As soon as Yin Shi arrived, Li Yichen opened his eyes, raised his head and looked out the window, and found that there was still silence and darkness all around.

Groping for the crutches placed on the side of the bed, Li Yichen got out of bed, walked to the table and lit the oil lamp on the table.

Limped into the courtyard, fetched the water back into the room, washed up a little, found a book from the shelf, sat under the oil lamp, and began to look through it.

Li Yichen got up so early today, one reason is because of the habit of getting up early to exercise for many years, and the other reason is because today is the first day of the new year, and he is going to go over to say hello to his grandparents as soon as they get up.

Maybe it's thinking about things in his heart, Li Yichen is just pretending to pass the time when he sits here reading a book. Although the eyes are on the book, the heart is always on the outside. After reading a few lines, he looked up at the situation outside the window.

Finally, Li Yichen saw that the light in the opposite wing room was on, so he got up and walked to the opposite room with a cane, pushing open the door.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

After Li Yichen walked to the door of the room, he did not push the door and went in directly, but stood at the door and knocked on the door with his hand first.

"Who?"

The knock on the door was still ringing, and an old woman's voice could be heard in the room.

"Grandma, it's me! Grandson has come to greet your second elder!"

Standing outside the door, Li Yichen replied respectfully.

"Oh, my good grandson, it's freezing this day, why did you get up so early and hurry into the house. ”

After hearing Li Yichen's words, the old woman in the house replied anxiously. Before the words fell, the door creaked open, and what was imprinted into Li Yichen's eyes was the face of a kind old woman.

"Grandma, it's cold outside, you hurry in!"

Seeing that the old woman came out to open the door for herself with only a middle coat, Li Yichen hurriedly persuaded his grandmother to go back to the room.

Walking into the room, Li Yichen saw that he was already dressed and was freshening up there.

"Chen'er got up so early today, wait a minute, remember to accompany your grandfather to worship your ancestors, and ask your ancestors to bless you with all things going smoothly and in good health." ”

Seeing Li Yichen coming in from outside the door, Li Quansheng nodded, put the towel in his hand into the basin and told him to remember to go to the ancestor worship for a while.

"Okay, I'll accompany you in a while. The grandson is coming here now to greet your second elder. Come, please take a seat. ”

After promising Li Quansheng to go to worship his ancestors together, Li Yichen held a cane with one hand and supported Li Quansheng at the head of the bed with the other.

After the two old men sat down at the head of the bed, Li Yichen took a few steps back, holding a cane in his right hand, and slowly knelt down on his knees towards the ground, wanting to bow down to the two old men.

"Oh, my good grandson, what are you doing here? You don't need to be unwell now, kneel down to greet your grandparents, your heart, grandma and your grandfather know. ”

Seeing that Li Yichen was going to kneel down to pay New Year's greetings to himself despite his physical weakness, the old woman felt sorry for her grandson and quickly stood up from the bedside to dissuade her grandson.

"Grandma, grandma is fine. This is also a piece of the grandson's heart, please sit on it and be worshiped by the grandson. ”

In the face of the old man's dissuasion, Li Yichen still insisted on his own ideas, hoping to kneel down and kowtow to the two old men and pay New Year's greetings.

"Okay, this is also a piece of filial piety of Chen'er, let's sit here and fulfill his filial piety. ”

Li Quansheng sat at the head of the bed, and after seeing Li Yichen's persistence, a knowing smile appeared on his face, and he said after stroking the long beard of his lower chin with his right hand.

"Grandpa and grandma are above, and my grandson is here to pay New Year's greetings to the second elder. I wish the second elder good health and a long life for the pine crane!"

Seeing that the second elder was already sitting there, Li Yichen quickly knelt down, kowtowed three times, said auspicious words in his mouth, and greeted the two old men.

"Well, grandpa and grandma also hope to be able to thrive and succeed in cultivation. Okay, get up and come to grandma. ”

Hearing the sound of knock, knock, knock when Li Yichen kowtowed, Li Quansheng's jaw kept tinching, looking very relieved, while Li Yichen's grandmother had red eyes and a smile as bright as a flower on her face, constantly urging Li Yichen to get up and come to her side.

"Come on, this is the New Year's money given to you by grandpa and grandma. We hope you are safe and sound in the new year!"

After coming to his grandmother's side, Li Yichen took the two red envelopes given to him by his grandfather and grandmother with both hands, which were the New Year's money given to him by the two old men.

According to the customs of the Shenlong Empire, during the Spring Festival, the elders should distribute the New Year's money prepared in advance to the younger generations, and it is said that the New Year's money can suppress the evil spirit, because the "year" and "Zhen" are homophonic, and the younger generations can spend a year in peace when they get the New Year's money.

After putting away the old man's New Year's money for himself, Li Yichen knelt on the ground and kowtowed a few more times, then got up to say goodbye to the two old men, and then walked out of his grandparents' room.

After coming out of his grandfather and grandmother, Li Yichen went to visit his parents and uncle separately.

As soon as the hour passed, Li Yichen accompanied his grandfather, father and uncle out of the gate of the house and walked in the direction of the ancestral hall, preparing to go to the ancestral hall to participate in the New Year's sacrifice to the ancestors.

According to the rules handed down by the ancestors of the Shenlong Empire, the ancestral hall has always only allowed men to enter, especially on such a major day as ancestor worship, and women are strictly prohibited from entering, so only Li Yichen and a few men go to the ancestral hall to participate in the ancestor worship today, and the others stay at home and wait for them to come back after participating in the ancestor worship.

Although there is still some time before the ancestor worship begins, and the tributes and other items required for ancestor worship are also prepared in advance and placed in the ancestral hall, Li Quansheng, as the son of the long house, still needs him to officiate and recite the ancestral text, so the family still feels that they should go to the ancestral hall as soon as possible.

When there was still some distance from the ancestral hall, Li Yichen saw a large stone monument erected outside the ancestral hall. Go ahead and take a look.

I saw that the stone tablet was carved from right to left, and there were three lines of big characters carved from top to bottom.

Written on the right is: Tenxu Renchenke

Engraved in the middle is: The one hundred and fifty-second tribute in the second examination

The engraved on the far left is: hand-picked Tiannan is to use the county governor Li Zhaochun to stand

Tianxu Renchen Branch refers to a imperial examination held in Renchen during the reign of Emperor Tianxu of the Shenlong Empire, which has a history of nearly two hundred years. In this imperial examination, Li Yichen's ancestor, Li Zhaochun, who erected the monument, won the 152nd place with the cultivation of the heavenly position, and was later appointed by Emperor Tianxu as the immediate magistrate of Tiannan Province.

In the history of the Dragon Empire, the appointment of officials was generally divided into immediate and alternate. If the official department is assessed as an alternate magistrate, then you have to queue up at the back, and if there is a vacancy, it may be your turn, and it may not even be your turn for a lifetime.

Li Yichen and the others walked to the main entrance of the ancestral hall, and he looked up. The plaque above the gate of the ancestral hall reads Legeng Li Gong Ancestral Hall, and the two door couplets of the gate, the right side is written on the pine and cypress Changchun land, and the left side is the hibiscus and the first family.

Standing at the door of the ancestral hall, Li Quansheng took out the key from his arms, opened the lock hanging on the door, and pushed open the door to look over. The gate leads to a small courtyard lined with various rows of cypress trees, and in the middle is a path inlaid with small stones that leads to the middle gate. Although it is still a cold winter, these cypress trees are still leafy and green.

Walking through the path inlaid with stones, Li Quansheng commanded the two Li Chuanrong brothers to open the middle door, Li Yichen was about to step forward to help, but because he was still unwell, he was dissuaded by his grandfather.

In the Shenlong Empire, whether it is in the house or in the ancestral hall, the middle door is generally not easily opened, it is usually closed, and only when VIPs or other important times come, the middle door will be opened. In particular, the middle door of the ancestral hall is of great significance, and it can not be opened easily, even if the family wants to add Ding, it will only open the side door next to it. Today, because the ancestral hall is to be worshiped in the ancestral hall for the New Year, the door must be opened on this important day.

Li Chuanrong brothers opened the middle door and then turned around to the gate to greet them, today came back to worship the ancestors of a lot of people, the two brothers as representatives of the long house must go to the gate to greet, to show respect.

After Li Chuanrong's brothers went out, Li Quansheng took Li Yichen to the main courtyard of the ancestral hall. Although the sacrifices used to worship the ancestral tooth had been placed in the ancestral hall in advance, today's day was too important to allow for the slightest mistake, so Li Quansheng had to take Li Yichen around and check it again by the way.

Entering through the middle door, there is a rectangular patio, and the light shines through the patio, so that the whole hall does not look gloomy.

The patio is surrounded by several large stones, and there is a huge rectangular bluestone under the patio, and there are several small holes under the wall of the well, when the rainwater falls in, it is directly discharged to the outside through the drainage holes in the patio.

Across the patio is the main hall, and above the main hall hangs a huge horizontal plaque, which reads: Chasing Yuan Hall, these three big characters. In the main hall, on the altar is the tablet of Li Yichen's ancestors of his family, so that they can enjoy the incense offerings of future generations.

Chai Yuan Hall, this is the name of Li Yichen's family in Tangjiang.

In the entire Tianyun Continent, the surname Li has a very long history, and according to legend, the surname Li came from the Yellow Emperor in ancient times. The ancestor of the surname Li was named Gaotao, a descendant of the grandson of the Yellow Emperor. When Gaotao was the emperor of Yao, he once served as "Dali", in charge of justice, and presided over the formulation of five kinds of punishments, known as "five punishments" in history. The descendants of Gaotao inherited their positions, and took their official positions as their surnames, known as "Li". Until his descendant, a nobleman named Lizheng, was persecuted to death by the king, and his wife Qihe and son Lirizhen fled to the ruins of Yihou. Because he once hid under a plum tree during the escape, and was able to save his life by feeding his hunger with plums, he changed his surname to "Li".

By now, the Li clan has a very large population in the Shenlong Empire, and it is counted in hundreds of millions, and it is divided in various places in the entire Shenlong Empire.

In order to promote the merits and morality of the ancestors, show the characteristics of the family, admonish the children to inherit and carry forward the martyrs of the ancestors, and let the descendants know the origin of their own family and remember the merits of their ancestors every time they mention their own hall name, so the ancestors of the Li family took a hall name for their own ancestral hall.

In the Shenlong Empire, there are many hall names of the Li family, some are named according to the place where they are located, some are based on traditional ethical norms, some are based on the ancestral sentiments and elegance, high wind and bright festivals, and the aphorisms and etiquette of the precepts and exhortations of future generations are the hall names, and even the hall names are given to knights, nicknames or praises.

Among these halls of the Li family, the Longxi Hall is the most famous according to the place where it is located, and in ancient times, the surname Li of Longxi Hall once achieved the Ninety-Five Supreme and ruled the entire Tianyun Continent for hundreds of years.

Li Yichen's ancestor is the Huo De Gong named Li Huode, and the descendants of Huo De Gong can be said to be the largest number and the most widely distributed in the entire Shenlong Empire.

Someone once wrote a poem praising it:

Look at its appearance is great and abundant, and think of its virtue and wealth. It is not obvious, but it is always used. Be kind and charitable, do not let Pang Jukou Yafan, stand up and clean, and also share the high wind of Tao Jing Festival. The descendants of Yier are like cotton, like stinging beetles. He said: If it is not someone else, this is Huo Deweng!

Huo Degong had three sons and two daughters, and the three sons were called Sanyilang, Sanerlang and Sansanlang, and Li Yichen was the descendant of Sansanlang.

After accompanying Li Quansheng to check around and finding no problems, Li Quansheng stood in front of the ancestral tablet and filled the oil lamps in front of each ancestor's tablet with lamp oil, while Li Yichen withdrew from the main hall and walked to the gate to accompany his father to welcome the arrival of other clansmen.