Several months later, Ma Suifeng arrived in northwest Zhejiang, which is where the story began.

  Hongcun is my hometown, I am a Hongcun native, so these stories, I all know and understand. My great-grandfather was said to be from Anhui Province, his ancestral home was in Anqing, Anhui, and going back several generations, they were all Taoist priests.

  His great-grandfather was not a disciple of any big sect, in the countryside and wilderness, there was no Taoist name, let alone a Taoist temple. During the day, he worked on the land, and when he had nothing to do with farming, he would help people look at the feng shui and calculate their fate. Occasionally, when someone in the village had a funeral or a white affair to attend to, they would ask him to perform a ritual.

  It is said that our ancestors earliest generation of Taoist priests was because they wanted a certain survival skill, and the profession of Taoist priest in the past belonged to the "three teachings and nine flows".

  The so-called nine flows refer to: the first flow is the emperor, the second flow is the official, the third flow is the monk, the fourth flow is the Taoist, the fifth flow is the doctor, the sixth flow is the artisan, the seventh flow is the craftsman, the eighth flow is the prostitute, and the ninth flow is the scholar.

  It seems that at least in those days, Taoist priests were still ranked above doctors, and their social status was not very low. Chinese people have believed in yin-yang and Feng Shui since ancient times, so its no wonder that being a Taoist priest is a profession. However, my great-grandfather was just a part-time Taoist priest at most; his main business was still farming.

  According to the current way of speaking, great-grandfather was considered a clever person. In the past, there was a lack of scientific support, and ordinary people were not too dare to refute what Taoist priests said. If you asked him for an explanation, he would just say: "The heavenly machine cannot be revealed" and that would settle it.

  It is said that my great-grandfather was most famous for his skill in selecting auspicious sites for graves, where dragons and phoenixes were located, and which places would yield water when dug. With this skill, our ancestors during the late Qing dynasty managed to make a decent living, at least better off than some but not as good as others, with land to farm and livestock to raise, and occasionally even receiving red envelopes to supplement their income.

  In the late Qing dynasty, everywhere was in a state of unrest due to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom stipulated that men should not shave their foreheads and should wear their hair loose without braids. In contrast, the Qing government required men to shave their foreheads and wear queues (braids). Therefore, the Taiping Army was also referred to as the "Long-haired rebels" by the Qing government.

  At first, the Taiping Army was doing well, using the banner of "Overthrowing the Qing and Restoring the Ming" to oppose government offices everywhere and recruiting large numbers of troops. However, by the later period, the Qing government had gradually gained the upper hand, and the Taiping Army gradually declined, with morale sinking and troops becoming increasingly difficult to control.

  Due to the lack of food and grass supplies, those small heads with troops in their hands began to indulge their subordinates in attacking civilian houses, shouting slogans of robbing the rich to help the poor, but actually doing banditry.

  In order to achieve the purpose of disturbing peoples minds, these guys started carrying knives and guns to slaughter one town and one village. In this way, my great-grandfather and great-grandmother took their family to start their long march.

  This escape took him all the way to western Zhejiang, which is now the border area between Zhejiang and Anhui provinces.

  This is a mountainous area, and there are also several villages at the foot of the mountain. Its unknown how many years of history they have. When our great-grandfathers arrived, the original inhabitants had either died or fled, leaving the large village empty with no one in sight.

  Because there were ready-made houses and land, and even farming tools didnt need to be purchased, great-grandfather and many people who escaped together chose to settle here.

  In the following years, some refugees came one after another. Your family occupied a vacant house, my family occupied several hectares of vacant land. Gradually, there were more and more people in this village, developing to now with over 200 households. At the entrance of the village, there is an archway with "Hong Village" written on it, so our hometown became Hong Village.

  My great-grandmother was said to be a talented woman, very good-looking. In those days, there were no entertainment activities at night, and once it got dark, you could only sleep with the lights on. Sleeping on a kang (heated bed) had to do something. I guess my great-grandfathers feelings for her were not bad either, and she gave birth to eight sons in total.

  My grandfather, who is my paternal grandfather and the third among his siblings, according to what my father said, had eight brothers in his generation whose average height exceeded 1.8 meters, with sturdy builds, especially their incredible physical strength.

  In those days, whoever had more labor could live a better life. Everyone was an outsider, and their status depended on their physical strength. The eight brothers of the Xia family were all robust and strong, and its said that they would eat over 20 kilograms of corn flour in one meal.

  The population was large, and the familys food was not enough to eat. The great-grandfather divided the house among his eight sons. Relying on their good physical condition, in that chaotic era, the eight brothers gradually became local bullies, often oppressing their neighbors, and occasionally they would cross over the high mountains and dense forests of Tianmu Mountain Range to rob and plunder in Anhui Province, but those were things of the past. Friends from Anhui, please dont hold a grudge.

  My grandmother was taken back by them, she was only 15 years old at that time and was said to be a young lady from a landlords family. Eight brothers drew lots, my grandfather won the lottery, so she married my grandfather.

  Later, the government began to crack down on bandits. Four of the eight brothers were shot dead, and three more were caught and conscripted into the army. Only my grandfather was left hiding in a mountain valley for seven days and nights, relying on gnawing tree roots and drinking raw water to survive.

  The great-grandfather saw that his sons generation had become like this, so he thought it was better to let the grandfather learn a skill, and not go out to do evil again. He passed on all the skills he knew to my grandfather, but actually only learned some superficial things.

  My grandfather later had my father, and then my father later had me.

  My father was sensible when the war of resistance broke out, and everywhere was in chaos. Fortunately, Hongcun is located in a remote area and can get a peaceful place. It is said that the Japanese also came to fight at that time, and the closest distance from Hongcun was only ten miles away. Maybe the endless mountains confused the Japanese, they couldnt think that there would be a village in such a place, so Hongcun escaped this disaster.

  My father inherited my grandfathers physique, but did not inherit his profession. In his words, what my grandfather was doing was feudal superstition. The two of them had different personalities since they were young, and my grandmother died very early, when my father was only about nine years old.

  My grandfather was a bandit tyrant when he was young, and his temper was naturally not good either. As a result, neither of the father-son pair would give in, and by the time my father was twelve years old, he had already started living independently.

  Hongcun is rich in yellow mud, with extremely high viscosity. Local people use this kind of mud to build houses, also known as earth buildings.

  When my father was at the age of getting married and having a house, his father allocated him a piece of land. At that time, fathers would take care of two most important things for their sons: building a house and finding a wife. My father managed to do both without troubling his father, working in the fields during the day and building the house under the moonlight at night.

  Father thought he was going to stand out from the crowd, he didnt want to build an earth house, he wanted to build a brick and tile house.

  At that time, when my great-grandfather came over, there was indeed a very beautiful house in Hong Village. Horse head wall, big yard, two-story building, three rooms from south to north, just the gate is enough to be majestic, the rivets on it shine like the official government office. The threshold of the door is so high that children need to be carried by adults to pass through, and at a glance, you can tell that it was the residence of a landlord in the previous dynasty.

  My great-grandfather was one of the first batch of people to arrive in Hongcun village. According to legend, he should have chosen a house like this, but since the vast village was empty and uninhabited, whoever occupied it would be considered its owner. However, my great-grandfather did not do so. He chose an ordinary earth-beam house instead, saying that no one could live in that house, and whoever entered it would be unlucky.

  There is such a "mansion" stuck there, who would not be envious? You dont want to be one of them, do you? Well, many people want it!

  At that time, there was a family who moved from the current Zhejiang Xianju. The family consisted of a couple and their three children. The man in the family used to be a butcher, skilled in slaughtering pigs, fearless and rough-looking with a thick beard.

  At that time, there were no laws or regulations, and in such a chaotic era, whoever was ruthless would be the boss. My great-grandfather, with so many sons, was naturally a big household in the village, and he didnt want that house, so the butcher naturally had ideas.

  A dagger for bloodletting was inserted into the large gate, and two large knives for cutting bones and flesh were placed on the threshold. Standing at the gate, he shouted in a loud voice: "This house, I, Qi Lao Er, have taken over. If anyone has any objections, just pull out the knife and come in to discuss it with me."

  In this way, Butcher Qi Lao Er brought his whole family into the house. At that time, my great-grandfather shook his head and said: "This family is tired of living too long."

  One day, a family in the village was celebrating a happy event, and everyone went to join in the fun. After drinking too much of the local white wine, some curious people went to ask their great-grandfather: "Whats wrong with that house?"

  The person sitting at the table next to my great-grandfather was Butcher Qi Lao Er. This Qi Lao Er was the only one in the village who was a bit afraid of my great-grandfather, because the eight sons of the Old Xia family had a notorious reputation. Qi Lao Er was at most a ruthless character, but those few from the Old Xia family were completely lawless thugs, saying that they would definitely burn down our house tonight and wouldnt be late until tomorrow morning.

  His great-grandfather was not a meddlesome person, that day he also drank a few more cups of wine and said to the person who asked him: "If you move in, youll be dead within three days, but he can last half a year."