SIAS Chapter 303.1

The two spent the afternoon in the courtyard of the portable space, preparing and eating dinner early.

As dusk fell, Yi Qingqing led Yun Guyuan out of her personal space.

“We’ll hold the ancestral worship in the northeast corner courtyard tonight. It’s right next to your house, so if there’s any light, no one will see it.”

“Okay, I’ll stay with you.”

Yun Guyuan decided not to leave his body and go elsewhere today; he would stay by her side.

Upon arriving at the northeast corner of the courtyard, Yi Qingqing took out all the things she had prepared. There were so many things that they started from the corner of the courtyard wall and took up most of the courtyard, leaving only one side next to Yun Guyuan’s house, where eleven braziers were placed.

Only four of these were for the teachers of traditional Chinese medicine, musical instruments, painting, and calligraphy, respectively. Teachers like Master Bai and Master Li, who had died too long ago and had already been reincarnated, were omitted.

The remaining six braziers were for her relatives, for the intellectuals who had died tragically in recent years, for those on the list of people’s heroes, for the wandering ghosts, for the underworld officials, and for those who bought ghost paper in Yinshui Lane.

“Ah Yuan, you can use this last brazier to worship your relatives. There are some gold and silver pieces here that you can use. I folded them myself, so the quality is guaranteed. Let’s worship our relatives and teachers first, and then we can worship the others together.”

As Yi Qingqing spoke, she gave him a basket of gold ingots and a bundle of incense sticks.

These last few items were the main part of today’s ceremony, because there were so many people, especially the final list of people’s heroes; the memorial had already filled a whole book.

Yun Guyuan hadn’t worshipped his father for many years. As an underworld official, he knew that not just any offerings for the deceased would be effective.

If something wasn’t made by a truly skilled craftsman with a proven track record, burning it would only result in a pile of waste paper.

So in the past, he would take some ghost money from his salary and ask other underworld officials to help deliver it to his father.

Now that Qingqing had also considered his own needs and prepared offerings for his relatives, he suddenly wanted to properly pay respects to his father and tell him about Qingqing.

“Let me accompany you to pay respects to your teachers first. If they say anything, I can help them relay it, so they don’t have to spend money to have someone appear in your dreams later. Dream messages are extremely expensive. They’ll probably have to give up at least half of the gold and silver you burned in previous years. It’s not worth it.”

After learning that her four teachers, who had not yet been reincarnated, would come to see her every year during her memorial service, Yi Qingqing became even more serious during tonight’s service, with a touch of inexplicable guilt.

She also had some private things to say; though she wasn’t afraid of Yun Guyuan overhearing, she was still a little embarrassed.

So, she had originally planned to worship separately. But after hearing him say that the dream messages were so expensive, she changed her mind.

“Alright then. Let’s do it together.”

She knelt on the ground, took a deep breath, struck a match, lit the petition for the teachers, and placed it in one of the four braziers.

Then she lit incense sticks, placing a few in front of each brazier.

“Master Yi, Master Wang, Master Lin, Master Zheng, I have been fortunate enough to study under you four masters. I was unable to fulfill my filial duties to you while you were alive, so I can only take this opportunity during the Ghost Festival to send you some incense, candles, and gold and silver.”

“These things were all made by this student herself, hoping that the masters would have a better life down below.”

 

 

You can support this lovely translator and your favorite series by buying me a cup of Ko-fi (˘▽˘)っ♨

I will really appreciate it. ♥️♥️♥️