My Father's Account Book

On the day my grandfather died, I asked my second grandfather to give me a message: The funeral should wait until after the first seven days. He said he still had unfinished business. The day I returned to the village was July 13th. The whole village was paying homage to their ancestors, but my family's funeral hall was deserted. Grandpa left me an old account book, which he kept track of for seventy years: which family owed Bai Qi, which grave could not be moved, and which year a person was fished out of the river bend. The first page was torn. The old lady of the He family said: What is written on that page is what Naling Village owes. During the first seven nights, the lights in the mourning hall went out three times. I saw with my own eyes a figure in a gray Chinese tunic suit, walking to the river embankment, placing three sticks of incense and pressing a piece of yellow paper. There was a circle drawn on the paper, with two words in the circle - three days later. Then he walked into the river bend and never came out again. Second Grandpa told me: Grandpa's coffin is empty. All that was buried was a Chinese tunic suit and a pair of old cloth shoes. The last page of the account book reads: Naling Village owes Hewan a life and has not repaid it for three generations. On the day of repaying the debt, the villagers went to the bottom of the river in person. Seventy years ago, a stranger came to measure the land with a land deed and was pushed into a river bend. A life owed more than seventy years. Now, one by one, the three unpaid names on the ledger are starting to come true. I am third generation. It's my turn.