It's always rainy, and it's finally sunny a few days before Qingming.

The good weather for a few days in a row makes people's hearts feel happy.

The seven old men were also happy in their hearts, and as soon as the temperature rose, the vegetable seedlings planted in the ground began to grow violently. The Seven Old Men are good at growing vegetables and are also able to accept fresh techniques. For example, this mulching can increase the ground temperature, retain moisture, and allow crops to grow vigorously. For example, this farm manure can improve soil structure and increase soil vitality. Another example is the slow-release fertilizer introduced in recent years, which has a long-lasting fertilizer effect and eliminates the trouble of repeated fertilization.

The dishes of the seven old men are always on the market a week or two earlier than other people's dishes. Nowadays, people want to be fresh, and they can buy an extra one or two yuan a pound for the vegetables in the morning market. The seven old men also have some simple market awareness and know how to seize the opportunity.

The pepper seedlings have bloomed, and the small white flowers are hidden in the green leaves, like mischievous dolls playing hide and seek. In a few days, there will be small green peppers hanging on the branches. The people of Sichuan love to eat chili peppers, and they love it to the death. It's a pity that the seven old men can't build a greenhouse alone, otherwise the peppers on the market during the New Year will be several times more expensive than now.

The leaves of the eggplant are also the size of a palm, and the purple leaves have some fine thorns on the back. The light blue flowers were like small trumpets, blowing the hearts of the seven old men with joy.

There is also water spinach, which is really growing, and a large cage is spread all over the ground. You can pinch a little and try it yourself.

Over the years, the ideology of the seven old men has also changed. In the past, when I was selling vegetables, I always sold the good ones, and kept the bad ones for myself to eat. I grow vegetables all year round, and I never eat good vegetables. Now, the seven old men don't think like this, whenever there is a fresh vegetable to be marketed, they will taste it first and then sell it in the market. People at this age, although they can't be as chic as in the city, can at least enjoy the vegetables grown in their fields. The seven old men also have a little happiness in their hearts, at least Lao Tzu tasted the fresh vegetables in the field before you. This self-soothing Ah Q spirit can also bring some small comfort.

Cucumbers, green beans, cowpeas, these vines are going to be put on the shelf. With Liu Xiaosi's hand, the seven old men can work easily and quickly, or how to say that it is easy to work when there are many people, and it is good to eat when there are few people.

It's just that Qingming is approaching day by day, and the seven old men and Liu Xiaosi are inevitably a little sad in their hearts. Such a festival inevitably has to think about the question of life and death. The elderly may have some peace of mind and can calmly face such a topic. It's just that when I am approaching the end of my life step by step, without the company of my children, it is inevitable that I will still be full of desolation.

Some people close to home still take advantage of the Qingming holiday to come back to worship their ancestors and sweep the tombs. There was a little bustle in the village. These people who came back, firstly, said that they had not forgotten their ancestors, and secondly, they also hoped that their relatives in heaven could bless them with more wealth and good fortune in this year. It's just a matter of this world, it's better to ask for others than to ask for yourself, and it's better to rely on heaven than to rely on your hands, and those who are far away in heaven are afraid that they can't help in the face of the demands of the world, right?

On the afternoon of the Qingming Festival, Liu Xiaosi and the seven old men also prepared sacrifices to sweep the tomb.

The two of them went to worship Liu Xiaosi's parents first.

Most of the graves of the Checheshan people are on one side of the hillside, and mounds of earth are rising on the hillside one after another. These people were in a village before they were born, and they were on a hillside after they died, but they were relatives and neighbors for life.

Liu Xiaosi used a knife to cut the weeds and shrubs at the grave of his parents. In recent years, there have been fewer people in the village, unlike in the early years, when firewood was drawn everywhere for cooking, and not much grass could even grow on the grave. Now the grass on these graves is a mess.

The graves of Liu Xiaosi's parents are from several families in the village who have a little money. The descendants of the family built a grave platform with cement bricks, and also pasted colorful tiles, and placed eight characters on both sides to make a smooth worship field.

Liu Xiaosi sighed, this dead person is also divided into three, six, nine and so on, and the descendants of the family are rich, and even the grave is so beautiful.

Liu Xiaosi knelt in front of his parents' graves, burning paper and kowtowing. The seven old men also came over to kowtow. He and Liu Xiaosi are godbrothers, and Liu Xiaosi's parents should also be his own parents.

Watching the paper money turn into black ash under the flames, Liu Xiaosi thought that when the family was together in the past, the dull and happy days were gone. Thinking that he was now alone, crowded in the house of the seven old men, he couldn't help but feel sad, and his eyes were full of tears.

"Little four, look at your doll, why do you cry, and I'm not afraid that your mother will laugh at you." The seven old men reached out and gently wiped the tears on Liu Xiaosi's cheeks.

"Seventh brother, I, I don't even have the face to kneel in front of my mother's grave." Liu Xiaosi looked at the graves of other people's houses in a luxurious manner, "I'm useless, I can't get a beautiful grave for my parents." I didn't have a family myself, and our Liu family was broken when they came to me. There are three unfilial pieties, and no queen is great. You say, after I die, every year at the end of the Qingming Festival, there is not even a person who burns paper on the grave. ”

The old people in Checheshan still have the concept of persistent incense inheritance in their bones. Liu Xiaosi has been a single man all his life, leaving no man and half girl, and he feels that he has no face to meet his parents under Jiuquan.

The seven old men didn't know how to comfort Liu Xiaosi, in life and emotionally, he might be able to help take care of Liu Xiaosi, but this incense inheritance, he is not a woman, it is impossible to give Liu Xiaosi a child.

It's just that what about having children? Now that the children are not around, he still has to grind his bones and nourish his intestines, what is the difference between having and not having it?

After worshipping Liu Xiaosi's parents, the seven old men and Liu Xiaosi went to worship their parents and the seventh old lady.

Reverence and sacrifice to ancestors have always been part of traditional Chinese culture, and they are also permeated in the blood of the Chinese. It lets us know where we come from and know our lineage.

Looking at the burning paper money and the curling cigarettes, the seven old men felt calm in their hearts, and maybe in a few years they would lie in this land and wait for the children's worship. For this point, he has more psychological superiority than the old bachelor Liu Xiaosi. It's just a pity that the child in Hongmei's belly is gone, otherwise, Junchao will have descendants.

"Seven old men, you also come to the grave?" Fourth Sister Wang, who had just finished going to the grave of her parents, greeted the seven old men with a smile.

"Gui Zhen, you also come to the grave of your mother."

"yes, I came back on leave."

"I see you coming every year, why don't your third brother and sister-in-law come?" Liu Xiaosi asked Fourth Sister Wang.

"Hey, my third brother, you know, that rake ears, afraid of his wife, where do you dare to come." Fourth Sister Wang knows that her sister-in-law has never had a good relationship with her parents, and she is the only one who comes to worship her parents every year.

Fourth Sister Wang's third brother is a well-known rake ear, her third sister-in-law is verbose and unreasonable, and the two sisters-in-law rarely speak even though they are in the same village on weekdays.

Fourth Sister Wang left, and the seven old men also followed Liu Xiaosi home. On the slopes of Cheche Mountain, the unburned paper money is still emitting white smoke, and the wisps float up the twilight sky, conveying the thoughts of the living to the deceased.

Before and after the Qingming Festival, melons and beans are planted, and spring ploughing is about to begin.