Chapter 32: The Closest Kinship Breaks

  The big drum was played, and after a routine check according to the old rules, the people dispersed only after midnight. Jin Hu followed his father out of the Shan Tang, and the four little door gods at the entrance watched as they left. Only then did the two men close the door behind them.

  Jin Hu followed behind Jin Guangfu, and as soon as he had descended a few steps, four little ones caught up with him: "Guangfu uncle, can we go out with Brother Hu?" The other three little ones asked in unison, staring at Jin Guangfu's back.

  "Go home and ask your own family, old man is leaving." Jin Guangfu turned his head to say a sentence to the few kids, then said to Jin Hu: "I'll go back first, you talk to them." After finishing speaking, he didn't wait for Jin Hu's response and lifted his foot towards the entrance of the house.

  "Brother Tiger! When are you leaving? I'm going home to pack up." asked Lv Cheng with a square face, looking at Jin Hu.

  "Go! Go! My dad said this time I'm the first to follow Tiger Brother to explore the road for you, blow the whistle and you guys come later."

  "What's the big deal?" Lu Yuan said unwillingly, "What's there to wait for in the village? A quilt can't even last ten days or half a month. I think the car Old Tiger left at the foot of the mountain is just fine! It can last two months."

  Yang Benlin said: "Exactly! It's not even cold today!"

  Jin Hu looked at the four sturdy young men, each about 1.7 meters tall, and said without thinking: "I'll take you out of here, first for a while to watch the warehouse, find a teacher to teach you marksmanship!"

  "Can we still play with guns?" The pupils in the eyes of several silly guys began to enlarge: "Rifles or others".

  "Pistols and submachine guns, don't tell others for now," Jin Hu said: "But you guys need to stay calm for a while and learn how to use the gun properly." Jin Hu thought about pulling Wang Jun over to train these kids. Wang Jun's marksmanship was top-notch, of course, he himself could also teach, but he didn't have time, and these mountain kids were too unruly, having someone steady to watch them would be good, or else they might stir up some trouble.

  Lü Chengyi heard that and said: "Then we can't stay any longer. If we stay, the good guns will be taken away by others!"

  "It's so fast! Just like watching me go down the mountain and still looking for a place to land, looking for warehouses and whatnot, it takes a month to arrive." Jin Hu said to several silly kids with guns: "First, all of you go home, tomorrow morning follow me to my uncle's house to ask him to come and attend the ceremony".

  "Alright!" Looking at the four kids who responded in unison, Jin Hu lifted his foot and headed towards home.

  Back home, Jin Hu followed his parents and said a word before going back to his room to ponder his own affairs. He pulled Wang Jun over, thinking it was promising, the key being that this place had to be close to the water's edge, but not too shallow. If it weren't for the fact that the Explorer couldn't get close enough, of course, now wasn't the time for the Explorer to show its head either. When the time came, he'd set up a waterproof box and put things in the shallow water, hang something with positioning on the box, and let them pick it up. Places like this had to be either along the coast or along the river, and there couldn't be many people around. This time Jin Hu really hadn't thought of anything suitable, so he went to sleep after thinking for a while.

  The next morning, Jin Hu got up and had just arrived in the yard when four little ones rushed to his house, waiting for him to take them to his uncle's village. At the door were tied four mountain horses belonging to the four little ones.

  Jin Hu washed his face, Jin Guangfu put the gift on the mountain horse's back and handed a red-bottomed golden sticker to Jin Hu: "Do you understand the old rules of worshiping the mountain head?" Looking at Shan Bao, he nodded: "Don't make any mistakes!"

  Jin Hu looked at the note in Dan Bao's hand and asked his father, "I'm going to my uncle's house, do I need this?" This thing is called a visiting card, the most formal way for two families to interact. But since he was going to his maternal grandfather's family, did he really need it? According to custom, Jin Hu was considered the younger master of their family, and if there were no older relatives present, he could be considered half the master of the house. Similarly, if Jin Hu were in the same situation, his cousin would also be considered half the master of the Jin family's house, being a blood relative.

  "Just take it if you want it, what's the point of saying so much?" Jin Guangfu said to his son and went back into the house.

  Since Laozi has already said so, what else can Jinhu hesitate about? As for the matters on the scene, he can still compare with his own father. He brought four little ones, each riding a mountain horse, and one mountain horse carrying gifts towards his maternal grandfather's home.

  Five people all the way, loudly and cheerfully singing mountain songs, walked for almost five or six hours, until after two o'clock in the afternoon, nearly three o'clock, before arriving at the gate of Jin Hu's maternal grandfather's village.

  Four men dismounted, and Shan Bao handed the reins to Lü Cheng beside him. Holding a large red gift box, he shouted loudly: "The young master of the Jin family village is here to pay his respects to the great master of the Zuoshan village!" After finishing speaking, five people stood at the entrance of the village waiting. Five or six minutes later, someone came out from inside. A forty- or fifty-year-old man made a fist and bowed to Jin Hu and the others: "Our master is waiting for the young master in the mountain hall." He then made a welcoming gesture with his hand.

  Holding the invitation, Jin Hu's first identity is not his uncle's grandson, but the young master of the Jin family village. He can't rush to his uncle's house in a hurry, he has to go to the mountain hall for a conversation, and even the order of sitting on the chairs has a sequence. His uncle has to wait for Jin Hu to sit down before he can take a seat. If it gets out, people will say that you don't understand etiquette and laugh at you.

  A dull conversation without salt or oil came to an end, Lao Li finished, and the people in the mountain hall also dispersed. Zuo Jin Tang, who was also Jintu's grandfather, said to Jintu: "Your father is my son-in-law, you are my grandson, what's the point of doing these things?"

  Jin Hu smiled and said, "My dad told me to do it." After finishing speaking, he stood up from the chair, walked to Lao Ye's side, stretched out his hand and helped Lao Ye stand up from the chair. This is the affection between two generations. If Jin Hu's uncle dared to do this, Lao Ye would definitely glare at him with wide eyes. But when Jin Hu helped him up, Lao Ye smiled and stood up from the chair following the direction of the force: "Let's go! Let's go home and talk about it."

  Jin Hu followed his grandfather home, while the four of them were entertained by someone else.

  When he arrived home, Jinhu greeted his grandparents and uncle and aunt. His grandmother was overjoyed to see him, holding his hand and asking him questions left and right, chatting with him for over ten minutes. It wasn't until Zuo Jintang said, "The kids haven't eaten yet, hurry up and get some food ready."

  Watching Jinhu's aunt and uncle come out of the house, Zuo Jing said to Jinhu: "Tell me what happened again, and say what you're going to do in the future."

  Jin Hu repeated what he had said, anyway, it was all said several times, and he just opened his mouth to speak. After finishing speaking, the dishes were served, Jin Hu buried his head in eating alone, Shu Ma and Shu Bo returned to the house, only two old people smiled at their grandson eating, and Waipo occasionally added vegetables to the bowl.

  After finishing dinner, Jinhu was driven into the house by his grandfather to take a nap. He had just fallen asleep when he heard his grandfather's voice ringing out: "You're not even giving us any face?" If Jinhu's hearing hadn't improved so much now, he wouldn't have been able to hear the voices from the side room at all.

  "Your brother-in-law put on this attitude today, I said it wasn't that troublesome, we're all close relatives. Now it seems, your brother-in-law was right after all, the step is already at our feet, aren't you going to take it? Are you not afraid of being ridiculed by the whole village?" The old man's voice was full of energy.

  "Father! You're not unaware, are you? What Tiger's doing is a life-or-death business. If it were just about borrowing money, I could say something. But now, even if she's the only child of my sister, how can I agree to let Shan'er follow him? Our family is also a respectable one, and Shan'er shouldn't be serving as an underling for some other young master! Moreover, with Shan'er's grades, wouldn't getting into university be a glorious thing?"

  "Is your brother-in-law going to let Shan'er follow him? Everyone has given you a way out, but you don't even take the opportunity. The old man said angrily: "Going to university is just for the glory of our ancestors? Our ancestors didn't recognize a single character, but they still lived with their heads held high. Is it because we didn't have enough food or clothes that you're so proud? You've broken the blood ties between us, and now you're shrinking away with your tail between your legs. What's this nonsense about bringing glory to our ancestors? Aren't you afraid that our ancestors will rise from their graves in anger?"

  "Good boy isn't that kind of material." Jin Hu heard his uncle's voice ring out.

  "What a kid!"

  "He's only eighteen, still a bit too young."

  "Alright! Alright! I've lived a dignified life all my life, and others can't find any fault with me. It wasn't until I got old that I realized I had raised three useless turtles!" Following closely behind, Jin Hu heard the sound of the old man slapping his hand on the table.

  "Dad! Calm down, I think this matter of Tiger is risky, a life-or-death business. If in the future the people of Jinjia Village are not enough, what if they ask us to lend them manpower? Can we let the children in the village go and do things for others? This doesn't make sense. This time, let's just get it over with and not leave any room for later." Jin Hu heard his aunt's voice again.

  "This is a good wife I've married at home! Your father is also the head of the house, you go back and tell your father what you just said, if he agrees with me, then I don't need this old face anymore!"

  "Dad! You're pushing your own grandson into the fire!" Jin Hu heard his aunt's crying voice: "In order to save his nephew, he pushed his own son in. If I were doing something right, would I stop him? This is a matter of life and death. Are you going to be ruthless again and go through the government? If you're ruthless, why did our ancestors end up stuck in these mountains for decades? Nephew, you're heartbroken, how can't you leave a way out for your own son? The Jin family's madness is their own fault. They're selling out the old Jin family, sacrificing the lives of the old Jin family. Why should our village children bear the consequences?"

  This time, Jinhu not only heard his aunt's crying, but also his grandmother's sobbing. Isn't it a bit...? His heart was filled with all sorts of emotions, and he couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness. He thought about how his mother had always been strict with him, and how she had never shown him any warmth or love. But now, as he listened to her crying, he felt a surge of compassion for her.

  Then there was no sound, and when it was time to bid farewell, I heard my uncle say that my grandfather's body was uncomfortable. He went into the house to take a look, saw the old man lying on the bed, Jin Hu went over and said two sentences, then touched a card and put it in his grandfather's hand, inside which was 60,000 yuan that had been prepared long ago, meaning "six six big auspicious".

  The old man wanted to push it away, but Jin Hu said: "A grandson's filial piety is not to be pushed away" and put the card in the old man's palm.

  Zuo Jintang patted Jin Hu's face with his hand: "Be careful with everything outside!" After finishing, tears fell.

  Jin Hu helped the old man wipe away his tears: "Ah! Uncle, you must take care of your body and wait to see your grandson become famous!" Seeing the old man nodding, he turned around and walked out the door.

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