Chapter 112: Spouses are Birds in the Same Forest
The stall owner hastily packed up his belongings into a large leather suitcase and carried it, following Cheng Jiuhe to his car.
After the car left, a man in his fifties or sixties stepped out and watched Cheng Jiuhe’s car drive away: "Jiu He from the Cheng Family? He actually recognized an alien as his sister. It seems it won’t be easy for Ying Niang to suppress him."
He returned to the previous room and picked up the phone: "Hello, is this the Cheng family? Please get Mrs. Cheng."
Following the guidance of the young stall owner, the car arrived at a rural area on the outskirts.
Mengyu got out of the car, and she noticed that over a house at the west end of the village, there was a thick gathering of black energy forming into dark clouds.
It is still October, and it shouldn’t be cold, but Cheng Jiuhe felt an icy chill.
Cheng Jiuhe looked at Mengyu with concern: Considering the situation, it might be difficult even with the Yuan Nourishing Pill. Can she really cure it?
Mengyu had already gotten out of the car and was the first to walk towards the house enveloped by the dark clouds.
Xiao He, the stall owner, wanted to say, "Let me show you the way," but he found Mengyu didn’t need guidance and walked straight towards his own home.
He couldn’t help but wonder: How did Sister Jiang know which house I lived in?
When Mengyu entered the He Family house, she saw a young man in his twenties lying on the ground in the hall, with only a mat underneath him.
Above his head, the dark clouds were much denser than those above Xiao He.
However, this man’s will to live was very strong. Judging by the pained expression on his face, he was desperately holding on, with the last bit of white light at his brow resisting the invading dark clouds.
What the expert mentioned by Xiao He was right; if she didn’t intervene, this man could last at most one more day.
Mengyu found it odd and turned to ask Xiao He, who had followed her inside: "Is this your brother? Why isn’t he sleeping on a bed?"
"It’s our local custom."
It turned out, there was a local custom that when a person is about to die, they shouldn’t sleep on a bed but should be placed on the ground of the living room, partly in hopes of absorbing the Earth’s energy to revive, and partly because dying on a bed was frowned upon.
Dying on a bed, commonly referred to as ’back bed board’, was criticized.
Mengyu then asked: "What about the other people in your family?"
Xiao He felt like crying again: "My parents died early, and it was my brother who raised me. My sister-in-law, together with my nephew, left and took away a large part of the antiques that belonged to my brother."
Mengyu was surprised: "She took away a large part? So, your brother brought back quite a lot of stuff this time?"
Xiao He nodded: "This time, they said they dug up a large tomb from the Warring States Period. Eight people went in, two stood guard outside, and among those who entered, only my brother and another person came out, bringing back over a hundred Ming Dynasty Items. The four who survived each got forty-two items.
The person who entered with my brother collapsed on the way. My brother collapsed right at our home’s doorway.
We took him to the hospital, but the hospital refused to admit him and told us to prepare for the funeral. I had a teacher come over, but even he couldn’t do anything. He only said to prepare the Yuan Nourishing Pill. The fellow who went into the tomb chamber with my brother died that very night."
Mengyu and Cheng Jiuhe looked at each other in dismay: How ominous must that tomb have been to not spare any of the four who entered?
Xiao He continued: "Yesterday afternoon, my sister-in-law said that my brother was beyond help, and she and my nephew were suffering from staying at home, so she took my nephew and went back to her mother’s place. She said she wouldn’t come back.
This morning, I discovered that of the Ming Dynasty Items my brother brought back, only seven were left. The expert said that for my brother’s condition, he needed to take the Yuan Nourishing Pill, so I thought of selling these to buy a Yuan Nourishing Pill for my brother—"
Mengyu sighed; his sister-in-law truly epitomized that saying: Spouses are birds in the same forest; when disaster strikes, they fly separately.