In his previous life, Li Ye had once been puzzled. Why was Qingming Festival one of the twenty-four solar terms of the Chinese calendar, yet always calculated by the Gregorian calendar, always falling in early April?
He later learned that the lunar calendar was a combined system of the solar and lunar calendars. Unlike other traditional Chinese festivals, which followed the lunar calendar, Qingming corresponded to the solar calendar—the date when the sun reached a particular position—and was fixed between April 4 and April 6 on the Gregorian calendar.
In 1989, Qingming fell on April 5.
At dawn, the sky was already deeply overcast. By half past eight, sparse threads of rain had begun to drift down.
Standing in the cemetery, Li Ye tilted his head back and felt the cold, damp droplets strike his face. His mood was as gloomy as the sky above him.
"Drizzle falls in endless threads at Qingming." It sounded poetic, full of atmosphere, but at this moment, Li Ye would rather endure fierce ultraviolet rays than accept this rain that so perfectly matched the occasion.
Because standing with him were more than two hundred elderly people over sixty.
It was the season when spring cold still bit to the bone, and they were on a plateau where even a single cold could kill. What usually seemed like harmless rain was no easy matter for them.
Even though Li Ye had prepared thoroughly and supplied everyone with convenient raincoats, he could not guarantee absolute safety. The two patients who had left by plane were right there as examples.
But today's memorial plan could not possibly be changed. The occasion was too important, and too many people were attending. Li Ye could only hope the rain would not grow too heavy and that all parties would