This shows my uncle's status in the family , but it also overturned my impression of my third uncle. I always thought that my third uncle was a gentle and intellectual with a temperament, but I didn't expect that he was also as flattering as ordinary people.

It seems that there is no "master" in this world. Even the eldest uncle must have people to flatter, such as the five old men above him and the five old grandfathers.

Perhaps this is the truest form of life, because humans are social animals. Everyone needs the cooperation of others to survive in this complex society. Therefore, flattery as a means of "promoting friendship" must be used even within a family.

Although most areas in the south of the Yangtze River are prosperous, there are inevitably some poor places, such as Chu Sen’s hometown .

We went to college together for four years and were considered close friends, but I only knew that he was a rich second-generation and had a father who ran a 4S shop. Only today did I find out that his roots were in an extremely poor and backward village in the south of the Yangtze River .

It was only after seeing this place that I could believe that such a barren and desolate place could exist in such a fertile water town. At first glance, it is comparable to the villages on the Loess Plateau, but although the Loess Plateau is barren, at least the color of the soil is yellow. In the sunlight, the endless yellow soil slopes can be considered spectacular.

But the situation in his hometown can only be described as horrific.

This is a mountain village. All the residents settled in a mountain called "Tianluo Mountain", so the village is also called "Tianluo Village".

Although the mountains in Jiangnan cannot be compared with those in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, beautiful mountains and waters are an important part of the beauty of Jiangnan. Therefore, there are actually quite a few famous mountains in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. However, most of them are beautiful and gentle, not the majestic and rocky mountain ranges.

Tianluo Mountain is a "single mountain" that was formed by a volcanic eruption in ancient times. The mountain rises gently without any sense of steepness. However, the scenery in the mountain has nothing to do with the word "beautiful". The whole mountain is gray and dull, with no grass growing. All the trees that once grew there have died, without a single living tree. There is not even a fallen leaf on the gray land.

The entire mountain resembled a dead man 's eyeball, devoid of any life. Even without using any feng shui techniques, I could tell this mountain was absolutely unsuitable for human habitation. Neither burial sites nor houses could be built there. Chu Sen's ancestors were buried here, and the fact that he'd enjoyed over a decade of good fortune was truly a stroke of luck. Standing at the foot of the mountain, my uncle saw the problem and said, "This mountain probably wasn't this lifeless in its early years, was it?"

"You are right. When I was a child, Tianluo Mountain was very beautiful, with green mountains and clear waters, and two clear springs flowing down the mountain. Every time I breathed in the air, my lungs felt like they were filled with fairy air. Uncle, how did you see that?" Chu Sen asked.

"This isn't surprising. There are so many dead trees on the mountain, which means there used to be plants growing there. But why did all these plants die in just a dozen years? There has to be an explanation, right?"

"Yes, when I was five, a geologist in the mountains said there was a copper mine in Tianluo Mountain, so I joined the work group to dig for copper. At that time, there was a blind fortune teller in the village who tried his best to stop us. He even got into a fight with the work group and was later arrested. I was young at the time and just watched the fun. When I was fifteen, I accidentally heard the village elders talk about this blind man. They said that he later died in prison after hitting his head. After the copper mine was dug, the mountain became barren for some reason. First, the springs stopped flowing, and then the plants on the whole mountain died little by little. Some villagers also said that although the blind man couldn't see people, he could see the meridians of the mountain. They said that the work group had dug up the meridians of the mountain, so that no grass could grow."

As we were talking, we came to a ditch that was now filled with dried mud. The ditch meandered up the mountain. Chu Sen pointed at it and said, "This used to be filled with mountain springs. The water was sweet, warm in winter and cool in summer. The villagers drank the spring water, and they were in good health and rarely got sick."

"Is there no one who listens to what a blind man says?" asked the uncle.

"In fact, the blind man is considered a person of status in our village. He is particularly good at speaking some truths that others have never heard of, so the villagers respect him very much. But no one is destined to listen to the matter of digging copper mines, because the strong laborers in the village have been recruited into the work group. Everyone has a salary to earn, so who would put down the money in front of them and listen to him?" Chu Sen said.

The uncle nodded slightly and then asked, "Has your father been recruited into the work group?"

"All the able-bodied men in the village have been recruited, so my dad must be there too."

"Did he later tell you about any strange phenomena he encountered while digging the mountain?"

"Never. I was young at that time and just played all day. I never heard or understood what the adults said." Chu Sen said.

We climbed all the way to the top of the mountain and looked down, where we saw a beautiful scenery. There were large green rice fields not far from Tianluo Mountain. A cemetery was built in the space between the farmland and the foot of the mountain. A gray dome-shaped ancestral hall was very conspicuous in the cemetery.

"Have all the villagers in the mountains moved away?" asked the uncle.

When he asked this question, behind him were the former residences of Tianluo Village. Most of the houses were wooden structures, and now they are in a dilapidated state.

"I still remember the relocation. It was shortly after the spring stopped flowing. I don't know why we suddenly moved from the mountain to the foot of the mountain."

The uncle said, "It seems that you haven't paid enough attention to your hometown since you left Tianluo Village. I guess you haven't been back very often, right?"

Chu Sen blushed and said, "When I was a child, I only played and didn't think about these things. When I grew up, I still only knew how to play. If my godfather hadn't kicked me out of the house, I would have almost forgotten Tianluo Village. Am I that kind of heartless person?" He laughed at himself.

"You can't say that. After all, you were still young when you left home, and time can dilute family affection." said the uncle.

He did not go down the mountain, but stood on the mountain and observed the situation of the cemetery from a high vantage point.

The farmland in Tianluo Village looks very beautiful when viewed from a high place, because it is not the common large square fields, but an S-shaped planting belt with green vegetation in the upper half and yellow vegetation in the lower half, which is clearly divided and very pleasing to the eye.

The reason why the farmland is arranged in such a strange shape is that on one side of the farmland is the current residential area of Tianluo Village, and on the other side is a pond.

The pond is crescent-shaped, with one end connected to the farmland and the other end at the entrance to the cemetery .

I was about to show off my knowledge of feng shui, which I knew nothing about, and praise the cemetery's beautiful terrain with mountains and water, but my uncle said first, "I see. So that's how it is."

Chu Sen hesitated and said, "Did you see the problem?" He probably felt that his uncle "corrected the error too quickly" and might be a little unreliable.

The uncle nodded confidently and said, "That's right. There are two explanations for the topography of Tianluo Village. One is called Xuanyue in the sky, which means that the waterway beside the tomb is in the shape of a crescent moon, just like the crescent moon in the sky. Yin houses are dark, and the moon-shaped waterway is formally compatible, but it is not top-notch feng shui. If the remains of ancestors are buried in this feng shui situation, most of the descendants will have no worries about food and clothing, but it is difficult for them to achieve great things."

"I see. No wonder I was kicked out of the house in my twenties. So this is the reason."

The uncle said, "You are wrong. The reason you have no money now is not because you are not destined to be rich, but because you have a calamity in your life. Relatively speaking, losing money to avoid disaster is the best result you can have at the moment."

"I'm destined to have a disaster? But the Feng Shui master said that my family's ancestral tomb has excellent Feng Shui and cannot be disturbed. Is he just talking nonsense?"

"It's not nonsense, but this person's knowledge and cultivation are limited. He read a book called "Burial Classic" and thought he could know the topography of graves in the world. To put it bluntly, he is a half-baked person who wanders around aimlessly. Although he has no intention of harming others, he often makes mistakes due to his ignorance."

Then the uncle pointed at the curved water channel and said, "At first glance, it does look like a crescent moon, but I want to ask you, where does this water come from?"

There are no waterways around the pond, so it can only be an underground water source. Chu Sen also said so. His uncle said, "That's right. If the reason for the formation of this pond is the spring of Tianluo Mountain flowing down and converging, then it is Xuanyue in the sky. But the source of this water is because the spring water on the top of the mountain was cut off. The underground water has nowhere to circulate and gather, and it is formed. This is the most taboo in Feng Shui, robber water."