Unexpected, Yet Only Natural

Unexpected, Yet Only Natural

In the foolish young master Wang Ling's life-flashing-before-his-eyes memories, that woman was the most beautiful, gentlest, greatest woman in the world.

It would not have been excessive to use every word of praise under heaven to describe her.

Though Yu Chen could not see the woman's true identity through that chaotic life-flashing-before-his-eyes montage, Wang Ling's profound feelings for her could not be concealed.

But the problem was... there were graves up ahead!

Yes!

This was Bright Moon Mausoleum!

It had been built beautifully!

And all those buried here came from wealthy households!

It was even more imposing and grand than over ninety percent of the buildings in Weishui!

But damn it all, no matter how you put it, this was still a graveyard!

Other than that sharp-tongued gravekeeper in his forties, what normal person would live in such a godforsaken place?

Outside Bright Moon Mausoleum, Yu Chen felt his head ache.

Granted, Weishui had been plagued by plenty of ghosts lately, and the rumors had spread like wildfire among the common folk, even causing far fewer people to go out at night.

But Yu Chen was not afraid in the slightest, because he had been the one pretending to be those ghosts.

Today, however, was different.

Earlier, because the route in Wang Ling's memories had been a narrow path rather than the main road people usually took to Bright Moon Mausoleum—

Yu Chen had followed it to the end, only to discover that the beauty from Wang Ling's dreams was not some girl from a wealthy household, nor was she hidden away in some secluded chamber. It was damn well a grave!

The lovesick romance had turned straight into a horror story!

Licking his dry lips, Yu Chen steeled himself and strode forward!

I've delivered enough ghosts to make up two mahjong tables. So what if you really are some unclean thing?

Even if the Heavenly King himself came today, he couldn't stop me from delivering this wooden carving!

With that mindset, Yu Chen leaped over the edge of the wall and landed soundlessly inside Bright Moon Mausoleum.

Unlike Qingfeng Mausoleum, which was like a mass grave, Bright Moon Mausoleum was not somewhere one could enter at will.

Even relatives coming to pay their respects had to register with the gravekeeper at the entrance and present their identity fish token before they were allowed in.

Yu Chen was from a criminal household and had no relatives buried inside, so naturally, he had no way to enter through proper channels.

Fortunately, as someone in the Innate Realm, the wall might as well not have existed.

After entering the mausoleum, he glanced at the gravekeeper's hut by the entrance. The door was shut tight; the man was likely still resting.

Yu Chen then followed the place from Wang Ling's memories, searching among the rows of neatly arranged gravestones.

The cold, square gravestones stood solemnly beneath the setting sun, yet they looked exceptionally desolate, enough to send a chill down one's spine.

After searching for quite some time, he finally found a small gravestone in a corner.

Compared to the others, it was so inconspicuous, like an ordinary pebble found anywhere by the roadside.

Standing before the gravestone, Yu Chen took a deep breath!

At that moment, Wang Ling's ghost within the Scripture of Deliverance seemed to sense something and kept kowtowing toward the outside of the scripture.

In other words, the person buried beneath this gravestone really was Wang Ling's so-called beauty from his dreams!

She really was not human!

Yu Chen smacked his forehead and looked up.

On the gray-white gravestone were carved the dates of birth and death, as well as the name of the person who had erected it. In the center was the identity of the deceased buried beneath.

—Grave of Li Qiu'e of the Wang Household.

Great Xia's grave inscriptions followed strict conventions. As the resting place of Weishui's officials and nobles, Bright Moon Mausoleum naturally observed Great Xia's traditions. It could not be like Qingfeng Mausoleum, where one simply stuck in a marker, sometimes without even writing a name, and called it a gravestone.

This "Li Qiu'e of the Wang Household" should be understood in three parts. "Wang Household" indicated the woman's married family, "Li" was her original surname, and "Qiu'e" was her given name.

Looking at it that way, this woman's original name should have been—Li Qiu'e!

Yu Chen's gaze swept over the inscription.

His mind became even more muddled!

What was going on?

The female ghost Wang Ling had fallen for was a married woman?

Wait, the Wang Household?

In Weishui County Seat, there was only one Wang-surnamed Lineage wealthy enough to erect gravestones in Bright Moon Mausoleum: Old Master Wang's Wang Household!

The woman in this grave was also from the Wang Household?

Of the same clan as Wang Ling?

The woman this foolish young master yearned for day and night was a deceased married woman from his own clan?

What the hell!

What kind of mess was this?

To be fair, Yu Chen had not been frightened by the possible ghost just now, but these tangled relationships had left him completely dumbfounded!

And... why did the name Li Qiu'e feel like something he had heard somewhere before?

Yu Chen scratched his head, then slapped his forehead!

He remembered!

Who was this woman?

Earlier, he had heard a corpse carrier mention that twenty years ago, there had been a woman from a poor family in Weishui named Li Qiu'e. Beautiful and gentle, she had caught the eye of the Wang Household's second young master, who had married her.

Years later, the Wang Household's second young master had become its Second Master, while Li Qiu'e's child with the Second Master had grown up into a fool, dull-witted and vacant, knowing only how to grin foolishly all day long.

His name... was Wang Ling.

At that moment, Yu Chen felt as though he had been struck by lightning, his mind going blank!

When he looked again at the gravestone, his expression had changed.

At last, in that moment... he understood everything!

The woman Wang Ling longed for in the tavern gossip and common rumors was not some blooming young maiden cherished by a young man.

It was not that sort of trite romance between man and woman.

Whether Wang Ling bought jewelry, flowers, cosmetics, or carved wooden figures with his own hands, none of it had been meant for some girl from his dreams.

All along, he had been worshipping his birth mother.

In the woodcarving workshop beneath the Wang Household's businesses, there had never been some deeply devoted, lovesick bootlicker; there had only been a pitiful child who remembered his mother until death.

And so, every unreasonable thing became reasonable.

Why had that woman never responded to Wang Ling?

Why had none of his fellow workers ever seen her?

Because she was Wang Ling's birth mother. She had long since died, buried in the earth, withered and decayed.

In foolish young master Wang Ling's chaotic life-flashing-before-his-eyes memories, that most beautiful, gentlest, greatest woman was his mother.

The best woman in all the world was one's mother.

Unexpected, yet only natural.

After a long silence, Yu Chen finally spread open the Scripture of Deliverance.

The foolish young master's ghost stepped out from within, took the wooden carving, and gently placed it before the grave.

Then he embraced the cold, hard gravestone and closed his eyes.

Under the setting sun, Yu Chen seemed to see a tender child held in the arms of a gentle woman whose face could not be seen.

Quiet and beautiful.

The evening wind swept past, and the endless grave grass rippled in waves. At this moment, it was just as it had been then.

For a long while, Yu Chen stood silently before the gravestone of Wang Ling's birth mother.

Having fulfilled his final wish, the foolish young master's ghost had already crossed the Yellow Springs.

He had departed smiling. Before leaving, he had even bowed to Yu Chen, as though thanking him.

It left Yu Chen with a bitter feeling, and he felt a trace of guilt over his earlier teasing thoughts.

He also found the jokes and gossip of the streets laughable.

For Wang Ling, perhaps his mind truly did not work very well.

But when it came to this matter, he had not been muddled in the slightest.

People only thought he had fallen in love with some heartless woman, never realizing that what Wang Ling could never forget was the only mother who had treated him gently within that cold Wang Household Manor.

The world laughs at me for being too mad; I laugh at the world for failing to see through it!

Only when the moon was bright and the stars sparse did Yu Chen turn around, preparing to leave.

One matter had come to an end, yet his heart was filled with endless emotion.

But just as he reached the wall, a sound suddenly came from behind him.

There came a creak in the wind.

Yu Chen turned to look.

He saw the gravekeeper at the cemetery entrance emerge unsteadily, a dry tobacco pipe in his mouth and sleep still clouding his eyes. He looked as though he had just woken up.

He was an old man in his forties, thin and harsh-looking. He looked left, then right, exactly like a weasel.

Yu Chen had intended to leave directly. Now that the final wish had been fulfilled, Bright Moon Mausoleum had nothing more to do with him.

But as if led by ghosts and pushed by gods, he paused for a brief moment.

He watched the gravekeeper weave through the gravestones and head straight for Wang Ling's birth mother, Li Qiu'e. Familiar with the routine, he bent to pick up the wooden carving, muttering,

"Heh, that foolish kid came to leave something again! I wouldn't dare touch the offerings on other graves, but you fool won't make a fuss. You just stand there staring blankly, so don't blame me for taking it while the chance is there!"

"Anyway, your dead mother is rotting in the ground and can't receive these things. Better let me sell them and trade them for some dry tobacco!"

"Tsk, this wooden carving is of fine quality. It should fetch a good price!"

But the moment he picked up the carving, he froze.

He slapped his thigh!

"Oh, right!

"Didn't that foolish brat from the Wang Household die this very morning and get brought here to be buried?

"Then where did this wooden carving come from?"