Red silk ribbons fluttered on the elm tree, just like a wishing tree.
Beneath the tree, stones were piled up, and there was an incense altar.
There was incense in the altar, clearly showing that someone came to burn offerings on the first and fifteenth of every month.
Shen Yunyun was speechless.
Sure enough, it wasn’t atheism, but pantheism.
Take this thousand-year-old ancient tree, for example—people had turned it into a deity and came to burn incense and worship it.
She vaguely remembered seeing a comment under some video where someone said their godmother was a tree.
Another person said their godmother was a stone roller.
She found it pretty amusing.
"This big elm tree once saved the lives of our Tang Family Village. One year during a famine, this elm tree bore elm seeds for half a year, keeping the men, women, old, and young of the whole village from starving to death. After that year, the tree didn’t produce elm seeds for ten years. The elders said the tree used up a decade’s worth of seeds in that single year to save us."
Shen Yunyun was stunned.
Honestly, she found it hard to believe.
But then she thought of her own Myriad Worlds Trading Center and found it easier to accept.
Ever since she got the trading center, she seemed to take all sorts of strange things in stride.
Now, looking at the ash and the red ribbons tied to the tree, she suddenly didn’t find it funny anymore.
Continuing east past the big tree, there was a large courtyard with a black wooden plaque bearing gold-embossed characters reading "Ancestral Hall."
Shen Yunyun was invited into the ancestral hall.
Inside, there were many memorial tablets, and she also spotted a portrait hanging in the center.
It was the same one she’d seen in Tang Yu’s study.
She stared at the portrait, lost in thought, looking at herself and then at the man in the painting.
Honestly, that man was incredibly handsome.
Could she really have it this good?
Pretty nice perks, huh.
"Ancestor, there’s no need to find it strange. This is the Tang family’s secret, passed down through generations. We younger ones used to think it was just a legend until Xiao Yu sent word back. We’ve been hoping for the ancestor to return to the village. To see the ancestor’s true face today is truly a blessing from a past life."
The village chief’s tone was extremely respectful.
Shen Yunyun cleared her throat. "No need to be so formal. Just call me Great-Aunt along with Tang Yu."
"But that would mess up the generational order."
"Yet I’m young and pretty. Being called ‘ancestor’ by you all doesn’t feel right."
The village chief hesitated for a moment, then looked at Tang Yu.
Tang Yu gave a slight nod, and the village chief changed his address to Great-Aunt.
"Call the younger ones over so I can meet them."
"Great-Aunt, would you like to see them here in the ancestral hall?"
"Sure."
The village chief immediately directed people to start setting things up.
Soon, someone brought Shen Yunyun a grand armchair and placed it inside the main door of the ancestral hall.
Facing her, they set up an offering table in the courtyard, laden with fruits and a large pig’s head.
Shen Yunyun was dumbfounded.
When she realized they were worshipping her, she immediately resisted. "Move it, move it."
What were they doing?
Cursing her?
She was alive, and they were making offerings to a living person?
What were they thinking?
The village chief’s face stiffened, and he quickly had the table removed, his heart uneasy.
So the offering method passed down from their ancestors wasn’t liked by the ancestor at all?
Then all those pig heads were wasted?
The elderly ancestor who had been carried to the village entrance to welcome her was soon brought in, accompanied by two old women.
One of the old women couldn’t walk anymore, while the other seemed in good health, walking on her own with a cane.
The three of them tried to kowtow to Shen Yunyun again.