Love Cannot Be Separated Even by Death

Shen Le felt like crying but had no tears.

Everything was fine, no grudges or enmity, yet he had gone and plastered a giant web of ink lines all over someone's door.

Those who knew would understand it was the Little Ink Marker acting out on its own, but those who didn't would think he was some new breed of thief using the marker to scout out targets!

In the midst of the chaos, he activated his Spirit Eye and swept a quick glance. The Lead Weight and the ink lines were surging with a fiery aura; clearly, the Little Ink Marker was throwing a tantrum, incredibly agitated.

However, the ink lines left on the door had a faint aura, barely visible, and were far inferior to the ones on the furniture back home.

Shen Le felt that this little bit of ink line shouldn't be enough to cause any harm to the residents of the room...

It was already too late to go looking for a rag to wipe the ink lines clean. Footsteps were already approaching the door; if the owner opened it and saw him scrubbing away at the ink lines...

The scene would be nothing short of a disaster!

"Let's go!"

He grabbed the Lead Weight with his left hand, wrapped the ink line around his right hand several times, tugged back and forth, and finally managed to drag both the ink line and the Lead Weight back.

He shoved them into his backpack while turning around, hurrying downstairs.

He walked on tiptoes, trying to be as silent as possible, while pricking up his ears to listen for any movement inside the room.

He listened and listened, hearing only the husband's muffled coughing and the wife's low sobbing. Thank goodness, they hadn't noticed...

Shen Le snuck out of the residential complex like a thief, picked up Xiao Ling from work at the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant, and headed straight home. No sooner had he arrived than his phone buzzed with several messages:

"Mr. Shen, have there been any abnormalities with the toolbox you purchased these past few days?"

"Mr. Shen, the family that sold you the toolbox has filed another report today. Are there any unusual situations on your end?"

"Mr. Shen, sorry to bother you, but if there is any unusual activity with that toolbox, please be sure to contact us."

Oh, great. A WeChat message from the Special Affairs Duo. Shen Le swiped the messages away with an expressionless face, pretending he hadn't seen them—

After all, WeChat wasn't DingTalk; it didn't have a "read receipt" feature.

The toolbox had unusual activity, and he had seen it; he had watched the whole thing. Aside from snapping a few ink lines, it hadn't done anything strange. It hadn't lunged into the room to strangle anyone, nor had it smashed anyone with the Lead Weight.

He would take responsibility for the Little Ink Marker's actions!

Shen Le rolled up his sleeves and continued to grind away at the Jujube Wood Devil's Work Ball.

The Little Puppet poked its head in from the side, handing him carving knives, the electric drill, and the chisel, sweeping wood shavings off the workbench with a tiny broom, and occasionally pouring a glass of water for Shen Le.

Shen Le felt deeply comforted:

Ah, the Little Puppet is just so well-behaved. Look at how much it's helped him in just this short while. Unlike that Ink Marker, which only knows how to cause trouble!

Putting down the carving knife once more, Shen Le took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and channeled his "internal energy" to let his fingers recover. Before his breathing had even steadied, his phone suddenly let out a high-pitched ring. Shen Le leaned over to look:

"..."

This one he couldn't ignore.

The local patrol officer for his area, the young policeman Shi Guangbing, was calling him?

"Hello?... Yes, that's right... No, that toolbox, there are no problems at all... Their door has a lot of ink lines on it? That has nothing to do with me!"

"Mr. Shen." The young policeman's voice on the other end of the line grew more solemn:

"We checked the surveillance footage. From the time they returned home until the ink lines were discovered on the door panel, you were in their hallway during that window."

"..."

Shen Le was speechless for a moment. What could he say? Could he say that the Little Ink Marker had dragged him there, then ran off on its own to slap ink lines all over their door?

"...Please tell them that the ink lines won't cause them any harm, and nothing like this will happen again. That's all, I'm busy, hanging up!"

He hung up the phone and immediately grabbed the Ink Marker. He shook it twice, swayed it twice, and then gave it two sharp knocks:

"Are you done yet! Why on earth did you do something like that! Why!—Not talking, huh?"

He grabbed a Copper Fragment and pressed it fiercely against the Ink Marker. Immediately, a surge of heat rushed from his fingertips into the Copper Fragment, and then from the fragment into his mind.

His vision went black.

It was a very distinct darkness, like a piece of black cloth fluttering noisily before his eyes.

Shen Le steadied himself, then steadied himself again, only to find that there really was black cloth fluttering in front of him—a strip on the left, a strip on the right.

Between the black cloth, a black-and-white photograph was enshrined, the old man in the photo smiling gently at him.

...The landing point of this memory wasn't very accurate; it was too close, he had almost bumped into someone's funeral portrait...

Shen Le stepped back twice and looked around. The place where the portrait was displayed was a very familiar room; several previous memories seemed to have taken place here.

On the sofa opposite the portrait, an old lady with a head full of silver hair tilted her head slightly, gazing silently at her husband's portrait.

After gazing for a long while, she stood up with difficulty, picked up an ink marker from the table beneath the portrait, and stroked it gently.

"Old man..."

The old woman's voice was slow and leisurely, devoid of much sorrow, with only nostalgia flowing gently through it:

"You've been gone for many years now, and I've grown old too. I've been maintaining these tools, taking them out to look at every day, often wiping them down and polishing them. Now, I'm almost unable to maintain them anymore..."

"Xiaohua uses electric equipment now, so he has no use for these. When I'm gone, I don't know who will remember them, or who will even know how to use them..."

Xiaohua?

Shen Le's ears pricked up instantly. He had heard that name before; it was the husband's name from the couple who had been arguing.

So, the couple who were fighting to the point of divorce were indeed the old couple's son and daughter-in-law?

She took the tools out of the wooden box one by one and spread them across the table. After taking out seven or eight pieces, she grew slightly breathless and had to pull up a stool to sit down before continuing her work.

With each item she retrieved, she carefully wiped it from end to end with a soft cloth. She applied anti-rust oil to the metal parts and gently brushed her fingertips over the edges to ensure they remained sharp.

As she wiped, she smiled faintly, the corners of her eyes curving upward, filled with endless nostalgia:

"This Alien Compass was designed by you; you added a component to the leg used for drawing..."

"With this attachment, drawing circles on flat surfaces, curved surfaces, spheres, and irregular parts became much more convenient..."

"This Planer was also designed by you. There's a curved opening here, specifically for planing curved surfaces..."

"Back then, we took on a batch of orders where the curved surfaces were particularly troublesome. It was only thanks to the planer you designed that we finished the job and even earned a five-yuan bonus..."

"And this bent Chisel Knife—I was pregnant with Xiaohua at the time, and as I got further along, it was difficult to draw, so you helped me with the designs..."

"And this..."

Shen Le stood beside her, holding his breath as he watched her wipe and maintain these tools one by one. She could recount the origin of every single piece, and for every one, she could share a memory the old couple had built together.

Is this what true love is...

A love that transcends time, one that even death cannot erase...

How wonderful...