Daomu Biji extra 1 part19

Uncle Two repeated the question and Xu A Qin fell back into memory. After thinking for a long time, we all thought he fell asleep, but then he raised his head and asked us, “Are you from the Wu family?”

Uncle Two nodded and Xu A Qin sighed, “Yes, you can only ask me. I am the only one who knows this."

“Do you still remember?” Uncle Three asked urgently.

Xu A Qin's face showed an indescribable expression and he patted the bench beside him and told us to sit down. Uncle Two and I sat while Uncle Three squatted. The old man shivered and lit a pipe, taking a few puffs before slowly saying, “I don't remember it very clearly, but I do remember the general events.”

Xu A Qin spoke slowly and there was a long pause between each sentence. Obviously, although his hearing had not been greatly damaged, his brain was indeed quite slow. We all stayed calm and didn't press him, for fear that he might forget what came next.

He paused, looked at the sun, and added, “That was when I was working in your village as a long-term worker, helping your Wu family build the ancestral hall. At that time, I heard it from an old man in your village. The old ghost died a long time ago, but he still owes me 1.60 yuan."

It was at the beginning of the Agrarian Revolution, and no one knew how the revolution would change things. At that time, the Wu family was classified as rich peasants and belonged to the re-education class. The whole country was at war, which should have happened in 1930.

At that time, the repair of ancestral halls was heavy manual work, unlike now when it was only necessary to do things on the scene. At that time, expanding the scale of the ancestral hall was equivalent to building a bungalow now, so the Wu family hired long-term workers and stewed meat in the old ancestral hall first.

In those days, it was the emperor who ate meat, so many people came. Xu A Qin was an old long-time worker and was very familiar with the Wu family at that time. After they finished eating, they took a rest and basked in the sun in the square where the poles for bunting boats were stored. At that time, the people gathered together to talk about which wife had big tits, or which widow's wall had been knocked down again, or about the old god Shinto. (TN note: I think the widow bit is basically them being crass and saying that the widows were sleeping around, but I'm not sure).

Xu A Qin was an honest man at that time and listened to everything. An old man was bragging, saying that the reason why the Wu family was so prosperous was because ancestral graves weren't simple.

When the ancestor of the Wu family made his fortune that year, he bought half of the village's land and the big house with four courtyards. But before that rich ancestor's generation ended, the family fell into strife and there were endless wars. It was useless to have money. By the time the grave was set up, he was almost the same as the rest of the village, and found a place to quickly be buried. When digging the grave, however, a dry well was unexpectedly dug up there.

No one knew how long it had been there, but there was a large piece of bluestone on top engraved with a word nobody could understand. They removed the bluestone and saw that it was a dry well, and the wall was thickly dotted with dried snail shells.

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TN Note: Meh, I'm over it; I'm done for the day lol. I miss Fatty and Qilin, though I do love Wu Xie having his own little adventure. There are 10 more of these baby chapters left (~36 pages in word) for those that care.

Chapter end