In the countryside, the seventh day memorial was taken very seriously, but the so-called importance was just to burn paper money and make offerings to the deceased.
Upon returning from the ancestral tomb, my father said to me, "Xiaofan, take your uncle to Granduncle's house and be recorded in the family genealogy."
Granduncle was the head of our village and a highly respected figure.
I nodded and took Uncle Er to the ancestral hall. Granduncle had no children and usually lived in the ancestral hall.
"Uncle Er, where did you use to live? Which city are you from?" I found an excuse to ask him on the way.
"I have no fixed abode, drifting around." he replied with a smile.
"Then do I have an aunt?" I asked with a smile.
"No," he replied.
"What about an step-grandmother, how is she?" I asked.
Uncle Er's footsteps paused briefly. After a while, he said, "She has been gone for many years."
I felt awkward and didn't want to speak further. We walked silently all the way to the ancestral hall, and I explained our reason for visiting to Granduncle. My family's affairs were almost well-known to everyone, and Granduncle smiled and said to Uncle Er, "That's right. Regardless of whether legitimate or illegitimate, they are all members of our Lin family."
I saw a flash of sharpness in Uncle Er's eyes when he heard Granduncle's words. It was a fleeting glint that frightened me.
Perhaps it was the rumored murderous intent.
Uncle Er was a man with a story, and it was not until today that I knew his name.
Lin Baqian.
It was a very strange name.
I went back to prepare for my classes. Although this job was a temporary, reluctant choice for me, I still hoped to do it well. These children here had the right to learn, and I couldn't let them stay in the mountains all their lives because of poverty. All I could do was to teach them wholeheartedly.
It was a silent night. There were four adobe houses in our family - one for my father and mother, one for my grandparents, one for me, and the last one, which was originally used for storage, was now occupied by Uncle Er.
I checked my watch, it was already past ten. This was a mountain village, and although it was not so remote as to be without electricity, the people here all went to bed early to save on electricity costs. In fact, in this mountain village, apart from sleeping at night, there were no other activities.
I blew out the kerosene lamp and soon fell into a deep sleep.
The next morning, I was woken up by the cold. It was the peak of summer, but the mountain climate turned particularly cool at night. It was just getting light outside, so I reached out to grab the thin towel and planned to go back to sleep.
However, when I reached out, I touched a cold hand.
Any drowsiness vanished in that instant.
I had a phone, a Nokia phone that my roommate had given me when I was in college. It held too many of my memories. It became the bridge of communication between me and my girlfriend during the four years of college, so even though there was no signal in the mountain village, I still kept it charged. Whenever I thought of someone, I would look at the messages it held.
Messages could be deleted when the capacity was full, but what about memories?
It was at this moment that I fumbled to grab my phone. I turned on the light and almost trembled as I shone the light towards where I had just touched the hand.
What I saw was a face.
A slightly swollen, pale face.
It was my grandfather, wearing a green and blue embroidered ceremonial robe for his burial.
I rolled out of bed, my brain temporarily short-circuited from the shock. I didn't know what to do next. There was only one thought in my mind - escape.
I opened the door and walked out, seeing the scene in the courtyard. At that moment, I burst into tears. Yes, without caring about losing face, I was scared to tears by my own grandfather.
The elders' sleep was already light, and my crying awakened my grandmother. She came out of her room in a vest, holding a broken fan, and asked me, "Xiaofan, what's wrong with you?"
She came over and patted my shoulder when she saw me crying. "How can a big kid like you still be crying? Had a nightmare?"
A nightmare?
My grandmother's words woke me up. Or perhaps not woke up, but in that moment, I was unsure whether what I had just seen was real. Perhaps everything was just a dream?
I stopped crying, because after crying, it was difficult for me to speak, so I didn't immediately explain to my grandmother why I was like this.
Also, everyone has a sense that in times of fear, having someone nearby can bring calmness.
I clenched my fists tightly and pushed open the door of the room. I could only hope that what had just happened was all a dream, and it was because I was too nervous that I had such an experience.
I turned on the light, and saw the figure on my bed. He was still there and I slapped myself, and he was still there.
At this time, my father and second uncle also heard the commotion, and came out. The three of them stood at the door of my room, just as clueless as I was.
The first reaction of my grandmother, surprisingly, was to cry. Unlike me, she wasn't crying out of fear, but out of seeing my grandpa's sadness, and immediately threw herself onto his body.
"Old man, are you reluctant to leave home?" Grandmother cried.
- Early in the morning, the three of us in the house sat in the hall.
"I had a dream last night, dreaming that the old man said he's reluctant to leave us and misses his grandson, so he wanted to come back to see, turns out it was true." Grandma muttered.
"Mom! Dad has left, he needs to rest in peace," father said, lighting up the pipe left by grandpa.
And I, I just wanted to understand what was going on. How did grandpa's body end up on my bed last night?
"Did you hear any commotion last night?" I asked.
"No, it was quiet," father said.
"Then how do you explain grandpa's body coming back?" I asked him.
"Tsk tsk." Father opened his mouth, but didn't speak.
"Xiaofan, don't be afraid, it's your grandpa wanting to see you, can your own grandpa harm you?" Grandmother said.
I didn't argue with grandma. This was her feelings and longing for grandpa, I couldn't ruin it.
But, I'm still a college student, an educated person. I'm not a staunch atheist, but if grandpa had asked me for a dream, I could understand, but his body ending up on my bed without my knowledge, I don't believe it.
"Xiaofan, you know about the seventh day soul returning night right, everyone says that the deceased, on the seventh day, will come home to visit their loved ones. Your grandpa..." father said with a frown.
He didn't finish his sentence, but I understood what he meant.
Grandpa not only returned as a spirit, but his body came back too.
"Regardless, this matter must not be known to anyone. Xiaofan should get married, if this strange thing gets out, who would dare marry into our family?" Father said, smoking.
Grandmother didn't object, and second uncle never said a word from start to end.
I kept an eye on him the whole time, his expression hasn't changed since seeing grandpa, always calm.
This isn't the expression of a normal person. - I thought to myself.
I didn't oppose father's suggestion, not to get married, just to keep this matter from getting out. I didn't want my family to become the talk of the village again.
So, our plan was to secretly bury grandpa again tonight, father, second uncle, and I.
The plan was good, but we overlooked a key point, a very important key point.
Just as I finished setting things up at home and was getting ready to go back to school with grandpa's body carefully hidden, I opened the door and found a crowd of people outside my house.
Leading them was third grandpa and village head Lin Sanshui.
"Xiaofan, where are your father and grandmother?" Lin Sanshui asked.
"At home." I didn't know why there were so many people crowding at my door.
"I have to tell you something, don't let your family know, your grandpa's grave has been dug up," Lin Sanshui said to me.
At that moment, I felt a bit dizzy, I wanted to hide this truth, but I overlooked it. Since grandpa could come from his grave to my bed, his grave had to be desecrated first.
The people in the mountains are very industrious, and some villagers set out early to weed the fields, passing the grave on their way, only to be frightened and rush back.
"Xiaofan, the students don't have to go to class first, delaying two days is delaying two days. I really can't understand who did such a despicable thing. Oh, by the way, does your grandpa's old house (referring to the coffin) have anything valuable?" Lin Sanshui asked me again.
I replied with a dry mouth, "Nothing."
It's true, a university student in the mountains is exceptionally difficult. The most valuable thing on my grandpa was probably his copper pipe, which was not buried with him, but left to my father.
"Speaking of which, it's strange, I've heard there are many grave robbers outside the mountains, and some come to our mountains to dig graves? Also Xiaofan, your grandpa's body is gone," Lin Sanshui said.
The villagers behind him had started to gossip. It made me very uncomfortable. Grandpa is already deceased, I didn't want him to become a topic of conversation again.
I invited village head Lin Sanshui and third grandpa into the courtyard, not inviting the others. People in the mountains are simple, and when they left, they told me if there was anything they could help with, I could ask the uncles for help.
I wasn't rejecting them. Some things are indeed better to be known by fewer people.
I took village head Lin Sanshui and third grandpa to the hall of my house, to show them grandpa's body laid on the bed. Father had just heard our conversation in the yard, and knew it was all out in the open, just troubled, smoking with his head down.
"What's the situation?" Lin Sanshui's face was a bit unnatural, purely scared.
"When I woke up, grandpa was lying next to me," I said.
Walking at the end of the funeral procession was Lin Sanshui and me. He handed me a cigarette with a filter, I looked at it, it was actually Da Zhonghua.
He smiled at me and said, "Last time I went to report to the township chief, he gave it to me, haven't had the heart to smoke it."
It was only then I saw that he was smoking those five-cent packs of cigarette without a filter. The tobacco was a bit sweet, grandpa used to pack his pipe with this tobacco a lot when he was alive.
I lit up a cigarette, looking at grandpa's body, and still felt incredulous.
"Xiaofan, how do you see this matter?" Village head Lin Sanshui asked me.
"I don't know, it's not something our teachers taught us," I said.
"You're educated, I'll ask you one thing, do you believe in spirits?" he asked mysteriously.
"Not really," I shook my head.
"Heh, me neither, I feel like someone is targeting your family," he said.
"How can that be?" When I heard that, I became interested.
"If it's really as Uncle San said, your grandfather came back to see you, then the spirit of the dead should return before dawn, or else it won't be able to leave. This is a superstitious saying, but if that's the case, why hasn't he returned? This doesn't make sense. Oh, what am I saying? I'm a prepared party member," he smirked.
"Uncle, just the two of us, there's no need to avoid anything. Whatever comes to your mind, just say it."