From the entrance of Shenjiafang Street, there began to be road sacrifice sheds and road sacrifice tables.

As a filial son, Shen Rui had to follow behind Shen Juren, kneel down to thank the relatives who came to the sacrifice, and it was inevitable to kneel and kowtow. And because the location of the filial son is behind the coffin, half a mile away from the front of the team.

Shen Juren can still enjoy a leisure, and there is no need to toss back. Shen Rui has an errand to carry flags, and after every thanks, he needs to return to the queue, and he has walked several times more than others. Fortunately, there are Shen Jin and Shen Quan together, although they are out of breath, but this crime is more comfortable than a person's heart.

After half an hour, at the crossroads in front of the government, the road sacrifice shed of Jiang Sheng, the prefect of Songjiang, was set up here. This Jiang Sheng is the local parent official, the first person in the officialdom of Songjiang Mansion, and now not only the prefect's wife is here, but the prefect also sets up a road sacrifice shed, which is not a big respect.

Not as close as possible, the eldest master of the sect and Shen Juren called Shen Rui and the others over and stepped forward together.

The road sacrifice shed was set up, and a sacrificial table was set up for water and wine, but it was not Jiang Zhifu who came forward to preside over the sacrifice, but Jiang Rong, the third son of Jiang Zhifu. Although the master of the sect was a little disappointed, he was not very surprised. Jiang Shengjinshi was born, he was an honest and honest official, simple and honest, and he acted in a gentlemanly style, and he did not like to drill camps like other old oilmen in the officialdom. Now that the prefect's wife is at the funeral, and the Jiang family has set up a road sacrifice, as long as Jiang Sheng shows his side, he can sell a favor to Shen Li, who lives in the countryside and guards the system, but he is not worthy of this, which shows that he is like a person.

It was rare for Shen Li to take the initiative to come over and say a few words to Jiang Rong. It turned out that Jiang Rong's uncle was also a Hanlin official and a colleague of Shen Li, and now he was in the same grade as Shen Li in the bachelor's position. For this reason, after Jiang Rong called Shen Juren "Shi Weng", he called Shen Li "Shi Shu" again, and this generation was messed up.

Each has its own arguments, and no one picks on his reasoning without opening his eyes. Only Shen Rui was surprised in his heart, what was going on with this Jiang Sangongzi, how did his eyes always glance at him.

Shen Rui's intuition was good, Jiang Sangongzi finished greeting Shen Juren and Shen Li, and sure enough, he came to Shen Rui. He took Shen Rui's hand, his face was sad, and he said, "The foolish brother has to see the virtuous brother, he is too close, and he has to move more in the future", and said, "Now that my aunt is gone, the virtuous brother still needs to mourn and change."

This grief on this face is real, it doesn't seem to be fake, but what is the regret, sympathy and inexplicable closeness that looms in these eyes?

Shen Rui was a little confused, this sympathy is okay, he lost his mother at a young age, which can be regarded as a misfortune in life; What's the pity? What is inexplicably close to? Is it true that a prefect's son is close to a nine-year-old child just because the two housemothers have an old relationship?

The entire funeral procession was waiting on the side, and there were more than a dozen sacrificial tents and sacrificial tables in front of them. Jiang Sangongzi looked transparent, and exchanged a few words with Shen Rui, asking the team to continue to march. However, when he loosened Shen Rui's hand, Jiang Sangongzi said: "I will accompany my mother out of the city for a while." If you are a foolish brother who can use it, please don't go outside. ”

Although Shen Rui muttered in his heart, he still responded honestly on his face.

The funeral procession marched again, but this time there was no one to take it as big as Governor Jiang, and ordered others to sacrifice on their behalf, all of whom were personally there. Even if Shen Li didn't come forward on purpose, since everyone was able to arrive, they also expressed their closeness and kindness to the Shen clan without hesitation. Some of them treated Shen Juren with two words of comfort, while others deliberately ignored Shen Juren and lifted Shen Rui.

Shen Rui had no intention of staging a big drama of "father and son competition" in front of his clansmen, and became more and more silent. In the eyes of the clansmen, they don't think that Shen Rui has stolen the limelight from Shen Juren, but they only think that it must be the scandal of Shen Juren's "father abusing his son" that spreads, and these officials will not wait to see Shen Juren.

Because of the endless stream of road sacrifice sheds and road sacrifice tables on this road, the funeral procession walked for nearly an hour from Shenjiafang to the west gate of the county seat.

It was not until noon that the funeral procession left the city through the west gate.

On this day, the sky was full of fog and the air was damp and cold.

But no matter what happened to others, Shen Ruiyin was wearing a new cotton coat, not only did he not notice the slightest chill, but he also walked out of half of his body sweating. But at a young age, because the weight of the pole is not light, Shen Rui has already used two hands, and he is a little wheezing when he walks. Seeing that there were fewer people watching the excitement next to him, Shen Li took Shen Rui's banner and let Shen Rui take a break.

The tomb of the Shen family is on the sunny slope of the West Mountain five miles away from the county seat, the entire West Mountain is the property of the Shen clan, the cemetery of the first vein of the sect is in the middle of the West Mountain, and the radial shape is the inner three rooms, and the foot of the mountain is the outer five rooms.

The cemetery of each house occupies an area of dozens of acres. Because the population of the four houses is not large, it is not like the other houses, and there are only six graves. The descendants of the four rooms are not multiply, it can be seen that this is the case.

In addition to the graves of Shen Juren's father, great-grandfather, and great-grandfather, there is also the tomb of a great-aunt and grandmother who has never married, and an uncle and grandfather who is unmarried and childless.

The great-aunt is a maid, and although the uncle and grandfather have not yet grown up, they can have a "ghost marriage" and bones, so these two people can be buried in the Shen family cemetery, otherwise there will be fewer graves in the four rooms.

The Sun family did not die suddenly, as early as when he was lingering on the sickbed, Sifang began to choose blessed land and blessing materials.

The top of the four-room cemetery is the tomb of the ancestor of Shen Juren, and the east and west directions below, according to the law that the ancestors and grandchildren are adjacent and the father and son do not rely on each other, are arranged to the bottom.

The blessed land of the Sun family is actually the location where Shen Juren later entered the earth, in the south of Shen Juren's grandfather's cemetery. Now that the Sun family is gone, he will first enter the earth for peace; When Shen Juren passes, he will raise the Sun family to the grave and rebury the husband and wife side by side.

The four-room tomb ground, in addition to a few graves, there are five other yang houses, which are usually where the tomb keepers are, and when the funeral is a major event, it is the place where the filial piety family members temporarily eat tea.

In the position of the blessed land, a nine-foot deep pit has already been laid, and Mr. Yin and Yang came forward, and when the auspicious time came, he commanded the barman to "climb the pit and bury".

When the coffin entered the pit, the jar was also placed, and a sacrificial table was placed in front of the pit, with Shen Rui as the leader, leading everyone to kneel and mourn. All kinds of paper work brought with him, as well as the leftover paper money scattered along the way, burned and sprinkled. The fire was scattered in all directions, and the paper money was fluttering, not falling for a long time, and the sky was white.

Then they covered the soil, Shen Rui and the others raised a handful of soil in the acupuncture points in turn, mourned together, and handed over the rest to the barman to bury. In addition to leaving two clansmen to supervise the work, other filial relatives will enter the Yang Mansion to rest.

The fourth room arranged for the tea room to come over early and prepared a tea vegetarian point. But there are only five rooms in the Yang House, and there are many relatives and friends who come to the funeral, and they have to make room for the female dependents alone, so there are not many people waiting to enter the house, and most of them sit on the spot outside the Yang House. Fortunately, the tea and snacks are well prepared, and everyone can relieve their fatigue.

Although Shen Rui and Shen Jin were young, because they were filial sons, they were also taken care of by the clan elders and entered the house. Shen Rui mourned repeatedly, his eyes were already red and swollen, and he was worried about the next big scene, but he really didn't have the heart to use refreshments. When the clan elders saw it, they felt more and more that he was honest and filial, and they had to exhort him one or two.

Due to the law, the size of the cemetery and the height of the grave are customized. The tomb of the Sun family, which is also the tomb of Shen Juren, should occupy an area of twenty square steps and be six feet high. There were more than 60 men who came to the funeral, and they took turns to fill in the earth, but in only two quarters of an hour, they filled the pit and raised the grave.

The filial piety came out, according to the elder and youngest respectfully kowtowed on the grave, naturally only the younger generations of nephews kowtowed, Shen Juren and the elders only need to bow down, this funeral ceremony is officially over.

Among the clansmen and in-laws who came to the funeral, the Shen people have multiplied for more than 100 years, but the four rooms are several generations of single transmission, there are not many relatives, and most of the relatives and friends who have no relatives and other funerals are with "floating filial piety", that is, the head or waist is tied with a white cloth, and the female relatives have a hairpin on the head and white paper flowers. This "floating filial piety" was put on before the funeral this morning, and went after the funeral. Therefore, when the funeral ceremony was over, Shen Juren took Shen Jin, Shen Rui, and Shen Quan to kneel down and ask the relatives and friends of the "floating filial piety" to take off their filial piety.

All relatives and friends made a return salute, from estrangement to relatives, and said goodbye in turn, and returned separately. No one noticed, until the relatives and friends with foreign surnames were almost scattered, and neither the prefect's wife nor the prefect's son showed up. Among the female dependents, the carriages of the eldest lady of the sect, the Guo family, and the Xie family never moved.

The in-laws of the Shen family and the side branches have almost run away, and the children and grandchildren of each house were supposed to return to the city with their fathers and ancestors, but they were also sent back. In this way, in addition to the mother and son of the prefect and the eldest lady of the clan who stayed in the Yang Mansion, the three daughters of the Shen family, except for Shen Juren's father and son, Shen Li, and Shen Quan, there were only the heads of each house in the cemetery.

Zongfang is the patriarch and the eldest master of the Zongfang father and son, the second room has been moved to the capital for many years, and now the household registration has moved out of Lu, scattered branches, and is not qualified to speak in the clan, only famous in the clan; The three-room came forward with the old lady of the three-room and the head of the family, Shen Hu; The fourth room is Shen Juren's room; The five rooms came forward to be the five room masters and Shen Hong; Shen Qi, the head of the six-room room; The seventh room is Shen Li; The eighth room is the old lady and Shen Liu in the eighth room; Jiufang is the grandfather of Jiufang and Shen Lu, and they are also Shen Li's uncle's grandfather and cousin.

Among these people, there are two in the old lady's generation, three in the grandfather's generation, five in the old man's generation, and two in the eldest brother's generation. Because several grandfathers and old ladies are old, everyone returned to the east house of the Yang Mansion, and the female dependents still accompanied the prefect's wife in the West House.

Shen Juren's face turned white, not because he was afraid of anything, but because he was angry. Because Shen Li stopped the old house chief of the clan from going back, he said: "Since the aunt has been buried, the aftermath of the aunt should also be calculated." ”

This sentence is not uncommon at funerals, most of which family has lost their married daughter, and the mother's family has come forward to make decisions for the nephew and niece who lost their mother. Shen Li, a nephew, what qualifications does he have to count the aftermath of the Sun family?

Although Shen Juren was furious, he didn't naively say anything like "no one needs to interfere in the housework of the four rooms". After all, he has reached the age of not being confused, even if he doesn't understand the economy, he still understands the truth of human feelings. Today, the principals of each room are so complete, and the two old ladies who have not shown up for a long time have appeared, Shen Li's move must have been planned for a long time, where is Shen Juren who can stop it if he says no.

He knew that Shen Li was so eager to count the Sun family's dowry, just to prevent him. In the end, Shen Juren also read the books of sages and knew the dignity of his concubine, but because the four rooms were passed down from generation to generation, and he only had one son in Shen Jin in his early years, he blurred his concubine. Although he has always been hard-mouthed and feels that he has nothing to do badly to his son-in-law, in the dead of night, he remembered the disapproval in the eyes of the Japanese clan on the day of the "first seven", and he also knew that he was too hasty in letting Shen Jin carry out the filial piety ceremony.

Now that he has left a misunderstanding of embezzling his wife's dowry and cheap eldest son in front of the clan, he does not want to make any more extraneous branches. As for Shen Jin, his fame is in sight, and he will support the four-room portal in the future. The fourth room is not as poor as in the past, and he has already placed a belongings, and when Shen Jin Zhongju allocates two Zhuangzi to Shen Jin as private property.

Thinking like this, Shen Juren calmed down.