Chapter 205: The Reappearance in Dongyang!

April 5th, Saturday.

In the morning, Xia Yu woke up and walked out of his bedroom; it was already 8 a.m.

You Xue and Grandma were preparing breakfast in the kitchen, while Grandpa sat on the sofa reading the newspaper.

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

Xia Yu picked up the newspaper, which was the North Star Daily.

On the newspaper, there was no advertisement searching for his cousin, Ackelin, nor was there any searching for his cousin, Liu Changgui.

He then took out his phone and opened a small forum, but still couldn’t find any missing person notice searching for his younger cousin, Wang Yongchang.

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

Putting away his phone, Xia Yu ate breakfast and then sat by the coffee table, starting to fold spirit money.

Spirit money was yellow paper with semi-circular notches punched out using a chisel, and Xia Yu’s task was to fold these pieces of paper.

He didn’t know the deep meaning behind this act, but it had always been done this way.

In terms of dialect, what Xia Yu was doing now was called “cutting paper.”

Xia Nianhong and You Xue were cooking in the kitchen when Grandpa Xia Ye came to help Xia Yu.

Xia Ye divided a stack of paper into two portions and said to Xia Yu, “Don’t rush; it should take about an hour, and you’ll definitely finish it.”

An hour?

Xia Yu didn’t feel like sitting there cutting paper for an hour. He took a deep breath and fully activated his dexterity level 4.

Xia Ye was shocked as he watched Xia Yu’s hands swiftly move, and his portion of the paper visibly decreased at a visible speed.

Ten minutes later, Xia Yu completed his work.

Standing up, Xia Yu smiled at Xia Ye and said, “Grandpa, you don’t need to rush; take your time.”

After saying that, he was about to leave.

“Stop right there!” Xia Ye called out to Xia Yu and handed half of his portion of paper back to him.

After thinking for a moment, Xia Ye then split the remaining half again and gave another half to Xia Yu.

“Finish this before leaving!” Xia Ye felt that if Xia Yu took three portions and he took one, he could still finish together with Xia Yu if he gave it his all.

However, after Xia Yu became more skilled, his speed further increased, and he finished cutting all the paper in five minutes, leaving Xia Ye behind in astonishment.

It took Xia Ye another five minutes to finish cutting his one-eighth share of the paper, and he sighed, saying that the younger generation was pushing forward like the tide.

Originally, after cutting the paper, they were supposed to set up a pot in the main hall and burn the paper once, but due to moving to a narrow space in an apartment building on the rooftop, this custom was unfortunately abandoned.

After lunch, the four of them took a bag of spirit money and headed toward the town’s cemetery.

Although it was called a cemetery, it was actually just a regular field designated as a burial ground. The graves weren’t neat, rectangular plots but rather pyramid-shaped mounds of earth.

With modern conditions improving, these mounds were even covered with a shell of cement.

Arriving at the grave, Xia Nianhong was surprised to see a pile of ashes: “Who burned paper here?”

This grave belonged to Xia Yu’s maternal grandmother, whose two sons had died young, leaving only Xia Nianhong, her daughter, still alive.

“Maybe Yueyue burned it?” Xia Ye suspected Kong Hanyue.

“My mother didn’t come back,” Xia Yu said. He had asked Kong Hanyue yesterday, and she had no plans to come.

“Forget it; more is better,” Xia Nianhong didn’t mind.

After basically paying respects to the ancestors of the Xia family, Xia Nianhong led the four of them to the last grave.

It was a grave located at the edge of the cemetery, close to the riverside.

Beside the grave, someone was already burning paper.

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

“What are you doing here!” Xia Nianhong approached Xia Dongyang, raised the bag in her hand, and hit him with it.

The spirit money was fluffy, and there wasn’t much left, so it didn’t hurt when it hit his body. Xia Dongyang forced a smile and said to Xia Nianhong, “I just came to visit my grandpa and grandma, my maternal grandpa and grandma.”

“Aren’t you the one who ran away, not even caring about your children anymore? How could you still think about your elders!” Xia Nianhong was furious.

“Children can be born again, but we only have these elders,” Xia Dongyang said solemnly.

Xia Nianhong widened her eyes in disbelief, never expecting Xia Dongyang to say something so shamelessly brazen.

She raised her bag and hit Xia Dongyang fiercely, saying, “You’re faking your grief for the dead, but you don’t care about the living! You ignore the living and only attend to the dead!”

“What a despicable person!” Xia Ye was also very angry and cursed Xia Dongyang from the side.

“Brother,” You Xue grabbed Xia Yu’s hand, looking somewhat distressed.

Squeezing the girl’s hand, Xia Yu comforted her, “Don’t treat him as a person.”

“Ah, how dare you speak like this in front of your great-grandfather!” Xia Dongyang also heard Xia Yu’s words. He used the deceased’s name to scold Xia Yu.

Xia Yu gave him a cold glance. If it weren’t for the presence of others around, he would have stepped forward to teach Xia Dongyang how to speak properly.

“Do you have the face to scold Yu Yu!” Xia Nianhong said.

She also knew that hitting him with the bag had no effect, so she threw the bag away and stomped around looking for something. She grabbed a branch someone else had used to stir the ashes.

Swinging the branch, Xia Nianhong headed toward Xia Dongyang.

Xia Dongyang quickly stood up. Although the branch was fragile, it had many thorns, and when broken, it became sharp. If he were hit by the branch a couple of times, he would bleed today.

“Mom, calm down!” He dodged Xia Nianhong by circling around the grave.

“I am calm!” Xia Nianhong reached out to hit Xia Dongyang, but he ducked under her swing with a quick movement.

“Don’t. This is Grandpa’s grave! My maternal grandparents are watching from over there. They loved me so much. If you hit me, they might come after you at night!” Xia Dongyang threatened Xia Nianhong.

“You despicable bastard, you even dare to say this!” Xia Ye was also very angry. He broke off a branch from a nearby tree and joined Xia Nianhong in attacking Xia Dongyang.

Xia Dongyang ran to another edge of the cemetery to escape the two of them.

Putting down the branches in their hands, Xia Nianhong and Xia Ye poured out the spirit money and took out matches to light it. The paper still needed to be burned.

At this moment, Xia Dongyang approached again.

He had chosen the perfect timing—the paper was just burning, so Xia Nianhong and Xia Ye couldn’t go after him.

“Speak up, what do you want? I’m telling you, our money is all left for Yu Yu, not a penny for you!” After Xia Nianhong finished speaking, she felt something was off and added another sentence, “And also Xiaoxue.”

“You two don’t only have Xiaoxue and Yu Yu as your grandchildren!” Xia Dongyang revealed his trump card.

“What?” Xia Nianhong was stunned.

“You have another daughter, named Xiao’ai.” Xia Dongyang took out his phone. “Look how cute she is.”

“Go away!” Xia Nianhong slapped Xia Dongyang’s hand away. “So you actually raised a bastard outside!”

“She’s not a bastard. We are legally married and registered in the household register!” Xia Dongyang’s face turned red with anger.

“Even if you are registered in the Book of Life and Death, I won’t acknowledge you!” Xia Nianhong picked up the stick from the ground again and chased after him.

This time, she chased Xia Dongyang all the way out of the cemetery before finally stopping.

“Alright, it’s over now.” After returning, she said to Xia Yu and You Xue.

Xia Yu felt that things wouldn’t end so simply.

Although Xia Dongyang was shameless, he was still a ruffian at heart. Xia Yu wouldn’t be surprised if he did something underhanded.

What would he do?