Your Mom is Dead

"Caw! Lu Li, your mom~ is dead~"

The crow circled overhead. Hearing the voice, the youth jumped down from the wall of the schoolhouse. Looking at the wooden crow wheeling above him, his face remained utterly expressionless, as though the Lu Li in the crow's beak was not him.

The youth looked no older than fifteen. He wore a dark-blue coarse linen robe, his features utterly unremarkable. His face was thin, his complexion sallow, and his eyes devoid of any spark.

"Caw, Lu Li, your mom~ is dead~"

"Caw, Lu Li, your mom~ is dead~"

The crow called out twice more, its voice shrill yet mechanical. At last, it slowly descended and landed on a branch by the wall.

Lu Li looked closely and discovered that this mourning crow was not a living creature. Its entire body was covered in wooden grain; apart from its beak and talons, every part had been carved from wood. It cocked its head toward Lu Li, its crimson eyes rolling intermittently.

Lu Li stared at the wooden crow in the tree as well. Only after a moment did he dazedly realize that the one who had died seemed to be his mother.

Perhaps she had died yesterday. He was not sure. The wooden crow had only just come to announce the death, which proved nothing. She might have died yesterday.

Looking at the sun sinking in the west, Lu Li felt that it was about time. He rose and headed toward the western side of town. The wooden crow promptly followed, its beak opening and closing as it chattered without pause.

"Sir, please restrain your grief. The dead flow on like a river, while the living stand like lotuses. Rebirth Hall of Azure Sun Hall is now offering limited-time funeral discounts, including one-stop services such as filial sons to weep in your stead, pallbearers for the funeral procession, and banquet arrangements. Order now and enjoy a ten-percent discount..."

Lu Li walked on in silence, turning a deaf ear to the wooden crow's sales pitch.

He simply kept heading west without giving any response.

On the ancient streets paved with bluestone, such mechanical wooden crows could be seen everywhere. They followed pedestrians from behind, chattering incessantly, so Lu Li did not stand out at all as he walked down the street.

"You may first take a look at our list of filial sons. In order to display the grief of filial sons and worthy descendants, our hall specially recruits those with clear, melodious voices and sincere feelings. Fees are charged according to the volume and duration of the crying, with three tiers: soft sobbing, crying to heaven and beating the earth, and grief beyond all endurance. The lowest price for half a shichen is twenty copper coins. Guaranteed by Azure Sun Hall—quality assured."

"Hm?"

All of a sudden, the youth seemed interested. He abruptly turned around to look at the wooden crow behind him. The bird's wooden mechanical face twitched and shifted slightly, revealing a distinctly human-like fawning expression.

"Caw, does this customer have any instructions?"

"Are you still hiring for that filial-son grave-weeping job?"

"Caw?"

"I think I could do it too. Hey, hey, what kind of expression is that? You just said you needed filial sons with pleasant voices and sincere feelings. I think I qualify too."

The wooden crow looked Lu Li up and down. Lu Li, meanwhile, tugged at the corners of his mouth, pressing his straight lips downward slightly. He strained to squeeze out what he believed was a deeply sorrowful expression, but his stiff facial muscles were clearly less flexible than those of the wooden crow across from him.

"I think I have an advantage in this line of work. As you can see, I understand best the agony of losing one's closest kin."

"Caw, customer, forgive my bluntness, but I fail to see your agony."

"I'm in great pain. Right now, I just want to find a place and have a good cry."

"Sir, your honored mother was unable to enjoy a peaceful life while she lived. Can you truly bear to let her continue suffering after she is gone? You did not attend her with medicine while she lived, and now you will not even prepare a coffin for her after death. If word gets out, how will you ever hold your head high in this world?"

The wooden crow raised its voice by an octave, seemingly deliberately trying to let the passersby on the street hear. A group of pedestrians stopped and began pointing at Lu Li while whispering among themselves.

Lu Li's heart tightened. He suddenly realized that the other party was using filial piety to hold him hostage.

Had the mechanism arts of this world advanced to such a point? Or was this wooden crow actually being controlled by a living person?

Lu Li was not certain. He had transmigrated into this world over fifteen years ago. It was a world where one could become immortal and attain the Dao, but the means of immortality here differed from the novels he had read in his previous life.

The cultivators of this world relied on mechanism arts—or, as they were also called, the Way of Yan—to become immortals.

Yet as a mortal, Lu Li had only encountered very limited mechanism arts in his daily life. He had once heard that there were mechanism masters in this world capable of extracting a living person's soul and imprisoning it within a mechanism, making its movements and speech no different from those of a living being.

He had also heard that great experts could refine artifact spirits within mechanisms and allow those artifact spirits to cultivate independently. A few artifact spirits with heaven-defying comprehension even possessed insight comparable to the human race's most gifted prodigies.

Which kind was this wooden crow?

As he was thinking this, the wooden crow continued its sales pitch.

"Sir, look at Old Madam Wang next door, who passed away just yesterday. Her son is merely a furnace-tending laborer, yet he still fulfilled his filial duty by taking out a loan from our hall to arrange a cold jade coffin. All the neighbors praised him as a filial son."

"Enough. I don't have money right now, and I'm not taking out a loan. I'll never take out a loan in my life. Stop following me."

Lu Li truly had no money. If he did, he would not be sneaking into the private school to steal lessons during the day, then working the night shift at the stamping workshop in the west of town.

As for loans...

What a joke. Between both his lives, he had lived nearly forty years. How could he possibly take out a loan? In this life... no, forget this life—even if he were beaten to death or starved to death, he would never take out a loan in his next life either.

He, Lu Li, would fight to the death against this sort of advance consumption and advance enjoyment. That had been true in his previous life, and it remained true now that he was in the world of cultivation.

As long as he did not marry, have children, or buy a house, he would not need a loan. Then no debt could control him, and he would not be harvested like a chive.

Seeing Lu Li's attitude was so resolute, the wooden crow's expression darkened further. It stopped trying to sell him anything, and its voice suddenly turned cold.

"Sir, I forgot to inform you: you currently have a spirit-stone loan in urgent need of repayment, totaling thirty-six spirit stones and two thousand three hundred forty-one copper coins. If it is not repaid on time, we will take compulsory measures."

In this world, one standard spirit stone was worth ten taels of silver, and one tael of silver was worth one thousand copper coins. He worked at a workshop in the north of town and earned only a thousand copper coins a month. Even if he neither ate nor drank, it would take him thirty years of work to scrape together that many spirit stones.

"That's not right. Who are you trying to fool? When did I ever borrow a spirit-stone loan?"

The wooden crow's tone abruptly turned icy. It no longer had the sales pitch it had begun with, instead becoming incomparably stern, like a fox tearing off its disguise and baring its fangs.

"Sir, you did not borrow any money. However, your honored mother owed Azure Sun Hall an enormous debt during her lifetime. Now that she is dead, a mother's debt is repaid by her son—it is only natural. Here is the promissory note. Please examine it."

"Why didn't you say that earlier?"

"Caw, if I had told you earlier, would you have bought our funeral services? Since you are not buying, I may as well speak plainly."

With that, the wooden crow spat a slip of paper from its beak. It detailed the loan amount, terms, and date. The borrower's field bore his mother's name, while Azure Sun Hall was listed as the lender. The black words on white paper were clear and orderly, and a fingerprint seal had been pressed at the bottom.

"Is that how you people do business? Your mom is dead!"

"Caw, I don't have a mom! Yours is the one who died, heh heh heh~"