"Why did you suddenly think of tomb-sweeping? Well, go ahead and have a look, so that no one can accuse our Su Family of ingratitude," Su Qingzhang was in a very good mood today, so even though Su Ziceng brought up a taboo subject, he didn’t particularly mind.
After a bit of idle chat, they saw Chang Mei coming down from upstairs, fuming with anger, her eyes swollen like those of a goldfish, her nostrils flaring continuously. She came down, sat beside Su Qingzhang, and then with those rolled-up eyes, glared fiercely at Yan Wuxu.
Seeing that expression, Su Ziceng found it nauseating, not to mention Su Qingzhang. The addition of another person made the conversation no longer warm, and Su Qingzhang stood up displeased and strode upstairs.
"They’re almost a hundred years old combined, yet still act like they’re fighting over jealousy like youngsters," Su Ziceng mocked. After speaking, she couldn’t help but wonder—did Chang Mei truly have feelings for her father, or was it just a relationship of mutual dependency and weighing of pros and cons?
With these thoughts, Su Ziceng felt even more dispirited. She excused herself to go tomb-sweeping, but in fact, she wanted to find an opportunity to search for descendants of the Qiao Family and uncover some past events.
Yan Wuxu felt uncomfortable under Chang Mei’s gaze. Earlier, when a cherry pit was forcibly stuffed into her mouth, it was awkward whether to spit it out or swallow it. Inadvertently, she even swallowed the pit. Panic-stricken, she started coughing, and with the cough, almost cried out tears.
While Yan Wuxu was coughing, Chang Mei cursed, "Be careful, or you’ll cough up your black heart and wolf liver."
Seeing this, Su Ziceng responded indifferently, "If you have time for this, you’d better take care of your own husband and daughter—one’s a hopeless drunkard, the other is promiscuous."
"You..." After hearing this, and following a previous argument with Chang Chi, Chang Mei outright stopped talking.
That night, Yan Wuxu was restless in her sleep, feeling as if the cherry pit was stuck in her throat. She tried to spit it out several times but couldn’t.
The guest room in the Su Family’s house was very comfortable, the pillows so much softer compared to those at Yan Wuxu’s home, and the room was always filled with the scent of lavender. Yan Wuxu tossed and turned, feeling out of place.
"What a masochist," she muttered after turning over one last time. Surprisingly, right after that, she fell asleep and slept till dawn, still a bit groggy even as the maid delivered the clothes she was to wear that day.
Descending the stairs, Yan Wuxu felt a bit apprehensive. She first glanced at the master’s seat where Su Qingzhang usually sat, relieved to find it empty yet also feeling a sense of loss.
Yesterday, in the living room, when Su Qingzhang stuffed the cherry into her mouth, his tongue followed, and his hand rested on her waist, kneading now softly, now heavily. Yan Wuxu was both afraid and longing for the sensation of his hand, eventually allowing her consciousness to be swallowed by him.
"We’ll go tomb-sweeping after breakfast," Su Ziceng had already prepared a flower basket and some gold ingot candles, all packed neatly into a scented-fire basket. "No need for a driver, Xiao Chi is without her car recently, let the driver stay with her." As Su Ziceng said it, given Chang Mei’s domineering nature, it was already a huge blessing that Chang Chi wasn’t confined, needless to say, the driver would be "on call" to accompany Chang Chi.
"You really are thoughtful," Chang Chi poked at the poached egg on her plate with a fork, stirring it wildly. Indeed, Chang Mei had laid down a severe threat—if Chang Chi dared to go to the Sixth District again, she would have her drunken father’s legs broken. No matter what, he was still her father, and Chang Chi would resent Chang Mei’s cruelty, but she also knew that her mother, who came out of the Sixth District, was a ruthless person—what she could say, she could definitely do.
The Qiao Family’s gravesite was located in the public cemetery of Zone 1. After the snow had stopped, the winter sunshine gently warmed the ground. Walking up the steps, one could occasionally startle a snowbird into flight, and occasionally, small bits of snow would fall from the treetops. The cemetery was the most peaceful place, bustling during a lifetime, and soundlessly still after death.
After placing some fewer gold ingot candles at the gravesite, Su Ziceng arranged the fruits and fresh flowers neatly, then looking at the tombstone, she found that it had been a long time since anyone had paid tribute here. The descendants of the Qiao Family had fallen so far that they didn’t even have time to tend to their ancestors’ graves.
Su Ziceng bowed several times, then extinguished the candles, planning to find the cemetery manager to learn some news about the Qiao Family, and also to give some money, asking the manager to tidy up and burn some gold ingot candles during the festivals.
In her previous life, she had never cared about those buried beneath the ground, but after dying once, she came to understand the loneliness of the dead. The graves of the two elders of the Qiao Family stood desolately, giving off a sense of desolation.
The cemetery manager’s house was on the outermost edge of the cemetery. To get there, one had to pass through a vast expanse of gravesites, which seemed even more solemn after being washed by the snow. Just walking through it sent chills down one’s spine.
Behind them was the sound of snow being crushed underfoot, and Su Ziceng and Yan Wuxu turned around as if they had run into a ghost.
In the snow, footsteps were visible, and Pello was standing not far away, holding a small paper box, appearing not to be there for tomb-sweeping.
Yan Wuxu silently glanced between the two, nudging Su Ziceng lightly.
Those few playful words from earlier entered Su Ziceng’s mind for no reason, and her face suddenly flushed with heat. (To be continued. If you work, you are welcome to go to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast a monthly ticket and recommendation ticket. Your support is my greatest motivation.)