Chapter 32 - Hu’s Family Ancestral Hall
A normal family wouldn’t be able to afford to hire an entire troupe to perform for their ancestors. The Hu family was considered the largest family in Wuli Gang, with a third of the village’s population sharing the same surname.
Li Huowang learned from Lu Zhuangyuan that the person who hired them to perform was not only from the richest family in Wuli Gang but also the eldest member of the Hu family, Hu Qinghe.
Currently, Li Huowang was walking with Lu Zhuangyuan toward the Hu family’s ancestral hall.
“Old man Hu has already guaranteed that nothing will happen. He has hired some other troupes before, and nothing happened to them either,” said Lu Zhuangyuan, trying to calm himself down.
Li Huowang just ignored that statement. As far as he was concerned, it was just something Lu Zhuangyuan was saying to reassure himself. He gingerly touched the bronze bell on his waist and sighed.
I should be fine since I have this. Still, I hope nothing ends up happening. Giving an order to a Wandering God would cost me three months of my lifespan.
They continued their journey through the village and soon arrived at the Hu family’s ancestral hall. The place was illuminated by many lanterns.
There were many people in the hall, so much so that Li Huowang was not even able to squeeze through the crowd. He tiptoed to assess the situation and saw a lot of people kneeling on the ground, lighting up incense sticks to pray to the black memorial tablets.
“Hey, that’s old man Hu. He invited us for a meal after we are done with the performance,” Lu Zhuangyuan said as he pointed toward the person standing closest to the altar at the front of the crowd. It was an old man wearing silk clothes.
After a while, the people stopped praying and respectfully took the memorial tablets belonging to their ancestors and placed them on the tables they had prepared beforehand.
Soon, the hall was filled with their ancestral tablets that were placed on the tables.
There was a long table with many delicacies placed in front of all the memorial tablets. Li Huowang saw that they had prepared red candles, incense sticks, gold ingots, and yellow papers, placing them all in plates meant for their ancestors.
As if they were afraid that their offerings to their ancestors were not enough, there were even several paper dolls depicting them serving tea and water on both sides of the wall. They would most likely be placed next to the tables of the ancestors to serve them in the underworld.
“Old man Hu is so generous. To think that he would even hire a troupe to perform a show for his ancestors.”
“Yeah. No wonder old man Hu and those near him did not suffer from sickness and disasters these past few years. Looks like their ancestors are blessing them.”
“Sigh, I wonder if I will ever get such a grand treatment after I die.”
“Pray that your descendants end up earning a lot of money like old man Hu. Hiring a troupe to perform a show for the dead costs a lot of money.”
Listening to their conversations and seeing the grand ceremony in front of him, Li Huowang calmed down a little.
Looks like nothing will happen.
He leaned toward Lu Zhuangyuan and asked. “Old man, you’ve traveled the land for so many years; compared to the spirit we met in the forest, how much more frequently have you met a ghost?”
“Hm? Aren’t they the same?” Lu Zhuangyuan was surprised by his question, his eyes wide with shock.
“What? They are two separate things. One is formed after a person has passed away, while the other...” Li Huowang stopped, not knowing how to explain it.
What Li Huowang understood was that regardless of whether it was the Mountain Grandmas or the Wandering Gods that Dan Yangzi had used to refine pills, or even the girl with tiny legs they had encountered in the forest, they were not ghosts. At least, he did not see them as ghosts.
Just as he was thinking about the difference between ghosts and those things, all of the memorial tablets belonging to the Hu family’s ancestors had been placed onto the tables. Then, Hu Qinghe led a group of his family members and approached Lu Zhuangyuan.
“Troupe leader Lu, thank you for accepting my proposal. Jiaolang, please take some people and help him set up the stage.”
“Thank you so much, and sorry for the inconvenience! You are much too kind.”
“Troupe leader Lu, you should know the rules about performing for the dead, right? Once our ancestors appear to enjoy your show, us, their descendants, will have to leave this place and lock ourselves in the room. Please take care of our ancestral hall in the meantime,” Old man Hu instructed patiently.
“Of course. Please rest assured; your ancestral hall is in good hands,” said Lu Zhuangyuan, smacking his chest with pride.
Even though none of the Hu family members would be there, Lu Zhuangyuan would never dare to make a mistake. If something were to happen to the ancestral hall of the Hu family, they would bury him and his family alive.
“Oh, and once you start your performance, those in the realm of the living should not speak to the performers; this is because our ancestors should not feel like their show is being interrupted. As for what to perform... just perform something jovial and bubbly. My ancestors had shown me a dream where they said that they were bored by how monotonous everything was down there. Also, you don’t have to perform for the entire night. My son will come and place our ancestor’s memorial tablets back in their respective places during the fifth section of the night. You can rest after that.”
Lu Zhuangyuan was nodding like a chicken pecking grains. “No worries, old man Hu! We will not break the rules.”
With the help of the Hu family, the stage was set up quite quickly. There were only five people on the stage; Luo Juanhua was a girl and was not allowed into the ancestral hall tonight.
Under Hu Qinghe’s direction, the crowd soon dispersed and returned to their homes.
The sound of instruments soon started to echo in the ancestral hall. The Lu family had started their performance while Li Huowang remained backstage.
Time slowly passed, and the entire Wuli Gang soon turned quiet as the villagers went to sleep. The village was completely dark, with the exception of the ancestral hall, which was brightly lit with lanterns.
This was the first time Li Huowang had seen a performance for the dead. He peeked through the curtain to observe the surroundings outside.
It was quite eerie, even for him. The stage was bursting with action, but no sound came from the audience. Not even a single clap. There were only rows of black memorial tablets engraved with the names of the ancestors and the offerings meant for them.
Still, this was nothing compared to the Zephyr Temple.
From the looks of it, the Lu family was still inexperienced when dealing with this situation. In just a few minutes, Lu Juren had forgotten his script numerous times due to his anxiety. Lu Zhuangyuan, who was playing the gong, also made mistakes out of nervousness.
As time passed, they started to adapt to the situation, and the show became smoother and smoother.
Amidst the silence of the night, the sound of their singing resonated loudly within the hall and even outside.
Soon, Li Huowang sat down and closed his eyes to rest. He got bored and started humming along with their singing.
Soon, it was 9 pm. Li Huowang understood now that the people here separated the night into different sections; so, 9 pm–11 pm would be the second section of the night,11 pm–1 am would be the third section, 1 am–3 am would be the fourth section, and 3 am–5 am would be the fifth section of the night. The rooster would usually start crowing at 5 am.
He yawned. For some reason, he was much sleepier than on other nights. Unfortunately, he couldn’t sleep for the night since Lu Zhuangyuan had already hired him. So, he took out the sacred text and slowly started to examine it, trying to combat his sleepiness.
This had been his habit for the past few days; every time he needed to stand guard during the night, he would start examining the sacred text. He examined it again and again, but other than confirming that it was indeed some sort of scripture, he hadn’t found anything else about it.
The second section of the night soon passed, and it was now the third section. The ancestral hall continued to remain normal as nothing unusual had happened.
Li Huowang raised his head, staring at Lu Zhuangyuan who was looking into the bronze mirror and doing his makeup.
His heart must be bleeding right now; he will have to pay me 6 pieces of silver for absolutely no reason.
He thought about it and figured that nothing would happen tonight. After all, this was the ancestral hall of the Hu family. The descendants of the Hu family had gone out of their way to invite the troupe to perform for their ancestors; there was no reason for the latter to cause any problems for them.
Just as Li Huowang had thought that tonight would be a peaceful night, something strange happened.
The singing came to a sudden stop without any warning.
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