When they reached the Wang Family ancestral grave, in the days before and after, more people had come to worship and tend to the graves. Many grave mounds were already adorned with fresh green branches, signifying that the ancestors had been honored.
Wang Laozhu's was a new grave, with a mound tall and prominent; the scraps of firecracker paper from the burial still lingering on it.
In order of the main branch, the third, the fourth, and finally, the youngest, Wang Yongzhu, the Wang family members laid out the offerings and performed their bows in worship. It was only after this that the main branch picked a branch and placed it atop the mound.
After the memorial rites were done, the children became restless. The spring day was warm and bright, and the area around the ancestral graves, where visitors were sparse on ordinary days, was seldom approached by children as the adults would often scare them by saying it was unclean.
