Grave Moving Brigade - Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – The Jiang Family

The sun was blazing, the air was scorching hot, and even standing in the shade made one sweat drip.

Chen Ling gazed up at the magnificent European-style stone arch gate in front of him. Several high-end cars passed by below, and the security guards on both sides of the gate saluted neatly.

Only after the cars turned the corner and disappeared from sight, the security guards lowered their hands and resumed their straight standing posture.

Chen Ling fanned himself a few times with his hand, then lowered his head to pull out his cell phone. He checked to see if his location matched with the one on his phone.

He was indeed at No.1 Hongjing Road.

Chen Ling tucked away his cell phone, straightened his white shirt, thought for a moment, and then pulled out a small bronze bell from his pocket. He had stuffed the bottom with toilet paper to prevent it from making noise as he walked, so as to preserve his calm and reliable image.

After all, it was the first phone call he had received from a potential customer since starting the business. The success of his venture depended on the day’s proceedings.

The security guards at the entrance seemed to have been informed of the arrival of a visitor. Seeing the young man under the shade approaching, one of them came out from under the shade and greeted him with a smile.

“May I ask if you are Mr. Chen?”

“I am.” Guessing that the customer might have informed them in advance, Chen Ling smiled and stated his purpose, “I’m here to find Mrs. Jiang.”

Security guard: “We were notified a while ago. We’ll take you inside.”

Chen Ling didn’t show it on his face, but he was slightly relieved in his heart. The security measures in the community were well known. Without the resident’s permission, not even a fly could enter. Before he arrived, he had envisioned countless possibilities, including sneaking around to the back to jump over the wall.

Who would have thought the first client would be so understanding and considerate?

The Jiang residence was in the best location of the community. Before even approaching, Chen Ling saw the mansion behind the small artificial lake. A stream extended from the west side of the mansion, with two small fish swimming in it, their golden scales shimmering in the sunlight. Chen Ling’s gaze followed the stream, landing on the green mountain peaks in the distance. He couldn’t help but sigh softly,”This residence is in a really good location.”

The security guard raised an eyebrow; “Indeed, you can see the mountains and streams just by opening the windows. There aren’t many houses like this nowadays.”

Looking left and right, with a look full of gossip, he added, “Our community has won awards for its environmental design. Yes, we’ve also won a garden design award, but the prices here are ridiculously high. People like us have no hope of living here in this lifetime.”

Chen Ling smiled, not saying anything. His gaze had stopped outside the Jiang family’s door, not far from where they stood.

The entrance door was directly up the stone steps, with two naive statues of lions on each side. The lions had a curly mane, either touched or polished by wind and rain, shining brightly in the sunlight. They had big red bow ties around their necks.

Chen Ling thought to himself, ‘these statues look quite foreign.’

Retracting his gaze, he followed the security guard up the stone steps. After the security guard rang the bell, a voice from the intercom said, “This is the Jiang Residence.”

Security guard: “Good day, please inform Mrs. Jiang that the guest I was asked to pick up has arrived.”

The mansion’s door opened from the inside, and a woman in a long white dress came out, smiling warmly and taking Chen Ling’s hand. “Mr. Chen, I’ve been waiting for you.”

Realising that the woman was Mrs. Jiang, whom he had spoken to on the phone earlier, Chen Ling nodded in greeting. He didn’t move to pull away his hand and apologised, “I’m really sorry for arriving late.”

“It was because of a traffic jam, right?” Mrs. Jiang was a very talkative woman, lacking the condescension of some wealthy wives. “It’s alright. It’s the peak time for traffic right now, I understand.”

Chen Ling went along with it,”Yes, there was a bit of a traffic jam.”

Actually, it wasn’t a traffic jam, it was an almost car accident.

He was waiting for a taxi on the side of the road when a van suddenly turned towards him. If he hadn’t reacted quickly, he might have ended up in the hospital.

Mrs. Jiang thanked the security guard and warmly invited Chen Ling inside. They sat on the couch in the living room, exchanging pleasantries before getting to the main topic.

“I briefly mentioned to you on the phone regarding the matter of relocating the grave. It’s a clothes grave¹. There’s no need to disturb the bones or move the urn, and there’s no need to even perform rituals.”

As the saying goes, poor people don’t change their doors, rich people don’t move their graves.

‘Not relocating’ didn’t mean that they couldn’t move the grave, rather that they couldn’t move it at will, and all the rituals couldn’t be performed.

Chen Ling knew that if the Jiang family didn’t handle the relocation of their ancestor’s grave properly, it could bring bad luck to their family.

According to him, it was crucial to proceed with caution.

Noticing something in the young man’s eyes, Mrs. Jiang’s gaze froze, realising she had spoken too hastily.

She picked up the teacup, took a sip of tea to cover up the panic on her face, and explained, “Mr. Chen, I know this is a bit against the rules, but this is what our ancestor asked for in the dream. There is nothing we can do about it.”

The younger generation should not argue with the older one. If he did, he would be considered an unfilial son.

There was nothing wrong about it.

Chen Ling was silent for a moment, then suddenly stood up and asked, “Mrs. Jiang, can I first take a look at it?”

“Of course.” Mrs. Jiang quickly stood up and personally took Chen Ling around the villa.

The villa was very large, with four floors totaling more than a thousand square metres. It looked luxurious and simple. The sunlight shone through the windows, making the whole house bright and clear, without a trace of gloom.

The two of them walked up and down the stairs and soon returned to the living room on the first floor.

Chen Ling went to the bathroom under the pretext of going to the toilet.

After entering, he leaned his back against the door, took out his cell phone from his pocket and made a call to his master.

The call was connected, and the voice on the other end was full of energy, deep and rich. After listening to his apprentice’s story, he made the final decision: “It’s okay, just do it.”

Chen Ling expressed doubt about his Master’s indifferent attitude: “Is it really okay to not perform any rituals?”

At least, they had to recite a few scriptures to appease the dead soul, or drive away the evil spirits or something.

The person on the other end seemed very busy, and spoke quickly and perfunctorily: “Our ancestors have always asked us to keep everything simple, so let’s not worry about it. Just do what Mrs. Jiang says.”

Chen Ling muttered: “What if Mrs. Jiang is lying to us? What if there is no such thing as the ancestor appearing in her dream?”

He thought his voice was soft enough, but the person on the other end could still hear it clearly.

“The Jiang family’s prosperity is not only due to the ability and skills of the family members, but also because the Jiang family’s luck has never been broken. Don’t worry. As long as they are not stupid, they will not deliberately destroy their ancestral tomb and ruin their own excellent feng shui².”

After his master finished speaking, he urged, “By the way, come back quickly after you finish your work. A lot of workers have just arrived and are sitting on the top of the mountain waiting for you to return and make arrangements for everything.”

The top of the mountain did not refer to a small hill. Instead, it was a barren mountain called Yuhe, which was located 30 kilometres away from the suburbs.

Chen Ling held his phone and thought his master was different from him, a half-baked person. He is a real descendant of the Heavenly Master. Since he told him that there was no problem, then there must be no problem.

What’s more was that there were a lot of things he had to do at home, so he had to rush back as soon as possible.

After hanging up the call, Chen Ling adjusted the collar of his shirt in front of the mirror, raised his chin and put on a serious expression, then he walked out with a calm pace.

Mrs. Jiang seemed to have just talked to someone on the phone, with the cell phone still in her hand. When she saw the young man’s handsome and elegant face, she frowned and moved closer.

“Mr. Chen, my husband just called. He said that our family affairs are urgent and we have to hurry along with it. Out of sincerity, we are willing to double the price.”

Chen Ling was very excited and smiled brightly: “Don’t worry, I’ll accept this order. If it’s convenient, can you first take me to see the tomb of your ancestor?”

The young man has fair skin, rosy lips, and when he smiles, his eyes narrow slightly, revealing a row of neat white teeth, giving him a very friendly appearance.

The anxiety in Mrs. Jiang’s heart was calmed down by this smile: “I’ll take you there now.”

The tomb of the Jiang family’s ancestor was not in any cemetery, but, instead it was near a factory owned by the Jiang family.

The factory was located on the edge of the city, close to the Jiangliu Scenic Avenue, surrounded by lush greenery and pleasant scenery.

Chen Ling followed Mrs. Jiang along the scenic avenue. At an inconspicuous fork in the road, the two left the driver and walked into a dense forest.

The forest was completely silent, the noisy cicadas became silent, and the sunlight was completely blocked by the lush branches.

Chen Ling noticed that Mrs. Jiang’s posture had become a little stiff, and her exposed arms were covered with goosebumps. She slightly swayed her head side to side to observe the surrounding situation. Every step forward with her legs in high heels was tentative.

“Mrs. Jiang, what are you afraid of?”

The sudden sound frightened Mrs. Jiang, so much that she almost cried out. She pursed her lips and pretended to be relaxed: “No. I just felt it was a bit chilly here.”

Chen Ling’s face showed belief: “It is a bit cold. The trees here are quite old.”

Mrs. Jiang slowed down and walked side by side with the young man. She lowered her voice and said, “That’s right. There is an old locust tree in front of us. It is almost five or six hundred years old.”

Sophora japonica³ is a Yin tree² and is not usually planted near graves. He didn’t know whether the Jiang family planted the tree to convert the ancestor into a spirit or to resurrect them so that they can jump out like an undead…

The leaves under their feet made a crunching sound, and soon they stopped in front of a lonely grave.

A simple stone tablet was erected on the grave. It did not have the deceased’s birth or death time, nor the name of the person who had erected the tablet. There was only a simple name.

——Jiang Yu.

The river flows endlessly, the territory is boundless, and the name is truly grand.

After greeting the tomb owner in his heart, Chen Ling quietly turned his gaze to Mrs. Jiang.

The elegant woman’s face was as pale as paper. Her two hands hanging on both sides were tightly clasped together at some point. Her fingers were tightly twisted, and her knuckles turned white from excessive force. The veins on the back of her hands were bulging.

It was obvious that the rich lady was in great fear.

Chen Ling took out a pack of tissues, removed one and handed it over.

Mrs. Jiang looked at the young man slowly, with a blank look in her eyes. It took her a long time to come back to her senses as if awakened from a bad dream. She took the tissue awkwardly and wiped away the cold sweat dripping from her forehead.

“Mr. Chen, this is the grave of our ancestor.” Her voice was hoarse and trembling, as if she had thought of something terrible and shuddered. “If it’s convenient, can you get the work started by tomorrow?”

Chen Ling: “…”

He had seen people who were anxious, but he had never seen anyone as anxious as the woman in front of him.

Mrs. Jiang gave him the feeling that she was not moving the grave for her ancestor, but rather trying to get rid of a hot potato.

Glossary:

Clothes grave => In ancient chinese traditions, funeral customs involve building a tomb and burying the deceased with the clothing they wore when he/she was alive. Other belongings and valuable things were also buried together.

Yin tree => Yin is a symbol of earth, femaleness, darkness, passivity, and absorption. It is associated with everything bad, negative, sad. So, here the author is referring to the Yin tree as an unpleasant existence.

Sophora Japonica => Popularly known as Japanese pagoda tree and Chinese scholar tree. Here, associated with unpleasantness.