Crossing Over to Yamada Love

The women followed behind the coffin and began to wail. Some spoke as they cried, while others simply wept. Mo Mei and Mo Lan belonged to the latter group; they simply made a sound of crying.

They helped each other as they walked out of the coffin.

The coffin was parked on the main street. After it was parked, the sons knelt in front of the coffin, with their backs to it, their hands on the ground, their heads in their hands, and they began to wail.

The women lay around the coffin, shoulder to shoulder, their heads resting on it, weeping loudly.

Mo Lan just lay there silently. With so many people around, no one would know whether she was crying or not.

A large crowd of onlookers had gathered around, and everyone was talking about it.

They kept talking, one after another.

After crying for a while, some close relatives from other families came to comfort her. She comforted Cui Shi first because Cui Shi was crying the loudest, shouting as she cried.

"Chang Sheng, please come back soon, I can't live without you."

"Chang Sheng, why did you abandon me? How are we women supposed to live?"

"Chang Sheng, come back, come back and take me with you. Take me with you wherever you go. What's the point of living without you?"

"Chang Sheng, oh Chang Sheng. I'll go with you."

Cui was very talkative, crying and talking incessantly, and people kept trying to persuade her to rest and not to cry herself sick. After comforting her, they went to comfort Moju, Li, and others.

Mo Ju silently shed tears, while Madam Li was also quite talkative. Although she had just married into the family, her mouth never stopped, and although her voice was not loud, it was very pleasant to hear. It made people think that she was very filial.

After a while, someone came to persuade Mo Mei and Mo Lan. Mo Lan hurriedly opened her mouth and cried, but there were no tears. She wouldn't look up, and no matter what people tried to persuade her, she just kept sobbing.

The person trying to comfort her thought Mo Lan was genuinely upset, so they kept tugging at her, trying to get her to rest and not hurt herself by crying.

Mo Lan was only faking her crying; she dared not let anyone see it. When people pulled at her, she covered her face with her sleeve, struggled towards the coffin, and lay on it, refusing to lift her head.

The person comforted her for a while, saying, "This girl is really good, she's very sentimental. Tell her not to cry until she loses her voice," and then went to comfort others. As soon as she left, Mo Lan stopped crying. She was somewhat speechless at the praise she received.

After crying for about half an hour, the people who had been blowing air started circling the coffin. When they blew the air more intensely, they even jumped up and down, running and blowing air at the same time.

Cheers erupted from all around. Mo Lan covered her face with her sleeve and peeked out. Those who were blowing loudly were straining with all their might, trying their best to blow in different ways.

The onlookers cheered, but Mo Lan found it noisy. However, this was the custom here. The family that held a grand and lively event had more face in the village. Conversely, if the event was quiet and not lively, the family would lose face in the village afterward.

The coffin stopped moving for about an hour, and the person blowing air stopped circling around the coffin and slowly moved back to the front, where they started blowing.

At this moment, someone shouted "Raise the coffin!" and the burial men who had led the way began to lift the coffin again and walk towards the cemetery. The filial sons and grandsons followed behind, weeping as they went.

Mo Lan and Mo Mei supported each other as they followed behind. The cemetery was a continuous stretch, with one earthen mound after another connected together. In one open space, a large pit had been dug. It was for burying Mo Changsheng.

The coffin was about to be lowered, and this was the time for the filial son to put on a show. The eldest son threw himself onto the coffin and shouted, "Don't bury my father! Bury me too! Father, come back! Your son misses you!"

Several people came over and quickly pulled Dalang away.

They stopped the person and put the coffin inside. Then they gave the shovel to the eldest son, who was to fill the first shovelful of soil himself.

Dalang threw the shovel aside, jumped into the pit, lay on the coffin and shouted, "Father, I won't let you die, bury me with you, I'll go to the underworld to serve you."

"This child is so filial. Quick, pull him up!" An elder, moved by the young man's actions, hurriedly called for someone to pull him up.

Before Dalang could be pulled up, Cui also lunged towards the edge of the pit, trying to go down too. Several women tried to pull her up, but she couldn't reach him and started to fall to the ground. She kept shouting that she wanted to go with her man.

Da Lang was pulled out and the first shovel of soil was added, followed by Er Lang, San Lang, and others, and then the people from the village who were helping came to add soil.

There were many people, and many onlookers. One of the men who was helping to fill the pit was named Baojun. He was bumped by someone, lost his footing, and fell into the pit.

He screamed in pain, feeling a sharp pain in his feet and legs. If he had been prepared to jump into the pit, it wouldn't have been a problem, but if he hadn't been prepared and had fallen in, there was no guarantee what would have happened.

Many people jumped in and pulled him out. He was in so much pain that his face turned pale. Mo Lan glanced at him and thought that it was definitely more than just a sprained ankle; he probably had a broken bone.

Several people helped him up and took him to the village to find Doctor Chen.

After he left, Mo Lan heard an old woman next to her say, "Bao Jun's luck is really bad. He's so unlucky. How come you're so unlucky? You just ran into Chang Sheng."

"Yes, his level is so low that it's hard to say anything more."

"He can only blame his bad luck."

Many people started discussing it. Mo Lan roughly understood what they meant: this Bao Jun was unlucky, had a run of bad luck, and had clashed with his third uncle, Mo Changsheng, which was why he fell into the pit.

Mo Lan found people really interesting; even when something goes wrong, they can still pin it on a dead person. However, she wasn't going to be foolish enough to explain it.

The soil was filled in, and the younger members of the Cui and Mo families all knelt down and began to cry.

She cried for about ten minutes, and then more people came up to comfort her, one after another, telling her to take care of herself and not to cry herself sick.

This is also a rule; you must cry for 15 minutes to see someone off. After 15 minutes, you can get up with some encouragement. Of course, some people who are truly heartbroken will not be able to hold back their tears and will continue to cry, while others will continue to cry to save face and ask for more encouragement.

Mo Lan and Mo Mei stopped crying when others tried to persuade them. They stood up, stopped crying, and joined in the effort to comfort others.

After they finished comforting the deceased, the family collected the food from the grave, including roasted pork and dumplings. These weren't left there; they were to be taken back after the ceremony.

As the group reached the village entrance, an elderly woman known as "Jun's Mother" came up to them. She offered a few words of advice before saying, "Sister, I've come to ask for some dumplings. My grandson grinds his teeth every day, and Aunt Liu said that eating a few dumplings meant for the graves will be enough. Would you mind giving me a few?"

The man with the basket hurriedly gave her a few dumplings. Actually, this was not unusual. Almost every time there was a funeral in the village, many people would come to ask for dumplings and roasted pork. There were many sayings in the village that roasted pork and dumplings offered to the dead could cure many diseases.

Mo Lan was truly speechless. The child's teeth grinding at night was probably due to iron deficiency; it would be strange if the dumplings from the grave-visiting ritual could cure it. However, she wasn't foolish enough to go up and explain iron deficiency to anyone, lest she be treated like a monster.

After walking a few steps, another person came up to ask for dumplings, saying that his child had been frightened and kept having nightmares at night, and he wanted dumplings to help him recover.

By the time they arrived at the Mo family's old residence, the dumplings in the basket were almost gone, and there was still a piece of roast pork left. However, the person carrying the basket was still happy; she would have lost face if no one had wanted it.

Upon entering the courtyard, the women began to weep again, as was customary. They entered the main room, weeping. In the center of the main room was a prayer mat, and only one person could sit on it; this position was contested. Whoever secured this seat was considered the person most concerned about the deceased, the most devoted and filial, and the most important person in the family.

The women swarmed toward the prayer mat, and Cui squeezed in as well. This prayer mat was hers to sit on, and no one could take it from her.

Two people who tried to grab the items failed and knelt down on the ground beside them. Cui Shi sat on most of the prayer mat, and Li Shi sat on a small portion of it. They both sat on the ground and began to cry.

Cui was very dissatisfied. She didn't expect her daughter-in-law to dare to compete with her so soon after entering the house. How could this be allowed to continue? With a thrust of her waist and a shove of her buttocks, she pushed Li off the prayer mat.

Li's eyes flashed, but she didn't say anything or make any further movements. Instead, she sat down on the ground and started crying.

After crying for a while, people comforted them and they stopped crying. This was the last time they cried. After this, the funeral would be over.

After the event was completed, the host thanked the relatives and friends for their help, exchanged a few polite words, and then the relatives and helpers would go their separate ways. When they returned home, they would bring back a basket, usually containing a piece of flour and a few scallions, as a return gift. This gift wasn't insignificant, because flour was a precious commodity.

Liu and Qiu had been returning gifts to people in the kitchen. Only after most of the people had left did they straighten their backs. They hadn't had a moment's rest these past few days, and their backs were practically broken.

Mo Mei and Mo Lan also took off their mourning clothes and called over Liu Shi and Qiu Shi. They stood beside Wang Shi and prepared to pack up and go back.

"You think you can just eat and leave? Who are you going to leave this mess behind? You say you're here to help, but what can you do? You're all gluttons, not a single one of you is of any use." Seeing that everyone was about to leave, but there were still several large basins of unwashed dishes in the kitchen, Cui didn't want them to leave like that. She wanted them to clean up the kitchen and the yard before they left.

Everyone was angry when they heard her words. These bowls were mostly borrowed. The owners were supposed to wash them themselves and return them the next day. The tables and chairs were also borrowed from various neighbors, many of them from the Mo family's shop.

Everyone was exhausted, so they thought they'd leave the bowls here and pick them up tomorrow. Besides, there were quite a few people in the second branch of the family, so why couldn't they wash a few more bowls?