The two returned to the school looking somewhat bedraggled, only to find Xiao Lin and the town's elderly residents all gathered there.
Having failed to hire any suona players, the guilty pair were told:
Principal Tang's funeral had been set for the next day.
Tonight was the final night of the vigil, and it was especially important!
The two of them needed to keep vigil all night.
The makeshift mourning hall had been set up in the abandoned school halfway up the mountain.
"What? We have to keep vigil for the entire night?"
Juan'er's eyes widened in disbelief.
They actually expected her to spend the whole night keeping vigil in that dilapidated school?
The man beside her looked equally unwilling.
Elder Bai stepped forward two paces and said in his raspy, smoke-worn voice:
"Filial sons and virtuous descendants keeping watch over the mourning hall is tradition! Those attending the funeral also need someone to serve tea, offer cigarettes, and boil water. That is proper etiquette! Since you are Principal Tang's closest relatives, you must go to the mourning hall!
"Unless you aren't her family. Then you can leave right now!"
"And we certainly won't stop you!"
The surrounding elders all nodded in agreement upon hearing that.
They did not care about anyone else, but Principal Tang's funeral had to be conducted according to Huayi Town's customs!
Seeing this,
Juan'er gave a bitter smile and explained:
"Ah, you've misunderstood! Of course I'll go. This is such an important matter, so don't worry. Tonight, I'll don mourning clothes and keep vigil for my aunt!"
"You're really going?"
The man was somewhat surprised and blurted out the question.
At those words, the crowd's expressions, which had only just softened, immediately changed.
Seeing that her husband had no sense of the bigger picture, Juan'er shot him a fierce glare and gritted out in a low voice:
"Do you not see what time this is? Can I refuse to go?"
"Mm, good!"
Elder Bai nodded, then continued:
"Keeping vigil is an act of filial devotion. There can be no carelessness! If there's nothing else, go over early and get ready!"
"Ah, we've also notified all those children who are away from town about Principal Tang. I hope they can make it back in time tomorrow!"
When people got old, tears became hard to hold back.
Too lazy to watch these elders cry and unwilling to listen to anything else, Juan'er and the man quickly packed up their things, then took the two children to the mourning hall at the abandoned school halfway up the mountain.
The mountain path was not easy to travel.
Juan'er and the man were both panting from exhaustion, yet they still had to hold on to the two children.
There were stones scattered along the mountain road, making it easy to slip and fall.
The man was deeply unhappy.
"What kind of shitty road is this? What kind of poor-ass place, what kind of poor-ass customs!? I'm telling you, don't get involved in this crap again! I fucking never want to come here again!"
"You think I wanted to get involved? You weren't this angry when you were taking their money! If you don't want the money, then get lost! When you work outside, you still have to put on a pleasant face for others, so don't you throw that attitude at me!"
Juan'er snapped irritably. If not for inheriting her aunt's property legitimately, she would have turned and left the moment they mentioned keeping vigil.
When she came, she had not known there would be so many customs before the funeral.
She sighed and complained:
"The city is still better. Wouldn't it be done once they cremated the body and buried the ashes? Why insist on this vigil? It's such a pain!"
"Exactly. This mountain is remote enough as it is. Who knows how many people will even come to the funeral? She has no relatives or friends here, yet those people still want to put on such a grand affair. They really have no idea what they're talking about!"
The man hurriedly echoed her words, utterly impatient.
His words gave Juan'er something to think about.
Her aunt had no family or friends here either. She wondered how she had persevered for a full eighteen years.
This rugged mountain path made their feet ache after just one trip, yet her aunt had walked it countless times.
The hastily assembled mourning hall was very simple.
The old school pressed against it was little more than crumbling walls and ruins, looking rather abandoned.
When the two arrived, they found that many wreaths had already been piled along those old walls.
Since they were here, they might as well make the best of it.
Juan'er entered the mourning hall, put on mourning garments, and tied a mourning cloth around her head.
No matter what, Principal Tang was her aunt, so she had to put white mourning caps on the two children as well.
She lit incense and reverently kowtowed several times.
Then she knelt on a straw mat beside the coffin.
The sky gradually darkened, and weariness swept over the people in the mourning hall.
Looking at the thoroughly disgruntled man beside her, Juan'er yawned and said sleepily:
"Since no one's coming anyway, let's just treat this as a night's rest!"
As soon as she finished speaking,
two figures suddenly entered.
They were Xiao Lin and Xiao Ai. After settling matters at the school, they had come to keep vigil.
Soon, several more people entered.
Even the elders from earlier in the day had made their way up the mountain and arrived at the mourning hall.
Tonight was the final night of the vigil, and everyone took it especially seriously.
The mourning hall soon filled with people. Some helped boil water, offer cigarettes, and receive those who had come to pay their respects.
The night cast a mysterious hue over the entire mountain and made the uphill path even more dangerous and difficult.
Even so,
more and more people came to the mourning hall!
Everyone fought off their drowsiness to keep vigil here for Principal Tang.
As the mourning hall gradually grew more crowded, Juan'er could not understand it.
Her aunt had been an ordinary principal in this impoverished place for eighteen years. That alone was rare enough.
Yet so many people had voluntarily come to keep vigil in the mourning hall late at night!?
Even these older people had disregarded the difficulty of climbing the mountain and insisted on coming to keep vigil for her aunt, preparing to see her off tomorrow.
Glancing at the downcast Xiao Ai beside her, Juan'er suppressed her sleepiness and finally asked:
"Why have so many people come to keep vigil? Is this also a custom in your Huayi Town?"
"Everyone came voluntarily, to see Principal Tang off."
Xiao Ai answered in a somewhat muffled voice, unwilling to pay attention to Juan'er.
How could someone selfish at heart understand what Principal Tang had been like?
Those who came to the mourning hall included not only the children's parents, but also many people whom the principal had once helped.
Some were from nearby villages.
Others had heard the news of Principal Tang's passing in other cities and rushed over overnight.
Having remained in this temporary mourning hall for so long, Juan'er's legs had begun to go numb.
She wanted to go outside for some fresh air.
Seeing the people serving tea occasionally step outside the mourning hall for a while, she assumed they were also going out for air.
She squeezed out of the mourning hall and headed outside.
Pulling aside the hanging curtain at the entrance, she looked up. Her entire body jolted violently, and she froze in place with a stunned expression.
At that moment,
besides the temporary mourning hall in the abandoned school halfway up the mountain,
even more people were standing outside!
There were densely packed crowds—several hundred people in all!
Seeing Juan'er come out for air, her husband hurriedly followed. When he saw the sight before him, his face changed in shock as well!
How could there be so many people!?
What kind of person had her aunt been?
The children wore white paper flowers pinned to their chests, while the adults voluntarily stayed behind to help receive those attending the principal's funeral.
Serving tea, offering cigarettes, and boiling water all required extra hands.
At the foot of the mountain, some of the principal's former students were still on their way here~
Unlike an ordinary funeral, many people came to the mourning hall, yet it was not lively.
Everyone who came carried solemnity, grief, and remembrance in their hearts!
The night was bleak and long, but at last, the dawn of the next day arrived.
The day of Principal Tang's funeral came with the rising sun.
PS:
Let us welcome this book's first Hall Master: Thank Goodness~Duck, for the donation!!
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The big shots' donations, emmm, I need to hurry up and add another chapter!
I'll post two more chapters tonight!
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