At last, the coffin descended soundlessly into the grave.
Everyone fell to their knees together.
Jiang Changbin and the others at the front held shovels and began silently filling in the grave. Every shovelful of earth that fell brought a wrenching pain to everyone's heart.
It seemed that with every shovelful of earth, they grew a little farther from the Former Principal...
When the last handful of earth fell, they began laying stones and erecting the headstone.
"Grave of He Yuanyue, Principal of Second High School!"
It was just that simple a designation.
On one side was the poem Zuo Xiaoduo had written.
"This life held regrets and many bygone cares, yet a heart of boundless love filled the river of stars; the spring breeze nurtured peaches and plums throughout the world, a jade brush carved her name in history for ten thousand years!"
He Yuanyue had chosen this herself while she was alive.
On the other side, plum-blossom small-seal script recorded He Yuanyue's life.
On the headstone, He Yuanyue's gentle, loving face still gazed quietly at everything before her, at her students, at the phoenix vein she had spent her lifetime working tirelessly for, at... the lights of countless homes in Phoenix City.
Three sticks of incense slowly began to burn.
Everyone remained utterly silent, not daring to make a sound, afraid of disturbing the departed soul.
At last...
Tears in his eyes and his lips quivering, Jiang Changbin said in a trembling voice, "The Former Principal... has gone to her rest... there's no need to worry about disturbing her now... you can cry as much as you want..."
The instant he finished speaking, earthshaking sobs erupted. They had been holding back those cries for so long, and now, at last, they could give them free rein...
Quite a