Tombstone

Every time Zheng Wuyou came face-to-face with the wall of morality, she always did the opposite of what she should.

But this time, she decided to be a do-gooder one more time.

Without someone to bicker with, she'd have less motivation to think.

That was the reason she gave herself.

While the sounds of earth being dug up continued, Zheng Wuyou quickly weaved and leaped through the rows of tombstones.

"If you don't want to die, keep shouting!" she kept reminding Hu Yu not to give up.

But suddenly...

She stopped in front of a tombstone, because she saw a familiar name engraved on it.

It didn't bear anyone else's name. It was engraved with just two characters—Zhu Li.

Could it be...

Zhu Li's tombstone!?

Was it someone with the same name, or just a coincidence?

Wen Dian didn't understand why Zheng Wuyou had suddenly stopped, but the sounds of earth being dug up grew louder all around them!

Once the sun had completely set and there wasn't a single source of light...

If they didn't find it soon, they'd have to run!

The sound of Wen Dian calling out seemed to be getting farther and farther away.

A chill suddenly ran down Zheng Wuyou's back, and an almost unbelievable thought flashed through her mind.

[Mid-July, flowers adorn the altar; King Yama collects graves, wearing a face.]

That nursery rhyme rang through her mind once more.

The spiderwebs that had appeared out of nowhere at night, the ghosts drifting outside the doors.

The White Candles in front of every house, the Yellow Paper for ancestral offerings scattered throughout the village.

And the nursery rhyme echoing without end...

"Find the First Wife of the Zhu family!" Zheng Wuyou snapped back to her senses and shouted at Wen Dian, who was about to flee.

Wen Dian turned around, at a loss. Old Zhu's family was so far away from here!

How could they make it in time?

"The tombstones! It's the tombstones!" Zheng Wuyou hurried through the rows, carefully and quickly checking the names and inscriptions on each one.

Whenever a skeleton crawled out of a grave, she gave it a hard kick to knock it apart, buying them more time before the earth broke open.

She kept searching the tombstones for information about the First Wife of the Zhu family.

Hu Yu hadn't given up calling for help either. Amid the commotion, they could still hear her voice growing more and more exhausted.

At that moment, the urge to run took over Wen Dian's mind.

He stood in place, wavering for a moment, then steeled himself.

He hurried back and began searching the first row for the First Wife of the Zhu family Zheng Wuyou had mentioned.

If he died here because of this, then it meant his fate had always been to die here!

[The tomb of Zhu Youcai's beloved wife, Madam Zhao. In life, my wife was virtuous and capable, managed the household, supported her husband and raised her children. She was kind and treated others well. Now she has passed away in the prime of her life, and I am overcome with grief. May you be well in heaven, free from illness and pain.]

Virtuous and capable...

As Wen Dian read the inscription on the tombstone in front of him, the knowledge associated with it instantly came to mind.

Only the First Wife would be praised for her virtue and good character!

And entered into the family register!

And that middle-aged man had said at lunch that his name was Youcai!

"Over here!" Wen Dian had found the tombstone, but he didn't know what to do next.

He just couldn't understand why the young woman from Old Zhu's family, who was clearly still alive, had a grave here.

Following his call, Zheng Wuyou leaped over several graves in a row.

There was no time to worry about disrespecting the dead!

"Search! The hairpin is hidden in this grave!" Zheng Wuyou ignored the skeleton emerging from the grave and shoved it back inside.

She frantically dug at the loose soil with both hands.

That dwarf had said that a woman had taken the hairpin away from Old Zhu's family!

And Zhu Li had said that once they rescued the First Wife, the hairpin would appear!

So...

Zheng Wuyou looked back toward Desolate Village.

It would never be possible to rescue the First Wife of Old Zhu's family...

Because the real First Wife was trapped in the graveyard!

The hairpin...

The hairpin was all Zheng Wuyou could think about now.

Her intuition told her that as long as they found it, they would be able to return safely to Desolate Village.

But despite her and Wen Dian's efforts, even a shallow grave had been dug up enough to reveal half of its rotting coffin.

They still hadn't found the slightest clue about the hairpin.

"Is it really here?" Wen Dian asked doubtfully, nervously pawing at the ground like a dog, his fingernails caked with yellow soil.

Looking around, he saw that the skeletons in all the other graves had emerged halfway.

They were reaching out toward the two of them.

Getting ready to crawl over!

"Wen Dian, if you trust me, take that stone and do what I did this afternoon. Start at the west and worship counterclockwise in front of this tombstone! Don't get the direction wrong!" Zheng Wuyou suddenly remembered the clan custom mentioned in the sentence!

The two tasks were closely connected. Since they couldn't search in the usual way here...

They had to follow the Zhu Family Village clan custom.

"Right, right! Start at the west... counterclockwise!" Wen Dian took the inscribed stone out of his pocket, not even bothering to worry whether the mud and blood on his hands would get all over it.

He immediately began worshipping counterclockwise, starting from the west.

After he finished by worshipping the north side of the First Wife's tombstone, a rumble sounded in front of him.

Zheng Wuyou, who had been standing on a grave, promptly jumped back.

The tombstone bearing Madam Zhao's epitaph shattered, and the coffin inside the grave was exposed.

The coffin lid slid open by itself. A hairpin lay inside, shimmering in the moonlight.

Zheng Wuyou reached into the bottom of the coffin and picked up the hairpin.

In an instant, all the skeletons around them stopped moving, as if an invisible force had frozen them in place.

Before long, they comically crawled back into their own graves.

Moonlight fell across the hairpin, gently draping it in a veil of silver.

Through the curtain of light, Zheng Wuyou and Wen Dian saw scene after scene flash by.

Madam Zhao leaned against the roots of a tree covered in silvery blossoms in her family's courtyard. Sunlight fell across her face, warm and peaceful.

The First Wife, Madam Zhao, woke from a faint, her horrified eyes sweeping across the unfamiliar surroundings. She had no choice but to wear a festive wedding gown, and her once-strong body grew weaker by the day.

Madam Zhao met Zhu Li by the river while washing clothes, and the two hit it off like old friends, chatting by the river until dusk.

After countless evenings together, one night Zhu Li helped her escape. But the villagers joined forces, and Madam Zhao was captured and locked in a dark cellar, never to see the light of day again.

By the time she was seen again, only a pile of bones remained.

This hairpin was the key to Madam Zhao finding her family, as well as the token she and Zhu Li had agreed upon. It carried the strength of their friendship and the promise to protect one another.

It also held a trace of Zhu Li's guilt.

"What a bunch of animals!" Wen Dian slammed his fist into the neighboring tombstone. He couldn't forget the despair in Madam Zhao's eyes as she was locked in the cellar.

Perhaps he wouldn't be able to forget them for a long time.

So that day...

Was Zhu Li still alive?

Zheng Wuyou looked toward Zhu Li's tombstone. More and more questions loomed before her.

Just then, Hu Yu's faint cries came from a distance. The danger she was in didn't seem to have passed.

The curtain of light slowly faded. Zheng Wuyou tightened her grip on the hairpin and exchanged a glance with Wen Dian.

They immediately followed the cries for help and found Hu Yu behind a tombstone, with half her body buried in a grave.

Hu Yu's eyes were swollen and red. After crying out for help until her voice was hoarse, she could barely make a sound.

Seeing her, Zheng Wuyou and Wen Dian hurried to pull her out of the ground.

The two of them supported the exhausted Hu Yu and headed toward Zhu Family Village with the hairpin.