That person heard that we came for this matter, stood up and said: "Let's go, I'll take you there. It's chaotic now, no one is in charge."

  At this time, a woman rushed out and grabbed the man's ear, scolding him loudly: "No one else is in charge, but you are. You love to attend funerals so much, you like to interfere with other people's business!"

  The man repeatedly begged for mercy: "Ahh, no more, no more..."

  Looking at that shrew, we know, it's better to go and take a look ourselves. Fortunately, the place is not hard to find, it's right in the center of the village, with a two-person-hug-sized white fruit tree at the entrance, which produces several baskets of fruit every year, but last year not a single seed was produced.

  Cha Wenbin gazed at the tree trunk, half of which had withered, and sighed: "It's probably not going to live for many more years. No wonder, its vital energy has been exhausted."

  "My dad also sighed: 'This tree is at least eight hundred years old, it's a pity if it dies, why don't these people take care of it?'"

  "Uncle, it's no use, this tree is the essence of the earth. Its roots stretch at least half a village. To see if a piece of land is good or not, just look at the harvest in the fields. If the harvest is good, the feng shui can't be bad. There's a vital energy in that land. When the energy is strong, the crops grow rapidly. Even when it's weak, as long as they bloom and bear fruit, it's still considered good. This land has been prosperous for nearly 800 years, no dynasty has exceeded this number of years. The country remains so, let alone a village."

  Cha Wenbin stood under the tree, looking at the village in front of him and talking with a somewhat otherworldly tone. He continued: "The people who first came to this place to open up the land were also extraordinary individuals with unique insight. The terrain here is winding and curved from east to west, and from here it looks like a coiled dragon. Looking again at the river in the middle, following the mountain foot's trend all the way to the end, there is a water pool that has been formed, and the mountain trend turns around right at the water pool. In Feng Shui studies, this is called 'Qing Long Qu Shui' (Green Dragon Fetches Water).

  The dragon's drinking water is naturally the essence of heaven and earth, and if a piece of land can raise a dragon, it's even more so for humans. The dragon will eventually fly away one day. As the saying goes: "Jinling is not an object in the pool, once the wind and clouds change, the dragon will leave." This place has experienced thousands of years of wind and rain, and many people have been influenced by the dragon's aura, so there are many top scholars emerging from here.

  In terms of fate, the champion is also called Wenqu Star descending to the world. However, looking at famous literary and martial arts villages, their foundation is often completed after several generations. This Wenqu Star loves to settle in a place with a strong cultural heritage. Therefore, it is said that "the land produces heroes, and only when the land is spiritual will it produce heroes."

  The feng shui here is excellent, and the old gentleman used a clever trick: cultivating people and retaining dragons, vigorously promoting education.

  Those who walk out of here can stay by the side of the true dragon son, and naturally they will also be infected with the dragon energy. When they retire and return to their hometown, they will bring back the dragon energy, and the dragon energy here will be retained. Day after day, year after year, generation after generation, it is a virtuous cycle. If development goes well, every generation here will produce top scholars, but unfortunately, once it is broken, it will be broken forever, and the foundation of the family will be destroyed in the hands of this generation. The dragon has left, everything has come to an end, just like this big tree, leaving only a trunk that makes people admire, but actually inside it has long been hollowed out, and it is not far from falling down.

  What Cha Wenbin said may just be his understanding, but I did notice that the dragon's head he mentioned has changed a bit. Originally, that area was lush with trees, now it's all exposed rocks everywhere.

  It is said that a coal mine was discovered in that place, and the entire East China region has a huge consumption of coal, but there are few places in East China that can produce coal. This discovery drove people crazy, with non-stop blasting day and night, and the original dragon's head had long since disappeared, leaving only half of the dragon's mouth, as if two front teeth had been knocked out, constantly scooping out black minerals from its mouth...

  There are many things that can't be clearly said or explained, my personal understanding is that there must be gains and losses. The people here originally lived simple and poor lives, but they loved learning, loved culture, and took pride in reading; now, the people here have become rich and wealthy, but they've forgotten the origin of the village of scholars, and also forgotten their own roots.

  The temple's gate was open, and the temple may not be the most magnificent one I've seen, but it's the most exquisite. On the lintel, instead of the usual flying birds and beasts, there is a piece of wood carving, which even I can understand, consisting of several story-telling patterns.

  These patterns are carved so vividly that even a scoundrel like Fatty can recognize them: "Sun Jing hanging from the beam to study, Che Yin holding a lantern to reflect snow, Dong Zhongshu not peeking at the garden for three years, Guan Ning cutting the mat to sit separately. Hmm, what's the name of this little memory?"

  I suddenly looked at Fatty with great disdain and said: "That's Kuang Heng's 'borrowing light by cutting a hole in the wall', it's all in the textbook, one look at you and I can tell you didn't study hard."

  "Alright, alright, sorry about that, but this Kuang Heng guy is a problem, he smashed someone's wall and has to pay for it."

  I was suddenly speechless towards the fatty...

  But this carving can be said to be worth a city, not to mention its wood material, even I can see that it is Huanghuali, and the craftsmanship is already a masterpiece of cleverness. This thing requires gathering a group of skilled craftsmen, and it's unknown whether it can be completed in three years, which shows that the determination of the ancient people far surpasses that of today.

  There are eight nails on the door, horizontally and vertically. Cha Wenbin said that this person is very meticulous in doing things. The ancient emperor's imperial city gate used nine nails, and this person deliberately reduced one to avoid gossip. Indeed, a careful person can live a long life.

  Pushing open the door, I still have some impression of the scene inside. The large furnace used for burning paper and incense is still there, made of brass, about half a person's height, very majestic. It can be seen that someone has been taking care of this place, and the things inside are basically well-maintained. Looking around, I see a row of coffins in each corner, large and small, with an unknown number.

  Fatso took one look at the coffin and fell into his old habit, he's got this quirk, opening his mouth is always: "Let it out, let it out, pry them open one by one, who knows what treasures from the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty might be hidden inside, just looking at that wooden board I can tell it's no less than three hundred years old."

  "Is this a funeral parlor?" When I was young, everyone called this place an ancestral temple. If I had known that so many coffins were stored here, I wouldn't have come in...

  Cha Wenbin smiled and said to me: "Xiao Yi, now you understand what you saw that time, right?"

  I awkwardly replied: "It's better now, out of sight, out of mind. Come to think of it, when I was a kid, I saw many people dressed strangely and they might have been those things."

  The placement of these coffins is apparently in order, and at first glance, there are nearly a hundred coffins in the east wing alone, with colors changing from light to dark towards both sides. It can be seen that the coffins in the middle position have been around for the longest time, making them look even more outdated.

  "Anyone with a face and status among our people is probably here, those who can enter this ancestral hall should be the famous ones at that time, look, there are written records here."

  Following Wen Bin's hint, I indeed saw a golden-edged black sign on the left wall with a line of elegant running script: "All descendants of the Zhou family who have been discussed within the clan and are among the top three households may advance one position. They will be revered by their children and grandchildren to extol their virtues." The signature is Zhou Zi Yuan!

  Fatty joked: "It seems that this is the rule left by our ancestors, three households compete, only one coffin has the qualification to come in, hey, it's really interesting, the spiritual civilization construction work is done well, worthy of being an old party member, having a way out, brain is good!"

  "Pure nonsense, if you said that 40 years ago, your tongue would be cut off." As he spoke, the neighbor from earlier came over, probably having smoothed things over with his wife. This guy was also a kind soul: "I was worried you wouldn't find it, sneaking out secretly like this. Don't wander around here randomly, our ancestors are all resting in peace, and making too much noise might stir up trouble."

  "Alright, alright, stop scaring people. Don't worry, I only collect scrap copper and iron, not coffin boards."

  "You kids, I told you not to believe it, during the Cultural Revolution a group of Red Guards came and smashed everything, even the inscription by Emperor Kangxi at the village entrance was destroyed. But they didn't touch this place. At that time, those people were coming with iron shovels and torches, saying they wanted to burn down this temple that worshipped feudal remnants in the revolutionary fire. None of us dared to stop them."

  "That's your cowardice! Even if someone wants to burn down the ancestral mountain, you still wouldn't dare to move."

  "It's all over, this isn't the same situation as before, how can we ordinary people turn things around? Those Red Guards arrived here when it was already dark, saying they wanted to light up the dark night sky with the fire of revolution. A few of them smashed the door lock and rushed into that house on the west side." He pointed to the corner on the west side, "It was right there, before anyone could react, a bolt of lightning struck down from the sky, hitting that incense burner directly, instantly knocking over more than ten Red Guards. The rest were stunned, and it's said that not just one person saw my family's old master standing behind the incense burner when the lightning struck..."

  He said that, and I really found a gap on the incense burner. The man pulled my father over and said: "Look, it was split open at the time, and this is what everyone chipped in to repair later, but there is still a crack, and if you look carefully, you can still see it."

  My old man was an atheist, he and my grandfather couldn't get along because of this, but now that he's older, he's starting to believe a bit too, probably also related to having more experiences.

  "My dad asked him: 'Big brother, I'm here with the two kids to visit my cousin's husband, where is he now?'"

  "That person nodded and said: 'Yes, it's separated inside. When we first discovered it, it was right here on the ground. Later, a few brave ones carried it in, but they didn't even have time to put it in a coffin. Now that the old clan leader is gone, his family members have all run away too... I reckon if we leave the corpse here, it'll be gnawed by rats..."