This Shouldn't Have Been the Ending

Feng Chen was filled with countless emotions.

He clenched the ring in his hand, then looked at Aunt Li and the little girl before bowing deeply. He said solemnly, "Aunt Li, thank you. I'll accept this. I will give both of you a proper burial."

Feng Chen straightened and slipped the Spatial Ring onto his finger.

The ring fit him perfectly—not too large, not too small, snug as though it had been made for him.

He turned the ring once, then quickly left Aunt Li's home and headed toward his own house.

He needed to tell Lin Qing'er first, then inform the villagers and arrange a respectable funeral for Aunt Li and her daughter. Only then would he not feel ashamed to accept this Spatial Ring.

A moment later, Feng Chen returned home.

Lin Qing'er was sweeping the courtyard with a broom. When she saw Feng Chen push open the gate and enter, she was first stunned. Hadn't her husband gone to town? Why had he come back so quickly?

She set down the broom and walked toward him. Before she could ask anything, she noticed that Feng Chen's expression was unusually grave.

Feng Chen told Lin Qing'er every detail of what had happened to Aunt Li.

From Liu Heigou and the other two going to Aunt Li's house last night to force her to reveal where her silver had come from, smashing things and robbing her of money, to the little girl burning up with fever in the middle of the night because there was no money for medicine, to Aunt Li hanging herself, and finally to him discovering their bodies that morning.

After hearing it all, Lin Qing'er froze where she stood.

At some point, the broom slipped from her hand and landed with a soft clatter.

Her eyes flew wide open, and glittering tears immediately welled in them before streaming down her cheeks.

"Hubby, quick, take me to see Aunt Li."

"Alright!"

Feng Chen nodded and swept her into his arms.

Her body was so light, as light as a feather.

Carrying her, Feng Chen strode forward without pausing and left the courtyard in only a few steps, hurrying toward Aunt Li's home.

Two minutes later!

They arrived at Aunt Li's house. Feng Chen pushed open the half-closed door and entered the inner room, where Lin Qing'er saw Aunt Li and the little girl lying quietly on the bed.

Aunt Li's thin, waxen yellow face rested in peaceful stillness, her eyes closed, though a trace of the misery she had suffered before death still lingered in her expression. The little girl nestled beside her, her tiny body beneath the blanket barely even forming a shape.

Lin Qing'er stood by the bed and stared for several seconds.

She braced both hands against the bedframe and finally broke down crying. Great tears smashed onto the wood, spreading into patch after patch of dampness.

"Aunt Li, how could this happen? You were perfectly fine just the day before yesterday. The little girl had even started drinking porridge..."

Feng Chen stood behind her and let out a long sigh as well.

In the memories of this life, Aunt Li had truly treated them well.

After his parents died in this life, Aunt Li would bring over something to eat every few days—sometimes an egg, sometimes a handful of tender green vegetables.

Though she herself was not well-off, she had never stopped showing them such kindness.

The last time they had been at their most desperate, Aunt Li had also risked leaving her own household short of food to lend them two jin of coarse grain.

Yet after only a few days apart, this was how things had ended.

Fortunately, he had already dealt with Liu Heigou and the other two last night, severing their roots as well. The remaining scum from the families of Liu Heigou, Liu Dagou, and Liu Xiaogou had all been cleaned up too.

It was only that he had not known what had happened to Aunt Li then. If he had known those three had come here as well, hounding her to death and robbing her of money, he would never have let them die so easily last night.

After Lin Qing'er cried for a while, her voiceless grief gradually became soft sobs. Feng Chen crouched down, wiped the tears from her face with his sleeve, and said softly, "Let's tell the villagers and organize a funeral. Let Aunt Li and the little girl leave with some dignity."

"Alright, Hubby."

With reddened eyes, Lin Qing'er nodded hard.

She reached out and tucked several strands of Aunt Li's loose white hair behind her ear, then touched the little girl's icy cheek. Supporting herself against the bedframe, she stood up and fiercely wiped away her tears with her sleeve.

Feng Chen then began going door to door to notify the people of Green Mountain Village.

Though some people in Green Mountain Village were no good, such as Liu Dagang and those relatives of his, there were still decent people there—outsiders like them, kind-hearted by nature.

When these people heard what had happened to Aunt Li, they all put down their work and rushed over.

An old hunter from Feng Chen's father's generation stood at Aunt Li's doorway with a cane. Looking at the mother and daughter lying side by side on the bed inside, tears streamed down his aged face as he sighed again and again.

There were also several women who usually washed clothes with Aunt Li. They stood in the courtyard with their arms folded, their eyes red-rimmed.

The crowd gathered outside Aunt Li's home. Upon learning that Aunt Li had hanged herself and that the little girl had died with her, they were all deeply moved.

Some sighed, some wiped away tears, and all said that these times were truly hard, that life was simply too difficult.

Feng Chen proposed that he provide the money while everyone else provided the labor, and together they would arrange a respectable funeral for Aunt Li and her daughter.

Everyone nodded upon hearing this and said nothing more.

In times like these, it was already no easy thing for someone to be willing to spend money on a funeral for a widow with no family or kin.

Feng Chen took out silver and asked two nimble young men to go into town to buy two cheap coffins, along with incense, candles, joss paper, and white cloth.

The funeral soon began. Aunt Li's poor sisters helped change the bodies into clean clothes and placed the mother and daughter side by side in the coffins.

At noon, Feng Chen also stewed a large pot of meat at his home and prepared several tables of food, inviting the villagers who had come to help to have a hot meal.

After eating, everyone carried hoes and shovels up the back mountain, digging two side-by-side graves on a small slope beside the village.

From there, one could see Aunt Li's old house and the whole of Green Mountain Village. The view was fairly open.

Feng Chen personally helped lower the coffins into the ground, shovelful by shovelful filling the graves with earth.

The yellow soil struck the coffin lids with dull thuds. The people helping around the graves fell silent, leaving only the sound of shovels scraping earth and Lin Qing'er's muffled yet unstoppable sobbing.

Once the mounds were raised, two simple wooden markers were placed in front, with Aunt Li's and the little girl's names written on them in charcoal.

Feng Chen had deliberately chosen this spot so Aunt Li could always watch over the home where she had lived and would not be too lonely.

By the time Aunt Li was buried, it was already afternoon.

The slanting sunlight spilled over from the western ridge, dyeing the freshly raised grave mounds a warm golden yellow.

Outside Aunt Li's home, Feng Chen looked at the villagers who had come to help. Cupping his hands, he said solemnly, "Thank you all for your help. You've worked hard today. I'll remember this kindness in my heart."

"Little Chen, there's no need for this. You paid money and put in effort yourself. We merely came to see Cuihua off. Cuihua was a good person. No one expected things to turn out this way." A white-haired old man leaned on his hoe and waved a hand.

A short, sturdy woman beside him added, "That's right. You didn't even take condolence money from us, and you even paid out of your own pocket to treat us to such a good meal."

"By rights and by reason, we should be the ones thanking you. Young people who are both kind-hearted and responsible like you are few and far between these days."

Someone else echoed, "Exactly. Little Chen handled this matter with real decency."

Feng Chen smiled but said nothing more.

This time, he truly had not accepted any condolence money from anyone for Aunt Li's funeral.

For one thing, no one in the village had an easy life. For another, this was his repayment for receiving that Spatial Ring. He only wanted Aunt Li to leave in peace.

Just as everyone was talking at once, the atmosphere in the courtyard, which had eased somewhat after the matter was finished, was suddenly torn apart by an explosive voice.

This was followed by the commotion of several people shoving aside the villagers on the outer edge and forcibly squeezing in, causing someone to stagger from the push.

"What are you all doing?"

"My father was the village chief of Green Mountain Village. He died first, yet no one held a funeral for him! His body is still gathering dust in the ancestral hall!"

"She's just some little widow who died afterward, yet you're all here holding a funeral for her, with food and drink to boot!"

"What kind of nonsense is this?!"

A furious roar exploded behind the crowd!