Dongyang Reappears

April 5th, Saturday.

In the morning, Xia Yu woke up, walked out of the bedroom, and it was already eight o'clock in the morning.

Yuxue and Grandma were preparing breakfast in the kitchen, while Grandpa was sitting on the sofa reading the newspaper.

After Xia Yu finished washing up, Grandpa had already started eating breakfast at the dining table.

Xia Yu picked up the newspaper, which was the Beijixing Daily.

On the newspaper, there was no information about finding Cousin Akalin, nor any information about finding Cousin Liu Changgui.

He took out his mobile phone, opened a small forum, and did not see any missing person notices for Cousin Wang Yongchang either.

This proved that An Siyao, Wen Ziying, and Tina were all fine.

After putting away his phone and eating breakfast, Xia Yu sat next to the tea table and began folding paper money.

Paper money is yellow paper with semi-circular notches chiseled out by a chisel. What Xia Yu needed to do was to fold these papers in half.

He didn't know the deeper meaning behind this, but it had always been done this way.

In his hometown's dialect, what Xia Yu was doing now is called "drawing paper."

Xia Nianhong and Yuxue were cooking in the kitchen, and they asked Grandpa Xia Ye to come over and help Xia Yu.

Xia Ye divided a stack of papers into two and told Xia Yu, "Don't rush, we will finish in about an hour."

An hour?

Xia Yu didn't feel like sitting here for an hour folding paper, so he took a deep breath, and with LV4 agility and full power, he began to work.

Xia Ye was astonished at how Xia Yu's hands were flipping through the papers, and the stack of papers allocated to him visibly dwindled at a fast pace.

Ten minutes later, Xia Yu finished his work.

Standing up, Xia Yu smiled at Xia Ye and said, "Grandpa, you don't have to rush, take your time."

Having said that, he was about to leave.

"Stay right there!" Xia Ye stopped Xia Yu, and handed him half of the remaining papers.

After thinking for a moment, he handed over half of the remaining half again.

"Finish this before you go!" Xia Ye felt that if he put all his effort into it, he could still finish it with Xia Yu.

However, after Xia Yu's hands became familiar with the work, his speed increased even more, and he finished the paper in five minutes, leaving Xia Ye stunned on the spot.

It took Xia Ye another five minutes to finish the one-eighth of the total paper, and he sighed with admiration for the new generation surpassing the old.

Originally, after finishing the paper folding, they had to set up a pot in the hall and burn the paper as a ritual, but due to the limited space living in an apartment, this custom had to be abandoned.

After lunch, the four of them brought their bags of paper money and headed towards the town's public cemetery.

Although it was called a cemetery, it was actually just an ordinary field designated as a burial ground, with pyramid-shaped mounds instead of rectangular, neatly arranged graves.

Nowadays, with better conditions, these mounds were covered with a layer of cement.

When they arrived at the grave, Xia Nianhong was surprised to see a pile of paper ash: "Who burned this on my family's grave?"

This grave belonged to Xia Yu's maternal grandmother. Her two sons had both died young, leaving only Xia Nianhong as the surviving daughter.

"Could it be Yue Yue who burned this?" Xia Ye suspected Kong Hanyue.

"My mom didn't come back," Xia Yu said. He had asked Kong Hanyue yesterday, and she had no plans to come.

"Never mind, it's just an extra good deed," Xia Nianhong didn't mind anyway.

After paying homage to the ancestors of the Xia family, Xia Nianhong led the four of them to the last tomb.

It was a tomb near the river, located at the edge of the graveyard.

Beside the tomb, there was already someone burning paper offerings.

As the four of them approached, they discovered that the person bowing down was their long-lost father and son—Xia Dongyang.

"What are you doing here?" Xia Nianhong came to Xia Dongyang's side and raised her hand, giving him a slap with the bag in her hand.

As the paper money inside the bag was loosely packed and not much left, hitting him didn't cause much pain. Xia Dongyang smiled, and said to Xia Nianhong, "I just came to see my grandparents and maternal grandparents."

"You ran away, abandoning your child, and now you remember your elders!" Xia Nianhong exclaimed angrily.

"Children can be born again, but there are only these elders in our life," Xia Dongyang claimed righteously.

Xia Nianhong widened her eyes, unable to believe that Xia Dongyang could say such shameless words.

She swung her bag again, hitting Xia Dongyang hard: "The dead don't need your hypocrisy; you don't care for the living, but you care for the dead!"

"Damn it!" Xia Ye was also very angry, cursing Xia Dongyang from the side.

"Brother..." Yuxue held Xia Yu's hand, feeling a little wronged.

Clenching the girl's hand, Xia Yu comforted her, "Don't take him seriously."

"Sigh, how can you talk like that in front of your ancestors!" Xia Dongyang had heard Xia Yu's words and scolded him in the name of the dead.

Xia Yu gave him a cold glance. If it weren't for the presence of others around, he would have taught Xia Dongyang how to speak properly right now.

"You have no shame in trying to discipline Yu Yu!" Xia Nianhong exclaimed.

Knowing that hitting him with her bag was ineffective, she threw it aside and stomped her foot while looking around. She borrowed a branch from a nearby family, which they used to pick up burnt paper offerings.

Wielding the branch, Xia Nianhong advanced towards Xia Dongyang.

In a hurry, Xia Dongyang stood up. The branch might be fragile, but its multiple thorns could break and become sharp. If it hit him a few times, he would bleed.

"Mom, calm down!" He dodged Xia Nianhong by circling around the tomb.

"I am very calm!" Xia Nianhong reached out to strike Xia Dongyang, but he dodged it by lowering his head.

"Stop, this is grandpa's tomb! My maternal grandparents are also lying there watching. They really love me. If you hit me, they will come to haunt you at night!" Xia Dongyang threatened Xia Nianhong.

"You shameless bastard, how dare you say that!" Xia Ye became even angrier, and he picked up a branch from a nearby tree, joining Xia Nianhong in attacking Xia Dongyang.

Xia Dongyang managed to escape the two by running to the other side of the graveyard.

Dropping the branches, Xia Nianhong and Xia Ye poured out the paper money, lit it with a match, and proceeded to burn it since that was still necessary.

At this moment, Xia Dongyang came back.

He chose the right timing – the paper was burning, and Xia Nianhong and Xia Ye couldn't bother him.

"Tell me, what do you want? I'm telling you, our money is for Yu Yu, and you won't get a single cent!" After saying this, Xia Nianhong felt something was wrong, so she added, "And for Xiao Xue."

"You don't have just two grandchildren, Xiao Xue and Yu Yu!" Xia Dongyang revealed his trump card.

"What?" Xia Nianhong was stunned.

"You have a daughter too, her name is Xia Ai." Xia Dongyang took out his phone, "Look how cute she is."

"Get lost!" Xia Nianhong slapped Xia Dongyang's hand away, "How dare you keep a bastard outside!"

"It's not a bastard, we're legally married and she's in the family register!" Xia Dongyang's face turned red.

"Even if she's in the book of life and death, I won't acknowledge her!" Xia Nianhong picked up the stick from the ground and chased after him.

This time, Xia Nianhong chased Xia Dongyang out of the cemetery before finally stopping.

"It's fine now, no more trouble." When she came back, she talked with Xia Yu again.

Xia Yu felt that things would not end so simply.

Although Xia Dongyang cared about his reputation, he was still a mess, and Xia Yu would not be surprised if he did something shady.

What would he do?