However, Xu Xiangqian encountered an unexpected situation while leading the coffin up the mountain.
The Gantry Mountain is a burial mound not too high.
There is only one path up the mountain, not particularly narrow, yet certainly too cramped for two coffins to pass side by side.
As Xu Fang's coffin was being carried up, they happened to meet a family descending the mountain after a funeral.
This group was much larger in scale.
Those carrying white banners, holding filial lanterns, bearing incense towers, and blowing suona as part of the music accompaniment… The coffin had already been buried and was not seen,
but the pallbearers mingled with the mourning relatives, forming an imposing procession of forty or fifty people, evidently from a well-off family.
Xu Xiangqian, with a paper figure in each hand, stood in the middle of the road, appearing rather forlorn in comparison.
