"Stone Clothes"
Introduction
2016 is the Year of the Monkey, the Spring Festival has just passed, and the spirit of the New Year has not yet dissipated. Forty-three-year-old Qiu Huimian embarked on a journey to Fujian Shishi alone. The destination is a dilapidated old stone house legendary in the family on a nearly deserted coastline in Dongpu, Linhu. This trip was not for sightseeing, but to commemorate a matter that spanned two generations, and to put an end to my mother's obsession with a certain "unreturner" before she died.
Along the rugged coastal path, the salty sea breeze carries the smell of stale incense. The stone house covered with barnacles and memories was like a deformed bone growing on a reef, half immersed in the dampness of reality and half trapped in the fog of the past. Qiu Huimian pushed open the creaking wooden door. Inside, there were faded black-and-white figures from the family photo album, weird paper offerings on the table that were definitely not Chinese customs, and a rubbing of a woman on the wall wearing a gorgeous but ancient "stone dress" that looked like a wedding dress but not a wedding dress.
The ceremony begins on a night of high tide. Following the vague instructions in the genealogy folder, she lit the specially made incense stick. The green smoke does not rise but sinks, and threads penetrate into the cracks of the stone. The sound of the tide, the wind, and the seemingly absent ancient female voice suddenly intertwined. In the old family photo in his hand, a vague female figure seemed to slowly turn her head...
The next morning, the local fishermen who came to check only saw the open door, the extinguished incense ashes, a table of unused cold fishy sacrifices, and a pair of neatly arranged old women's shoes on the ground. Qiu Huimian, a middle-aged woman with city fatigue and family secrets, disappeared from the world without leaving a trace.
Purpose: Qiu Huimian's daughter, Qiu Xiaomian, Qiu Zhixiu, son Cai Fangmeng