Blissful Days After Widowhood - Chapter 229

Seeing that his apprentice was silent again like a log, the old man pondered and stood up suddenly, not daring to believe it, “You didn’t… Do you have someone you like?”

Hearing that, Wu Qingyi lowered his eyes.

“Then what are you going to do?”

“Nothing.” Wu Qingyi raised his head again and said, “I’ll go see her again.”

He passed through Hanshan Town a few days ago, and he had a chance to find her. But thinking of his master’s worries about the future, he didn’t go to see her.

Those days, he told himself in his heart that although she was a widow with a young child, both mother and son were very smart, especially since she had the ability to be as good as the royal chef. With the new government, she could definitely live well.

But in the bottom of his heart, there was a trace of unwillingness.

He wanted to see her again and ask her if she was really doing well.

So he must go to see her again.

“I want to discuss this with you, Master.”

The old man waved his hand irritably and asked him to pick something from his warehouse.

Anyway, most of the things in his warehouse were given by his apprentice or rewarded by Emperor Zhengyua. Things that were extremely precious to outsiders were not worth mentioning to the old man.

“I want to…”

“Anything is fine, don’t bother me!”

Although he stayed by Wu Qingyi’s side in order to repay his kindness at the beginning, they had been like a father and son getting along with each other, and their feelings had long been different.

Especially knowing that he already had a woman he liked, the old man was even more annoyed – he used to have no heart, and he didn’t want to start a family anymore, so that method was useful. But he was never attracted to someone. Was it really because of things that hadn’t happened yet he should let his apprentice be a bachelor for a lifetime?

It was a pity that the old man claimed to be an all-rounder who was proficient in martial arts, medicine, politics and disguise.

For his plan, it was still necessary to let Wu Zhong survive.

He was seriously injured in order to save  Emperor Zhengyuan back then, and the injury was really serious, otherwise he would not have suffered a stroke in the middle age. As long as he lived for one day, he could remind the Emperor and bless his son for a day.

Wu Zhong’s ability was not as good as his son’s, but he was not stupid. Otherwise, he would not have lived for all those years as a crippled person. He also meant to protect his son.

It was a pity that the old man also saw that Wu Zhong had long been disheartened. Under such a state of mind, even if his willpower was extraordinary, it was extremely detrimental to the recovery of his body. He was afraid that he had only a few years to live.

The old man started flipping through the medical books he had already familiarized himself with, and he didn’t even know when Wu Qingyi left.

The little pharmacist at the back went into the warehouse to sweep, and after a while, he hurriedly said, “Master, he took your piece of extraterrestrial meteoric iron!”

That piece of extraterrestrial meteorite was indestructible, it was the apex of the old man, and it was never shown to outsiders.

That is, when Wu Qingyi rescued Hegu, the old man reluctantly proposed to give him the meteorite.

Wu Qingyi was unwilling to ask for it, saying that he was not short of good weapons.

The old man kept it with peace of mind. He didn’t expect that he wanted that just now.

The old man clutched his chest with heartache, and could only comfort himself that his apprentice had superior weapons, and the meteoric iron became a sharp blade in his hands, so he could not fail to live up to it.

Batou Village was rebuilt after the flood that year.

It was a pity that the people in Batou Village were not the same as they used to be.

Mrs. Wang couldn’t help but sigh that something was wrong, and then rejoiced.

She was really fortunate. If it wasn’t for their hard work together to subdue the thief and escape overnight, they would not be alive now.

The place where they used to live already had a family, but because the location was not good, the new one was not a wealthy family, and only two thatched cottages were built.

Mrs. Wang planned to build tombs in that place, so Gu Yin gave them two taels of silver, and the family moved away without hesitation.

There were still several days before the Mid-Autumn Festival. The family would stay there first, find someone to dig two pits in the mountain behind the thatched hut, and then go to make custom-made stone tablets. Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, the stone tablets would be delivered, and then the graves would be filled with soil.

Mrs. Wang was obviously in a bad mood, and when she folded the ingots, she said, “In the past, I was not good, and I only bought one piece of clothes for them. I didn’t expect that there would be nothing of theirs with us.”

Gu Yin and the two little kids helped her to fold the paper money together. Gu Yin comforted her, “It’s alright, let’s make two more new clothes for dad and him. It’s not a problem that we don’t have their old clothes.”

“Yss!” Mrs. Wang first smiled, then she couldn’t help wiping her eyes and said, “They were unlucky. I didn’t know you would have such good cooking skills later on. Unfortunately, they couldn’t even take a bite of the food you make.”

Gu Yin said that it was not difficult, “Although the thatched cottage is simple, didn’t we bring a kitchen knife with us when we came here? I also brought the seasonings with me. It is not difficult to cook some meals.”

She went to unpack, looking for the kitchen knife inside.

As soon as she moved, the two little kids moved too – since the last time Gu Yin was away from home for more than a month, the two little cubs became her tail. 

Even when Gu Yin went to the thatched hut, they were waiting outside the door. It made Mrs. Wang die from laughter.

As for why she saw it, of course, it was also because she went to check on her daughter-in-law from time to time.

When they came out of Hanshan Town, she sewed two long straps on Gu Yin’s coarse cloth, and the other end of the straps were tied around the waists of the two children.

Gu Yin laughed so hard, but it was a long way from Hanshan Town to Batou Village, so it was good to be cautious when going out, so Mrs. Wang tied them up.

Now in the village, the tie was naturally removed, but the two little kids got used to it and followed her around.

Mrs. Wang raised her eyes and saw the two “little tails”, and couldn’t help but burst out laughing again. The sadness in her heart was finally diluted.

“Mother!” Gu Yin looked at her helplessly.

“Hey!” Mrs. Wang responded, and then said to Wu’an and Gu Ye, “Come and fold paper money with me, why are you always following her?”

Gu Yin counted out dozens of cents, went to the village to buy some eggs and vegetables, and asked someone to help her with some meat when she went to the market the next day. 

When she came back, the small thatched hut was already full of paper money.

Mrs. Wang found a sack and put the paper money on it, shook her head and said bitterly, “When I was giving birth with a weak heart, I really suffered enough, and I almost died. At that time, I told your father that if I went to the underworld ahead of him, he did not need to spend any money to prepare any sacrifices for me, and just fold a thousand paper money every year for me. I didn’t expect that now I have to give him folded paper money every year.”

“There are more than a thousand, mother,” Wu’an reminded her in a low voice.

Mrs. Wang squinted at him and said, “Our family is in good condition, so why can’t you burn more for your father and brother? Why are you more aggressive than me?”

“No, you asked me to count.” Wu An knew that his mother was in a bad mood, so he just explained in a low voice, “Now it’s two thousand five hundred and thirty-six.”

“Let’s fold up more.”  Gu Yin sat back on the small bench. “Put it together for Dad and him.”

In the end, the family folded the papers for four days, more than three thousand paper money, but no one complained about the hard work.

Even Gu Ye, who didn’t know who he came to worship at first, didn’t feel impatient.

On the 14th day of the seventh lunar month, two large stone tablets arrived after four days of work.

Seeing the names of Wu Zhong and Wu Qingyi, Mrs. Wang’s eyes reddened.

Gu Yin also felt sour in her heart. The father and son of the Wu family were gone. Although she had no relationship with them at that time, because of Mrs. Wang and Wu’an, she also regarded them as a family.

After the tombs were closed, Mrs. Wang didn’t sleep that night, so she just sat near the two tombs for a whole night.

Wu An didn’t sleep either. He was working hard to write a eulogy for his father and brother.

He has long planned to write for them. He had been drafting for a long time, and when he started writing, he wrote quickly.

Gu Yin and Gu Ye didn’t sleep at all. Gu Yin handled the ingredients and prepared to cook a sacrificial meal the next day, while Gu Ye went to accompany his grandmother.

When the sky lightened, it was officially the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Mrs. Wang asked Gu Ye, who had sat with her for half the night, to take a break, while she entered the house and took out a sack of paper money and went to the intersection to start burning.

That was called the Ghost Festival. Traditionally, it was first burned to the wandering spirits of the four directions, for fear that they would steal the money from their own family.

Mrs. Wang said, “All, all, don’t rob anyone.”

When the fire was done at the intersection, Mrs. Wang dragged the empty sack home.

Before taking two steps, from a distance, she saw a tall figure standing in front of her newly erected tombstone.

Even though that person was taller than Mrs. Wang had ever seen before, a mother would never mistake her son.

The empty sack in her hand fell to the ground with a soft sound, and the man immediately turned his head. He was wearing half of the mask, but the morning light was fading, and the other half of his face was both familiar and unfamiliar.

Mrs. Wang was overjoyed at first, and her first reaction was to think he came back alive, but she soon woke up. The village and her old home were on the same road. She didn’t see anyone coming at the intersection, and just made a light sound. How could it be possible for ordinary people to hear it from a distance of more than ten meters away?

She thought simply that he was a ghost.

“Da, da, da…” Mrs. Wang’s lips trembled, and she couldn’t say the word “Da Ya”, and finally screamed, “Daughter-in-law! There’s a ghost!”

Wu’an had already written the sacrificial text, and when he walked to the door, he heard his mother scream and rushed out immediately.

He first saw an extremely tall figure, dressed in black clothes and wearing a half mask. His expression was dark and difficult to see, and he was not a good person at first glance.

“Sister-in-law, help!”

His sister-in-law had a knife in the kitchen.

Before she finished speaking, Gu Yin, who heard Mrs. Wang’s scream, rushed out with the  knife, thinking that it must be someone pretending to be a ghost.