Silence

It was a peculiar sound, so peculiar that she would never forget it for the rest of her life.

Ding Yuqing watched as Ding Guisheng's bones shattered into smaller fragments. She shuddered uncontrollably, as if someone were holding a square hammer at that very moment, ready to crush her too.

Xu Ruyi gently put an arm around her daughter's shoulders. "Let's go outside."

Ding Yuqing lowered her head and silently followed Xu Ruyi out.

The sunlight outside the funeral home was bright, yet Ding Yuqing could not stop trembling beneath its stark white glare. She pressed herself tightly against Xu Ruyi, constantly glancing at her mother's expression—Xu Ruyi remained as calm as ever.

At that moment, Ding Yuqing suddenly felt that her mother truly was an adult. She herself had finally become that little girl again, the one who would sneak into her father's room during nap time. She could safely retreat into the role of a daughter and place her fears upon her mother's shoulders.

For several days in a row, Ding Yuqing could not sleep alone and had to take leave from school to rest at home. The flames and square hammer from the funeral home would always suddenly invade her sleep—she dreamed of being placed on a cold metal bed and pushed into a cremation furnace by strangers.

Such nightmares were certainly terrifying, but once she woke up, the joy of having survived would wash away the fear... What truly kept Ding Yuqing awake at night was something else: she was still young, still far from death, but Xu Ruyi already had one foot in the grave.

One day—she did not know how far away that day was—she would walk into a funeral home alone and watch Xu Ruyi, fallen into her long sleep, turn into