Zi Shou changed into casual clothes and went to the Ancestral Temple with Pixiu.
A crowd of nobles stood near the Ancestral Temple, wearing broad robes with wide sleeves, their noses in the air and their bodies fat enough to ooze grease.
At a glance, he could tell that they cared deeply about the Ancestral Temple. Aside from boasting about their ancestors' achievements, they were discussing how the temple should be built, which materials were best, and what sort of statues would be worthy of their ancestors' accomplishments.
They cut no corners whatsoever. Every material they proposed was a rarity.
Zi Shou began to question his life.
This enthusiastic? Surely it was fake?
Wasn't this just building a temple and putting up some statues? They shouldn't be this eager. Judging by their conversations, why had even the heads of some families come in person?
The statues in the Ancestral Temple were statues, and the statues in their own homes were statues too. There was no difference!
No matter how Zi Shou thought it over, he could not make sense of it. He could only walk through the crowd with Pixiu, pricking up his ears to gather information.
"I originally didn't care about this lousy temple."
"Right, neither did I."
"But my old father wouldn't have it. He said Chaoge was the center of the world, with plenty of people, so more people would see our ancestors' achievements."
"That wasn't the case for me. Neither my old father nor I cared, but our ancestors did!"
"Your ancestors cared? What do you mean?"
"Our ancestors' spirit tablets fell over several times. We stood them up, and they fell. Stood them up, and they fell again. Some even fell in the middle of the night, knocking over the candlesticks and offerings."
"The same