"Wow, that brother is so amazing..."
"Is the little sister’s hair on fire? Won’t she be okay..."
"Is she perhaps Red Boy..."
"Oh, she’s a girl, Red Boy is a boy... Wait, is it a girl or a boy..."
"Blue Fire, then it must be Blue Boy, haha..."
Zhu Guangfa couldn’t remember how long it had been since his daughter was as lively as she is today.
His daughter buzzed around her mother, chattering nonstop.
Du Xiuzhi originally wanted to tease her by keeping her in suspense, but couldn’t withstand her daughter’s persistent begging.
Zhu Guangfa stood on a chair and took down two bottles of liquor from the top of the cupboard.
Du Xiuzhi stood below, reaching up to help catch them.
Zhu Guangfa’s eyes widened in amazement and he asked, "Why can you catch things?"
"You just noticed?" Du Xiuzhi rolled her eyes at him.
Then she said, "I’m not exactly sure myself. Mr. Shen made some hand gestures and I felt a rush of faint blue light hit my face. After that, I started to feel heavy, like I had my feet firmly on the ground. It was a departure from the constant sensation of weightlessness and being adrift with the wind..."
"Even though people still can’t see me, I feel almost no different from the living..."
It wasn’t surprising. After all, the Jiuyou Demon Lord could manipulate the wandering souls from the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, not only wielding their power for war but also charming minds and absorbing essence energy. Although not a Ghost Cultivator, once empowered by the Soul Banner, one would possess some Ghost Cultivator abilities.
Hearing this, Zhu Guangfa’s spirits lifted, and he excitedly said, "Then we should ask Mr. Shen to let you stay by my side forever."
"You think the two wisps of energy I passed to you are some sort of treasure? Over time, they will erode your bodies and turn you into the living dead..."
"Is it really that serious?"
"Then, Mom, how long can you stay with us?"
Zhu Tingting became less animated, her little face filled with sorrow, and Zhu Guangfa similarly looked solemn.
"Alright, don’t be . To be reunited with you again is a huge stroke of luck. Why ask for more?" Du Xiuzhi wrapped her arms around the two.
Seeing his daughter’s sadness, Zhu Guangfa hurriedly changed the subject, "These two bottles of liquor for Mr. Shen, aren’t they a bit too modest?"
Du Xiuzhi smiled and said, "To Mr. Shen, whatever you give would be too modest. Since that’s the case, give him the best thing you have."
"Alright, we’ll go out later and buy some more things. Just two bottles of liquor don’t seem quite right."
"Though, you haven’t been willing to drink these two bottles of Xifeng, have you?"
"Hehe~, I’m keeping them as a memento." Zhu Guangfa scratched his head and chuckled sheepishly.
His words piqued the curiosity of Zhu Tingting nearby.
With a smile, Du Xiuzhi explained, "This is the liquor your dad brought to your grandpa on his first visit to my home. It was also purchased with his first paycheck."
"But why is it now here at our house? Didn’t grandpa want to drink it?"
"It’s not that. Your grandpa also couldn’t bring himself to drink it, so later I took it back with me."
Speaking of grandpa, Zhu Guangfa asked quietly, "Have you seen them?"
Du Xiuzhi shook her head and said with a smile, "Perhaps because you took such good care of me and they are quite satisfied with you, they have no more concerns and so they left."
Upon hearing this, Zhu Guangfa simply looked deeply at her, pursed his lips, and said softly, "Not exactly..."
He had always harbored guilt about Du Xiuzhi’s passing, feeling that he hadn’t taken good care of her.
Yin Xingyue’s hometown was a very small, very remote village.
The village was populated mostly by elderly people and children, and Yin Xingyue had once been one of them.
However, she didn’t consider herself a left-behind child because her father had died, rather than leaving her behind in the village to go out and work. Sometimes, she even felt a bit happy about this.
Yin Xingyue’s grandma was called Granny Yin, everyone called her that, no one even knew her real name, not even Yin Xingyue herself.
Even the surname was not her own, it was her grandfather’s surname.
Granny Yin had a life full of hardship, widowed young, lost her son in her old age, and then her only granddaughter...
That’s why Granny Yin completely broke down, she couldn’t straighten her back anymore, and could only trudge along with a hunched back and lowered head.
Her steps were slow yet careful, she didn’t know why she was still alive, but for now, she couldn’t seem to die just yet.
Sometimes, being alive is actually a form of pain.
But for Granny Yin, it’s just like that, because she’s suffered too much in her lifetime, she became numb.
To her, being alive brought no surprise, and death would not bring sadness.
Being alive was just that, being alive, with no special meaning.
However, the one thing that often made her sigh with regret was sending her granddaughter Xiao Yue to live with her mother.
She couldn’t understand why Xiao Yue would commit suicide. Wasn’t living a good thing?
She often asked herself this question, but she had no answer herself.
But she wished that Xiao Yue was alive, wished to see her, to hear her call her "Grandma"...
That’s why she regretted it, deeply regretted, so deeply...
That’s why her back became even more hunched...
"I really didn’t want that to happen..."
This was the phrase Granny Yin most frequently muttered.
Xiao Yue had raised a little dog, a very obedient one; as soon as Xiao Yue called, it would rush over happily.
But one day, when Granny Yin asked where the dog was,
She smiled and said she had split up with the dog, half given to Fourth Uncle, the other half to Wang Duna in the west of the village.
She then knew she couldn’t keep Xiao Yue by her side—like her father, she needed to study, to go to a better place to study.
But why did it have to be this way? I really didn’t want that to happen...
Granny Yin regretted it.
She struggled to pull the little cart behind her, a gift from the village shop owner, who said it was a giveaway from the laundry detergent company. City elders liked to pull it when going grocery shopping, so the owner gave her one to facilitate her scrap collecting.
At this moment, her small cart was filled with scraps—cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, waste wire, and more, all piled up. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵※𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮※𝓷𝓮𝓽
Granny Yin needed to drag them to town to sell; the town was actually not far, about ten miles, a half-hour bike ride away.
But for the bent-over Granny Yin, the town already seemed distant enough, each trip requiring half a day to complete the round trip.
Granny Yin clasped her hands behind her back, pounded her waist, and stopped again to rest.
But not for long, she continued to pull the cart, moving on.
This time, it felt a lot easier, but she quickly realized that the reason it felt easier was that someone was helping her push from behind.
She turned around and saw a familiar figure standing behind her, watching her with a beaming smile.
With the afternoon sunshine, her smile was even more brilliant.
Granny Yin wasn’t scared nor surprised, only feeling an indescribable sense of calm and joy.
Her mouth stretched into a grin, revealing all her broken teeth, as even the wrinkles on her face seemed to be brimming with smiles.
"It’s Xiao Yue." she said.
"Grandma~" Yin Xingyue called out again.
"Have you come to take Grandma?"
Death, it seems, can be a happy occasion.