Volume 1 Chapter 0031: Disrespecting Gods and Immortals
During the college entrance examination in 1977, all the remaining educated youth in Wenchangwei took the exam. Not long after the exam, Qu Jing and Lin Guangwei returned to Guangzhou.
Qu Jing passed the exam, but because of her father's historical issues, she did not pass the political review; Lin Guangwei did not pass the exam at all, and no one knows what he is doing now.
Nan Yi and Qu Jing still keep in touch. Although most of the letters are polite, they still mention their current situation. She helps in the kitchen of a state-owned restaurant and learns how to make soy sauce chicken from the chef.
According to her, she has done a pretty good job and invited him to try it when he passes by Guangzhou.
Zhao Hongzhuang had been recommended to attend the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers University, but was rejected because she failed the political review. Before the college entrance examination, she returned to the city through unknown connections.
Therefore, there was no one in the Xian Family Ancestral Hall for a long time, and it had already been cleaned up. Everything that needed to be taken out had already been taken out.
All the male members of the Xian family were already there, lined up, and waiting for the auspicious time to come.
Nan Yi’s surname is not Xian, so naturally he doesn’t need to wait.
He was outside the ancestral hall, near the river, fiddling with the muskets, all of which were single-barreled guns. Nan Yi shook the gunpowder that had been pre-loaded with yellow paper into the gun, and stuffed a fuse into the hole in the gun body.
He took two pieces of yellow paper from the bamboo basket beside him, crumpled one of them into a ball, stuffed it into the muzzle of the gun, poked it in with a cleaning rod, stuffed the second piece in, then held the cleaning rod and hit it with a hammer to make the yellow paper tightly block the gunpowder.
"Do you understand?"
After finishing one, Nan Yi asked Nan Ruoyin who was standing next to him.
"Um."
"Then how about you load the gunpowder for the remaining five?"
"OK."
Nan Ruoyin enthusiastically imitated Nan Yi and fiddled with it.
Looking at his watch, he still had plenty of time, so Nan Yi stood aside and lit a cigarette.
"Dad, it's ready. When can we release it?"
"Haha, wait, there are still five minutes. Dad will order the first shot and you can order the second shot, okay?"
"Okay."
Four minutes passed quickly. Nan Yi took out three pieces of yellow paper that had been folded in advance from the bamboo basket, and then took out three incense sticks. He first lit the incense with a lighter, then lit the yellow paper, and worshiped while holding the incense.
This is to respect the heaven, the earth, the ghosts and gods, and all things. I'm just saying hello to everyone first, and I'll be firing soon.
After sticking the incense on the ground, Nan Yi lit the fuse of a musket.
Hiss, hiss, hiss. The fuse burned very quickly. Nan Yi ran four or five steps away and the gun exploded.
boom!
There was a loud bang that was very deafening, and a large area of the ground where the gun was inserted was cracked open.
Nan Yi picked up a gong hammer covered with a red cloth and struck the gong hanging on the rack. He took a deep breath and shouted, "The auspicious time has arrived!"
As soon as the gong sounded, the sounds of small gongs, big cymbals, small cymbals, golden cymbals, and big drums rang out one after another.
Nan Yi looked towards the entrance of the ancestral hall. The person beating the big drum was Xian Weimin, and what he held in his hand was not a drumstick, but a bamboo stick.
Nan Yi needed to strike the gong in coordination with Xian Weimin's rhythm. When Xian Weimin struck out the rhythm of bang-bang-da, da-dong-da, he had to follow with a "bang"; then it would be bang-da-bang-da, da-bang-da... bang-bang.
This is one section, and you need to repeat nine sections.
After the nine sections were struck, Nan Yi asked Nan Ruoyin to light a musket. After a bang, Nan Yi had to prick up his ears and listen. For each of the six muskets to explode, they needed to be fired in coordination.
…
After a morning, the ceremony was finally over, and then the roasted suckling pig that had been offered to the ancestors was distributed.
Share the roast suckling pig, no matter if someone's surname is Xian or not, as long as someone asks for it, you have to give it to them.
However, only men can come. If women come, they will politely ask you to leave. On such important days, people usually keep a peaceful mood, unless someone rides on their neck to shit.
"Ruoyin, wait for me here. Dad will be back soon. "
"Dad, you go. I'll be good and wait for you." Nan Ruoyin nodded.
Nan Yi was carrying a bamboo basket in one hand and a gong stand in the other. He walked to the door of the ancestral hall and just put the things down when an old man with a cane came towards him.
The old man is called Xian Guangbing. He is the oldest person in Wenchangwei and the person in charge of the Xian Family Ancestral Hall, playing a role similar to that of a patriarch.
However, apart from matters related to the ancestral hall, such as sacrifices and compiling family genealogies, they have no say in other aspects.
"Nan Yi, you've worked hard today. Take this."
"Thank you, great grandfather."
Nan Yi took the red envelope handed to him by Xian Guangbing and said thank you.
"Come on, sit at the table with me and have a few drinks with me."
"Grandpa, I'm not offending you, but my daughter is still waiting on the side. I'll get a portion of pork and toast you a glass of wine as apology."
"Well, next time, I'll definitely have a few drinks."
"sure."
After receiving the pork and toasting with wine, Nan Yi said goodbye to Xian Yaodong and the others, then took Nan Ruoyin back to his home.
Everything was explained yesterday, so let Xian Yaodong and others communicate with the members.
Today is the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the Little New Year in the north.
There is a folk saying that the 23rd is the day to worship the Kitchen God; today is the day to worship the Kitchen God.
The Kitchen God is considered to be a guiding god, and the Kitchen God worship ceremony on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month is to send him to heaven.
A week later, on the night of New Year's Eve, the Kitchen God will come to the human world together with other gods, bringing the family's good and bad fortune of the year.
After the Chinese New Year, all other gods will return to heaven, and only the Kitchen God will stay in the kitchens of thousands of households.
Nan Yi returned to Nan's house and immediately started to get busy. He put water in an iron pot and asked Nan Ruoyin to light a fire.
He took out the cakes and put them in a tall basin, cut the tofu into squares and placed them in a cup, placed a piece of matching red paper on top of the tofu, and inserted a cypress leaf in the middle of the red paper.
He opened the lead pot lid at the edge of the stove and scooped out a lamp of steamed rice that had been kept warm in the pot. He went to the utility room to get some incense, yellow paper, and a pair of red candles, and walked back to the kitchen.
"Dad, the water is boiling."
"Um."
Nan Yi responded and walked to the table in the kitchen. He picked up a bamboo sieve on the table, placed it on the stove, lifted the white cloth covering the sieve, put six round dumplings into the pot first, and then picked up six oval dumplings with a pink protrusion like a horn on them and put them into the pot.
Grab the spatula on the side and gently push the glutinous rice balls into the pot to prevent them from sticking to the pot.
After three or five pushes, stop pushing and cover the pot.
Taking advantage of the free time, he found a jar of rice wine, opened it, and poured some wine into a wine pot.
Hearing the sound of water popping in the pot, Nan Yi opened the lid and saw the glutinous rice balls floating on the water.
Put the dumplings in two bowls, six in each bowl.
"Robin, put the fire back into the ash pond and cover it with ashes. Come over when you're done."
"Um."
Place the dessert bowls, tofu bowls, rice bowls, and glutinous rice ball bowls on the stove facing the shrine; place three wine glasses in another row and fill them with rice wine; place three pairs of red-painted chopsticks in the gaps between the wine glasses.
He took out six incense sticks and lit them, then handed three to Nan Ruoyin. Nan Yi bowed to the Kitchen God in the shrine, then knelt down and bowed again.
"Ruoyin, come here, kneel down and worship the Kitchen God, and ask him to say a few good words for you when he returns to heaven to take up his post."
Nan Ruoyin obediently knelt down on the straw bundle, bowed, and muttered to herself, "Master Kitchen God, please go to heaven and say a few good words for Ruoyin. When you come back, remember to bring more delicious food."
Hearing the little girl's words, Nan Yi smiled knowingly.
He had done similar things himself, but what he asked for was more outrageous .
He asked the Kitchen God to ask the Jade Emperor whether he could reward him with a deity position. He didn't care how big or small the deity was, as long as he was a deity, the "land god" would not despise him.
