Urban Martial Saint

Yuan Xiaoyu was standing above and saw Ye Qing standing motionless in the coffin, she couldn’t help but be puzzled and asked, ”Brother, what’s wrong?”

Ye Qing glanced at Yuan Xiaoyu and then looked at the tobacco pipe hesitatingly. He bent down and picked up the tobacco pipe. This tobacco pipe looked quite old, but in this grave, it was preserved relatively intact.

Ye Qing wiped the dust off the tobacco pipe, rubbed it carefully, and suddenly turned his head saying, ”Xiaoyu, call Dad.”

”Oh?” Yuan Xiaoyu was surprised, not knowing why Ye Qing suddenly wanted to call Ye Changwen. But she didn’t ask the reason, and went ahead to call Ye Changwen.

”Brother, here you go.” After the call was connected, Yuan Xiaoyu handed the phone to Ye Qing.

”Qingzi, what’s up?” came Ye Changwen’s voice from the other end: ”I heard you’re repairing Old Li Tou’s grave? That’s proper, Old Li Tou was really nice to you back then, we should repay his kindness.”

”Dad, it’s not that.” Ye Qing said, ”Do you remember, when Grandpa was buried, did we put any burial items with him?”

Ye Changwen replied, ”Oh, what burial items could our family have? When your Grandpa was buried, we had nothing, just buried his favorite tobacco pipe with him.”

”Is it the tobacco pipe Grandpa often used?” Ye Qing asked.

Ye Changwen: ”Yes, your Grandpa used that tobacco pipe for half his life. He even engraved his name on the front.”

Ye Qing once again carefully rubbed the front of the tobacco pipe, on which the name ’Changming’ was engraved.

Ye Changming, which was Ye Qing’s grandfather’s name. In other words, this tobacco pipe belonged to Ye Qing’s grandfather. But wasn’t this tobacco pipe buried with his grandfather? How did it end up in Third Master Li’s coffin?

Ye Qing was filled with doubt. This tobacco pipe was undoubtedly his grandfather’s and buried with him. But how did it appear in Third Master Li’s grave? What on earth happened?

”Brother, what exactly happened?” Yuan Xiaoyu asked again in surprise, as Ye Qing stood there unmoving, making her very puzzled.

Ye Qing glanced at Yuan Xiaoyu and then at the coffin, suddenly his expression changed, as he discovered another discrepancy.

When Third Master Li was buried, he had no children, no savings, and no one to bury him. Later, it was Ye Qing’s family that took the lead, the villagers chipped in, bought a very thin coffin, and buried him. Ye Qing still remembered that the coffin was very thin, but now the coffin in Third Master Li’s grave was very solid, not at all like the one used for Third Master Li back then. On the contrary, the pattern on the outside of this coffin seemed very similar to the one used for Ye Qing’s grandfather back in the day. What on earth happened here?

This coffin should be Ye Qing’s grandfather’s, the tobacco pipe is the best evidence. But why would his grandfather’s coffin appear in Third Master Li’s grave? And most importantly, where did Third Master Li’s remains go?

This enormous doubt filled Ye Qing completely, baffling him. However, he didn’t dwell for long, instead, he first collected all the bones and placed them in a new coffin, and began letting the workers renovate the grave. Meanwhile, Ye Qing also led some workers directly to his grandfather’s grave, asking them to renovate that grave too.

To renovate, they naturally had to first lift up the coffin, then properly build a grave. In Ye Qing’s hometown, many people would come back to refurbish ancestral graves after making money elsewhere, which is a show of respect for their ancestors. So what Ye Qing was doing now seemed reasonable and didn’t arouse any suspicion among the workers.

However, at the moment they unearthed the grave, everyone was stunned. Ye Qing’s grandfather’s grave was astonishingly empty, except for a decayed thin coffin, there was nothing else. Moreover, this coffin was exceedingly thin, now almost nothing was left of it. The most crucial point was, there were no remains inside the coffin!

Seeing all this, Ye Qing was also stunned, wasn’t this far too strange? His grandfather’s coffin ended up in Third Master Li’s grave, while Third Master Li’s coffin ended up in his grandfather’s grave. The most crucial point being, there were no remains in Third Master Li’s coffin, what exactly happened?

How could the two coffins switch places? And why were there no remains in Third Master Li’s coffin? Who switched the places of the two coffins, and who stole Third Master Li’s remains? Where are Third Master Li’s remains now?

These questions filled Ye Qing’s mind, making it impossible for him to understand. He could never have imagined that all these years he had been offering homage to Third Master Li, who turned out to be his real grandfather. And in the grave on this side, there was only an empty coffin. Third Master Li’s remains were missing? What on earth was going on?

”Boss, now... what should we do now?” one of the workers next to him asked. Though they weren’t new to this work, it was their first time encountering such a situation. There were no remains in the coffin; could this still be considered a grave?

Ye Qing was silent for a moment, then waved his hand and said, ”Continue, repair this grave properly, and bury this thin coffin inside.”

A few workers looked at Ye Qing in confusion—it’s just a coffin, why bother burying it? However, as they would get paid for the work regardless, they didn’t ask any further questions and started working busily on this side.

Meanwhile, Ye Qing’s heart surged with turbulent waves. Undoubtedly, someone had intentionally done this. The reason Ye Qing asked the workers to repair the grave was to avoid letting anyone notice this incident. Regardless of who stole Third Master Li’s remains, there was definitely something amiss, and Ye Qing didn’t want to alert anyone prematurely; he wanted to investigate this matter thoroughly first.

But it remained unknown when this incident occurred; it could have been many years ago. Trying to investigate it now seemed impossible, so Ye Qing decided to keep this matter in mind for the time being.

By the time both graves were repaired, it was already noon. The grave that used to be Ye Qing’s grandfather’s contained only an empty coffin. As for the remains, they were re-enshrined in the coffin and buried in Third Master Li’s grave, everything reverting to how it was before. At this moment, Ye Qing finally understood what Old Wang Ba meant about the Feng Shui that he often mentioned. He used to think that it was Third Master Li’s Feng Shui blessing him, but now it was clear that the Feng Shui belonged to his own family because the one buried in Third Master Li’s grave was his grandfather.

After tidying everything up, Ye Qing paid the workers and drove straight back. Meanwhile, Old Fifth Yang was at Ye Qing’s home, chatting leisurely with Ye Changwen. He was there to take Ye Qing’s family out for a meal.

Ye Qing initially planned to have this meal at home, but since Old Fifth Yang had arranged it, he couldn’t refuse. Fortunately, his family was familiar with Old Fifth Yang, so dining together didn’t feel out of place.

The meal took place in a restaurant owned by Old Fifth Yang, which had been prepared in advance. The entire floor was cleared out to host their family.

Walking into the hotel, Ye Qing couldn’t help but recall the first time they came here when his family looked like country bumpkins. His father Ye Changwen and Zhou Hongxia couldn’t even step through the door. Even Yuan Xiaoyu was pretty reserved back then. However, this time was completely different; Yuan Xiaoyu was completely confident and familiar with everything here.

Ye Changwen and Zhou Hongxia, although not frequent visitors to such places, had been hosted by Old Fifth Yang many times at home, so they were quite familiar with this place now. Walking in didn’t feel as awkward as before, almost like coming home.

Old Fifth Yang led everyone upstairs. Yuan Xiaozheng was already there for some time. When he saw Ye Qing enter, he immediately ran over excitedly, grabbing Ye Qing’s arm and started talking non-stop.

Previously, Yuan Xiaozheng was considered a problem student in school, often bullied by local troublemakers. Since Ye Qing dealt with those troublemakers at school last time, Yuan Xiaozheng’s status had greatly improved. He was deeply moved and began to idolize Ye Qing, becoming determined to study hard, aspiring to get into college like Ye Qing and then join the army.

The first part of the aspiration had Zhou Hongxia’s full support, but the latter part regarding joining the army was something Zhou Hongxia opposed adamantly. In her view, it was more reliable for Yuan Xiaozheng to complete his studies and find a good job upon graduation. The mother and son often argued about this; however, since Yuan Xiaozheng hadn’t even started university yet, their disagreements weren’t too intense. Whether Yuan Xiaozheng would actually join the army in the future remained uncertain.

”Xiao Zheng, you’re not studying well again!” Seeing her son, Zhou Hongxia couldn’t help but nag, ”Why are you here?”

”Mom, it’s a holiday today!” Yuan Xiaozheng replied, ”Didn’t you all remember you forgot to pick me up?”

”Oh, really?” Zhou Hongxia was taken aback and looked towards Yuan Xiaoyu.

”Oh right!” Yuan Xiaoyu clapped her hands, ”I really forgot. We were supposed to pick him up. But then brother came back, and we got caught up in everything else!”

Zhou Hongxia finally recalled that today was indeed a holiday. But with Ye Qing coming back, they were busy attending to him and had genuinely forgotten about Yuan Xiaozheng.

”Hmph, at least Fifth Brother is considerate. He guessed no one would pick me up, so he sent someone to get me back,” Yuan Xiaozheng huffed, casting a glance at his sister and mother. ”If I had waited for you, I probably would have been abandoned at school!”