeing that Lu Yang came out alone and closed the door quietly, his mother-in-law said in some surprise.

When people reach middle age, they sleep very little and their sleep is very shallow.

So Lu Yang got up very early.

But in old Yin's family, I can only be ranked third. My mother-in-law and father-in-law both got up early.

Sitting before breakfast.

Lu Yang turned around and smiled, "It's like this, Mom, Mingyue didn't sleep well last night, so I let her sleep a little longer."

Done.

Glancing at the dining table.

I saw that there was no breakfast I liked, just some simple steamed buns and two cups of malted milk.

Lu Yang felt that this light breakfast was tasteless. It was not as delicious as the spicy rice noodles with chopped peppers prepared by his third cousin Lu Youyi.

Unfortunately, I can’t eat it these two days.

But it doesn't matter. According to the customs of Lu Yang's place, if an elderly person dies in the family, the family needs to provide staple food for all the guests and relatives and friends who come to pay their respects, one dinner and one breakfast...

As for what to eat?
That depends on what the filial family has.

Green vegetables, tofu, radish, bamboo shoots, chicken, duck, fish, and meat.

The first four are required, and the last four depend on the conditions.

Five bowls, seven bowls, nine bowls, eleven bowls, as long as it is an odd number.

Nowadays, it is considered good to have a stutter in the countryside, and no one blames you.

If it were twenty or thirty years later, as far as Lu Yang knows, the funeral customs in Zhao County would be so grand that many outsiders would be astounded.

First of all, at the very least, we can have 100 tables, and there is no upper limit.

This does not refer only to the day of the funeral, but the total count from the day the person died, to the first day of the coffin, to the small coffin, the large coffin, and finally to the day of the funeral.

It depends on how many days the body will be kept, how many relatives and friends come to pay their respects, and how generous you are. If you are a bit generous, it is possible to have 1000 tables of banquets for several days.

It is difficult to calculate this amount of money because the price per table ranges from one or two hundred to one or two thousand.

As I said, it depends on the generosity of the filial family.

Other expenses include hiring monks and Taoist priests to perform rituals. This team probably costs about ten thousand yuan.

It depends on how many days the funeral is held. If you knock on the door for a few more days, it will definitely be more expensive.

Then, there were the waist drum team, dragon dance team, lion dance team, welcoming team, and musical instrument team.

At the very least, there must be one of the first four, usually a waist drum team or a welcoming team, which is used to beat drums and gongs to welcome guests.

The musical instrument team is actually an performing arts company.

This is usually used for the night of the coffin procession, when many guests come, and relatives and friends come together to pay their respects and send the deceased on his last journey. After dinner, these hundreds or thousands of people will not just stay with the mourning family like this, so this musical instrument band came into being, and later formed an performing arts company.

From crying at funerals on behalf of the bereaved family, to singing and dancing, acrobatics, dance, Peking opera, sketches, magic... whatever was available was performed.

This is a lot of money, at least tens of thousands.

According to the local custom, when an elderly person dies and has a daughter or son-in-law, it is usually the daughter or son-in-law who pays the money.

But if you don't have a daughter or son-in-law, but only a son, then you can just save the money.

Or if you want to be generous and have some fun, you can let your son or grandson pay for it.

Or, if you are more generous, and the boss is wealthy and has plenty of money, you can start singing and dancing from the first day of the funeral of an elderly person in your family who has passed away.

During the day, we set up the stage and invite a troupe.

In the evening, we invite performing arts companies to perform acrobatics, martial arts, sketches, Peking opera, singing and dancing, magic…

Even if you have a bad character, if you have the money, you will not have to worry about no one coming to keep vigil for your elderly.

Finally, there is another expense. On the day of the funeral, the family will arrange for someone to give a pack of cigarettes or a red envelope to anyone who comes to the funeral before they reach the grave.

As for cigarettes, go for the finest Baisha, the better one is Furongwang, the better one is Harmony over the World, Harmony Brings Wealth, and Huazi.

The red envelopes are simpler, 10 yuan, 20 yuan, 50 yuan, 100 yuan.

As I said, it depends on how generous your filial piety is.

In addition to the above, there are things like coffins, paper money, digging graves, carrying coffins, and filling graves...

These expenses have become small amounts of money and are not worth mentioning at all.

Oh, by the way, there is another big one, firecrackers, also known as fireworks.

How much of this stuff you put in depends on how generous you are. A poor person might put in a few thousand dollars, while a wealthy person might even spend hundreds of thousands. It will make a crackling sound and sparks shoot up into the sky.

What Lu Yang wanted to express was that although his uncle's death had cost several cousins ​​a lot of money in the past few days, compared with the increasingly exaggerated funeral customs in Zhao County in later generations, it was nothing and not worth mentioning at all.

Father-in-law Lu Yang put down his chopsticks and frowned, "Today is your uncle's funeral, why is she still sleeping in? No, go and wake her up. If people see her not going, they will think that I, the Yin family, don't know how to teach my daughter and don't know the rules."

Although he knew that his son-in-law loved his daughter, he still had some things to say.

Lu Yang smiled and said, "Don't worry, Dad. It's okay. It takes time to hold a funeral. I won't be able to hold a funeral in a short time. I will come back to call her later. Let Mingyue sleep a little longer."

After that, he changed the subject and said, "By the way, why don't you two go to the banquet?"

(End of this chapter)